Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Why You Already Have a Brand (And How It Helps You Sell)

Transcript

Why You Already Have a Brand (And How It Helps You Sell) · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayede.
• 0:04
  I solve sales and marketing challenges and I'm making
• 0:07
  today's broadcast recording outside church, so expect to
• 0:11
  hear some interruptions in the background.
• 0:13
  My children are here for Cat kiss and classes, so I figured
• 0:16
  let me just make a podcast recording while I'm waiting for
• 0:18
  them. Now, the goal of this podcast is
• 0:21
  not to talk about my kids and church, but we're here to talk
• 0:25
  about business education. So please spread the word so
• 0:28
  that your friends and family members in Nigeria and abroad
• 0:30
  can benefit from the questions that we tackle.
• 0:33
  They can do that by subscribing on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or
• 0:37
  any player of their choice. And if you'd love to connect
• 0:40
  with me, you can call, you can SMS, you can WhatsApp me on
• 0:43
  08064662140. Now today on the podcast, I
• 0:49
  would like to talk about branding.
• 0:52
  It's not something I talk about much of the time because tons of
• 0:56
  people already talk about branding.
• 0:58
  Everywhere you look, there's a podcast about branding, there's
• 1:02
  what else, blog posts about branding, all kinds of things
• 1:06
  about branding. So that's the reason why I don't
• 1:08
  talk about it. However, branding is important
• 1:11
  and I'm going to bring it up again because I think from
• 1:15
  yesterday's podcast episode and the others that we did before,
• 1:18
  you know, we've been talking about familiarity, emotional
• 1:20
  connection, you know, all those kinds of things.
• 1:22
  And so I guess I'll just have to bring up branding again because
• 1:28
  these kinds of things like branding that facilitate an
• 1:30
  emotional connection makes it easier to have a sales
• 1:34
  conversation later on. So for those of you who have
• 1:38
  established strong brands or who are in the process of
• 1:40
  establishing strong brands, you'll be able to appreciate
• 1:43
  what it is that I'm talking about.
• 1:45
  Like back in the wedding photography space, you know,
• 1:47
  when I started off, you know, after a while, somebody would
• 1:50
  run into me. I'm like, oh, you are idiot,
• 1:52
  you're that guy. And like, yeah, that's me.
• 1:54
  So that kind of thing, you know, when you start having a brand,
• 1:56
  start having a reputation, it makes things easier.
• 1:59
  You get into some places and people like, oh, so that was
• 2:01
  you. You're that guy or you're that
• 2:03
  babe. And you know, it helps.
• 2:06
  So it's not a bad idea of it's not a bad idea to discuss
• 2:11
  branding, to talk, to bring up a few ideas about branding since
• 2:15
  yesterday and the episodes before, we're looking at how to
• 2:19
  create emotional resonance with potential clients, potential
• 2:22
  customers. Now instead of trying to educate
• 2:27
  you guys about branding, I just want to restate or rather repeat
• 2:31
  some things that I've been saying about branding time and
• 2:33
  time again. Because whenever people hear
• 2:36
  branding, their mind goes straight to packaging.
• 2:40
  You know, now as in I don't have to explain it, You know, like in
• 2:43
  Lagos, back when I was in Lagos existing, you know, people used
• 2:45
  to say packaging, packaging. And you know, even in Abuja,
• 2:48
  some people still talk about packaging.
• 2:50
  So when you hear Brandon, everybody's thinking about how
• 2:52
  you package the whole enterprise before you begin.
• 2:56
  So I just want to bring up some thoughts just to let you guys
• 3:00
  know that, you know, you packaging, packaging people,
• 3:03
  sometimes you guys are thinking too hard or thinking too fast,
• 3:08
  you know, just you need to slow down and pay attention to the
• 3:11
  most important things first. So some things to remember about
• 3:15
  branding or rather some things to consider about branding,
• 3:19
  especially those of you in the packaging school, you know, you
• 3:21
  want to package everything well, get the logo to look on point,
• 3:25
  get the cutters, get everything, the website, the embossed
• 3:31
  brochures, everything you want to package yourself die.
