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Hello, and welcome to the show. Today is one of those car park episodes. So I expect to hear noise in the background, you know, people driving by. And in fact, if I had started this maybe like two or three minutes earlier, you would have heard one of my village people just walking back speaking to you. As for those of you who haven't heard the TV language before, you know, you wonder, OK, these tea people, this guy is saying he's tea, blah, blah, blah.
You know, what tribe is that anyway? Because there are some of you listening to the podcast who you know, this thing in Nigeria where they say three major languages, Hausa, Ibu, Yoruba. And so because of that, you have a huge swath of the population who know nothing about other tribes in the Middle Belt in the Niger Delta, in the Midwest, you know, stuff like that. So anyway, I'm just saying that if I started as a couple of minutes ago, you would have had one of my village people just walking by.
All right, So yesterday what we did was so 1 moment. Yeah. So yesterday what we looked at was how to approach and understand your customers. And we were looking at themes from the book How to Sell Like a Spy by Jeremy Hurwitz. And let me see what else. Sorry. Just in case, you know, I'm seeming a little slow today. It's because I left the house and I forgot my glasses. And so trying to, you know, like for this episode, you know, I'm just running through things that have scribbled down, you know,
when I'm reading books and you know, stuff like that. So that's and I look at my list of questions. That's how I get ideas for the podcast. That's my running content list. Anyway. So today is just one of those days. My eyes are acting up really, really badly and it's the wrong data. I forgot my glasses. So if there any of you on the listening to the podcast right now, you know, you happen to be youngish, you know, maybe like you're 1520 ish, you're supposed to wear your glasses.
Your parents tell you to wear your glasses. You refuse to wear your glasses. Please listen to mom and dad because there are real world consequences. If you don't take good care of your eyes when you're 15 and 20, then your eyes are seriously going to help you when you're 14 and 50 and beyond. Because, you know, some of my older relatives are practically blind at this point. You know, one of my uncles had to do surgery to remove a whole bunch of stuff for his eyes.
And it don't mind me. Bottom line, if you're supposed to wear glasses, put on your glasses and keep them with you at all times. Because if you leave the house and you forget them, it's, it's Wahala. So yeah, the book was How to Sell Like a Spy, written by Jeremy Hurwitz. And then yesterday we looked at how to approach and understand your customers. So today I promise that we're going to look into Chapter 2, which is titled the Power of Information.
And why should we be looking at that? Well, obviously, because it's information that determines what the next stage is, whether you're a diplomat or whether you're a business person. So back to last year, I think it was last year, the team will just won in last year, May 29th, 2024. OK, I can't remember, but I think last year was the Nigerian election. So before the Nigerian election, you know, the year prior, OK, the president was sworn in in May.
So before then and earlier in 2024, there were a spate of coups on the African continent. And I honestly think one of the reasons why people in the African Union and, you know, other countries, one of the reasons why everybody was just quiet, you know, it looked like everybody was doing she don't look. I think the reason why everybody was just doing see, don't look really is because people didn't know any information.
It's like a coup has happened in Algeria and really a coup by who? Major journal. So who is he? Who are those guys? Who are those boys? Where did they come from? Which tribe? You know, people didn't know anything. And I think that's why people just doing see, don't look. So that's how it is in diplomacy. If something happens and you have no information, it's just to see don't look. Now you just sit down and look. I'll be waiting.
It is until you know, the information that will now determine your next steps. So things become a little more clearer. You know, America knows also. They can now start saying one or two things. Things become clearer in Nigeria. Well, at the time, you know, Nigeria were our focus. It was elections anyway. So you can't really expect people in the Nigerian state to say much about that. But then for other countries, the same thing.
You sit down and you try and look against us. More info. It's only way you know where is where and who is who. They can now start coming and saying I denounce this and this or this is good or this is bad or this is whatever. So in diplomacy, you need information before you can take the next step. And it's also the same thing in business. You need information before you can take the next step. So that's the reason why questions like this, the power of information, how do we get information?
What kind of information do we need as the reason why these kinds of things are absolutely critical and pivotal in business. Now the oh sorry for those of you who are new to the podcast, if you'd love to connect with me, the phone number is 08064662140. The country code is lost 234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, that's my WhatsApp number and that's how you can reach me. Also connect with me on LinkedIn. The name to look for is Tavishima Aidi.
