Loading…
Auto-generated; may contain errors.
Loading transcript…
Hello and welcome to the show. Today is one of those Tata 4 episodes where I'm going to be sharing random business outreach that I got a few days ago. So for the purposes of this episode, let's call the guy the person who reached out to me. Let's call him Cool Guy 587. Again, Cool Guy 587. This is not his real name. I'm using this just to protect his identity. So the fellow reached out to me on the 11th of July. The year was 2024.
That's the current year of the recording. And it was a WhatsApp outreach. He said he found my podcast on Spotify and he's listened to a couple of episodes while he was working out at the gym. And for that I'm really grateful. I love you guys who find me wherever Spotify, iTunes, Google, OK, no, Google podcast is not around anymore. I think they shelved that. But bottom line, wherever it is that you find the show, I'm really grateful that you guys find it and you make it a part of your your life, your daily routines and all that.
So I'm really grateful for you guys. So that's the reason why I'm hoping that cool guy 587 and then the other person listening to the podcast, you don't take it. Hopefully you guys are not going to take it that I'm making us taking shots or this is a slight again, school guy 587. It's just that I receive business outreach from people and you know, my mentee that I've gotten from the podcast and two or three of the ladies who've reached out before.
You know, I've made podcast episodes like this, like the conversations with Remila Kuhn, where I talk about how you guys should be structuring your business outreach to make it much more effective. Because a bunch of you are trying to reach out to people, trying to do business with people, trying to build relationships with people and going about it the wrong way, going about it in ways that might actually be harming your your business interests.
So like I said, cool guy 587 found me on Spotify, listens to me at the gym. And so he reached out on WhatsApp because he wanted to nurture the relationship for future collaboration. And then he also sent a link to his website, you know, something that he was working on. And OK, that's one thing you guys shouldn't be doing. I mean, if you're going to have a call to action and keep it the same and keep it simple, don't be all over the place.
So cool guy 587 sends me a link to your website for something that he's currently developing. But then later on in the message, he says that his specialty is real estate. So if you're reaching out to someone, it helps you if you guys can just pick a lane. So if I'm reaching out to someone, I don't start with, I'm a former wedding photographer, currently a business growth podcaster and consultant. And then, you know, I don't run the whole gamut.
You know, I, I pick a lane and I stick to that sort of thing. So if someone makes me an introduction, like a former client called me up, I was like, hey, what's up? I know you've been podcasting a lot. Do you still do event photography? And I said, no, I don't. I prefer to do the corporate stuff, which is like, yeah, I know, I know, I know. But you know what this is this person is she's my girl and I like your style. So please help me take care of her.
You know, blah, blah, blah. I'll hook up the introduction. So that's OK. I know I Hala, you know, I'll run it because it's for you. And so I call up the person and I don't start the whole spiel with I'm a business growth podcaster, sales consultant, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, I keep it to one lane. I'm calling because, you know, the whole purpose of the call is photography related. So I keep, I keep that to the whole how I put it.
I stuck to one script. Let me put it that way. So I'm reaching out to people. Don't say this is me. Check out this fintech I'm building. And then later on you now say, Oh, I'm really into real estate, you know, so pick a link. If you're going to do the fintech thing, fintech it all the way. That's when you're reaching out to someone. If you're going to do the real estate thing, real estate it all the way. So send me a link to the website.
And then of course, I'm always open to collaborations because, you know, I've done collaborations in the past. There's a show that was produced and recorded by my friend Nina Battuba, who is a communication specialist based in Canada. And so you've been collaborating on that episode and there've been a couple of other collaborations. I mean, not much. And of course, in the speaking engagements that I have with different organizations, some of them have been collaborations where we try and derive mutual benefits.
So I'm always open to those sorts of things. Some people send me messages saying that they're open for future collaboration. I'm like, yeah, sure, cool, let's let's have the conversation. And so I replied it again. I'm like, OK, cool collaboration. Noah, Hello. So what's up? And this is what Cool Guy 587 says in summary, he says he wants to Co host my podcast and then later on in the future, I can do some consulting for his brand and he's just trying to keep options open.
