Latest / King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights / Finance Is Strategy: Wealth, AI in Business & Growth Mindset | Ademola Odewade x Ayobami Ishola

Transcript

Finance Is Strategy: Wealth, AI in Business & Growth Mindset | Ademola Odewade x Ayobami Ishola · King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights

0:00
So one of the mistakes I've seen entrepreneurs making in their
0:03
businesses is just to focus on revenue.
0:05
A lot of times entrepreneurs focus more on the top line of
0:09
the business or getting the other.
0:11
Top line revenue which? Yes, top line, yes revenue.
0:16
They try to grow their revenue. So at some point they gross
0:20
their revenue to a particular state.
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Imagine somebody making 100 or a billion naira in Nigerian
0:27
revenue and by time you look at the you know, it's a lot, you
0:30
know, it's a lot of money when they get to that stage now start
0:35
trying to look at it. That was my cash flow looking
0:37
like, what's my profitability looking like?
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But you know, all the way they had paid attention more to
0:42
growing the truck top line and they kept on growing.
0:45
It's not focusing on the other parts, you know, on the
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profitability on on the financing.
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And I know that right now interest rate is very high in
0:53
Nigeria. Welcome to The Kingdom's
1:00
podcast, where we share the stories of extraordinary people
1:03
and dissect hot, relevant topics that shape our world.
1:07
From visionary leaders to trailblazing creatives, we
1:09
uncover the mindset, strategy, and grit behind greatness.
1:13
Whether it's business, culture, or personal growth, we ask the
1:16
real questions. This isn't just conversation,
1:19
it's transformation. The Kingdom's podcast, Your Next
1:22
Breakthrough, starts here. Music licencing reimagined your
1:29
life. Ladies and gentlemen, you once
1:31
again welcome to the Kingdom forecast and the diary of a CFO.
1:38
And today I've got meet a very, very special guest, Michael home
1:43
fighting out of. Lagos, Nigeria.
1:47
Oh, you buy me the finance and business strategist, Eshore La.
1:54
I guess you thought you were fighting for a minute.
1:56
Thank you, Ademola, for this opportunity to speak with you on
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the Kingdom Podcast Podcast. It's excellent to be here and to
2:03
speak with you basically. Oh, wow.
2:07
And I'm happy, you know, and of course I'm grateful.
2:11
And I have a positive bias to achieve.
2:13
Of course you're Nigerian like myself and you're not just
2:17
Nigerian like myself, you're running Nigeria.
2:19
As long as I'm concerned, you, you are the president of that
2:22
country to me. You, you are the president that
2:25
I recognise. So if, if truth be told that
2:28
Shinobu is just running the country on your behalf, ladies
2:31
and gentlemen, this is a real person that is in charge of that
2:34
country. We, we only have a caretaker,
2:37
you know, taking care of the position because she doesn't
2:40
like positions, but that is the real person running the country.
2:44
But there you, you know, if anything goes wrong with our
2:46
country, we know. We know who to attack now.
2:50
So Please ensure that our. Ensure that our country is a
2:54
good hand I'm. Feeling good and.
2:56
You know, you know, are you by me or are you or AY as I will
3:01
fondly call the iOS right? Your journey has actually been
3:04
truly inspiring. You know, I saw, I saw you on a
3:07
LinkedIn and of course I saw you.
3:09
A boy feeding moment, you know. I would love for you to.
3:13
Talk about that at Word Right and tell us what ignited your
3:17
passion for finance and business strategy.
3:21
Yeah. So, you know, as an accountant,
3:25
we are all drawn to numbers, and we just think about numbers, you
3:29
know? Well, you know, the interesting
3:31
thing is that numbers tells a story.
3:34
You know, numbers are always telling you something and it
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tells you a story. It tells you like different
3:41
things, but the more you look, the more you see with numbers.
3:45
So and I realised that finance is more than just accounting,
3:48
you know, and I see finance as the engine room of a business.
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I know that's a major place that like the business decisions come
3:56
from. I know as many people that want
3:58
to hear, I tell them that finance is not supposed to be a
4:00
support function in organisation.
4:03
It's supposed to be part of the core of the organisation.
4:06
In a lot of multinationals you have departments like marketing,
4:10
sales as part of the core business.
4:12
But for finance just OK, it's what function.
4:15
But I don't see it that way. I see it as the engine room of
4:18
the business because if you're selling, I don't know what your
4:21
numbers are looking like or if you're making investments, I
4:23
don't know what your numbers are looking at, then I don't know
4:26
what you're doing in the business.
4:27
So you need to like focus on this.
4:30
I want you now pay finance with yes, that's a game changer.
4:34
You have both finance and strategy together.
4:36
That's a game changer. So for every business that wants
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to be successful, that wants to excel, you have to put your
4:41
finance and business strategy together.
4:44
Your financial strategy has to align with your business
4:47
strategy for you to actually make a great success.
4:51
And you know, it's not about finance is not about reports in
4:54
the past, but it is about shaping the future.
4:57
And this is when I knew that I wanted to build a carrier in
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that part in finance and strategy, combined finance and
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business strategy. Business, I'd say I'm giving you
5:08
a digital hook right now because I absolutely love what you have
5:13
just put together. Morgan Q Anderson bestowed me
5:16
and blessed me with with the title she says.
5:18
I'm a modern day business philosopher and I'm happy that
5:22
you're aligning with the philosophies of the modern day
5:26
philosopher. He's a strategy is very, very
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important. That's that's a core what I do
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that's a core what my company does. 50% of of my company is
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dedicated towards, you know, business strategy and fractional
5:41
CFO services. And when you think about it,
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Albert Einstein, you know, one of the highly regarded geniuses
5:48
globally, you know, in recent history, it's that strategy is
5:53
key. Strategy is key.
