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Hello and welcome to the podcast. Today we're going to be discussing A consultation that I had with someone. This is not a paid consultation because, you know, I gave my phone number at the beginning and at the end of every single podcast episode. And that's because I love talking to you guys who discover my podcast and I'd like to answer a few questions. So I had one of those sessions with an individual, let's just call him Sam.
OK, I won't use his surname. Let's just call him Sam Loco. Again, Sam Loco, not his real name. And I'm not trying to say that the guy is Loco. It's just that when I was a little boy, there was an actor called Sam Loco in Niger Nollywood movies. So I don't know if Sam Loco is still in the trade as an actor, but if you're a fan of his, then, you know, reach out, let me know if Uncle Sam is still in the business and if he's still doing well and if he's alive.
So we'll call this guy Sam Loco. So I had a conversation with Sam Loco where we spoke about all kinds of things related to branding, strategy, sales and the intersection of those these disciplines. So today's podcast episode doesn't have a singular focus per SE, but we're talking about branding, we're talking about strategy, we're talking about sales. So if you like what you hear, if you like the conversation that transpired between me and Sam Loco and you want to connect with me as well, then all you do is just do what Sam did.
Send me a text message, send me a WhatsApp message, or you can call me on 08064662140. Also, if this is your first time listening to the podcast, subscribe so that you can always get this business goodness. Now we talk about here almost every single day. And yes, we have quite a backlog over 1000 three, I'll be 1400 episodes so far. Oh, by the way, my name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm a former lawyer turned business consultant and I'm the host of the podcast.
So excuse me, just recovering from a bit of a sore throat. So where are we now? So the consultation between me and Sam, Mr. Sam Loco. Now Sam Loco is an aspiring entrepreneur. He runs a web development agency. They are new, they function remote. Although when he said the functions remote, I wasn't sure about that because so excuse me, nowadays, you know, don't most of us do work remotely? Like, you know, you're in your house, you're based in Abukuta,
but in yourself, you're servicing clients in Sokoto or in Banner Republic, you know, So, but anyway, so he works remote and essentially in the conversation, I had to give Sam some local, I had to give Sam a very tough love critique of his current business strategy. Now, the session that we had was recorded because I wanted to, I just thought, 'cause, you know, we always have conversations, People reach out on WhatsApp, we talk on WhatsApp.
But then I just discovered, yes, I don't know everything. I just discovered that like 2-3 weeks ago that Telegram has this recording feature. And I thought, oh nice. So next time I have a conversation with someone, if we do it on Telegram, I can actually, I can actually record the thing and then send the audio file to the person. And that's another way of delivering more value to you guys. So it's almost like having your own individual podcast episode if you reach out to me and don't worry, for privacy purposes, I'm not going to share the recording over here on the air because of course people discuss private things and stuff like that.
So the best I'll do is I'll come over here on the podcast and I will talk about it. I will refer to it, but I will not share the audio recording. So that's what I did. He called on Telegram and started recording. And now that we are done, he has the audio that he can refer to, you know, always concerning the specific instructions and the assignments that I gave him for how he can move his web development agency forward.
So let's see. OK, So First off, he mentioned that he found my podcast because he was looking for business strategy. So I had to give the guy a very strong disclaimer. And I'm going to give you guys a disclaimer as well, some of you who might have discovered this podcast because you're looking for stuff on business strategy in Niger. So let me be honest with you, especially those of you discovering the podcast for the first time.
My primary focus on this podcast is sales. Then I'll like put it because I'm talking sales once in a while we stretch and enter marketing. And then of course, things like branding, positioning, strategy, you know, they're all tangentially related. So it's not these are not the things I talk about primarily on the podcast. So no Vex, if this is your first time discovering the podcast, you're actually looking on something on business strategy.
I'm sorry, this is not the podcast for you. This podcast is about sales. From there, we'll enter marketing. And because these other things are related, once in a while you hear me talk about strategy, but I'm sorry, this is not a strategy podcast. However, I will beg you still listen because you're going to hear some important stuff every now and then. So OK, now the people who reach out, OK, you guys are now beginning to become plenty small.
