Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Stop Hiding: The Professional Risks of Anonymous Branding

Transcript

Stop Hiding: The Professional Risks of Anonymous Branding · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the podcast.
• 0:04
  Today I want to pick on Crypto Bros because it's been a while
• 0:08
  since we spoke about them. But even though we're going to
• 0:10
  be talking about crypto Bros, the business lessons that we're
• 0:14
  going to talk about applies to people from every other sphere
• 0:20
  of business in Nigeria. So today the question or the
• 0:24
  issue or the matter that we're going to be tackling is why
• 0:28
  Crypto Bros, especially Nigerian crypto Bros, should stop using
• 0:32
  fancy display pictures on social media.
• 0:37
  And then it got me wondering, do crypto babes even exist in
• 0:40
  Nigeria? Because again, the conversation
• 0:43
  with crypto people, you know, on LinkedIn or wherever, or they
• 0:48
  listen to the podcast and they reach out.
• 0:49
  And I've noticed it's always guys.
• 0:51
  So if you're a crypto babe in Niger, please reach out to me.
• 0:56
  You can call send me a text message or WhatsApp message on
• 0:59
  08064662140. I'd like to meet one of you.
• 1:06
  I don't know if you guys exist and let's see.
• 1:10
  Yeah, Anyway, it'll be nice to have a chat.
• 1:12
  All right, so do why crypto brochure stop using fancy
• 1:16
  display pictures on social media, on your WhatsApp, on your
• 1:19
  TikTok, on your LinkedIn, on your whatever and remember that
• 1:26
  this is a sales podcast. So of course, if I'm saying this
• 1:28
  sort of thing, you know, I'm not coming at it from a cultural
• 1:30
  perspective or a religious perspective or whatever.
• 1:33
  I'm coming at this from a purely financial perspective.
• 1:36
  Now, when you crypto Bros use all these fancy display pictures
• 1:39
  that you do, it actually is messing up with your money.
• 1:43
  Let me repeat it again you guys and you will have a culture, you
• 1:46
  have an ethos and you like to do things the way you do, but
• 1:49
  honestly speaking is messing up with your money.
• 1:52
  Now some of you will be wondering like how can display a
• 1:55
  picture of you messing up with your money?
• 1:56
  So relax, let's do it this way. Let me give you a real life
• 1:59
  example. This is somebody I'm currently
• 2:01
  yawning with on on LinkedIn. As per you know, people send me
• 2:06
  connection requests all the time and I connect with everybody
• 2:10
  except people whose profiles are blank because when your profile
• 2:15
  is blank, you know, I'm not sure like are you bought like I have
• 2:21
  no idea. So so long as I can see
• 2:23
  something shown on your profile, I'll accept and always try and
• 2:25
  spark up a conversation. So skipto bro reaches out to me
• 2:30
  on LinkedIn, I accept, I send a few messages and then we start
• 2:35
  chatting and I told him about his display picture because I
• 2:39
  always try to let people maybe I should stop self prognosing to
• 2:43
  other people's businesses, but just let him know that I think
• 2:46
  you should change the DP. And then he laughed about and I
• 2:49
  was like, ah, then the crypto space now and any I'll just let
• 2:53
  it slide. But let me describe his profile
• 2:55
  picture to you. And as I'm describing this
• 2:58
  profile picture, Please remember that I am a Nigerian.
• 3:03
  The person who is chatting with me in LinkedIn is a Nigerian.
• 3:07
  And then he's also trying to sell to Nigerians.
• 3:13
  OK, let me repeat so that you guys will get the background.
• 3:16
  I am a Nigerian. This crypto bro, he is a
• 3:20
  Nigerian. The people he's trying to sell
• 3:23
  his services to are Nigerians. Now, let's describe his DP.
• 3:28
  Now, First off, his DP is a Greco Roman figure.
• 3:33
  The fact that some of you will be thinking Greco Roman Guinea
• 3:37
  exactly proves my point. So you don't know, you don't
• 3:42
  even know what the, you know what the hell that is.
