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Transcript

The AI Advantage: How Small Businesses Can Leverage AI for Growth · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Last week was SME Vcon and I
• 0:07
  think I spoke about it maybe two or three weeks back, you know,
• 0:10
  in the lead up to it, trying to let you guys know what my
• 0:14
  session was going to be about on how you can use artificial
• 0:17
  intelligence to improve your sales.
• 0:21
  So today's episode, I'm just going to do a brief recap of all
• 0:25
  the stuff that we spoke about, Well, that I spoke about doing
• 0:28
  the SME Vcon. The conference was a very, very
• 0:33
  long one. I haven't seen one this long
• 0:35
  before because I've done a bunch of stuff before online or
• 0:40
  offline. But I'm used to an event being,
• 0:44
  you know, maybe a full day event, maybe 6-7 hours or
• 0:47
  something, you know, a few speakers, four or five.
• 0:50
  But SME Vcon was online and it was I think each day was 12
• 0:59
  hours long. So we were speaking in circuits
• 1:02
  of about maybe one hour. And well, of course for the
• 1:06
  speaker, it's not a problem because you show in, you show up
• 1:09
  signing, do your bit, you know, Q&A, maybe hang around one or
• 1:13
  two sessions and then leave. But then for people who would
• 1:17
  come and attend multiple sessions, I think that was quite
• 1:20
  the time investment. So it's nice to see that there
• 1:24
  are a bunch of you out there who are looking for information or
• 1:30
  the avenues that you can use to improve your business.
• 1:33
  So more power to you if you attended multiple sessions of
• 1:36
  the SME Vcon. So the reason why I'm making
• 1:39
  this podcast episode today is also share the good stuff that
• 1:42
  we discussed from my own point of view, I mean, during my own
• 1:45
  session. So share that with you guys over
• 1:48
  here on the pod. Now before we do that listener,
• 1:51
  shout out to OK K Kasimir. When I was having a chat with
• 1:57
  the fellow, I told him that this is the weirdest Ebony I've come
• 2:01
  across because I know of the more Arabic Kashmir names.
• 2:07
  So apart from my OAU days, I know one Kashmir.
• 2:11
  I've spoken to a few Kashmirs but I've not come across and
• 2:15
  Igbo Kashmir. But then he told me that it's
• 2:17
  not Kashmir, it is Kasimir CASIMIR.
• 2:23
  So OK. K Kasimir, most interesting Igbo
• 2:26
  name I've come across so far came across the podcast on
• 2:33
  Spotify. But later on I taught him how to
• 2:36
  use listen notes on YouTube so that we can use the make the
• 2:40
  podcast a good learning resource.
• 2:42
  That's for more if you're trying to use the podcast in a much
• 2:46
  more focused way. So Okke Kasimir is at on Twitter
• 2:52
  at CX, but the C is spelt CEE and then the X is Exx.
• 3:00
  So the C starts with a capital C and then the X starts with a
• 3:04
  capital E. So you can find him on Twitter.
• 3:08
  So he's a web three artist. He's an animator and an
• 3:11
  architecture student and he's all about building Web 3
• 3:17
  products, currently working on the Web 3 survey, a Web 3 survey
• 3:24
  tool. And we had an interesting chat
• 3:25
  about that when we, he reached out to me on, on WhatsApp.
• 3:33
  Yeah, our chat was on WhatsApp. So there's a podcast listener
• 3:37
  who's interested in fundraising, Web 3 projects, fintech,
• 3:40
  investors, stakeholder management, all those sorts of
• 3:43
  things. So I had a conversation about
• 3:45
  how he can use the podcast in a very focused way to get
• 3:50
  information about all these sorts of things because we're
• 3:52
  currently at over 920 something episodes.
• 3:58
  So if you're new to the podcast and you want to find out the
• 4:01
  things that are put out on these sorts of things, it's it's going
• 4:04
  to be an uphill task to go through all these episodes just
• 4:07
  to fish for what it is that you want.
• 4:09
  So I introduced OK K Casimir to listen notes, which is a
• 4:14
  catalogue or directory of pod all sorts of podcasts under the
• 4:17
  sun. So you can find everybody there,
• 4:19
  whether it's Brian Tracy or what's his name Robbins.
• 4:24
  I can't remember the guy's name, Rob something Robbins.
• 4:28
  My podcast is there even, I mean, oh, all kinds of podcasts
• 4:33
  are there. I mean Nigeria, Australia, UK,
• 4:36
  all kinds of podcasts, business, gossip, everything.
• 4:39
  It's all there. And the unique thing about
• 4:43
  Listen Notes is it has a search function that allows you to
• 4:46
  search within a podcast. So you can go into Listen Notes,
• 4:50
  you can pull up my podcast and then you can tell Listen Notes
• 4:53
  that OK, out of all the podcast episodes that this young man has
• 4:57
  put out, out of the 920 episodes, 20 something episodes
• 5:00
  as young man has put out, give me the podcast episodes where he
• 5:04
  only spoke about Web 3. And Listen Notes is going to say
• 5:09
  give you the episodes where where I spoke about things
• 5:15
  related to Web 3. So that is how you can use
• 5:17
  Listen Notes as a focused learning tool.
• 5:20
  Then Listen Notes also recommend that to people because if you
• 5:23
  take the paid version, then you're also going to be able to
• 5:25
  get transcripts on whatever it is you're looking for.
• 5:29
  So if you don't want to listen to the whole episode, you
• 5:31
  actually can pay Listen Notes and then have them transcribe
• 5:34
  those episodes. So it might be easier for you
• 5:36
  to, OK, let's say I've only done 3 episodes relating to Web 3.
• 5:42
  Then if you look at it and I think, OK, he did 3 episodes,
• 5:45
  each episode is 30 minutes. If I want to listen to you,
• 5:47
  that's an hour, 30 minutes. How about I just pay for the
• 5:49
  transcripts and then I will be quicker to read 3 transcripts
• 5:54
  now to listen to three episodes. So you can do that as well.
