Samblaque consult

This is a seminar held on the Samblaque Consult whatsapp platform on the 28th of October, 2017. The seminar was delivered by Sam Gbadebo

HOW RELEVANT ARE YOU IN YOUR FIELD

Last week I shared on the topic “build your brand”. In building your brand or branding yourself, it’s very important that you get exposed to the latest information and materials in your field or else you will keep building your brand till thy kingdom come and no one will notice you.

It’s no longer a news that any organisation that will thrive in this age must embrace innovation and make it top on their priority in strategy making. So the question is are you exposed to the latest information and technology in your field?

Not practising the course I studied in the university for five years was a great concern for my Dad. I really don’t know why he was just adamant that I practise surveying but after much persuasion on my path, he gave up on the issue and bought into the idea of my consulting and training career. During the period of me trying to convince him, I had an experience that exposed me to the unconventional way some people practise their vocation.

To practise Land Survey, you have to be very good with the practical aspect of it and because I lost interest in it while on campus, I never bothered to pay close attention to how to carry out surveys. So I would always tell my dad that “I can’t carry out surveys accurately so I don’t think I need to be a surveyor”, then one day he said "what if I go out to learn it?"

At this point I was angry because I knew the stress involved in learning the profession and that was one of the reasons I hated the profession. Anyways I agreed to learn but I told him that I didn’t know of anyone who could train me, this was to make him give up but I forgot that my Dad was a Mario, once he want to get something done he would always look for a way out. At first I thought I had won but after few days he came up with the contact of a surveyor who I could learn under and this was where my plans got spoilt.

The next day I put a call through to the surveyor and I was able to get the address. The location was easy to trace and as I got to the location, I called the surveyor to signal him that I was around. The next thing was that I saw a man wearing only a short nicker and holding his cloth which was a buba top by hand welcome me. We shook hands and I almost hit is pot belly because he was not putting on any cloth.

At this point I began to say that “Sam you don enter one chance today” because I wasn’t expecting to see what I saw. After exchanging pleasantries, he took me to his office and when I got into his office, I looked around and discovered that there was no computer in his office. So I was like “how does this man carry out his office work” and this began to validate my earlier suspicion.

Even though I didn’t like surveys, I still carried out some Survey practicals while in the university so I understood the processes involved. I realised that one of his employees or in a more direct way, one of his boys was still using the outdated methods of survey; the method used before the advent of computers. So as not to be in a haste to conclude I just assumed he was trying to check something or something else.

During our conversation, he told me that I didn’t look like someone who want to learn survey because of the way I was dressed. In my mind I was like must I wear rags before I look like someone who is willing to learn. He took me on a tour to see the other trainees that were training under him and I saw them working with outdated equipment. They were not exposed to the latest technology and that alone sealed it for me.

When I was done with him I told him I would be resuming on Monday and that was the last day I stepped my feet there. On getting home, I explained my experience to my dad and he was wowed and that was how he never disturbed me again.

We live in a microwave world where people want to get excellent service as quick as it can be so “are you keeping abreast with the latest information and technology that can make your services better and also faster”? Don’t forget people know where they can get value for their money and no matter how far they would have to travel to get it, they don’t mind.

Your brand gets bigger quickly if you discover what’s next in your industry. Competence alone is not just in doing your job well but much more in using the latest and relevant resources to do it well.

This is a seminar held on the Samblaque Consult whatsapp platform on the 21st of October, 2017. The seminar was delivered by Sam Gbadebo

BRAND YOURSELF

In the early hours of the second day of this week, I was in the studio with some senior colleagues of mine trying to preview a video of an artiste which happened to be my boss.

While previewing the video, a different discussion ensued between the video editor and myself. He said his church would be holding a concert in December and he would need my service on the piano as the standby pianist for the concert. He went on to ask for my charges and I made sure I took time to give him a reply because I didn’t want to overcharge and as well didn’t want to undercharge.

I asked him questions relating to the time and other logistics for the concert so as to be able to come up with the right charges for my service and as I was about to let the cat out of the bag, my boss who happened to be the artiste whose video we were working on intervened on my behalf. He widened my horizon by breaking down the concert into different phases and attached a price to them and adding them up we came to a price. At first, the video editor didn’t agree to what my boss and I agreed to charge but due to our insistence he gave in to our demand and we got it settled.

