Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Beyond the Mic: Insights from a Listener and a Look Behind the Scenes

Transcript

Beyond the Mic: Insights from a Listener and a Look Behind the Scenes · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:02
  Hello and welcome to the show. I'm still out and about so
• 0:05
  expect to hear some cars in the background.
• 0:07
  I know I've already made a podcast recording for today, but
• 0:11
  I had a really interesting chat. How do you say chat,
• 0:16
  conversation, chat versation. So I had a really interesting
• 0:19
  chat versation recently. Oh, I already said recently.
• 0:22
  Anyway, you get the whole point. I had an interesting exchange
• 0:25
  over WhatsApp and I just thought I should get over here and share
• 0:28
  with you guys. Listener, shout out to Wendy.
• 0:33
  Musango Dika. I hope I'm pronouncing your name
• 0:37
  properly. Well, since I got your name over
• 0:39
  a chart, then of course it's understandable that I I'm
• 0:43
  ordering the name, especially the musango part.
• 0:46
  Now Wendy is Cameroonian, but now lives in Abuja, Nigeria.
• 0:51
  She's a wedding planner, an event stylist, and a
• 0:55
  coordinator. The name of our business is
• 0:58
  Extreme Vogue Events, and I would like you guys to check her
• 1:02
  out at Extreme Vogue events. Really straightforward Instagram
• 1:06
  handle. But when you're spelling the
• 1:08
  Vogue events, it's going to be two ES, So Vogue VOGUE, and then
• 1:14
  another E for EVENTS, events, So Extreme Vogue events all
• 1:20
  together. No underscored, no full stop, no
• 1:23
  breaks, no nothing. So check out and follow her on
• 1:26
  her Instagram page. Now, the reason why I'm giving
• 1:30
  her a shout out today, I'm making this episode is because
• 1:33
  she reached out to me recently. Today, actually, a couple of
• 1:36
  hours ago, she sent me a message on WhatsApp saying that she just
• 1:40
  wanted to say hi and that she's learned a thing or two on the
• 1:44
  podcast. She didn't have any questions
• 1:46
  for me, She didn't have anything to discuss.
• 1:48
  She just wanted to reach out and say hi.
• 1:52
  Now even though she reached out just to say hi, still I really
• 1:57
  appreciated her reaching out because there are lots of folks
• 2:01
  who don't reach out just for the sake of giving goodwill or
• 2:06
  giving some form of recognition or whatever.
• 2:09
  So when it happens it does brighten up ones day.
• 2:12
  And yes, when I say one's day I mean me.
• 2:15
  So yes, it did brighten up my day.
• 2:18
  And it sounds, you know, different kinds of purposes
• 2:21
  because like I keep telling you guys, when you guys reach out,
• 2:23
  it gives me a sense of who's listening.
• 2:25
  It gives me a sense of the challenges that you guys might
• 2:28
  be facing. But still, just hearing from
• 2:31
  someone just to say hi, I mean, that meant a lot.
• 2:34
  So yeah, thank you very much for listening.
• 2:38
  For those of you who also want to connect with me later on for
• 2:41
  different reasons, whether it's to say hi or maybe because you
• 2:43
  have questions, usually I give my contact details after the
• 2:46
  show so you can do it through through the details that I drop.
• 2:53
  And after she said hi, we had a really interesting random
• 2:56
  personal chat, you know, chatting about a couple of
• 2:58
  things, and she didn't know that I am thieve.
• 3:02
  She figured that I was half German.
• 3:05
  Now my name sounds German ish, so I was probably half German.
• 3:09
  And I've gotten those sorts of things before.
• 3:12
  I've spoken with some folks who figured I'm half Japanese or
• 3:15
  maybe half Indian. Well, obviously that happens a
• 3:18
  lot of the time when, you know, people can't see who I am, you
• 3:21
  know, over the phone. Or maybe we're emailing or
• 3:23
  something, and that's because of the name Tavishima.
• 3:27
  I've heard it sounds German, Japanese, Indian, what else?
• 3:31
  Somebody also claimed that it looks Irish.
• 3:33
  Or it sounds Irish, but I mean, that was a new one.
• 3:36
  Anyway, The thing is, I am full Nigerian, so I'm not half
• 3:39
  anything, not half German, not half Japanese, not half Indian,
• 3:42
  and I'm definitely not Irish. In fact, the closest I got to
• 3:45
  Ireland was when I was in school at the University of Aberdeen,
• 3:50
  which is in Scotland, so that's the closest I ever got.
• 3:53
  So I'm actually team. I'm from Benue State, although
• 3:56
  my people span the North Central part of the country, so we can
• 4:00
  be found in Taraba, in Nasarawa, in some parts of plateau,
• 4:04
  although not native to plateau per southeast.
