 Alright thanks for staying with us. Now business networking refers to the practice of building and maintaining professional relationships with other individuals and organization in a business context. Now the goal of business networking is to create a network of contacts that can be leveraged for mutual benefits such as generating new business leads, exploring new career opportunities or gaining access to industry insight and expertise. Now business networking can take many forms including attending industry conferences and events, participating in online forums and social media groups, joining professional associations and connecting with colleagues and pairs through international channel. So tonight we're asking how can we leverage networks to grow our business. Now please let's hear what you have to say quickly. Remember you can join the conversation send us an SMS or WhatsApp to 081-803-4663. So ladies quickly how do you leverage network I want to bring in our guests. How do I leverage network? I think what I do is purely based on networking so I work through a referral system and always put myself out there to meet more people that are going to be beneficial to whatever your business. Yes you know so I mean they always say your network is equal to your network and I totally believe in that so meeting people is one thing another thing I'm learning is also building the relationship so you can have a lot of people that are beneficial to you but are you able to mind those relationships to you know solve your problems. How about you NJ quickly? Well you meet so for me it's more it's personal and business so personal could be social so that's more social within my social circle and that would include the fact that I create tennis and all that so a few of those you meet a lot of people because that's where you actually meet a lot of business associates and stuff and that's where some one of the places where you can have that kind of conversation and I've learned that a lot of things are closed in less professional environment. I want to begin the Go Club now because the blessing is there that the things are happening. I don't think that's what I meant but that's what you meant no I meant what I meant. So you do that so you meet people on different levels sometimes it's like you said in the club in private parties in you know social gatherings some business gatherings some you know in between so it's always very important for you to meet people tell them about yourself what you do you know but that takes another level of internal you know delays let me bring now I guess no. Bola is a convener of Premier Business Network a community with over 600 members who are founders of successful businesses senior management experience professionals and investment or rather investors building a strong network he is the co-founder and the chief executive officer of ScholarX a social impact ed tech company that helps African youth access quality formal and informal education one of ScholarX products is a learning app called Lenam. Now Lenam is an audio visual platform that provides digital vocational and personal improvement skills content in localized languages Bola is passionate about connecting people and human capital development and this is being expressed through his work at PBN and ScholarX and we're very honored to have him live with us in studio. Thank you for joining us good evening. Good evening. Thank you for having me. So I mean I saw you nodding as we were just talking you're just nodding our head. Don't mind me we are very playful here but hey we talk serious things but in a very funny way. So I like the idea of networking but I think the problem I've always had is I think a lot of people help me out here a lot of people have abused that word networking and it's just so at some point it's so irritating to the point that literally if I go somewhere except the person that invited me introduces me to people you will not find me just talking to people directly I just walk past and quiet because like I feel like I collect business card and then what I say hello and you don't talk and then what because literally the conversations really don't progress and like what NJ said in a lot of times those conversations or those closing those deals you are about to close they actually happen in very very informal sectors maybe a friend's party or something right so why do we still have people organize events that has to do it very targeted at networking why do we have that? Thank you very much for having me yeah it's a pleasure to be here enjoying the conversation I can just sit here just watch you guys speak all day so keep both words that are used throughout the night has to do it being deliberate value exchange and the reason why I'll start with value exchange is that I believe in giving and taking first and first worrying things why in networking the ones that really work are the ones based off of relationship no matter where you meet if the priorities let me get to know this person let's build a relationship let's get cordial and then what value can we extract what can I give and what can I take from the person without being exploitative you will find that those kinds of relationships are more productive that's why you see the network like for example you say you play tennis at a quick club you're already somewhere that okay at least you got better you can afford the club there's something as a base and then maybe you meet often you get you tend to see the person see in those kinds of settings it'll be easier because whether you know it or not the relationship is being formed already and so like awesome pbn once you join in premises network once you join the network it's that okay i get part of here this network if i want to change that i can change it with you and from there what do you do i what do you do what