• 3:34
  Now, it's not a bad idea. It's a good idea, especially if
• 3:37
  you can afford it. You know, it helps, but one
• 3:40
  thing to remember is that branding is not just logos and
• 3:43
  colors and images and brochures and glossy pamphlets.
• 3:47
  And you know, all of that is cool.
• 3:50
  And if you can afford it, by all means, please go ahead and
• 3:53
  package on point as in package to the death before you start if
• 3:58
  you can afford it. It's just that lots of people
• 4:01
  are not in the situation where they're going to be able to pay,
• 4:04
  you know, 300K for websites and then another 304100K maybe for
• 4:09
  logo design and then give the lawyer another like 300400K to
• 4:13
  register business. You know, the average person is
• 4:16
  knowing that in that space or in that Peace of Mind that, you
• 4:19
  know, they just drop one M and they haven't even started
• 4:21
  anything yet. That one M is just packaging,
• 4:25
  just laying the land. So branding is not just logos.
• 4:31
  Branding is not just colors, branding is not just images.
• 4:34
  Branding is the subtotal. Everything all joined, all the
• 4:39
  promises that you make to customers, the customer
• 4:41
  experience, the user experience, the things that people go
• 4:45
  through. You know, when they do business
• 4:47
  with you, when they interact with your business, interact
• 4:49
  with your employees, interact with you, everything all joined
• 4:52
  together. That is what is called branding.
• 4:58
  So in a sense that is the reason why I can say confidently that I
• 5:02
  have a brand even though I have not done any packaging.
• 5:05
  If you look for websites for me, you won't see gang.
• 5:08
  I don't have websites. If you look for fancy office
• 5:13
  address with you know, Italian leather couches and you know, on
• 5:18
  it wooden floor something something something like you
• 5:20
  will see sushi. You will see none of that for
• 5:23
  me. But I can confidently say that I
• 5:27
  have a brand because even though I have no logo, even though I
• 5:32
  have no company colors, I mean, of course, I've registered the,
• 5:35
  the, the company name. And to be honest, the people
• 5:39
  that do business with me, they don't even ask me about company
• 5:41
  name. It's only when it comes to
• 5:43
  transferring money, they now say that, oh, OK, company name is
• 5:46
  different from my own name. That's at the stage that people
• 5:48
  even realize that I have a company.
• 5:51
  But so far nobody has said what's your company name?
• 5:54
  So, oh, by the way, but if you want to do business on a like a
• 6:00
  national level, like you want to deal with state government,
• 6:03
  federal government, stuff like that, then yeah, all these
• 6:05
  things are very, very important. Make sure you have your company
• 6:08
  name, your tax identification number, your every, every, all
• 6:11
  of those things will be necessary.
• 6:12
  And then if you're going to do work with international NGOs,
• 6:15
  you also need all of that to be on point.
• 6:18
  But what I'm just trying to say is that even people like me that
• 6:22
  have not done the requisite packaging, we can still see we
• 6:26
  have a brand and people can still say I have a brand.
• 6:30
  In fact, there's some people who say, oh boy, that your brand is
• 6:33
  on point, even though, as in that's what they tell me, even
• 6:37
  though I don't have any of these other things.
• 6:39
  It's because I'm paying attention to the subtotal,
• 6:42
  disarm the everything all together.
• 6:46
  When I'm on the phone, what's the interaction like?
• 6:50
  How do people feel me? When we're on the Zoom session,
• 6:55
  how do people feel me? If it's one-on-one meeting in
• 6:58
  the public space or I'm going to somebody's office, how do they
• 7:01
  feel me? Everything all joined together,
• 7:04
  how do they feel me? That's the beginning of my
• 7:08
  brand. That's the beginning of my
• 7:10
  reputation. That's the beginning of my
• 7:11
  whatever it is that you want to call it.
• 7:14
  So the same thing too for you getting ready to go into
• 7:17
  business. Just realize that because you
• 7:20
  don't have one M to drop first for logo, for color, for
• 7:25
  brochure, for websites, for everything.
• 7:28
  Don't worry, you still have a brand and if you're paying
• 7:32
  attention to doing you know the fundamentals of good business,
• 7:36
  you are the beginning of crafting a very powerful brand.