I'm not on any other socials. I'm deleting everything. So don't connect with me anywhere else. Yes. What was I? Yeah. So the author, in the book Information Gathering, he decided to break things down into 4:00-ish chapters. Sorry, Not chapters 4 headings. Yeah. So the headings that I took note of was this. So he decided to look at information gathering through this lens #1 open source intelligence #2 social engineering #3 direct observation #4 he looked at ethical, OK, no, that's not a method ethical and legal considerations when it comes to gathering intelligence.
So you can say basically he looked at it through a three-part lens. So the main concern, the main question that he was trying to look at in the chapter is how do we gather intelligence? And we can do that by using open source intelligence, by doing social engineering, by doing direct observation. And then of course, he wanted to make sure that we're gathering information ethically and fairly and legally and morally and above board, because there are different ways that you can get information.
You know, you can also get information by gossip. You can get information by spying, you can get information by stealing. The author just wants to make sure that we get information the right way. But traditionally in those sorts of circles in diplomacy and espionage, you know, if you're a James Bond or if you are the ambassador to Yugoslavia or wherever, this is how you gain information. If they post you to Yugoslavia,
first of all, go to church, go and do Thanksgiving that God has elevated you. Yes, Yugoslavia is not a sexy country. And you know people will laugh at you that they gave you Yugoslavia, Why didn't they give you Washington DC or whatever. But still, like I say, if you are a diplomat and if major ambassador, you're going to be paid in dollars. It's going to be creamy, juicy, lush, wonderful money. Better than your counterparts who work in NTA, which is where my father used to work or who work in anyway.
My father also works in anyway. And better than, definitely better than people who work in the Ministry of Education. So if they declare you ambassador to Yugoslavia, even if they declare you you ambassador to Latvia, go and do Thanksgiving. It's a step up, you know. Yeah, we'll be nice. But we can all get America. Somebody has to get Latvia. And OK, Budapest is a is a correct country and then move on. So the president announces on TV
you've been declared ambassador, you go and you do Thanksgiving immediately you land in Latvia or Afghanistan or it is that you've been posted to the first opportunities available to you are open source intelligence. Those are things that are freely and publicly available because you can go around, you can be talking to people, you can be reading newspapers, you can be checking websites, and you're going to be able to learn a couple of things now.
OK, Latvia, What is the history of Latvia? What are the major tribes in Latvia? What are the major religious groups in Latvia? What are the big social, cultural, political problems that Latvia is facing? Let's see, what else? As a diplomat, what would you need to know? OK, let me just stop there. I did not study diplomacy and international relations. So all these things I'm saying, I'm just freestyling. So those of you who studied international relations, you will know whether what I'm saying is correct, you know, or not.
But I'm guessing, or at least Misha, have they posted me as diplomats to as ambassador to Latvia? And yes, if you do have the number of the president, you know, put my name there. If the guy sends me to Latvia, I'll go so long as I pay me in dollars. Lord knows I need the dollars now, especially now that I'm trying to move house and every single agent in Abuja is calling 1,000,000 millions, 1,000,000 millions millions.
Places are dirty, rooms are small, the kitchen is non existent, no space for washing machine, the toilet and the bathroom is next to each other as in if somebody is bathroom another person is pooping the water. You will just be staining each other. I mean it's terrible. Houses in Abuja are terrible. What was I? So if the president is your friend and they're looking for ambassador to Latvia, please give give President Tilbu my phone number.
I will go. So if I've been made ambassador to Latvia, these are the sorts of things that I'll be trying, information I'll try and get. But this is not the information that I need to become a spy or need to do anything dangerous to get, because this is information that is open source. It's there and it's freely available and it's there for the taking. So as a diplomat, you need to make sure that you get all this information so you can do your job effectively so that you can brief people back at home.
OK, That this is the country, this is how the country is. These are the priorities. These are the things that they're working on. And this is how it aligns with Nigerian interests. And this and this and this are the opportunities that we have for mutual growth together as a country, you know, so that Latvia and and Latvia and Nigeria can grow together as a country. By the way, for those of you who study international relations and geography, just in case what I'm saying is out of date, in case Latvia is not a country anymore because you know, that whole Eastern bloc, you know,
now you know, the Eastern Bloc and the demise of the Soviet Union, you know, countries changing names and everything. So if Latvia is no longer a country, please don't laugh at me. It's been a while since I've been in school, so I'm not up to date on some stuff. Now, how does this relate to business and what kind of open source intelligence avenues are available to those of us in business? And it's very, very simple. Like I said, open source intelligence just means what?