• 5:57
  So yeah, we explore those ideas. But now that the podcast is
• 6:02
  available on YouTube, and yes, I've checked all 920 something
• 6:06
  episodes are available. You can use the search bar on
• 6:09
  YouTube and then search within the podcast as well to get all
• 6:14
  the episodes that you need. So if you are someone in OK K
• 6:18
  Kashmir Kasimir's situation and you want to learn a bunch of
• 6:23
  stuff about fundraising, then yeah, go to YouTube.
• 6:25
  Just type in my name, Tavishima. Well, because Tavishima is
• 6:29
  shorter than typing in sales for the Nigerian business person.
• 6:33
  So you can just type in Tavishima and then type
• 6:36
  fundraising and then all the episodes that I've released on
• 6:38
  fundraising will be there. The good thing if you use
• 6:41
  YouTube is my TikTok videos, I also put them up on YouTube and
• 6:47
  then my LinkedIn videos I also put them up on, sorry, not
• 6:50
  LinkedIn. I didn't do LinkedIn videos.
• 6:52
  I did Instagram. Instagram videos up on YouTube.
• 6:55
  So if you check YouTube, it's a larger catalog.
• 6:57
  If you're listening to the podcast, it's just 920.
• 7:00
  If you're going to YouTube, it's a catalogue of about 1200 or
• 7:03
  something. So there's more videos there.
• 7:07
  So yeah, that's it. So shout out to OK K Kasimir,
• 7:10
  nice meeting you. Nice chatting with you.
• 7:12
  And I would love to meet and talk to more podcast listeners.
• 7:17
  It's always a joy when I come across you folks.
• 7:20
  So let's head straight to SME Vcon 2024.
• 7:26
  Good news is the people who organized the program or so
• 7:29
  happy with my session that I'm going to have me back for SME
• 7:34
  VCON 2025. And for those of you who
• 7:38
  attended the event and we had fun and you enjoyed my session,
• 7:42
  good news is I'm going to be back with you guys again next
• 7:45
  year. So before we did the SME Vcon
• 7:48
  itself, there was a teaser session where with Doctor Ojugo
• 7:53
  Oji Hugo was the convener. Was it convener or organizer or
• 7:59
  however it is that you call it? And in the teaser session, we
• 8:02
  spoke about a couple of things. And I was keen to point out that
• 8:05
  AI is just computerized problem solving because you still have a
• 8:09
  bunch of people running around saying that AI is about creating
• 8:12
  computers to be like human beings.
• 8:14
  Now, are computers functioning or starting to mimic human
• 8:18
  behaviour? It's, it's more of an what's the
• 8:22
  word and after effect. Yeah, let's say it's more of an
• 8:27
  after effect, after effect or an accident.
• 8:29
  But the main thing is that AI is just using computers to solve
• 8:32
  problems. Even if AI is about, look,
• 8:38
  bottom line is this AI is here to stay.
• 8:41
  Trying to run around with doomsday scenarios is not going
• 8:44
  to help you realize that this thing is a tool.
• 8:48
  Figure out how this tool applies to whatever it is that you're
• 8:50
  trying to do. If you're listening to this
• 8:52
  podcast, I'm assuming that you're trying to grow your
• 8:54
  business. Just figure out how to use this
• 8:56
  thing to grow your business. End of story, full stop.
• 8:59
  If you think that there are larger social implications, then
• 9:03
  do your best as a man, as a woman, as a family person or
• 9:07
  whatever to inoculate yourself or inoculate your family or
• 9:10
  whatever it is that you think needs to be done or to prepare
• 9:14
  for these doomsday scenarios that you're considering.
• 9:16
  But in the meantime, AI is here to stay.
• 9:18
  You can't do anything about it. AI is just computer solving
• 9:22
  problems. So please take it and adopt it
• 9:24
  as such. Then in the teaser session, I
• 9:29
  said that everybody, business people, Nigeria business people
• 9:32
  should all use AI because it's good for ideation.
• 9:35
  Coming up with ideas is good for strategy, trying to figure out
• 9:38
  which way should we should go. And it's good for execution
• 9:41
  because in the old days, if I wanted to do ideation, I would
• 9:44
  call up my brother and say hey bro, what's up?
• 9:46
  How you been? How are the kids?
• 9:47
  I've been thinking about this, this, this, this, this Abhi, how
• 9:50
  do you see it? And now I hear what he has to
• 9:52
  say. Then after that, I'll call my
• 9:54
  mom and then I'll talk to my wife and then I'll call one or
• 9:56
  two other people that process those, that process of phone
• 10:00
  calling back and forth and everything.
• 10:02
  I mean, that process can easily be a week or two weeks.
• 10:04
  You know, you call your homies up, you call your brother, you
• 10:07
  talk to your wife, you talk to one or two people, you know.
• 10:10
  So we'll take a very long time. But with AI now we can do the
• 10:16
  ideation thing. Sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp,
• 10:17
  sharp. 2-3 hours, you know, you come up with the prompts running
• 10:21
  through AI, you see a bunch of ideas, some things make sense,
• 10:24
  some things don't make sense. You know you reason it.
• 10:27
  Do some follow up prompts, you get a good call of ideas that
• 10:32
  you think are workable. And because you've done this
• 10:36
  thing fast, do using one or two hours to come up with a bunch of
• 10:39
  ideas, execution also is faster. So these are the main reasons
• 10:43
  why I say that Nigerian business people should be using AI.
• 10:47
  Use it for ideation, use it for strategy.
• 10:50
  And because these things are fast, execution is also going to
• 10:54
  be sharp. Sharp.
• 10:55
  Then I also said we should all use AI because these things are
• 10:58
  free and affordable. I only talk about LLMS or
• 11:01
  GPTSLLMS, large language models. So these are AIS that try to
• 11:07
  work or try to do their work by human beings.
• 11:10
  Feeding text into it, putting information in text form or
• 11:15
  putting prompts in text form to get a response.
• 11:18
  And then GPTS generative pre trained Transformers.
• 11:22
  So that is the AI is there, it has a large data set, you give
• 11:26
  it a prompt and then it tries to give you an answer.
• 11:29
  Now GPTS are not new, they have always been here.
• 11:33
  The Google algorithm is a GPT. It is just that it used to give
• 11:37
  you the response in in a in a list ranking.
