Stop Hiding: The Professional Risks of Anonymous Branding

Hello and welcome to the podcast. Today I want to pick on Crypto Bros because it's been a while since we spoke about them. But even though we're going to be talking about crypto Bros, the business lessons that we're going to talk about applies to people from every other sphere of business in Nigeria. So today the question or the issue or the matter that we're going to be tackling is why Crypto Bros, especially Nigerian crypto Bros, should stop using fancy display pictures on social media.

And then it got me wondering, do crypto babes even exist in Nigeria? Because again, the conversation with crypto people, you know, on LinkedIn or wherever, or they listen to the podcast and they reach out. And I've noticed it's always guys. So if you're a crypto babe in Niger, please reach out to me. You can call send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. I'd like to meet one of you. I don't know if you guys exist and let's see.

Yeah, Anyway, it'll be nice to have a chat. All right, so do why crypto brochure stop using fancy display pictures on social media, on your WhatsApp, on your TikTok, on your LinkedIn, on your whatever and remember that this is a sales podcast. So of course, if I'm saying this sort of thing, you know, I'm not coming at it from a cultural perspective or a religious perspective or whatever. I'm coming at this from a purely financial perspective.

Now, when you crypto Bros use all these fancy display pictures that you do, it actually is messing up with your money. Let me repeat it again you guys and you will have a culture, you have an ethos and you like to do things the way you do, but honestly speaking is messing up with your money. Now some of you will be wondering like how can display a picture of you messing up with your money? So relax, let's do it this way.

Let me give you a real life example. This is somebody I'm currently yawning with on on LinkedIn. As per you know, people send me connection requests all the time and I connect with everybody except people whose profiles are blank because when your profile is blank, you know, I'm not sure like are you bought like I have no idea. So so long as I can see something shown on your profile, I'll accept and always try and spark up a conversation.

So skipto bro reaches out to me on LinkedIn, I accept, I send a few messages and then we start chatting and I told him about his display picture because I always try to let people maybe I should stop self prognosing to other people's businesses, but just let him know that I think you should change the DP. And then he laughed about and I was like, ah, then the crypto space now and any I'll just let it slide. But let me describe his profile picture to you.

And as I'm describing this profile picture, Please remember that I am a Nigerian. The person who is chatting with me in LinkedIn is a Nigerian. And then he's also trying to sell to Nigerians. OK, let me repeat so that you guys will get the background. I am a Nigerian. This crypto bro, he is a Nigerian. The people he's trying to sell his services to are Nigerians. Now, let's describe his DP. Now, First off, his DP is a Greco Roman figure.

The fact that some of you will be thinking Greco Roman Guinea exactly proves my point. So you don't know, you don't even know what the, you know what the hell that is. So first of all, it's a Greco Roman figure. This Greco Roman figure has a gold wreath on his head. Some of you are wondering which one is leaf wreath again, you see, kind of proved my point. And then the wreath is made of gold and for some reason the wreath is, is melting.

You know, like how like if you take butter and put it in the microwave, you know how the thing would just I think were met. So it's like that. So it's a Greco Roman figure who is wearing a gold wreath and then the wreath is melting. Then the the Greco Roman figure is also wearing square bubble gum pink glasses. The glasses have rainbow reflections in them. Then the Greco Roman figure has blue skin. Apart from having blue skin, the guy also has gills.

Yes, by the way, I'm describing somebody's profile picture on LinkedIn and the person is selling crypto services to Nigerians. Let me continue. Some of you can't even picture what it is that I am describing. So how about let me just continue. So the figure done in Greco Roman style, melting gold wreath, bubble gum, pink glasses, rainbow reflections in the glasses. The guy has blue skin. The guy now has gills. So for those of you who watch that movie, I think was made by,

is it Gilmo del Toro, Abbie, what's the guy's name? Like? I remember like my wife likes his stuff. He made this movie where there was a water creature and I fell in love with a woman and they ended up, you understand, they ended up. So if you watch that movie, by the way, if you're watching it, make sure you don't watch it with children around because your children will ask you a question entire. They'll say, mommy, what are they doing?

