Loading…
Auto-generated; may contain errors.
Loading transcript…
Hello and welcome, my name is Tavishima Ayede. I solve sales and marketing challenges and I'm making today's recording at an undisclosed location in Abuja. But yes, I'm outside, so expect to hear some interruptions in the background. Now, the goal of this podcast is business education. So please do me a favour and spread the word so that your friends and family members in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the questions that we tackle.
They can do that by subscribing on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of their choice. And if you'd love to connect with me, then call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Now today on the podcast, I would like to continue this conversation on Purple cows. Yes, we're going to get some more thought on Purple Cows. Now, for those of you who are wondering, purple cows, what is a purple cow? This is a business podcast. Why are we talking about cows?
And if that's the case, then I mean, she didn't listen to the prior episode. Now, when we say purple cows, we're talking about ideas that have been expressed by a business author. His name is Seth Godin. That is Seth. And then Godin. GODIN and he has lots of interesting ideas about building extraordinary businesses, businesses or business ideas or business products that you build the marketing into the product itself so that you, the business owner, you have no need to promote, no need to advertise,
no need to sell. The thing itself that you are building will just continue to sell itself and promote itself because The thing is an extraordinary product. It's an extraordinary service. It's an extraordinary business. So those are the ideas behind Seth Gordon. And the reason why he came up with the idea of purple cows was because if you're walking by a field and you see cows, you know, normal, normal, you see them white and black, maybe brown.
But the moment you see a purple cow, you will stop. You will notice and you will talk to other people about it. So the purple cow is just a metaphor. If you'd like to know some more about the idea, especially ideas as expressed in the book, then when you're done listening to this episode, go listen to the prior episode that was recorded just before this one. And you get caught up to speed. But based on the feedback I've gotten from the episode, you know, a comment on the episode,
people sending me messages, I figure, let me just come online, you know, one more time and just say a few more thoughts. Now, there's one thing I didn't do in the previous episode, which was to give examples of businesses that Seth Gordon regards as purple cows because he he spoke about a lot. And to be honest, one of the reasons why I stay away from those sorts of businesses is because they're not entirely relatable to the Nigerian experience.
And if you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time, you know that I made it my mission to only talk about these ideas to the extent that the average Nigerian person can relate. Because the reason why a lot of you have found this podcast and love this podcast and continue to listen and continue to comment and continue to share is precisely because I'm talking about things in Nigerian context. Because other podcasts with a Nigerian podcast trying to talk about business or American podcasts trying to talk about business, you know, everybody's in love with Fang and basically North American businesses and things like that.
Oh, by the way, Fang is Facebook, Amazon, what again? Facebook, Amazon, the end is for what now? I can't remember. Is it Fang or something, any Facebook, Amazon, Google and something I can't remember, you know, those those sorts of businesses and you know, that's beyond the Nigerian experience for now. But of course, you know, people want us to head there. So we're heading there. So, you know, with calorie wise and with money point and OPI and you know, things like that, you know, and junior and conga, you know, people are trying to, you know, get us into that big boy space, you know, that big girl space in quote, where we build companies with, you know,
billion dollar valuations and, you know, international behemoths. So yes, we we are heading there, but we're not quite there yet. So that's the reason why I didn't give example of purple cows. I didn't talk about some example of purple cows that Seth Godin gave in his book. But anyway, I want to talk about examples that Seth Godin gave of purple cows and then use it to illustrate the point that I was trying to make in the previous episode.
I'm thinking maybe if I talk about some of those companies using a very, very concrete case study, some of you understand where I'm heading now in South Gordon's book, the bubble counts that he gave, example he gave was Apple. And that's the reason why whenever I'm talking about this whole thing of somebody says aren't a portal, I can sell itself. I hope you guys see the reason why I'm always picking on Apple is precisely because everybody,
when they say build a company or build a product that sells itself, they will say Apple. And I want to bash this idea into its call. I want to kill this idea that Apple is a company or Apple released a product that sold itself. But anyway, Seth Gordon says Apple is an example of a purple cow because they build an innovative product and what they were selling is lifestyle. Of course, for those of you who have listened to previous episodes where I spoke about Apple, you remember that I've said that Apple was not built on the back of an individual product.
The product already existed. The product was built by Nokia. Sorry, it wasn't Nokia. I can't remember. Anyway, I'm not saying that the product had already existed. It had been built by several people before. Some people did not think it was right before market, it was ahead of its time or, you know, all kinds of things. But the challenge was not that the product didn't exist. The challenge was we need to find a way to market the product.
And you already hear about the way that I'm talking about these things. You can see now that there's concerted human effort that is going into moving this thing into the market. The product already existed. It didn't sell itself. A missionary and evangelist, a prophet had to introduce this thing into the market, which is the role that our boy, what's his name again? The guy behind Apple. OK, can't believe I've forgotten his name.