• 11:43
  So you give it a question and it now gives you information back
• 11:47
  page one, number one, blah blah blah, blah blah page two, number
• 11:51
  one, blah blah blah, page three, number one, blah, blah blah.
• 11:54
  But the Google algorithm is a GPT.
• 11:58
  So it's just the new thing is just the chat ChatGPT.
• 12:03
  So now GPTS can now give you responses with text.
• 12:08
  So in the old days, Google would say Page 1 to page 10, number
• 12:14
  one to number 10 on each page. But now Google Gemini will give
• 12:19
  you an answer and say here are the best pizza whatever,
• 12:22
  whatever, whatever closest to you.
• 12:24
  This one is 5 kilometers away. This one is 10 kilometers away.
• 12:28
  If you prefer chicken, try this one.
• 12:29
  If you prefer fish on your pizza, try this one.
• 12:33
  You know, so now it just gives it to you as a chat.
• 12:35
  So GPTS have always been here. It's nothing new.
• 12:39
  But now the talk back to us or they text back to us.
• 12:43
  So I only focus on LLMS and GPTS because believe me, the field of
• 12:50
  AI is really, really vast. Because I'm currently I
• 12:52
  currently have a mentee at the University of Aberdeen.
• 12:56
  He's an engineering undergrad. University of Aberdeen is my
• 13:01
  alma mater. That's why I did my post my post
• 13:04
  grad so and he's an engineer undergrad and I was talking to
• 13:09
  him about AI and my guy just started talking about all kinds
• 13:13
  of protocols and this and this and that and that.
• 13:17
  And look at how to bring like calm him down.
• 13:20
  Like, look, dude, I asked about AI.
• 13:21
  It's not as if me, I'm a pro. All I know is Gemini ChatGPT and
• 13:26
  you know, small stuff that we, we, we mortals use.
• 13:29
  But like, man, you guys are advanced.
• 13:30
  So yeah, AI it's vast. There's plenty that is going on,
• 13:34
  but I only talk about NLMS and GPTS and the reason why it's
• 13:39
  because they're already on your phone.
• 13:41
  If you bought your Google, If you bought your Google phone,
• 13:43
  your Android phone in 2024 or in 2023, Gemini is already
• 13:47
  installed on your phone, so no need to look for it.
• 13:50
  If you bought your Mac computer in 2024 or you bought it in
• 13:54
  later half of 2023, then ChatGPT has already been incorporated
• 13:58
  into it. If you have Apple products like
• 14:01
  iPhone, I think it's copilot that is already on it.
• 14:05
  But I'm just trying to say that I focus on these ones because
• 14:07
  they're free, they're affordable, they're easy to
• 14:09
  access. Even if you have an old phone or
• 14:11
  an old computer, looking for the thing to download is not a
• 14:13
  problem. But if you have new gear, if you
• 14:16
  bought your phone last week, I'm telling you that The thing is
• 14:18
  already on your phone. So just whip it up.
• 14:20
  No excuse, just start using. So that's why I focus on LLM and
• 14:25
  GPTS easy to use. Everybody already has them.
• 14:29
  Then let's see what else. I think that's what we handle in
• 14:34
  the teaser session. But then for the main session,
• 14:37
  now that was an adventure in itself because you guys know,
• 14:42
  for those of you who are in Nigeria, you guys know how
• 14:44
  things have been now, as in fuel in the country and all that.
• 14:47
  So Mumsy came to visit and she confirmed that in Makudi in
• 14:51
  Benway State like fuel is something else like trying to
• 14:55
  find it Wahala, you find it the cost wahala.
• 15:00
  So same thing in Abuja. So excuse me.
• 15:03
  So same thing in Abuja finding fuel has been like rough.
• 15:08
  So the deal of the session now filling stations around start to
• 15:11
  sell. The queues just become massive.
• 15:13
  And I was thinking about it like or more should I wait for this
• 15:17
  SMEV con because my own session was 330.
• 15:21
  Should I wait this thing out and then try it tomorrow?
• 15:23
  I just thought about it like you never know, the fuel is here
• 15:27
  today. Tomorrow it might not be here.
• 15:28
  So, so let me just fill up. So I went to go and join the
• 15:31
  fuel queue. I figured, you know, sharp,
• 15:33
  sharp, you know, maybe one or two hours I'll be gone or more.
• 15:38
  That's how I now wait. That's how I now got trapped in
• 15:40
  the fuel queue. Like the time was getting close
• 15:43
  to 330, getting close to 3:30. I was like, how will I do this
• 15:47
  thing now? I was hoping that I'll be able
• 15:49
  to buy fuel and then rush back home in time so that I because
• 15:54
  my notes were at home, I didn't bring my notes.
• 15:57
  But as the time was going on, I just realized that Omar, I can't
• 15:59
  make this SMAV con anymore as I can't go home to do this thing
• 16:03
  like I have to run this thing in the fuel queue.
• 16:05
  I was running like that. I didn't I didn't bring my
• 16:08
  notes. Was that well, no problem.
• 16:10
  I remember Shah because, you know, it's my own specialty.
• 16:15
  So no, I'll I'll remember about everything I need to talk about.
• 16:19
  So the thing now was just to make sure that I buy fuel by
• 16:21
  that 3 3:30 as I was getting closer to like 315 three 20s.
• 16:29
  This one mumsy one Mama, she was able to get into the filling
• 16:33
  station through one of the you know how people smuggle
• 16:36
  themselves in. She smuggled herself.
• 16:38
  She now reversed and now blocked one lane on the left.
• 16:43
  Then one idiot Mallow guy was able to do the same thing and
• 16:47
  weaved his way in and he now reversed and then blocked the
• 16:49
  lane by the right. That's how all of us were now
• 16:52
  pinned inside. And then you know, the normal
• 16:56
  thing now everybody shouting blah, blah, blah, you're
• 16:58
  destroying Nigeria act your age, you know, move, let us pass
• 17:02
  everything. Absolute chaos.
• 17:03
  I said what kind of rubbish is this?
• 17:06
  I was now pinned inside this thing and it was by the time you
• 17:11
  think reached like 325I said I just pulled out my phone.
• 17:15
  I called Doctor Odugo, she didn't answer.