• 3:45
  So first of all, it's a Greco Roman figure.
• 3:49
  This Greco Roman figure has a gold wreath on his head.
• 3:53
  Some of you are wondering which one is leaf wreath again, you
• 3:57
  see, kind of proved my point. And then the wreath is made of
• 4:00
  gold and for some reason the wreath is, is melting.
• 4:03
  You know, like how like if you take butter and put it in the
• 4:05
  microwave, you know how the thing would just I think were
• 4:08
  met. So it's like that.
• 4:10
  So it's a Greco Roman figure who is wearing a gold wreath and
• 4:14
  then the wreath is melting. Then the the Greco Roman figure
• 4:18
  is also wearing square bubble gum pink glasses.
• 4:22
  The glasses have rainbow reflections in them.
• 4:26
  Then the Greco Roman figure has blue skin.
• 4:30
  Apart from having blue skin, the guy also has gills.
• 4:34
  Yes, by the way, I'm describing somebody's profile picture on
• 4:37
  LinkedIn and the person is selling crypto services to
• 4:41
  Nigerians. Let me continue.
• 4:43
  Some of you can't even picture what it is that I am describing.
• 4:46
  So how about let me just continue.
• 4:48
  So the figure done in Greco Roman style, melting gold
• 4:53
  wreath, bubble gum, pink glasses, rainbow reflections in
• 4:57
  the glasses. The guy has blue skin.
• 4:59
  The guy now has gills. So for those of you who watch
• 5:02
  that movie, I think was made by, is it Gilmo del Toro, Abbie,
• 5:05
  what's the guy's name? Like?
• 5:06
  I remember like my wife likes his stuff.
• 5:09
  He made this movie where there was a water creature and I fell
• 5:11
  in love with a woman and they ended up, you understand, they
• 5:16
  ended up. So if you watch that movie, by
• 5:21
  the way, if you're watching it, make sure you don't watch it
• 5:23
  with children around because your children will ask you a
• 5:24
  question entire. They'll say, mommy, what are
• 5:26
  they doing? So, yeah, it looked like that
• 5:32
  creature from the Gilmore del Toro movie with Gils.
• 5:36
  Then the thing in the DP is now wearing the Basketball Jersey
• 5:40
  with GM written on the jersey. Whatever GM means, I have no
• 5:45
  idea. And then this figure is a
• 5:47
  sipping hot coffee and then the guy has a silver chain around
• 5:53
  his neck, sort of like hip hop style.
• 5:56
  So ladies and gentlemen, listening to the podcast today,
• 6:00
  I shit you not, I'm a Nigerian. The fellow who is chatting with
• 6:06
  me is a Nigerian that is his DP and he's selling to who?
• 6:12
  Nigerians. What you would let that thing
• 6:15
  sink a bit? A Nigerian whose DP is a Greco
• 6:20
  Roman figure with a melting gold wreath on his head with square
• 6:24
  bubble gum pink glasses with rainbow reflections in them.
• 6:29
  Then the thing has blue skin and then it has gills, is wearing
• 6:33
  the Basketball Jersey with GM written on it and then it's
• 6:36
  sipping hot coffee with a silver chain around its neck.
• 6:40
  And the guy selling to Nigerians, he is in the crypto
• 6:45
  space from his DP, He's also in the advisory space.
• 6:49
  He's also in the trading space. And then he handles OTC
• 6:52
  transactions. Maybe some of you will say and
• 7:01
  so, but let's think about it. Is your mom going to buy wealth
• 7:05
  advisory services from this guy? Will your mom even take a phone
• 7:09
  call from this guy? Maybe you might.
• 7:13
  But me to be honest, you know, people hit me up like this and
• 7:18
  they're trying to sell me wealth advisory services.
• 7:21
  I just ignore. If this guy shows up to your
• 7:27
  uncle and your auntie online, I want to start talking trading
• 7:31
  advice. You think your uncle or auntie
• 7:32
  is going to listen? And by the way, I keep saying it
• 7:38
  that you guys in the crypto space in Niger, people will have
• 7:40
  APR problem because nowadays maybe we have crypto.