Which information is freely available, Excuse me, which information is publicly available. And we have some very simple ones without thinking right now on your phone, this phone that you're using to listen to my voice right now, your website, website is there, social media is there, news is there, industry publications are there. So whenever we're thinking about having a meeting with someone because we're trying to sell something to them or about to go into negotiations with someone else, these are sources of information that are readily and freely and publicly available that you don't have to pay for and you don't have to ask anybody.
You can check your website, you can check social media, you can check news, you can check industry publications. And whenever I'm doing training is in organizations. One thing that really, really nags at my craw, the thing really makes me angry. But those of us who have sales rules and were responsible for calling up customers, I don't understand why people don't use true colour. I mean, should it not be basic? No, really.
If your job depends on you using the phone to call people up, it should be common sense that when you open your computer, the first time you should open, should be true colour and then leave it open. Because you get numbers from the Internet or somebody pings you a number. At the very least you put the number on Truecaller and check 1st and see whether the thing aligns. At least you want to be able to know the person you're calling,
whether the person is a man or a woman, if nothing else, so that when you speak, make the phone call, you know whether you're saying good morning Sir or good morning Ma, if nothing else. So please, those of us, those of you who are involved in calling up people every single day to confirm something, you're a customer service or you're a front desk officer or you're responsible for sales. Truecaller is a tab that should be open on your lap, your your laptop at all times so they can put in there and check the information to be sure that the name and the number are correct.
Now, what I typically do is especially when I'm calling people out of the blue. So hold on, let me think, OK, I think the last time I had to do this for someone just to show the process was late last year. No, more like middle of last year when I did consulting for Crimson energy, Crimson Solar, So I can't remember their name, but it's Crimson for sure. They are an alternative energy group. So they do solar panels, energy as a service, inverters,
replacing batteries, all those sorts of things. Yeah, I promise I'm going to make a podcast episode about them in the future to talk about the consulting activities that I did with them, the issues that we explored while working with their sales team. So the last time that I had to do this sort of thing to try and get somebody to understand the true, the value of these sorts of things. And you know how you get how you can do some research on your customers, but sharp, sharp research because you know, it doesn't profit you to say that you're doing research.
And then because of that, you spend 4 hours researching somebody, 4 hours is too much. When I say research before you call the customer, before you go for a meeting, I'm talking about, you know, sharp, sharp like 2 minutes research, that kind of thing. So this is how I worked one of the members of the sales team through it. So I said, look, OK, no true color. Take this person's number, cut it, paste it in true color and then hit search.
True color will do its thing in five seconds. The thing will now come up and then you see there sometimes when you do that thing in true colour, you see a message that says 269 people have reported this message as spam. If you see that kind of message in true colour, then you have saved yourself the stress. You don't know that this number is spam. There's no point calling this person because 247 other people have said that this number is spam.
So just ignore that number. But then if you do it there and then the name comes up and the name says Adeji Adeami. Well, unfortunately for you Adeji Adeami, you know it's a popular name. There are too many of them. OK, well let's assume for instance that the name you're trying to research is not popular. OK, let me use my own name, Tavashimayidi. So you put paste the number in there, Truecola says Tavashimayidi. You now take copy Tavashimayidi,
copy it from Truecola, paste it in Google, and then see what comes up from the search results that come up in Google. It will give you a sense. Now, OK, this Tava Shimaya, the guy, who is he? What's he about, what does he do, blah, blah, blah. There'll be a couple of links there that will give you a sense of who this fellow might be. You can now copy and paste the name again in Facebook and then see what comes up. Right now, because I'm deleting my Facebook profile, nothing will come up.
But chances are other people still have their Facebook profile up. And then maybe you can put it in LinkedIn. Well, for me, I'd say that's as far as it goes because you can't really use real names to search in Instagram and Tiktok and all of that, except if the person happened to use their real name. And apart from me, because I use my real name on all these platforms, I don't know anybody else who's using the real name.
But what was I? What I'm trying to say is that you can see that doing research, researching someone before you go for the business meeting, before you go for negotiations, before you go for networking. Researching does not have to be a hard thing to do. So you've been talking to someone you will about to go for negotiations. You just want to make sure you're better prepared, feel the person out, feel their personality or something.
Or maybe they mentioned that, OK, they're, when they come for the negotiations, they're going to come with Mrs. Banquier de Banjo. That's the legal director and Mr. you know, Abdul Kadir Alfalaya or whatever, you know, So after you finish that phone call, you just take those names and do exactly what it is that I said. Copy and paste in Google, see what comes up. Copy and paste in Facebook, see what comes up. Copy and paste in LinkedIn, see what comes up.