• 17:18
  She responded no, I'm in a session.
• 17:19
  So I sent her a message. Doctor Ojugo I beg, I beg this
• 17:23
  thing can we do 4:00? She said OK no problem that this
• 17:27
  my mother is even speaking now she's running over time.
• 17:30
  So I said OK fine no problem. I just messaged her.
• 17:34
  I said OK, no problem like don't force her to stop because it's
• 17:37
  not as if me I'm ready to come live like allow her.
• 17:40
  So Doctor Ojugo said OK no problem we'll allow her to run
• 17:42
  20 minutes. I said OK over around 20
• 17:44
  minutes. So I said OK, no problem, that
• 17:46
  gives me 350. I was hoping I would have bought
• 17:49
  by 3:50, but guys, lo and behold by 340 something I still had not
• 17:57
  bought because Mama had Pinnos in on the left and then my
• 18:01
  little guy had Pinnos in on the right.
• 18:04
  So no, no way to move. Eventually they moved above my
• 18:09
  fuel and I entered into the car. I wanted to drive front small,
• 18:16
  you know, I park somewhere quiet and then have my own session.
• 18:19
  But as I was peeling away, that's when Doctor Ojugo was now
• 18:23
  introducing me like, oh, our next speaker.
• 18:25
  Something, something, something, something.
• 18:26
  I said more it don't happen. So I just parked right in front
• 18:29
  of well, not in front of the gate hasn't appealed to the
• 18:32
  right and then parked there. And yeah, that's it.
• 18:36
  I just went live just like that, guys.
• 18:40
  I won't lie, like I'm usually cool under pressure and this
• 18:45
  time I was cool under pressure. I must admit, I, I like the way
• 18:48
  I handled the situation. I handled it smoothly, but I
• 18:51
  just the same thing I do on the podcast.
• 18:54
  You know when I apologize to you guys that there's going to be
• 18:56
  noise in the background. I just told them that, hey,
• 18:59
  look, sorry guys, microphone is not here and it's going to be
• 19:04
  very, very noisy because I had a few things to attend to.
• 19:08
  So I wasn't able to get home back to my workspace.
• 19:11
  So I'm going to be handling this session from my car.
• 19:14
  And of course, Dr. Ojugo said not a problem.
• 19:16
  Everybody said not a problem. And then we started.
• 19:19
  And of course it helps that my own set, my own style is usually
• 19:23
  interactive. I like to ask questions.
• 19:25
  I like to pull people up on stage as well.
• 19:28
  Use other people as, as a, what do you call it as a Guinea pig?
• 19:32
  Because it's one thing to go and start talking sales, business
• 19:37
  growth and be talking fury, fury, fury.
• 19:39
  I want people to see that this thing is practical, practical,
• 19:41
  practical. So I call somebody up.
• 19:43
  What is your business? What are you trying to do?
• 19:46
  What is the challenge? OK, so with AI, this is how
• 19:49
  we'll tackle it. This is how we'll solve it.
• 19:51
  We'll do it like this, we'll do it like this so that people will
• 19:53
  learn. And then of course, it yielded
• 19:55
  fruit because even people who got in touch with me after the
• 19:59
  session said that they learnt practical things that they would
• 20:02
  do immediately. To grow their businesses.
• 20:05
  In fact, there's one lady in particular who, funny enough,
• 20:08
  also is at the University of Aberdeen currently doing her
• 20:11
  studies. She said that some of the things
• 20:13
  that I said were going to help her in her academic research and
• 20:17
  that she was also going to do to improve her business.
• 20:19
  In fact, she said she was going to do it that night because I
• 20:22
  was telling people like, OK, we've gone late, it's been a
• 20:25
  long day. All these things.
• 20:26
  I'm telling you guys, if any of you reaches out, I want to hear
• 20:29
  Monday morning that this is what I did.
• 20:31
  She says, hey man, that this is good.
• 20:33
  It's gold. I'm doing it tonight for the
• 20:35
  business. So it turned out to be a
• 20:38
  wonderful session, even though I was outside the noisy filling
• 20:41
  station with people shouting, quarreling, tankers driving in
• 20:45
  out, people dashing in out area, boys trying to extort collect
• 20:50
  money, everything. And and it was fun.
• 20:54
  It turned out to be a wonderful session and still got high
• 20:57
  reviews regardless of all the extra stuff.
• 21:01
  So that was just my adventure and I guess the main learnings I
• 21:05
  took away from it is this. By the time I got home and I was
• 21:08
  giving my wife the gist, my wife was like yourself, you're the
• 21:10
  one that caused it. And I had to admit like yes,
• 21:12
  yes, it was my fault. It was my fault.
• 21:14
  She said, I told you you're cutting this thing close.
• 21:17
  And I admit it was my fault. And now I know I am never
• 21:21
  cutting things this close again. It is better to just say, OK,
• 21:25
  the fuel is here, but I've committed to SME Vcon.
• 21:28
  So let me just make them my give them my undivided attention,
• 21:32
  give them my make them a priority and let me flashy feel
• 21:36
  for today. Tomorrow I'll wake up and I'll
• 21:39
  see how I can organize feel. So yeah, yeah, it was my fault.
• 21:43
  I cut it close. And for you guys, I would
• 21:47
  recommend don't cut it close because it doesn't always work
• 21:51
  out. There are times when I'll pull
• 21:52
  these kind of moves and it has worked out.
• 21:55
  I go, I do this thing sharp, sharp.
• 21:57
  I still make it back in time for the event one hour before
• 22:00
  because typically that's what I plan for in Abuja.
• 22:04
  I plan to be ready for the event an hour before.
• 22:08
  Back when I was in Lagos, I can't remember how long I would
• 22:11
  prepare because in Lagos traffic is mad.
• 22:14
  So you actually can't plan to be there in Lagos if the event is
• 22:18
  10:00 and you plan to be there for your giving yourself like
• 22:22
  OK, let me be there for 9. You never know because you might
• 22:25
  start off and then trailer will now come and block the road.
• 22:27
  You know, Walhalla, you end up being late.
• 22:29
  So in Lagos, I give more time, but in Abuja, yeah, I plan to be
• 22:31
  available an hour before. OK, so let me just do a rough
• 22:39
  sketch about what we spoke about.
