NYSC to Entrepreneur: How Cynthia Found Her Voice and Clients

Hello and welcome to the show. I'm out and about, so there's going to be some interruptions in the background, so apologies for that. Now today, I want to share a conversation that I had with a listener of the show. I want to call her Cynthia Rothrock, but of course that is not her real name. And I'm going to share you some stuff that we spoke about. Let me see basically all the good stuff that has come away with her listening to the podcast because you know, from episode to episode, I mentioned to you guys about how the whole point of this thing is supposed to be a free resource.

So every not everyone needs to come to me for a paid consultation. You can just listen to the podcast episodes and then make a note of one or two specific things that you can try out, take action the next day and see the difference that is going to make in your business. And so it was nice to come across someone who is actually doing that and who reached out to say I've been listening and these are the benefits. So that's what we're going to be exploring today.

Now, the reason why I'm calling her Cynthia Rothrock is because I want to prove what's that word protect, Yes, protect her identity because I don't have permission to talk about her, you know, with her real name and then all of that. And also because this young lady reminds me of a very old female action style. Yeah, let me. It's a female action star from the 80s. And her name was Cynthia Rothrock. Now, for those of you who are a similar age like I am, and then you remember her, Cynthia Rothrock as a female martial artist was a champion from 1981

to, I think, 1985. And she acted in this movie, No Retreat, No Surrender. And man, that movie really reigned when I was in primary school. Everybody was talking about no retreat, no surrender. And yeah. So the reason why I'm calling her Cynthia Rothrock is because the lady that I had this conversation with has the same fighting spirit. You know, she refused to be deterred and she refused. She refused to be deterred in her business.

Let's just put it that way. Anyway, for those of you who would like to connect with me for a strategy session, for a business audit or you have questions that you want me to answer, the phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, then connect with me on LinkedIn. The name to look for is Tavishimaidi. I have a YouTube channel and it's under the same name as well. Now this listener of the show has been listening on Spotify.

She reached out to me on WhatsApp and her business is she registers business name, she registers business entities. So she's a sort of service professional that if you want to register your business, you go to her. If you have an NGO, you want to register your NGO, you go to her, you're trying to figure out a business name, you know, stuff like that. You want to know what names are available so that you can register. You go to her, she's going to liaise with the CAC.

That's the Corporate Affairs Commission. They have the body that is responsible for registering all businesses in Nigeria, all businesses, all charities. So that's the business that this young lady is involved in. She just, she's an interface between you and the CAC for when you want to register your business name, register your business entities. So like I said, this lady Cynthia, not her real name, of course. So Cynthia said when she reached out to me, she said that listening to the podcast has caused improvements in her business.

And of course, I wanted some more details. Now this is the 411. Now Cynthia and I have a couple of things in common because she read law. And of course, you've been listening to the podcast for a while. You know that. Yeah, my first background was in law. So she read law. She's currently doing her NYC. I'm waiting for the call to bar now. Call to buy is a ceremony where we get enrolled in the Supreme Court and that is what gives us the license so that we can practice as baby lawyers.

Well, when I finished law school back then, a baby lawyer was just anybody who is, you know, fresh, fresh mint. You know, you've just finished your law degree and you can now practice law. So, you know, people would call us baby lawyers. So I'm call to buy is a ceremony that we go through that makes us baby lawyers. And for those of you who have heard the rumors in Nigeria, I want to tell you that the rumors are not correct.

The call to bar ceremony is not a secret cult ceremony. They are not enrolling us in a Bony cult. Yes, we all wear black and we all wear white and we all, so we wear the white shirts and we wear the black gowns and we wear the funny wigs. But they are not inducting us into a Bony cult. The food that we eat in the call to bar ceremony is the normal food that everybody eats. So this is not a secret cult. No, I'm not a member of Oboni.

Cynthia is also not a member of Oboni secret cult or any other secret cult. When we're entering into the call to bar thing, we don't walk backwards. We don't take any spiritual pledges, you know, none of that. And I don't know where people get all these funny stories from. So just to let you know that if your younger brother, your son, your mom, your auntie, your sister, your dad, whoever wants to study Lord, don't worry, they are not going to get initiated into a secret cult.

