Speaking and Communicating Podcast

It took a choice for me to say that, look, this is what I'm going to do and I'm going to do it no matter what. That's what it takes for you to succeed. What is your level of commitment? Welcome back to Yuba Speaking and Communicating podcast. I'm your host Roberta. If you are looking to improve your communication skills, both professionally and personally, this is the podcast you should be tuning into.
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And by the end of this episode, please log on to iTunes and Spotify and leave us a rating and a review. Let's get communicating!
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Now it's a communication skills podcast and guess what? My guest today goes all around the world globetrotting in order to open up public speaking groups and get people to practice their public speaking. Talk about a perfect fit for the show. My guest Steven Dossou who hails all the way from my mother continent Togo.
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He is here to talk to us about his journey, his mission, and the work he continues to do around the world. And before I go any further, please help me welcome him to the show. Hi, Steven. Hello, Roberta. How are you doing? I'm doing fantastic. Very happy that you finally made it to the show. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Roberta. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. I'm so excited that you're here. Your energy is very contagious, first of all.
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But more than anything, like I said, there's so much that you do around the world that is more fit for what we're about on this show. But before we get into that, please tell us a little bit about yourself. All right, Roberta, first of all, thank you so much for having me on the show today. And you know what? Before I even get to start talking about myself, I first want to talk about you, Roberta. I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you for what you do, because look, the world we are in right now has become
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such a selfish race that everybody just wants to cater for themselves and to have people like you to take a stand and say look I don't care where the world is going I'm going to do something that's going to empower others that's going to teach others how to learn something different it takes a human and I mean an entire a whole human to do just that so Roberta thank you so much for what you do and I'm so excited and proud to be on your show today and thank you for your
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You're welcome. You're welcome, Roberto. So as you said in the beginning, my name is Steven DOSU, D-O-W-S-O-U. Don't get that wrong. I'm all the way from Togo, T-O-G-O. That's in West Africa. You know, Roberto, you said something earlier when we were having a chat before jumping on these podcasts is that when people are asked, where are they from? What did they do? Who are they? They are quick to say, Hey, you know what? I'm an executive coach. Hey, you know what? I am a CEO. Look, let me tell you something.
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Yes, I'm a CEO of my company. Yes, I'm a coach, but the truth is, I didn't just become that overnight. As I said, I'm from Togo. I know what it is to grow up in a two bedroom house with nine siblings to share the floor. Yes, yes, yes. Ha ha ha, don't get shocked as yet. By the way, shout out to your parents who I love, but carry on. All right, so as I was saying, I mean, I grew up in a two bedroom house, you know what I mean, on the dirt road of Togo.
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Okay, West Africa right there. Till today, the basic salary in Togo is $50. Is it $50 per day? Wow. Per month. Look, I know what it is to go and walk to school four times a day. We're talking about 10, 15 miles and do that four times a day. I know what it is to walk almost barefoot to have your feet full of dust. I know what it is, ladies and gentlemen, to dream but have no evidence around you.
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to actually make you believe that you can achieve that dream. So that's where I grew up. I finished my high school already at the age of 15. I was doing my first degree in economics around about 18 or so. But when I looked at the things that I aspired to become and the things that I wanted to be versus where my country was at back then, I was like, this just no match. Don't ask me how and how did I dream. I just heard the voice in me that there's an opportunity that I could be just more.
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than what my circumstances were revealing to me. And everybody hears that voice, Roberta. Everybody hears that voice. Of course, yeah. The question's all about exactly, are you willing to do what it takes to bring to life what that voice is telling you, or you are going to sit on it? Well, my decision was to leave my home country to a better destination that will give me those opportunities. And my destination that I picked back then was South Africa. Now, Roberta. My home.
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Your home, your hometown, exactly. Now, listen, Roberto, for me to actually fly from Togo to South Africa, it was gonna take money. There's no free flight ticket, but my family didn't have that money. So my mom went to borrow what she could. Back then I was doing my own side hustle, sold computers, spare parts, whatever I could do to bring some contribution that be part of the bread winning team. Let me put it that way. I packed my backpack with just about $150 in my pocket.
