Crafting Connections: Building Your Network for Hat and Fascinator Success

Hello and welcome to the show. It's a wonderful Monday morning and I'm chilling outside somebody's office, so I expect to hear some noise in the background. In fact, the reason why I'm here is because, you know, I've been mentioning on the podcast that you know, there's some *** that owe me money basically, you know, some small M's, not enough to buy a brand new car or anything, but you know, still every single couple helps.

So I have my bath today. I freshened up and I said to them, I'm going to come and Jack them. Let me raise some hell, you know, until I get my money. But yeah, we've had some fruitful conversations, you know, so hopefully something good will come out of it this week. So now that I've finished this meeting, basically I said, OK, let me just make one sharp recording and then I'll be on my way for other engagements. And there's somebody that I made a podcast episode for, I think maybe like two or three days ago.

That was Bolu Tunji, the lady who's been who's involved in human resources and who wants to create a business in selling a business, selling hearts and fascinators in Lagos. So Bolotunji, you didn't reach out to me like I said you should because I put it there in the comments. But I made the podcast episode anyway. And I'm going to use you as a case study for today's episode just so that you can derive some more value out of it and also so that anybody who happens to be listening who is in a similar space.

So whether you're trying to create a business in hearts and fascinators like Bolotunji or help you're trying to do something fashion related. Hopefully using has a case study is going to is going to be able to help you. How will I put it? Now you'll be able to realize, Abby, as you realize, you know, you'll be able to get the principles that we're discussing about here and then discern how we can apply to your own context.

Yeah. So that's good for today. Now today, what I want to do now I'm Balu should be paying attention. If any of you know Balu Tunji and you're listening to this episode right now, as soon as you're don't listen to this episode, if you know any Balu Tunji who works in human resources, then she's definitely the one as soon as you're done with this episode, pick up the phone call Balu and tell her that hey, do you know so so so he made a podcast episode.

It's about you. Here's the link, you know, send it so she can be aware. So today we're going to look at whether called calling and emailing is dead because people who want to get clicks on LinkedIn and on Instagram and all this, they keep on saying cold calling is dead, emailing is dead, this is dead. That is dead. Basically what they're trying to do. They're just trying to wind you up so that you will pay them to be their coach or be their consultant, and they will try and help you drum up business by doing other things apart from cold calling and apart from emailing.

Because, yeah, emailing, you know, if you do it wrong, it can be ineffective. And then cold calling is hard. So lots of people don't like to do it. So this is one way that people just try to drop my business. They'll say this is that, this is that, you know, come and pay me instead to teach you how to do this. Pay me for my miracle system. So Balu and other people who are listening, please do not follow anybody who's promising you a miracle system.

Because if the miracle system works, to be honest, the guy wouldn't be selling you the miracle system. He will be doing the miracle system by making billions off of that thing and he'll be enjoying his billions quietly. So there's no miracle system that works. Just remember that in case the next time you see cold calling is dead, emailing is dead, this is dead, that is dead. Pay me for my miracle system. Don't want to pay anybody for any rubbish miracle system.

No, some of you are going to be listening. I'll be wondering, ah, cold calling is dead. e-mail is dead as in who died? What does emailing mean? What does cold calling mean? You know, no problem. Let's start defining a few things so that for those of you who some of these things sound strange, you will get into the flow of the thing. Now some of you also be wondering, ah, e-mail, is that cold calling? Is that what does have to do with Balu Tunji Balu, If you're listening to this episode, don't worry, You see how everything will join.

Everything will make sense eventually. Don't worry, let's be going. So now let's define cold calling. Now cold calling is anything you do to draw more business where you don't have any formal context, no prior context, no prior relationship, no prior info, no mutually existing pre relationship. As in you people are total strangers. I don't know you, you don't know me. I don't send you, you don't send me what total strangers?

I don't know you at all. But Sha, I want to talk to you so that there is hope of us doing business in the future. Anything I do to reach out to you, in this case, it's called a cold call. So if I show up at your house and I knock on the door, you say who is that? You say establish my who? I don't know anybody just come to do that. I will explain. You know, if I try doing something like that, that is cold calling. I don't know who is the person inside the house.

The person said the house doesn't know me. That is cold calling. In the old days, they used to call the cold calling. Nowadays they call it canvassing because you're working from one place to another using your two left leg and you're knocking on people's doors. So nowadays they call that canvassing. But still you can also call it cold calling. If I pick up the phone because I found a phone number on Google and I'm thinking, OK, I can do some business with this guy,

with this babe, maybe we can run some referral kind of business. So I just call up the phone number. The person doesn't know me. My number is not stored on their phone. Their own number is not stored on my own phone. This is the first time we're hearing of each other. There's no pre-existing relationship, no background info, no prior context. That is a cold call because I'm reaching out to a total stranger. So that's a cold call.

