Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Business Butterfly Effect: How Small Decisions Create Big Impacts

Transcript

The Business Butterfly Effect: How Small Decisions Create Big Impacts · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome to the show. Apologies because I've been away
0:05
for about three or four days, but I'm back now.
0:08
Before I took off, I think we wrapped up with the series on
0:13
things that people need to know if they are new in business, if
0:17
they haven't had any previous business experience, they have a
0:21
limited business experience and they're looking for practical
0:23
guidance on what to do as a first time entrepreneur.
0:26
So I OK, so I think before I disappeared, that was the series
0:32
that I had just wrapped up. So today I have made a couple of
0:37
notes. So I hope this is not going to
0:39
be a lengthy episode because I want to tie in all the things
0:42
that we discussed because I can imagine a bunch of first time
0:46
listeners listening to those episodes.
0:47
And I'm thinking, look, this is highly impractical.
0:50
This is not going to work. You're being unnecessarily
0:53
philosophical. So I just want to tie it into my
0:56
own business experience as I have transitioned from being a
1:00
wedding photographer into business consulting and public
1:04
speaking. So I'll just show you guys how
1:06
the ideas that we discussed were not just highfaluting.
1:10
I'm not just taking a philosophical stand for the sake
1:13
of taking a philosophical stand. So that's what today's episode
1:17
is going to be about. For those of you who are new to
1:22
the podcast and this is your first episode that you're
1:25
listening to, I'm just going to recap the things that I had, the
1:29
series of tips or advice that I had for people who have limited
1:32
business experience and who are ready to get into the business
1:35
space, the entrepreneurial space.
1:37
And so my advice was that number one, that the business name is
1:43
not important, so we shouldn't spend too much time on that.
1:46
Number two, that branding is not important, so we shouldn't spend
1:48
too much time on that either. And that idea protection is not
1:52
that important, so we shouldn't be spending too much time on
1:55
idea protection. And that no business idea sells
1:58
itself, so we shouldn't bother looking for that magic business
2:03
idea that is going to just take off like a rocket and all we
2:07
have to do is just sit back and collect our profits.
2:09
Then the final thing was that business is a team sport.
2:12
Even if you want to be a solo solo premier or you know,
2:16
whatever it is you want to call it, you want to be a self-made
2:18
man, self-made woman, self-made, whatever, or you want to be a
2:21
solo this or a solo that, that business is a team sport.
2:24
So it's best to just try and anticipate the level of team
2:27
involvement or involvement that you're going to have with other
2:29
people and then plan for it accordingly.
2:32
So that is the reason why I'm making a tie in episode today
2:35
because on the face of it, especially for those of you who
2:38
didn't listen to the previous episodes, these things seem kind
2:41
of strange for you to hear from someone who is supposedly a
2:45
sales coach and a business consultant.
2:48
So again, the things that we're going to talk about today and
2:52
that are going to run through my time episode #1 your business
2:56
name is not important, don't spend too much time on it #2
2:59
branding is not important. Don't spend too much time on
3:01
that. Number three idea protection is
3:04
not important. Don't spend too much time on
3:06
that. And #4 no business idea sells
3:08
itself #5 business is a team sport.
3:12
So number one business name. We're going to use my business
3:16
experience to show how traction or validation is more important
3:22
than other factors that people attribute to business success.
3:26
Because there are some people who think getting the perfect
3:29
business name is what it is that is going to chart the path for
3:32
you. And of course, getting the
3:34
perfect business name or the right business name is
3:36
important. But my own take is that if
3:38
you're getting into business, your business name is not as
3:41
important to business success as most people think.
3:44
What we should be paying attention to is traction or
3:47
validation. And in the early days, any
3:50
simple, common sense, workable name will do.
3:54
Especially since you'll find that for your favorite brands,
3:57
they have started off with one name and have transitioned into
4:00
other thing. And you even find that there are
4:02
some of your favorite brands that have one name that seems to
4:05
be quite a mouthful, like BMW. It actually is ban something,
4:09
something, something, you know, a bunch of letters and it seems
4:12
impossibly long, you know, but everybody just calls them BMW.
4:14
So the most important thing in the whole case was not to
4:18
agonize over what name should we call this fledgling Motor
4:22
Company because they picked, in my own opinion, the most
4:25
difficult name possible because I don't know how it's
4:27
pronounced. It just seems like a bunch of
4:28
letters, but it has found out OK, because they make superior
4:32
equipment. They're really good at
4:33
engineering and styling decisions and their initials
4:37
don't seem bad. BMW.
4:39
So in Nigeria, people like, hey, I want to buy a BMW on an X8 and
4:42
X7 and X5 and X this and lots of business, lots of Nigerians
4:48
don't even know the name of the company.
4:51
They just love the product. So now let me tie that into my
4:54
own business experience. So in the beginning, I just
4:59
focused on picking a functional name or a practical name.