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If I were given one hour to achieve a task, he said he
6:03
would, he would spend 55 minutes by changing the strategy and
6:08
just 5 minutes implemented. So what does that tell you?
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That strategy is actually key. And when we think about the core
6:15
of what we do as finance professionals, as finance
6:17
strategists, we are just trying to achieve one thing that is
6:22
help our clients to achieve consistent, continue to net
6:28
positive cash flows. Because like I always love to
6:31
say, revenue is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is king.
6:37
Or if you wish, cash is reality. You were actually recognised as,
6:41
you know what, Africa's top ten, top ten.
6:45
You know, when it comes to top ten, it's, it's, it's a number
6:49
that is very, very close to my heart because the Kingdom's
6:52
podcast is recognised as top 10% globally, you know, amongst
6:59
podcasts in the world. So give me some context.
7:02
There are over 3.7 million podcasts in the world.
7:08
And it means that the Kingdom's podcast is in the top 317,000 in
7:14
the world. And guess what?
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Next stop, we're coming for top five.
7:18
Percent so you you know, you recognise as the global.
7:25
Rather, Africa's top 10 exceptional professional right
7:28
in finance and banking just last year.
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So what does this recognition mean to you personally and
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professionally? Yeah.
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So the recognition was actually on blame and you know, I, I was
7:41
glad that they work because so I worked with Sanofi and it's a
7:47
tough pharmaceutical company in the world.
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It's a French based market company and I worked so I did my
7:53
work with them in Nigeria, Ghana and from there I was able to
7:57
work for Africa as a whole and I also had opportunity to work for
8:02
the sub-saharan African business and also the Southern Africa
8:05
business. So for me, getting this
8:07
recognition actually validated the years of work done, the late
8:12
night, the risk taking and the commitment to building others
8:17
and other other people's businesses.
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But more than anything also reminds me that visibility
8:23
matters. You know, there are a lot of
8:24
people that are doing this thing or that have worked and have
8:28
more experience than me, but might not have been recognised
8:31
because people don't know who they are or what they do
8:33
basically. So visibility matters, and it
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has even pushed. Me, sorry to interrupt you sorry
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to interrupt you. Visibility truly matters because
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the post you made on LinkedIn about that award was what made
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me see you and invite you to the podcast.
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And, you know, positive buyers who went to you, You went to the
8:53
same university with me. You've worked in the first
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accounting firm I ever worked with.
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And you know, your name is Ayubami, one of my best friends
9:02
from secondary school. Everything just aligned.
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So you're highly visible, my friend.
9:06
Yeah, it is. And you know, it has pushed me
9:08
to even show more broadly to use my voice and to encourage the
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next generation of finance professionals.
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You know, and one other thing I do again is I mentor and I'm
9:18
also the deputy leader for career development and training
9:22
for Accounting Women's Network in Nigeria.
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And that also gives me the opportunity to like create like
9:28
good trainings that finance professional can take on to help
9:32
them be better for their businesses and their
9:34
organisations basically so. Would you be safe to call you
9:38
female African Giant? Because it's.
9:40
Certain brand of boys already calling himself the African
9:43
Giant. So are you, are you the female?
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The female version, well. For me, I'm very humble.
9:49
I am just ayuba me. OK, OK, I I like humility, but
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you know. Can we can still be humble and
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be visible? Yeah, you need to be still stay
10:00
visible. I know as much as possible, I
10:02
try try still finance professionals that yes, we could
10:05
have a lot of time that was spent at war.
10:08
We could have a lot of deadlines we're trying to meet up with.
10:10
But never underestimate the power of disability you have and
10:15
it's easier for you to connect with a lot of people around the
10:17
world. Now there are a lot of digital
10:19
tools. There's LinkedIn, there's
10:21
Instagram, There are a lot of tools that can help you and you
10:23
know, and I like LinkedIn very much because it's a professional
10:27
network. You meet people of like my
10:29
easily there and you know, you interrupt with people, you learn
10:32
from people you know. So I tell people as much as
10:35
possible, no matter how busy you are, try to find your place on
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LinkedIn because it's a very serious space to be as a
10:44
professional and you will get people with like minds to either
10:47
learn from. And people come to me to ask me
10:50
questions on LinkedIn sometimes and I respond to them.
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You know, so that's one thing about LinkedIn you get, you get
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to share ideas also and you learn and.
10:58
Collaborate. Collaborate.
11:00
Yes, collaboration. Little just like this one.
11:03
It's. One, yes, it's a lot of
11:05
collaboration, you know. I'll tell you because I reached
11:08
out to you via LinkedIn. You know, and yes, it did
11:12
happen. Even some guy from Serbia, Lukas
11:16
Stechevich, we we had a podcast recently and yeah, that's why I
11:21
linked it. And guess what?
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I rose as high as #7 amongst the top podcasts in Serbia on the
11:30
top podcast charts in Serbia. Why LinkedIn?
11:34
So. Because I'm grateful to, to, to.
11:37
Everybody around the world streaming and downloading this
11:40
podcast, please, let's keep on doing this.
11:43
And yesterday I discovered I unlocked new territories.
11:46
I discovered I was in the top 200 in Singapore and in the top
11:51
100 in Ecuador. They don't even speak English in
11:55
Ecuador and I don't understand why I'm there.
11:58
But I'm grateful. I'm grateful.
12:01
Yeah, Gracias, yeah, I think they, they speak Spanish in
12:06
Ecuador. Gracias, people in Ecuador and
12:09
of course in the Portuguese are speaking countries.
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I see quite a lot of people from Brazil listening to me as well.
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Obrigado. Obrigado, my people.
12:19
And of course, my Niger people, Niger know the Karelas, Niger
12:23
know the Karelas. Thank you very much guys.