When I'm using the phone, If I'm sending WhatsApp messages, I'm just blanket messaging people on WhatsApp. I don't have their number stored. They don't know me. We're not friends, we're not cool. I don't know you from anywhere. You don't know who my father is, I don't know who your mother is. You know all of that, all that messaging on WhatsApp, that is a cold call. Now, the reason why I'm taking time to stress what a cold call is, because some people will say cold calling is only when you pick up the phone.

That is a lie, all right? Because some of you say, oh, I don't like cold calling. But you don't know that you you're doing cold calling because you're not picking up the phone and calling people. You say, no, what I'm doing is not cold call, but you've been sending WhatsApp messages to total strangers. That is cold calling. When you hear cold call, it's not the phone call that makes the thing cold. Because remember that back in the days when there was no phone and people were going from house to house knocking on people's doors?

Because who is this guy? This guy again, what's his name? Uncle Tony Antonio Lumelu. So he used to sell photocopies, if I remember correctly, I think used to sell photocopying machines in the 60s and 70s. So people like Uncle Tony, now Uncle Tony, them they would have had to have been going around, although he's a billionaire now, so it has worked out for him. So we thank God for his life we serve would be billionaires one day.

So back in the day now Uncle Tony would have been going from office to office knocking on peoples doors because he's trying to sell photocopier, whether it's Rico photocopier or I don't know whichever photocopier. So that was back then, they used to call it cold call because it's not as if everybody in Nigeria had a phone number that you can pick and call. So you would have to wake up, go to Marina on Lagos Island and start going from office to office and knocking on the door.

Hello, is Ed here? Is GM here who is head of procurement. I'm selling photocopier. Can I talk to you? So that is also cold calling. So cold calling, the thing that makes it cold, it's not that it's a phone call, it's that there's no prior context, there's no prior relationship. We do not know ourselves from Adam and Eve. Like we don't know each other like we are total strangers and we don't have information about each other.

That is what makes it a cold call. All right, so you'll find that most of us are making cold calls. We just don't know. It's just that some of you, you're doing all your cold calling on. What's it called on WhatsApp or on Telegram? What's up? Most of us are doing cold calling. So the next time somebody asks you do you do cold calling, I say no, no, no, I don't do cold calling. But you're sending e-mail to strangers. It is also cold calling.

Go and learn your craft. So that is what cold calling means. Now let us define emailing, OK? e-mail just means you're sending letters over e-mail. If I just sent some emails to my sons this morning. In fact, those who are parents, I think it's a good idea to be sending your children e-mail because I remember back in the day, you know, when I entered CKC, that was in the 90s, that was my first secondary school, junior secondary school.

So I remember back then, you know, you're broke now you send, you send a letter to Mumsy and Popsy like, oh, I'm broke. Provisions has finished, no, blah, blah, blah. So, you know, was, was a good thing to do. Now that Popsy is late going through some of your stuff, you know, I found some of those letters and you know, it brings me joy. Just seen some of the interactions that we had. So for those of you who have kids, please be sending emails to your kids.

It's, it's good fun. Now for those of you who don't have kids now, but you have kids later on when the children come, please send them emails. So e-mail is just sending a letter over digital. That's it. The purpose of sending e-mail over digital is for different reasons. We can be sending emails so that we can do prospecting. We can be sending emails so that we can be doing marketing. We can be sending emails so that we can be doing relationship nurturing.

Now e-mail prospecting is this e-mail prospecting is just cold calling strangers. Remember what I said, cold calling is I don't know you, you don't know me. I don't send you, you don't send me. But I have to make money. Sure. So I have to move my product. I have to sell my merchandise. So sure, I'll reach out to you to see if you're interested. If you happen to be interested, I will gauge the level of your interest or I will try and figure out the nature of the problem before I can make a proposal and then try and close the deal.

So there are people who try and do all of this through e-mail. That is e-mail prospecting. Then there is e-mail marketing. e-mail marketing is more of a mass market kind of thing, like is a blanket strategy. You're sending emails to everybody in the whole wide world because you're trying to generate ADA. Again, ADA is attention, interest, desire, and then action. Aida attention, interest, desire, action. You are trying to send emails to generate attention for you, your business, your product, your service.

You're trying to use e-mail to generate interest in whatever it is that you do. You are trying to use e-mail to create a desire in your product or your service. And then you're trying to get people to take action and buy your product or your service and then you close the deal. So you see, we're now using e-mail for mass, for e-mail marketing or mass marketing. So when people say cold calling is dead e-mail, e-mail is dead,

what they're saying is that don't pick up the phone, don't reach out to strangers, don't send emails, or none of these tactics work. And then the solution will be come and pay me for my magic system, whatever that magic system is. And I'm repeating again, do not fall for this scam. Do not go and pay anybody for their magic system. Cold calling is alive. e-mail is alive. It's all a matter of trying to figure out how does cold calling work?