There's no secret cult. Yes, there's plenty of fanfare and some of it looks ridiculous, especially from a Nigerian perspective. You're going to wonder why are we wearing this huge gowns, you know, in the, in the heat and then the funny wigs and all of that. So yes, it looks ridiculous, but don't worry, there's nothing sinister going on, nothing devilish. So Cynthia and I were basically were basically one and the same.

You know, we are professional colleagues. Then initially when she started her business, she was trying to grow her business by publicizing it from the WhatsApp status. Now, this is something that I've said on the show, especially for those of you who are afraid of selling, that this is a problematic way of trying to grow your business by relying on posting. Now, there's no problem when it comes to certain kinds of business to grow it by posting.

But The thing is, if you are a service provider, let's say you sell insurance or you're selling legal services or you're selling consulting services or something like that, trying to post your way to success is it's, it's possible. It's just that it will take a very long time. The reason why is because there's a limit to how much people can get to know you as a service provider or like you as a service provider or trust you as a service provider when it comes to posting.

So for those of you who insist that you don't want to talk to anybody and you want to grow your business from just public publicizing it, posting it on WhatsApp status, I mean, yeah, by all means, go ahead. Just know that it will take forever. You cannot post your way to success as a lawyer or as a consultant or as a let me see what else? As a medical doctor, as an accountant, you know, services, services, services. As an architect, you cannot post your way to success.

You can't just can't happen. Now for things that are goods, that is a different matter altogether. So if I enter into the business of selling baby diapers now, because I don't know how much diapers are now, my guess is it's probably expensive. Because when I, when my wife and I, when we had our first born and even back then, people used to, you know, tell us that we were being fancy, that we only buy foreign products.

You know, back then, a packet of Huggies, Huggies diapers that will last for the whole month. And back then, my boy used to poop like crazy. Like my boy used to poop like 3-4 times every day. And, you know, as the doctor, like doctor, is this normal? Like this boy poops anyhow. And the doctor was like, yeah, it's normal. And that's how babies poop now. Some babies even poop more now. Some babies poop and soil themselves up to like 6-8 times a day, you know.

But me, I was a new father at the time. For me, I was worried. I was like, what kind of rubbish is this? Now this guy is just pooping anyhow. So even with all the pooping that my son used to do, a pack of hockey then was 7K7000 naira. And back then people used to laugh at me like, ah, you're feeling as if your baby is special. I'd be, you can't buy local diapers. I'd be, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. So back then was 7000 naira.

So I can imagine right now it must cost a whole lot more. I won't be surprised. Anyway, let me not guess here and give you guys wrong information. But let me just say diapers are expensive. So if let me just say right now, let me just guess that maybe not a packet of Huggies, the expensive ones is maybe 50K now to buy the whole pack for the month. Now let's say I start that kind of business now I am importing the Huggies diapers.

But because I have some good connects, maybe I'm getting the diapers at 40K per pack and then maybe I'll sell it at maybe like 45. You know, the average person on the street door feel as if or OK, if they're buying from me from 45, they're saving like 5K5K. Doesn't look like much. But The thing is when you have a brand new baby and you're saving 5K, you know, 5K this month, 5K enough amongst 55555, you know, eventually that's much more 5K,

you know, adds up. Now for that kind of business, you can post your way to success because it's relatively straightforward. Somebody will see that oh, this person has Huggies diapers in the market. It costs 60K but this guy saying it's 45 K, that kind of thing can move fast. People who just, you know, send your phone number here, somebody will call you. I saw the post blah blah blah. Is this correct? Is it genuine? Okay, how can we see?

I want to see and be sure that is the authentic something, you know, so when it comes to selling products, you can post your way to success. But for those of you who are service professionals, you just finished call to bar, you just finished your medical, maybe you went to School of Medicine and dentistry and things like that. You know, you just passed your qualification exam for accounting for everything. When it comes to those sorts of professions, you can't post your way to success.