12:26
Thank you very much guys. You guys have been very, very
12:28
supportive. I see, I see Nigerian people,
12:31
they're really supportive and really pray for my people.
12:34
You know, you actually spoke about building business
12:38
resilience, right? You emphasise on it especially
12:41
within the context of the tough economic space in Nigeria.
12:46
So like, what are the top 3 strategies you believe every
12:50
entrepreneur should adopt to thrive in such tough economic
12:54
climates? So for Nigeria, if if I it's not
12:57
just Nigeria that has tough economic climate right now, they
13:00
are harder like parts of the world.
13:03
I also experienced at the same thing.
13:05
But what I say first is prioritisation.
13:09
You know, you have to prioritise whatever you're working with.
13:12
So for example, if you for your for you have to like maximise
13:17
your revenue, you know, prioritise your expenses.
13:22
That's your cost, what you want to spend on.
13:24
You can't spend on everything. Look at the most important ones
13:27
to make investments in. And when you're trying to do
13:30
that, also look at the ones that can give you, look at the one
13:33
that will give you a higher return on investment so that you
13:36
also like get a good reason to spend and to get another to get
13:41
returned also that can help you with your profitability.
13:44
And like you say, you know, cash is king.
13:46
You know, a lot of people focus on revenue growth, revenue
13:49
growth for getting to grow their profits, which in turn make up
13:52
your cash. You know, because by the time
13:54
you have a very high revenue and you have a low or very, very a
13:58
low profit margin, it can be difficult for you to turn into
14:02
cash easily. So cash is king.
14:04
So you always have to like look at your cash flows from time to
14:07
time to ensure that you have sufficient liquidity or working
14:10
capital to run the business basically.
14:12
So I think my most advice is in this period of volatility is you
14:16
need to watch how we need to. And you have to that also stay
14:18
innovative to innovation is very important because the, the, the
14:22
faster you are able to adapt to the new technological changes,
14:25
the better for your businesses, your business.
14:27
If you look at an example of the past, if you look at the
14:30
blockbuster movie producers, next, these have come in and
14:33
they've taken them out. And if you look at if you look
14:36
at all those things, they were not, they didn't quickly adapt
14:38
to the new technological changes.
14:40
And even Nokia to Nokia full everybody is have a Nokia phone
14:43
in their hand before, but today you don't have so many people
14:46
using that. Yeah, you don't have, you don't
14:49
have so many people using Nokia phones again as like before in
14:52
the past, you know, And these are things like once you have,
14:55
once you've. Seen that?
14:56
A new technique, yes, BlackBerry, also a new
14:59
technology is coupling. Try to find a way to don't say
15:02
that I'm the I'm the market leader.
15:05
You know, Nokia used to be the market leader at some point, you
15:08
know, you can't consider I'm the market leader, nobody can move
15:10
me. And you know, it took some time
15:11
for them to believe that what was it called?
15:14
The iPhone was going to take over and Samsung were going to
15:17
come into the. So you know, the other thing
15:19
very, very fast to adapt and innovate.
15:21
So adapt. Agility is very important in
15:23
this kind of economy we're in now.
15:25
Agility. So the, the faster you're able
15:28
to like stay agile and the quicker you're able to innovate
15:33
and to understand new trends and try to like get into it and
15:37
start adjusting your business models to see how you can
15:41
achieve more with the, with less the best, the better for you.
15:46
So those are the. I think that's the basic advice
15:48
I can give now. Thank you very much.
15:50
God bless you for that piece of advice.
15:52
Speaking of achieving more with less, let me talk about
15:56
something that actually does help with that.
15:58
And you spoke about accelerating the piece that teach you adapt
16:03
to the environment. This theatre we're about to talk
16:06
about also assist with that. Let me introduce you to
16:11
something called AI Artificial Intelligence.
16:18
That's my initial actually. Ayuba Mishola, you say hi, you
16:21
know. All right, that's why these
16:23
issues as well. I didn't want to let you see
16:24
them. AI.
16:25
So AI meets AI on the Kingdom podcast and the diary of a CFO.
16:32
This is fantastic. This is this is the best episode
16:35
ever. You know this is AI squared.
16:38
You know. There's nothing you can tell me
16:40
AI meets AI so. AI.
16:45
Right. What are your?
16:45
Thoughts on AI? So AI in finance is actually a
16:48
game changer, you know, not As for automation, but for insights
16:52
generation because you know, the way everything is happening, we
16:55
have predictive analytics, we have digital twins and scenario
16:59
modelling and which would this would transform our plan and
17:02
forecast in finance basically. But it's also equally promising
17:06
that the soft skills and we have soft skills as our
17:09
differentiator because, you know, as good as AI is, AI don't
17:13
have soft skills. You understand, they can do the
17:15
technical part of the work for us, but we as finance people, we
17:19
need to like have the soft skills, work more on the soft
17:21
skill we need to like. So in a world that we handle
17:24
that have a lot of smart machine woman judgement and influence
17:28
empathy, those three things, they would set finance
17:33
professionals apart. Yes, yes, because you know, a
17:37
lot of small work making decisions, you have to use your
17:40
judgments as a finance professional, you know, you need
17:42
to like also use your influence and you also have to have impact
17:46
with your team members. You know, because these are the
17:48
this is the human side of us. And this would also set like
17:53
great finance professionals to set them about soft skills.
17:57
But AIAI is yet to stay. Actually, it is.
18:00
Here we are. Here.
18:01
To stay. Yes.
18:03
We are, yes, faster. We are able to adapt and adjust
18:07
to understanding all these automation things that can help
18:10
us because it will give us more time to be able to give business
18:13
insight. And I was talking about finance
18:14
and business strategy at the beginning with AI, it makes it
18:18
easier for you to be able to like work on your strategic part
18:21
of the business more than when we they have AI.