• 22:43
  OK, well, let's see. You know what?
• 22:47
  I can't remember the order in which we spoke about these
• 22:49
  things because I didn't have my notes with me at the time.
• 22:53
  So I was running through my presentation from memory and in
• 22:57
  a different order. But I have the notes about what
• 23:00
  I intended to talk about and in the order I intended to talk
• 23:03
  about it. So initially I wanted us to talk
• 23:05
  about what was AI. That part was already done.
• 23:07
  I told them that look, AI is just computer solving problems.
• 23:10
  So for the purpose of my session, I said ignore all the
• 23:13
  other fancy definitions. Just think of AI as computer
• 23:16
  solving problems because no matter the use case that we're
• 23:21
  looking at, you see that AI is just solving a problem.
• 23:24
  So for people who use AI for pattern recognition, because
• 23:28
  you're trying to prevent cancer, you know, you show AIA bunch of
• 23:33
  pictures and it figures out this one is cancer, this one is
• 23:36
  benign and you know, or what not, that is just computers
• 23:39
  solving problems. For those people who use AI for
• 23:42
  agricultural purposes, when is it going to rain?
• 23:44
  When is it not going to rain? When should I harvest?
• 23:46
  When should I not harvest? When should I plant?
• 23:48
  Where should I plant? All those sorts of things using
• 23:51
  AI pattern recognition drone technology, Where are the pests?
• 23:54
  Where are the pests going to be? All these sorts of things.
• 23:58
  It is just using computers to solve problems.
• 24:01
  Even if you want to create landing page and you don't know
• 24:04
  how to code and you want to use the AI to create your landing
• 24:06
  page or website, it is just computers solving problems.
• 24:10
  So that's why I told them, forget all the fancy
• 24:12
  definitions. Is it computer program,
• 24:14
  algorithm, whatever. Is it trying to solve a problem?
• 24:16
  OK, good, that's AI problem done.
• 24:19
  Then the second question that I wanted to tackle was how do you
• 24:22
  increase sales? And then the third question was
• 24:24
  how can you use AI to help you execute on that?
• 24:27
  So those are the main questions and the thought process that I
• 24:31
  ran them through was if you want to increase sales, basically you
• 24:34
  just need deliberate steps when it comes to sales and marketing
• 24:38
  motions. Because there are some people
• 24:40
  who want to increase sales, but who tried this tactic today, who
• 24:43
  tried this tactic tomorrow. And that is is not the best
• 24:47
  approach. You actually need to sit down
• 24:49
  and come up with something coherent and deliberate, well
• 24:54
  thought out, you know, come up with a plan and that plan has to
• 24:57
  involve prospecting, which is running out to look for people
• 24:59
  who might be interested in your product or your service.
• 25:02
  It involves having conversations with people where you analyse,
• 25:06
  where you do need analysis. You know, who is this person,
• 25:08
  what's the problem, What are they trying to solve?
• 25:10
  Can my product or my service actually even help them?
• 25:14
  Then there's a stage where you have a proposal or a
• 25:16
  presentation. You say, OK, Olga, Madam, based
• 25:19
  on what I've heard, this is how we can help you achieve this is
• 25:22
  how we can help you achieve that.
• 25:24
  If you buy my soap, it will help you, It will help your natural
• 25:28
  colour to come out, blah, blah, blah.
• 25:30
  If you buy my this, this, this, it will help you stop snoring.
• 25:34
  You know, So that's proposal stage.
• 25:36
  Then you need to learn how to close, get people to take
• 25:40
  action. And then there's also the parts
• 25:44
  afterwards, after you collect the money.
• 25:46
  That's the customer satisfaction, customer success,
• 25:49
  those functions of the business, customer service because we want
• 25:52
  to make sure everybody's happy. And the reason why those are
• 25:54
  important is because it allows us to get repeat business.
• 25:57
  It allows us to get referrals, allows us to get testimonials.
• 26:00
  And those are important because it helps more people come back
• 26:02
  into the pipeline. So bottom line is I tried to
• 26:06
  tell them that this is what we need to do for trying to grow
• 26:08
  our sales. We need to be deliberate about
• 26:10
  these sales motions and about these marketing motions,
• 26:13
  although for the purpose of time, because we only had one
• 26:16
  hour and I had already seeded 30 minutes of my session to
• 26:21
  somebody else. So really we only had about 45
• 26:25
  minutes from my own session because I need to do question
• 26:27
  and answer maybe 1515 minutes. So my focus was on prospecting
• 26:34
  and having conversations with people and that was where I
• 26:37
  pulled people up on stage basically.
• 26:39
  OK, this is your business. What are you involved in?
• 26:42
  How are we going to do prospecting?
• 26:44
  How are we going to get ideas for prospecting?
• 26:46
  How do we figure out who our ideal customer profile is and
• 26:49
  stuff like that. So the lady that I used was,
• 26:56
  well, I can't remember her name, Igbo lady, I can't remember her
• 27:00
  name, but she is a caterer, a chef in Abuja business channels,
• 27:07
  Instagram, WhatsApp, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook.
• 27:12
  And, and I'm really glad I called her because you know,
• 27:15
  she's not just a caterer like any other caterer, a chef like
• 27:18
  any other chef. But she caters to people who
• 27:22
  have, what's that word, A special, I can't remember the
• 27:27
  word, but people who have basically people who have
• 27:30
  special dietary concerns. So the aged, people with
• 27:33
  diabetes, people who have allergies, you know, stuff like
• 27:36
  that. So I was just incredibly lucky
• 27:38
  that she was the first person on the screen.
• 27:41
  And I pulled up and yeah, I was incredibly lucky that I had such
• 27:45
  a wonderful case to work with. So we're able to use Gemini and
• 27:52
  I did my screen share and we're able to run through Gemini and
• 27:57
  go through a couple of prompts and exercises to show how we can
• 28:00
  identify who the ICP for her business is.
• 28:03
  The ICP is the ideal customer profile, whoever you're supposed
• 28:06
  to be chasing after. Yeah.