Sorry. One moment I need to wind down the car window. So it's going to get loud here all of a sudden. OK, sorry about that. As you leave the radio on when I'm driving, I'm one of those people who can't drive with silence. If not, I fall asleep. And of course, that'll be terrible because if I fall asleep and I die, then you guys don't have this podcast anymore. And what was I? So I was just trying to tell you how those of you who are trying to grow your businesses by WhatsApp posting, it depends on what you do.

For some things is not possible. So for babies, so for commodities, for goods, yes, If I'm in the yam business and I'm saying that I'm getting yam from Benway State and I'm getting 5 tubers for 10K because yam in Abuja is expensive. One tuber will cost you anything, you know, maybe like maybe 4K. There's one point I bought 1 tuber for 55. So you know, it's expensive. So first I'm selling Benwi 5 tuber for 10K, you know that kind of thing.

Yeah, you can you can use WhatsApp status and you can get your business to grow the same thing. Let's see, OK, maybe like human hair. And so if I said how authentic human hair, 56 inches, you know, blah, blah, blah. From Singapore, from UK, from Hungary, from Bangladesh, from this dot dot dot. And it's only, you know, 465 K. You know, somebody might say O465K Oh, that's a deal. Because if you go to so so you actually buy for maybe 610,000

or something. So for those kinds of businesses, when it comes to products, yes, you can post your way to success. But if you're a service provider like Cynthia Rothrock, you're selling registration for business entities. Stop deceiving yourself. You cannot grow your business by WhatsApp posting. If it works, prepare to post for maybe like a year before you start getting business. Anyway, eventually she marshy figured it out by herself.

So she started looking for avenues. Then she started an Instagram handle. And I say that it's very, very good because even if we're going the posting routes, you know, of course, the more avenues we have, the better. So, but eventually you run into the same problem. For those of us who are service providers, remember, if you sell goods, it is different. So if I'm selling human hair and I open up an Instagram page, it is different.

I actually can succeed selling human hair on Instagram and Instagram alone because it is a product. It's a different thing. Somebody can call me up to say, oh, I saw that you're selling your Bangladesh 54 inches for 300K. Is that through? Is it authentic also? Yes, it is authentic. My supplier, I know them blah. I go to Lagos. I cleared myself. My shop is at B. So so so and so Fr Plaza, if you want to come in and look at samples, come in.

We're open Monday to Friday this time to that time. So you know nothing. You can make it work, but you're an architect and you're trying to post your way to success on Instagram. Don't think you're going to grow your business like that in the short term. So let's see what else any then let me see. OK, open the Instagram. So I made some notes. Then eventually she started getting some customers, but then she ran into her first business problem.

Although in my own opinion, I didn't tell her that I think it's a business problem because it actually is a good thing. So excuse me. So sometimes some of these things are matter of perspective. So her first problem was this. After a while, she realized that it was the same people coming back over and over again that she was doing business with, so she needed some new customers. So in a way, yes, it's a business problem because you always need new people in the pipeline.

The reason why I need new people in the pipeline is because of this thing called attrition. Attrition just means the number of people who stopped doing business with you. And attrition or fallout or fall away or whatever it is it's called, happens for different reasons. The main reasons are #1 people die. It's unfortunate, but yes, some of our customers will die. I don't mean to sound more of it, but you know, even for me,

unfortunately, and it's very, very sad. I've already started hearing all some of those things, you know, couples that are covered their weddings. I know one of them. I called the bride and you know, she didn't answer. So I sent a message. I was like, oh, how you doing now? How so? So, so, and then she just responded, you know, he's dead and you know, it's shocking, but honestly just a fact of life. So that's, you know, attrition #1 people die.

Number two people move. And that has also happened to me plenty. There are people that you don't business with. You call them up. You want to say what's up? And I say, oh, sorry, I was, I was working. I'd work how he said, oh, I'm no longer in Nigeria. I'm now in Canada. We are 7 hours ahead. I'd be about 7 hours behind, you know, that kind of thing. So some of your customers will move and then sometimes it's just because people's preferences or people's situations, people's circumstances change.

So back to the human hair thing. Maybe you're selling human hair. You have one very good client. She's buying 46 inches, 56 inches, 102 inches this week, this, whatever. She's buying every single thing from you. But then one day she wakes up and she becomes born again and then she's only doing Maria Maka hairstyle. And because of that, she's no longer buying human hair. You know, that is attrition as well. She was your best customer.