18:24
Yes. Absolutely.
18:27
You know, when people ask me about how come I've been able to
18:31
achieve accelerated growth, you know, in terms of my company, in
18:34
terms of my podcast, the simple answer is, you know who I am.
18:39
I'm AI. And of course I'm.
18:41
AI. Yes.
18:45
So that is just the answer to you guys.
18:47
So guys. Out there, please take AI very,
18:50
very seriously. We can reach out to this AI or
18:53
that AI, you know, on winter and if you need, you know any help,
18:58
we we're your business and of course, you know, we should be
19:01
collaborating and just reach out to us.
19:04
You know, like we've got you, we've got you guys.
19:07
You know, our business is actually to help you mind the
19:10
business and so that you can grow and we can grow.
19:13
That's that's what it's about. So you know, you, you talk about
19:17
actionable insights, you talk about optical value.
19:20
So and of course, you know, you've actually worked across
19:25
diverse industries and geographies, right, Especially
19:28
across Africa. What's 1 called mistake that you
19:31
see entrepreneurs making when trying to scale their
19:34
businesses? Then how can they avoid it?
19:36
Yes. So one of the mistakes I've seen
19:39
entrepreneurs making in their businesses is just to focus on
19:42
revenue. A lot of times entrepreneurs
19:45
focus more on the top line of the business for getting the
19:49
other. Top line.
19:50
Revenue, which yes, top line, yes revenue, they try to grow
19:55
their revenue. So at some point they grow to
19:58
their revenue to a particular stage.
20:00
Imagine somebody making a hundred yeah or a billion naira
20:04
in Nigeria in revenue. And by the time you look at the,
20:08
you know, it's a lot, you know, it's a lot of money and.
20:13
When they get to that stage, they not start trying to look at
20:16
it that what's my cash flow looking like, What's my
20:18
profitability looking like? But you know, all the way they
20:20
had paid attention more to growing the top line and they
20:24
kept on growing. It's not focusing on the other
20:27
parts, you know on the profitability on on the
20:30
financing. And I know that right now
20:32
interest rate is very high in Nigeria.
20:34
So if there isn't the cost of capital from if you're using
20:38
bank loans or overdrafts to finance, if overdraft might be
20:41
OK. But if you're using like bank
20:42
majority bank loans to finance your business right now you're
20:44
paying double digits in interest rates.
20:47
So if you don't consider that I keep on growing the revenue and
20:50
using the the high interest rate to finance a business you might
20:56
have, you might keep growing revenue year on year for your
20:59
profitability and your cash flow may be so free.
21:03
So I think in total in all, yes, in all you focus on everything.
21:07
Don't focus on revenue growth. As you're looking at revenue
21:10
growth, look at your gross margin growth, look at your net
21:15
margins growth also. And also try to ensure that you
21:19
have enough working capital to reinvest back into the business
21:23
and ensure that your cash flow is net positive at every point
21:28
in time because that is what you can always reinvest back into
21:31
the business when you need to at every point in time.
21:35
So don't focus on in, in summary, don't focus on revenue
21:38
growth alone as a business person in Nigeria, focus on
21:42
everything. And also we also have the
21:44
external environment having a lot of impact on the businesses.
21:49
Some people don't focus, don't even have a look at the external
21:52
environment indices at all. Just look at what's happening
21:55
internally. But for you to be successful,
21:57
you need to look externally. Also, you need to know what
22:00
macroeconomic policies are going to impact your businesses.
22:03
Anything that is coming up newly, you need to look at it.
22:05
How is it going to impact my business?
22:06
If it's going to impact your business either positively or
22:09
negatively, you need to start like looking at it and look at
22:12
ways to mitigate it. If it's going to be a risk,
22:14
check out, mitigate it and it's going to be an opportunity.
22:18
Look at how you can maximise the opportunity to get the maximum
22:20
returns from each and also check out your competitors.
22:24
Yes, your competitors are very important.
22:26
Sometimes, you know, you need to look at what they're doing, how
22:28
are they surviving and how are they sustaining themselves in
22:31
these economic conditions, basically.
22:33
So those things will keep you floats as a business owner and
22:36
entrepreneur. Absolutely fantastic you you're
22:38
giving me when I say nostalgic feelings or dishavour about a
22:43
particular fractional CFO. She's one of the top fractional
22:46
CFO's in America. Her name is Monica Rokakisada.
22:50
She she's a CFO mentor with the CFO project in the United
22:57
States. She was on this podcast.
22:58
I think she wanted Wow and she said something, she said does it
23:04
really matter? Does it really matter if you
23:07
make 3? $1,000,000 in sales.
23:09
Or you don't make a profit. Does it really matter?
23:12
And I told Monica something. I said, Monica tell you this
23:17
revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity and cash is
23:22
cake. Cash is.
23:24
That was the episode that made me start using that line.
23:30
'Cause she she was basically saying the same thing you were
23:32
saying, but with an American accent.
23:35
You're saying it's with a Nigerian?
23:37
Accent so that it can. Hit home to the Nigerians and
23:40
listening to this, but remember, you know, it's it's, it's a
23:43
global. Platform and of course you
23:45
actually speaking global facts you know on on this podcast
23:49
today. So if people from different
23:52
places in the world who have never met themselves are saying
23:56
something, I think it's like it's like what the Bible says.
24:01
Let's I've tried to remember that portion of the Bible that
24:04
says, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the
24:08
churches. So he that has an heir, let them
24:11
hear the entrepreneurs that have an ear, let them hear what's the
24:16
Spirit is saying true? You know, the finest experts
24:20
like Ayubani and and Monica. So I think you're you're more
24:25
like myself. And you're right, people say.
24:28
Yes. They say, what's this proverb?
