How to Introduce Yourself, Network, and Grow Your Business

Hello and welcome to the show. Apologies for the noise coming in through the background because today I'm not in the audio booth today I'm going to be sharing a session that I had with Stephen the drummer boy. Of course, not his real name, So that's a code name now. OK, I call him Stephen the Drummer Boy because he is a musician and he does some work with the choir. And this is something that he does in his past time.

And the reason why he reached out is because he is looking for more opportunities to network. Not for the musical thing, but for what he actually does. He's nine to five and that's because he's sorry, Forgive me. I'm not even sure exactly what it is he does because he's one of these tech guys who introduces himself as a full stack, front end, back end developer, blah blah, blah. You know, all that fancy stuff. And so in the conversation that I had with Stephen the drummer boy, my first assignment to him was that, look, Steven and all your other Niger guys, you know,

tech Bros and tech sisters, because they're also women who are now going around talking about those themselves in these terms, you know, putting on your LinkedIn profile that you're a full end, front end, full stack, back end developer, JavaScript something, you know, all that fancy technical stuff. So my first assignment to him was that you tech people, you need to look for alternative ways of introducing yourself so that potential customers know exactly what it is that you do.

Now, I told him about an interaction that I had with one of these folks on Instagram. The person reached out to me, sorry, not Instagram or on LinkedIn. The person reached out to me, the typical thing, you know, full and back end, front stack, full stack developer something, something, And I asked him a couple of questions and I teased out what we're able to do. And so at the end of the day, I just asked him, so OK, so if I

need to develop a website for my business, that's something you can do, right? And he said yes. And then I said, OK. And then if I need to develop a mobile app version for this particular thing, that's something you can do, right? And then he said yes. And then I told him that, look, to be honest, because of the way that you're introducing yourself, business owners like me in Nigeria who need these kinds of services do not even understand and do not even know what it is that you do.

So one of the things that is standing in the way of those of you who are technically minded and those of you who have, you know, are technically proficient in all these, you know, Web 3, online, digital, blah, blah, blah, all these sorts of things. One of the things that you guys are using too much jargon in the way that you talk with potential customers. And so we have no idea what it is that you do. So every time I keep seeing these things on your handles,

you know, full stack developer, front and back end, this something developer that this program, this excess CSL something, something, it's a bit much. Now among all you technical people, you guys see it and you know exactly what it is that you mean. But The thing is you all are not bringing business or trying to do business with each other. People are trying to do business with ordinary people like me. So you need to use language that shows the ordinary person what it is that you do.

Then it's also going to help if you talk in potential benefits or potential problems that your customers have. That way they will know exactly what it's that you do. Now I understand that it's a problem because if you use such simple language, you won't sound fancy anymore. You won't sound as if you know what it is that you have to do. Sorry, you won't sound as if you're the Don. But The thing is, are you trying to sound right or sound cool or are you trying to make money and are you trying to get customers?

So for the guy that I had the conversation with and I found out that behind all that big grammar, all that full stack front end, back end developers, something, something, something, I was able to narrow it down that he creates websites for Nigerian business people and he's able to create mobile applications. That's mobile app basically that goes along with those websites. So if you're able to talk in those terms on your profile or when you're networking, you're able to tell someone that I

develop websites for business owners and I build apps that also work with that website as well. You can see that it's going to be a different conversation if you start off the conversation like that while you're networking or you put that kind of thing on your LinkedIn profile or your Instagram handle, At least people can start asking, oh, what kind of websites do you design? How much can you design? The apps you're talking about?

What kind of apps are those? Will the app work for someone like me who is a fashion designer, you know, blah, blah, blah. You'll be able to start having fruitful conversations. So my first assignment to Steven the drummer boy was, you know, sit down, use ChatGPT or Gemini or something. Ask yourself a couple of questions, narrow down to the problems that you solve or the benefit that you bring to the marketplace and look for an easier way of introducing yourself.

Because this full stack front end back end developer OCIS XL something it, it means absolutely nothing to someone like me. Now for someone like my brother who studied information systems management. So my brother is he's he's one of you guys. He's a tech geek. My brother will see full end front and back end developer something and he'll know exactly what it is that you do. But for ordinary people like me who could be your customers, we have no idea.