Now for those of you who've been in business for a while, I'm sure you might be surprised, but let me repeat it again. This was Cool Guy 587's idea of a collaboration. He wanted to Co host my podcast, a platform that I've built over several years. We have close to 890 episodes right now on the podcast. So he wants to Co host it. OK, no problem. Then he also says that I might be able to consult for his brand sometime in the future.
So he wants to be on my platform and he thinks it would be an equal exchange for me to do paid consulting for his brand at some time in the future. Not determined. And then he's keeping options open. By the way, the reason why I'm making this podcast recording right now is because I called up the gang 'cause I didn't have a conversation with him. Because I like to have these conversations, you know, man to man or adult adult, Like in the case of Ramiliko, when I called up to have the conversation because I think having the text back and forth is not going to convey what it is I'm trying to pass across.
And also because, you know, we're adults here. So if you want to reach out to someone because you want to do business in the future or whatever, you have proposal, you have a presentation or something, you know, you should be up to having a a face to face conversation or a phone conversation or whatever about the whole thing. So I wanted to tell him all these things first ear to ear or mouth to ear or face to face or whatever, before making a podcast episode about it.
But he declined to have this phone call. So let me just go ahead and make the podcast episode, you know, So if he listens to future episodes, hopefully he's going to come across this and I hope he takes it in the best light because this is not, I'm a slant and it's not me taking shots. It's just me trying to be real with Cool Guy 587 and with other people like Cool Guy 587 and Remy Lacoon and others who have reached out in the past.
And your outreach was a little bit off. I'm just reaching out to you guys, let you know I look, I get where you're coming from. I applaud your hassle because that was me a couple of years ago when I was relocating from when I came back from Scotland and I moved, moved back to Lagos was the same thing. I had to get into the event game, you know, I had to cold reach out to people to try and do business. And when I left Lagos, I came to Abuja was the same thing.
I had to reach out cold to be able to do business. So I applaud your hustle, all of you, you know, you young cats, you know, 1828, you know that kind of range. I applaud your hustle. It's cool that people are doing this because some of us, you know, back in uni days, instead of trying to get the hustle going or get the business going, we're spending time, you know, when you're a union now, you know how you just just reflect just to enjoy yourself.
And some of us didn't start these things on two way in our 30s. So those of you who are 18/20/20, 5:00-ish, you know, I applaud your hustle and it's good that you've got this thing going. So for KU guy 587, for Remy Lekum, for all the others who have reached out to me for, you know, collaborations, proposals or whatever. Well, Remy Lekum was not a collaborational proposal. I just remember her right now because I'm hers is I think the most successful case that I've had so far because she's listened and I've actually coached down two or three opportunities and I'm glad with the progress that she's making.
So you guys are going to go very, very far because you've started well, a cool guy, 587. You have started well at your age. He's 26. He already has, you know, a couple of things going. You know, definitely one thing will click, especially since he's open to business outreach like this anyway, so back to his idea for a collaboration. He wants to Co host and then maybe I might consult for his brand later on in the future and he's keeping options open.
So cool guy 587, let me just come out and let you know that you try and hit up someone like this in the future, whether it's a guy or a girl age mate or somebody older or younger or whatever. Most likely the person will consider it an insult because you don't reach out to someone saying that you want to get on their platform and then the only thing that you can provide in return is maybe they might do consulting for your brand later on in the future.
The average person is going to consider that an insult. I didn't consider that an insult because I knew where you were coming from. That's the reason why I asked the next question that I did, which is when I asked you, how old are you now? Cougar 587 responded saying, do I ask guys for their age? And I'm like, no, that I've only had to ask two guys for their age since I started this podcast. And he responded, he said he's 26.
And so like I confirmed, the reason why some of you make this kind of moves is because, to be honest, you don't know any better. So you're a little young, you're a little green, and you have inexperience behind you. And so you don't know how some of these things might come across. So at the time, it seemed like it was OK, but most people consider that an insult. I don't consider it an insult because I have also been a 2630
year old starting off in business and running around talking to people about making proposals, introductions and strategic strategic partnerships. Yeah, I've been running around doing that before, so I know the mistakes. That's why I asked you. I need to confirm. I knew you were kind of youngish, so I figured let me ask. Cool guy 587. I'm not insulting you all 'cause I also remember being 25 thinking I was a man. But The thing is, as you grow older, you just realize that.