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I was like, you know what, mom, I'm gone. I'm gonna go write myself a story. Okay, where are you going? I'm like, mom, I'm gonna go to SA. When I say SA, let the listeners know that it's South Africa because this is gonna come a lot out of this podcast. So with my backpack, with just about less than $150, I set out on a journey to create success for myself. Now, Roberto, this journey is a journey that was tough. It's a journey that saw me
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two, three days sometimes with no food, no water, nobody to call my own. It's a journey that, you know, put me into situations where I was almost at the verge of death. It's a journey that saw me when I arrived eventually in South Africa and I lived in Pumalanga, Leslie, Leandra, I lived in a shack, the rent was about $20, Roberto, but I couldn't even afford it. You know, mice will come and eat your food and bully you on top, you know, yeah, those tough mice, they are big, they've got muscles, you know.
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I think they're similar to the ones in Manhattan. It was a tough journey. But like how my mom always used to say, do what you've got to do in order for you to be what you've got to be. Do what you've got to do in order to get what you want to get. And those were the words that she told me when I arrived in SA. And things were tough. I called my mom. I remember, Roberto, I don't know if you can remember those old phones. Those Nokia phones. It had a yellow screen. And it has a gum screen. Yeah.
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I had one of those, but mine, mine was very unique. So my phone didn't have a battery cover. So I would use a rubber band to tie the battery and didn't have a keyboard, so we didn't have the gum keyboard. So I always have a box of matches in my pocket. Every time it would rain, I would take out the matches to press it and hide in the corner so girls don't see me. Trying to impress that African girl, Stephen. When I arrived in the city, I mean, things were so tough. And I called my mom and said,
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Can you borrow some money and send me? She's like, no, no, no. Hey, young man, listen, if you think you are going to be there and I will be borrowing money to send you, forget it. Do what you've got to do in order for you to be what you want to be. Do what you've got to do in order for you to get what you want to get. I was like, yeah. Now.
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So every day I would go into my street parking stand, I was selling on the street apples and anything for me to survive. I would go in the street, come and stand every day. Say, hi man, how are you? Hold on a second, can you buy my sweet? Can you buy my apple? And one young man came one day, he's like, hey, you know what Steve, I see you here coming here every day, how about you come tomorrow, come tomorrow to MassMod, okay? We talking about game now, MassMod. You got a job for me? All right, okay, cool. Now, Roberto, what I could work,
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go to the interview. I didn't even have it. So I went to see this friend pastor of mine and he gave me a brand new trouser, a brand new shirt and I wore the Masib deo of mine. I rocked up at the interview the following day and the interviewer's name I remember very well, blonde lady, her name was Isabelle Kukumua. As soon as I opened the door she looked at me she was like, hey, you look so confident. You've got the job. Okay, I've got the job. What is the job? Your job is to sell vacuum cleaners. Vacuum cleaners?
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I was, I think about 19 going to 20, but I had never seen or touched my computer in my life. So I was given a sales script. I said, okay, take this sales script. Let's be going to go downstairs. I'm going to show you now how these machines work. I said, okay, cool. So we went, black daily. Okay, it sucks. That's this, you know, fancy, you can do backflip, all the company. Okay, cool. Awesome. Took my sales script, went home, started at my own touch. And I came back to following the Roberto for three years, nonstop, seven days a week.
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So I've 13, 14 hours a day, I was selling vacuum cleaners, doing high mem, how are you? If you can give me a moment of your time, I wanna tell you why investing in these vacuum cleaner is going to make your husband love you more. I love that. One minute of your time, I wanna tell you why buying these vacuum cleaner is gonna bring all your family together. And I will do that every day. Now here's what happens, Roberto. When people talk about growth, when people talk about success, nobody wants to talk about the process.
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As a matter of fact. Hardly ever mentioned. Except someone was writing down or treated right now that we cannot talk about success without a process. Ooh. Say that again. We cannot talk about success without talking about the process. Right. So I will come down to the store Saturday, some weekends, door to door if I have to. And someone just also came and said, Steve, we come here every.
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Monday to Sunday, you are here. We come here every day. We see you excited, enthusiastic. How about you come to the top and play with the big dogs? What do you mean come to the top? Okay, you're gonna become an area manager. We're going to give you a team of 60 people and your yearly target is going to be about three to five million dollars every single year. I was like, wow, really? Okay, cool, I'll subscribe to that. Where do I sign? So I jumped in, Roberta, and I kept the consistency.