So, yeah, it looked like that creature from the Gilmore del Toro movie with Gils. Then the thing in the DP is now wearing the Basketball Jersey with GM written on the jersey. Whatever GM means, I have no idea. And then this figure is a sipping hot coffee and then the guy has a silver chain around his neck, sort of like hip hop style. So ladies and gentlemen, listening to the podcast today, I shit you not, I'm a Nigerian.

The fellow who is chatting with me is a Nigerian that is his DP and he's selling to who? Nigerians. What you would let that thing sink a bit? A Nigerian whose DP is a Greco Roman figure with a melting gold wreath on his head with square bubble gum pink glasses with rainbow reflections in them. Then the thing has blue skin and then it has gills, is wearing the Basketball Jersey with GM written on it and then it's sipping hot coffee with a silver chain around its neck.

And the guy selling to Nigerians, he is in the crypto space from his DP, He's also in the advisory space. He's also in the trading space. And then he handles OTC transactions. Maybe some of you will say and so, but let's think about it. Is your mom going to buy wealth advisory services from this guy? Will your mom even take a phone call from this guy? Maybe you might. But me to be honest, you know, people hit me up like this and they're trying to sell me wealth advisory services.

I just ignore. If this guy shows up to your uncle and your auntie online, I want to start talking trading advice. You think your uncle or auntie is going to listen? And by the way, I keep saying it that you guys in the crypto space in Niger, people will have APR problem because nowadays maybe we have crypto. What do you think is a scam? What do you think is a 419? And what do you think is what's the other one? Yahoo? Yahoo.

So we even have APR problem but somehow it doesn't click for you guys. Then when you're reaching out to people, you, you should present yourself in ways that are appropriate and expected by the audience that you're reaching out to. So you can see that even though I'm picking on crypto Bros now, it's actually something that applies to a whole host of us. We're trying to use social media, we're trying to use WhatsApp, we're trying to use all these tools for business,

but then we are not coordinating ourselves. We are not optimizing our profiles in a way that our potential audience will be much more amenable, much more comfortable seeing us, comfortable hearing from us. Now, I'm not saying you have to use your face because for me, I don't. If you go and track my LinkedIn now, what you have there is the podcast art. But the reason why I use it is because the podcast art says very clearly what it is that I

do. It has sales there. It has marketing there. It has my name there. So you see the DP, even if it's not a human face, you kind of understand, bam, this is what this person is about. So it doesn't have to be your face. Which is why for some people that I work with, when we have this conversation and they say I don't want to use my face, I say don't use your face. Use your company logo. If you're a photographer. Nah, don't put your face.

Put a camera there. This is Nigel. You slide into somebody's DM, you're trying to sell photography and video services, and your DP is a camera. Conversation will continue. So for the lady who is about to get into the piggery space, I told you that I liked her. Her DP, because it was really cool, was Care Bears. The Care Bears, the one that has two hearts on his chest, the pink and the I think it's pink and blue. Some of you will be wondering which one is Care Bears.

Again, that's my point exactly. We're using all kinds of things that people don't understand and know in this particular context. Now, if she's going into pig farming, what do you think is going to make a stronger impression? ADPA display picture, a profile picture that has Care Bears on it or a profile picture that has pigs on it. A young lady reaches out to you, She's sliding into your DM or she's sending you messages on Instagram or whatever.

She claims to be a pig farmer and then her profile picture is pigs. This is Nigeria. The conversation will continue, but somebody slides into your DM. The person is a pig farmer, but the profile picture is is care bears anyway. So this is the problem. The problem is those of you in the crypto space. You guys like your NFTS, you know, non fungible tokens and so you know, you, you try to make your display pictures, you know,

NFTS. You guys also like digital art. So because of that, that's why you put digital art all over the place. Then some of you guys have this like cyberpunk culture thing going on and you guys don't mind that. So you, you know, you show it all over the place. And then you guys in the crypto space, you guys have this thing about anonymity, like you don't want anybody to know who you are. You know, the government should not know who I am.

