Latest / King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights / How to Master Sales Psychology and Building Creatrhub with Olubukola Sogbolu (Part 1)

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How to Master Sales Psychology and Building Creatrhub with Olubukola Sogbolu (Part 1) · King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights

• 0:00
  Working in that kind of environment, you know, lane to
• 0:02
  never give up, you lane that all you need to do is pivot.
• 0:06
  You don't feel because failure is just a step to success.
• 0:10
  So instead of, you know, crying and be like, I feel that this
• 0:14
  this didn't work out, you know, learn from it.
• 0:17
  Failures are lessons. What is this failure trying to
• 0:21
  teach me? Before we dive back into today's
• 0:22
  conversation, I want to share something important.
• 0:24
  This episode includes a pay partnership with Better Help, a
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  investment you can make these in yourself.
• 1:36
  We are live. Ladies and gentlemen, you all
• 1:38
  once again, welcome to the Kingdom's podcast and Diary of
• 1:42
  the CFO. And today I've got a very very
• 1:47
  very I'll add 2 berries that is a quadruple DIP on the show
• 1:55
  today fighting out of Dublin Island by way of Lagos, Nigeria.
• 2:00
  Make welcome all new book holler.
• 2:04
  So go you. How old you?
• 2:10
  Hello everyone, I'm good. Hi, what kind of intro was that?
• 2:15
  That was amazing. OK.
• 2:17
  I'll wait till you hear the proper introduction that I would
• 2:24
  I say curated for you. So ladies and gentlemen, today's
• 2:28
  guest is the builder of influence in the real world, not
• 2:31
  just online. She's worked inside high
• 2:34
  performance sales environments, including fintech giant
• 2:38
  revenues. She has exceeded targets in
• 2:40
  competitive markets. She has built pipelines, handled
• 2:44
  objections and translated complex value into simple
• 2:48
  decisions. And then she made a bold He
• 2:51
  thought she stepped into the creator economy and now builds
• 2:55
  high converting contents for brands powered by cell
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  psychology, customer empathy and deep understanding of buyer
• 3:03
  behaviour. This is not a conversation about
• 3:06
  going viral. This is a conversation about
• 3:08
  positioning, persuation, resilience and relevance.
• 3:12
  From Lagos to Dublin, from economics to enterprise, core
• 3:16
  culture, worldview. How are you once again?
• 3:22
  Seriously, how many intro are you going to give me AI?
• 3:28
  So like Eddie lies told, I don't think I told any lie right?
• 3:33
  But for the purpose of this conversation, I think Olufu
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  colour is quite a mouthful for me.
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  So permit me to to refer to you as bookie.
• 3:41
  I might safe refer to you as bookie because.
• 3:43
  Sure, everyone calls me Bookie. Amazing because that is the pet
• 3:50
  name for anybody with that name. You know, if you're from
• 3:52
  Nigeria, you know, or guys that are outside of Nigeria that are
• 3:56
  non Nigerians. This is bookie.
• 3:59
  She's not a bookkeeper by the way.
• 4:01
  She's not a bookworm, just bookie.
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  So let's talk about your identity and your origin story.
• 4:07
  Take us back to the early version of you.
• 4:10
  Like who were you before the titles The Carrier Fever and All
• 4:15
  of the Adventure? Thank you.
• 4:17
  AI Bookie was a dreamer. I've always been a dreamer.
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  Far back as when I was in primary school, I and the house
• 4:27
  help them. We had someone that was helping
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  us with the chores. We went to the market, we got
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  some air accessories and I would take it to school the next day
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  and I would sell it to my friends.
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  And to be honest, I didn't even know why they were buying from
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  me. They could easily go and get it
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  themselves. But I just did that.
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  And to me, I didn't even know it was business.
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  I really didn't know what it was.
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  I just knew it was something I wanted to do.
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  So I've always wanted to sell. I've always been, should I say,
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  good at it. It's just been a compassion of
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  mine. And early days, I used to grow
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  up watching my elder sister. She's late now.
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  But to be honest, I can't tell my story without a shown below.
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  I used to, you know, watch her and I saw, thank you.
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  I saw everything she did. And she was such a business
• 5:13
  person. Like she will go to Dubai, she
• 5:15
  will sell Brazilian air, she will go to Ghana, she will sell
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  jewelries. So I was like, hmm, if she's
• 5:21
  doing this, I can do this too, right?
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  So she was like my role model growing up because I used to
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  watch her. I saw the way she was able to
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  manage her time because, you know, she had sickle cell just
• 5:31
  like me. I also have sickle cell.
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  So she was really able to manage her time and I was like, okay,
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  this is really a good idea instead of, you know, working
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  9:00 to 5:00 and then my employees asking me, oh, why
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  didn't you come today? What was wrong?
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  Because I did had these issues in school where my teachers
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  would be asking me why didn't I come and whereby I had to
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  receive exams and even sometimes write exams in the sickbay.
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  So I just wanted to avoid all that bad culture.
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  And I just wanted to, you know, make something for myself I
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  could be proud of. And seeing someone actually do
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  it in front of me with such close proximity, I was like, OK,
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  yes, I'm going to do this. Wow.
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  It is quite touching. What you actually pointed at
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  that is that pain of having to leave as a sequel cell carrier.