What is the best way to make a cold call? If I'm knocking on a stranger's door, what is the best way to start the conversation? How do I introduce myself? How do I introduce my product? How do I introduce my service? It's the same thing with e-mail. Just go and learn. How do I send e-mail for business purposes? What are the best e-mail writing tips? Blah blah blah. That is what you should be spending your time doing. I repeat, do not go and pay anybody for any magic system.

Anybody who is shouting cold calling is dead. Emailing is dead. So, but to answer the question, Shaq, when people say that cold calling is that e-mail is dead, what they're trying to say is that is ineffective. So the answer to the question is cold calling dead and is emailing dead? Oh, sorry about that. One massive stick just fell in through the window because you know, I parked under a tree. Now Abuja Heath is, you know,

killing. So anyway, I was like, and those are the joys of just doing podcasting live. What were we? Some people are saying that cold calling and emailing, is that what they're trying to say is that if you're cold calling, it is ineffective. Now, if you have to do like Uncle Tony back in the day, that's Tony Lumelu, who is not a billionaire big boy, one of a bank owner of Hilton Hotels. So they're saying that if that may be in the 70s, Uncle Tony had no choice.

He had to wake up, go to Marina, start knocking on people's doors, say hello. It's all around the office for the copying machine. So they're saying that maybe Uncle Tony had to call, call, but now he's 2025 or whenever you're listening to this podcast. If you're listening to this podcast in 2072, I hope I'm still alive then. How long is that? And I hope I'm still alive in 2072. So if you're listening in 2072, maybe they're saying that yes,

Uncle Tony had to go and call, call in 1960 something. But you don't have to do that now in 2072 or in 2025 or in 2032. So that's what they're saying. It is now ineffective or that maybe people had to send emails for prospecting, for marketing and for relationship nurturing. So you don't have to send it in 2062, maybe in 2062 at the time you were listening to this. Maybe by then they have cracked this whole, what's it called?

The metaverse thing. And you guys are working around using metaverse Googles and, you know, interacting virtual reality. So they're saying no, don't send emails again. So truth of the matter is, yeah, if you're going to take cold calling alone or emailing alone, then yes, you can say it is dead because when you do these things alone, you're not going to achieve any significant results. Now let me repeat. If all you do is sit behind your keyboard and send messages all day, you are not going to get any significant results by doing that on its own.

If all you do is by going to go and knock on one door after another, then you will not get any significant results. And if all you do is pick up the phone and call strangers, you know, every single day, you will not get any significant result. You get the most results when you do things multimodal. Let me repeat, multimodal. Multimodal just means different modes, different means different ways of doing something. And I think that is the biggest danger for those of us who have grown up in this day and age and who are trying to do business.

When I say this day and age, I mean you know, like now that I'm recording this thing 2025, I'm not talking to those of you who are listening in 2082. So we have grown up in a time where people just pick the one that they like and then they will sit there, somebody will say me, I like Instagram and then they only do Instagram and try and grow their business through Instagram. They won't make phone call, they won't do WhatsApp, they won't go to somebody's office, they won't do TikTok, they won't attend networking section.

They really think that they can just sit there in Instagram and then build a massive business. It happens for some people, but that's not how it works. So it's not about picking what it is that you like. It is about being multimodal and using everything and trying to target the approach. Depending to who it is that you are talking to, you might be an Instagram person. But if you're trying to reach out to me, I don't have Instagram anymore.

I deleted my account so you can't get me on Instagram. I'm a face to face and a phone call person, so chances are you want to get my attention. You're better off just picking the phone. If you send the e-mail, well, it will get through. But we all know that everybody opens up their e-mail and then they have 200 emails every day. And So what every what they're trying to do is to delete as many emails as possible, you know, so that is why you do things multimodal.

So if you're trying to reach out to me, you try a phone call and then you try e-mail and then you try LinkedIn and maybe you try some networking session where you think I'm going to be there. Eventually something will click. That is the scope. That is how I was supposed to be thinking about our clients as well. I was supposed to be thinking multimodal or those people American multi multi modal. So don't say you're going to do cold calling alone or then say you're going to do e-mail alone,

but rather add everything together. Do phone call, do SMS, do in person visit, do networking, do gifting, do videos, do if you're listening to this at the time when virtual reality is a thing, do virtual reality, excuse me, do everything together and then the chances of you closing the deal is going to go up. So just remember, if you're trying to do only one thing on its own, then yes, it will be ineffective. For greater progress, for greater chance of closing the deals was supposed to be multimodal or multimodal, then our chances go up.