5:03
And I didn't waste much time on that because I expected that the
5:06
name was going to change over time as I discovered who my ICP
5:09
was. Your ICP is your ideal customer
5:12
profile, your target audience, the people who vibe with you.
5:15
I mean, whatever it is you want to call it, the people you want
5:17
to vibe with. And realistically Speaking of, I
5:20
was going to enter into business consulting with the ideas that I
5:23
have about business. I was under no illusions that
5:27
the core crop of people that I was going to start with in the
5:29
beginning were going to remain the audience that I would keep
5:32
over the lifetime of my business consulting practice.
5:35
So it's been a couple of years and initially the name of my
5:37
show because I was going to use the podcast as a tool for
5:43
content marketing to promote that switch.
5:47
Because you can't say that you're going to go from a career
5:50
of being a wedding photographer of close to a decade and then
5:56
overnight you want to switch into business consulting.
5:58
And then people are just going to go with you.
6:00
They'll just ride with you. There's a little bit of
6:02
dissonance that is involved, you know, for the people who have
6:05
known you about a decade prior, especially if you haven't been
6:07
talking publicly about your ideas about business and your
6:12
experiences about business. So for me, the podcast, what I
6:15
have now was key to the content marketing strategy, my strategy
6:18
of transitioning from being a wedding photographer into being
6:22
a business consultant. Now, for those of you who've
6:24
been listening from day one, you know that initially the show was
6:28
titled Sales for the Nigerian Wedding Photographer.
6:32
So if this is your first time, if you have just discovered the
6:35
podcast and you discovered from the older episodes and you're
6:37
now listening to a few current ones, that is the reason for the
6:40
switch, why you would have heard me introduce the show as Sales
6:44
for the Nigerian Wedding Photographer.
6:46
Well then clearly you're listening to business content
6:48
from this podcast now and you see that it has a much wider
6:51
ambience. Sorry, a much wider ambit and
6:54
audience. So yeah, I knew that things were
6:58
going to change over time. So I just picked the most
7:01
simple, practical, non fancy, non whatever names possible.
7:05
So for the business consulting practice, I just called it
7:07
Aberdeen Business Consulting. Why did I call Aberdeen Business
7:10
consulting? Nothing in particular.
7:12
Aberdeen Business consulting ABC, I finished from University
7:15
of Aberdeen. So I just picked a name and it's
7:17
that simple. And the name neither emphasizes
7:22
or promotes or details what it is that I'm trying to do.
7:26
I haven't met anybody who, first of all, in the beginning when
7:29
we're having consultation, consultations and negotiations,
7:32
I haven't met anyone who has me. By the way, what's your business
7:34
name? The business name thing only
7:36
comes up at the end when people are ready to pay and we need
7:38
account details and things like that.
7:40
So the business name thing just hasn't come up.
7:43
Like a dude, your business name sucks, it's killing the
7:45
business. Or guy, your business name
7:48
rocks, it's promoting the business.
7:49
So that just hasn't even come up now.
7:51
Hope you guys are going to get the sense of why I hold the
7:54
ideas that I do that some of you are spending too much name on
7:56
the business name because there are some of you that spend 3-4
7:59
months, you haven't started just because you want the right
8:02
business name so that you can meet the lawyer and handle the
8:04
incorporation with the CAC as a corporate affairs Commission and
8:07
then all that. You're wasting too much time.
8:09
So in my own case, I just picked any name ABC, not bad.
8:14
Aberdeen Business Consulting. What is this podcast going to be
8:17
about? I'm talking about sales to
8:19
people who don't bother about sales, which are people in the
8:22
wedding and the event space. Because in the wedding and the
8:25
event space, people are much more concerned about brand.
8:27
They're more concerned about positioning, packaging, what
8:33
else? Much more aspirational ideas.
8:35
So I figured I'd start talking to that audience.
8:36
And the podcast was just titled sales for the Nigerian Wedding
8:41
industry or for the Nigerian wedding professional or wedding
8:43
person. I can't remember what it was
8:45
called because that was a long time ago.
8:47
And now that I've made a transition, guess what the name
8:50
is also that basic it is now sales for the Nigerian business
8:53
person. I mean, how basic can it get?
8:55
How practical can it get? How lazy can it get?
8:57
But The thing is, I just need a name and I need to get going
9:01
because the most important thing is let's get traction.
9:03
Let this train start moving. Doesn't really matter what it's
9:05
called. Of course, in this sense, I was
9:09
picking a name that would signal exactly what the show is about.
9:13
For those of you who are interested in podcasting as a
9:16
content marketing strategy, we can make future episodes about
9:19
that, but I hope you guys see that.
9:21
The most important thing for me, making the switch as in folks
9:24
who know me for close to 10 years being a wedding
9:26
photographer, I don't want to do that anymore.