If I go and tell my mom, see now, hey mommy, what is a full end front end, back end developer, full stack OCISX, you know, blah blah, blah. Moms will be like, what is that? If I go and tell my wife babe, what is a full and front and back end developer full stack something XOIOCIFXI JavaScript something something my wife would be like what is that? If I go and tell my guy my who helps run my video for me? Two of them Abel and then Shagun.

If I go and tell them Abel Shagun, what is a full and front back end developer, full stack programmer something JavaScript EXE, of course, that's my and funny enough, we are the people that you should be talking to to do business with us because we are the ones who need websites. We are the ones who need apps and we are the ones who need all the services that you provide. So just look for simpler ways to introduce yourself.

So stop talking about yourself in all those technical terms. Then I also had a conversation with Steven the drummer boy about what he means when he says networking because this is looking for more opportunities to network. So 1 moment, let me get my notes because this is a conversation that I had. I think it's up to like 2 weeks now. So, so I'm running on memory on some of these things. Let me see. So networking now, he said for him, networking means looking for more people to talk to and trying to find out which people are interested in him and to try and find out which people are willing to support him in his endeavours.

And let me repeat, Steven, the Roman boy said that networking is about looking for more people to talk to and finding people who are interested in him and also finding out people who are willing to support him in his business endeavours. And in a sense, I see where he's coming from. And when you talk to a lot of Nigerian people starting off businesses, these are the kind of ideas that they have. You're heading into a room or you're heading into a context,

you're heading into a situation and you're looking for people to talk to. You're trying to find people who are interested in you and you're trying to find people who can support you. So I had to level with Steven drone boy. And I told her, look, your ideas and your messaging is too me, me, me, me, me. And in this day and age, it's not cool and it's going to be off putting for lots of people because you show up, especially as a young man, you know, like I

am, If you show up and it's all about me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, people just tune off and and they're not interested because after all, we all have other things to do with our time, with our money, with our attention, with our resources. And you know, if you think you're the ish we like everybody has their own problems. Let me just put it that way. So I told him that his elements of networking, yes, they are correct.

Talking to someone, seeing people who are interested and seeing who is willing to support. But I just told him that he needs to flip the focus just a little bit. When you're doing networking, it's not about talking, It's not about talking at people. It's about having a conversation with people and trying to figure out who those people are. So we have to be other focused. Then his next leg of seeing if the people are interested in him.

I told him that look, nothing is also off. You should be trying to figure out who these people are and try to see if you are interested in them. It's not about whether they are interested in you, it's about whether you are interested in them. And you should be interested in them to the extent that your goals are aligned. So you already know your own goals. So when you step into a networking situation, remember that Steven drummer boy, he's a musician at church.

But what he does as a business is he's a full end. Sorry, how do you guys say it again? He's a full full stack, full stack, front end, back end developer, programmer, something, something, something. So where was I? So when he's in church and he's trying to network in church or around those sorts of circles, it's not about figuring out who is interested in me, but it's about figuring out who is this person? What goals do they have our goals aligned.

And then instead of figuring out how those people can support you, you have to figure out how you can support them. That is how you get networking going. Because when you show up and you're other interested, especially if you're a bright young man like this guy is, obviously he's very sharp. You have to be sharp to be a sorry, to be a full end, sorry, full stack, front end, back end, developer, programmer, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

So you obviously have to be a very bright fellow. So if you show up as a sharp guy to a networking event, talking to people, schmoozing, finding out who they are, what their goals are, seeing areas of alignment and then proposing that, oh, with my skill set, this and this and this is how I can improve your business, improve your personal situation, improve your this, improve your that. Can you see how this is going to lead to profitable networking,

profitable business opportunities in the future? So in a sense he's correct, but you just need to tweak it small. It's not about you when you're networking, it's about the other people. Now, when it comes to growing your business, I'm all in favour of continuing what it is that you already do because if you try to go outside your comfort space, it's hard. And so let's start with the easy stuff first. So I told him that look, you're looking for more avenues for networking, so let's not invent anything new.