24:31
I'm trying to remember it. When they say tapas, tapas
24:35
sorrow, are they put it more like if if you tell a wise child
24:42
half a word, when he gets into his heart, it becomes a full
24:44
word? What's the name?
24:47
Abora Lasso. Formulabi.
24:49
There you go. There you have it.
24:50
So financial data can sometimes seem complex or intimidating.
24:54
How do you translate these insights into simple, actionable
24:58
decisions that non finance stakeholders can understand and
25:04
act upon? OK.
25:05
Yeah. So you're non finance
25:08
stakeholder, you don't need all the information that your
25:11
finance stakeholders need. So if you're presenting to or
25:15
you're speaking to a non finance professional, you don't need to
25:18
give all the technicalities. If you say IFRS to them, they
25:22
don't, they might not even know what the meaning of IFRS is, you
25:24
know, So for me, I look at information, I try to that put
25:28
it in a chat or in a, in a, in a bar chat or in a tabular form,
25:35
something that can be easy for them to see and easily resonate
25:38
sweets and relate sweets. And, you know, interestedly,
25:41
last week I had a trainee I, I facilitated a training finance
25:46
for non finance managers and I just made a post about it today
25:49
on LinkedIn. Interested.
25:51
When I was back in Nigeria, I did.
25:53
I did that. Training as well, you know, I
25:56
did facilitate. Before, yes, I know the
26:00
interesting thing is non finance professionals, they don't like
26:04
finance because the field is too complex and people don't like
26:06
numbers as much. And for you to make them
26:11
interested in numbers, you need to like make it very easy for
26:14
them. I don't know the feedback I got
26:15
from someone at the beginning of the training, I asked what do
26:18
you think about finance because I don't like finance at all.
26:21
Those numbers, they don't resonate with me.
26:24
And then the thing I hacked, it was like, no, you came down to
26:27
our level. You know, you're able to explain
26:29
this thing well for me to understand, I was able to
26:31
understand it well. So what is the basic thing?
26:34
You don't need to give them all the technicalities of finance.
26:37
They don't need that. They just need to simplify
26:40
colours. Yes, they like grab it.
26:42
Yeah, they like chat. If you can have chat they like
26:45
and if you can simplify it, instead of saying that our
26:49
revenue last year was 500,000 and our revenue this year is
26:53
600,000, just say that we are having, if a 10% growth, it's
26:57
very easy and this would have a maybe 5% improvement on our
27:03
margins. Or if our operating cost is
27:05
increasing, see our operating cost is increasing by 10%
27:08
because of the increase in inflation or interest rates.
27:12
You just have to like give, you have to make it easy for them to
27:15
understand instead of you giving them the big numbers that it
27:17
might not be easy and it might not be easy for them to really
27:19
comprehend. Just make it simple.
27:21
Just say it in just plain in a sentence.
27:24
You can the whole financial analysis you've done it can it
27:27
can communicate. I'll give.
27:29
You 2 words. OK.
27:32
Highly. Relatable.
27:34
Yeah, highly relatable. Very relatable because these
27:37
people, they don't they won't have a long attention span for
27:40
your financial explanation first.
27:42
You just give it. They they they don't have.
27:45
They pick the, they pick the information you've given and it
27:50
sticks to them because you've made it very simple and easy for
27:53
them to understand. And I remember when I was
27:55
teaching about the income statement about about the
27:57
balance sheet, I told them, I said is what you own and you
28:02
know, liability is what you owe. That way it was very easy for
28:06
them to understand and comprehend because I would say
28:09
what you own, what I have, what I'm, what belongs to me and what
28:12
I owe. So that way when I asked them
28:14
the next day, they remember 2 days training, they remember.
28:17
So that's like some of the easier things that makes life
28:21
easy. You don't need to make it, OK.
28:22
It is assets. It is that, but it's yeah, they
28:23
understand accidents. And when we make it, I hope this
28:25
is what you own. This is these are the things you
28:27
own. Then what are you owing also?
28:29
And what are you returning back to?
28:31
The shareholders also the owners of the business.
28:34
What belongs to the owner of the business?
28:35
That's equity. Simple as in simple language,
28:37
simple thing. Anybody, even a child, will
28:39
remember this. Balance sheet equation assets?
28:43
Yes. Liabilities plus equity.
28:46
Equity, yeah. So as somebody that is
28:50
passionate about mentoring women and young professional, what's
28:54
that one piece of advice you'd give to a young woman aspiring
28:58
to excel in finance of business leading women so.
29:04
What else is to them is yes, women's positive women.
29:08
You know, I actually did a post like is it 2 weeks ago about
29:12
advice to my younger self, my 25 year old self, you know?
29:16
You saw the next question. You saw the next question on my
29:19
computer, right? You need to be arrested.
29:23
Yeah, yeah, because it's please. Please arrest this woman.
29:26
Please arrest this woman you know you know.
29:29
That is what I have. Next.
29:33
So OK, just tell us what's your advice to your younger self?
29:36
What's what? Yes, my younger self and to
29:38
younger people, because it's one, it's one, yes.
29:42
And of course, please give them financial wisdom, please.
29:45
Thank you. Financial Wisdom.
29:48
Yes. Yes.
29:49
So the first thing is your voice matter, you know, don't hold
29:51
back what you know, you know, speak up in meetings.
29:55
You know, you need to speak up, share your ideas.
29:57
You bring value even when you're still finding your footing.
30:00
That's like the first thing I would say.
30:02
And the second thing is you don't need all the answers to
30:05
make a difference. You don't need to have
30:07
everything sorted out before you can make a difference.
30:10
Your curiosity, your courage and consistency can carry further
30:14
than the certificates will, you know.
30:16
CCCC. The fact that you got yes, you
30:20
could see courage and consistency.