9:29
I now want to be considered as a business consultant because of
9:32
the experiences that I've gotten as a wedding photographer, also
9:36
in building the family business with my brother, my previous
9:38
experience working as admin in civil service and also as being
9:44
paralegal and then working as a law firm.
9:47
So I'm trying to make the switch.
9:48
I just need a simple name to get the show on the road and that's
9:52
what I did. So the most important thing at
9:54
that stage, me trying to switch was not business name because of
9:57
some of you that will think what business name can I come up
10:01
with? I'm about to become a
10:02
consultant. I need something cool, I need
10:04
something fancy, I need something aspirational.
10:07
I need something to signal to the market the kind of cutting
10:10
edge business consulting that we're going to do.
10:12
And you know, and you just waste weeks and weeks and weeks on
10:15
these things. Just pick a name and go because
10:19
most what I think at this stage is not your business name, but
10:21
you have to validate the business idea.
10:23
And in my own case, the business idea was this.
10:27
Can I use podcasting as a tool for lead generation?
10:31
Can I use podcasting as a tool for demand create creation?
10:35
Can I use podcasting as a tool to cut myself out as a
10:39
specialist within the business consulting space?
10:43
Can I use podcasting as a tool to find customers as a business
10:46
consultant? That was the primary question I
10:48
needed to answer and so I didn't waste time on the name.
10:51
I picked the most basic names for my show, although I just
10:55
used common sense because I wanted the names to signal
10:57
something for the podcast. I want people to see the name of
11:00
the podcast and then know exactly what it is about.
11:03
That's why I didn't call it the Tavishima Show or something like
11:06
that. Because I mean, who knows?
11:08
Nobody knows Tavishima. Well, some of you who listen to
11:11
the show, you know who I am. But as a whole, I don't have
11:14
that kind of brand yet. So who knows 20 years from now
11:17
when I'm a big established name like Brian Tracy, yes, I can
11:20
call it the Tavishima you did show and then people will
11:22
TuneIn, but after then just some simple basic common name.
11:25
So the most important thing was for me to validate this idea.
11:28
Can podcasting work? And then to get going, do people
11:31
want business content? Those are the primary questions
11:33
I was trying to answer. So I hit the show on the road
11:35
and I came up with some basic names and I moved.
11:38
That's the reason why I give the advice the way that I do.
11:42
You have this interesting idea. You think it's going to work.
11:44
The most important thing is validation of the idea.
11:47
Pick a name, any name, use common sense and move.
11:52
You don't have to come up with the perfect idea in January and
11:55
then do incorporation in March or April.
11:58
Doesn't make sense. If the idea comes to you January
12:01
1st, it's already like January 10th or January 11th.
12:05
What are you waiting for? Pick a name and move.
12:09
Now the next thing, branding is not important.
12:13
And well, for the same reason I say branding is not important
12:18
for the same reason. It's because, well, First off,
12:24
you don't know enough of your ICP, your ideal customer, your
12:28
ideal customer profile, the people you want to vibe with,
12:31
the market you want to enter. Most folks are not that
12:35
sophisticated to have a good grip on what the ICP is at the
12:39
beginning. So it makes sense to just go
12:42
into the market, validate the idea.
12:44
As you're interacting with people, you're going to get a
12:45
clearer sense of who your audience base is and that will
12:49
determine how it is that you brand and position in future.
12:53
Some of you want to start off with the perfect brand, but it
12:55
doesn't work that way. Coca-Cola has the perfect brand,
12:58
Facebook, Google, all these people, but they didn't start
13:02
with the perfect brand. They started from something
13:05
crude and something simple. Facebook used to be the face
13:09
something and then they dropped the the V in it and it was face
13:13
whatever. And today it's now Facebook and
13:16
then they've changed to Meta. I hope you guys see where I'm
13:19
heading with all this. And their branding has changed
13:21
accordingly, although the blue in their colours has remained
13:24
fairly constant. And that's just what I mean.
13:29
Like you don't know enough. So just begin as you're mixing
13:33
with people, mixing with potential customers, mixing with
13:36
stakeholders, with investors, you get a clear sense of, OK,
13:39
this is what I'm trying to build, this is how people are
13:42
perceiving it. And that is what is going to
13:44
determine all the branding choices that you need to make
13:46
about logos, fonts and colours and things like that.
13:50
Now let me give you an another example, my business experience.
13:54
Now, I started off this thing talking to wedding
13:58
professionals, wedding and event professionals.
14:00
Now by default, my intended target audience was female, was
14:05
female for a number of reasons. In the event space, it has loads
14:09
of females there. So the photographers are mostly
14:11
guys, but there's some women, the planners are mostly women.
14:16
What else? Decor mostly women, makeup,
14:18
mostly women is largely female led.
