Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Why Are People Ignoring Your WhatsApp & LinkedIn DMs?

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Why Are People Ignoring Your WhatsApp & LinkedIn DMs? · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

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  Today on the podcast, we're going to look at the proper way
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  to send connection requests or friend requests, whether you're
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  on Facebook or LinkedIn or whatever social media of your
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  choice. But of course, I'm going to be
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  leaning partial towards LinkedIn because that's the only social
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  media that I have for now. If this your first time
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  listening to the podcast, my name is Tavishima Ayede.
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  I'm the host of the show and I am your favorite lawyer turned
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  business consultant. But on this podcast, we don't
• 0:33
  talk about anything legal. We only talk about things
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  related to sales and marketing, especially problems that can be
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  solved through personal selling. Now, personal selling is the
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  art, it's the discipline, it's the science, it's the whatever
• 0:47
  you call it where you're face to face with someone over a table
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  or making a phone call or across the keyboard and you're trying
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  to advance your agenda, advance your sale, advance your whatever
• 1:02
  it is that you're trying to do. So those are the sorts of things
• 1:05
  that we talk about over here on the podcast.
• 1:08
  Now, if you like these sorts of things, then subscribe on
• 1:11
  Spotify, Apple or YouTube or any player of your choice.
• 1:17
  And if you'd love to connect with me, you can call, send me a
• 1:19
  text message or send me a WhatsApp message on 0806466
• 1:26
  2140. So today, how to send a
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  connection request. Now, the reason why we're
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  looking at this today is because, well, the profile of
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  the podcast is gradually increasing and it has over the
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  course of 2025 S. For those of you who've been
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  listening to the podcast and who gradually discovered, I'd like
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  to say thank you to you guys for making the show grow.
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  I really appreciate your support.
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  So we're currently at close to 70,000 downloads and 3700 and
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  something subscribers on Spotify.
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  But of course, I can't verify how many subscribers we have on
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  the other channels. Now because of that, people
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  reach out to me on on LinkedIn. They also send messages on
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  WhatsApp. In fact, maybe I should start
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  from WhatsApp now. For some reason, it seems to be
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  accepted culture in Niger. Oh, by the way, I'm making
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  today's recording out and about. I'm in the parking lot so I
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  expect to hear some noise in the background.
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  I had to come to Utaku in Abuja to pick up a couple of packages
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  because my wife has been doing some, you know, Christmas
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  shopping now you know how it is. So came to pick up some
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  packages. Then before I left, I was
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  responding to my LinkedIn messages and I just thought, you
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  know what? I don't think I've directly
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  addressed this thing before, so let me just come up and address
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  it. So for WhatsApp, people just
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  send a message saying hi and then they don't say anything
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  else. Or they say good morning or good
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  afternoon and they don't say anything else.
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  All they say is this, so, so, so and so, and they don't say
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  anything else. When you're trying to connect
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  with someone on WhatsApp or any social media or whatever, most
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  people are wondering, this person who is reaching out to
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  me, this person who is making contact with me, attempting to
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  make contact with me, attempting to establish contact with me.
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  Who is this person? Where do I know them from?
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  What do they want? Is this an important
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  conversation to have or is this person the time waster?
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  So please, whether on WhatsApp or on LinkedIn or on Instagram,
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  that is the frame of mind that the average Nigerian is in.
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  When you're reaching out, just in case you've been sending
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  connection requests and you notice that your connection
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  requests don't get accepted or people don't respond to your
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  messages. These are some of the reasons
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  why you're reaching out in a manner that does not say who you
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  are, what you're about, what you do while you're reaching out,
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  and whether this outreach, this conversation, this message,
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  this, whatever might be valuable for the person that you're
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  trying to reach out to. So if it is going to be on
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  WhatsApp, try and address those questions.
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  Don't just say hi and leave it blank.
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  You can say hi. My name is Tavishma Ayede.
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  Is this Kelechi Yeh Nacho question mark.
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  Now if that's the only message you send, well, at least you
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  have answered one thing. You've answered the question who
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  you are and you you're trying to reach out to.
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  A conversation can ensue. Some people can respond and say
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  yes, it's Kelechi here Nacho, what do you want or how can I
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  help you? And you see the conversation can
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  into you. Now what I prefer to do is I'd
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  have to throw in as many of these things as possible.
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  In fact, I don't bother with identifying myself.
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  So I'll reach out saying good morning, Kelechi here natural
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  question mark and my next paragraph would be I got your
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  number from so so so and so. And the reason why I'm reaching
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  out to you is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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  Chukodi said you're the person to talk to regarding this.
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  Is that correct question mark? And then I send.