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  A lot of people can never relate to that pain and it's quite an
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  expose. And I'd like for you to like
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  maybe expand on that a little bit myself.
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  Would I say I'm a partial carrier, right?
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  So you have the A, A, you have the AS, you have the SS.
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  And even being a partial carrier like life can be really.
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  Tough. I'll just do a little bit of
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  biology and a little bit of science.
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  Please educate our. Anaemia is a blood disease.
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  We're actually in the same category with cancer patients,
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  so the haematology team takes the care of both of us.
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  That should tell you how bad it is for the for the people
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  listening. So it basically affects the
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  cells, your red blood cells and you know you have sickle shaped
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  cells that are not formed properly and therefore they
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  can't flow to the heart vessels properly.
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  And so you get something called a crisis, which is when you have
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  pain due to the blood cells actually stock the red blood
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  cells. It can be very, very painful,
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  kind of like being stabbed to death or kind of like a gunshot
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  wound. I know someone would say, oh,
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  you've never been stabbed, You've never been shot.
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  But it is, it is that painful. Like, just think of the worst
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  thing you've gone through in life and just multiply it by 10.
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  That's how it feels. You know, it affects, you know,
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  people in the black culture. I think it affects a little bit
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  of Asian culture as well. I'm not sure.
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  I'm not a medical professional. So basically it happens when
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  AS&AS form. So when your parents made, let's
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  say AS father, AS mother, you get the sickle cell.
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  I have to use my hands to explain it because it's biology.
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  So the A from, Yeah, the S from yeah, that's AS.
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  Then there's another S from Yeah, there's another S from
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  yeah, that would be ASS. So if you're unlucky, or should
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  I say lucky, I don't know, you get the SS together.
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  So that's how you get the disease.
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  And it's lifelong is genetically given.
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  Oh, yeah. That's all sickle cell is about.
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  Really. Yeah.
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  So it can really be a very painful process.
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  You know, I've had times growing up where actually wanted to
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  just, you know, I had those, you know, those thoughts to just,
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  you know, end it all. But I'm grateful to God that I'm
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  here. And I remember I used to tell my
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  elder sister I would be like, oh, you're so lucky.
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  You are a A, you know, And she'll be like, oh, what if I go
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  outside now and a cat eats me? Or what if I get cancer
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  tomorrow? So she kind of helped me to see
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  that it doesn't really matter if I'm a SSSAA.
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  What matters is what I do with my time on heart.
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  And I took that lesson to heart. Since then, all I've ever wanted
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  to do is take my time on earth, precious, because no one is
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  promised tomorrow. I'm one of those few people that
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  I'm actually not afraid of, that I'm more scared of what I didn't
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  achieve before I die. So I'm one of those that I'm
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  like, OK, let's make all the mistakes.
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  Now on that deathbed, let me be saying I thought I've done it
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  all as opposed to on the deathbed and be saying, oh, I
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  wish I did this. I wish I did that.
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  So I'm actually one of those. So that's it.
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  Basically. I'll just say guys, drop in the
• 10:13
  comments. Your inspiration in life.
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  Oh, or where do you get your inspiration from?
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  I actually love to read that on this video on this podcast.
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  Anyway, you're watching for Spotify you.
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  Good. OK, so we're speaking about the
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  impact of a sickle cell anaemia, right And I spoke about the fact
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  that I'm a partial carrier, but you are full on carrier.
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  A lot of people do not show empathy towards people with this
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  condition. So I wanted you to what I say,
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  show some light, shed some light on it, expand a little bit by
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  the like the pains what what does it feel like, right?
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  Having to achieve the same goals, the same targets, right?
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  As you know, regular people and being 1 foot behind the cost of
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  even of this condition. Thank you.
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  AI. Sickle cell and cancer are blood
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  related diseases and we're actually in the same
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  haematology, you know, blood department.
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  That's just to give you a grasp of the severity of the illness.
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  Basically, how sickle cell is formed is when you have a
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  patient or a mother that carries the AS genotype and a father
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  that carries the AS genotype, and then you get 1S from here.
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  You get 1S from here and the sickle cell is formed.
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  And these are sickly red blood cells that have difficulties
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  flowing through your heart and giving you, your body in
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  general, the necessary oxygen you need.
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  That in turn leads to crisis pain whereby it feels like
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  you've been shot or you've been stopped.
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  And a lot of people will be like, oh, have you actually been
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  shot or stopped? No, I haven't.
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  But just picture the worst pain you've ever experienced in life
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  and multiply it by 10. And that is exactly how sickle
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  cell crisis pain is. And it can last for like a day,
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  two months, depending on your pain management strategy and the
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  medication or blood transfusion or any process you might have
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  done to relieve that crisis. So sickle cell patients, we end
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  up being very, very tired even on regular days that we don't
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  have crisis because our blood cells are doing more work than a
• 12:45
  regular individual because the red blood cells are stuck, so
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  they need to float past the oxygen.
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  So an average individual might, you know, get tired maybe after
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  12 hours of work, a sickle cell patient can wake up and the
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  person is already tired or after just two hours of work, the
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  person who's already physically tired.
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  And there's really nothing you can do about it, though there's
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  like a few drugs out there and a few transfissions out there, but
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  those are not like the permanent solutions.