14:21
And then apart from that being that I, I'm the first son of a
14:26
single mom. Well, not really a single mom
14:28
per say. Like my mom raised me and my
14:32
siblings from about when I was 12/13.
14:35
She did a solo on her own. So one of those whose family
14:37
convinced that when you educate a woman or when you move or look
14:41
a woman along the path of self empowerment, entrepreneurship,
14:44
career development, all those sorts of things, you impact
14:48
generations to come as in you impact families.
14:50
Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't pay attention to men.
14:52
I'm just saying that this is the reason why I'm interested in
14:55
women, especially when it comes to business education.
14:59
But unfortunately, my goal is I want to talk to women and I
15:06
might have started off my business consulting journey
15:09
trying to talk to women, but no matter what I do, over 70% of my
15:14
audience is male. So can you see how if I had
15:18
tried to finalize my branding at the beginning of my journey with
15:22
plenty of pink and plenty of cursive and you know, stuff like
15:25
that because I'm trying to appeal to women.
15:27
Can you see how it would have been off and started creating
15:29
some sort of dissonance? Because no matter what I do,
15:33
over 70% of my audience is male. This is now going to inform the
15:38
future decisions that I'm going to make around brand color
15:40
around theme, around eye project into the market and things like
15:44
that. Now when I hire a brand
15:46
specialist, these are the sorts of things that the brand
15:48
specialist wants to know. Not just who do I want to talk
15:51
to, but who are the people that are actually buying from me, who
15:53
am I doing business with, who are my audience, blah, blah,
15:56
blah. I will be able to come up with
15:59
strong propositions around brand, but that's because I've
16:02
done a couple years into this thing.
16:04
I have 870 episodes on the podcast, so I've been doing this
16:08
for a couple of years. I have some data.
16:10
We'll be able to sit down and have constructive conversations
16:13
and come up with a brand document and a brand strategy
16:16
and then we'll execute. But some of you are starting
16:18
from day one and you want to set this thing up perfectly.
16:20
It doesn't work that way. And for people who did, because
16:23
there are some businesses who started perfectly and you know,
16:25
whatever, it doesn't happen that way for most people.
16:28
So stop aiming for this whole exceptional thing from day one.
16:33
The branding is not that important.
16:34
Just begin validate this idea. As you're interacting with
16:36
people, you will now get a sense of what your brand is, what it
16:39
could be, how you're perceived, how do you want people to
16:42
perceive you? And by the time you have enough
16:45
money to hire, especially if you guys are smoothing all those
16:47
things out. So for now, not having a brand
16:49
has not been hurting my business because there's nobody that has
16:52
said your brand colours are off your logos are off, your
16:55
whatever. Because honestly that those
16:59
they, it just doesn't come up. I have always used the default
17:02
options in Canva. My first logo, I just used
17:04
Canva. So I just used the default on
17:07
the template that I liked. And the current logo imaging
17:13
that you see right now is something that I designed on
17:20
chart. No, not chart GPT.
17:21
What was it? Chart GPTI can't remember what
17:23
was Chart GPT or Bing, but basically I just put in into the
17:29
prompt. I said design A.
17:34
What did I say? I can't remember, but something
17:36
like design AA cover art for my podcast and blah blah blah.
17:44
I didn't even give it. I didn't even give it color
17:49
choices. But I wanted sales and marketing
17:52
to be in the final image because I wanted people to see 'cause
17:56
remember I was just using common sense.
17:58
I want to be able to see the common the, the cover image.
18:00
I know exactly what the show is about.
18:02
South Sales and marketing and then black.
18:05
It spit out four options. Yes, it was, it was Bing, Bing
18:10
that I used and Bing incorporates Mchat, GBT.
18:14
It spit out four options. And what you have here on the
18:16
podcast is just the one that I like the most and that's it.
18:21
And I am running with it. When I am ready to start taking
18:25
branding seriously and I have a bit of money and I want to hire
18:27
a brand specialist, we will now be able to start having
18:30
constructive conversations. I actually would like to speak
18:33
more to women, but currently I'm over 70% male.
18:37
This is the age range, blah, blah, blah.
18:39
These are the clients that I've worked with.
18:40
And you know, they'll ask me all those questions.
18:43
I'll be able to come up with a brand strategy and then execute
18:45
accordingly. But in the beginning, for me to
18:48
sit down and think all these things, I would have just been
18:50
wasting too much time because here's how it works.
18:52
You have a bit of money, you want to hire a brand consultant
18:57
or something. So you look through Instagram
18:59
'cause you want to find a couple of people not looking through
19:01
Instagram. That's like two weeks gone
19:03
already, 'cause you look through Instagram and then you have some
19:05
other things to do. You get a bunch of people.
19:09
Then you send out a bunch of DMS.
19:11
Most Nigerian business people are really poor and non
19:14
responsive, so lots of them will not respond.
19:17
So you talk to a few people, you don't find anybody you like.