Or more, when you want your 20s, you didn't know Jack. And to be honest, when I'm even looking back and I realized that when I'm in my third, when I was in my 30s, I didn't know Jack. And with the mistakes that I'm making now in business and parenting, I kind of suspect that when I hit my 60s, I wouldn't think that my 40s and 50s, I didn't know Jack. So it's just one of those things. So I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to insult you or anything.
So, yeah. So we young men who are trying to reach out in our early years, usually in our 20s, yeah, we always reach out with lopsided proposals. Most people consider a lopsided proposal an insult. So I'm really glad that you're a listener to the show and that you called in. That's the reason why I reached out, because I need to drop these Nuggets with you, man to man. As in straight. Let's have the conversation before I make the podcast episode.
But then he declined and because he was in the meeting, so I decided to call him back anyway. I need to take a break. I'll be back in a moment. OK guys, I'm back. I'm sorry, I had to take a break as because wifey walked in on a recording and on on that recording. And so we had to have a brief conversation. In fact, speaking about wifey, she had some contributions to, you know, this whole matter because after everything was done, you know, I called up to give her the gist and she had a really interesting suggestion.
And bear in mind that my wife is not from a sales and business development background. She is she works for a government regulator and she is in legal. And from the suggestions that you will hear that she gave later on about how to handle these sorts of things, a suggestion to cool guy 587. That's if she happened to know cool guy 587, if cool guy was, you know, one of her people, the suggestion that she would have given.
You'll see that sometimes if we just slow down a bit, maybe not too exuberant, we can actually come up with proposals in quote, collaborations in pro, in quote, strategic partnership offers in quote, whatever it is that you want to call it, you can actually make this thing work. But anyway, we'll get to that later. So I think at the time Wifey came, I was in the middle of saying basically that the whole point of this recording is I
want to share some benefits to Cougar 587 and all the young listeners of the podcast. Because currently the listenership of the podcast is currently is mostly male, over 70% male. I still would like some more female listeners because I started off this journey not just wanting to share tips and tricks about sales, business development and stuff like that, but also hoping to appeal to a female audience precisely because from the age of 13, I
was raised by a single mom. Yeah, I've already done podcast episode about that. So the no need to go into that again. But bottom line is I've been surrounded from about 1314. I've been surrounded by women on the come up trying to do their hustle, trying to arrange their own affairs, put everything in order. And I have seen first hand the benefits. You know what happens when we save women on the right trajectory because when you,
what's the word? When you arrange a woman, then put it that way, if you arrange a woman, you arrange your wife, you arrange daughters, when you arrange your sisters, when you help facilitate certain things in business, career development, those sorts of things. It's not just the woman's trajectory that you're setting right? We also setting right the trajectory of her kids. And of course, because of how you women are, those of you listening to this podcast, you know, when you're on the come up and you get us more money, you know, you don't only take care of yourselves, you take care of your parents, you take care of your siblings, you know, things like that.
So really, when you help set a woman up, you're setting up a whole generation, a whole ecosystem around them. And so it's part of the reason why I do what I do on the podcast. I'm also hoping that my mother's my sisters, my cousins, my, my, that I mean, all of you, those of you feeble listeners who are not directly related to me. I'm hoping that there's a bunch of stuff that you guys can learn. So that whatever your circumstance, you know, whether you're married and still living with your husband or whether everything has scattered and you're along with the kids or whether you're a single mom or you know, whatever the circumstance, even if you know,
you know, kids are not in question yet, but you're in uni or you're trying to arrange yourself, you're trying to build a life like like Xena from Uniport who reached out the podcast episode that I did 333 four days ago. If this is your first time listening to show, I want to get more details about that. Then after you're done listening to this, you know, try and skip back 3-4 episodes. I can't remember what I titled it, but I think Kate Rising the title or online phone vendor must be in the title because she's an online food vendor based out of Uniport Port Aqua.