• 28:08
  So that's the ICP. So we ran through it and then we
• 28:11
  came up with, you know, some really, really interesting ideas
• 28:13
  for who she could chase after. And you see that during my
• 28:17
  sessions. This is the reason why I don't
• 28:20
  come with Slide or PowerPoint or whatever because I'm coming
• 28:23
  here. I'm trying to get you guys to
• 28:25
  understand something and live and on the spot.
• 28:28
  I'm trying to use people who are here as a case study to show you
• 28:31
  guys that this is how we execute on ABC and 123, which is the
• 28:35
  reason why people can say that, oh, I saw something.
• 28:38
  I heard something that I can do this night or I can do Monday
• 28:42
  morning to move my business forward because I did this thing
• 28:46
  live and we showed how. If you are a specialty chef or a
• 28:51
  specialty caterer, how you can use ChatGPT to figure out new
• 28:55
  categories of people that you should be chasing after that you
• 28:59
  might be able to get business from there.
• 29:01
  So was very, very, very applicable, very, very
• 29:05
  practical. And people saw this thing live
• 29:07
  because I did screen share. So I walked people through the
• 29:10
  anatomy of a prompt. How are you supposed to prompt?
• 29:12
  How are you supposed to build a prompt?
• 29:15
  And we prompted AI and we got a bunch of ideas for who was
• 29:18
  supposed to chase. But because of time, I now
• 29:21
  didn't go into the whole thing about how you use specific sales
• 29:25
  tactics and motions to start chasing after these people and
• 29:28
  things like that. But main thing is using this
• 29:32
  specialty caterer who is dealing with people who have special
• 29:35
  dietary concerns, special needs when it comes to food.
• 29:40
  And I'm really, really lucky that, yeah, was such a wonderful
• 29:46
  and unique example that we could use.
• 29:49
  So, yeah. So we used to have basically
• 29:51
  figure out how to validate the figure out who your ideal
• 29:56
  customer profile is. Then for the second fellow,
• 30:02
  second fellow, what business was in?
• 30:05
  Forgive me, this is over a week ago.
• 30:08
  And since my material was not with me, usually I take notes
• 30:11
  during these things. But since my material was not
• 30:13
  with me, I was outside the filling station, I didn't make
• 30:15
  any notes. That's the reason why I can't
• 30:17
  remember names and businesses. For the second fellow, the focus
• 30:22
  was on how the kind of conversations that we need to
• 30:25
  have because the average Nigerian business person just
• 30:28
  thinks it's all about personality and it's all about
• 30:31
  flow. Like you know, you package
• 30:33
  yourself well, I look good, my skin is correct, my accent is on
• 30:38
  point, my suit is whatever, you know, I have iPhone 18, you
• 30:42
  know, my packaging is on point. So I will go there, I'll have a
• 30:45
  conversation, Everything will be fine.
• 30:47
  So I had to let them know that it's not like that.
• 30:49
  Yeah. Packaging is good.
• 30:51
  And please package yourself to the NTH degree, as in, make sure
• 30:54
  that everything on point, shoe on point, accent on point, phone
• 30:59
  on point, you know, everything on point.
• 31:01
  If you need to borrow your brother's Mercedes-Benz, no
• 31:04
  problem. Borrow it.
• 31:05
  Everything on point, you know? Yeah.
• 31:06
  So trick yourself out, do the whole thing.
• 31:10
  But when it comes to the conversation, we need to be
• 31:13
  going there with a plan. What am I going to say?
• 31:17
  In what order will I say it when we're having conversations?
• 31:21
  What are the important things that I need to hit in my in in
• 31:25
  the conversation? These are some of the things
• 31:28
  that are make or break because packaging can be on points.
• 31:31
  And then you go there where your conversation is all over the
• 31:34
  place and they will say correct girl or correct guy, but they
• 31:37
  will end up doing business with you.
• 31:39
  And this is the reason why it was because your conversations
• 31:41
  were meandering. They were not.
• 31:42
  They were not on point. So I told them about how from a
• 31:46
  sales and business development perspective, our conversations
• 31:48
  need to be qualification conversations.
• 31:51
  And what's the other word, convocation, I'm sorry,
• 31:54
  qualification and discovery. Qualification and discovery.
• 31:57
  So we're trying to do needs analysis.
• 31:59
  We're trying to figure out who this person is, what this person
• 32:01
  is about, what is it that they need, What problem are they
• 32:04
  facing? How bad is the problem?
• 32:06
  So back to this cream thing, the cream thing, if you sell cream,
• 32:13
  you know, pop or cream, pop or cream, what else?
• 32:17
  Carrot cream, you know, all these cream, that bleaching
• 32:21
  cream, although I've been told that not all of them is
• 32:23
  bleaching. Some of them is just toning.
• 32:25
  That bleaching is when you want to become yellow and that toning
• 32:28
  is when you you want your natural colour to come out.
• 32:30
  So OK, no problem. So back to the cream thing.
• 32:34
  It's not just enough that you show up with your skin looking
• 32:37
  nice and yellow and your point, your your suit looking on point
• 32:42
  and then you have the iPhone 20, whatever.
• 32:44
  So that's not just enough. You also need to be able to
• 32:46
  engage with the conversation with this woman that you haven't
• 32:49
  that you're meeting with face to face.
• 32:50
  You need to figure out about her, some stuff about her
• 32:54
  personal history, what it is that she's trying to achieve.
• 32:57
  Is it toning or is it bleaching she's trying to achieve?
• 33:00
  What other skin problems does she have?
• 33:02
  What is her skin type? Is it dry?
• 33:05
  Is it oily? Is it mixed?
• 33:08
  Because I hear that there's some people that have mixed skin that
• 33:10
  if you check their face, the face is dry.
• 33:12
  But then if you check their stomach, stomach is oily.
• 33:14
  And then if you check bom bom, you know, bom bom is dry or
• 33:17
  something. So these are the kind of
• 33:20
  conversations you need to have because this is what will make
• 33:23
  you be able to have an effective proposal or presentation.