30:22
It's a carrying further than your certificates.
30:26
Fantastic, but the security is the cut.
30:30
Yes it will. It no longer kills the.
30:33
Cat, you know. You know, and also sometimes you
30:39
have to create the opportunity for yourself.
30:40
You know, a lot of times you don't need to wait for
30:42
permission, you know, ask for your what you want, show up,
30:47
show what you want to bring and the.
30:48
Outcome. You know this also make people
30:51
trust you better as a person. I know confidence is something
30:54
that you build in motion. You know, you choose every
30:57
progress you have, so you choose progress over perfection.
31:03
Sometimes you are trying to be perfect to get, you know, we
31:06
need to like set everything, everything to work in place.
31:09
But you know, the way things are happening now, no matter how you
31:11
have, no matter how good you are planning, it might not go out
31:14
exactly the way you've planned. So, you know, just choose
31:16
progress over perfection. Don't try to be.
31:19
Perfect, I think you actually hacked my phone because it's
31:23
like you saw a WhatsApp chat I had with a friend of mine last
31:26
night. I told them I cherish excellent
31:29
over perfection. You just switched it up like
31:32
now, I I suspect you actually there's.
31:34
Something fishy about you. No but but but but you know I
31:39
met this post like 2 weeks ago. Also, what?
31:41
What? What?
31:46
You're really my what? Some chance.
31:47
I don't understand. No, no, no, no.
31:51
Please, please get this woman. Yeah, but.
31:55
You know, it happened to my device, You know, you know, has
32:01
this thing ever happened to you? You're discussing something with
32:03
somebody. And then the next 30 minutes you
32:06
get on your Instagram and then you start seeing adverts
32:09
regarding that thing. You're talking about shoes and
32:12
then you get on your Instagram, you start seeing adverts on
32:15
shoes. There is a, there is a voice
32:17
stuff that's. Happened.
32:19
Yeah, voice recognition pattern. Yes, that's brings what we talk
32:23
about. I know in in summary, you know,
32:27
begins the moment you step beyond your comfort zone.
32:30
And like you said, as women, sometimes you are very
32:33
comfortable in our comfort zone. You know, there's a lot of
32:35
things that don't work in our favour at times.
32:38
You know, being pregnant, you know, childbirth, taking care of
32:42
the children immediately because after you have the children
32:45
postpartum, you know, it's a lot.
32:47
But you look at yourself and say, who do I want to be?
32:53
Who do I really want to be? And you know, my finance journey
32:57
was not all rosy. I joined Sanofi at a point that
33:01
I was pregnant with my first child and I was, I was three
33:07
months pregnant when I joined as.
33:09
So I had to go on maternity leave shortly after.
33:12
And the role I was going into was not a role I'd done before.
33:15
So I'd worked as an external auditor, I'd worked as a general
33:19
Ledger accountant, and now maybe from that I was bringing those
33:22
experience into finance business partnering.
33:25
So for me, it was not an easy decision to have made at that
33:29
time, but I had support from my spouse and my family.
33:33
Basically. They encouraged me.
33:37
Yeah, they encouraged me because, you know, I could have
33:40
stepped back and said oh, after all, they know because I've been
33:43
in the previous row for like 8 to 9 months.
33:46
So I'd already like gotten some leverage there.
33:50
And, you know, being pregnant, you don't even know what will
33:53
happen the next moment. You don't know what symptoms
33:55
will come. You don't know if you can even
33:56
go to work the next day. You don't know if your body will
33:58
be weak. You don't know anything that
34:00
would happen. But I took the good step and
34:04
with the support I had, I moved into the room.
34:07
There were times I cried. Actually, that was saying to me
34:09
because that's the. Thing These are the pains people
34:12
do not see, you know, especially the tears, you know, behind
34:15
closed doors, you know, in the night and you.
34:18
Know I cried and I was like, yeah, there is because being
34:23
pregnant and doing a new role, it was a new industry, a new
34:28
kind of work for me to do and you know, it was just different.
34:31
Well, also a multinational. That was my first multinational
34:34
organisational. So it was just a lot.
34:37
I know there's a lot of expectations, multinationals,
34:40
you don't make excuses because it's not just your country for,
34:43
for, for you. Get done that.
34:46
I didn't know you can make excuses for and you can also
34:50
move your deadlines, but most nationals you can't move
34:53
deadlines anyhow. You're dead.
34:55
You're the day you're supposed to deliver.
34:57
You need to. If you cannot make it, there's a
34:59
room for you to like. I've given heads up ahead of
35:02
time. It's not when it's time you
35:03
start saying that I can't make it, No, but you know, it's made
35:07
me stronger. I became stronger, I became
35:10
resilient. Yes, I learnt and I also like
35:13
seek for help. I asked for help and I was able
35:16
to get someone, my CFO at the time got me someone, a woman
35:21
that was doing very well and add a family and children.
35:25
So I was able to speak to her to mentor me.
35:27
She said no, I'm not going to mentor, you're going to be my
35:29
friend. And she became my friend and
35:31
from then on it became easier. And one of the things I, by the
35:36
time I go back from my maternity leave, after I resume back the
35:39
next year, that same year I was one of the top performers, you
35:44
know, so this is my top, my top award I got, I've actually also
35:48
gotten a top performing award as a new mum because it was, it was
35:54
like it was the same year I go back from maternity, I go back
35:57
to work. I I was part of the top and we
35:59
call the Green Star Award then, so that means you're one of the
36:02
top people that performed very well in the organisation and I
36:05
was recognised for a hit. It was not an easy journey, but
36:09
I got an award for it at the end of.
36:11
This I was really up I think. And that's one of the things
36:14
that also encourage. Podcast as well, the course when
36:19
you look at when you look at the King games broadcast, the the
36:21
website is actually green. So you're a star, a green star
36:24
on the Green Podcast. Green star?