So yeah, Anyway, so I'm just trying to share benefits to the young folks listening to this so far as mostly men. I'm hoping more women are going to start listening in the future. So if you're a female listener, please share this with other ladies that you listen to. If you think the problem is I'm talking too much man lingo or something now, hit me up, let me know and sending your questions and I could start tackling questions that women would be much more interested in hearing from learning about them and you get the gist.
So so far as mostly men, the ages are between 18 to 27. That's 13% of the listeners are between 18. Sorry, 18 to 22 and then another 36% of the listeners to the show are between 23 and 27 and that's where cool guy 587 falls in and then the zero to 17 age group that is just under 1%. I'm going to assume that I don't have a bunch of five year olds listening to this podcast 'cause that would really, really be interesting anyway, so that's the age breakdown.
So this episode is supposed to share some Nuggets to those of you who are young and enthusiastic. You 18 to 27 year olds, young and enthusiastic, going out there, taking your shots. Here's how to do business outreach in such a way that you don't come across as insulting or not properly considered. So the first tip I'm going to give to you guys is stop using the word proposal in your outreach. Don't use the word proposal.
Don't use the word introduction. Don't talk about strategic partnerships. Don't talk about strategic alliances. Now, if you are based in the UK, if you're based in America, if you're based in Australia, I don't know how things work over there, but in Nigeria, Nigerian business people value two things and two things only, the value #1 money and the value #2 customers. Let me repeat again, the average Nigerian person values money and they value customers.
When you come in talking proposal, introduction, strategic partnership, future collaboration, future strategic, this strategic alliance. So you know, whatever it is that you're trying to call it, whatever it is you call it, if at the end of the day, the person listening to you doesn't see that this thing would generate me money and won't give me customers. The average Nigerian business person especially in the SME space is not interested.
Let me repeat, they are not interested. Everybody's trying to do their hustle. If you come standing all slick and educated and cool, talking strategic partnerships, but the person can't see what's in it for me money wise, what's in it for me customer wise, it's it's not going to work. So you want to be more effective, stop that. If you want to have a successful cold pitch, reach out to someone and head straight for the point.
Show them how what you're proposing is going to give them money. Show them how what you're talking about is going to give them customers. That is the most successful way to make a cold pitch to a Nigerian business person. If you hit someone up and you say, OK, let me try and rewrite Cool Guy 587's pitch. You reach out to someone and you say, hey, what's up? I found your podcast. I love it, listen to it at the gym, blah, blah, blah.
And while I was listening, I had this particular idea. It can't be executed this way. It would require an investment of so, so, so and so. But I think we pull it off right? And you're able to drop X amount. I'm able to drop Y amount. I think we should be able to come up with XYZ amount of number at the end. And if that works, I'm proposing that you take X percent. I take Y percent. Is that something you'd be interested in having a conversation about now, those kinds of conversations?
Oh, yeah, sure. No problem. I'll pick up the phone and I'll call you. And I say, OK, what's up? What are you working on? How's this thing work? How do I come in this percentage that I proposed? Can we do it this way instead? You know, blah, blah, blah. We can have the conversation now. Like I said, it doesn't have to be about money. It can also be about customers. I'm listening to the show blah blah blah. I have this thing in mind if we run it like this with your input here and my own input here,
hopefully out there, we should be able to come up with customers for both me and you. Would you be interested in having the conversation? I'll pick up the phone, I'll call and a lot of business owners who would also call even if they don't know you from Adam because you're reaching out to what Nigerian business owners want to hear, which is either money or customers. Now this lack of proposal introduction, strategic partnership, strategic alliance,
special utility, special purpose, this and this and that and that, it works in Nigeria on a certain level in the corporate space. So if you're MTN, you can reach out to Nikon Insurance or you can reach out to, I don't know, Hilton Hotel, or you can reach out to some other business and other agency and start talking proposal, introduction, strategic partnership. Let's get together, let's have meeting, let's keep options open, blah, blah, blah.