You're Steven, you're the drummer boy, you're already drumming in church. People already know you. So let's just start there. Let's start with the church community. There's nobody saying let's try Chamber of Commerce, let's try this, let's try that, let's try that. If we start taking outside of your comfort zone, it'll be too much of A stretch. So let's start with what you're comfortable. And this advice that I'm giving to those of you who are listening to this podcast who are in a similar situation, you want to start networking.

You don't have to start thinking far. You don't have to start thinking of networking sessions that are holding in Sheraton Hotel. This eventually you'll get there, but you don't have to think that far yet. Start with where you already are. So if you're like Steven the Drummond boy, you play in the choir. I mean, that's, that's good choir people, a good place to network, church people, good place to network, other departments in church, good place to network.

You start there first, you beef up your networking muscles within the church community. Later on, you'll now be able to stray and go towards other avenues. So my assignment team was this, since you're already in the church circles and you're looking for new avenues to network and you happen to have these specialties around full, sorry, around front end, back end, full stack developing and programming and coding and everything.

You need to look for ways of interacting with people, figuring out who they are and figuring out who is going to be able to, to benefit from these coding skills that you have. Then we also went into, let me see what else, OK. We also spoke a bit about his schedule. He gave me his schedule for the day and Stephen, drummer boy, I must hail you because man, you are disciplined. He wakes up at basically summaries Stephen a drummer boy,

apart from when he's playing in church. This guy is coding 247 basically. And for that I have to give you props because from one young man to another, not not many of us are disciplined to run things the way you do. I mean, like, think about it, this podcast, my goal really is to be podcasting every day. But because of some personal issues, you know, I've been gone for the last three or four days. I know for those of you who listen every day, you'd have noticed.

But for those of you who just come here maybe once or twice a week, you wouldn't have noticed. I've actually been gone for about, excuse me, for about 3 or 4 days because you've been moving house. We found a house, you know, we've moved in and then, you know, small, small challenges. Yeah. And there, you know, Carpenter today, electrician tomorrow, furniture next tomorrow, all these sorts of things. So I've been thrown off my usual rhythm.

So to meet someone who can actually say this is what I'm going to do and then do it every day, you know, I give props to you. So you have the discipline, Stephen, Drama boy, keep up with that. It's a strength, it's an asset, and it's something that's going to take you far no matter what it is you do, whether it's drumming for the church or whether it's continuing your business as a coder and as a developer. So continue with the discipline.

So basically he calls all day. Let's see, he's coding morning till evening. He calls until 7:00 PM. Then he goes to the gym, I think until about 8:00 PM. And then he decides to relax and he's relaxing. His listening to podcast, my own podcast is one of those podcasts he listens to, you know, personal development, business development, personal development is, is really, really important. So he listens to this sort of material until about 10:00 PM at night and then he starts coding again.

And then he stops at about 2:00 AM and then he repeats the process every day and has some discipline ish. So Stephen Drummer boy, props to you. You know, you have lots of discipline. So well done, well done. But then I also told him that look, Stephen, Mr. Drummer Boy, if you're going to be serious about this coding thing, you actually cannot live your life like this. 247 You can't because the technical expertise is one thing.

Building the business is something else. And I gave him an example that those of you who are full stack front and back end developer Coda, programmer, OCI, FXC, JavaScript, something something one example that you guys can relate to is the man himself, Zuckerberg. So in the beginning, Zuckerberg had to be coding 247. He had to be doing the full stack front and back end. You know, something, something developer Coda, blah, blah,

blah. In the beginning he had to do that. So excuse me, the weather here in Abuja, Hammatan. So eventually, so in the beginning year, he was doing programming 247. But then eventually when the business starts getting off the ground, you know, Facebook, his focus had to shift. He had to now Start learning fundraising, investor relations, toasting people for their money. You have some other programmers. He also needed to learn delegation, supervising, team management, time management,

capital allocation. Eventually things were building small, small, small. He even needed to Start learning media relations or bringing somebody who can handle PR. But you can see that as his business was beginning to grow, was his business ideas were beginning to develop. The number of skills and the number of things that he had, the number of skills that he had to acquire were increasing. The number of things that he had to do were increasing.

And so he was going to be having less and less time for coding. So I told him, look, I'm willing to bet right now that I don't think currently Zuckerberg, I don't think he's coding up to one hour a day now. That's just my guess because his time is spent doing other things, managing other coders, managing other departments, managing other teams, talking with accountants and lawyers, talking with public relations people, talking with marketing and branding people.