But now she has seen the Lord. Her eyes are open and she has seen the Lord. And she's no longer a part of this world. She's no longer in the material universe. And so, you know, she'd rather take her money now and help motherless babies instead of buying human hair. So those sorts of things happen. Your best customer needs can change, circumstances can change, preferences can change. So those are what we call attrition now.

Because of attrition, we always need new people in the pipeline because if you're relying on the same old people over and over again, one of them dies, ten of them move to Canada, three of them become born again and the remaining change their preferences. Now what are you going to do? You're screwed. The outside running, I'm trying to look for new customers all over again. So in a sense she was thinking very well by saying that Kai,

there's a problem. The same set of people are coming over and over and over again, so I need to change. And so yes, with that she was correct. But The thing is this, if you have a high rate of returning customers, my brother, my sister, let me tell you, it actually is a good thing. Because when people keep coming back and back and back, it means that you have super UIUXCX, you know, customer experience. That's what CX means.

So it means that user experience is very, very good if you're one of those people who produces an app or some software or something. So it means the user experience is very good. It means your customer experience is very, very good. It means your customer service is very, very good. It means your product is of high quality. So it actually is a good thing. If in 2024 you did business with maybe 105 people and then now in 2025, you know 100 or 3 or 100

and three of them show up again, it is a very good thing. And clap for yourself. So yes, if you're having repeat people come over and over and over again, first of all, clap for yourself. It means that you are doing a lot right. Then with the knowledge that you're doing a lot right, you can now start looking for how to get new customers into the business. So I didn't tell her that actually the sense is a business problem in the sense it's not really a business problem.

But either way, Cynthia Rothrock, you know, clap for yourself. So the next thing now she said, OK, she wants to go and look for somebody who is doing this business, the exact same business, but better than her, and so that she can pay for mentorship. And with that, you can see the reason why I'm I'm calling this young lady Cynthia Rothrock, because she has a fighting spirit. She realizes that this is the problem. And then she figures out, OK,

what can I do next? And then she will try, what can I do next? And then she will try, what can I do next? And then she will try. Unlike most people who they start something and then you call them six months later, I say, oh boy, how far now is your business? I'm back in that business. I'm no longer in in wedding photography again. Now I'm doing crypto. I say, hey, crypto, OK, no problem. And then you call them in six months and I say, oh boy, how far and half hour the crypto market saying that crypto, I beg forget.

I've started doing government contracting. It's OK, no problem. And then you call them six months later and they say, well, fine. Oh no, I'm no longer doing government contracting. I want to run for Senate. You know, you know, there are people like that show you start one thing and then any reason you just want to fail and then you want to look for something else. But she she's hanging in there. This is a problem. How can I overcome it?

So next thing she tried to look for paid mentorship. She found this senior colleague. That's what we call our seniors, you know, in law. So if I graduate in 20, let's say I graduated in, I graduate itself. OK, Let me not say when I graduated. So you can get you guys don't think I'm old. Or basically, if somebody graduates in the year 2020 and you meet somebody who graduates in the year 2026, you call that person my Leonard colleague.

You know, because that person is your senior. Sorry, Leonard senior. Yes, you guys are Leonard colleagues and then the person is your Leonard senior. So she found Leonard senior and I approached her and said my senior, like, I see what you're doing. I really admire what you do. I want to grow my business to your level. So please, senior, will you mentor me and I will pay you for this mentorship. And then the woman said no and she didn't give any reason.

So I expect to see the rough rock that well, sometimes people say no because they don't want to build the competition, you know, and in my own opinion, Sha, the world is the world is abundant then put it that way. So me, I fear no competition because some people ask me that all these things you're talking about on the podcast, winter competition here and blah, blah, blah, blah. Yes, they will. But the truth of matter is this information is freely available anyway.

If they don't hear from you, they will just hear from someplace else. The world is abundant. You know, nobody can snatch my market. You know, my market is my market. Now, to be honest, if somebody snatches my market, shame on me. It means I was not on point. It means I didn't handle the sales conversation well. It means I didn't do needs analysis well. It means my relationship building is poor. It means I'm not delivering my clients the results.