So what I do is I don't have time to discuss heaven and F with you guys again. So what I do is if this is something that is going to require extensive consultation and you don't have a budget for consultation, then I'll answer one question. So that's how we started off the engagement. So I told Sam, now look, based on what you said so far, the best, the way you can get the best value out of this is if we head straight up into our consultation and guys say no,
get back. I say no problem, we don't have money. No, I'll not. So what I'll do is I'll answer one question for you. So shoot, what is the question? So you can see that I say dealing with me is the best proposition because which other? I don't even like that word influencer because I'm not even an influencer. Which other sales trainer or coach or whatever do you know that gives you stuff for free? The podcast is free and if you and I have time, we actually can sit down for free and have a chat.
So what was that? So we're now going to do some issues around branding and around sales. So Sam said that his agency provides web development. They also do content management. I didn't say anything when he was calling these other services, but you already know, those of you who are listening, that from a sales perspective, it actually is a lot easier for you to pick one lane and be strong in one lane first before you continue.
So I didn't say anything about the content management and I've explained it before. If you're a newbie, let me just explain it again quickly. From a sales perspective, if you say you're doing web development, then you're doing content management, how are you going to plan your prospecting activities? Who are you going to call today? Is it web development clients you will call today or is it content management clients that you will call today, then who you call tomorrow?
We can see that's creating some difficulties. Are you going to be alternating every single day? So no problem. Now when it comes to content, what kind of content are you going to put on your social media that won't confuse people? If today you put you write on web development, tomorrow web development, then after that content management. Well, you know, there's still a link, Shar, but The thing is, what we put out on our social media, what we talk about, it needs to be very clear so that when there's an issue, somebody will call us.
If you're talking content management, let your content, the things you put on social media, be about content management so that when somebody needs content management, they'll call you, they'll say, Sam, what's up now you should do content management. I'll be, hey, get one guy, you know, my auntie, my uncle, then they'll hook you up. If it is web development, be talking web development every single day so that the moment somebody hears my website is broken, I need a website, I need to update my website, website,
this website that they'll call you say Sam, you see they do website Abby and say yeah, sure. So OK, I have a guy, my uncle is my auntie that I have connects in this place, blah, blah, blah. So please, I'm not trying to slow your role, but we should be focusing. But then I didn't tell some that I didn't tell him to remove content management or anything. We continued. So when Sam was talking about his current challenges now, he kept on saying something that when I hear the thing confuses me, Sam continue to say that he's building the brand,
building the brand, building the brand. And I think they confused me. Not only confused me, they think they vexed me. Die every single time I hear somebody about to start business and say, what stage are you saying are they build a brand? You know, I'm going to come over Monday like so it's OK building the brand. What do you mean by building the brand? So he said it's OK. What he means by building the brand is he's creating social media awareness and he's building an online audience, and he's trying to do remote marketing.
So it is there that I quickly just choke the guy. OK, Well, I didn't really, I didn't physically choke him, of course, because, you know, he's in someplace else, but he's there. Quickly grab him and say, like, Sam, Mr. Loco, you're making a big mistake here. I asked him why are you focusing on all these activities but you haven't got to go and talk to somebody one-on-one, get one client. Why? He started talking about, you know, that his business is remote and he doesn't have a track record when it comes when looking at his competitors and then stuff and this and that and that and that.
So I had to hold the guy. You know, this time I hold him by his trouser, by his belt. Of course not physically, I didn't physically hold him by his belt, but I didn't want him to wriggle away. So please, if you ever call me and you see that I'm tackling you, I'm tackling you from your own good, from place of love, because I want to see that you should make progress. Anybody who talks to me, I want to see that you make progress.
I don't want to hear that anybody crossed my path and the person was not able to move forward in their business. Whether they pay me money or they don't pay me money. If you pay me money, in fact, I'll rescue you even more. We must move forward. If you don't pay me money, no problem, I'll still try and pin you down. You have to move forward. For me, it's a matter of reputational integrity. I want to hear that anybody who had contact with Tavish Maiden,
even if it was just two minutes, the person had something that was able to move their life forward. So I told him, Sam, stop looking at other competitors is a distraction. You are distracting yourself. It's just you and your customer. Forget what all these other people are doing. Now you'll get to that stage where we can be looking at competitors. What is our competition doing? In the beginning, what our competition is doing is none of our business.
I'm trying to get my business off the ground, that's all. Excuse me, even that is stressful enough not to now talk of I will now be looking at competition or bio is doing this, SharePoint is doing that, Nikki is doing this, bankers doing that. Now forget a competition. Right now the focus is just me. This is new, this is fresh early traction. That's all I need. Then also to tackle him. Now look all these awareness you're talking about our branding.