• 7:44
  What do you think is a scam? What do you think is a 419?
• 7:47
  And what do you think is what's the other one?
• 7:51
  Yahoo? Yahoo.
• 7:52
  So we even have APR problem but somehow it doesn't click for you
• 7:56
  guys. Then when you're reaching out to
• 7:58
  people, you, you should present yourself in ways that are
• 8:08
  appropriate and expected by the audience that you're reaching
• 8:13
  out to. So you can see that even though
• 8:16
  I'm picking on crypto Bros now, it's actually something that
• 8:20
  applies to a whole host of us. We're trying to use social
• 8:22
  media, we're trying to use WhatsApp, we're trying to use
• 8:24
  all these tools for business, but then we are not coordinating
• 8:28
  ourselves. We are not optimizing our
• 8:30
  profiles in a way that our potential audience will be much
• 8:35
  more amenable, much more comfortable seeing us,
• 8:39
  comfortable hearing from us. Now, I'm not saying you have to
• 8:42
  use your face because for me, I don't.
• 8:48
  If you go and track my LinkedIn now, what you have there is the
• 8:50
  podcast art. But the reason why I use it is
• 8:54
  because the podcast art says very clearly what it is that I
• 8:58
  do. It has sales there.
• 9:01
  It has marketing there. It has my name there.
• 9:04
  So you see the DP, even if it's not a human face, you kind of
• 9:09
  understand, bam, this is what this person is about.
• 9:12
  So it doesn't have to be your face.
• 9:14
  Which is why for some people that I work with, when we have
• 9:17
  this conversation and they say I don't want to use my face, I say
• 9:20
  don't use your face. Use your company logo.
• 9:26
  If you're a photographer. Nah, don't put your face.
• 9:28
  Put a camera there. This is Nigel.
• 9:32
  You slide into somebody's DM, you're trying to sell
• 9:34
  photography and video services, and your DP is a camera.
• 9:37
  Conversation will continue. So for the lady who is about to
• 9:44
  get into the piggery space, I told you that I liked her.
• 9:47
  Her DP, because it was really cool, was Care Bears.
• 9:52
  The Care Bears, the one that has two hearts on his chest, the
• 9:54
  pink and the I think it's pink and blue.
• 9:58
  Some of you will be wondering which one is Care Bears.
• 10:00
  Again, that's my point exactly. We're using all kinds of things
• 10:03
  that people don't understand and know in this particular context.
• 10:07
  Now, if she's going into pig farming, what do you think is
• 10:09
  going to make a stronger impression?
• 10:11
  ADPA display picture, a profile picture that has Care Bears on
• 10:15
  it or a profile picture that has pigs on it.
• 10:19
  A young lady reaches out to you, She's sliding into your DM or
• 10:22
  she's sending you messages on Instagram or whatever.
• 10:25
  She claims to be a pig farmer and then her profile picture is
• 10:27
  pigs. This is Nigeria.
• 10:29
  The conversation will continue, but somebody slides into your
• 10:34
  DM. The person is a pig farmer, but
• 10:35
  the profile picture is is care bears anyway.
• 10:43
  So this is the problem. The problem is those of you in
• 10:48
  the crypto space. You guys like your NFTS, you
• 10:51
  know, non fungible tokens and so you know, you, you try to make
• 10:56
  your display pictures, you know, NFTS.
• 11:00
  You guys also like digital art. So because of that, that's why
• 11:02
  you put digital art all over the place.
• 11:04
  Then some of you guys have this like cyberpunk culture thing
• 11:09
  going on and you guys don't mind that.
• 11:11
  So you, you know, you show it all over the place.
• 11:14
  And then you guys in the crypto space, you guys have this thing
• 11:17
  about anonymity, like you don't want anybody to know who you
• 11:21
  are. You know, the government should
• 11:23
  not know who I am. Private individuals should not
• 11:25
  know who I am. You know, that whole political
• 11:28
  liberal, liberal, what's our word again?