Private individuals should not know who I am. You know, that whole political liberal, liberal, what's our word again? Libertarianism, Abby. Abby, what's the word anyway? You will know what I mean. This whole thing of the government should stay out of my business and my own sovereign person and my own true self. Nobody needs to know me. I'm a unique actor on a global stage and blood, you know all that, whatever. Now The thing is, all that is fine, right?

You crypto Bros and crypto babes, Nigerian crypto babes, if you exist, please reach out to me 08064662140. I just want to be sure that you exist and it's not only guys that are in the crypto space in Niger. So all these things are fine. NFT, cyberpunk, stay away from my business. I want to remain anonymous, blah, blah, blah. All that thing is, is fine. So long as you are relating as a subculture. When all of you are relating when, when are they relate amongst ourselves, It's fine.

You can do whatever it is you want. It's perfectly fine. It's like, I OK, well, I've sold all my guitars, but there's the time that was heavily into guitars. So those of us who are into the guitar subculture, you know, that would be kind of weird in Nigeria, you know, Nigerian boys who sit around all day talking about Peter Green and and Jimi Hendrix, you know, and Pink Floyd and then all that. Yeah, it'll be kind of weird when you see Nigerian boys and girls talking like that.

You'll be like, what the hell are these people talking about? And those are the ones that went abroad, that being said, OK, not them, them. So as a subculture, it's all OK. When we're in our group, we can be talking all the things you want to talk. But then when we go out, we got to talk in terms of how other people understand, other people would appreciate. So cyber, cyberpunk, crypto Bros, you know, you can continue relating as you relate when you are there as a group.

The problem is just that you are trying to sell to ordinary people like me, and I'm not one of you. You're trying to sell to people like my mom or my father-in-law. You want to collect the investment money to invest in your, your alternative. How do they call it again, alternative investment products? I think that's what they call it today. Uh huh. You want to collect their money for alternative investment products. So you're talking to people like me.

You're talking to the older generation of Nigerians who don't share this ethos and they don't understand these images that people are putting out. In fact, some people find these images scary and then hard to understand and they're rather impersonal. Most people on social media are doing their best to be more personal and relatable. You guys seem to be going the other way. That's the problem. You're trying to get average.

You're trying to get average Nigerians like me to invest real money in your crypto products, in your crypto exchanges and blah, blah, blah. Now some of you try and say no, no, no, I'm not getting you to invest real money because the money that you put will be converted into tokens and something, something your money is still there. OK, I hear you. But The thing is from the average Nigerians point of view, the way we see it is we actually have to drop naira or we actually have to drop dollars to be able to get in.

So as far as the average Nigerian is concerned, you know, we're spending money, we're losing money. You say we're not losing money, but I say forget it. The audience, that's what they think. Now, the solution is very simple, you crypto Bros. And of course, it doesn't just apply to crypto Bros because like I said, the lady that I was talking to, the potential pig farmer, but whose profile picture is Care Bears, the filter is very simple.

Realize that this is just business. It's not about you. So if you love Care Bears, all right, no problem. If you love cyberpunk, hey, it's up to you. But it's not about you, it's about the audience. So if you're selling to insiders, if you're a crypto bro and the people that you're selling to are people in the crypto community, oh, very good. In that case, keep your images. In that case, it'll be a sign of authenticity.

They will see you and they will say, this is one of us. Then they will interact with you and they will do business with you because they will see your DP and they'll say correct guy. But if you're selling to outsiders, my opinion, use your real name. Stop all these cyberpunk under score X .52 Niger Blaze forever that kind of name that which Nigerian finds it scary or sacred Sacred Unicorn XS dash dash exclamation mark question mark Raina forever.

Nothing is really, really like the average Nigerian doesn't understand. And honestly, sometimes I wonder how you guys think you show up in somebody's WhatsApp inbox with those kinds of pictures and with that kind of name. Yeah, Satoshi forever. Like how is average Nigeria supposed to know what is Satoshi or who is Satoshi is? So all of them are inside? Yes. You are trying to salute your ancestor by calling yourself Satoshi under score.