At that level in the corporate space, that kind of jargon, it works. That lingo works. Once you leave that space and you come back down to SM ES and you're making this kind of outreach. Cool Guy 587. It is a cold pitch. Just head straight. I hit the thing on the head. Show this person how you're offering to make them more money. Show this person how you're offering to make them customers. Give them customers. And this is the point where let me just mention what Wifey recommended when I was telling her the whole thing, when I was giving her the gist about the proposal in quotes that I
received, This is what she recommended. She said I was a pity because this guy seems like he actually is a is a cool dude. But if it was her, that's what wifey said. Now you know, if it was meal and I knew this guy, this is what I would have told him to do. I would have told him to reach out and say hi and then pay a compliment. Then I would have told the guy to say that this your podcast, it seems to be really, really popular with the youth.
But however, you're a bone, you're an older demographic, unlike some of us who are younger listeners to the show. And so because of that, I think you might not be connecting with younger audiences the way that you should. Would you be open to taking a phone call with me? I have a couple of solutions that might help you connect more with younger audiences. That is what my wife came up with on the spot. And my wife has no sales training.
Let me repeat, my wife said if it was her guy, because there are people at work that my wife has taken an interest in and she's mentoring and stuff like that, so she's always giving them tips. So if it was one of her people, that's what she would have told the person. Reach out to this podcaster, say hello, pay a compliment, point out that the podcast is popular with the youth but that because of the age of the host he might be missing out connecting with younger demographic, younger audiences.
And then offer to offered to have a call or a meeting so that you can pitch how to connect. How this podcaster can connect with younger audiences. Now during that phone call, if he had now started the whole thing of Co hosting, can you guys see how him pitching Co hosting on my show would seem more palatable if he had taken this approach? So the destination is the same in his own case, but you go about it one way, it seems like an insult.
You go about it another way, it looks like you're trying to do me a favor. Of course, I'm not dumb. I know that somebody trying to get on my platform, especially now that it's been on for a couple of years, almost 890 episodes, I understand that this will give the person a bit of exposure as well. But you can see how somebody coming at this from this angle saying, let me see how you can connect with younger demographics, how it might at least seem appealing.
I guess what I'm trying to say is there are much better ways of sneaking in through the door now. Also, this is a perfect example of why business is difficult or business seems difficult for most people because a lot of you are using the wrong template and you're being excessively self focused. The solution, the simple solution that I propose, especially to the people that I'm currently proposing right now, because I'm trying out a whole bunch of metaphors that able to pretend that this is a romantic relationship.
A romantic relationship is not going to work if you come in like that saying this is me, I'm a fine boy, I'm a cool guy, date me. It doesn't work like that. Or you come in saying this is me, I'm a fine girl, date me. You know, that's, that's not how it works. So you come in, pay more attention to the other person, be other focused, pay them a couple of compliments, try and figure out who they are, what they're interested in, their goals, their problems, their desires.
You try and be helpful. You try and work with them along that path. And then it's after that you can now propose marriage. So you come and yes, you may think you're a fine boy and everything, but you don't go straight to, will you marry me? You come and say sister BC oh, how are you doing? You sing very well in the choir, blah, blah, blah. It looks like you're really serious in your work with the Lord and she'll tell you about her convention story and everything.
I know what not and you will just continue to be friends. You're trying to help her be a good Christian you know you follow half a Bible study. You buy her tapes. OK no they don't do tapes and C DS anymore. Well anyway you just try and foster, you know her love with the Lord and the music and the everything and he just be following each other. People continue to be friends. After a while you now propose marriage and then the thing clicks.
Assuming that marriage is what you are running after in the 1st place. But I'm just saying just pretend it's romantic, pay more attention to the other person, try and align with their interests, with their goals, with their desires. And then it's after that that you can try and seal the deal, whatever it is. The deal is that you're trying to the deal that you're trying to close. So methods like this, like what I'm arguing against that most people do, it's not going to work because some people might find it insulting.
At the very least, it's either going to be irrelevant or not tailored to the person that you're trying to reach out to. And when that happens, most people are going to ignore and most people are going to block. So I know for a fact that if Kouga 587 has reached out to multiple people, I know for a fact that he's been ignored by lots of people. And so Kouga 587, if most people haven't been responding to your proposals, This is why the approach is all wrong.
Now, the good news is I'm not ignoring or blocking anybody yet because I'm still getting to know my audience. And so I'm leaving the communications channel open. And so that's why I'm chatting with everybody, with Cougar 587, with Remy Leko, who is now my person who helps me out when it's time for presentations. In fact, there's the AISME small and medium scale. What SM? What's SME again? Small and medium scale enterprise, let's just say small business.