She know it is a long term strategy. Then Sam calm down. He say yes. All of you that keep on talking brand building and awareness, you will know it intellectually, but the thing has not clicked. So let me help you make the thing click today. You're talking branding, you're talking building awareness. In theory, you know that it is a long term strategy. Go online and check What does long term strategy mean? You will hear that short term is less than one year.
That is zero to 1. You will hear that medium term is one to two years, one to two. Then you will hear that long term begins from three years and above. You're starting a business as a web developer. You're using a strategy. You say you're building a brand. You're creating awareness, but you are picking a strategy that pays off in anything between one to three years. You're not picking a strategy that will give you customers in,
you know, zero to two months, zero to three months, zero to six months. I want you to sit in this first and and think about it. All of you who like to say I'm building a brand, I'm creating awareness. It's not as if it's bad, but you know it. I'm building a brand. The results of that brand, you will not see it this week. You won't see it next week. You won't see it next month. You won't see it in three months, You won't see it in five months.
I'm building a brand, you'll start seeing the results. One year, you know, two years, three years, four years, you know, it depends. I'm creating online awareness. Good online awareness will not give you money next month. You can start January 1st I'm doing online awareness and then February 14th money starts coming in so you can buy your girlfriend something nice on Valentine's Day. I didn't say these strategies don't work.
Branding works. Online awareness works. It's just that it's a long term strategy at worst. At best it is a medium term strategy. Nobody has ever said branding works in the short term. Nobody. I'm willing to bet my left, you will not find anybody who would tell you that branding works in the short term or creating awareness works in the short term. You will not find anybody in Nigeria or America or on Saturn or on Mars or in any universe that will tell you that.
So I had to grab Sam and I had to let him know Sam, this thing works. But you started a business new. This is a new agency, new agencies, new businesses. They survive with cash flow. That's the language. You understand cash money, money is coming in, money is coming out. If you're doing brand building, building awareness, money will be going out, money will be going out, money will be going out, money will not be coming in, at least not in the short term.
So you're listening to this podcast today. You're just like, Sam, can you stop this branding thing? Please stop this awareness thing right now. OK, well, no, stop, continue, but stop deceiving yourself that that's where the money will come from. Now there's some people who have bar. You're from a rich family, no problem. You can collect money from Momsie, collect money from popsy, call your uncles, call your aunties, raise a bit of cash so you can be doing brand building and creating awareness for the next one to two years.
You'll be living off of this money that you have collected from them. Good. Those are people who are capitalized. That is the reason why Zuckerberg and Bezos and all these other people had to go and look for investor funding first because they picked a business model that for this thing to make money, I suppose run and first for like 1520 years before we can generate cash. In the meantime, how you be paying house rent, paying employee, you know, doing paying for Internet, paying for fuel?
How? That's the reason why Zuckerberg and Co, that's the reason why them, that's why they raise cash. If you can't raise cash and you're not from a rich family, stop this branding and building the brand nonsense talk. Stop it. It won't help you. You're building a new business, You're building a new agency. You're building a web development agency. Unique cash now, unique clients now so you can get money. So I refuse to allow the guy.
So I still, I still, I still pin him now I got him in a chokehold. I just grabbed his head in a chokehold. By the way, I'm just joking, you know, I didn't physically hold him in the chokehold because you know, he's over where he is. Me, I'm over where I am. This thing was done over Telegram. So now I ask Sam, how many customers do you have you had so far? Sam said yes, I had to. I said fantastic. Now the first customer, how did you get it?
And lo and behold, Sam said is somebody that I met before. The guy was a former facilitator for the project management course that I was doing. I spoke with him directly and then the guy said that he needs to revamp his website. He was my first customer. I said wonderful, good. I said from him, did you get referred? He said yes. He sent me to another person. I said beautiful, can you see how it works? You spoke to somebody face to face, you picked up the phone,
the money came in and then you got another referral. There was K like with a referral because you know these things happen is normal. Nobody's perfect. But I told him, you know, you own up when the thing messes up, you own up is normal. We all make mistakes. If you're in some situation, I'm willing to bet my left that it is the same for you as well. It's the same for you. You've been doing brand building an awareness.
How many, how many clients have come from it so far? You've been doing this in five months, six months. How many clients have you gotten? But then the four, 5-6 people that you spoke to, how much business has come for that is the same thing. Go out and talk to some people. Don't stop the brand building thing. Continue the brand building thing, continue the awareness thing, but go out and talk to some people. Please go and talk to people.