He's doing lots of other things. So I told him that if you want to get better at networking, but 247, this is all you do. Wake up in the morning, call until 7:00 PM. Go to the gym until 8, then relaxing and personal development until 10 and then coding until 2:00 in the morning and then starting all over again. You only take a break on the days that you're you're you're playing in church is no BM. It's not. It's not going to cut it.

You will have to set aside some days where you break this coding thing and you say I am going to go and talk at this Ave. or I'm going to go and network at this Ave. or I'm going to go and try and draw more business by doing this or by doing this or by doing that. So for those of you who love the keyboard, you know, you have the latest HP something, something blah blah blah, the latest iMac something ibook pro, something 15 inch whatever.

I wake up in the morning, you sit down, you start doing your magic, you write your code, you do your full stack, front end, back end, developing something, something programming, coding, JavaScript, OXF, something back script, this Python, Python plus plus plus you know you do all your magic. If you guys are serious about building the business, eventually the coding is going to go down Small, small, small, small, small.

You have to learn how to recruit other quotas. You have to learn how to delegate. You will have to learn how to interact with customers. You will learn how you have to spend lots of your time doing sales and marketing activities, interacting with customers, making presentations, trying to close the sale. So excuse me, you know, regular stuff that other people have to do. So you quotas, I'm sorry. I know you started because you love this thing.

You love the magic that you can do. You sit down with the keyboard, you do click the clack, this, this, this, that, that, that. And then next thing you have invented something which is, you know, magically can take the database of an entire organization and structure it and store it and upload it to the cloud and do this. And I understand it. It must be really evigorating, really empowering you boys and girls when you sit down at the keyboard and you just work your magic.

Well, unfortunately this is about building a business, so you can't sit down and work your magic forever. Except if you're going to be like Wozniak, you sit down and work your magic and then you look for Steve Jobs and then Steve Jobs goes and does the selling. So you sit down and you know, clickety clack keyboard every day and then the other guy does the selling. So yeah, it can't work. But if you're not in a situation where you found somebody who's like a Steve Jobs, who's going to be selling your magic on your behalf?

Then please realize you have to make some changes to your life. This whole thing of coding 247, you're going got it. It's not going to work. So let's see what else? OK, so back to the networking thing. So I told him, let's just start with church. You're already in the church community, so there's no need to go and be looking for any other kind of place. Then you're already in the, you already work with certain departments within the church.

So you're a drummer boy. So that means you're with the choir. He says correct, and it's OK since you're with the choir. I also know that Aspire, since you're a drummer boy, you have to set up the kit and take down the kit. So because of that, you also liaise with people in the protocol department. Well, you know, back when I was in university with the Nigerian Federation of Catholic Students, that's what we used to call it,

protocol people who come and set up and then sit down. He says, yes, that's correct. OK, so cool. So choir, you have a leg there. Protocol, you have a leg there. You said correct, although he says they don't call you protocol. And I don't know what it's called nowadays, but back in my day, yeah, that's what I used to call it, protocol. Then he also says that he's also cool with people in the digital department, you know, people who set up the cameras, people are doing After Effects and then,

you know, stuff like that. So it's OK, cool, no problem. So that means now you have a leg in three communities. You have a leg in the choir or the music department, you have a leg in the digital department. They also have a leg in the protocol department. So you're already embedded within these communities. So these are places that you're going to start networking in. Now Please remember, I am not saying that this is the only place you should network with network in.

I'm just saying that this is where he should start now because he's already embedded in these communities. So it will be easy for him to network because within these communities, because there will be less stress and emotional angst. If you haven't built up your muscle, it is kind of scary to walk into your room, fresh room, 40 faces, total strangers. You haven't met them before. You don't know anybody. It can't be overwhelming if it's your first time.

So that's the reason why I'm saying he's already embedded with these communities. Start here. By the time he builds some muscle talking to people that he already knows, the first time he has to step into a room where it's 4050 people, all of them total strangers, won't be a problem who know how to gather himself because he has had some practice before. So the challenge now is to interact with people in the musical department, with the digital department or the protocol department, have conversations with them, figure out who they are, get to know them.