do you do and you start talking ah oh i have this farmer but i don't really have funding to be able to oh funding i i know this guy i got funding he's even in the group and then before you know it folks people have started doing business together and the next thing oh what are you three next week my daughter is having her birthday you want to come over so i found that relationship um networking that is built on relationships whether it's new or pre-existent relationships work better um so i get your point because there's a lot of you gotta hold this i don't even one i don't have business cards and then when i go to events i never write i just listen whatever i can capture at that moment is more valuable to me and if i meet people i say hey how are you doing what do you do we can strike off something but it's never me trying to scheme to see what this person does and what can i get from them in fact best practice for me is always lead with what you can do or what you can offer first and then once you offer because i and i also understand when an environment people use people right so everyone is also apprehensive and what makes me laugh particularly in nigeria obviously um i grew up in legals but i went to school abroad and the environment there is a little bit different here everybody's clothes everybody wants to guard everything but whatever you are guarding is not going to expand it's just going to stay where it is so i always kind of laugh when people are guarded with information are guarded didn't you do that the more you share and the more you expand your horizon and your network and you meet new people the more you can do one of the things that used to be funny for me when we created pbn initially there are a lot of people that had businesses that had um whether they're executives or they started businesses and i used to have to beg he would beg them to share on the group what they did or what product they were selling i i i almost lost my mind like oh yes i was going to steal my ideal you know i don't want to seem forward and make me could be about myself but you're selling something express it share it and from there now we started something called sell on monday and so every monday ended the whole thing about that was what's the best thing if you're an entrepreneur if you're a business leader spend the whole weekend there's that email you sent you're waiting for approval you're waiting for something you spend the whole weekend thinking about it there's nothing better than selling on monday so we coined that and what that does is it engage it helps people engage it helps people network it helps people sell so it goes back to my thing about being deliberate i get you about being apprehensive but if it's all basis for the common theme for us um for example you go somewhere where everybody's a broadcaster you know you kind of feel like you have something in common and then you strike over conversation and then you see ah okay this person seems cool maybe don't go forward and say hey i have this proposal can i bring it to you hey let's have a drink let me build a relationship because it just to me it works more when the base is a relationship and value is clear uh a lot of times people just network for networking sake like i won't ask for a business card just because but if i strike a conversation and i find the person interesting hey let's exchange but some people we're just gonna collect collect collect and and and then nothing happens after that so intention is being deliberate and lead lead with what you can offer because value is key if why why would i network when i don't think any value is going to come out of it it's not me being selfish but but just think about your time the things you think things you think are precious to you always just invest that in nothing that you don't think value can come out of it yeah i actually like the boss words i saw relationship their intentionality you know value you know which are very very key and it's interesting because i just want to quickly give a background um alera invited me to your events on friday and saturday last week it was amazing and i and i thought for a maiden event you know for me it it's kind of like um cements what you've just said because again if you look at the people that filled up those halls they were all like a family you know a lot of relationship had been built with that so i think that's the that's the missing link for networking because a lot of times i don't know you you just come and meet me and say give me your number give me your number say what's going to happen you know like people don't understand that there is a psychology to connecting with people and it is only when you're able to strike that connection then it can now translate into something afterwards i mean alera was saw me saying hello to someone and she said oh please meet this person maybe i saw the person i'd heard about that person a long time ago now as we're talking to you now we've done first meeting for the thing that he's been looking for for a year but you see it is because there is a relationship that's why that connection would have happened so i i get you 100 percent but you know let's quickly run off on a very short break when we come back now here from mary and um nj stay with us we'll be right back all right thanks for staying with us now if you just chained in we're disgusting leveraging networks to grow your business and we have with us balalao please let's hear what you have to say remember you can join the conversation send us an sms or whatsapp to spread one 803 4663 you can also do that as a way show after one more hashtag we show mary let me come to you okay um i'm in sales and i've seen the value of networking however yeah um i think relationship building is where the work comes in so it's enough to exchange contact details and you know