19:20
You know, that's another two weeks that you have to invest in
19:22
the whole thing. But bottom line is you can see
19:24
how because of business name and branding, you get your business
19:28
idea January 1st and then it is now February 20.
19:33
Something you have not started just because no more you don't
19:36
have the perfect name #2 you haven't found a brand person or
19:41
a designer or whatever that can help you put together all these
19:45
things that are that you think are important before you begin.
19:49
Then let's move on to Idea Protection.
19:52
Especially since I've done 20 minutes and I'm not even halfway
19:55
through my rant. I guess you can call this
19:57
podcast episode of Rant then Idea Protection.
20:00
So I had to include in the list because there are a couple of
20:06
you who have your ideas. You think that your business
20:08
idea is the best thing since sliced bread.
20:11
Because of that, you do not want to go out into the market
20:14
prematurely because you're worried about copycats, people
20:17
who steal your trademark and steal your business idea and so.
20:21
You're spending a lot of time talking to lawyers.
20:23
How can I trademark this? What can I patent?
20:25
What is eligible for which part of intellectual property
20:28
protection and or what not? Now, of course, if you've been
20:32
following my own argument is it's not really the idea, the
20:38
idea per SE that is valuable, but it's how you execute on the
20:42
business idea that is going to give you that business mode or
20:46
that business protection. So excuse me.
20:49
So if you execute well, then good for you.
20:55
You execute poorly, then bad for you.
20:58
Now let's take it back to my own experience so far.
21:01
We're trying to transition from being a wedding photographer to
21:03
a business consultant. So currently about 800 and OK,
21:09
well, I know for sure it's over 869.
21:12
Let me just leave it at that because last time I checked was
21:14
869. So let me not say it's 870, so
21:16
869 episodes. And I was much more worried
21:23
about how I execute the idea and how content marketing and
21:26
podcasting was going to give me credibility and competency if I
21:31
was worried about somebody copying this my valuable idea.
21:35
Because at the time, I was the only sales and marketing
21:41
exclusively sales and marketing show in the event and wedding
21:46
space in Nigeria. Because I got reached out to
21:50
other publications in this space who wanted to interview me and
21:53
things like that. So there are a bunch of people
21:55
who were podcasting about these sorts of things, but they were
21:57
mostly doing it from a technical or from an artistic point of
22:00
view. So, you know, wedding
22:02
photography, this is how you take the perfect wedding photo,
22:05
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, all those sorts of
22:06
things are not a show that was dedicated exclusively to if
22:10
you're a wedding photographer or you're a wedding planner, this
22:13
is how you look for clients, this is how you negotiate, this
22:15
is how you close the deal and all that.
22:17
So if I was worried about protecting this, my precious
22:21
idea, especially since at the time was completely novel, there
22:24
was none in the space. I haven't checked.
22:26
I don't know if there's any other person that has a reason
22:29
to take the space that I have left because I've left the
22:31
wedding and the event space. Then of course, you know how
22:34
these things go. You know, I'm worried about
22:39
trademark protection. Then the whole thing just gives
22:42
a certain kind of hesitancy and you don't really start.
22:45
But then I figured that, look, how I execute is going to be the
22:48
main thing. And I didn't want my execution
22:51
to be built around high end production value, which is the
22:54
reason why you can hear cars in the background and you can hear
22:56
my children far enough in the background because I focus more
23:01
on having valuable business content.
23:02
And I want that to be my competitive mode.
23:05
I want that to be my edge that on this show you hear things
23:09
that other people don't talk about.
23:11
So that's why I'm well, I record sore throat, I record cow in the
23:16
background. I record cars driving by, I
23:18
record. So excuse me, like now, runny
23:21
nose. I still record because I'm
23:23
focusing on the execution and and the business idea.
23:26
So I also knew that most people are going to give up because
23:31
most people, most people start. And in summary, I just had a
23:37
hunch that most people are going to give up because there have
23:39
been other people in the podcasting space.
23:41
So it it's not my business idea that has let me be successful
23:45
per SE, but me executing on it because rest assured, I am not
23:49
the first person to come up with an idea that you're going to use
23:52
content marketing to promote yourself as a business
23:54
consultant. I am not the first Nigerian to
23:56
think of that. I'm not the first Nigerian to
23:59
think of that in the wedding space or in the general space.
24:02
I am just the only one who has persevered for this long, which
24:07
is why you know my show and you're listening to this show.
24:10
And if I ask you for two or three other shows, yes, maybe
24:13
you might be able to name one or two.
24:15
The reason why you can name two or three of us tops, is because
24:18
we are the only ones who have persevered, not because we came
24:20
up with the idea, not because we are the best.
24:23
So idea protection. Should I have come up with a
24:30
trademark and registered it and all of that?