And you know, these things happen. So that is the role that he had to assume. So somebody had to introduce this thing to the public with a certain degree of showmanship. And Steve Jobs ahead, that's his name, Steve Jobs. We all know Steve Jobs was a very good guy when it comes to showmanship. That's the reason why I said that. It is showmanship that sold the iPhone. Showmanship, merchandising, advertising, branding, That is what sold the iPhone.
The iPhone did not sell itself. Hope you guys are listening. I don't know why this myth persists that there is a product that will sell itself. The product already existed. The people who had it before did not know how to sell it. A master salesman came on board and his name was Steve Jobs. And Steve Jobs had incredible showmanship and got on stage and did the lights and did the sounds and did the branding, the advertising, the merchandising,
the everything dramatically. He stood on stage, he held a thing in his hands and he said, imagine 1000 songs in your pocket. Is it the iPhone that is selling itself or is it a human being that is standing on stage doing all these dramatics? But anyway, those of you who want to be deceived, that is a product that will sell itself continue. And that's the reason why I get on these rants, because some of you believe that there's a magic product that will sell itself and you get locked into this idea and you start pursuing perfection.
But for how long? I'm in the kitchen, I'm cooking up something, I'm working on it. It's in development. It will drop soon launching. So, so, so and so I'm planning and planning and planning and planning and planning on this perfect product. Meanwhile, there's another way. Anyway, it's too early in the podcast episode to rent. So Seth Gordon says Apple is an example of a purple cow because they built an innovative product and they were selling lifestyle.
Yes, Apple was selling lifestyle, that one is correct, but you can only hear from the language. They were selling lifestyle. The iPhone was not selling itself. Then he gave another example of Starbucks because Starbucks revolution revolutionized the coffee shop experience. You know, you have coffee, yes, but you're having coffee, you know, in the nice, nice environment, you know, nice music, you know, polite barristers, you know, things like that.
Then he gave another example of JetBlue, the American airline. And for them they were, you know, they came up with their in flight entertainment, you know, so all these things that you're flying from Niger to UK and then you watch the latest movie because there are TV screens at the back of the chair, you know. So according to Seth Godin and a couple of people is JetBlue that came up with all that. Then another example that he gave was a Dyson.
Dyson They have they build vacuum cleaners, you know, things like that. And for Dyson is about superior design. Let me not lie because my brother, he's still in he lives in the UK with his family. They have two Dyson vacuum cleaners. And I would like those things are science. I mean, they look science fiction as as in correct design. I would like, I like to buy one too. And then he also mentioned Google as an example of a purple cow because, you know, they have clean interface and then stuff like that.
And you know, on and on and on. Plenty companies. But you already see why I don't like to engage with some of these companies because for the average Nigerian, Apple, Starbucks, JetBlue, Dyson, Google, to be honest, I probably have lost like half of the audience here because they're like, you know, Dyson. How many Nigerians know of a Dyson? Yes, we all use Google, but you know JetBlue. Anyway, S Gordon's thesis is very simple.
He tries to emphasize having a remarkable product over traditional marketing. So far, there's S Gordon. The point is, have a remarkable product. Don't worry too much about traditional marketing. I'm not one person who pits these ideas against themselves. I believe you need both have a remarkable product and then pay attention to traditional marketing is not one or the other. All I'm just trying to say is that this whole thing of I will create a remarkable product and the product will do all the rest is absolute in my own opinion.
Upload BS. However, let us realise one thing. The whole thing about the purple cow is we'll create a product, a remarkable product, and it's going to generate interest. But my idea is this interest alone does not guarantee revenue. Let me repeat, interests that people are interested is not going to guarantee revenue. You still have to come up with some sort of mechanisms that will convert interest into sales or revenue.
So for Google and Netflix, those are some of the companies that he pointed out as purple cows. What they did was they came, they were using a formula that our tech brothers and sisters called PLG Product LED growth. That means you create a remarkable product, something with a wonderful UX. That's a user experience, but then you're on boarding, has to be on point. The website has to be the website. Do whatever it is that you do.
It has to be wonderful so that people can be automatically on boarded and then you get millions of people using it. That's called the freemium business model. And then you're not able to make some money because you're able to get some people to convert to pay a premium, something on the premium package. So in the beginning, remember Netflix was at some point next, I can't remember in the UK by Niger, at some point, you know,
Netflix was, was free. We all downloaded and we're all watching. It was free. And then small by small, they started introducing small, small payments. But anyway, let me not go into the weeds, but bottom line, what I'm just trying to say is this. So Google and Netflix is not saying the whole thing sold itself. Yes, we needed something with a superior design and all that, and we have to come up with something that has wonderful user experience.