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  So you, we just start to, you know, go to accept it, you know,
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  go to live through it and see what we can achieve while facing
• 13:24
  such challenges. Well, thank you very much for
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  expanding that. You know, like sometimes it just
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  feels like your body's shutting down and you kind of help
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  yourself. But how have you been able to
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  like cope in terms of like, would I say a support system?
• 13:42
  Of course, you always need people around you that would
• 13:47
  understand what you're going through and give you the
• 13:49
  necessary support to navigate life.
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  I know you would definitely appreciate that support system.
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  And like, what's the advice? You have more people out there
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  living with the condition and how can they actually navigate
• 14:04
  life and still achieve great stuff like yourself?
• 14:07
  Thank you very support system. Growing up, it was my parents,
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  my siblings, because a lot of people don't know this, but when
• 14:16
  you're actually in a crisis, my physical cell crisis, you're
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  literally kind of like, how do I explain it?
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  You can move, you can't literally carry your body.
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  Like if it's a leg crisis, you can't walk, if it's a hand
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  crisis, you can carry your hands.
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  You become kind of paralysed, you are paralysed and you're in
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  pain. So in such scenarios, you
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  literally can't do anything for yourself.
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  You can't even take yourself to the hospital 'cause I grew up in
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  Africa, Nigeria, there's nothing like ambulance.
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  So you can't die 911, whatever the ambulance system is, get
• 14:55
  someone to come grab you. No.
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  So you have to rely on your support system.
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  Several times my dad has backed me on his back to the hospital.
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  My sisters have carried me physically.
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  Like, you know, even friends when I was in school, when I was
• 15:10
  in university, like to literally help me 'cause I can't help
• 15:16
  myself. And then of recent, it's been my
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  husband. My husband is my strong support
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  system. I don't know what I would do
• 15:24
  without him. And I kind of tested him before
• 15:27
  we got married. Side notes because whenever I
• 15:31
  date a guy and I happened to have a crisis, I always test
• 15:36
  them if they're going to show up at the hospital before him.
• 15:39
  None of them ever showed up. In fact, the ones that did show
• 15:42
  up were the ones that were just friends.
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  They knew that OK, this is just friendship.
• 15:47
  Those are the ones that used to. Come and see.
• 15:49
  Me so I tested my husband with dating and he actually so this
• 15:54
  is for fellow sickle cell people like test your partner.
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  Don't just think oh when I marry him everything is soft.
• 16:01
  Gotta test the guy. Is he going to show up?
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  You know, and actually did show up and I knew that, OK, this is
• 16:09
  the one. And also he actually experienced
• 16:12
  it physically with me. There was a day was for us to go
• 16:14
  to church and I had a crisis. And he was there, you know, to
• 16:18
  experience it with me and to, you know, give me my medication
• 16:22
  and water and take care of me. So he saw her that before he
• 16:27
  proposed, and he saw her that before, you know, we agreed to a
• 16:31
  union. So a strong support system
• 16:33
  matters. And I know even though he saw
• 16:36
  her, that living in it is still very difficult.
• 16:41
  We still face challenges as a couple.
• 16:43
  He still second guesses and I still second guess because we
• 16:48
  didn't know it was going to be this challenging in the
• 16:50
  marriage. But there are some areas that
• 16:52
  you know, can be really tricky when you're living with sickle
• 16:55
  cell patient. And there was one of one
• 16:57
  important fear he had was that because he didn't want a child.
• 17:01
  And his reason was that if I have a sickle cell crisis, where
• 17:04
  is it going to keep the baby? I thank God she's actually gave
• 17:08
  right to my daughter. I haven't had one, but that was
• 17:11
  really why we delayed as much as we could in, you know, having a
• 17:15
  baby because initially he was like 01 year into marriage.
• 17:19
  He wants to enjoy his wife. One year he went by, he was like
• 17:22
  no, two years and later he opened up to me and he was like,
• 17:25
  it's just scared because if I have a crisis and he needs to
• 17:28
  take me to the hospital, where is the child going to go?
• 17:32
  You know, I helped him to understand that, you know, God
• 17:34
  is our source. At the end of the day, God will
• 17:36
  sort it out, you know, because I really wanted to be a mom.
• 17:39
  I love being a mom. Oh yeah, I have a baby now.
• 17:42
  It's year old. So to answer your question
• 17:45
  regarding feather sickle cell, how to get support and, you
• 17:49
  know, how they can navigate and, you know, achieve their goals, I
• 17:53
  would say just never give up. There was a quote from Walt
• 17:57
  Disney I used to write on my journals growing up.
• 18:00
  And that quote says all our dreams can come true if you have
• 18:05
  the courage to pursue them. I wrote this quote sound like
• 18:10
  primary school. I've never let that quote go.
• 18:13
  And another thing is this Bible passage that says all things are
• 18:17
  possible now. There's nothing impossible We
• 18:19
  got, yes, people might look at me and be like, oh, this girl
• 18:22
  has sickle cell, but I'm not seeing myself like that.
• 18:24
  I'm seeing myself as ghost child.
• 18:26
  That's how I identify myself first.
• 18:28
  I am ghost child. That's the most important thing,
• 18:30
  sickle cell and all that. It's just for me to share my
• 18:34
  story so that people can learn. Well, I don't see myself as
• 18:37
  that. I see myself first as ghost
• 18:39
  child and you know, we got all things are possible.