So nobody can steal my market. And if anybody steals my market, shame on me. It means that I have stuff to do to improve myself. But anyway, there's not everybody that believes that. And please, I beg you people, don't be afraid of competition, competition, competition. Because The thing is, when you're trying to avoid competition, you end up making yourself smaller. You're shrinking the size of the available market. And over the long term, it's really not good for you.

So take the mind set that prosperity is abundant, you know, expand, expand into your prosperity, learn and grow into your space. And don't worry about the competition, You know, do the best you can. You wake up every day, say the prayers, your prayers, God bless the work of my hands. You enter the market, you know, do your thing, you'll be fine. The competition, they'll be all right yourself. You'll be all right, you'll be all good.

So maybe the lady refused to met her because she's afraid of competition. It's just one of those things. But I also told her that, you know, some people say no to mentorship because they actually don't know how to mentor because for some people it gives them a headache trying to teach somebody something the person is not learning or the person is talking back. For me, if somebody talks back, I understand it means the person has questions.

We engage in dialogue. But there's some people the only, look, I'm not who is mentoring you, you don't know anything. I'm the one who knows. So just shut up and listen and do what I say. So those kind of people, they don't enjoy mentorship scenarios. So if you come and say, oh, big sis mentor me, they'll say, Nope, I'm not mentoring. Then sometimes some people don't mentor because they're swamped. They're busy. They're busy with doing client work.

So like me, you know, I try to have conversations with as many people as possible. But right now I've gotten to the point where I'm not chasing anyone. So you reach out to me. We have a good chat on WhatsApp. And I say, yeah, sure, no problem. I'll see if I can help you out. Let's have a conversation tomorrow. You know, 8:30 in the morning. If 830 comes and goes and you didn't call, I'm not going to, I'm not going to chase you.

I have a lot of things to do with my time. So if you don't call at 8:30, you know, that's that's your loss. I gave you time, I gave you an appointment. We even did the pre call thing where you send in your audio. I listen to it. I have a fair idea of maybe a couple of suggestions. But if you don't call on 830 by 830, you know, that's up to you because may also have other things to do with my time. So some people don't like chasing other people when it comes to mentorship and things like that.

Then some more people also don't do mentorship because they lack interests or because they lack the skill. So it's not always, if you run into somebody and you say big sis, big bro, I better comment on me and the person says no. It's not always that the person is doing the art of wickedness. Sometimes they're too busy, sometimes they don't have the skill, and sometimes for whatever reason, they don't have the interest.

Now this is where Cynthia Rothrock discovered me. She started looking for learning materials. Let me check YouTube, let me check podcast, let me see what learning resources are out there. Unfortunately, she went into a problem that a whole bunch of you run into. And that's the reason why I took a gamble in starting this podcast, because it's possible that nobody would have been interested in this kind of content that I put out there,

especially since all the other broadcasts like the Honest Bunch, I said what I said medicines, you know, they're talking about much more interesting things, you know, like the millennial experience, Nollywood gist, dating, supernatural stuff, what else, You know, all kinds of juicy, juicy topics. But my guess was that there was going to be someone like Cynthia Rothrook who will be looking for business content and would only find things from the American experience, you know, the American culture.

It's it's a nice way to learn business principle. But The thing is, they have a they're a different kind of economy. They have a different kind of business experience and they're fascinated with different kinds of things. So if you're listening to American podcast, it's going to be all about tech and IT and startups and stuff like that. And you know, that's not bad. But The thing is in Nigeria, the tech IT startup ecosystem, you know, is on the come up.

But most of us are not in that headspace. And it's really hard listening to, if you're a beginner, listening to someone who's talking about selling principles and selling frameworks, but from the whole angle of let's become Mark Zuckerberg and let's become Jack Bezos. Sometimes it's hard to take some of that knowledge and then distill it into the Nigerian experience, into Nigerian culture and into the kinds of industries that we are involved in.