24:35
Yeah, maybe in some ideal world, but I just wanted to execute and
24:39
execute well. And today I'm 869 episodes in
24:43
and people think I'm credible and I'm competent because of
24:45
longevity. Or is it longevity and have
24:49
executed on that? Now people can copy me,
24:52
definitely. And I know one person who has
24:54
tried. But The thing is podcasting is
24:56
hard. So the person tried and the
24:58
person has given up. So the fact that I've executed
25:02
in itself is what gives me my protective mode.
25:05
If anybody wants to copy me, actually I'm 869 episodes ahead
25:10
in this particular strategy of using podcasting as content
25:14
marketing to transition from 1 area of speciality into another.
25:18
So that in itself, the execution itself is providing the
25:21
protective mode. But listen to the podcast
25:24
episode about idea protection and you gain a much more nuanced
25:29
idea because for those of you who are in the tech space, you
25:31
know, you're trying to build a fintech, things like that.
25:33
Yes, IP protection is absolutely, absolutely
25:38
important, except if you're building your thing on what's it
25:40
called open source, you know, technology or code that is
25:43
available to to everyone. Then the whole thing of business
25:48
idea, sorry, excuse me, the whole thing of a business idea
25:51
that sells itself. How would I put it?
25:59
OK, well that episode was straightforward enough.
26:00
So let me not belabor the point. There's no business that sells
26:02
yourself. Human beings will always be
26:04
involved in promoting the business.
26:06
But I made the mistake earlier on thinking that my idea was so
26:09
good, was so fancy, was so nice, was so wow, was so ground
26:13
breaking that people would just rush that I'll put this content
26:16
on and people would rush because when I started, there was some
26:18
podcasts around. There was this Nigerian and tech
26:24
tech something. Then those Nigerian politics
26:26
weekly show, there was also all you guys see that I'm talking
26:31
about podcasting in the Nigerian context now, not in
26:33
international, not in international sense.
26:37
Then there was also I said what I said, they said what I said
26:40
podcast real brilliant. Cause those girls, Jola and I
26:44
can't remember the other person's name.
26:46
It's a it's a, it's a gossip show.
26:48
It's a gist show was real nice. There's also what else, the
26:55
honest bunch that's Chinedu, Nedu, Wasobia and three other Co
27:03
hosts. But anyway, you get what I'm
27:05
trying to hint at. Nigerian shows were there and
27:09
already beginning to pop off and people were paying attention to
27:11
them. But very few people are talking
27:13
about business. Of course the Nigerian tech is
27:16
it tech crunch or tech something?
27:17
They're there and they're talking about business.
27:20
But it's business. It's it's tech.
27:22
It's not talking too wedding professionals, which is what I
27:26
wanted to do at the time. And now that I've gone beyond
27:28
wedding professionals, they're not talking to all other
27:30
Nigerians. Whether you sell catfish or
27:32
whether you have a fintech or whether you want to sell cement
27:35
or cement blocks. So I just assume that it will be
27:39
obvious. There's a business show, people
27:41
will just flock to it. But boy did I receive a rude
27:44
awakening. I podcasted for about 3 years
27:48
and I was only able to get 5000 downloads.
27:50
Three years and I only got 5, 1000 downloads.
27:55
And then I thought about it and so excuse me, so I thought about
28:02
it and I decided to start promoting over on LinkedIn
28:06
initially and then in six months I was able to go from 5000
28:10
downloads to 12,000 downloads. Or you guys are getting the the
28:16
jump Three years. I said let me just put it out.
28:18
People will love it. They will rush it.
28:21
After three years, only 5000, I promoted for six months.
28:25
They went from 5000 to 12,000. Currently were over just over
28:32
15,000 downloads. So I'm sure you guys can see
28:37
that. It's just something I've started
28:38
doing recently. The promotion, since I haven't
28:40
always promoted because the first three years, let's say 3
28:44
1/2, four years, I didn't promote nothing.
28:46
I didn't promote Shishi. I just make it.
28:48
I just put it up. If you see it, you see it.
28:49
If you don't see it, you don't see it.
28:51
But now that I'm started promoting, there's growth in the
28:54
podcast and there's also growth in the number of enquiries that
28:57
I'm receiving now on a monthly basis.
28:59
You know, people who want me to look into this, consult on this,
29:02
provide training for that and things of that nature.
29:05
So don't expect that you're going to do something and people
29:08
will just find it because you're the greatest thing since sliced
29:10
bread. There's no business idea that
29:12
sells itself. There's no endeavour that sells
29:13
itself. You have to sell or promote it
29:16
somehow, no matter how well, no matter how poorly, because there
29:20
are some people who see my promotions on LinkedIn, you
29:24
know, my friends who mean well, they hit me up and say, hey, oh
29:26
boy, I noticed that you're only doing this.
29:28
How about you do it this way? How about you design this?
29:30
How about you do this? How about you do that?