Then also told Sam that look, whenever anybody give you a referral, you always update the person. You go and tell the person, bro, Bros, thank you very much, I appreciate the business blah blah blah. You referred me the social sound so this is how the thing went blah blah, blah. So it's then that Sam told me that oh actually the referral has K leg as no problem it's normal, but you still update people. Please whenever somebody gives you business, you go and tell the guy, bro, thank you very much for the referral.
I hooked up with your guy. We started the work. But bro, no vex, you know this is the K leg that has happened. But you know what, I won't disappoint you. I'll disappoint you at all, at all, at all. I will rubbish your reputation. I want to make sure that I see this thing through and these are the steps that I'm taking to make sure that we finish this thing. Now when you talk to somebody like that, somebody who give you a referral, what do you think?
The person will be confident to give you a referral again next time? Because as a human being, he knows that mistakes happen. And then of course, you also being open with the other guy that you messed up on his own project, he also open. You say, bro, I beg Novax, I understand, I take I accept responsibility for that, that let's have a conversation. Let's see how we can resolve it, right. The fact that Sam can own up saying he mess up, you know, is good always like when boys,
especially boys, because you know, we're born proud in this part of the world. So when a boy can humble himself and say, and I'm here for I know it's a very good thing, very, very good thing. So if you're listening and you're like Sam, somebody has given me a referral before, whether the thing was good or that K leg entered the matter, go on and update your person. Thank you very much for the referral. I really appreciate it.
It's people like you that still keep us in business by beg Novix that Madam that you sent me to, you know, you get one small comma. This is what happened. But don't worry, I value, I value. I won't put your reputation at stake. This is what I'm going to do to try and fix it. From there, you'll get more and more referrals. Then also I'd have a conversation with Sam. Sam says he's doing web development. And it's something I've said on the podcast before.
I'm going to say it again. For those of you who are new, some of you, you don't, you actually don't know what you're selling. You think you're selling one thing, but your customers are buying something else. Let me repeat before, when I say it, I've said it in theory. Today, when I'm saying it, I'm saying in practice. So listen well, hold your ears, especially those of you who are brand new people like Sam, you think what you're selling is websites, aren't you?
Tell Sam no, you're not selling a website. You're not. You're selling a business result because people don't just buy websites, people buy results. So I told Sam, you might not have realized it, but if you speak today, a project management guy, the guy who paid for that website with his mouth, you say he bought website. But if you ask him, he will say, oh, I actually need a better website because I'm trying to increase student enrollment or because I want to add the ability for doing webinars and good, since we discussed webinars the last time for doing webinars from my websites, that will open up additional revenue streams.
Even though the guy paid you to revamp the website, actually what he was paying for was greater student enrollment. What he was paying for was extra access to extra revenues. Then I gave him another example because I'm currently working with another web developer, but who his focus is intercity bus transport companies, you know people who do Lagos to Inugu, Lagos to Abuja, Abuja to Maiduguri, you know like that, like that, like that.
Now for that kind of person, what he's selling is not websites. Any other person will say and a website in this cell, no, he's not selling website. What he's selling is a result and this is the result for most, most companies in Nigeria where people want to pay. The customer has to go all the way to the terminal, as you said here, has to go to the terminal and pay. Now, the problem with that is, you know, people are handling cash up and down and it also means that money does not really come ahead.
Money comes, you know, that morning because people will come and pay that morning, you know, Lagos to Inugu or maybe they will come and pay on Wednesday, Thursday, you know, to travel Saturday morning, you know, but cash is not really coming like that. And then of course, since people are exchanging hands, since people are counting physical cash, the owners of this boss company, they know that money is a, you know, where Nigeria as people are counting cash, you know, once in a while, 200 just disappears here and there.
Some money just accidentally walks out of the building, if you catch my drift. So the reason why boss owners, when they see it, they love it, is because the boss owner knows that he's paying for #1 cash flows. Forecasting cash flows becomes a whole lot easier. People can book for their travel well in advance, whether it's two weeks, two months, you know, whatever. Then they're also paying for accountability because when people are paying this money online, because this my client,
the web developer, what he does is on the website, they route the payments through was he pay stack. So once you do the something through pay stack, all your guy knows is that he's there in the headquarters, whether in Lugo or in Lagos and then they're just hearing ping him, ping him, ping him. Any single ping him means that somebody has paid money. So that's all they're hearing everyday. Money, money, money, money, money.