So those of you who have been listening for the pod to the podcast for the last like 2 years, you remember the time when during Christmas I made the catfish episodes about how you know what to do if you're going to start a catfish business in Makudi. There is no American podcast that is going to talk about starting catfish business. You know, none because currently they're all fascinated by all these big ideas. You know, Bezos, Zuckerberg,

this guy that bought Twitter, what's his name? This guy that bought Twitter or you now change the name to X, what is his name? And I can't remember what the guy that sends spaceships up to Mars. So, yeah, so that's the problem now that Cynthia Rothrock came about. And then one day she was just tired. She said she's not looking for any more podcast. So she just let me think to just play on Spotify and, you know, Spotify does this randomizing thing.

So she was lucky that the next episode I picked happened to be my own episode. And it was like this guy says is you said hi, Oman. I, Joshua is a Nigerian. And then that was it. That's how she discovered my podcast. Now, the episode that she happened to listen to, or rather the pivotal one for her, the important one for her was not why I tried to distinguish between advertising and promoting your businesses aggressively or assertively.

Because I run into, sorry, I'm not picking on women, but I run into lots of women who are worried about this thing. Am I too aggressive? Am I too aggressive? Am I too aggressive? My own opinion, You know, sisters, calm down. You're worrying about too much stuff. You're not being aggressive. And this is the key difference. Aggressive people care only about themselves. They don't care about the other person. For you to have the frame of mind to ask my ask yourself now,

oh self, am I being too aggressive? It shows that you have concern for the other party. So clearly you are not aggressive. Yes, it is a problem to enter into the sales process thinking only about yourself and not worrying about what the other person needs. That is a problem. You turn lots of people off. You be too pushy. Don't think you're AB word. I don't want to hang around you, but for you to be asking these kinds of questions, clearly you're not aggressive.

Rather you are assertive. You have something that you're trying to bring to the marketplace. You know that other people derive value from it, and you're just trying to talk to some people about it. It's that simple. People want to start businesses or charities, they don't know how to start these businesses or charities. You have gone to school for four years, you have the undergraduate degree, law school for two years and you know some of you have done masters one year.

You know that is 9 years of education. You have the specialty, you have the, the, the skills, you have the expertise. You're just trying to bring that to the market. There's nothing being aggressive there. That's just assertive business behaviour. So when she listened to that podcast episode, it gave her the confidence to not be shy and to start talking to other people. The first thing she did was to start talking about her business in WhatsApp groups.

Now, by the way, for those of you who are listening to the show who are catching me for the first time, this is the reason why I say that it's when you want to start networking or whatever. Start with where you're comfortable. Don't try and reach too high. Start with where you're comfortable. You get you, you get some confidence, then you move out. So for her, remember how she had been posting on WhatsApp status and everything.

So if WhatsApp status is where you're comfortable and WhatsApp groups start from there, eventually you know your leg will be strong. And maybe from there you enter Facebook groups. Eventually your leg will be strong. And who knows, one day you might think, let me try Chamber of Commerce. You now go and go to over the Chamber of Commerce or Lagos Chamber of Commerce or Abuja Chamber of Commerce, whichever city that you're involved in or maybe in, you might see in a way networking association or you know something, just start with where you are, you'll be fine.

So she started talking about the WhatsApp groups and remember I said that she's Cynthia Rothwell is currently doing her NYC. So one day she said I should be talking to my NYC group and in fact, I applaud her. There are some of you who are currently doing NYC right now you're doing a business. I don't know why you're not telling your core members that this is what you do. When I was serving in Rano local governments was a sharp Yoruba girl.

When she entered, of course none of us were happy to be there because Rano is a local government that is like I think it's like 4 hours away from Kano City is like in the middle of nowhere, remain small. The place would become desert, remaining small. But she she entered there and she saw abundance, she saw prosperity. She said, I can be taking tomatoes from here and I can be taking. So was it onions? I can't remember it was onions or tomatoes.

But basically she was taking stuff from Rando from there and then sending to Lagos because that's where she was based. And of course, she told all of us that that was the business that she's involved in so that we can hook up, you know, back in Lagos for those of us who are coming from Lagos. So those of you who are serving now, can you please be having small, small conversations? Let your NYC people know what you're up to.