Now, Bola Tunji, the HR professional who wants to do fascinating and hard business, this is where you come in. In case you've been listening for the last 15 minutes wondering, OK, what does this have to do with me? Don't cut the podcast yet. This is where you come in. I'm going to use you or I say Bola, sorry, forgive me. I was thinking of Tino. I'm trying to see who can connect me with Chino because I'll try to inside this government so that you know, I

can become like those G boys. You know me self. Let me be driving bra boss, you know, living that big life. Also, I need to buy solar cause NEPA is really messing my life up. I moved from old house to a new house. I thought I had run away from NEPA, but NEPA, they're really, really testing my testing, my patience. Yeah, my inverter is still working, but I really think the way forward is just the gasoline just just caught off from Nepal once and for all.

I know that you're done with this abusive relationship. So yeah, that's why I called you Bola. So sorry about that. So Bolu Tunji, this is where you come in now, because you are the last person that I use as a case study. I'm going to use you and continue as a case study until I don't know, I get bored or until somebody else says they can use me as a case study instead. So now we're going to use Bolu to see how we can use cold calling or to see how we can use emailing to now drum up some business.

And like I said, cold calling or cold emailing or whatever. Shall we're going to consider people that I guess are strangers to Balu. And definitely Balu is definitely a stranger to those people for now since she hasn't started the business. So if we want to use cold calling and emailing, sorry, I just have to chase an insect that I was buzzing. So if we're going to do cold calling or emailing now to build a business for Balu, based on that last episode that I made, I

can't remember, it was yesterday or the day before, I can't remember anyway. But when you don't listen to this episode, just skip back two or three episodes. It's also related to Bulu as well. So based on all the gist that we agreed on in the last message, if we're going to do a same message podcast, if we're going to do cold calling and e-mail now, my guess is we should try and reach out to event planners and to reach out to wedding coordinators and to reach out to people who own fashion boutiques.

So remember, that's why I said in the last episode that those are some things that Bulu can do to try and move this business forward. So to do that now all you have to do is just get your phone. And of course, for those of us who have Android phones, you open up Google. For those of you who have iPhones, you type in www.google.com or just any whatever search engine is on your phone, whether it's if you have iPhone, what search engine do you use?

A busy Bing and I can't remember what use your search engine. And we're going to try and find event planners. Wedding coordinators and people who run fashion boutiques. Now, can you see Balu, where the cold calling aspect comes in? Because some names will come up. And my guess is that half the people that you see on the list, in fact 99% of them, you see that you don't know these people from Adam or Eve. You're not related to any of them.

You haven't toasted them before. They haven't toasted you. You don't know them. They don't know you. You don't care about them. Well, now that you want to make some money, you care about them but quite frankly, they don't care about you and knowing Lagos professionals, they won't give an F about you until it becomes clear that you can help them make money. So this is where cold calling comes in and This is why I talk about cold calling and This is why I make podcasts episode about talking to strangers because at some point all of us will have to talk to strangers.

We cannot avoid it, but we can avoid it for a while, but eventually we will have to talk to a stranger. So let's just be a big boy about it, be a big girl about it, Put on your big girl pants, put on your big boy pants and let's do what needs to be done. The only thing to do is just do some research ahead of time and find out, OK, this thing that I want to do, what is the best way to go about it? When you have that background info, you'll make it a whole lot more comfortable for you to move ahead.

So from all these moves that will now do on Google or whatever search engine that you'll find, you will now come up with a list. Because when it comes to prospecting, when it comes to cold calling, when it comes to meeting total strangers, we need a list. If you go and Google luxury wedding planners in Lagos and a list of 20 people comes up. If you don't take that thing and write it down on the list or take that thing and print it out on a list to wake up every day and try and prospect to wake up every day and try and make a phone call or go to somebody's office or send an e-mail off of memory.

It's, it's somehow. And if you're going to wake up every day and run that search again, Luxury wedding planners in Lagos, it's just somehow. So to save yourself the stress, don't say I'm not the writing kind or I don't like pencil and paper. Go and write it out. Go and print it out. Don't argue. That's just the way we've been doing it since the beginning of the world and it's not going to change anytime soon. Even for those of you listening to this in 2092, you who live in the matter of us, in the matter of us, you still have to make a list so that you can follow that list.

All right? Eventually, when we start going strong on e-mail game, we're going to have to build a contact list. You know, an e-mail list of people that you can be sending messages to from time to time or and then a WhatsApp broadcast list where you can be sending messages to people from time to time. The whole point of building a contact list is so that you can do relationship nurturing. Relationship nurturing is when you're sending out valuable content to people so that you can stay top of mind.