• 4:07
  And we are the 4th largest tribe in Nigeria, at least we were
• 4:11
  according to the 1979 census. But the two censuses, is it
• 4:17
  censuses or sensei? So the two censuses or the two
• 4:20
  sensi or whatever it is that we call it that we've done since
• 4:23
  then, we didn't carry that kind of tribal data.
• 4:26
  So I don't know where we've risen to or fallen on the ranks.
• 4:33
  And then tea people, that's where I'm from.
• 4:34
  We're traditionally, sorry, what's that word, Agrarian,
• 4:38
  yeah, agriculture. So we're traditionally agrarian
• 4:42
  society, although now we're multi sector like the rest of
• 4:46
  the ethnicities in Nigeria. And of course we face the same
• 4:52
  challenges that everybody else faces.
• 4:54
  So we have this whole thing around rural, urban migration,
• 4:57
  you know, people leaving the villages, coming to the cities,
• 4:59
  maybe not much to do. Of course, there's a whole thing
• 5:02
  about insecurity, what else, food challenges and then the
• 5:05
  typical North Central issues, you know, around political
• 5:09
  integration and then all that. So summary, The reason why I
• 5:14
  made this podcast episode was first of all to say thank you
• 5:17
  very much to Wendy for reaching out.
• 5:20
  And then because of how the conversation went, I also wanted
• 5:24
  to come here just to let you guys know that thief people are
• 5:28
  not extinct. So yes, I know that the last
• 5:31
  time you saw a thief person, for those of you who are Nigerian,
• 5:34
  was when you studied social studies in primary school, maybe
• 5:37
  2 decades ago or whatever. And you open up a book and there
• 5:41
  was a picture there in black and white of people dressed in black
• 5:44
  and white, dancing or farming or whatever.
• 5:47
  And under there it said, you know, thief people and so you
• 5:49
  figure that we were extinct. And also they do pictures about
• 5:53
  the Knock terracotta terracotta sculptures.
• 5:59
  And so some people also think that Knock people are extinct as
• 6:01
  well. So this is just to let you guys
• 6:03
  know, for those of you listening to the podcast, who are Nigerian
• 6:07
  but are not thieve and you're not from Plateau State.
• 6:10
  And so because of that, you've never run into a thief person
• 6:12
  before. We still exist.
• 6:14
  We are not extinct. Yes, we're in the history books
• 6:18
  and all that, but we're alive and we are well.
• 6:20
  So that's the reason why I made this podcast episode, to say
• 6:23
  thank you to Wendy and also let you guys know we still exist and
• 6:26
  to let you guys know a bit about us, the TV people.
• 6:31
  So yeah, So for those of you who've been listening to the
• 6:35
  podcast and you've always wondered, at the end of the
• 6:36
  show, I give my name. You say this fellow has a
• 6:39
  strange name. Where is he from now?
• 6:41
  You know? But The funny thing is where I'm
• 6:44
  from, my name is not unique. So whenever I'm I'm in a villa
• 6:47
  or I'm in Makudi, which is the capital of Ben Wasted, it is not
• 6:50
  unusual for someone to shout tavishim and then I turn and or
• 6:53
  wasn't me, you know, they mean some other kid, so that happens.
• 6:57
  Now, for those of you who are extra curious, I want to know
• 6:59
  what the name means for those of you who are not Nigerian, I'm
• 7:03
  sure you run into a couple of Nigerians that you figured out
• 7:05
  by now that most of us have strong meanings attached to our
• 7:09
  name. And yes, my name does have a
• 7:11
  meaning and I think a good meaning at that.
• 7:14
  So for those of you who are foreigners, by foreigners I mean
• 7:18
  not Nigerian and let me say not African and maybe not Asian.
• 7:22
  So you guys have names that are, what's the word?
• 7:27
  I won't say meaningless because even if your name is Smith or
• 7:31
  Jack, you know, The thing is, it actually has a meaning.
• 7:34
  It's just that you've forgotten like my English name is George
• 7:37
  and George I think is Greek for farmer.
• 7:38
  So if you're named George, you might think your name is
• 7:41
  meaningless. Your name is not meaningless.
• 7:43
  The name has just been forgotten within your own larger cultural
• 7:46
  context. So yes in this part of the
• 7:48
  world, in Africa, in Asia, our meanings, our names have
• 7:54
  meanings typically around hopes, associations, dreams, wishes
• 7:59
  that parents have for their children and sometimes it's tied
• 8:02
  around circumstances around their birth.
• 8:04
  So it's not always that you find a name that means that carries
• 8:08
  hopes, wishes and aspirations. Sometimes it's tied to certain
• 8:11
  circumstances around the child's birth.
• 8:14
  So for instance you find children like Ladi for instance.