It is from then it's from there that you'll be able to figure out who could benefit from your skills as a developer, as a programmer, and as a coder. So that is how it works. Then we also had some conversations around his business. OK, well, we also were not clear about how he intends to the well, I see the business model because when we're talking, I assumed that he was a freelancer. So like freelancer just means like you're you're a work for hire.

OK, let me put it this way. If you're an assassin and you set up your Instagram handle and anytime somebody wants somebody killed, you know, they call you, that is freelance. You're there just doing your thing. You're a contractor. When people need your services, they call you, you go and do it and you know, that's it. So I assume was a freelancer, but it looks like he has some startup ideas. So we did settle it then.

But I told him that, man, it would be hard to be running these two things at the same time. You know, one of them has to take preeminence at some point, as in one of them has to be the leader at some point. You can't run the things 5050. It doesn't work that way. So it can be that maybe now you're going hard into freelancing services because you're trying to make money, You know, while you're doing your freelancing, let's say you're charging people maybe like 400 K

to build website or something, and then maybe 600 K to build apps. You're trying to see how many websites, how many apps can I do? So that maybe by the end of 2025, by the time I do 44400 Ki do maybe like 10 jobs, I'll be 400 K in 10 jobs. How much is that? Is that 4M 400 K 10? I think that's like 4M and then 600K. If I do maybe like 10 of them that should be like 6 M. So by the end of the year I should have like 10 M in my bank account.

So maybe I use like 5 M, you know, house rent flexing daily. You know what you have it the remaining 5 MI can now use as capital for my startup. So you see, if you're going to be doing this thing, 5050 will be hard, but if you're going to say, let me just devote 2025 to freelancing and let me rack up as much money as I can so that 2026, this startup, we would die on this startup. You see, that's how you do it. Or you say, look, you know what,

this thing is a startup. So let me start, let me start looking for investors, you know, blah, blah, blah, and or what not. But you can't be this 5050 thing. It doesn't work. You're just dissipating your energy here and there. So I'm not saying pick one, drop the other, but one has to lead, one has to increase, and the other has to decrease. You know, one has to be preeminent. So it depends. But that's a conversation that Stephen the drummer boy has to have with himself at a later date.

Then let's see. OK. I also tried to find out about interesting projects that Stephen Drummer Boy had done before so I could come up with concrete ideas about the kind of conversations you'd be having with people. And what he has made in the past is he has done something that, sorry, excuse me, he has done something that with a different church Where the app or Abby, was it an app? OK, I didn't write it down anyway. But there was a way that they were tracking church attendance so that you'll be able to see who came this week, who didn't come this week.

So the people who came last week came the week before. They didn't come this week. They don't come next week, you know, know that. Oh, OK, we need to follow up on brother so so so and so or sister so so so and so. And I told them all fantastic. That's really good community building. So you have used your skills as a full stack front end, back end developer, JavaScript, Python something something called a programmer, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah. And you have created something for churches in Lagos that helps them to track attendance. But look, it's not really tracking attendance actually what you're doing there. That is community building. That is a community building solutions that you're providing. So in other communities that you are networking in the future, these are some of the conversations that you can be having. If you're having a conversation with pastors, it would be oh,

oh, your pastor. So, so and so. Oh, nice to meet you, Sir. Blah, blah, blah. Tell me more about your church. Oh, this is what you do. This is where you are. Oh, oh, bless you, Sir. May God continue to reward your effort. It looks like we were doing very, very well at, at social school ministries. Oh, by the way, pastor, have you people been having a problem with community building? Have you noticed that sometimes services are full, sometimes services are not say, well,

actually, yes, we have. And it's something we've been praying about and something, something, something. Well, Pastor, I think I might have a solution for that. There's something that I developed for XYZ Ministries that we used to use to track church attendance, and we're able to use that in close conjunction with people in the visitation department. And after doing a campaign for four or five weeks, we're able to notice that church attendance was able to improve from 70% to 82%.