So in the future, we'll move forward small, small as when you build relationships with some of these wedding planners. But I hope you're paying attention. We'll be writing these things down. Eventually we'll have to build contact lists over e-mail and then WhatsApp broadcast list. And then of course, we segment them so that the messages that you're sending to wedding planners will be different from the one that you're sending to wedding coordinators.

I know some of you don't think there's a difference, but trust me, there's a difference. I was in the field before, so I know that there's a difference. So the messages that will go to wedding planners will be different. The messages that will go to wedding coordinators will be different. The messages that will go to people who own fashion boutiques will be different. Now we need to take a personalized approach when we're trying to reach out to these people.

Because these people are total strangers doesn't mean we should approach them as strangers. We should try and soften the approach, humanize the approach. You know, we need to take a common sense approach to try and build relationships with these people or try and get some business. You don't just show up as a stranger and then try and close business like that. So we need a personalized approach. Now, unfortunately for you guys,

when you go online, you'll find lots of approaches that say things like introduce yourself on your business, state your product, state your unique qualities, offer to schedule a meeting, and then send a catalogue. If you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time, I hope by now you are convinced and you know why sending a catalogue is a very bad idea. Sending a catalogue, sending proposal, sending presentation is not your first salvo, is not your first shot.

You can send the catalogue or catalogue presentation, proposal, price list. All those things should be sent at the end, not at the beginning of your sales process. When you send the catalogue proposal, price lists, presentation, whatever at the beginning, that is where you will get Oh, OK, thanks for the information. Sounds interesting. Let me get through this and I'll get back to you. Let me think about it and then I'll get back to you.

Or can you send me more information on whatever and then I'll get back to you. So please, catalogue presentation, proposal, price lists, all those things send at the end of the process, not at the beginning. If you're not convinced, keep listening to podcast episodes. Hopefully one day I'll be able to convince you. I mean, when you get tired of people ghosting you, you will try things my way. So it's not a matter of introduce yourself, your business state, your inequalities.

Have you noticed that it's all about you, you, you, you, you. And I have told you how everybody is busy. Like right now I'm backed outside somebody's office. I came here because I need to Jack somebody on the neck to say pay me my effing money. You think in this state of mind, you're sending me emails to do business, but you really think I'm open to doing business with you? Like I have lots of things on my mind right now and the person I'm trying to reach out to, they have lots of things on their mind as well.

It's like if you try and do business with Bolu, like Bolu's in the middle of some stuff. She's trying to build ahr career. She's trying to start this business selling fascinators. And then maybe, you know, maybe her baby just pooped and scattered the diapers in the morning so, you know, they weren't able to get out of the house on time. You know, things happen. Summary What I'm trying to say is nobody cares about you.

Nobody cares about your business. So don't start all your communications with this is me. This is my business, this is what I do. This is how I'm the greatest, this I'm the best. No, nobody cares about you. Start your e-mail, start your phone call, start your whatever with the other person and your own understanding about them. If you send me an e-mail that says, oh, Tavi Sharma, thank you very much, you're the greatest at what you do is that, I mean,

of course, I'll start reading. I mean, who doesn't like themselves? I'll start reading. The fact that I'm reading now, you know, gives you a chance to smuggle something in. So started off with the other person with your understanding about them. So all these people now the wedding planners that we're going to find online, don't start your e-mail or don't start your phone call by saying this is me. I'm Balu Tunji, I'm an experienced human resources professional.

I'm sophisticated. I'm this dot dot dot dot. I've started this business called Balu Tunji fascinators. We make state-of-the-art, unique, personalized, glamorous something something like you're just wasting valuable time. If you call, I'm one of these people answers and that's how you start your phone conversation. You are wasting valuable time because they all have things that you know they're paying attention to. So when you start off this phone call, when you start off this e-mail or when you get into the office, it is not about you start with them, your understanding about them.

So when you find these wedding planners and you call, call, you go to the office. Start with your understanding about them. When you pick up the phone and you call, if they answer, start with your understanding about them. If you're sending this e-mail, start with your understanding about them. All right about them then slide into interests, their interests, do some need analysis or figure out what their clients needs are.

Because remember, if you listen to yesterday's episode or day before yesterday's episode when I was talking about Ballu Tunji and the hard business, the scope here is that you should be able to partner with these people so you can sell some of their own clients. You know, that's how you're going to get to do some business with them. So that's why I'm saying after you're done listening to this episode, please skip back yesterday's episode or maybe day before yesterday's episode.