• 11:30
  Libertarianism, Abby. Abby, what's the word anyway?
• 11:34
  You will know what I mean. This whole thing of the
• 11:36
  government should stay out of my business and my own sovereign
• 11:38
  person and my own true self. Nobody needs to know me.
• 11:41
  I'm a unique actor on a global stage and blood, you know all
• 11:46
  that, whatever. Now The thing is, all that is
• 11:49
  fine, right? You crypto Bros and crypto
• 11:53
  babes, Nigerian crypto babes, if you exist, please reach out to
• 11:56
  me 08064662140. I just want to be sure that you
• 12:02
  exist and it's not only guys that are in the crypto space in
• 12:05
  Niger. So all these things are fine.
• 12:10
  NFT, cyberpunk, stay away from my business.
• 12:15
  I want to remain anonymous, blah, blah, blah.
• 12:16
  All that thing is, is fine. So long as you are relating as a
• 12:20
  subculture. When all of you are relating
• 12:24
  when, when are they relate amongst ourselves, It's fine.
• 12:26
  You can do whatever it is you want.
• 12:28
  It's perfectly fine. It's like, I OK, well, I've sold
• 12:38
  all my guitars, but there's the time that was heavily into
• 12:40
  guitars. So those of us who are into the
• 12:42
  guitar subculture, you know, that would be kind of weird in
• 12:44
  Nigeria, you know, Nigerian boys who sit around all day talking
• 12:48
  about Peter Green and and Jimi Hendrix, you know, and Pink
• 12:56
  Floyd and then all that. Yeah, it'll be kind of weird
• 13:00
  when you see Nigerian boys and girls talking like that.
• 13:03
  You'll be like, what the hell are these people talking about?
• 13:05
  And those are the ones that went abroad, that being said, OK, not
• 13:08
  them, them. So as a subculture, it's all OK.
• 13:11
  When we're in our group, we can be talking all the things you
• 13:13
  want to talk. But then when we go out, we got
• 13:15
  to talk in terms of how other people understand, other people
• 13:18
  would appreciate. So cyber, cyberpunk, crypto
• 13:23
  Bros, you know, you can continue relating as you relate when you
• 13:28
  are there as a group. The problem is just that you are
• 13:31
  trying to sell to ordinary people like me, and I'm not one
• 13:34
  of you. You're trying to sell to people
• 13:37
  like my mom or my father-in-law. You want to collect the
• 13:43
  investment money to invest in your, your alternative.
• 13:49
  How do they call it again, alternative investment products?
• 13:51
  I think that's what they call it today.
• 13:53
  Uh huh. You want to collect their money
• 13:56
  for alternative investment products.
• 13:58
  So you're talking to people like me.
• 13:59
  You're talking to the older generation of Nigerians who
• 14:01
  don't share this ethos and they don't understand these images
• 14:04
  that people are putting out. In fact, some people find these
• 14:06
  images scary and then hard to understand and they're rather
• 14:10
  impersonal. Most people on social media are
• 14:14
  doing their best to be more personal and relatable.
• 14:17
  You guys seem to be going the other way.
• 14:21
  That's the problem. You're trying to get average.
• 14:23
  You're trying to get average Nigerians like me to invest real
• 14:27
  money in your crypto products, in your crypto exchanges and
• 14:29
  blah, blah, blah. Now some of you try and say no,
• 14:31
  no, no, I'm not getting you to invest real money because the
• 14:35
  money that you put will be converted into tokens and
• 14:37
  something, something your money is still there.
• 14:39
  OK, I hear you. But The thing is from the
• 14:41
  average Nigerians point of view, the way we see it is we actually
• 14:45
  have to drop naira or we actually have to drop dollars to
• 14:48
  be able to get in. So as far as the average
• 14:49
  Nigerian is concerned, you know, we're spending money, we're
• 14:52
  losing money. You say we're not losing money,
• 14:55
  but I say forget it. The audience, that's what they
• 14:57
  think. Now, the solution is very
• 15:01
  simple, you crypto Bros. And of course, it doesn't just
• 15:04
  apply to crypto Bros because like I said, the lady that I was
• 15:08
  talking to, the potential pig farmer, but whose profile
• 15:12
  picture is Care Bears, the filter is very simple.