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Hey, what gets you to the top can get you to another top. I kept the course. And before I knew I was called again, like, Hey Steve, listen, we want you to become a regional manager. Okay. You're going to be traveling all around South Africa and Southern Africa, and you're going to have a massive team of two or 300 people, and you're going to be in charge of the big, big park of our sales. Now let me tell you something from a two bedroom shack back in Togo, dusty roads, nine siblings fighting with cockroaches and mice on the floor.
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to leading about 200 to 300 people and accounting for 15 to 20 million dollars of sales yearly before the age of 25. Do you get what I'm saying? Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Roberto. So without a PhD, without a PhD, all respect to people that I have doctorate, but to me, we respect them, by the way, I've got to do everything I've got to achieve. So as a regional manager, we always reach out to the greater heights.
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So I left the corporate, I went to start my own company. I was exporting manufacturing and exporting hair products, hair food, creams, and all of that. And a year had passed since I started the company back then and the company crashed, Roberta. It crashed, I failed. I was also engaged with beautiful Zulu girl at the time. I'm Zulu, shout out. Shout out to you for listening to this. So for almost five to six years, I was back to zero. So when you...
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earned all that money since you've walked into the job with your confidence, kept the work ethic, everything about you, enthusiasm, not losing it. I'm just taking note of the setback of losing everything now in this business you had started because all your savings went into it. Exactly. So back to zero, right? It was back to zero. The question I asked myself then, I was going through while I talk about internal argument, am I good enough?
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I thought I was good and then what has happened now? What is my wealth saying? Everything you know came crashing around me. So I got a call from a friend of mine that said, Steve, you know what? I know what you're going through, but I'm just going to ask you three questions. I'm going to hang up and you find the answer to those. Remember, where are you from? Who are you? And where are you going? And he hung up. I was like, wow, who am I? Where am I from?
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that made me realize that, hold on a second, yes, I was blessed and highly favored throughout my journey to becoming a corporate manager and building a business, but the reality is I had a gift and it's the gift that enabled me to go through all of that. And that gift is the ability to motivate my people. Cause I remember when I was in corporate, I was in month out consistently until I left that company, I was the best senior manager with a young age.
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You get what I'm saying? And it was my ability to motivate my people and inspire them. And I was like, come on, I've got a heart for this. I've got a heart for this. This is what I'm gonna do. And that was when I left South Africa and went to Asia, Singapore. That was when I started giving birth to the pregnancy that took almost five to six years. That was when I started building my speaking and coaching career. So I'm telling this story, Roberta.
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I know you asked me a question as you introduced myself, but it's very important for me that people not only look at the top of the iceberg and think there's nothing beneath it. Actually what's beneath is a lot more than the top of the iceberg. Exactly, right. So I can talk about the things that I say today confidently. I can share with you some keys to do what you want to do greatly because I've gone through the fire that has
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the iron that can stand in front of people and look pretty. Come on, I gotta say something. I look pretty, right? You are, you are Mr. Handsome all the way. That's me so pretty. Of course. So that was my story, Roberto. That was my story. Like you said, you went through the fire. When you're in South Africa, how did you not say when you called your mom? So instead of calling her and saying, I wanna come back home, please send me the.
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You said you just wanted her to borrow money so you were still planning to stay in South Africa tough as it was because a lot of us would say oh it looks like I made a wrong decision let me go back but you did not say you wanted to go back you wanted to borrow money from your mom to keep going where you were going. Yes yes yes you see Ock Mandino says that failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.
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And another author says that it is those who persevere through difficulties and pain that will find themselves with success. So- We all want success, but why is the pain, the discomfort that sometimes is so big that we think, you know what, let me go back to my comfort zone. Exactly. But you see, it is pushing through, breaking through that zone of uncomfort is on the other side that you can really find a new version of yourself.
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that you didn't even know existed. You know, I can share some wisdom with you today. I can talk about some things from my heart today because I was able to go through it. I was able to endure the pain, swallow the bitter, the bitter part of it, and go through it. That's how I'm now able to speak and share to people what it is like to go through the fire and yet come out victorious. And that's what distinguishes you from every other speaker.
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that your story is gonna connect with people because they have some level of discomfort, some fire that they're going through and thinking, I simply cannot see the other side. Well, I hope they do, because it's a real story. It's a story that came with pain and sometimes with tears, and Roberta, sometimes with tears. I remember when, I mean, people that listening to this, they may not know.