And we also notice that now that church attendance was now at 82%. We also notice that that tithing also went up by 3%. Pastor, if you're free, I can come by your office next week Monday so that we can talk about how these sorts of solutions can work for your ministry. So is that, is that something you'd be interested in, Sir? Man of God and I keep quiet. I know you hear whether man of God is interested or not. If man of God is interested,

good, you're making progress. If he's not interested, no problem, on to the next. Look for somebody else to talk to. Well, you guys can see how it works and that's why I was asking him about what he has done in the past and how it's going to influence the kind of conversation that we'll have in the future. Then he has also come up with a solution where although this was for businesses, you'll be able to create cloud storage for contacts and passwords and then things like that.

And I told him I think that's a good a cool idea. Although I admitted to him that, look, man, I'm never gonna do that. I don't trust putting my passwords in the cloud, but there are lots of people who do. So OK, that's also another benefit there. Then let's see what else, OK. He has also worked on something for a food website that helps with ordering food. And then I told him that the benefit there is that he's making businesses much more in efficient.

Basically, I'm just trying to figure out what have you done in the past? What is the value it is that you provide? Those will influence the terms in which you talk with people while you're networking. So sorry, let me check my notes. Let me see what else did we talk about? Sorry, this is a rambling episode of like I said, this was a conversation I had I think maybe about two weeks ago. I think, I think this is all I can remember for now.

But basically, it's just this number one, if you're like Steven drummer boy and you're in the technical field, your full stack front and back end developer, Python plus coding OCIX, JavaScript, something, something, something, please stop putting on your LinkedIn profile that you're a full stack front and back end developer something something because your potential customers do not know what that means. Think about it.

Steven the drummer boy is drumming in church. How many people do you think in the congregation know what the full stack back end developer something something is? So even if they see that on your profile or if you introduce yourself to them after service, I say, oh sister Dollar Bo, I'm a full stack front and back end developer should say oh OK, OK, that's nice, that's nice. She won't ask. What does that mean? Because the average Nigerian doesn't want to appear stupid.

So they won't ask 'cause I don't want to show that they don't understand. So OK, OK, OK. Well that sounds exciting. Oh bless you brother. Bless you brother, bless you brother. And then she will leave tomorrow if she needs to refer. How would she refer you when she doesn't understand what full stack front end the back end developing is? So put something else in your profile. Look for other ways of introducing yourself that shows the kind of benefits that you provide.

Even if you're trying to be cocky and you say, oh, I'm a computer whiz kid and I help design software for churches that help them raise more money. You can see that that one is fairly specific, so that the next time Sister Dolapo is talking to another pastor who is complaining about church attendance and about tides in their church, at least she'll remember you that oh, Steven, drummer boy in my church was talking about how he helps churches raise more money with his coding skills, as you might say, Oh, pastor so and so,

there's this guy in my church. Why don't you talk to him? This is something he might be able to do. So. So excuse me, simplify how you introduce yourself, simplify how you talk about yourself. And this applies to everybody who works in a technical field. So if you are a member of the Association of Forensic Accountants of Nigeria, and yes, it is a real thing. Their office is in in what's this Plaza called. It's in Area 11, It's behind NNPC.

So on NNPC, Yeah, NNPC, NMPC quarters is behind NMPC quarters and this is MMM, IB F AB F AB F AB mall or something like that. So they are there. Forensic accountants, if you go around telling people you are forensic accountant, the average Nigerian does not know what a forensic accountant is. We know that accountants exists. We kind of have an idea what accountants do, but the average person has no idea about what a forensic accountant is.

So instead of going around proudly boasting I'm a forensic accountant, why not look for ways of speaking in terms of the benefits that you provide? So now people ask you, what do you do? I'm an accountant. Say, oh, OK, really? Yeah, I'm an accountant, but I'm not an everyday kind of accountant. My own specialty is I know how to figure out where money is being stolen and who is stealing the money in your organization, that kind of thing.

People will remember, their ears will perk up. You are surprised that the person will say ah, you are the kind of person I need. I have a business, I have 20 employees every single month. I'm dropping 800K into the business every single month. This is what is coming out is looking to me as IF400K300K every month is missing and I don't know what it is that is going on. Please can you help me? If you go around saying I'm a forensic accountant, half the people you're talking to will not know.