But the whole thing is, at the end of the day, what they employed was a freemium business model. And that was what, sorry, how do I put it? Now they use their premium business model. We're able to get enough people on board and then after that we're able to generate sales by increasing, by working on their conversions. Then just put it that way, eventually I'll start getting people to pay money, excuse me. And that's what leads to a profitable company at the end of the day.
Then Apple and Starbucks, for them, the reason why we're able to be successful is because they had physical retail presence. I mean physical stores, but you had to do lots of merchandising to make these things stand out. And then you also needed well trained order takers, you know, your servers in Starbucks, the person standing behind the counter. And then for Apple, I think they used to call them Apple Geniuses. I'm not sure what they're called now.
You know, the people who stand behind the counter and who can answer all your questions when it comes to Apple and iPad and MacBook and or what not. Because let's face it, the MacBook does not explain itself. The iPad does not explain itself. You still need a human being to be able to explain these sorts of things. So deliberate thought was given about how you are going to design the store, how you're going to merchandise and the store, how you're going to train the people there who are order takers, what you're going to call them.
So you don't call them sales boys or sales girl, you call them barista. You don't call them sales boy or sales girl, you call them Apple Genius. I now train them to look the part. You train them to sound the part because they didn't just hire anybody and put no shops. But I'm hoping that you guys are going to see that there's more to this than just create a remarkable product. How are we going to design the sales funnel?
What are the conversion points? When are we going to try and convert? What strategies are we going to try and use to convert? That is when you start talking on the level of Google and Netflix. Then when it comes to the level of Apple and Starbucks, this product that we have designed, how we merchandise it, how will we put it in the right light, How will we put it in the right environment? Where are we going to place our stores?
That is also very important because if you notice, they didn't create the first set of stores and they didn't come and put them all in in in Oshodi in Nigeria. Where did they put them in Choice real estate in America. They're taking advantage of branding, taking advantage of positioning, taking advantage of merchandising. Then when people walk into the store, we need to have human beings to introduce them to the product.
Once you now put human beings in the mix and you put them in the store, what do you call these people? In Nigeria? We call them sales boy, sales girl. In America in in the case of Apple, you say no, no, no, we can't call them sales boy and sales girl. We'll call them Apple genius. But is the role not the same? Is somebody not doing the selling anyway? See, The thing is, if we pick any of these companies, Starbucks, JetBlue, Dyson, you know, we can go on and on and on and on and on and on and on.
But well, at the end of the day, I'm entitled to my own opinion and I guess I can force you guys to come over to my own side. All I'm just saying is that please do not be deceived that there's a perfect product that sells itself or else you end up like most people who spend all their time designing, designing, designing and nothing gets done because they expect the products to do the thing. What? You are the one that has to do the thing.
You are the one that has to introduce your product to your service, to the market. In fact, since everybody starts talking, keeps talking about Steve Jobs, let me rest my case on Steve Jobs. Yes, go ahead, design the best product in the world, but be ready to stand on stage. Make no mistake, Steve Job, he Chief Jobs, he stood on stage with the glasses and the turtleneck sweater and within the jeans and the Nike shoes and you know, him looking all casual and relatable and everything that was a well orchestrated,
thought out, what's the word performance? It was a performance. So build your remarkable product. All I'm telling you is that get ready, stand on stage and perform. You have to do something. Just pick the one that you're willing to do. Anyway, let me introduce you guys to a different way of looking at things. There's this guy, he's on Twitter. His name is Nick Cuba. He also has a podcast. His podcast is called Sweaty Stand Up.
Now, like me, Nick Cuba also doesn't like hearing all these BS that people talk about. And this is Nick Cuba's point of view. There's one New Cuba thinks, excuse me, New Cuba says that there are too many. By the way, he's American. He says that there are too many American boys and American girls that are looking at all these things and thinking that they must build revolutionary product. Revolutionary idea. He says it works, but the problem is it's a game that not too many people can win.
And it involves raising lots of venture capital. You need to go and collect money from lots of people and even at that is not a guarantee. So Nick Cuba's podcast is called Sweaty Startup. And his his philosophy is this, that there are other kinds of businesses that are not as sexy. They're not sexy at all. And the people who are running these businesses are less than average. So those of you who have more than average common sense, if you enter that business, you're already determined to succeed.