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  So the person will open the message and get the sense that
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  OK, this person who is reaching out to me was referred to me by
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  my guy Chukwudi. And the guy wants to discuss ABC
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  and 123. So you can see how we can reach
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  out to people on WhatsApp or social media and the thing will
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  begin to make sense and people will want to continue the
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  conversation with you. Now back to LinkedIn, which is
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  where I was. That was the main thing that was
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  choking me before I picked up my phone to make this recording.
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  Now on LinkedIn, some of you are, well meeting, you're just
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  new to the platform. You just create your profile and
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  then you put up your name there, Godwin Uzokalu, and you just
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  leave it like that. No profile picture, no
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  description of who you are, no description of what you do.
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  You're not trying to hint in your profile whether you're
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  trying to connect with people because you want to grow a
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  business or I mean nothing. Absolutely, absolutely nothing.
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  Your LinkedIn profile is just empty.
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  Oh, sorry, 1 moment. OK, sorry about that.
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  Like I said, I'm in a parking lot and my attention was
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  required. So now that I'm done with that,
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  let's continue. So some of you just set up your
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  LinkedIn profile, your Instagram profile, your TikTok profile,
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  your whatever profile, even your WhatsApp profile self.
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  And you don't put anything there to try and hint at who you are,
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  what it is You do the sorts of things you're interested about.
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  And then you just send a message saying hi or you just send a
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  connection request and you expect that people will want to
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  connect with you. Now, the reason why I'm making
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  today's podcast episode is because someone sent me a
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  connection request and the profile was obviously blank.
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  But because, you know, I've been doing this for a while, I know
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  that this is someone who listened to the podcast and they
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  just want to connect. So I accepted the connection
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  request and then I sent my usual message, which is, you know,
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  thank you very much for reaching out.
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  You know, thank you very much for connecting.
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  It's a it's an honor. It's a pleasure to be a part of
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  your network. And then the guy responded and
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  we're having a small conversation and I told the guy,
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  I said, look, guy, you suppose optimize your LinkedIn profile
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  because now Niger we did. We are in Nigeria and in Nigeria
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  everybody is afraid of 419. So most people when they see a
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  profile like that, we just name Godwin here natural, nothing
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  else. Most people just ignore the as
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  I'm saying, Godwin here natural. Do I know any Godwin?
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  OK, that Godwin for secondary school.
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  What's his name, Sir? I'm never sure if it's that
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  Goodwin. And then they'll just ignore
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  because everybody's afraid of 419.
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  Everybody's afraid of all these scams that happen on social
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  media and that happen on WhatsApp.
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  Now, some of you will make it worse because you don't even put
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  a real name. You will now put your name as a
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  web developer. X3IJ4562026 Reloaded.
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  You know, something like that. Come on, we're not in secondary
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  school anymore. We're reaching out now because
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  we're trying to grow our businesses and we're trying to
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  grow our careers. It's time for us to grow up.
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  The time for nicknames don't pass.
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  Now. When you are with your guys, you
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  can call yourself whatever it is you want to call yourself.
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  But on social media, set up your your profiles, set up your
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  handles and optimize these things well.
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  So for LinkedIn, what else? Instagram.
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  OK, Instagram is more personal. Let me just leave down.
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  Let's just talk about LinkedIn since most people on LinkedIn
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  are either worried about business growth or carrier
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  development. So for LinkedIn, your government
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  name, full government name. So Godwini here.
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  Natural good. Don't set up a profile.
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  And then when it comes to name, you just put GI.
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  So full government name, Godwin here.
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  Nature. The next profile picture, it
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  doesn't have to be anything fancy.
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  Take your phone, stand next to a blank background, reverse the
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  camera and then that's it. Check on, take the picture, make
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  sure it is well lit. Start with that one first.
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  We'll worry about professional photo later on.
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  We'll worry about branding later on so that when somebody, when
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  you send somebody a connection request and they see it, they
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  see a clear picture of a human being.
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  And then the proper name, Godwin here, Nacho.
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  Then we have to optimize our profile.
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  There's the bio. In the bio, you're telling a
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  little bit about yourself. Now don't write all the
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  wonderful things about yourself that you like.
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  Write enough to let the person know who you are, what you're
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  about, the sorts of things that you're interested in.
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  So that is where you will now write, you know, software
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  developer, Web 3 coder, crypto something, something enthusiast
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  looking to connect for carrier growth.
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  Bam, that's it profile. Excuse me.
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  So excuse me, I'm recovering from a code.
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  So somebody will see that kind of thing now and they already
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  have a snapshot of what you're about.
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  You are in the tech space, you are in the Web 3 space, you are
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  an employee or you want to be an employee and you're thinking of
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  connecting with people for career reasons.
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  So somebody will now know when they open the profile, they see
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  a profile picture, they see a name, Gordini Hennicho, they see
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  the bio, they now know accept or not accept.