• 18:41
  Nothing is impossible for him. So that's just my advice for you
• 18:44
  out there. I love that I love that my
• 18:47
  should read Bible verses. The leap ends up to 4 respecting
• 18:51
  me. I can do all things through
• 18:53
  crisis strengthens me. And of course, you know, it
• 18:55
  keeps pushing me. And it's, it's quite interesting
• 18:59
  to see the, the, the similarities, the connecting
• 19:02
  dots, right? And, you know, you enter the
• 19:07
  traditional corporate environment.
• 19:09
  Like what did that season of the life teach you about how people
• 19:14
  really make decisions? All right, so before I actually,
• 19:18
  you know, start working with Revolute Business, I had, you
• 19:21
  know, doubled here and there since I left university.
• 19:25
  Reason being, the way the old system works in Nigeria, you
• 19:29
  don't get a job, military graduates like you have to also.
• 19:33
  So I, I doubled into a couple of things.
• 19:37
  I would sell makeup. I was a face model, I was a
• 19:40
  makeup artist, you know, so many things.
• 19:43
  And then in between, I also be a sales Rep for this medical team,
• 19:47
  this medical company, this forex company.
• 19:51
  You know, I was just dabbling. I was just dabbling like, 'cause
• 19:55
  I didn't take 1 penny for my parents after school, 'cause
• 19:58
  that was what I told myself I wasn't gonna take 1 penny.
• 20:01
  So I was just hustling, you know, just doubling and getting
• 20:07
  into Revolute business and navigating that.
• 20:11
  First of all, I honestly didn't think I was qualified to be an
• 20:15
  account executive. My husband was the one that gave
• 20:19
  me, excuse my friend, the boss, because he was like, I just
• 20:24
  apply. I'll help you with your CV.
• 20:27
  My friend will help you prep for interview.
• 20:29
  You know, just try it, just try it.
• 20:32
  And I was like, OK, fine, let me try it.
• 20:34
  Let me apply. And I was like, I don't have
• 20:36
  experience. And I was like, you've been
• 20:37
  selling all your life. I'm going to excuse me.
• 20:41
  I'm going to set up your CV in a way that it will show everything
• 20:44
  you've been doing. I was like, OK, And, you know,
• 20:48
  it just kind of happened. And I remember that interview
• 20:52
  because I had interviews with other companies and I remember
• 20:55
  that particular interview, like before the end of the interview,
• 20:58
  I kind of knew that me and my manager connected.
• 21:00
  I have no hatred for my manager. Like I love him to today, Danny,
• 21:06
  if you're watching. So I kind of knew it was gonna
• 21:08
  go. Well, but you love your husband
• 21:10
  more. And, you know, getting the job,
• 21:13
  yes. So getting the job and actually
• 21:15
  doing the job at two different things, you know, yes, I was
• 21:19
  good. Yes, I had trained because I did
• 21:22
  some courses prior to the interviews.
• 21:24
  So I knew about Upspot CRM, I knew about Salesforce.
• 21:28
  But the actual day-to-day and the market I was selling in was
• 21:34
  completely different. All my life I was selling in the
• 21:36
  Nigerian African market. Here I am in island Europe.
• 21:41
  I didn't grow up here. So obviously I have no
• 21:43
  connections. My network is 0 and I'm supposed
• 21:47
  to be bringing outbounds. You know, I'm supposed to be
• 21:50
  closing deals. I have a target like how is the
• 21:55
  map gonna add up? I'm competing with people that
• 21:58
  all they need is one party and they get 5 companies.
• 22:02
  All they need is 1 friend's house and they get 20 companies.
• 22:06
  Those are the kind of people that are in my, you know, unit
• 22:09
  with me. And it was really, really
• 22:11
  challenging coupled with my health and hope that it was
• 22:15
  really, really challenging. I'm not going to lie.
• 22:16
  And I had to re evaluate myself and ask the question, is this
• 22:22
  really what I want to continue doing?
• 22:24
  Honestly, I didn't even want the job in the 1st place.
• 22:26
  I've always been an entrepreneur, right?
• 22:28
  But I wanted to try something different from my husband
• 22:30
  because we're trying to buy a house.
• 22:32
  We're trying to buy a car. So I was like, let me input, let
• 22:37
  me not be the useless wife, right?
• 22:38
  Let me add something to this, Let me add value.
• 22:42
  So luckily for us, we're able to save up.
• 22:45
  We're able to deposit for the house.
• 22:47
  We're able to get the car. We want it, you know?
• 22:51
  So I was like, OK, those are the goals I needed this job for,
• 22:54
  right? Can I go back to
• 22:56
  entrepreneurship now? So, you know, we had that
• 23:00
  discussion and I was like, you know, this is not my passion.
• 23:05
  You know, I need to go to my true passion, which is, you
• 23:08
  know, solving problems, being an entrepreneur, interacting,
• 23:12
  meeting people. You know, I just love connecting
• 23:15
  with the world. So yeah, he released me and he
• 23:18
  was like, OK, fine. And that was how we got here.
• 23:22
  So you you talk about connecting with the with the world, but at
• 23:26
  what point did you realise that you had that innate ability to
• 23:32
  persuade people to communicate? Because in other for you to sell
• 23:37
  two things, you need to be able to communicate effectively.
• 23:43
  And of course you need to have that has received power.