The example that he gives us, his own business, new Cuba's business is in the storage space. Storage space. So he will go and rent a building or buy a building. When you want to park house or when you want to going through life changes or something and you need a space to go and store your things, you will go and give him money and you will store your things there. That is all. His business is storage. That is all. My guy I know they build house,
nothing. His own is just storage space. I want to park house. I don't know where to put my things in the meantime. So organic. Give me two containers, let me put my books, let me put my everything. He will say it is so, so, so and so amount. I'll give him money. He will keep the things there. That's all. People are renting space and he gives all kinds of example, toilet cleaning, people who are cleaning gutter, people who are in the people who are in the in the trades, air conditioner installing, solar installing,
you know, things like that. People who are running these businesses, they don't have two heads. So those of you who are very smart and you have two heads and you just come in and you just operate it better than the other people, you are bound to succeed. And the Cuba is currently doing like 30-40 million every single year on top. What on top? Storage, storage space. When you want to put your book somewhere, when you want to store your clothes somewhere,
when you want to store your whatever, somewhere you go, you pay him money. He will give you a key, he will say, OK, this is your whatever. And then every month I'll be every year you're paying the rent for that space. That is all he does now in my own state where I come from, in Nigeria, from venue state, because the gist is not verified, I'm not going to call the family name, but supposedly one of the, the first big boy that we have from our own state as in modern, you know,
billionaire, although the family is no longer in that billionaire space because that guy is long since dead. And you know, he married a bunch of women. And you understand you, you know how it works. You can't be a billionaire. But The thing is, if you go and marry 50 wives and each wife has ten children, by the time you die, your estate will now be you see the mathematics? Which is why I think that please young men, when we hammer let's stop this whole thing off, you know, going to go and marry 20
wives. Like what for? Like relax, what are you chasing? The one wife that you have is enough for you. Like countdown. I really honestly don't know why you're pursuing anyway. So it is rumored that the guy made his money because back when he was in the UK in those days, he was in the sheet parking business and then he came back to Nigeria, West Africa and then continued the sheet parking business and then that's how he made his money.
Now sheet parking business, it doesn't sound glamorous. So how many people want to get involved in sheet parking business? Definitely not me. So The thing is you listening to this podcast now, if you are smarter than the average person and you get involved in the sheet parking business and you're smarter than this other people, you manage it better. You run it like a proper business with some proper marketing, your operations are on point.
Maybe you do some principles of lean operations, managing your costs. You see how you can enter into some unsexy businesses and then just blue. So it would be nice if we all get involved in sexy businesses, raise a bunch of venture capital, start that next big Nigerian international conglomerate, build a remarkable product, something, something, something. But life can be a lot easier. Life can be a lot easier. Anyway, it's been 30 minutes, so let me just bring this thing to a close because some of you be wondering like, look, what's this guy on about and why is he paying by the whole matter?
I'm just paying by the matter because there are people who are sitting down waiting for the perfect product. I've told you guys about this before, so let me repeat it again. There's one of my friends who are supposed to have started podcasting. In fact, three of us that should have started podcasting. One, the lady came from a televisions, televisions background. The other guy was a lawyer just like me. Well, not as in we're both in in school together and the hero was trying to get into podcasting.
The first lady, she wanted everything to be perfect. I've been podcasting for five years now. Guess how many podcast episodes she has? Zero. She never started. Then the other guy, he wanted his podcast to be perfect, so he went ahead and he made the perfect podcast episode. I listened to it and I was impressed. The sound was on point, the editing was on point. He even synced background music to it and everything. And the podcast was beautiful.
I had off my heart to him. But it's been five years. Guess how many podcast episodes that he has out? One. Now look at me. I'm sitting in the car. I'm in the car lot. I just wound down the window. So I wound up the windows. The podcast is not perfect. Sometimes you might say I'm rambling, you hear people quarreling in the background. But it's been five years, I have done over 1000 imperfect episodes and I am now gaining revenue from my podcast.
The people who wanted to create a remarkable product, what did they do? They wasted time in innovating, wasted time in creating the perfect product. The reason why I combat some of these ideas. But anyway, you should listen to Seth Gordon because to be honest, he has more money than I do. And you know, they say the taste of the pudding is in the cooking. I mean, how do they say it? So actually, you should listen to Seth Gordon because he has more money than I do.
So listen, I won't be making that money in dollars. But what I'm just trying to say is this whole thing of perfection, remarkable product. Too many people waste time in at the design stage and then they never start. So please, some of you take a chance. Be like me Cuba, be like me. Come over to the on sexy side, come over to the, you know, whatever side I shall just start. And have some faith in yourself and learn the things that you need to learn.
But have faith that you will be able to sell this product. You will be able to get the skills necessary to be able to find your ideal customer. Talk to them, find out what they need, deliver value, capture value in the process. Have some faith in yourself. Just start. No matter how unsexy, no matter how unrefined, no matter how unfinished your product is, please just start. Anyway. Don't worry, after this you won't hear about purple cows anymore.
After all, this is a sales podcast so actually should be talking about how you sell your product. I shouldn't be bashing another person for his own stuff anyway. So yeah, that's all. Remember if you'd love to connect with me then call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones and your speakers. And don't worry, after this you will not hear me say anything about again about purple cows.
I'll just focus on, you know, how we can sell and make our businesses better.