36:26
Yes, Green star the flag. Of Nigeria is green.
36:29
Yes, yes, yes, it's green. I know that was one of the
36:32
things that also encouraged me to write a book, the Strategic
36:36
Finance business Partner to help finance professionals and also
36:41
business owners, entrepreneurs Tell us about it, because that
36:45
book doesn't have anything about like financial formulas or all
36:49
these assets, like you were saying, assets equal to
36:51
liability. But it does not have all those
36:52
things. It's just how can the business,
36:57
how can you support your business to get a seat at the
36:59
table? How can you transform your
37:02
mindsets to move from being a number cruncher to a strategic
37:07
and valued business partner to your organisation?
37:12
OK. So guys go grab.
37:14
I have and the strategic finance business partner.
37:18
Finance business. Platform.
37:19
Is it available? On, yeah.
37:21
Thank you. I'll send the link to you.
37:24
It's on seller and sell Fenne for now.
37:26
OK. Fantastic, fantastic.
37:29
So guys, go grab a copy of the book now, like now, like right
37:34
now. Take, take.
37:35
A post on the port and. Go grab the book.
37:38
So. Before Ayubami runs away, you
37:40
know she's a very beautiful woman.
37:42
Where can the audience connect with you?
37:46
Yes, so they can connect to me on LinkedIn.
37:49
Ayubami Shola on Instagram. It's Ayubami Ishoda.
37:54
Like a straight straight A student, yes, but you're friends
37:58
with the cool. Kids, that's a song.
38:00
By Conor Price You should go check out that song.
38:04
It's a fact. That I will.
38:06
So we're going to end with a quick fire around 5 questions.
38:09
C What comes to your mic first? So #1 What's your favourite book
38:14
on finance or leadership that is not your book?
38:17
Why did you say that is not my book?
38:19
It's my book. Exactly you always you always
38:22
will bias when it comes to your own book.
38:23
It's my book, just like, just like my best book on
38:27
entrepreneurship is. My own book.
38:29
So let us leave our own. Books.
38:31
Let's leave our own books out of the equation.
38:34
So what is your favourite book that another human being you
38:38
know, created by Almighty God has written?
38:40
What is your favourite? So around finance, right?
38:45
Yeah, finance or leadership? Or leadership and so I like
38:50
there's a book on leadership by Victoria Beolaji, the precision
38:54
LED woman. Maybe because it has it's a
38:56
woman focus on leadership. The book is great and because
39:00
it's. Because it's a Nigerian, right
39:02
I. See.
39:03
No, not necessarily because she's a Nigerian.
39:05
Well, she said. Leadership.
39:06
Finance or leadership? Don't worry.
39:08
Nigerian or the trailer? No, the book really related to
39:11
me on leadership, you know, so. I will go and find the book.
39:15
I will. Go yes, thank you on Amazon,
39:17
actually also on Amazon say. Amazon.
39:19
OK, I'll go find it. It's not just for women.
39:22
The fact that it has women only, just like I said about my book,
39:24
it's not just for finance professionals.
39:26
Anybody can read it so that the book isn't meant for just women,
39:28
although it's she focused on women, but even people that were
39:31
not women read the book and said no, this book is not just for
39:34
women. Even men can get advice.
39:36
From them, what a man can do, a woman can do better.
39:41
I see it, you know. If you, if you, if you somehow,
39:45
you know, we keep having women empowerment programme.
39:47
But yeah, there's men empowerment programme like you.
39:51
You guys don't want men to be empowered.
39:53
No men are empowered already. Men are men are not.
39:57
Men are not empowered by default.
39:59
A lot. Of things working in your
40:01
favour, you know. What?
40:02
What is working in our favour? A lot is.
40:05
Working in your responsibilities and burdens and billions.
40:10
As a man, you know when, when, when is now that because people
40:13
are focusing more, more women. How many women used to be
40:16
leaders of an organisation before it used to be men?
40:19
How many women used to have a seat at a table?
40:21
It used to be men. It's just now, even now we see
40:23
have like the percentage and the ratio issues, you understand.
40:26
But it's getting better now we have more women.
40:28
If you look at our House of Assembly, our House of how many
40:31
women are there, it's a percentage, just a minus
40:33
percentage. As a woman never ruled Nigeria
40:35
before, even at the beginning, AIP me that I'm the president of
40:38
Nigeria. We know it's always, there's
40:39
always been men. So the truth is, for me, I don't
40:45
believe in titles. The real leaders are the ones
40:47
without the titles. Who?
40:50
Who gave? Nigeria, the name like Nigeria,
40:52
it was a certain woman called Flora show so.
40:55
The real people controlling the country and the women.
40:58
So the presidents, the presidents are just place
41:00
holders. So the women are the real
41:03
leaders. They does not deceive ourselves.
41:05
Yeah, right. So you keep hearing they say
41:09
it's not easy to be a man. It has never been easy at it
41:13
will never be easy to be a man, you know.
41:16
So let's not deceive ourselves. These are working for men to now
41:19
men have paternity. Leave.
41:21
These are women working for men. How how long is paternity leave?
41:26
Let's not receive them ourselves.
41:27
Let me move to your next question, please.
41:30
So the next question is, if you weren't a finance professional,
41:34
what career would you have pursued?
41:37
I think I would like to have been a creative, like maybe like
41:40
an artist's painting or something.
41:44
Yeah. Because no.
41:46
Would you like to? Would you like to paint me or
41:48
paint my future? So because you know, you know.
41:52
My future is very bright, so if you paint my future, you'll be
41:56
crying because it will make you go blind.