• 23:47
  So at what point did you realise that, you know, just like the
• 23:51
  Guinness adverts, there's a drop of business in every month, you
• 23:54
  know, and it isn't you. Obviously, like I have a lot of
• 24:02
  imposter syndrome to be honest. Like I doubt myself every day,
• 24:06
  even to today. So it's not like every day I
• 24:09
  wake up in that bus mode in that Let's Connect mode, like I'm a
• 24:13
  cleric, melancholy. So that means I'm introvert,
• 24:17
  half extrovert. So it depends.
• 24:19
  Sometimes I have to really push myself because sometimes I'm not
• 24:22
  in the mood. I just want to recharge my
• 24:23
  battery, you know, Even with my husband, sometimes I just go to
• 24:27
  the bath, have a bath and close the door for like 1 hour because
• 24:31
  I need to recharge my social battery.
• 24:33
  So it's not like no, it's automatic for me.
• 24:37
  It's kind of like, OK, when Bookie is in the mood, she's
• 24:41
  fond, she loves to connect, you know, you get the best.
• 24:44
  But you know, when she's not in the mood, you need to understand
• 24:47
  that she wants to recharge. You know, even electric cars
• 24:51
  need to recharge, right? That's not cool.
• 24:53
  So even high need to recharge. So it's not, it doesn't come for
• 24:58
  me as easy as it looks. That's just when I want everyone
• 25:02
  to understand. It's also a skill, you know, add
• 25:06
  to watch videos on YouTube about, you know your tonality,
• 25:11
  you know how to understand sales, add to understand
• 25:14
  handling objections, you know, so many things.
• 25:19
  So I also had to train myself. Even though naturally I had that
• 25:22
  skill set, I still had to train myself, you know, to navigate
• 25:27
  that world. I love what you talk about the
• 25:30
  training, right? Because for a person like
• 25:33
  myself, right, switching to entrepreneurship, I learned the
• 25:37
  hard way that you need to learn sales and discover that sales is
• 25:41
  a psychology, right? So and communication, a lot of
• 25:45
  people don't realise that there are four communication skills.
• 25:48
  There are four language skills that is speaking, listening,
• 25:52
  reading and writing, right? You need to master all four
• 25:55
  skills in order to be a master of communication, but a lot of
• 25:59
  people base premium on just the speaking aspect right?
• 26:04
  Now. When you master this four
• 26:06
  language skills, it helps you to be able to refine your
• 26:09
  messaging, right? The way you return the messaging
• 26:12
  for speaking is different from the way you refine your
• 26:14
  messaging for writing, right? But at some point, you get to
• 26:20
  learn the hard knock lessons, right?
• 26:24
  And one very big hard knock is if you've ever tried cold
• 26:29
  outreaches, right? It teaches you how to handle
• 26:34
  rejection objections, to test your identity, to test your
• 26:38
  emotional control. For me, I've had to crash out
• 26:42
  too many times, right? Test your patience.
• 26:46
  You know, I've had situations whereby just give me this gist.
• 26:52
  I've had situations whereby I was having a call and these
• 26:55
  calls are recorded, right? And the guy was like, oh, I'm
• 27:00
  pinning your location, I'm going to come find you.
• 27:03
  Your accent is not from UK, so why are you calling me?
• 27:06
  You're a scammer. This, this, that that.
• 27:09
  And I've had situations where I was like, Oh my God, like I just
• 27:12
  want to break something like I just want to throw something
• 27:16
  away. Like I just want to be done.
• 27:19
  So I've had those situations and I'm like stomping something on
• 27:23
  the floor in my work of work office upstairs and then my
• 27:26
  husband is downstairs walking and he up the stairs and it's
• 27:29
  like what happened? What happened?
• 27:31
  And I'm like these people have come again, they are back.
• 27:35
  They just wonder, you know, provocate me.
• 27:38
  So, you know, I've had those kind of people and then I've had
• 27:41
  the people that obviously their objections are within reason.
• 27:45
  And then those kind of people, you know, I photo explain and,
• 27:48
  you know, help them understand where I'm coming from.
• 27:53
  I so I was talking about high pressure environments, right and
• 27:59
  how it helps you to resi develop your emotional intelligence,
• 28:04
  right. So how did I help you like
• 28:07
  working on a high pressure, you have so many deliverables.
• 28:12
  You have different stakeholders dragging you in different
• 28:15
  directions, right. How did you manage and how has
• 28:19
  it helped you improve as a person right?
• 28:22
  That is on work and off work. So you think fast, you think on
• 28:27
  your feet about situations where I, I'm naturally, I'm the kind
• 28:31
  of person that I pivot easily and I know when to pivot.
• 28:35
  So if something is not working, let's say for example a code
• 28:38
  outreach pitch is not working, you know, you quickly change it.
• 28:42
  You don't wait till next month or two months time to make that
• 28:44
  change. You know, you think on your
• 28:46
  feet, you pivot, you ask the right questions, you reach out
• 28:51
  to the right people. You know, you just want to be a
• 28:54
  sponge in that situation. You want to suck it all in.
• 28:58
  You want to learn from everywhere you can.