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Malanga but but I mean you know you know you might yeah one of the provinces beautiful back home in South Africa yeah beautiful yet still has a lot of circles of apartheid you know yeah I mean I was working as just a general worker you know I mean during the day I would be the guy selling in the warehouse I'll be the guy cleaning the yard you know greeting people at the door and then at night I'll be the guy guarding the premises okay so so there's no sleeping all right and
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The owner of this warehouse was extremely this white abusive man. I mean, don't get me wrong. I love white folks. I have a lot of white friends, but it's important that I highlight this so that people can really understand what I had been through. So this guy, he would call me names, you black monkey, you'll never be anything. I remember this Saturday when he said, Steve, you go and offload by yourself 40 foot container full of cement.
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And her empty stomach, Robert, I went and I worked. Let me tell you something, about 11 p.m. Robert, I passed out. I passed out, I didn't even know. Then the next morning, when I came back, as soon as he saw me, he was like, hey Steve, are you okay? Like what happened to, no, no, no. Now, when I'm doing this, okay, people that are listening to this, they're not gonna see my hands, but I'm gonna describe it to the best of my abilities. As soon as he saw me, you know, and he started beating and punching, he's like, hey you bloody monkey, you'll never beat anything.
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Let me tell you something, Roberta. The things will come and go. They might leave scars that you look at and remember, but words, words can cut so deep in you that your soul will hurt for the rest of your life. You know, I stood in that courtyard, Roberta. I didn't even know where the tears came from. I was like, what have I done? Was it a mistake for me to just want to be successful? What is a mistake for me? I just want to create a life for myself.
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I was there and let me tell you something. When life comes knocking at your door with all these challenges, the best you can do is to take it open heart. You take it with an open heart so that you can live more, be more, dream more. Right? Today I can share the story of what I have been through, but at the same time, share with you the lessons that it has taught me. I share with you the resilience that it has enabled me to build.
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I shared with you that I am not where I am because of a lucky feather or a fairy feather. No, it took hard work. It took pain. It took resilience. It took throwing myself at it. It took a choice for me to say that, look, this is what I'm going to do and I'm going to do it no matter what. That's what it takes for you to succeed. What is your level of commitment? What is your why? Why are you doing the things that you do? Why are you throwing yourself? Why are you working every day?
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That is what it takes to be clear of mind, to be single-minded and be focused on your goals and dreams. And give everything you got. That is the definition of a person that is after their success. I'm getting fired up. I'm getting, I'm getting fired up. I'm very fired up, please don't stop. Because that's what our listeners are going to draw from. So please don't apologize. You took us to Singapore. Why did you choose to go to Singapore after you left South Africa?
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What were you going towards when you decided to move to Singapore? I think one of the things that I've learned in corporate is to make always informed decisions. I mean, don't just be sad because your uncle said so, but you know, take some time to make some researches and really make informed decisions. So when I wanted to move to Asia back then, you know, I had to look at different countries and look at their GDP.
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what people are doing and what's the level of traffic, what sectors are prospering in different countries who house the economy and so forth. And I realized that Singapore is a country that's built on financial grounds. So you see that companies will then import competencies from all around the world to come and build systems, various financial systems, various managerial system, various tech systems in Singapore. And that of course involved a lot of human resource.
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So I was like, look, this could just be the perfect place for me to start. Now, now Roberta, this doesn't mean that it was easy. Doesn't mean that I just got there and everything was rosy. No, I mean, for me to even hunt business, I remember that there was a time when I would go and create diversion to the receptionist so I could go out to the top and pitch my stuff to the CEO. I mean, hey, you know what I'm saying? Hey, ma'am, there's flowers for you. And when she goes, I'll make my way to the top quickly to go and pitch my stuff. You know? So yeah, that was the main reason why.
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I chose Singapore because of the various economic dynamics that were favorable to building my business. That was why I chose Singapore. And then you went to Bali, so many people's favorite holiday destination. Why Bali and what did you do there? Yeah, I lived in Bali for almost a year. And in Bali, I was partnered with this friend of mine. His name is Arthur
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in organizational culture. So he's the founder of DCI, Directive Communication Psychology. And we were working on leadership universities. Leadership university, it may sound cliche, but this was a very different concept. Because this leadership university was targeted towards students and teachers. Our motto is the teacher is the new coach. So instead of us teaching just the standard normal curriculum to student that basically just
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how smart they are by the grade they got. We were focusing on actually empowering teachers that can actually coach students with skills that are necessary for them to succeed in real life. I like that. For example, you go into a job interview and the recruiter wants to see confidence, but guess what? Nobody has taught you how to be confident at school. Right. That was like.