29:32
That would be more effective. So yes, there could be much more
29:34
effective ways for me promoting my business podcast.
29:37
Let's assume that I'm doing it the poorest way possible, but
29:39
with the poorest way possible, in under a year, I have more
29:43
than tripled the growth of my podcast because I'm doing some
29:48
sort of promotions. Now, if I listen to my friends
29:51
who have media backgrounds, 'cause, you know, start off as a
29:54
photographer, you end up knowing lots of photographers,
29:56
designers, brand people, you know, stuff like that.
29:59
So if I listen to them, yeah, I guess you could even go higher.
30:04
But there's no podcast that will sell itself.
30:06
There's no business that will sell itself.
30:09
It just doesn't happen. So get in, stop promoting, stop,
30:15
stop dreaming. It happens to some people,
30:17
doesn't happen to everyone. And anyway, yeah, let me see,
30:23
let me check my notes, let me skim through because we already
30:26
have enough time. OK, so business, business is a
30:29
team sport. If you listen to that episode,
30:31
you get all the the context about what it is.
30:36
I was trying to stress there. Well, basically what I was just
30:38
trying to say is that there's no business.
30:41
Some of you want to be solo, this solo premier solo, this
30:43
self-made, this self-made whatever.
30:46
There's nobody that is self-made.
30:48
There's nobody that is solo whatever.
30:49
We always have a team around us. And I gave one or two examples
30:52
in that episode and this podcast is going to be another example.
30:57
So for the podcast, the production is the production is
31:02
solo because I I decide which questions are useful because I
31:09
receive questions from people or at speaking events.
31:13
So I decide which of the questions are useful.
31:16
I decide how we're going to flow from one idea to the other.
31:22
I do the actual recording. I don't do any editing,
31:26
precisely because I don't want to be burdened with any extra
31:28
work that would stop me from putting out episodes.
31:31
So it's been a solo affair for now, or so it seems.
31:36
But actually over the years I've worked with a number of
31:38
collaborators. I've worked with a couple of
31:40
distributors. There was one episode that was
31:42
Co produced by Nene Batubo. She's a Canadian business
31:47
communications specialist, Nigerian born of course, I and
31:50
the family, they're over there now.
31:53
They left a long time ago. So I don't think we can call
31:55
them part of the jackpot phenomenon that is happening.
31:59
And I've also had wonderful collaborators on Business Inside
32:03
episodes. The one I did with Alexia
32:04
Horsforth on, she's the makeup and beauty specialist.
32:09
She also has a brand that is selling a bit Nigerian in the in
32:13
Nigerians in diaspora, diaspora, so Canada, UK, then at DME at
32:17
DBC that I went to school with those into branding and
32:21
merchandising. She's still back there in
32:22
Aberdeen. Some of us.
32:24
We finished graduating and left. Then Kelly, an event planner I
32:28
would have loved to work with, never got to work with her and
32:30
her partner during my some of those episodes.
32:33
Then excuse me. Then there's also my mentee,
32:39
Remi Leko Muyeko, who made a couple of episodes dedicated to
32:44
her. You know, the conversations that
32:45
we had over selling with LinkedIn, 'cause she reached out
32:48
to me over on LinkedIn, we had some conversations.
32:50
I figured there'll be good enough podcast episodes to share
32:53
over here. So what she does is whatever I
32:57
I'm speaking at business conferences and things like that
33:00
because some conference people mandate that you must have
33:03
slides. Now, if you've been listening to
33:04
the show for a while, you know that I do not like slides.
33:08
So when I meet people who say you must have slides and they
33:11
must be in this format and they must be ready by social and so
33:14
date, it's an absolute headache. But how do I get that done?
33:17
I just simply call Remy Lekum because she likes that kind of
33:20
thing. And we have a mentor managing
33:21
relationship. So she's the one who hooks me up
33:25
with all my presentation. Sorry, my presentation.
33:28
I'm collateral, so it looks like this is a sole effort and most
33:31
of the times it might be. But have you noticed how my
33:34
collaborators? I have, I've been, I've had
33:36
collaborators over the years. Of course, it's my support
33:40
staff, you know, well, not my support staff, but you know,
33:43
people who provide support, you know, like my wife who keeps me
33:47
going because like I said, podcasting is it's hard.
33:49
It's hard to hop on the mic multiple times a week, you know,
33:54
3-4 times a week. I keep doing that for 4-5 years
33:57
straight. It's not easy, especially since
33:59
in the early days when you're making the switch, it's not as
34:02
if business income is coming indirectly from the podcast.
34:07
So yeah, it might look like it's a solo thing, but I've had a
34:12
team of people, a team of people around me.