But then if you go around saying that, oh, I'm an accountant, I specialize in finding out who is stealing your money and how much is being stolen, that is a different conversation. The person will now be able to know when to refer you the next time he's talking to someone else. If the person says, oh, these my employers, oh, Shagun did this, I did good, need that. Hamza did this. Something, something, Oh, I'm not even sure the best will now remember, ah, the last time I

was at so, so, so and so I spoke to Tahir. He said he's a forensic accountant and their specialty is they figure out who is stealing money inside the business. You say, ah, please give me that person's number and then don't call. So please. This is a disease that is suffered by those of you who are technically proficient. You love your titles, you love your technical words. Simplify. When you're talking to your technical people, please use all the big grammar so that all your technical people will know that you're legit.

When you're talking to everyday ordinary people like me, simplify it. Don't go around saying I'm a full stack, front end, back end developer. Don't go around saying I'm a forensic accountant. Talk in terms of the benefits you provide, the problems that you solve when you're talking to everyday ordinary people so that they will know what you do, whether you can help them, or whether they should refer you to someone else.

So that's summary #1 let's see #2A lot of you have fallen in love with the tanker aspect of your business. This is not just for coders. It's the same thing with people who cook or people who bake. So you love cooking. Everybody tells you that you are a masterful cook. You've been cooking since you were four years old. So your identity is wrapped up in being a chef. Unfortunately, chefing is not as what's going to make the business grow.

The business is going to grow. When you hire a team, you supervise the team. You make sure that the team is chefing to your standards, and then you start spending your time networking, marketing, talking to people, sending out proposals, making presentations, trying to close deals. That is what will move the sale forward. So yes, you fell in love with photography. You fell in love with chafing. You fell in love with computer coding.

You fell in love with whatever it is. Even if you're a bodybuilder, you fell in love with bodybuilding. Lifting weights in the gym is not going to build your business as a personal trainer. Your business as a personal trainer will grow when you come with a method for going out or using your Instagram or whatever, looking for clients. Eventually you need to build a team around you, people who you have certified, people who you've trust.

You trust in your methods because you can't scale this business around yourself 'cause let's face it, the problem with physical training is while you're training this. Let's say you're training Missus Uchechuku in the gym and her session last two hours. For that two hours, you can only be with her. You can't be with anybody else. The real money is going to come when you're spending two hours with Missus Uchechuku, but then you have also trained six other guys and girls and each of those six other guys and girls are training other people for other two hour sessions.

Or maybe you're giving them, I don't know, maybe 20 or 30% of the money, but you're the one bringing in the customers. So you see, that's how we think skills. So stop falling in love with the technical aspect, start falling in love with the business aspects. That is what is going to make things grow. So that's number two. Then let's see what else? Let's see then #3 or the final thing is, if you're looking for more avenues to network, sorry,

let me wrap up on my notes. If you're looking for more avenues to network, please don't give yourself high BP by looking for new avenues to network in. Start with the circles that you are already are in. Start there. So if you're like Steven the drummer boy, you're already in the church community. Start in the church community. Get comfortable there. Keep networking there, eventually you build up your networking muscles and then you'll be able to now start moving to Lagos Chamber of Commerce, Abuja Chamber of Commerce or International Trade Fair or BNIBNI is a business networking international or you know different networking associations or like is it lions or something?

Lions, I had lions, Lagos Lions, Leki chapter or what else? What other networking bodies are there? But you get my point. So start where you are. So if you are a member of church, start there. If you're a member of Parabol, you know descendants of Umwaha, Umwaha United Abuja chapter, start there. Or you're a poet, you're a member of some poetry, painting something. Click in Abuja or Lagos, start there, start where you are,

network there first, build the muscle, get comfortable and then you can expand to other circles. So that's it for today, pretty much. If you'd love to connect for a business audit or a strategy session, then the phone number to call is 08064662140. The country code is +234 for those who are not Nigerian. And that is my WhatsApp number as well. So you can send me a WhatsApp message. Then if you'd love to connect with me on socials, I'm on LinkedIn as Tavish Shima Ayede.

You can also find a bunch of this stuff from me also on YouTube. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode. Hopefully, it's not going to be another three or four days before you hear from me again. So enjoy the rest of your day. And I hope I've been able to deliver some value from the conversation that I had with Steven, the drummer boy. And I hope that we've got good Nuggets for you guys there to move your businesses forward.

So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.