I think we would have to discuss “the art of negotiation” in one of our seminars someday. I have not gotten to the juicy part of the story and this is where it got interesting for me. The video editor then went on to announce the names of the guest artistes and the amount that will be given to them. At first I had no issues with the amount of money but I started having a problem with it when he said “we will give Mr A which is the artiste the sum of 300,000 naira and we will give his boys 50,000 naira”.

Now this got me infuriated because I could not understand why the artiste which is one man would be given six times what his band members (who on an average could be up to five people) would have to share. I got thinking and it dawned on me that the artiste was being paid more than his band members because he was already a brand and so what they are paying for is not an individual singing but the brand that the artiste had built overtime.

People don’t necessarily pay for your skills but what they pay for is the brand or in a more direct way, what they pay for is the name. This same video editor shared with us how Clearance Peters came to limelight. He said on arriving Nigeria after studying cinematography in South Africa, he went after artistes requesting to shoot their videos for them free of charge. He would spend his own money to do other logistics required to get the video ready and before you know it he started building his brand.

At a time when ten videos was played, you are sure to have seven to eight of these videos shot by Clearance and he jokingly said that today to get Clearance shoot your music video, you will have to pay him 5 million naira. This is the power of branding.

As I begin to round up, Horst Schulze said “whatever becomes the image of the organisation becomes the image of the individual but the individual creates the image at first”. When your name is mentioned, what image comes to people’s mind? If there is no image, then you can’t get paid handsomely no matter how competent you are but on the flip side, if the image that jumps on them is one that produces value then you can be handsomely rewarded even for rendering a little service.

The onus rest on us to build our brand by going out of our way to offer service to people even if they won’t pay. Let’s go out there because the image people conceive about us determines the rewards that comes our way.

This is a seminar held on the Samblaque Consult whatsapp platform on the 7th of November, 2017. The seminar was delivered by Sam Gbadebo

UNWRAP THAT GIFT

Gifts are always packaged that is why they have to be opened before they can be discovered. As it is with physical gifts so also it is with our inborn gifts known as talents. Wrapped inside everyone one are amazing gifts that needs to be unwrapped for the world to see.

If I were to tell you that I have sent a million dollars into your bank account, I believe the first thing you will do is to go confirm what I have said. This is easy because you can either go to the bank or use your mobile phone to confirm but what happens when I tell you that inside you is a treasure worth trillions of dollars. How do you discover such treasure?

This brings me to a popular story of a man who was living on a piece of land that had a great deposit of diamonds. One day he came across some folks talking about some treasure in the form of diamonds that was located in an unknown place. He got interested in the discussion when he heard that these deposits of diamonds if found could afford him the capacity to acquire anything he wanted, so he decided to sell his landed property in other to raise funds to go on an expedition for these diamonds. He sold the piece of land to a man who later found these large deposit of diamond on the land he sold.

Inside of you is deposited amazing inventions and creativities that the world have never known. Can you take the time to unwrap those gifts deposited in you?

Many of us are like Jean who was given ten pieces of designer suits and pairs of shoes wrapped in some of the most expensive wrapping sheets and still complains that he doesn’t have what he could wear to a cocktail party because he hadn’t taken the time out to unwrap them. He keeps praying to God daily and sometimes engage in fasting to speed up his prayers while all he’s praying and fasting for lies untouched in his wardrobe.

One of the great philosophers said “Man know thyself”. If I put this question to you “Do you know yourself?” can you answer in the affirmative.

Many of us know about the advent of the internet, some folks can explain the process of child birth right from when the s***m is released into the female reproductive organ, some can talk about the biography of great people right from when they were born but only few people know who they are. Only few people understand the depth of treasures hidden inside of them by the creator and that is why it’s just these few folks that get the plaudits today.

Are you tired of running commentary on other people’s achievements or you still want to remain a commentator? The last time I checked commentators in the game of sport are only there to echo the achievements of sports men and women who are playing the game. They are usually not seen because their job description requires only the recognition of their voice to inform sport lovers on the achievements of sports people. This is not to disregard or talk down on the profession but am referring to people who are not productive.

To feature in the game of life, you must know who you are and what you carry because lying dormant in you is a box of treasure that the world needs to see. I close with the quote I used earlier “Man know thyself”.