People need to know who you are. People need to know what you do. Get a sense of who you're hanging around, what problems that they have. You might be able to help them solve their personal problems, their business problems with your product or your service. Now this is where the the beautiful thing comes in for Cynthia Rothrock. You know how I keep telling you guys that when you go out there to protect yourself and also to give yourself a go, decide that OK, I'll go and talk to five people every day.

You know, stuff like that is to protect yourself. Because if you say I'm going to talk to people today, you go out, you're enthusiastic, you talk to 20 people tomorrow, you'll be tired. You say, OK, let me rest Wednesday. You say, OK, let me rest Thursday. You remember how stressful it was? You say, yeah, let me rest again. Then maybe on Friday you go out and you talk to only 5 people. That's not good. But if you say I'm going to go and talk to 10 people every day you go out, you speak to 10

people, You, you hit your ten people, go back home Tuesday, 10 people go back home Wednesday, go back home. So if you do it steady like that, you'll find that in the first week you'd have spoken to what did I say? I said 10, I'll be 10 times size 50. You have spoken to 50 people in a week and you'd have spoken to, I was like, is that 202 hundred people in a month? So you see how you can make progress by just doing small,

small, small, small, small. Instead of waking up one day motivated, you go, you feel like you're going to move the whole world and then you feel tired and then you collapse. So she gave herself a target and eventually she was able to talk to 50 people. Out of the 50 people, she was able to get 2 referrals. That's not direct business, but people who say, oh, OK, my cousin, my sister, my mother, my auntie, my brother, my boyfriend, my, this person, my that person is interested, let me hand over your phone number.

And then that's how she got two bits of business from that. So she spoke to 50 people and then she got 2 referrals and got two business. Some of you might say, yeah, 50 people. I only got 2 business. That is poor. Actually, no, that is not poor. That is good because wherever it is that you're starting, that is your baseline. The goal is always to improve your baseline. So if she spoke to 50 people and got two business, the goal is now see how she can get better at converting.

Converting is when you get someone to take the next step. So if you get better at converting, you might now find that next month you talk to 50 people, you do 4 business, you talk to 50 people. In March, you do 8. Then in after March is what Jennifer, every March you're premier June, in June you talk to three people, you do 6. You know, small, small, small, you're increasing. So the goal is just start, whatever number you get, that's your baseline.

So you spoke to 50 people, you got to, it's neither good nor bad. It's just your baseline. That's just the starting of point. The goal is to get better. Number one, we get better at trying to convert. That means having conversations, figuring out people's problems, making effective presentations, and then learning how to close the deal. Then we also get better at targeting. Targeting is making sure you're talking to the right people,

because sometimes when you talk to 50 people, you only do business with too. The problem is you are approaching the wrong people. If you're a young man and you want to have you're looking for girlfriends that you can sleep around with, but you spend all your time talking to Mary and Maka and Reverend sisters, you know your conversion is going to be low because you're talking to women who have a different mindset and viewset and you know, stuff like that.

Same thing if you're a young girl looking for a sugar daddy and you're talking to young men like me who don't have money, of course your conversions are going to be poor. So we have to get better at targeting. So it's the same thing in the business context. So Cynthia Rothrock, she decides that she wants to her business is registering businesses and stuff like that. If she's spending most of her time talking to people who are not starting businesses, then of course our conversions are going to be poor.

So bottom line, what I'm trying to say is don't hear that She spoke to 50 people and she only got 2 clients. Don't listen to that and say it's bad. It is neither good nor bad. It is just the baseline. It is just the starting point. Learn to get better at converting so that next month instead of doing 2, you do 4, after that you do 6, after that you do 20. After that, you know, on and on. But remember, there's no 100 /

100. There's no, there's not going to be any point where you talk to 50 people and you end up doing business with 50 people. I've already explained that in the past. So there's no point in me explaining the reason why that is not possible. So get better conversions, get better at targeting, approaching the right people, and you'll be fine. So that's what she did. Now, true to have fighting spirit, Cynthia got encouraged.