• 7:39
  But don't worry, everything is step by step.
• 7:42
  So branding is more than just logos.
• 7:47
  Branding is more than just colors.
• 7:48
  Branding is more than just glossy brochures.
• 7:53
  Those are the first things a lot of us think about.
• 7:55
  But that's, that's because a lot of us have grown up with
• 7:58
  multinational corporations who have huge marketing budgets.
• 8:01
  And you know, I'm a seven, sorry, not 70s.
• 8:04
  I'm an 80s baby, early 80s baby. So for us, I almost said
• 8:09
  whenever people said brand, what they meant was like Coca-Cola
• 8:15
  later on, like Dell, what else? Then maybe like Shell, Shell,
• 8:20
  Petroleum, BP, you know, all those big, big, big, big
• 8:24
  multinational, multinational corporations.
• 8:30
  So during my set, you know, that's what people meant when
• 8:32
  they were saying brand, brand, brand.
• 8:33
  So in primary school back in those days, excuse me, whenever
• 8:37
  you hear sorry. So back in primary school in
• 8:41
  those days, whenever you hear brand, those are the kind of
• 8:43
  things that we were talking about.
• 8:44
  So because of that, you know, my own set, people of a certain
• 8:48
  age, when we hear brand, that's what we think.
• 8:51
  Brand, Nike, Coca-Cola, Apple Shell, BP, Total Energies,
• 9:01
  Christian Dior, you know, big, big, big, big, big.
• 9:04
  But don't worry, even though you're not at that level yet,
• 9:08
  you still have a brand. Sorry.
• 9:11
  Then let's see what else? OK, Business name.
• 9:14
  Also something else that people talk about, people agonize over
• 9:17
  when it comes to this whole thing about brand.
• 9:20
  And especially now that I've been doing consulting for a
• 9:23
  while, it will surprise you how you talk to somebody in January.
• 9:28
  They they they're working on the brand.
• 9:30
  They're coming up with a name, coming up with logo.
• 9:33
  You jammed the person again in March, In April.
• 9:35
  So boy, how far now? Yeah, I'm still on it.
• 9:36
  We're still working on the brand as in you in January, you said
• 9:42
  you're on it. In April you say you're still
• 9:45
  working on the brand. Like what the hell are you
• 9:47
  doing? You're wasting time.
• 9:50
  Business. Business compounds upon itself.
• 9:54
  Business progress compounds upon itself.
• 9:56
  If you manage to make one customer in January, maybe
• 9:59
  February, you didn't get another customer.
• 10:01
  There may be in March or April you, you got 33 customers.
• 10:04
  Like you're beginning to compound upon progress rather
• 10:07
  than saying 2025, my best year, something I will blow.
• 10:12
  Whatever, whatever, whatever. Working on the brand,
• 10:14
  strategizing coming soon and they see you again in April.
• 10:18
  Still strategizing, still coming soon.
• 10:20
  Still in the cooler, still in the works, still brainstorming.
• 10:25
  So when it comes to brand name or business name, honestly,
• 10:29
  don't let this thing hold you down.
• 10:31
  Don't waste too much time at this stage.
• 10:33
  Pick any name you like or pick a name that is descriptive of what
• 10:39
  you do like. Take for instance my podcast.
• 10:41
  It is sales for the Nigerian business person that is the most
• 10:45
  unsexiest podcast name ever. But The thing is, it is very
• 10:50
  descriptive. And those of you who are looking
• 10:53
  for something in that light, when you found me on Spotify or
• 10:56
  you found me on YouTube, you were glad because the name was
• 11:00
  very prescriptive. Prescriptive die.
• 11:02
  You understood straight exactly what I was trying to do.
• 11:07
  Now, even though that name is not sexy, The thing is, at least
• 11:12
  I'm gaining traction now validating the idea now that
• 11:15
  people are looking for this kind of content and they want this
• 11:17
  kind of guidance in the future. I can always change and maybe
• 11:22
  call my show, you know, you know, tantalizing Tavi Shima or
• 11:27
  chilling with Tavi or conversations with Tavi or
• 11:29
  whatever. I can always change the name,
• 11:32
  but for now just pick any name and get started any you can
• 11:38
  change it in the future. So the focus now just to
• 11:45
  validate the business idea. Validating the business idea
• 11:49
  just means you're trying to do one or two things to figure out
• 11:52
  if there's a demand for this product or for this service.