When somebody like that buys a website, the person is not buying a website. The person is buying greater cash flows. The person is buying security. Nobody's stealing my money. The person is buying accountability. The person is buying like all kinds of things. But I really think the main reason why they're dropping at it actually is the money aspect that oh really online, they'll pay like that. So before the bus is supposed to leave Saturday morning, in fact the week before the booking is already complete, we've collected money complete well before that day that was supposed to move.
So I'm thinking these are the reasons why people buy, why the bus companies are going after it. So I have to tell some you are not selling websites, you are selling a result. For some people, you're selling better cash flows. For the project management guy, you I suspect you are selling additional revenue streams, you know, so you can do webinar on the website, you know, things like that. For some people, the website you're you're creating is how I
put it. Some people want a website. So that anyway, let me know know, let me know overflow. You guys get the point. So don't be running around saying I sell websites. You don't sell websites, you are selling a result. So when you're face to face with a potential customer or a client, you're just trying to figure out what does this guy need a website for? What does this Madam need a website for? Oh, this is the problem that they are facing.
You sell to the results. You are not selling websites, you are selling a result. Find this pinpoint or find this vision. Excuse me and then push it accordingly. All right, so we have that conversation then excuse me, where are we? So I lost my train of thought. So excuse me. I have a small sore throat. The baby in the house yesterday he told me, he said dad say it was it. He said my throat is acting funny. I said OK, go take a lozenge.
And unfortunately, when that happens, next thing is I'm next. And then this morning even my wife said she said be like said the cash cutter. I say, OK, you don't happen before today. Now the whole house, everybody be doing here's you, here's you. Hey, those are the joys of having children. So and I'll told some, OK, I know you don't like what I'm saying, but this whole brand building this whole and the build awareness online and all not look is a distraction.
So stop looking at other people. Forget this brand thing. What you need right now is you need money. Your business need blood, lifeblood and the lifeblood of a business is money called hard cash. We need clients quick, quick, quick, quick, quick. That is what you need. So I told him this is what you would do after we end this call. What you need to do is you drop a prospecting list. For those of you who are regular listeners, you already know.
In fact, if you've been listening to the podcast two, 3-4 months and you reach out to me, I don't even want to have to tell you I want what I want to hear is OK, I already have my prospecting list. This is the number of people that I called and this is the biggie that I faced. How do we unwind this biggie? That's what I want to hear from you for those who are regular listeners. But since Sam was the first time listener, I only listened to 1
episode, no problem. So art educating, prospecting list, that's your hit list. What the people am I going after? Who are the people am I going to talk to? Those of you who listened to the last episode targeting hope. Everything that makes sense now, hope is all making sense. Hope you see how everything they blend, how everything they gel, everything they align. So prospecting list. So I told him 10 people before some had the opportunity to complain because remember, I'm trying to pin him down.
I say I have him in a chokehold. I say exam, don't complain. 10 people is not much. It's not much at all. 10 people per week just means two people per day is doable. You can't talk to two people every day. Call one person, go and visit another person or call all of them or send text message or WhatsApp message or look whatever. I have a preference for how we should be done starting with face to face and then phone call.
But in the beginning like this, I don't care how you get it done. Just get me that list. Let's look at that list 1st 10 people, it's only two a day is doable. Now once you're maintaining that 2A day, you will find that you're talking to 10 a week, Monday to Friday. That 10 a week means you're doing 40 a month. Now here's the kicker and here's one thing that lots of you newbies don't realize. You say I'm building a brand.
You're talking to 40 people in the month. How many people are you going to talk to at the end of the year? Now at the end of the year that OK, what's the math? Now it's a good thing my son was not here. My son would love me tired. So 40 a month, then 12 months. I'll be that. Is that times 1240 * 12? Is that 420 anyway? Let's just say 420 if I'm if I'm not correct, then anyway, let me continue. So no matter how bad you are,
even if you're talking to 420 people in a year, I mean think it now if you go convert instead, a lot of you are happy to just sit down somewhere comfortably. Then when your wife asks you or your mom see asks you or your friend asks you, oh boy, how far Now with this our agency, you say I'm doing good man. I'm building A and building a brand. That's all you would tell them. Now for those of you who are brand professionals, no vex branding is important.