Something, something. Something. Yeah, amongst yourselves. You know, the average Nigerian does not know Satoshi. under score something. Something. Sato. What? This is sales. We're trying to collect money. This is business. So it's not about you, it's about the other people. My opinion, Use your real name. Use a decent headshot. In fact, we are nowadays you can, you know, take a picture that you take with your phone and use AI.

Make that thing look real nice and professional, give you suit and everything. Make a look as if the thing was shot in the studio. Use a real name. Use a decent headshot. Then use social media BIOS that people can understand. This business, it's about money. It's not about you. We're selling to people. We need to show up in real life and we need to show up online in ways that people people anticipate, people expect, people understand, people are comfortable with.

That's how we need to show up. So if you go through traditional sales training, for instance, it's one of the things that your sales trainer is going to talk about. They'll talk about dressing and how you need to show up appropriate. So I'm a former lawyer, now a business consultant. For a while I was in the event space. As a lawyer, people expect me to show up a certain way. So back when I was in legal, if I show up for a meeting, I'm wearing T-shirt and short nika.

Will people take me seriously? But then as a wedding photographer, if I show up in jeans, short nika and T-shirt, I'm coming for meeting. OK, It's a different thing. There's more leeway there. If I'm flowing in political circles, I'm going for political caucus meeting and I show up in jeans and and short knicker isn't or somehow. So whether in real life, physically or whether online, we need to turn up, we need to show up.

We need to pull up, we need to manifest in a way that people expect, in a way that is appropriate to who it is that we're talking to. So yes, I'm picking on crypto Bros today. And by the way, crypto babes, do they exist in Nigeria? If you do reach out to me, call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. If you're a pig farmer, don't do Care Bears in your DP. If you're a lawyer, don't have Marvel characters in your DP,

you're a lawyer. People are not expecting to see comic books. You can like comic books in private. You can be a comic nut, you can have all the comics in the world, but you are putting yourself out there as a lawyer. What I'm saying now doesn't apply to everybody. There are some people who their social media is their private social media, like my wife. My wife is not in business, so her social media is a social media.

If she wants to put a dancing Unicorn as ADP, it's up to her. She's not trying to collect money from anybody. She's trying to keep in touch with her friends and her family. And if she wants to use it dancing Unicorn, everybody will know her well is her that's her own dancing Unicorn. But the moment we say we want to use these are our DP and our social media presence are not not to go and start looking for money. Look, we need to we need to how will I put it?

We need to package accordingly. OK, so that's it. No need to go into a continue with a 30 minute rant on this one. So let me just bring it to a close here. So I gave my phone number at the beginning of the episode. And that's because all I came from people who listen to the podcast. So you don't have to be a crypto babe to reach out. I'm just curious because I've only been seeing crypto Bros. I'm just curious if there are crypto babes in this space in Niger.

So whether you're a crypto bro or a crypto babe or whatever business you're involved in, if you want to reach out, you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. For those of you who are looking for free business advice, that's not a problem. I like to talk to as many people as possible as long as I have the time. Just send me a message when I'm free, I'll get back to you. But if you're looking for free business advice, just let me know.

Say so early, get the message and we'll get to it. And I'll answer one business question for you if you want to go beyond that, you want us to sit down and have more in depth discussions about your business, what you're trying to achieve, the problems that you're currently facing, and come up with solutions, come up with a long term solutions to get you to the promised land. We'll have to set up a conversation. I'll say a conversation, set up a consultation.

So yeah, that's it. Now for those of you who listened to the episode before this one, you remember that I think we're talking about podcasting, branding and stuff like that. So we'll get back to that and the next episode. It's just that, you know, while I was chatting to this crypto bro, I said we just come up here and share this advice again real quick because I'll be surprised if there are other people listening to this podcast right now who are currently making that same, that same mistake.

You know, you're a web developer, but then on your DP, you're using Bob Marley smoking ganja. How is that helping you? Or you claim to be a security expert, for instance, selling online security or something like that. But then maybe your DPS Voltron, you know, how is that helping you? Anyway, let me wrap it up. So thanks for listening. I'll catch you all some other time.