• 11:55
  Do people even want this thing When they want it and you're
• 11:59
  gaining some traction, then you know, you can always change your
• 12:04
  name. And for those of you who like
• 12:07
  reading autobiographies and stuff like that, you'd be
• 12:09
  surprised that all these, you know, your favorite corporation,
• 12:13
  pick your favorite brand. You'd be surprised that that was
• 12:15
  not always their name. They started as one name and
• 12:20
  they changed later on. In fact, the one that is coming
• 12:22
  to my mind right now is Nokia, because I was watching.
• 12:26
  I was listening to a program where they were interviewing the
• 12:31
  orgas at Nokia and they were talking about how their company
• 12:35
  has gone through several iterations.
• 12:37
  So Nokia, they started off in woodworks, you know, carpentry,
• 12:40
  then later on, what was it? Construction and then, you know,
• 12:44
  on and on into mobile telephony. And then now what do they do
• 12:50
  now? Now Nokia owns the mobile
• 12:53
  infrastructure that is behind GSM.
• 12:58
  So yes, Nokia don't make phones anymore, but a lot of the
• 13:02
  technology and a lot of the companies that make it possible
• 13:05
  for us to use mobile phones, you know, Nokia still owns them.
• 13:08
  So that's an example about how companies change names and how
• 13:14
  they change focus and how they iterate and they grow underwater
• 13:17
  over time. So those of you who are thinking
• 13:19
  this thing, you are overthinking it.
• 13:21
  A name is important, but it's not as important as you think.
• 13:26
  By the way, use common sense. So if you're a Baker and you
• 13:30
  named your company after poop, then of course you know that you
• 13:33
  are shooting yourself in the foot because it's something
• 13:35
  somebody will eat. So make sure you use some common
• 13:38
  sense. So the bottom line, what I'm
• 13:40
  saying is don't waste time at this stage.
• 13:44
  Pick something, if you can't think of anything, pick any name
• 13:47
  that is descriptive and then just go try and validate this
• 13:51
  idea. Then another thing that people
• 13:54
  waste time on when it comes to branding.
• 13:57
  They worry about whether you name the company over about
• 13:59
  yourself. Sorry, name the company with
• 14:01
  your name or not and you're wasting too much damn time over
• 14:05
  this. I tell people all the time, it
• 14:08
  doesn't matter whether you name the company after you or
• 14:11
  something else, what matters is your aspirations.
• 14:15
  Because some people, some Nigerians think if you name your
• 14:18
  company Chukudi, Ogadenbe and Sons, that means that your
• 14:22
  company will never blow. It doesn't mean if you name your
• 14:27
  company Chukudi Ogadenbe and Sons, but you have international
• 14:30
  aspirations and you do fundamentally good business.
• 14:34
  Excuse me, your business will blow even with that name.
• 14:39
  So don't worry too much If I used to get flag for this,
• 14:41
  because for my photography company, my brother and I,
• 14:45
  because of course, we're family now.
• 14:46
  So we named it Ayede Film and Photography, also something we
• 14:49
  used to get flag for. Now how you name your company,
• 14:51
  that kind of name that isn't all local.
• 14:56
  It's not about the name, it's about your business aspirations.
• 14:59
  So I say it a lot and I'm going to say it again.
• 15:03
  We have international businesses that are built on the names of
• 15:06
  specific people, but they had very huge international
• 15:10
  aspirations and right now people don't care that it's named after
• 15:14
  them. One example, Walt Disney, me and
• 15:17
  my kids, we enjoy Disney movies. The company is named after one
• 15:21
  person, one man. Dangote.
• 15:26
  The business is not named after his family.
• 15:28
  It's named after him. One man international business.
• 15:32
  For those of you who are movie buffs, Warner Brothers, they did
• 15:35
  the same thing that my brother and I did, do I In business.