• 29:00
  Anyway, that was how I was like I would go to my fellow
• 29:04
  colleagues on LinkedIn, you know, I'll set calendar invites,
• 29:08
  you know, and then I'll ask them questions, you know, add
• 29:12
  colleagues in, you know, France, Poland, and I would, you know,
• 29:16
  I'll be chatting with them. This is after work around like
• 29:18
  5:00 PM just because I want to know their strategies, I want to
• 29:23
  learn more. I want to see how I can better
• 29:25
  apply myself to the job. You know, just just think on
• 29:29
  your feet, as I said. And that attitude, that
• 29:32
  behaviour, working in such environment, because I'm going
• 29:37
  to be very honest with you. It was a very like how I put it
• 29:42
  like jungle environment, like if you don't kill, you don't eat
• 29:47
  Exactly. So working in that kind of
• 29:50
  environment, you know, you learn to never give up.
• 29:54
  You learn that all you need to do is pivot.
• 29:57
  You don't fail because failure is just a step to success.
• 30:01
  So instead of, you know, crying and be like, oh, I feel that
• 30:05
  this this didn't work out, you know, learn from it.
• 30:08
  Failures are lessons. What is this failure trying to
• 30:12
  teach me? And I take that lesson on to the
• 30:15
  next one. And the next one.
• 30:17
  It gets better. You know, Speaking of learning
• 30:21
  from your failures, that helps you to keep refining your
• 30:24
  messaging, right? So like, how did your customers
• 30:29
  like respond to your language, your tone, and like how did you
• 30:35
  build trust over time with refining your messaging?
• 30:39
  Honestly, I'll just say, you know, I was myself.
• 30:43
  You know, clearly I can't change.
• 30:46
  So I was just 100% myself. So even when I have meetings
• 30:51
  with stakeholders, colleagues and customers, clients, you
• 30:56
  know, if there's something I don't understand, I'll tell
• 30:59
  them, oh, I need to get back to you on this.
• 31:02
  You know, I was very honest, you know, and they promote that
• 31:05
  cultural and rebel business as well.
• 31:07
  They'll tell you be honest, the calls are being recorded.
• 31:11
  Don't lie to get your sales, you know, so you have no choice but
• 31:16
  to be honest. Though I'm naturally honest, but
• 31:20
  the culture also helps you to be honest.
• 31:23
  So, you know, so when you are in such meetings, you know, if you
• 31:28
  don't have the answer or I'll get back to you, you know, I try
• 31:31
  and get back to them as soon as possible.
• 31:33
  There are times where, you know, I reach out to my manager and
• 31:37
  I'll be like, oh, Danny, we need to work on this e-mail together
• 31:39
  now, like, and then it's jumping on a call.
• 31:42
  We're trying to refine the message together, you know, or
• 31:45
  maybe some client sent me because there are some no
• 31:48
  nonsense clients. There are some clients that are
• 31:50
  very difficult and they'll be like, absolutely, this is
• 31:53
  rubbish. Your, your standard is this your
• 31:57
  standard is that. I'm funny enough, it's not even
• 31:59
  me they're talking to, they're directing it to the business.
• 32:02
  But you know, I have to find a way to refine my reply in a way
• 32:07
  that it's not personal and addresses their cons at the same
• 32:10
  time. You know, empathy, in my
• 32:15
  opinion, is still the most important skill in business.
• 32:19
  Did you agree with that? 100 percent, 100%.
• 32:24
  OK. So working in a Fintech
• 32:27
  environment, it's actually super if you like say ultra
• 32:32
  fast-paced. So like, what did that teach
• 32:36
  you, You know, in terms of balancing speed, precision,
• 32:41
  responsibility, and accountability?
• 32:45
  It's not me. A whole lot taught me to be a
• 32:48
  dogged person. So if you're actually my friend
• 32:52
  or my family member, you refer to me as stubborn.
• 32:55
  I hear that all the time. Bookie is stubborn, bookie is
• 32:58
  rude. And that is because I am dogged
• 33:02
  and that is because I don't give up and I say my opinion.
• 33:08
  So those are the things working in that culture has helped me
• 33:12
  because prior to that culture, you know, in Nigeria, there's
• 33:15
  something called respect your elders.
• 33:18
  You know, and I remember this particular situation with my
• 33:21
  manager, he he kind of called me out in a team meeting and it was
• 33:25
  like, bookie, I expected you to do this, you didn't do it, blah,
• 33:29
  blah, blah, blah, blah. And you know, he left and the
• 33:32
  meeting was over and then he, you know, slacked me.
• 33:37
  It was like one-on-one slack. And he was like, I was actually
• 33:40
  expecting you to defend yourself.
• 33:43
  I was like, oh, in my culture, we don't do that.
• 33:46
  And it was like, explain that in the Nigerian culture, you know,
• 33:50
  when someone is talking, you keep quiet.
• 33:52
  You respect your elders, You know, you don't talk back.
• 33:56
  And it was like, going forward, I expect you to talk back.
• 34:00
  I expect you to defend yourself. And I took that lesson and I
• 34:06
  took it going for that. I was like, OK, nobody's going
• 34:09
  to tell me this and that I'm going to defend myself.
• 34:11
  I'm going to speak up. I'm going to, you know, talk
• 34:13
  back if I have to. Because to be honest, that's
• 34:16
  that's what you're meant to do. If you check out the kids that
• 34:19
  grew up in Ireland, UK, they don't even know anything like do
• 34:22
  not talk back. They don't do anything like
• 34:24
  that. So imagine the different
• 34:27
  cultural variations. So that was something I really
• 34:31
  took from that, going to apply this wherever I am, you know, in
• 34:36
  life. You know, culture shock, culture
• 34:40
  shock is a very, very big thing. So for me also like having a
• 34:44
  similar background as yours, moving from Nigeria to the UKI
• 34:48
  met with a lot of culture shocks, right?