Look at the company website, see what comes up, you know, new, OK, well news would be more for like high profile people, industry publications, OK for those of us who have a legal background, cause OK, in this example I gave, I said now what name did I say and whatever name I said for the legal secretary or something. Now for those of us in the legal profession, we do have industry publications, you know, lawyers, associations and things like that.
I mean, they have them in Lagos. There's also the MBA, the MBA Nigerian Bar Association that produces a journal. I think the last journal I saw I think was on business. No, don't mind me, but I'm just trying to say that industry publication, you know, depending on your industry. So I know that law has industry associations and publications. Korean, Korean, I think that's Council of Korean. Is that Korean is engineering the regulation of engineers in Nigeria or something?
So in law we have industry publications, engineering, we have industry publications, accounting industry, we have industry publications. OK. I guess if you're in the event space, there's no industry publication that you can check. But bottom line is what I'm trying to say is before you go for the negotiations, before you go for networking, before you go for the business meetings, you can spend one or two minutes and reset somebody before you make the call because it gives you a background so that the call, the phone call is not uncomfortable for you because it's always uncomfortable to make the phone call when you know nothing about the person on the other end of the line.
Well, hi, yes, because in Crimson that's also one thing I had to tell people of the the sales team because they had to call numbers of people who have responded to Instagram advertisements. And I told them, now look, one of the reasons why you guys are hesitant is because it really is hard to just look at the block of 50 numbers and then all you have is a name Kolia for Lion and then a phone number. You're supposed to call the person and start a conversation.
I mean like how you know nothing, you know no context. So sometimes it helps to just do that simple, whatever, there's a name, there's a phone number, copy, paste in Truecaller. OK, the name is correct, it checks out. Copy in Google, you know, say something. Anyway, let me not stretch it unnecessarily. The point I'm just trying to make is that for diplomats, there's a way to get information freely about the country that you're in and about the people that you're going to meet.
And then for business people, there's also a way to get information freely. About the context that you're in, the company you're going to work for, the people that you're going to do business with, the company that you're going to do business with. If you're chasing prospects, the people that you're trying to get to be as customers, the people you're about to walk into negotiations meeting with. If you're going for networking,
some networking associations give you a list ahead of time of people who might be there. You can now get a sense of who might be there and decide who it is that you want to talk to. So for there are ways they can get that information freely. So use the websites of your your friends, your competitors, your potential clients, your stakeholders. Use their websites, check the social media, pay attention to the news. You can set Google alerts so that when certain things drop,
it shows in your e-mail and then keep abreast of industry publications and you shall be fine. But remember, for those of you who every single day your job demands you being on the phone when you enter into the office and the first thing you do is you eat your rice and beans for breakfast. Oh, by the way, after you do that, you know, go and put TomTom in your mouth. You know, nobody needs to know that you just finished eating them rice and beans with fish Stew.
So after you do that, you eat your TomTom, you wash your plate, open up your computer, the first tab you should open. It is only practical. Please is true colour. After Truecaller, the next tab you should open should be Google. As you Truecaller the number and you see the name, take the name, paste it into Google, see what comes up. If nothing else, at least you know that the person you're calling is a man or a woman so that when you call, you can confidently say oh, good morning Sir, or good morning Ma, if nothing else.
So that's it pretty much. And remember, if you would like to connect with me, those of you who are listening to the show for the first time, the number to use is 08064662140. The country code is +234 For those of you who are not Nigerian and then connect with me on LinkedIn, that's my only socials for now. We'll continue with. Let me see, what did we do? OK, the author said that there are three things, open source intelligence, social engineering, direct observation.
OK, we only did one, which is open source intelligence. So tomorrow we're going to look at social engineering and then direct observation depending on how much time it is that we have. So no tomorrow, that's what we're going to do. And remember, the name of the book is How to Sell Like a Spy. And the author is Jeremy Horowitz. I should have given you the full title, but I can't remember where my anyway, I can't remember where my old scrap of paper is the one where I wrote the title down.
And all of that was a book that was published last year, 2024 August 27th. So I'm sure if you just check Amazon, for instance, how to how to sell like a spike, just the Amazon or check those Jumia sell books. If Jumia sells book, try Jumia as well. How to sell like a spy. The one you should be looking for is one that was published in August 2024. Jeremy hero. It's Jeremy is Jeremy hero. It's I can't remember how to spell it if and anyway, I'll catch you guys in the next episode.
Bye.