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one of our key module as well at the Leadership University, like building the confidence, the art of building confidence, for instance, right? I mean, we work with some major universities in China. They had about 17,000 students, 3,000 professors. That's what the Leadership University is about. Okay. Right. So that was what I worked on in Bali. And of course, I did...
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many more workshops, you know, I participated a lot in these Toastmasters groups and public speaking and, you know, gay public speaking workshop. One of my impactful moments that I lived was when I organized this workshop. The title of this workshop was, how to rediscover, release, and maximize your potential to positively impact the world. And I did so much promotions.
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network that went everywhere. I was excited. I was waiting for a hundred people to come to this talk and guess what, Roberta? One person showed up. Why? Sounds like when Tyler Perry first started. He had booked the entire theater to showcase. I think it was also a Martilla play he had written his very first one before he got famous. Nobody came. But here's what happened, Roberta. This
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and broadcasted it live on Facebook. And then I ended up having more than 2000 views. Whoa, slow down. Let's make a note of something. Just because one person came when they video recorded, does that mean you still gave this enthusiastic, Oh yeah. bubbly, yeah, you didn't say, oh, there's one person and then you do less than just because people didn't show up. No, no, no, I gave everything, I'm telling you.
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There's something I've developed over the years, because I'm a firm believer that literally, your performance in everything is connected to your identity. People are going to remember you. People are going to look at your fruit and know what kind of tree you are. Yeah. Do you get what I'm saying? We see the fruit. We know, OK, it's always from a good tree. We see the fruit. Now, this tree can only get bad fruit. Do you get what I'm saying? This is very important that you always
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produce the right fruit whenever you are given the opportunity. So whether it's one or two or three or hundred or 200 people, let me tell you Roberta, I'm going to give my all all the time. That is the attitude we all should have. Exactly. I mean talking about attitude, let me drop this one on you. James Williams, that a man can utter his altitude of life by uttering his attitude of mind. Right.
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So which means with the right attitude of mind, you can definitely reshape totally your altitude of life. In other words, wherever you are at in your life right now, we can go back and look at your attitude of mind and match them together. They go together. So start with the attitude of mind. That's how the altitude is going to change. Exactly. That's what you taught at the leadership
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That is something that penetrates all the things that I teach. You know, be it my public speaking course, speak your way to the top. Be it my transformation course, be transform how to live free of yourself, that and low self esteem. Be it the coaching course, growth bus, right? It's all about having the right attitude of mind so that your altitude of life can take you to heights that you never, ever imagined. That's right.
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And then from Bali, you went to Turkey. That is quite an interesting turn. What happened there? Well, my vision has always been about speaking globally. You know, as a matter of fact, my goal is to have 200 speaking gigs a year. That means being on the flight almost every day. Right. So live off a suitcase. Yeah. Right. Exactly. I had by then already narrowed my targeting.
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on to Europe and requests were coming out of Europe. So I was also dating a Dutch girl at the time. I started to actually live in Turkey. So I could be at the center close enough to go home and close enough to go to Europe without too much hassle. So in Turkey, I decided to again focus on, you know, one of the pillars of the things that I do, which is public speaking. I built this amazing community called Antalya Beach Speakers, you know. So the concept of Antalya Beach Speakers
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enabling people to develop their public speaking skills. But most importantly, Roberta, most importantly, and this is where a lot of public speakers, they lose the mark because you see, being a public speaker is not only about being in front of people and conveying your ideas, no, but you see, public speaking does something to the soul that no doctor can do. Public speaking does something to the soul that no doctor can do.
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can do. Again, respect to, you know, professional. Oh, shut up. We love doctors. They save our lives. Oh yeah, for sure. You get to them saying, you see that the soul is composed of the mind, the will and the emotions, right? As of today, right here in Europe, at least one out of four people deal with anxiety, depression. And you see, just by speaking, now listen to me, if anybody missed this, you're going to miss the whole podcast. Just by speaking to a group of unknown people,
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three minutes a day, a week for 52 times a year. Listen, this is proven. This is not something I'm sucking my tongue. It's something that I've done and it has transformed the lives of many, many people before my very eyes. Just by speaking three minutes a day, a week, for 52 weeks in a year, consistently, in six, seven months, you will be transformed. Anxiety, bye bye.