• 34:50
  But I like to know what you would probably say, are you like
• 34:55
  maybe top two, top three culture shock elements that is moving
• 35:00
  from a Nigerian environment to the Irish environment?
• 35:05
  The number one that affects everybody is the food.
• 35:09
  That's like the first shock. Like what am I eating?
• 35:13
  I don't understand. The food is bland, the.
• 35:15
  Food is bland, there is no pepper, there is no seasoning.
• 35:19
  That was my first number one, like what's going on?
• 35:23
  Yeah. And and the second one obviously
• 35:26
  was, you know, communication, the way they communicate over
• 35:29
  here, even in the morning, they don't say good morning.
• 35:32
  They say hi, you know, hello. That's their greeting in Africa.
• 35:37
  You say good morning. You even knew that one.
• 35:38
  Say that good morning. You know, so I would say those.
• 35:41
  I like this. It's so major culture shock.
• 35:46
  It's lazy. Can I, can I think of what?
• 35:50
  All right. Wow.
• 35:51
  How about you? What What culture shock have you
• 35:54
  experienced? Yeah, I'll tell you the, the,
• 35:57
  the food was #1 right. Because, yeah, at first, you
• 36:02
  know, coming to the UK, I came to KPMG and KPMG had this
• 36:06
  culture of like having an office canteen.
• 36:09
  And I'm like, OK, out of the packs was that you have food in
• 36:15
  the canteen, A subsidised food. And I'm like, yeah, I'm like
• 36:18
  this this, this food is this is trash.
• 36:21
  And then there was a day that one of the partners, right, is
• 36:24
  having a beaten with the with the new hires.
• 36:29
  And then he was asking me like, why is it that you do not come
• 36:32
  into the office? And I was straight up honest.
• 36:34
  I'm like, the food is trash. Yeah, that's actually very true.
• 36:37
  Like, yeah, British food is actually blind, right.
• 36:40
  But assessment that, yeah, social interactions, yeah,
• 36:44
  social interactions was a very, very.
• 36:47
  Do you know the funniest thing? Like like.
• 36:52
  OK. Yeah, they know that what
• 36:54
  happens, You cannot serve bookie and meal without adding extra
• 36:59
  pepper and extra sauce like extra salt.
• 37:02
  So when they are serving everybody and they come in, when
• 37:06
  they get to my room, they will pack the salt, pack the pepper
• 37:10
  in Saint James is an Ireland because they know, but kids is
• 37:14
  not going to eat that food. Good desk gracious.
• 37:16
  So I think one of my early neighbours in London was
• 37:21
  laughing at me. He says OK anytime you're going
• 37:23
  to work make sure to take your chilli pepper and that's your
• 37:27
  salt with you where you go into work so that you can enjoy the
• 37:29
  food. But may I don't like.
• 37:32
  That's the only. Social interactions, social
• 37:36
  interactions, major, major one for me, right?
• 37:39
  Like you get on the train, you just say greeting to a person
• 37:44
  and they act like you're invisible back.
• 37:48
  It's, it's, it's that level of being rude for me.
• 37:52
  Like it is very, very shocking for me.
• 37:54
  You get into elevators with certain people and you say hi,
• 37:58
  you say a good morning, hello, and they just flat out ignored
• 38:03
  you. Wow.
• 38:04
  It's, it's crazy. But I think I guess that's like
• 38:06
  a London thing because when I went to like other parts of
• 38:09
  England, like then up north, the people are warmer.
• 38:13
  So issues like London that that's that there's a culture of
• 38:17
  being rude and ignoring people, which I did not like.
• 38:21
  I think it's a city theme. Most cities, most cities, they
• 38:26
  just want you to come. And also everybody has the
• 38:30
  mindset, you know, they're just looking for their daily, also
• 38:34
  daily bread. So I think it's a city thing
• 38:37
  'cause even Dublin city, I think that happens as well.
• 38:41
  Yeah. So the people in the suburb, but
• 38:44
  they are much, much friendly, much, much warmer.
• 38:48
  Yeah, I agree with that, Yeah. Yeah, I've been to Dublin once.
• 38:53
  Dublin wasn't as bad as London. Anyways, I think London takes
• 38:57
  the call. In terms of now going back to
• 39:03
  your Fintech experience, like working in the financial
• 39:08
  services sector, I think it would have talked to you quite a
• 39:11
  lot about understanding human financial behaviour, right?
• 39:15
  And human financial behaviour influences or the OR would I say
• 39:22
  social behaviour. But how has that actually, would
• 39:27
  I say, inspired the way that you create contents and do you
• 39:31
  refine your messaging? That's a very good one.
• 39:35
  I would say the way the financial and social mix is in
• 39:40
  terms of looking at consumer behaviour and, you know, trying
• 39:44
  to put yourself in the bias shoes, I always tell my husband
• 39:48
  this, you are not selling to yourself, you are selling to
• 39:52
  your customers because you'll be like, oh, I don't like it this
• 39:55
  way. I don't like this one and I be
• 39:57
  like, it's not for you, it's not for you.