34:17
Oh, by the way, another theme that I mentioned earlier in the
34:21
podcast, if you notice how my support system has been female
34:25
and I've told you that it's been deliberate because my goal
34:28
actually from day one was actually to have more women
34:31
listening to the show, more women paying attention to
34:34
business content because of the outsized consequences, the
34:39
benefits that you get when you involve women in career
34:43
development, entrepreneurship, personal development, all these
34:45
sorts of things. One of the reasons why I'm
34:48
trying to reach out to more women is because of my personal
34:51
experience here with Mom C raising the five of us.
34:53
Also because in today's work environment, there's plenty of
34:56
blasting of patriarchy. And I really don't think
34:59
patriarchy is the default limiting criteria that women
35:03
think it is. Yes, patriarchy in quote.
35:06
First of all, people define patriarchy wrong, but that's the
35:10
that's the topic for another podcast episode.
35:13
So yeah, patriarchy makes things a whole lot difficult, but
35:16
they're much more important. People do stuff that women need
35:19
if you want to move things forward.
35:21
So yes, you can say that my mom faced patriarchy in quote while
35:25
she was trying to raise her five kids when she was fresh in
35:27
Lagos. But there are a couple of things
35:30
that were important for her business and career success.
35:32
And there are some of the things that I talk about on the show
35:35
because I have seen it, I have lived it, and some of those
35:38
things that I have seen and lived are things that I'm also
35:41
trying to apply in my Business Today.
35:43
So men need to know it, women need to know it, but I think
35:45
especially now that we're trying to be all woke and bog
35:49
patriarchy and trying to storm the Fort, there are a couple of
35:52
things that women need to hear. And that's why from day one, my
35:55
focus has always been to get more women listening to the
35:58
show. So summary, all these things,
36:02
business, name branding, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, They're
36:04
not as important as you think. So start spending four weeks, 8
36:07
weeks, 12 weeks thinking about these sorts of things.
36:09
Just pick a lane and start and validate the idea.
36:13
Is the thing working? Put more kerosene behind it, put
36:15
more fuel behind it. Get things moving as you move
36:18
your thing along. If the business name doesn't
36:20
make sense, you will change it. If the branding doesn't make
36:23
sense, you will change it. But most important thing is
36:26
start and please validate your business idea and then summary.
36:31
Oh well OK, I can't say summary twice, but bottom line is this.
36:35
I've been begging from day one and I'm begging again.
36:38
Please women listening to the show, maybe I need to change my
36:43
approach. Be less forceful.
36:46
I don't know, sound nicer or use more production value?
36:52
Maybe women prefer podcasting material to be perfect or
36:56
something. Well, I guess I'm not just
36:57
talking about things that women think they should be listening
37:01
to, but I really think more women should listen to this.
37:03
So if you're a lady, listen to this podcast, please share with
37:06
your friends. I don't care if they end up
37:10
booking me to be a coach or a consultant.
37:12
We just need to spread that gospel because it's important
37:21
and also because baby girls don't build strong businesses,
37:27
strong women. Sorry, baby girls don't build
37:29
strong families In the beginning, yes, my mum and I
37:32
have been a baby girl because of course she was the first
37:34
daughter. So when she was born it was only
37:35
we have a girl and everybody's happy.
37:38
But baby girls, princesses, you know, we don't build, they don't
37:40
build strong societies. They don't build strong
37:42
families, strong women who do, and women actually need to learn
37:46
some of the things that we talk about over here on the podcast.
37:49
So, yeah, it's 40 minutes, so let me bring this to a close.
37:52
So naming, branding, IP protection, all those sorts of
37:56
things, they are not the primary things that are going to grow
38:00
your business. These are secondary concerns
38:03
that you can deal with over time.
38:06
The core thing that we need to worry about now is to make sure
38:10
that your main business idea, your core business idea
38:12
validated. Is that thing working good?
38:15
Make progress on that and you'll be fine.
38:18
So connect with me on WhatsApp, the number is 08064662140.
38:24
Country code is +234. For those of you who are not
38:27
Nigerian and connect with me on LinkedIn, my name is Tabashima
38:31
Ayede. I'm the host of the show.
38:33
You can confirm the spelling of my name and my e-mail address
38:35
from the link. We are currently listening to
38:38
this episode. Thank you very much for your
38:40
time and attention. And if you think you know any
38:42
woman who might benefit from this podcast episode, please let
38:47
her know. If your cousin is a female
38:49
cousin is about to start off in business.
38:51
She wants to be a cake person or she wants to rear chickens or
38:54
she wants to whatever. You think she has spent too much
38:56
time thinking about the perfect business name or coming up with
38:59
the perfect chicken logo that looks nice enough or humane
39:02
enough or whatever. If you think she's spending too
39:05
much time in all this other stuff, please give her this
39:07
podcast episode. Let her listen.
39:10
Let her eyes be opened that these things that are holding
39:12
her back don't necessarily have to be the source of things that
39:15
are holding her back. And it's been 14 minutes, so let
39:17
me just disappear. I'll catch you guys at the next
39:19
episode.