It's essential. So I'm not Downing you guys at all. I'm just saying that you need to be advising your clients. Some of them are putting the cart before the horse. We're starting the business and the first thing we're going to be talking about is we're building a brand. No problem. Continue to debuild your competition. They're going and they're collecting clients in the market. Continue to be building brand, continue to be doing awareness,
continue just like me saying I will be podcasting, but I won't be trying to get clients and no problem, I should be continuing to be broadcasting. Other people will be collecting client clients. At the end of the day, all I'll have is podcast episode. Somebody else will have all the clients. So Sam asked me what I would do differently if I if I had to start over. And I told him that look, it's pretty much the same thing.
So as a lawyer, somebody else was paying my salary, OK. As a civil servant, somebody else was paying my salary. OK, moving into wedding photography, I was responsible for my own self. But then me and my business partners were obsessing over logos, obsessed over fonts, expensive looking websites, blah blah, blah, all those things in brain shishi. But then I attended one bridal event in Abuja and I'm sure you guys do not understand why I
like going, why I used to like going for these things although when it worked very well. But then honestly, when COVID came, I thought my life was over. I say, yeah, COVID has come. I can't tell Bridal show again. Lord have mercy, what will happen now when that's a podcast episode for another day. But the first show that I attended me and what's this guy's name again? Femi. Femi Michaels. Yeah, Lagos based photographer.
Me and Femi Michaels decide to share the same booth. I don't know how many clients he got for me. I got 3. And of course, you know, back then now, 350, K400, 420, you know, wasn't bad. And I said, yeah, really, there was no turning back. But if you like, continue to obsess of our logo fonts, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that's why I told him I wouldn't have wasted so much time on the website because me and my business partners would look at the website template.
I like this, I don't like this quarrel back and forth while I go and make change. I like this logo. I don't like this logo quarrel back and forth while I go and make change. I like this, I don't like this quarrel. Quarrel, quarrel, go and make change, that kind of thing. Before you knew it, you wasted like 6-7 weeks already. Two months don't pass. You will are still quarreling over our logo, over our font, over our website.
It's not silly. Things are not important, they're important. But when I bring in the money first, as you are bringing in the money, as you're getting the clientele, you now have all the information that you need to be able to design all these other things. What do you need in the website? Does it not depend on the market you are serving the kind of customers, the kinds of clients that you have and what their needs are?
Is that all determine the kind of websites that you need at the end of the day. So in the beginning, you're wasting your time designing websites you know features and this and layout on or not. You don't even know who your ideal customer is and what they actually need when they're interacting with the website. So that's the reason why I say that, look, branding and all these things is cool. Create awareness, it's all good,
it's all cool. Continue to be doing it. But that is a journey that never ends. Start bringing in the customers. When you get the customers, you have all the information that you need to design everything else. And I also told Sam about my friend who is in the interior decor space in Abuja. So I know this disrespect to northerners listening, but she said she doesn't like northern clients. I say why? They said northern clients had once that have all the money.
She said, yes, they have all the money. But she said that the fashion sense is too gaudy. I said gaudy how she said, and all they like is gold, like gold. They like yellow, they like orange, they like red. They like bright, bright, bright. To the shouts, to the shouts. I know me, I'm a classy girl and I like things nice and simple. I like things, you know, this is that I said, oh, OK, really. So which kind of clients do you chase?
So I prefer and I will say the kind of clients. So I will start a new culture war on this podcast. But anyway, she said the kind of people that she prefers now based on the kind of clients that she enjoys working with and then all what not. You can see how she can take that information to now feed her brand strategy. We don't want northern clients. Therefore we will not be showing gold, orange. These, these, these that, that,
that, that, that nothing with the shouts too much and anything also reflects in her website design. The website design cannot be, you know, one kind. So in her logo design. And then of course, also because they're not attending to northern clients, they can now make certain kinds of decisions about words that they use on the sites, different kinds of site, website outlay, you know, things like that. But it's from doing sales first,
getting customers first, that she got all the information that she needs that is now informing the brand that she currently has. Stop putting the cart before the horse. So basically I was telling some essentially what you're doing now is you're becoming more or less a content creator. You didn't get into this web development thing. To be a content creator, you need to start being a problem solver. You need to go out, you know,
maintain that hustle. There's just two people every day. The one we'll start seeing progress, eventually be able to hop on that brand again. So summary, my conversation with Sam, I was able to give me a reality check. You're struggling to build this web development agency. Don't. It's all right. We all struggle. In fact, honestly, I miss our estate a struggle as usual. I'm still on this podcast. I'm not struggling and I have my 500 and 430 mil.