• 40:00
  You're not the target market, it's not for you.
• 40:02
  You need to focus on the target market to focus on the consumer,
• 40:06
  focus on their behaviour. And you know, that's just what I
• 40:10
  took from that is understanding that it goes into the psychology
• 40:14
  of the consumer. What are they thinking?
• 40:16
  What are their pinpoint, You know, what are they struggling
• 40:19
  with? Just try and put yourself in
• 40:21
  their shoes. Figure out how's their
• 40:23
  day-to-day life. OK, let's say your target market
• 40:26
  is a nurse in the hospital. OK, how is her day-to-day?
• 40:30
  Like obviously she has to wake up as early as you know,
• 40:34
  depending on the shift. 5:00 AM get a train, then starts her
• 40:40
  shift. You know you need to figure out
• 40:42
  those things to understand her behaviour and how she'll
• 40:46
  respond. Was about to get into the
• 40:49
  Creator Hub live section. Riverside AI called this aspect.
• 40:58
  So let us talk about Creator Hub.
• 41:02
  You've been talking about pinpoints.
• 41:04
  You talked about how you don't sell a product that you want to
• 41:11
  sell, you sell a product that the buyer wants to buy, the
• 41:16
  customer also buy. So what was that original
• 41:20
  problem, the original pinpoint that you saw in the creator
• 41:24
  economy that made you say Creator Hub needs to exist?
• 41:29
  So it was a personal experience. I've been doing UTC for two
• 41:32
  years now. I've been a user generated
• 41:37
  content creator for two years. For those that don't know what
• 41:40
  the term UTC means, and basically.
• 41:43
  You just see around. You just see.
• 41:45
  You just see. You just see what is.
• 41:47
  You just see. I need to explain, a lot of
• 41:49
  people don't know this term. It means when you create related
• 41:52
  videos to advertise brand products.
• 41:55
  And I worked with several brands, couple of brands, you
• 41:59
  know, America, UK, Ireland, you know, and I was seeing the same
• 42:04
  problem. It was a personal pain point.
• 42:07
  The problem was #1 the market was so disorganised, it was
• 42:12
  decentralised, you know, there wasn't a process, there was no
• 42:16
  system. As a business, if you're looking
• 42:19
  for you to see creator, you need to hire someone or an agent that
• 42:24
  would start searching maybe on Instagram or Twitter or you
• 42:28
  know, on any socials and start looking for you to see creators.
• 42:32
  And then when you finally get the person you know, you reach
• 42:36
  out through an e-mail or through DM.
• 42:38
  And then there's so much back and forth in admin and
• 42:42
  negotiation. Same thing.
• 42:43
  You know, if it's maybe you posted a job online, you posted
• 42:48
  it on Twitter, you're looking for agency creators.
• 42:50
  People put their portfolio and their e-mail.
• 42:53
  You have to start shuffling through thousands and thousands
• 42:58
  of portfolios and emails till you find the right person.
• 43:02
  So it takes a lot of manpower, it takes a lot of admin.
• 43:06
  And what a lot of businesses don't realise is a lot of cost
• 43:11
  is going into that, a lot of costs.
• 43:14
  And you know, even personally, as a creator, I had to stop
• 43:20
  paying someone. It was that bad to start
• 43:24
  replying my emails to brands and to start outbound for brands
• 43:29
  because there was no structure, there was no process.
• 43:32
  There wasn't a platform where I can say this is where I get all
• 43:36
  things you just see done. No, I have to use Camba, Create
• 43:40
  Portfolio, I have to use another app.
• 43:43
  Create Invoice, I have to use another app.
• 43:46
  Calendar Management, I have to use another app.
• 43:49
  You know, it was a mess and you know, I was just nagging to my
• 43:56
  husband one day. I was just complaining.
• 43:59
  Why is it so bad? Like I do enjoy creating this
• 44:02
  videos. I do enjoy this content, but the
• 44:06
  process is just not giving. And my husband, you know, being
• 44:11
  my husband, because I used to tell him you are the 1% and he
• 44:16
  was like, let's do something about it.
• 44:19
  I wasn't even looking for a solution to be honest.
• 44:22
  I was just nagging that day. I was just expressing my
• 44:24
  thoughts. You know how we women will be
• 44:27
  like, oh babe, I just want to nag to you.
• 44:29
  I don't want you to look for a solution.
• 44:31
  You know, that was what I was doing and it was like, let's do
• 44:34
  something about it. This is a pinpoint to you and
• 44:37
  not only me, other creators because I took so many UGC
• 44:42
  courses when I realised that we are all facing the same thing.
• 44:47
  So I had this Telegram group, I joined, we're like over 100, all
• 44:52
  complaining about the same thing.
• 44:54
  There was another course I paid for, one lady in America all
• 44:58
  complaining about the same thing.
• 44:59
  So it was really bad structural problem and I was just
• 45:04
  complaining about it and my husband was like let's do
• 45:06
  something about it. Let's create a web app, an
• 45:10
  application, a software, a tool, you know where you can have a
• 45:17
  centralised whereby from discovery to delivery, the
• 45:23
  beginning to the end of a UGC project life cycle can be in all
• 45:28
  one place. So we created the only help so
• 45:30
  far as only happened to all world, America, UK, Europe that
• 45:36
  does that.