• 15:38
  What should we name this company?
• 15:40
  Our surname is Warner. Oh, yeah, we are Warner
• 15:42
  Brothers. It was that simple.
• 15:47
  But they are in the international movie production
• 15:50
  and distribution business, even though those companies were
• 15:54
  named after specific individuals.
• 15:57
  In fact, in these cases, Brothers, then plenty.
• 16:01
  Lehman Brothers. If you want to enter the fashion
• 16:04
  scene again, there's plenty. Tommy Hilfiger isn't that one
• 16:10
  man Christian duo. He's not one person.
• 16:15
  So it's not about whether he named.
• 16:16
  So look, if you want to start your business, I want to call it
• 16:19
  Chukudi Oga Digby and Sons or Chukudi Oga Digby and Daughters.
• 16:22
  It's fine. Is your aspirations are
• 16:25
  important. Don't worry too much about that.
• 16:32
  Sony is in our family name. And then let me go and confirm
• 16:35
  that ourself. Let me not give you guys, I'm
• 16:37
  going to give you guys an incomplete gist, so don't worry
• 16:42
  too much. Conversely, there are some
• 16:46
  people who now name their business with the big sounding
• 16:51
  international name thinking that that's what will help you blow.
• 16:53
  But unfortunately that's not the case and this is one example.
• 16:57
  In Lagos, there is Laura and Laurel International School.
• 17:00
  In Lagos, meanwhile, there is only one campus of that school,
• 17:07
  somewhere close to Auba, even though the name is on point,
• 17:11
  Laura and Laurel International School, but the school, no
• 17:14
  international, nothing. So don't worry too much if you
• 17:19
  want to name after yourself, if you want to name it after your
• 17:22
  mother, you want to name it after your father, you want to
• 17:25
  name it after your children. Like don't just go ahead, pick a
• 17:29
  name, start. It's all about your aspirations.
• 17:32
  Validate the business idea, make sure that you build, do good
• 17:38
  foundational business around it and you'll be fine.
• 17:42
  Then logo and identity. This is also something that you
• 17:45
  used to waste people's time. So logo and visual identity,
• 17:49
  yes, logo, color palette, typography, which kind of fonts
• 17:53
  are we going to use? Imagery, visual style, you know,
• 17:57
  everything. Let's have a consistent look,
• 18:00
  you know, let the website blend with the Instagram, blend with
• 18:04
  the everything. So yes, oh, my children are
• 18:08
  trying to scare me. Sorry, 1 moment.
• 18:13
  OK, sorry about that. My children just finished their
• 18:15
  classes. So they were trying to scare me.
• 18:17
  I don't know why they're always, they're always trying to scare
• 18:20
  me, you know, run up and jump and shout and things like that.
• 18:22
  And I keep telling them that look, you can't, you can't scare
• 18:26
  me. I mean, you're not creative
• 18:27
  enough, you're not imaginative enough.
• 18:29
  And to be honest, the children scare me when they keep quiet,
• 18:31
  when I'm in the house and I don't hear them.
• 18:33
  And I wonder like, like what the hell is going on?
• 18:35
  Why are they quiet? Normally this whole house should
• 18:37
  be shaking, but this one that they're quiet.
• 18:39
  That is what scares me now when they run around, I make noise.
• 18:44
  Anyway, I was there, so I'll be logo, right?
• 18:48
  I have visual identity. Yeah.
• 18:50
  So lots of people who waste time on this stage, but this is my
• 18:53
  own opinion at the beginning of the business, except if you're a
• 18:57
  style stylista fashionista from the beginning, you know, because
• 19:00
  some people are just sophisticated like that, like
• 19:02
  they come out of the womb and they understand packaging and
• 19:05
  how everything should be arranged.
• 19:07
  You know, if you're not one of those types, don't waste your
• 19:11
  time at this stage because you don't know enough yet about your
• 19:14
  customer base, about the other stakeholders in the market,
• 19:17
  about how your marketing, what your marketing positioning is
• 19:20
  going to be and all these sorts of things.
• 19:22
  Because sorry, 1 moment. OK, sorry about that.