So there's the AI Small business summit that's going to be coming up. So I definitely will be reaching out to Remy Akon to help me again with the slides because I hate PowerPoint and I do not like giving slides. But you know how it is in Ijana it only for some people, they insist that there must be slides. So, so Remy Akon, if you're, if you're listening, I'll be in touch in a couple of weeks. So excuse me. So they can help me with my slides just like the last time.
So yeah, I'm still getting to know everybody. And I really, really love the conversations that I've been having with everyone. You know, the lady from Cameroon, Xena, Port Harcourt, cool guy, 587, not his real name. Everybody that I've been in touch with, you know, thank you very much. I love you guys, love that you're following my show. And it's been a pleasure getting to know you guys and also to be able to help out in any way that I can.
So for those of you who are listening to the show who haven't reached out still, yeah, go ahead, reach out. You'll get my contact details soon. I appreciate all of you, especially young girls and young guys like Cool Guy 587. I firmly believe that you guys are the future of Nigeria because you guys have started early. Your brains are screwed on straight and you're trying to build viable assets for yourselves and viable assets that are going to change the trajectory of your families.
So you guys continue. So cool guy 587. I mean, I've got none, but a lot for you. Just continue with the hustle. You know, whether it's the fintech thing or the real estate thing, you know, something will click. So just continue. But as you listen to the podcast, just take dressing on a couple of things that I've been saying. Then don't just listen to only my own podcast. Look for other podcasts as well. You mentioned how you've been listening looking for Nigerian podcasts.
There are business related and there are lots of others. There have started coming across some, you know, in the banking space, marketing space, all kinds of things. So pay attention, you know, listen, you'll get tips and tricks and frameworks to help propel you along. So keep up with the hustle. You guys are the future of Niger and we are behind you. What's that word? Powerfully as you should say back in university. So we're behind you powerfully.
So connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234 for those of you who are not Nigerian. And please, like I said, don't start the conversation with proposal strategic, alliance strategic, this future beneficial mutual something partnership, you know, caught all that crap. If it's business outreach, then let's get straight down and talk business. Let's talk money or let's talk customers.
Let's see how you reaching out to me, trying to get involved. Let's see how we can do both 'cause I'm open to growing jointly with folks as long as we're clear about what it is we're trying to do and where we're heading. But if it's that you're in uni like Zeno and you think you are strapped at the moment and you need help trying to walk through a couple of things, let me know. And of course, I also freestyle. Let's see how we can get you out of this jam.
Because yes, I leverage this podcast for paid speaking and coaching opportunities, but that doesn't mean that if I run into someone who is in a tight spot, I won't try and help out. Because for me, trying to help out people in these sorts of situations, sometimes it's just a quick five minute phone call. Try this, try this, try this. And then people make progress in what it is that they're doing. So if I have minute phone call cost me nothing, especially if you're hard working and you're willing to carry out the advice that I give you on the call and also connect with me on LinkedIn.
My name is Tavishima Ayede, I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of my name from the link. We're currently listening to this episode. My e-mail address is there in case you're an e-mail person. So thank you very much guys for listening to the show. And again, cool guy 587, I want to restate again because I don't want you to be offended. You know, this was not a slight that you, I wanted to have this conversation face to face, ear to ear, mouth to ear, whatever it is, you know, directly man to man and speak with you.
In fact, if we had picked up the phone would have had a cool casual conversation and I would have been even harsher than over here on the podcast. I've had to hold back a bit on the podcast because, you know, I don't want to sound like I'm scolding you. So I really would have loved to have this conversation one-on-one. But the whole point of sharing this with you is how you can make your outreach much more effective and how you don't come across sounding lopsided in the future.
So thank you very much for your time and attention. Cool guy 587 continue. Also, there's any way I can help out in the future. You know, reach out to me and yeah, you have my phone number already. So and you know, we've already started the relationship, we already started chatting, so no Ala. So yeah, that's it. You guys enjoy the rest of your day and have a wonderful work week ahead, wherever you are.