• 15:16
  Realize that this is just business.
• 15:19
  It's not about you. So if you love Care Bears, all
• 15:22
  right, no problem. If you love cyberpunk, hey, it's
• 15:25
  up to you. But it's not about you, it's
• 15:26
  about the audience. So if you're selling to
• 15:30
  insiders, if you're a crypto bro and the people that you're
• 15:34
  selling to are people in the crypto community, oh, very good.
• 15:37
  In that case, keep your images. In that case, it'll be a sign of
• 15:41
  authenticity. They will see you and they will
• 15:44
  say, this is one of us. Then they will interact with you
• 15:46
  and they will do business with you because they will see your
• 15:49
  DP and they'll say correct guy. But if you're selling to
• 15:54
  outsiders, my opinion, use your real name.
• 15:59
  Stop all these cyberpunk under score X .52 Niger Blaze forever
• 16:07
  that kind of name that which Nigerian finds it scary or
• 16:11
  sacred Sacred Unicorn XS dash dash exclamation mark question
• 16:18
  mark Raina forever. Nothing is really, really like
• 16:25
  the average Nigerian doesn't understand.
• 16:28
  And honestly, sometimes I wonder how you guys think you show up
• 16:31
  in somebody's WhatsApp inbox with those kinds of pictures and
• 16:39
  with that kind of name. Yeah, Satoshi forever.
• 16:46
  Like how is average Nigeria supposed to know what is Satoshi
• 16:49
  or who is Satoshi is? So all of them are inside?
• 16:55
  Yes. You are trying to salute your
• 16:58
  ancestor by calling yourself Satoshi under score.
• 17:00
  Something, something. Something.
• 17:02
  Yeah, amongst yourselves. You know, the average Nigerian
• 17:05
  does not know Satoshi. under score something.
• 17:08
  Something. Sato.
• 17:09
  What? This is sales.
• 17:14
  We're trying to collect money. This is business.
• 17:16
  So it's not about you, it's about the other people.
• 17:19
  My opinion, Use your real name. Use a decent headshot.
• 17:27
  In fact, we are nowadays you can, you know, take a picture
• 17:30
  that you take with your phone and use AI.
• 17:31
  Make that thing look real nice and professional, give you suit
• 17:34
  and everything. Make a look as if the thing was
• 17:36
  shot in the studio. Use a real name.
• 17:39
  Use a decent headshot. Then use social media BIOS that
• 17:43
  people can understand. This business, it's about money.
• 17:50
  It's not about you. We're selling to people.
• 17:53
  We need to show up in real life and we need to show up online in
• 17:58
  ways that people people anticipate, people expect,
• 18:04
  people understand, people are comfortable with.
• 18:07
  That's how we need to show up. So if you go through traditional
• 18:13
  sales training, for instance, it's one of the things that your
• 18:15
  sales trainer is going to talk about.
• 18:16
  They'll talk about dressing and how you need to show up
• 18:20
  appropriate. So I'm a former lawyer, now a
• 18:26
  business consultant. For a while I was in the event
• 18:30
  space. As a lawyer, people expect me to
• 18:34
  show up a certain way. So back when I was in legal, if
• 18:38
  I show up for a meeting, I'm wearing T-shirt and short nika.
• 18:40
  Will people take me seriously? But then as a wedding
• 18:47
  photographer, if I show up in jeans, short nika and T-shirt,
• 18:51
  I'm coming for meeting. OK, It's a different thing.
• 18:55
  There's more leeway there. If I'm flowing in political
• 19:00
  circles, I'm going for political caucus meeting and I show up in
• 19:04
  jeans and and short knicker isn't or somehow.
• 19:12
  So whether in real life, physically or whether online, we
• 19:17
  need to turn up, we need to show up.