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you know, happiness, happiness, saying? So, I created this improvised speeches just for every Wednesday, 6 PM, 6 to 8 right now. If you go to Antelope speakers and tell them you with open arms, okay? many people transform. We people were able to step on
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real audiences and showcase what they've been practicing for months. For others, it may have been being part of a public speaking community. For others, it may have been making friends. But for me, it was again about fulfilling my life's calling, which is to inspire us to be more, be more, and live more, free of fear, self-doubt, and low self-esteem. Which so many millions suffer from, yes, one way or another. And we're doing our best. Listen.
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A lot of people are doing their best. They just haven't been given the tools. You know, when you go to university, you study the actual technical skill and the job and the career, but the actual life skills that you were talking about earlier, especially from leadership university, those are the tools people need. And then that potential, that being more will come out of them because it exists within all of us. Yes, definitely. Yeah, it exists in all of us.
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is the kept capability, is the untouched capacity, you know, is that is in you and that is yet to be revealed, you know, and our potential is basically limitless, right? I mean, if anybody had told me that I was trapped in the little boy that was running around in little dirty underworld, back in Togo on those dusty roads, if anybody would tell me that I will be the one inspiring thousands of people around the world right now.
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to see their dreams face to face and go after it. I would have never known. You get to them. Especially because you didn't have those images around you. How would that have planted that seed in your head that someday that's the stage you're gonna be in? Exactly, right. That you actually hit the nail on his head there because we can talk about exposure, right? Exposure is so important. Your behavior, the way you think, the way you act, the people you choose to be in your life,
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it's going to be a direct result of your level of exposure. Do you get what I'm saying? What you expose yourself to, you can never unexpose yourself to. Next you said Instagram, social media, and what this keeps happening to you. Do you get what I'm saying? So it's very important that we choose carefully the things that we expose ourselves to. I have this saying that, make sure that
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You surround yourself with the people that even when you are seed, they see you as a forest. Wow. Your five closest people should see you even though you're a seed should see you as a forest. We had this discussion with a friend of mine the other day. He said not the five closest people physically, meaning your friends, family, whoever, but the ones you are connected to on follow on social media have now become the five closest people.
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Because people, what they do sometimes is even though I'm sitting with you at a dinner table and we are friends, you busy on your phone. So those people are now your closest people, not me. Yes, that's true. That's so true. The things that you consume online, the kind of friends you choose to hang out with, the books you choose to read, the places you go to choose to go network in. I mean, I can even take it one notch up and tell you that, look, workspace is where we get to spend.
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80% of our lives in right now. So you better work in a space that brings the best out of you. We all don't have to have businesses, okay? But we all have to live in our lives. That is true. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur, but you can still be in a workspace that is healthy and nurturing, that is in line with your values. It's possible, yeah. Exactly, exactly, exactly, right. Even in your workspace.
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Make sure that you expose to a workspace, okay, that brings the best out of you as a language or talent, skills or values, you know, and really, really polish you. So that when you go out, we don't see a person that is being poisoned by their work, but we see a person that's being resurrected every single morning by what they do. This one is for you. Imagine getting out of bed and feeling resurrected instead of.
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Oh, I gotta drag myself to work another day today. Now, Steven, what made you decide that while in Turkey, you're gonna make your way to Europe? Well, I'm working on something right now. Busy meeting investors and it's gonna be something awesome, something unique that has never been seen in Europe. Okay, it's going to be a live webcast that's going to be broadcasted every single week.
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on, you know, land life across all social media platforms. And it's going to be this community that I'm going to build is called Ignite the Transformation. You see, transformation is defined as the change of one's outer form from how it was to another, which is the result of an inner change. There's a reason why the greatest book that I appreciate, that I love, it talks about do not conform to the things of this world. Do not conform to your challenges.
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not conform to your mistakes, not conform to the things that you left, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So we've got to engage ourselves in a perpetual transformation every single day. And that's what this show is going to be about. But this show is going to welcome people that can hear deep down in their heart and mind and soul that I too can be great, that I too can be something, that I'm called to be something, but I'm just trying to figure out
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how to do it, who to tag along with. And I'm going to be revealing, okay, all these strategies, okay, life experiences, all of that is going to be packed into this weekly live show. I'm gonna be welcoming people from all walks of life, young people, old people, they're gonna be there at this live webcast. And of course, I'm not gonna stop doing my tour. Like I said, 1928, I'm gonna be in Milan speaking after that, I'm going to be in Amsterdam. So it's not gonna stop, okay?