I want to buy my Tesla cyber truck and then what else? And you know now, so everybody just struggles. So is, is is normal. So I had to tell him, stop worrying about your brand. Stop worrying about what the brand looks like. Start focusing on getting paid. It's that simple. Sales over aesthetics anytime, any day. Sales over aesthetics for now it's only when the sales is boku and you're living well, they can worry about aesthetics.
That's the reason why Coca-Cola every single year they can be worrying our Christmas campaign, are we going to revamp it? Are we going to redesign it because they have money where you don't have money. How you'd be thinking revamp, redesign, reduce, reduce, reduce. Coke has money. That's why every single year, billions and billions and billions on branding and advertising and everything because they have the money. So for the rest of our sales over aesthetics, please, brand awareness will not pay your bills in the early stages.
We should focus on cash flow. Then Mr. Sam Local and any other web development web developer professional listening to this thing. You don't build websites, you don't you think you do? Well, by the time you talk to 3456 people, you realize that you know, based on your talent, based on your skill, there actually are some unique problems that you're you're solving. You're giving people a highly technical service and you're providing business value to people.
Try and figure it out. That is your UVP, that is your unique value proposition. When you know it, you'll be able to inform the way that you market yourself, that you do sales and that you do branding well. So if you're like this other client of mine was looking at intercity bus customers, but what they're selling is better cash flows. That can reflect in your, in your brand. It can reflect in your marketing because you know exactly what it is that you do.
Then Uncle Sam Loco and any other person listening, please use your network. Go and do small direct outreach. Talk to people, friends, family members, associates. Talk to mumsy, popsy, popsy. It is what I want to do. I'll appreciate it. You know, kind, you know, one or two of your classmates, one or two, you know, like that. Go and talk to people in church. Deaconess Akubero, I'm about to start business. I've been looking for work these last four years.
I've not seen. I'm going to start business. You say, Ah, praise God, I, my son shall be well for you. Deaconess, I will pray for you after she pray for you. Sir. Deaconess, I beg. Do you know anybody who needs websites? You start the conversation from there. Use your network, do some direct outreach. Start trying to get referrals. You're working with somebody. Things didn't go well, No problem. Fix the past relationship, fix it.
We're new in the game. We have to maintain our reputation. Fix it and let's move on. Then also remember it's a numbers game. Let's try, let's try. We'll get better overtime, but for now, just two people every day. That's what I'm asking. Call two people, then go and watch Netflix. Call two people tomorrow and then go and play chess. Call people the day, have two people the day after that, then go and spend the rest of your day with your girlfriend, Basha.
Every single day, just call. Call to two people. You see that? Anyway, let me stop there. There are some things that are fun when it comes to business. One of those things is branding. Branding and awareness is fun. Hear me on the podcast now. Am I not having fun? Are people not feeling my flow? This is the easy part. The hard part is actually getting on the phone and talking to customers. Let's not get carried away by the easy stuff.
So that's it and that's all for today. Thank you very much for listening. And remember, if you want to connect with me, you can find me on LinkedIn. You can call, send a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. And then do not forget the special class of people that I referred to yesterday. Yes, I'm still reaching out to you guys again today. If you have 345 business ideas, you're not sure which one to start. And because of that, you're currently not making a single couple from any of your ideas.
Reach out to me. Let us help you start your business in three easy steps. Let us pick the right business idea, just like how Sam has decided on web development. In fact, let me say, Sam, the whole part about content and all those things you are mentioning, scrap all of that, please. Somebody has paid you money for web development, leaning to this web development thing. Forget this content development content, this guy, that's a distraction.
Focus on this web development thing. Focus. So back to those of you who haven't decided yet. So we'll pick one idea and then we'll make sure it's the right idea. We'll validate the idea. We'll make sure that there's market demand that people are willing to pay for this idea, that willing people are willing to pay for this service. Just like how somebody has given some, some good cash to be able to design. So I redesigned the website for project management.
We validate the business idea. Then after that, we create a selling system so that you can get people to come back again, again and again, and also get them to refer their friends and their family members to you. That's the way that we're going to grow this business. So you want to grow your business in three easy steps. Call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. If you're like Sam, you've already started, but you're hooking somewhere, Call, let's have a chat.
Let me see if I can give you one or two suggestions that should put you on the right path. So yeah, I think that's pretty much for today. I'll catch you all some other time.