• 33:27
  When you now know every, every about this woman and about her
• 33:29
  skin problems and her challenges, you will now be able
• 33:31
  to say, oh, Madam, normally you, I would have proposed carrot
• 33:37
  soap for you, but based on what we've discussed, you don't need
• 33:40
  this carrot thing yet. What you need is sheer butter
• 33:43
  soap. What you need is this kind of
• 33:46
  soap, bitter leaf soap or whatever, which will work on
• 33:49
  this and this and this aspect of your skin and will help you
• 33:52
  repair this, repair this and do this and do this.
• 33:54
  After we do this regimen for a purpose for for like 8 months
• 34:01
  and we now restore your skin to something, something pH, then we
• 34:05
  can now go to purple soap and carrot soap.
• 34:09
  So you see that this is how you now close the sale.
• 34:11
  The conversation that you're having, there's certain things
• 34:14
  that you need to be hitting in the conversation to figure out
• 34:17
  about the person and to figure out about the problem that
• 34:21
  they're facing. And with that, you now know how
• 34:24
  to make an effective presentation.
• 34:26
  Now, how AI comes into this is especially if you're new into
• 34:29
  the business, sometimes you don't know what kind of question
• 34:32
  to ask. And believe me, I've been in
• 34:34
  that situation before in Nigeria, we have this thing in
• 34:39
  law because I started off in my professional background, was in
• 34:42
  law, my first degree. Unfortunately, it's a tradition.
• 34:47
  It used to be a tradition. I don't know if they continue
• 34:48
  where yoga in the law firm would just put you in one situation
• 34:52
  like that and just remove himself and then you're on your
• 34:55
  own. The problem is yoga will not
• 34:57
  tell you when this thing is supposed to happen.
• 34:59
  You just show up. You're supposed to meet with
• 35:01
  Alhaji. So, so, so and you're there at
• 35:04
  the meeting and then your guy says, oh, sorry, Alhaji, I have
• 35:08
  to do so, so, so and so and so and so, but my junior colleague
• 35:11
  is here, Tavi Schumer. Tavi Schumer will handle the
• 35:13
  meeting and then your guy will not stand up and leave.
• 35:15
  And then you're thinking like, like, what kind of madness is
• 35:18
  this? So anyway, it happens a lot in
• 35:21
  in the legal used to happen in legal profession.
• 35:25
  I don't know if people still do that thing now.
• 35:27
  If it happened to me in Court One day, you know, I went to
• 35:29
  cope with my Olga and then, you know, before you know it, my,
• 35:35
  my, my old girl. What did he even do himself?
• 35:38
  I can't remember if he left, but sharp, I was the one who was
• 35:42
  standing up and I was the one who had to make the motion and
• 35:46
  was really, really scary. So there are these situations
• 35:48
  where you're face to face with the client or potential customer
• 35:52
  and you have no idea. Like, how am I supposed to carry
• 35:56
  out this conversation? No, ChatGPT is usually is a
• 36:00
  Gemini and all these tools are very, very helpful because you
• 36:03
  can run a small prompt before the meeting saying that I'm
• 36:06
  supposed to meet with Alhaji. So so, so and so Alhaji is in
• 36:09
  this business, blah, blah, blah. I'm a new first time lawyer.
• 36:12
  I haven't handled any cases. What kind of questions and what
• 36:16
  kind of issues should we be discussing about in this meeting
• 36:19
  so that it's a productive meeting and I can help solve
• 36:22
  Alhaji so so and so's problem. And then you see it sent and
• 36:26
  ChatGPT will say, OK, based on everything you've said so far,
• 36:30
  Al Haji, so so and so is involved in these sorts of
• 36:32
  businesses. You, you're a lawyer.
• 36:34
  So from the legal end, you should be asking questions about
• 36:36
  123456 about Al Haji's business. You should be asking questions
• 36:40
  about ABC and blah, blah, blah. And just in case ask questions
• 36:44
  about this and this and that. So you can see now that if
• 36:47
  you're going into this meeting, having used AI to come up with
• 36:51
  some conversation points, likely issues to anticipate, you know,
• 36:56
  things like that for your needs analysis stage, for your
• 37:00
  qualification and discovery stage, you can see that you have
• 37:02
  a fruitful conversation because you go there and you say, oh,
• 37:06
  Alhaji, nice to meet you, blah, blah, blah.
• 37:08
  You know, small talk everything. How is business?
• 37:11
  How is the family? And then you'll be able to go
• 37:12
  through and start having constructive conversations that
• 37:15
  OK, Alhaji, because you're involved in so, so, so and so my
• 37:18
  guess is that you do this, you do this, you do that.
• 37:20
  Is that correct? Alhaji will say, Oh yes,
• 37:22
  actually it's correct. As a matter of fact, not only is
• 37:25
  this one correct, but this is where we've been having this
• 37:27
  problem on this, this problem on that.
• 37:29
  Because you've done some research on Gemini ahead of
• 37:33
  time, you have an idea of an also also because you are the
• 37:40
  professional and I always point this out to everybody, we cannot
• 37:44
  allow charge EPT to do the thinking for us.
• 37:47
  We have to be the subject matter expert.
• 37:52
  If you do not know your law, if you did not go to uni and pass
• 37:58
  very well and study and you're expecting charity to think for
• 38:01
  you, you will go there without meeting Al Haji and you will
• 38:04
  just embarrass yourself. You show that you're asking
• 38:06
  questions that are irrelevant. But if you are the subject
• 38:09
  matter expert, you did your studying, you know well, you
• 38:14
  passed your whatever, well, you take your legal career
• 38:16
  seriously, you'll be able to know that, OK, even though
• 38:20
  ChatGPT recommended questions on 456, because you're the subject
• 38:23
  matter professional, you will know that, OK, questions 4-5 and
• 38:26
  six do not apply. Let me not ask it, but instead
• 38:30
  let me drill down on questions 1-2 and three.
• 38:33
  So this is how you can use ChatGPT Gemini.
• 38:38
  What else? All the different tools there to
• 38:40
  make sure that you have good conversation points heading into
• 38:45
  these meetings. So that was what I did with the
• 38:48
  second person's business. After that, we wrapped it up so
• 38:52
  we could do some question and answer people.
• 38:56
  I think there was only just one question.