42:00
Maybe you know, there was a post I did only the recent
42:04
creativity, you know, just trying to like because you know,
42:07
it's no matter how you try, when you make a mistake when painting
42:12
and you just try to like if you've seen it's a mistake, but
42:15
you know, it's usually very easy to correct, but then you you try
42:17
to put a little correction. It's a new design.
42:20
You know, that's interesting thing about paint.
42:22
Now, now, now, you're tempting me.
42:24
You're tempting me to show you, to show you an episode on my
42:29
podcast. It is titled Let Let Me Find It.
42:34
You should. You should go find it.
42:36
Let me try to find it. It's it's the episode with Neer
42:40
Bastion and it's on creativity. I think it's a oh, creativity.
42:44
Yeah. Very fantastic episode for you
42:47
to to to go catch. So Neer Bastion is actually
42:51
Jewish American and he is a published author.
42:55
He the published author with what's the name of this top
42:58
guys? Macro Hill.
43:01
You should know Macro Hill, right?
43:04
Macro Hill is one of the world's top three publishing companies.
43:08
Yes. And he's, he's an outward
43:11
meaning author. And of course, he's been
43:14
nominated for the Emmy, Emmy Awards.
43:17
So he's he's which part of that shot?
43:19
And he's very, very big on, on creativity.
43:22
So that that's what you should go watch out for.
43:25
So. Are you morning pressing or a
43:32
night owl? Morning person I.
43:35
Mean, I see, I see. That's why that's why you keep,
43:37
you know, setting our, our meetings for mornings and the
43:40
nights out. So me and you, me and you, we
43:44
should run a company together. You know you should come join
43:47
KDM's Consulting Limited. Because I'll be working in the
43:49
nights, you'll be working, you know they're working.
43:52
In the day shifts, so we'll make more money together.
43:55
You know, that's AI. That's that's the reason why we
43:59
have the same initials. But for a reason, I went to the
44:02
same university for a reason, so. #4 What's your go to stress
44:06
relief activity? What do you do to?
44:08
A So my stress relief activity, I just like maybe walking along
44:13
the beach, you know, just watching the waves flow.
44:17
It's just, you know, it's some kind of calm calmness, you know,
44:21
the beach, serenity and the wage flow.
44:24
That's all my go to it. Working in nature is very
44:27
therapy. Yeah, working nature just like
44:30
takes off all the stress, all the, I just like just focus on
44:33
it and just enjoy nature basically.
44:36
My last question for you today is what's one word to describe
44:40
your approach to business? Today strategy.
44:47
What did you say? Strategy.
44:49
Strategy I love that I love that.
44:52
You are hereby welcome to Cadems Consulting Limited.
44:57
So we'll send you we'll send you your appointment letter after
45:00
this podcast. Thank you very.
45:02
Much you don't need to accept it.
45:04
You have been accepted and of course, you know I always say
45:09
this on the podcast. Gratitude is good attitude.
45:12
Anytime a person shares their time with you, they share their
45:15
life with you. Thank you very much for your
45:16
time from me to you it's a big love and respect to you.
45:21
I love you very much for your. Husband loves you more.
45:24
Shout out to your husband. And your kids, thank you, thank
45:29
you. We're sending them love and
45:31
respect from London, England. Do you want to leave a shout out
45:34
to anybody before before you leave?
45:37
Yes, yes, yes. I would like to say a big shout
45:40
out to my family for supporting me all the way and my mentors,
45:45
you know, people that really supported my career.
45:47
I would say thank you to Ebel Bamiduru and Adipolaidou.
45:51
They were like really instrumental to me being where I
45:55
am because at the point I almost gave up, they were there to hold
45:58
me up. Yeah, she almost gave up, right?
46:02
Can you see this? Can you see this?
46:05
So I didn't, I didn't give up. I wasn't planning to give up.
46:07
Why y'all needed a lot of support at that time?
46:10
Because if I had not gotten their support, it was a tough
46:15
period because I was trying to juggle motherhood.
46:18
We work, so it was not easy. So I needed like their support
46:22
to just because at some point I was like, oh, should I go on a
46:26
career break and come back? But with them I was able to
46:30
juggle the balls of everything. I know a lot of women still have
46:34
that part of them trying to juggle everything together.
46:39
Absolutely. This actually speaks to what you
46:41
say. It's not over when you lose,
46:43
it's over when you. Quit.
46:45
Oh, it's over. Yeah, it's not about.
46:46
It's over. And of course, you know,
46:49
quitters don't win and winners don't quit.
46:52
You are a winner. And we're super proud to you
46:55
for, you know, quitting. And of course, you may not know
46:58
it for your very, very big inspiration to millions of women
47:02
out there, you know, to see you to look up to you.
47:07
And I'm grateful to to God for your life, you know, and of
47:10
course, keeping that shining star, that green star that you
47:14
are at will always be. I wish you the very, very best,
47:17
you know, in. All of thank you.
47:20
I want to see you do great things, you know, and you're
47:23
here for you always. It's under the careless.
47:25
No, not. At all the audience do the right
47:32
thing guys. Thank you very much for the
47:34
support so far. I want to see this podcast at #1
47:40
number one on the chats guys, and of course I know you guys
47:44
can make it happen. Bobby edit final words with
47:46
them. You know, please change out
47:48
them. You know the night.
47:49
Just. Please support this podcast like
47:53
you hear is my brother from another mother.
47:55
So please you have. Support and of course.
47:57
You know, love and respect to you guys, you know, till I come
48:00
your way again, keep shining guys.
48:04
Always go for something in your life, you know, always push,
48:07
push through the pain. No gain, no, no pain, no gain
48:12
rather, you know, like it's never easy, but you know you can
48:16
always achieve it. And of course, you know, you can
48:18
reach out to either of the AIS, you know, to accelerate your
48:22
growth journey. And for me it is goodbye.
48:24
And from the other AI it is keep winning.