I decided, you know what, I should talk to even more coppers. I should design more Flyers because I don't know about now, but back in my NYC days, I don't know how they do it now in your village. So I ran all local governments in Kano. You know, we used to have, what was it called, this thing where everybody in your chapter will get together and have a meeting. Then there are some of these things where you now have everybody in the zone will get together, and there's the one that everybody in the state gets together.

So those are avenues for meeting more youth corpers. So for her, it makes a lot of sense, especially since she also has design skills. This is the reason why I keep telling you people that it's good to have a multidisciplinary background. So yes, her background is in law, but she also has design skills. You can see how everything is helping themselves now. So the fact that you're an accountant and you know how to sew dresses, right now you don't know how it's going to work, but I promise you there's either some transferable knowledge or some other benefit.

We just can't see it now. But one day you'll be like, oh OK, I see. This is how it has come in handy. So don't worry that you're a medical doctor but you like to perm hair. I can't tell you what the benefit is now, but one day you will see the benefit, even if it's just that there are some skills that you learned while perming hair. Maybe it's small talk, commonality, building relationships that will help you in your medical practice.

So interdisciplinary ways of growing your businesses. You know it works. So there's no skill that is wasted. So she said she's going to design some Flyers and distribute them at this at different events and that she's even going to give a 10K reward to NYC members for referrals. And for that I applaud her. Go ahead, give it a shot. When it comes to sales and marketing, there is no good idea or bad idea. You know, some ideas are more workable than others.

But The thing is, if you sit at home and keep thinking, thinking, strategizing, you will never know. Come up with the idea, however good or bad, go outside and try it. I tried it, the thing didn't work. Take dressing, learn, improve, go out again. That's the only way that we're going to make progress. So I applaud her. Cynthia, go ahead. Again, not her real name. So Cynthia, please go ahead with the plan and I know you're going to do very well.

She also said she's going to look for customer reviews to promote her business. So there's only what I'm trying to say for today since we're 40 minutes. Let me bring this to a close is when listening to my podcast or any of the resource that you're looking at, just take one thing and apply. The thing has knock on effects. So for her, she learned the difference between promoting yourself aggressively and promoting yourself assertively.

She took just one thing and went and you can see how it made a difference in her business. She shared with me the screenshots so you can see the growth in users on Instagram and things like that. Like she's she's making progress, so it's good. So that's the summary. Basically as you're listening to today's show or any other show or any other person's resources, take one thing and apply. There's knock on effects. You're going to help your business grow no matter how small.

Then for those of you who are baby lawyers just like Cynthia Ruff Rock, listen to the show, share the show because there are going to be skills here that are necessary to boost your legal practice. Because when she leaves Lagos, which is where she's serving right now and she has to open up her business in wherever it is that she's from, even in OE or whatever, do you think all these activities that she's doing now will not come in handy in promoting her business?

When she opens her law office by herself, she won't be able to create Flyers because that's unethical. Lawyers cannot promote their business businesses that way. It's frowned upon. But the skills that she's learning now, networking, talking to other people, learning how to target people, have targeted conversations, learning how to do need analysis, learning how to make proposals, effective proposals, learning how to close the deal,

You don't think that will come in handy when she opens her legal practice. So baby lawyers, you guys listen up and share and acquire these skills because it will help you in your legal practice. And then my final message to baby lawyers, sales is the game. So whether you're into law or photography or export or comics or whatever, please baby lawyers and baby doctors and baby accountants, please learn sales. That is the key difference.

If nothing else, you will learn some transferable skills that will help you in growing your other business. But please, sales is the game. Anyhow. You want to learn each other. It doesn't have to be through me. Pick whoever you like, Nigerian, Zimbabwean, American, English, Shah, pick and Start learning. But just like Cynthia, Rough Rock, OK, let me use her real name so that you know I'm talking to her. So Roof, Yeah, the message is about you, but I didn't use your surname so that people know that is you.

So Roof. Yeah, it's about you. So just like she noted down one thing and they let all the opportunities note down one thing. Try it and you'll be good. So if you'd love an opportunity to connect, you have a question? You want me to do a business audit with you? You want a strategy session? The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, that's my WhatsApp number. Then connect with me on LinkedIn.

The name is Tavishma Ayede. I also have a YouTube channel by the same name. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys up in the next episode.