Listen to the first Ballu Tunji episode. I didn't put her name there. Well, I should have, but anyway, just skip listen to each other. So it's only after you've done interests need analysis, client needs, things like that, that you now schedule a meeting to discuss some more in detail. And then it is then that you can now start dropping proposals and catalogue. Can you see the proposal and catalogue will come at the end because now they are interested and now they will definitely look at it because you look and you sound like a reasonable somebody in the beginning when you just send the proposal and Balutunji is just thinking I got to work late 45 minutes even if my baby didn't poop like that,

you know, blah, blah, blah. You know, in that frame of mind, your e-mail is there should be like not another person. So you just select and delete, right? And then the same thing with me. I'm thinking, where will these damn people pay my money? I'm still angry, blah, blah, blah. I wish I had slapped that person. Is this this not that that your message comes in. I'll just select and then delete. So catalogue price list, all of that will come last.

The approach now that I'm trying to advocate and I hope that you guys get and follow me on, is that the goal is to be a helpful resource to whoever it is that you're reaching out to. Let me repeat, the common sense approach that you guys have been learning online is about how to introduce yourself, introduce your business, say why you're good, say why you're the best and blah, blah, blah. No, flip the approach. The goal now is to be a helpful resource to whoever it is that you are going to meet because people are busy and people will only want to pay attention to someone who is a helpful resource, especially those of you who are in Lagos.

You know Balutunji, those of you who are in Lagos, you're trying to do business with somebody else. The person is only going to pay attention to you if they think that they can, if they think dealing with you is going to give them more profits, more customers or what else? Yeah, more profits or more customers. So you have to be a helpful resource. Now let's make this thing practical. So Balu, let's pretend we have done luxury wedding planners.

I just went on Google and then I did a quick Google search and then some names come came up. So since it's been a while, I don't know half the names on this list but I know some people shall. So there's guys weddings and events, I don't know about them. Then there's Omu or below luxury. OK, I heard about Omu, I never worked with her. Then there's wedding Guru. OK so I heard about wedding guru. They also have a place in Abuja,

never did some work with them, although they called me once or twice to consider some of their clients, but that didn't work. And there was solely TSOULE. I've seen the name Sharp, but never done some work with them. Sapphire events, I heard about them, did some work with Sapphire, but we're not like the main vendors was photo booths that we we ended up doing for them. So I don't know anybody within the organization. Now there's 2706 events, I don't know anybody there.

I've never heard of them. La La Harrah's weddings, OK, I know about them. Royal spices, never heard about them. Sharon Carter events, never heard about them. And then more events, never heard about them. And then so it's been a while. So, yeah, you can see half the people on this list I don't know and I haven't worked with. So now you do this in Lodger Wedding Planner. These are the names that comes up. Oh, by the way, have you noticed something about the names in Andos?

Gave me some ideas for some, you know, some Yorubastes because some of these names have that Yoruba cities about them. So I was thinking maybe I should have called my business name George Roberts Business Consulting, you know, because it sounds cool, you know, using the Yoruba formula. Anyway, what was I? So now that we have found these people, now that we're going to reach out to them before we send any particular e-mail, before we even decide whose office we're going to go to or before we make a single phone call, we need to try and figure out some key themes that are important to these people.

Because that will guide how we're going to have this conversation. Because remember what I said in the beginning that when you reach out to these people, the goal is to start talking about them and their business and stuff like that. So we have to speak, speak in terms of key themes, key themes that they are already familiar with, that they already know and that they make part of their their brand promise. So I did some research around them.

All these research I'm talking about is my phone. I used nothing fancy. I just used Google at most Gemini. So I didn't have to go anywhere. I didn't have to pay for anything. But of course there are tools that you can pay for. This guy that I did some work for Julian, who runs a Crimson Solar power, he told me about some pretty cool paid tools. I'll talk about these things later. I still have a list some of the tools that I learnt about while working with him and that's the best part I like about consulting gigs.

You know, you're imparting to people and then people are also imparting to you. So as you're teaching and executing, you're also learning. So key themes that are around all these people now, all these wedding planners are luxury because they like to be luxurious. You know, they're trying to make that Lagos money, you know, charging millions and millions and millions then exclusive. Exclusive just means you know, me and you, I'm giving you one-on-one attention.

Personalized, yes, personalized attention, custom as another key term, bespoke. Bespoke means you and only you. You will not go and see this design on somebody else because you know, when you reach a certain level, people like their things to be bespoke. So if you design A fascinator for Bolu, pay attention. If you design A fascinator for talking Machino, Talker Mackinwell will not like that you designed that fascinator for her and then she goes somewhere and then she sees Juliet Ibrahim.