• 19:19
  We need to pull up, we need to manifest in a way that people
• 19:23
  expect, in a way that is appropriate to who it is that
• 19:28
  we're talking to. So yes, I'm picking on crypto
• 19:33
  Bros today. And by the way, crypto babes, do
• 19:37
  they exist in Nigeria? If you do reach out to me, call,
• 19:40
  send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 19:49
  If you're a pig farmer, don't do Care Bears in your DP.
• 19:56
  If you're a lawyer, don't have Marvel characters in your DP,
• 20:01
  you're a lawyer. People are not expecting to see
• 20:03
  comic books. You can like comic books in
• 20:06
  private. You can be a comic nut, you can
• 20:09
  have all the comics in the world, but you are putting
• 20:12
  yourself out there as a lawyer. What I'm saying now doesn't
• 20:19
  apply to everybody. There are some people who their
• 20:22
  social media is their private social media, like my wife.
• 20:24
  My wife is not in business, so her social media is a social
• 20:27
  media. If she wants to put a dancing
• 20:28
  Unicorn as ADP, it's up to her. She's not trying to collect
• 20:32
  money from anybody. She's trying to keep in touch
• 20:34
  with her friends and her family. And if she wants to use it
• 20:37
  dancing Unicorn, everybody will know her well is her that's her
• 20:40
  own dancing Unicorn. But the moment we say we want to
• 20:44
  use these are our DP and our social media presence are not
• 20:49
  not to go and start looking for money.
• 20:50
  Look, we need to we need to how will I put it?
• 20:55
  We need to package accordingly. OK, so that's it.
• 21:01
  No need to go into a continue with a 30 minute rant on this
• 21:05
  one. So let me just bring it to a
• 21:06
  close here. So I gave my phone number at the
• 21:10
  beginning of the episode. And that's because all I came
• 21:13
  from people who listen to the podcast.
• 21:16
  So you don't have to be a crypto babe to reach out.
• 21:18
  I'm just curious because I've only been seeing crypto Bros.
• 21:23
  I'm just curious if there are crypto babes in this space in
• 21:26
  Niger. So whether you're a crypto bro
• 21:28
  or a crypto babe or whatever business you're involved in, if
• 21:33
  you want to reach out, you can call, send me a text message or
• 21:35
  a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 21:44
  For those of you who are looking for free business advice, that's
• 21:48
  not a problem. I like to talk to as many people
• 21:51
  as possible as long as I have the time.
• 21:54
  Just send me a message when I'm free, I'll get back to you.
• 21:56
  But if you're looking for free business advice, just let me
• 22:00
  know. Say so early, get the message
• 22:02
  and we'll get to it. And I'll answer one business
• 22:05
  question for you if you want to go beyond that, you want us to
• 22:11
  sit down and have more in depth discussions about your business,
• 22:14
  what you're trying to achieve, the problems that you're
• 22:16
  currently facing, and come up with solutions, come up with a
• 22:20
  long term solutions to get you to the promised land.
• 22:22
  We'll have to set up a conversation.
• 22:24
  I'll say a conversation, set up a consultation.
• 22:28
  So yeah, that's it. Now for those of you who
• 22:30
  listened to the episode before this one, you remember that I
• 22:33
  think we're talking about podcasting, branding and stuff
• 22:38
  like that. So we'll get back to that and
• 22:40
  the next episode. It's just that, you know, while
• 22:43
  I was chatting to this crypto bro, I said we just come up here
• 22:47
  and share this advice again real quick because I'll be surprised
• 22:50
  if there are other people listening to this podcast right
• 22:52
  now who are currently making that same, that same mistake.
• 22:57
  You know, you're a web developer, but then on your DP,
• 23:00
  you're using Bob Marley smoking ganja.
• 23:02
  How is that helping you? Or you claim to be a security
• 23:08
  expert, for instance, selling online security or something
• 23:12
  like that. But then maybe your DPS Voltron,
• 23:14
  you know, how is that helping you?
• 23:17
  Anyway, let me wrap it up. So thanks for listening.
• 23:20
  I'll catch you all some other time.