• 8:17
  So if your if your child is named Ladi I think from northern
• 8:20
  tribes all those house I speaking people I think Ladi
• 8:23
  means Sunday so that was a child born on a Sunday.
• 8:25
  So yes, we have those sorts of names.
• 8:27
  But yeah, typically our names have meanings around our parents
• 8:31
  aspirations or around circumstances for our birth.
• 8:34
  So my name Tavishima actually is a sentence.
• 8:37
  So yeah, those of you who are wondering, yeah, that's why it's
• 8:39
  so long. It's a sentence and it's an
• 8:41
  admonition. So depending on how, depending
• 8:44
  on the context, it can mean have a strong mind.
• 8:47
  Tavishima can also mean be strong willed.
• 8:50
  It can also mean be of sound heart and it can also mean be
• 8:54
  resolute depending on the context, depending on how you
• 8:58
  pronounce it. Some people even say Tabishima
• 9:00
  means stubborn. So there are some people who
• 9:03
  will come across me, dear people, and say when they hear
• 9:06
  that my name is Tabishima, they say yeah, you're stubborn just
• 9:09
  like your name. So depending on the context,
• 9:11
  these are the range of meanings and that it might have.
• 9:14
  So for those of us Nigerian boys and girls who are having
• 9:18
  children, even those of us who don't speak their language too
• 9:20
  well, let's still keep the tradition of good names alive.
• 9:24
  It is not a superstition when we give children names that carry
• 9:30
  our hopes, our wishes and our dreams for it.
• 9:32
  Some people think it's a superstition because like, do
• 9:35
  people say that your name should catch you?
• 9:37
  What that means is, you know, you're given a a a good name, so
• 9:40
  may the good wishes catch up with you.
• 9:42
  And I've also heard some South African people say you know,
• 9:45
  stuff similar like that, like like you are your name or your
• 9:48
  name is you or something like that.
• 9:51
  So it's not just superstition, but there's a psychological
• 9:53
  element as well. Because we name our kids.
• 9:56
  Eventually the child asks, what does my name mean?
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  And you can have some very, very interesting conversation.
• 10:01
  So your name is this. That's that in our native
• 10:06
  tongue, it means God sent. And that's because at the time
• 10:09
  you were born, maybe the family suffered this.
• 10:11
  The family suffered that by the time you came along, you brought
• 10:13
  joy and happiness and everything.
• 10:15
  And we figured you were a gift from God, and so we named you
• 10:17
  God sent. So those names, they mean a lot.
• 10:21
  They carry a lot. And these are the wonderful
• 10:24
  stories that we can tell our children.
• 10:27
  And it's it's the beginning of the social capital, because I
• 10:30
  made an episode about social capital and how that leads to
• 10:35
  entrepreneurship in different societies.
• 10:37
  Now, the reason why some societies seem more
• 10:39
  entrepreneurial than others. Sometimes it's just a matter of
• 10:42
  social capital. Somebody, somewhere decided to
• 10:44
  be an entrepreneur and that showed the other people in the
• 10:48
  family, in the society the way, and everybody followed.
• 10:51
  So the whole thing about America and its entrepreneurial boom is,
• 10:57
  you know, it's it's that simple, you know, certain societal,
• 11:03
  what's that word? Incentives make it possible for
• 11:06
  a Silicon Valley to occur. And then by the time you have
• 11:09
  1234 success stories from there, people see the way and then you
• 11:16
  know people just catch on. And then so the social capital
• 11:19
  that is created not just in society but within families as
• 11:21
  well. So the names that we give our
• 11:23
  children, that is also a good way of trans transferring social
• 11:29
  capital. And yes, it was a good source of
• 11:31
  encouragement to me when I was a young boy having conversations
• 11:34
  with my dad about what my name means, why I was given that
• 11:38
  name. And you know, there's some other
• 11:39
  circumstances around there as well.
• 11:41
  But anyway, let me stop for a thank you episode.
• 11:44
  I've already got 10 minutes. So bottom line, I made this
• 11:47
  episode to say thank you very much, Wendy.
• 11:49
  Thank you very much, Wendy, for reaching out.
• 11:51
  You have made my day. And as you've reached out to me
• 11:55
  to sow goodwill, my prayers that other people are also going to
• 11:58
  bring goodwill into your life, bring cheers into your life and
• 12:01
  also bring friendships into your life as well.
• 12:04
  So thank you very much guys for listening to this episode.
• 12:07
  Please follow Wendy and say what's up to her.
• 12:10
  Tell her that you heard about her on today's episode of the
• 12:13
  podcast. And remember that the Instagram
• 12:15
  handle is extreme Vogue together as one word.
• 12:19
  So reach out to her. Tell her that Havishima sent you
• 12:22
  thanks for your time and attention.
• 12:23
  I'll catch you guys at the next episode.