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I'm going to set Europe on fire. I'm ready for this. So that's why I'm here in Europe and I'm working on that actively every single day. And by the grace of God, it's going to come alive very, very soon. Oh, coming alive at will. Now, the question is, is there a specific niche of people that will be joining the live webcast or is it open to everyone who's interested? Well, of course, I mean, like I said, the webcast online, you know, if you can use a phone, if you can text your girlfriend every night.
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Hi baby, I love you. Hi sir, I wanna see you. If you can use a phone, have internet, you can catch it online, anyone. The truth is that people that have lived, who have great hair, have wisdom, want to empower young people so that they can view the future that those that are coming can also benefit from. As a concept in an economy, we talk about the durable development. So we talk about durable development when a country practices.
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development policies that enable people that are living today to benefit from, but at the same time that enables people that are coming after them to benefit from. Right? And those that are coming is the youth. Do you get what I'm saying? I mean, I'm a youth advocate. I believe that our youth nowadays need leaders more than ever, need guidance, need support. We need to hold our brothers and sisters hand. We need to be our brothers and sisters keeper.
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hold our hands together so that we can march and create a world that we can love one another, a world in which we can forgive each other, a world in which we can take care of one another. I mean, with walls, the world as it is right now is going to a place nobody knows about. So I think the time is now that the youth, we all of us come together in communities like the Inundated Transformation so that we can support each other.
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through public speaking, through leadership, through coaching. And then we can literally bring our visions and then have release our God-given potential and support each other with that. You and I are African, we know that you can go much further together than doing anything alone. We have to support each other. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. That's an African proverb for sure.
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Steven, you're so fired up. Last words of wisdom you wanted to share today that I didn't ask you. Yes. I've come to understand that whatever we go through in life always lead to two paths. There's the path where we gain greater confidence in a particular area of our lives, confidence in the relationship, confidence in the job, confidence in the goal that we are chasing. All we are left with the three toughest demons of mankind
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fear, self-doubt, and low self-esteem. Self-doubt, the paralyzing force that stops you from taking action. Low self-esteem, the pain of being unlovable, awkward and incompetent, lack of confidence. And the enemies outside can do no harm if there are no enemies within. And the enemies within are nothing more but fear, self-doubt, and low self-esteem. I don't know who you are listening to me right now. I don't know where you are listening to me from, but it's the boy, all the way from the toggle, I've come from far.
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I'm simply telling you today that if I, a boy from Togo, could go from a two bedroom house, having gone through challenges, pains, misery, you name it, ups and downs, to stepping into my greater life purpose today, then what stops you from being just that? What stops you from doing just that, if not your own fears, doubting your low self-esteem? So what I wanna tell you today.
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is I'm calling upon you ladies and gentlemen. What I want to tell you today, what I want to leave you with today is I'm calling upon you today that you make a decision, that you take the stand, that today I break free of my fears, that today I break free of my doubt, that today I am a new man, a new woman with a new life with no low self-esteem. That is my story and I'm sticking to it.
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Words of wisdom from Stephen Dossou, the Togo native who is conquering the world through public speaking and leadership conferences. Stephen, this has been such a beyond a pleasure actually. I'm just inspired up, feeling all of your energy. Thank you so much for taking your time to be on our show today. We are enjoying all your wisdom, your energy, but before you go...
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Please tell us where we can find you, especially we wanna be kept up to date with the live webcast coming up. I think the best way to find me is just go on Google and type my name, Steven, S-T-E-V-E-N, DOSSOU, D-O-S-S-O-U, you know, all my things will come up. My website will come up, my LinkedIn will come up, my Instagram will come up, my Facebook will come up. Pick one that is your most comfortable with and give me a shout. Excellent, Steven DOSSOU.
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Thank you very much for being here today. I really enjoyed talking to you. Thank you, Robaita. Thank you for having me. Certainly a pleasure. And just know you can come back to the show for more fired up conversations. All right. Don't forget to subscribe, give a rating and a review on iTunes and Spotify, and stay tuned for more episodes to come.