When the same fascinator you know, Talker will not like that Talker will want to be one in town, you know, single class like her herself. I didn't want Juliet Ibrahim, so she might she would be some should be feeling someone like I thought this design was only me. Why Stocker wearing this thing so bespoke? Then they also emphasis, they also talk about years of experience cause like wedding guru, I think wedding guru definitely does more like 20

years now I think she's more than 20 years in the business. Let's see who else Wedding guru should be like 20 years Zephire. Well, Zephire, Zephire a decade. If they're young, I'll say a decade. So they also stress years of experience. Then they also stress their creativity and innovation. So when we're going in to now talk to these people or are trying to send the e-mail or are trying to make a phone call, those are the themes that we're going to be talking about.

So, you know, pay attention. So our letters will stress, you know, how we like them or we caught their attention, Abby, we caught their attention. No, they caught our attention because of, you know, the luxury brand promise, because of how exclusive they are, how personalized they are, the custom bespoke, you know, and also because you're inspired by the decades of experience in the business and the creativity and innovation that they bring to the business.

You know, you start that kind of e-mail like that, excuse me, or that kind of phone call like that, of course person will pay attention. Imagine you reaching out to me, say, oh, Mr. you did that. Oh, that we like your exclusive, this dot dot dot dot with your decades of experience and the creativity and innovation that you bring to the business consulting space. I mean, of course I'll be listening. I mean, nodding my head like,

yeah, that's me, that's me. So that's the scope. So you can see that it's not about you saying this is me, this is my business, this is what I produce. This is my no, no, no, it's not me, me, me. Start off with them. Now the key themes that you should be paying attention to based on what we have, the research we have, we've done now that's Balu if you're in the in the hats and in the fascinator space. So you also will be trying to emphasize how your stuff is luxurious.

You talk about how you know the luxurious handcrafting, how also you do something bespoke and elegant and customized and personalized and unique and how you only work with premium materials. So you see now this is how things are going to tie together. All right, you'll be reaching out to any of these event wedding planners and the scope will be OK. Like if you walk into the office. Oh, finally, it's nice to finally meet you, Madam wedding guru.

I can't remember the ladies, the woman's name, the woman who is in charge, one very fine, fine babe like this. Well, fine woman. Let me not say babe because you know, she's older than me. Let me respect my elders. So when you finally have that meeting with her, like, oh, nice to meet you, Ma that blah, blah, blah. Been seeing you for the last 15 years. I really admire, you know, the personalized, the creativity and attention, the luxury that you bring to this dot, dot, dot,

dot. And gosh, you've been able to pull this off for close to 25 years. I'm really inspired by how do you do this? And then keep quiet and then let her talk. Yes, flattery will get you everywhere. All right. So don't be ashamed of doing the whole flattery thing. So whether it's e-mail or phone call, that's the approach. We enter there and we are going to be overwhelmed and gushing over them and start talking about them.

If you enter there, she's a busy woman and you go there saying, this is me, I'm Bolo Trinji, hearts and fascinators are my passion. I've been doing this for the last 35 years. I'm extremely skilled. I studied in Italy. And it's like you're wasting her time. She's a busy woman. She has other things to do. All right, So we come in, we pay attention to them. Do this research ahead of you. See why I say now that your phone, Google and Gemini and all these free tools, they have to be your best friend going forward.

Before you'd have to sit down with someone to brainstorm all these things. But now you can brainstorm these things, you know, shop, shop using your phone for free. Just make sure you load up your phone with 1509 credit. That will buy you a four point something gig on 9 mobile. Yeah, that's enough to do your research for the month. Don't use it on watching Netflix. By the way, there's a cool movie on Netflix, The most beautiful girl in the world.

You guys should watch it. Correct him even. Just tell my boys about it this morning. Then what was that? No, it is after you have gushed over them and started talking about them in your phone call, in your e-mail, in your the office visit. By the way, you see this is how we talk to strangers now. You see how we get strangers to listen to us now. It's only after you gush after them that you can now introduce yourself into the equation,

talking also in terms of these key themes that humor that this is what you do. And you also align yourself with the philosophy of wedding guru and how they do things. And you also take a luxurious handcrafted bespoke elements to all your designs for fascinators and stuff like that. You like to keep things customized, personalized, elegant, unique and you only work with premium materials, you see. So use them first. You now introduce yourself next.

After that, the call to action would be to see if they are interested in exploring how. Then there's different call to actions, whether they're interested in exploring how you can enhance the wedding experience for their clients. OK, so hold on incoming call, but I'll call the person back later. So how you can enhance the experience for their wedding clients? It's not about you going there and trying to say how can we work together or how can you refer clients to me?