• 38:58
  So the rest of it was me just pulling people up on stage
• 39:00
  saying, OK, so based on what we've discussed so far, how are
• 39:04
  you going to apply this to your business?
• 39:05
  And then they'll say this and I say, OK, yeah, no problem, that
• 39:08
  works, but then tweak it. Try this instead.
• 39:09
  Try that instead. And that's how we rolled out the
• 39:12
  session and everybody had fun and I got the digital equivalent
• 39:17
  of a standing ovation, which was really, really nice.
• 39:20
  But I am never going to do this again.
• 39:23
  I'll never cut things this close again.
• 39:25
  And I'm glad that everything ended up well.
• 39:29
  Which also goes to show why you should be the subject matter
• 39:33
  expert of what it is that you do.
• 39:36
  If you take your craft seriously and you try to be the subject
• 39:39
  matter expert, then you can handle all kinds of things that
• 39:43
  come your way. When I was in Kano, because
• 39:48
  that's why I did my NYSE, my friend was a medical doctor, one
• 39:51
  of these, she was one of these very, very brainy types.
• 39:53
  And she ended up being in charge of the hospital.
• 39:55
  And one day I came to come and see her and say what's up?
• 39:59
  And that day they just happened to be emergency after emergency.
• 40:03
  And I was impressed seeing how this babe was just doing triage.
• 40:06
  As in life and in the field, you know, things that you normally
• 40:11
  have to wheel somebody into surgery, but it looks like this
• 40:14
  person is going to die now. The way she handled herself,
• 40:17
  cool, calm, under pressure. So all the emergencies that day,
• 40:20
  nobody died. There was not enough time to
• 40:22
  wheel people into surgery. She was even able to patch up 1
• 40:26
  old man Sharp Sharp, who came up with a catheter and so that the
• 40:30
  family could take him to the bigger hospital in town.
• 40:36
  And later on, she admitted that she was really, really, really
• 40:40
  nervous because it was overwhelming.
• 40:42
  Like she didn't have to deal with those sorts of like she had
• 40:45
  never been in that situation where you bring somebody in, it
• 40:49
  looks like this person is close to death.
• 40:51
  You bring another person, this person is like another
• 40:53
  complication, you know, like four or five.
• 40:55
  And then it didn't help that I was also there when all these
• 40:59
  things happened. But because she was the expert,
• 41:01
  she turned out to be fine. So subject matter expertise,
• 41:04
  very, very, very important. So you guys should be paying
• 41:07
  attention to that. Whether you're a medical doctor,
• 41:10
  whether you're a lawyer, or whether you sell beauty
• 41:14
  products, you have to be the subject matter expert.
• 41:17
  It has a great deal of it, tells a great deal on how we conduct
• 41:21
  our businesses. So we're close to 45 minutes.
• 41:24
  Let me just bring this episode to a close.
• 41:26
  That is how SME Vcon 2024 turned out.
• 41:29
  SME 20. SME Vcon 2025 is also going to
• 41:33
  be great, and if you're going to attend that session, don't
• 41:37
  worry, I'm not going to be in a filling station.
• 41:39
  I will be at my desk, everything will be nice and cool.
• 41:41
  I'll be all miked up and we'll have a wonderful session, but my
• 41:46
  approach is still going to be the same.
• 41:48
  If you're there at any of my sessions, I'm going to be
• 41:50
  calling people up from the stage.
• 41:53
  The way that I do this thing is if we're live and on stage, I
• 41:56
  just pick whoever catches my fancy.
• 41:57
  So try not to look too handsome or too beautiful on that day.
• 42:00
  If you look extremely beautiful, I'm going to call you up.
• 42:02
  If you look extremely handsome and well together, I'm going to
• 42:04
  pull you up. Even if you don't look handsome
• 42:06
  or beautiful, but you look kind of interesting, I will pull you
• 42:09
  up. If it's going to be an online
• 42:11
  session, I just start with whoever's name is on top of the
• 42:14
  screen and then I work my way down.
• 42:16
  So if your name starts with a A, then most likely you're going to
• 42:20
  be called because your name is going to be top on the screen, I
• 42:23
  think. I'm not sure if it's depends on
• 42:26
  people's names or depends on who signs in first.
• 42:29
  So, yeah, so that those are things to expect.
• 42:32
  Then if it's going to be a smaller engagement where your
• 42:35
  guy calls me in to work with your company and you guys are a
• 42:38
  small company, then best believe I'm going to call every single
• 42:41
  one of you. So if it's a team of maybe four
• 42:43
  or five people, then whether you like to talk or whether you
• 42:46
  don't like to talk, so long as we're there, we're live and it's
• 42:49
  me, I'm going to call everybody. So you all are going to answer
• 42:52
  questions and we all are going to come up with ways for how
• 42:55
  these theories and these ideas we're discussing how we can use
• 42:59
  it practically now, now, now or tomorrow morning, 8:00 AM when
• 43:03
  we resume work to move the business forward or to solve
• 43:07
  these particular problems. So looking forward to meeting
• 43:12
  you guys. Shout out to OK K Kasimir, let's
• 43:17
  see what else. Thanks for reaching out.
• 43:20
  Look forward to hearing from you guys more.
• 43:22
  For those of you who intend so, I attend any of my events,
• 43:25
  virtual, physical, These are the sorts of things to expect.
• 43:29
  So connect with me on WhatsApp, the phone number is 08064662140
• 43:37
  and the country code is +234. Then connect with me on
• 43:41
  LinkedIn. That's the best social network
• 43:44
  for career business development, personal development, all those
• 43:48
  sorts of things. The name to search for is Tave
• 43:50
  Shima aide. I'm the host of the show.
• 43:52
  You can confirm the correct spelling of my name from the
• 43:55
  link where listening to this episode.
• 43:56
  So if you're listening to this thing on YouTube, if you just
• 43:59
  tap up to to the profile, you see the correct spelling of my
• 44:05
  name there so you can search for the right person.
• 44:07
  So thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 44:08
  Oh, I'm sorry for the long episode.
• 44:10
  Just because I had to give you guys the the gist.
• 44:12
  The background story above my James Bond moves before SME
• 44:17
  Vcon. So thanks for your time and
• 44:19
  attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 44:20
  episode.