• 19:27
  What's my kids again? I guess I should be wrapping up
• 19:29
  these things so that we just, we just move.
• 19:31
  So I was saying that basically this whole thing of visual
• 19:37
  identity and making sure everything is cohesive and all
• 19:40
  that. Don't worry about it too much in
• 19:41
  the beginning because you don't know enough yet about your
• 19:44
  customers because there are lots of things you will meet in front
• 19:47
  that will now determine what your brand will be, that will,
• 19:52
  you know, determine the evolution of your brand.
• 19:54
  And quite frankly, you don't know enough about that yet.
• 19:58
  For those of you who like, you know, reading business history
• 20:00
  books and everything, just want to pick any book on the
• 20:01
  evolution of Coca Cola's brand, you will see how the thing has
• 20:05
  changed. Or over time, as you're going
• 20:09
  front, breaking new markets, breaking new borders, meeting
• 20:12
  new customers, things change. So you don't know enough about
• 20:20
  these sorts of things yet? Because there are some of you
• 20:23
  who are getting into business and you want to project
• 20:25
  something, really something how I put it, imposing and
• 20:32
  professional. Like you want your brand to be
• 20:34
  very BAM, you know, like IBM, you know, very corporate
• 20:39
  sounding kind of brand. But meanwhile you are very, very
• 20:43
  playful kind of somebody. And the company cultures are all
• 20:46
  of you are very cool, all of you are very relaxed.
• 20:50
  You're creating some sort of incongruence between what you're
• 20:54
  trying to project and what you people really are.
• 20:57
  So that's why I say in the beginning, just like relax,
• 20:59
  first, start this business based on what your customers are
• 21:03
  telling you, based on what other people are telling you, based on
• 21:06
  the vibe that all of you are feeling as you are working
• 21:09
  together, you will now know, OK, you know, what our brand is this
• 21:12
  our brand is that. It's not a good idea in my own
• 21:16
  opinion. Or like I said, if you want
• 21:19
  those people who understand these things intuitively, then
• 21:21
  yes, from they won't design everything.
• 21:24
  But for everybody else, just start first based on how you're
• 21:31
  interacting with people. That's how you will now know,
• 21:33
  OK, what is visual? What's our visual identity?
• 21:42
  What's everything going to look like?
• 21:44
  It's the same thing with brand messaging and brand voice.
• 21:47
  People worry too much about brand messes and brand voice.
• 21:49
  Like relax first, relax, relax. You don't know whether you're
• 21:53
  going to be extremely formal or you don't know whether you're
• 21:56
  going to be playful and witty. You don't know whether you're
• 21:58
  going to be authoritative. You don't know whether you're
• 22:00
  going to be friendly. Like you don't know yet going to
• 22:03
  the business 1st and then you'll know because there's some people
• 22:06
  who are very playful in real life, but then when it's time
• 22:09
  for business, they're like, OK, this is business now.
• 22:13
  This is as in business is business.
• 22:15
  It's not until you finish doing business with them and you see
• 22:19
  them after hours, you now realize that oh OK, this guy's
• 22:22
  pretty chill or this baby's pretty chill.
• 22:25
  So do the business first. Just be going be interacting
• 22:30
  with people. Continue to try and sell,
• 22:32
  continue to try and move your market.
• 22:34
  You will now get feeds fields, You now get feeders from people
• 22:39
  out there in the marketplace they're interacting with and you
• 22:41
  will now know that oh, OK, you know what?
• 22:45
  As a brand or as a company, as a business, we are high touch or
• 22:49
  we are low key, or we're low maintenance, or we're playful or
• 22:53
  we're serious or professional. Well, authoritative.
• 22:56
  Don't worry about all these things yet.
• 23:00
  It's how you interact with the customers, the customer
• 23:04
  experience, the user experience. These are the things that will
• 23:06
  tell you authentically what your brand messaging and what your
• 23:10
  brand voice is. But why is branding important?
• 23:15
  Let me wrap up on that because, OK, I don't think I went to do
• 23:20
  that. OK, let me just wrap up on that.