If you go there and say how can you refer clients to me? You sounded like you sound like a selfish person. Nobody wants to do business with a selfish person. So the end is the same. But the scope is, you say, how can we enhance the wedding experience for your clients or how can we create unforgettable moments? For your clients. So it's not about me, me, me, me, me. It's not how can we refer business? If I, if you're going to talk to all these luxury people and say,

how can we refer business to each other? It sounds, it sounds tacky, Especially people like Wedding Guru and Sapphire people who have been a decade, 2 decades, they might won't feel like you refer me business. Like what kind of business were you sent to me? Like I'm an OG, I've been here for a while. Like who are you to send me business, You know? So what was that anyway? So this is 40 minutes. Let me just bring it to a close,

but I hope you guys have been getting the scope. The summary of what I've been trying to say basically is just that talking to strangers is not dead. Whether you knock on the door, you go to the office for the first time, you pick up the phone for the first time, or you send an e-mail for the first time, it's not dead. The challenge is just to learn how to do it so they can be effective. Today I just remember that it's not about you, so don't pick the one that you like best.

Be multimodal. You're trying to do everything at the same time. So try and go to the office to try and see Omo, Omo below. If by the time you went there, maybe she travelled to France and so she's still, you know, having holidays in France with the children or whatever, no problem. You try to visit, it didn't work, no problem. The other avenues, there's WhatsApp, there's SMS, there's Instagram, there's all kinds of things.

And by the way, you will still try and go to office again another day. Maybe if you're there, you end up collecting the number of the PA. It's still something. At least now you have Direct Line with the PA so you can be talking to PA to find out. OK, when is Madam Omo in the office then? Oh, by the way, it just occurred to me that I'm assuming Omobilo is a woman because my memory is fuzzy. I hope it's not a geisha. But any usher, it's all joint.

The the principle is still the same. So it's multimodal. You're going to do everything. You're going to go and visit. You're going to go and pick up the phone. You're going to send an SMS, You're going to do networking sessions where you think any of these people will be. You also might send gifts to them once in a while or you might send personalized videos or whatever, but shall all join multimodal so that the chances go up.

Then use your phone, do some research, come up with a prospecting list that is for bulletin and those who are like who are trying to start up a business in fashion green, then a personalized approach. When we say personalized approach, it's not about you don't want to talk about you and how you went to fashion institute in Paris and why you're the greatest and why you're the best. Make it personalized to them. Come and talk about them,

flatter them. Talk to them about why they're the best, whether the this whether the best thing since sliced bread. It is then after that the next paragraph in your e-mail, you now took yourself into the agenda saying how you might you also align to some of these principles that they hold to be cardinal for their businesses. And then the call to action will be whether they're interested in exploring how to enhance the wedding experience or how to create unforgettable moments for the the clients or how to create bespoke customized one in town events for the customer or, you know, just sit down.

Shall you be able to think of something? It is at that next meeting that you can now start exchanging catalogue, exchanging price list, looking at this, looking at that. So it's my hope, my prayer that by the time we go through all of this wahala, we're going to be able to drum up some good business or please have a healthy sense of expectations around these things. Some people assume that if you go and you check Google and you pull up a list of 20 people that you end up doing business with 20.

That is unrealistic, especially if this is your first time. If you pull up a list of 20, you end up doing business with two or three. My own opinion, I think you did good. The challenge now will be to learn, OK, these things that the things that I did right, what are they so I can repeat them. The things that I did wrong, what are they? So I can never do that again. So that in the next set of 20 people that I pull up, maybe out of talking to 20, I can do business with four.

And you repeat the whole process and iterate and learn. And then maybe you can do business with five and maybe next time with eight, with 10, with 12. But know that you will never get to 100 / 100. A 100 / 100 is not possible because like Brian Tracy says that you don't have a chance in hell or where he didn't put it that way. But there's no way that every single person that you talks to, that you talk to is interested in your product or service or wants your product or service or needs your product or service or can afford your product or service.

That is not going to happen. So 100 / 100 only exist in school work. It doesn't exist in business because not everybody wants or needs or can afford what it is that we sell. So that's it. Thank you very much for your time and attention. Yeah, if you've been finding value from this, please leave comments on the show just like Bulu Tunji did and others before her. If you'd like to call me, reach out for a strategy session for a business audit, or you have questions.

The number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. Thank you very much for your time and attention. Also connect with me on the LinkedIn, the name to look for establishing my IED or on YouTube tarvishing my IED. You find my stuff or sales for the Nigerian business person On YouTube, you find a bunch of my stuff as well. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys in the next episode, and hopefully by the next episode I should have been paid so I can go and relax.

Maybe I, you know, buy some suya and shawarma or something. Yeah, I'm a meat person, even though the doctor says it's not good for me. Well, anyway, what can you do? You only live once. All right, So later.