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  If you've been doing a good job and sending out these connection
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  requests that are targeted to people who are in the industry,
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  more and more of them will connect you.
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  Then continue to optimize your profile.
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  You don't have to put details about your education.
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  I mean not too many details. Nobody needs to know that you
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  graduated third class. For those of you who graduated
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  first class, well, you know, it's a good brag.
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  So you know, go ahead, put that up there if you want to.
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  So schools attended, don't write every single thing.
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  Forget about primary school, no need, but at least uni put it
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  there. You know Nigeria now.
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  Now we like to you understand, you know, we like to flex.
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  If you went to Harvard, you better put your Harvard degree
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  there. In fact, in my own opinion, I
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  would say pull Harvard first. Let's say you went to Suka there
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  from Suka I went to Harvard. In my own opinion, pull Harvard
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  first. After that pull Suka.
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  Let people see the Harvard first like wow, Godwin in here nature,
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  blah blah blah, crypto web 3 something something something
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  graduated from Harvard and studied AI engineering.
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  Let people see that one and say wow, then do not accept your
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  connection request. Hope you guys have you need to
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  appreciate what I mean when I say optimize your profile before
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  you send connection requests. These are ways that you reach
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  out to to people much more effectively on social media.
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  Remember the main questions that I've that I've been talking
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  about so far, people are not accepting or before somebody
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  accepts, they want to know who are you?
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  What do you do? What are you about?
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  What are the possible reasons why you might be trying to
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  connect? So we should make sure that
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  whenever we're reaching out to people on social media or
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  WhatsApp or whatever, that we have set up our profiles to
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  properly answer those questions, or that the message itself that
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  we send should attempt to address these questions.
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  Now on LinkedIn, there's something called, what's it
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  called? Gosh, I can't remember
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  personalized request or personalized something where you
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  send a connection message, but you have a chance to actually
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  send a personalized message before you send the request.
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  So in that case, with this feature, now it will help if you
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  can do that when sending connection requests.
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  So let's say you would like to connect with me.
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  You find me on LinkedIn. If you just send a normal
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  request, it's fine. I'll accept because I accept
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  everybody when I now discovered that the person accepted as an
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  idiot, I will now block the person.
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  I will spam the person, but I accept everyone who reaches out.
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  But it would help for other people if you send a
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  personalized message. So let's say you listen to two
• 14:10
  podcasts. Let's say you listen to the I
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  said what I said podcast and you listen to my own podcast and you
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  really, really love those podcasts.
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  And so you reach out to the ladies on I said What I said
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  that was Jola and I can't remember her name, FKFK.
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  And Jola, when you are reaching out to them, excuse me, on
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  LinkedIn, send a personalized message.
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  So you open FK's profile and then instead of just clicking on
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  connect, you click on the three dots.
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  On the three dots, you now click on personalized.
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  I think it's personalized request or personalized message
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  or something. I can't remember, but just go
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  check. Then you now say, hi Jolla, just
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  listen to your podcast, the episode where you discuss blah,
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  blah, blah. I found it mind blowing and
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  really, really inspirational. Because of that, I thought it
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  would be a good idea for us to connect.
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  Looking forward to engaging with you on LinkedIn.
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  Send that kind of thing. So I will open it and say, oh,
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  it's one of my podcasting love lies.
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  Somebody who has listened to my podcast, then she might accept
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  or not. But if you just send connection
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  request on LinkedIn, you didn't use your real name or you just
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  put GI, or you just put GI, the Almighty Web Three Web 3
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  Superstar 2026 loading, then you didn't put anything on your
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  profile. How do you want her to know that
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  this is a reasonable somebody that she can accept the person's
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  connection request? So the reason why talking about
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  this on the podcast this day is because obviously since we talk
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  about personal selling as a way to improve our businesses and
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  improve our careers, you can see that making connections with
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  people, whether online or in the real world are going to be
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  material to growing our businesses and improving our
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  careers. So you are not helping yourself
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  if you're not adopting best practices when reaching out to
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  people on WhatsApp, reaching out to people on LinkedIn.
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  So that's it. That's all I wanted to say for
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  today. Summary.
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  Help yourself when reaching out to people.
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  Improve the odds that somebody will accept your connection
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  request. The goal is that in the future,
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  you guys might entertain one or two conversations because you
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  never know where these kind of things might lead.
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  So help yourself. So that's it, and that's all for
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  today. Thank you very much for
• 16:42
  listening. Remember, if you'd love to
• 16:44
  connect with me, my name is Tavishima Ayede.
• 16:47
  Now you can call send me a text message or WhatsApp message on
• 16:50
  08064662140. Thank you very much for your
• 16:58
  time and attention. I'll catch you all some other
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  time.