• 23:21
  Look, branding is important. Yes, because the challenge now,
• 23:26
  since the challenge now is that business is commodified.
• 23:33
  If you're a painter, you're not the only painter in your local
• 23:35
  government. If you're a musician, you're not
• 23:38
  the only musician in in your area.
• 23:41
  Even if you're a hired killer, you're not the only hired killer
• 23:43
  in that place. If you're a business consultant,
• 23:47
  you're not the only business consultant on your street.
• 23:50
  If you're a wedding photographer, you're not the
• 23:52
  only wedding photographer in the local government.
• 23:54
  So 1 moment. OK, let me just wrap up.
• 23:59
  It's like the kids want us to leave.
• 24:00
  So branding is important just because you know, there's
• 24:03
  commodification going on. There's competition all over the
• 24:05
  place. You have to differentiate
• 24:06
  yourself. People have to see that, OK,
• 24:08
  this guy is different from this guy.
• 24:09
  This baby is different from this baby.
• 24:10
  And that's the reason why, so I am not the only sales trainer,
• 24:14
  I'm not the only business development consultant that you
• 24:16
  know, but you clearly can see that there's a difference
• 24:19
  between me and the next guy and the next guy and the next babe.
• 24:23
  All of us are different. And this is the reason why
• 24:25
  branding is important. It helps to differentiate all of
• 24:28
  us in the market. Then it also helps with
• 24:31
  recognition and recall. They say, oh, now you be this.
• 24:36
  OK, you're that guy. It makes it easier.
• 24:39
  You're right, babe. It makes it easier.
• 24:41
  Oh, my cousin Shinaya, she was speaking about so, so, so, so
• 24:44
  and so, so that is your company. These things make it easy.
• 24:48
  Oh, I've seen those guys before. I've seen these girls before.
• 24:52
  Recognition and recall makes it easier to do business.
• 24:55
  Then also trust and credibility. That comes from recognition and
• 24:58
  recall, by the way. So those of you who recognize
• 25:01
  me, you recall me. After a while, you'll be like
• 25:04
  that guy. He's the very guy.
• 25:06
  He's legit. That guy is the GOAT.
• 25:09
  You say that because recognition and recall over time, over time,
• 25:14
  over time, then for those of us who eventually were going to
• 25:17
  want to hire people, it will help with attracting talent.
• 25:22
  So by the time I set up a proper consulting agency and, you know,
• 25:29
  maybe I've been doing this in maybe like 20 years and I now
• 25:31
  understand, you know, build proper structure, you know, I
• 25:37
  don't know, make things nice and legit, nice and fancy.
• 25:41
  There are people who want to work for me precisely because of
• 25:44
  the kind of brand that I have built.
• 25:47
  So same thing with you 2. But most importantly, building a
• 25:50
  brand is important because it reduces sales resistance.
• 25:53
  Once you can have that kind of brand, like, oh, I've seen this
• 25:56
  guy before, OK, and you be this OK, You don't want to handle
• 25:59
  this. You don't want to handle that.
• 26:00
  Oh, OK, no problem. Sounds like you're legit.
• 26:02
  It makes the conversation very, very easy.
• 26:04
  And it's something I picked up from like year two of the
• 26:07
  podcast. I just realized that after a
• 26:08
  while, I was not in too many, you know, begging conversations.
• 26:14
  I was being together level where people assumed that, OK, this
• 26:18
  guy, you already know what you're talking about.
• 26:21
  And it doesn't matter of getting down and trying to figure out,
• 26:23
  OK, how can we use your skill sets to move my whatever
• 26:26
  forward? But I wasn't having to prove
• 26:28
  myself anymore. So branding is important, but my
• 26:34
  warning to you guys, I beg, is don't be one of those people who
• 26:36
  spent three months trying to think out everything before you
• 26:39
  begin your business journey. That's not the right way to go
• 26:42
  about it. So that's all for today, folks.
• 26:44
  Let me carry my children back to the house.
• 26:47
  Remember, if you'd love to connect with me, you can call,
• 26:48
  you can SMS, you can WhatsApp me on 08064662140.
• 26:55
  Thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 26:56
  I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or
• 27:00
  in your speakers.