start talking to the person but i realized that you have to actually do background checks on okay who is this person what's this person into you know how can i get something out of this person i'm selling so for me the first point is always okay how can i sell to this person it's not about how can your own first point call is how much does this person have quantity your cell is not okay well yes yes so that beauty why i'm not okay there's something we call um your size of my size of the people i'm going to meet so um your watch your shoe your clothes you're going to tell me okay this is where this person's head is at and i reach out i you know speak to the person but oftentimes i realize that it's it's not even enough to just people actually so how do i put it i have people that i've met and yes we talk but i keep hearing something that we don't market to me that's and that's because i've probably gotten too comfortable because i'm trying not to be all up in your face of i'm selling something so i'm trying to build a relationship but i'm realizing that okay the fact that they are h and i's they actually still want you to do the presentation to them they want you to ask them for the referrals they want you to you know go back and travel and i also want to ask like so what metrics can i you know indicators can i say okay this has been evaluable like how do i mark my progress well for you obviously you have to sell so the numbers are your metrics how much do you sell how much do you make but hear me out for a second because i hate i hate you about sizing people up but sometimes they're very well to be focused and that i know that i'm extremely low kick yeah like you will ride a regular Honda but i see you have a billion dollar company and it goes back to the relationship right if you get to know someone if you have conversation and if you're deliberate because a lot of times there's something we call in our community called ask hashtag ask every day or i need to get connected with this person they connected that person or i have this stuff i'm selling i need to yeah i need to make these numbers i need to connect sometimes as as depending on how much of a relationship you've built is as straight up as i remember this is what i do if you know anyone sometimes you may want to sell to her but it's not saying i'll tell to you tell her that if you know anyone that wants to buy this i can what is let me see now and then you because sometimes i get about relationships the people around you i've seen you finish so they don't even yeah and you sometimes too it's mental you may have like but you never know the person might want what you're selling now i just want to adapt we're in an environment where everything is expensive things are hard the worst thing you want to do to yourself is being in a in an environment in the community and not start from within first it's easy you're not spending any money it's easier it's easier to like for example in our community if i have i mean we don't have a soft community called thrift shop if you want to sell your car you can sell it there if you want to sell anything car clothes you can sell that easily and the reason why it's even better for folks is that one they're trusted because they're already in the community two maybe you feel like people have money so she can share their first but if you start from within even also gives you practice that okay i have more practice with selling with people around me i'm connected with them and then because what you said about referrals referrals are incredibly great and and it's even better when the referral comes from people within within like the example earlier you know hey introductions are also key that's what i like using if you know anybody i'm selling to you and i'm an apologetic about selling which is a derivative of networking um you if you're in business uh i think anybody that leads the business is the chief sales person of that business if you own a business really business entrepreneur found a businessman whatever you want to call yourself and you're not selling it means that then you give all this kpi is all this big role people oh god how much did you sell so i think um you leverage the people around you you can be deliberate you can be direct you can you can be just be honest my head i really need help but but i think a lot of times we get comfortable people around us and we tend not to shy away but i i i i struggle with it yeah i mean i used to beg people please post like i was like i was like threatening them i said if i find stuff on linkedin that you post that because people are more comfortable posting outside because it's not that close yeah and i don't want no you have to start from within you convert better from within than outside you spend less money you make more money and the people that you convert convert internally are even the people that help you get your next set of customers what are the chances that h and i uh there's another h and i extremely high extremely high and they're going to be around each other and sometimes it may not even be deliberate i like this thing there i will sold it to you and they'll call you but hey my friend is interested this thing you just said i have a friend that she does interiors almost all our friends they're banana island you say why don't it in fact they don't even allow her to post on instagram or anything because the truth is once one person comes to the house that's why her own focus is to make sure that she delivers excellently well as soon as somebody is stepping into the house who did this for you they say oh it's uh so so so so okay please so most as she's finishing a project she's not even done she's already getting referrals so i think that's even the quickest way you know to deal with h and i's right it's just service delivery has to be it has to be top notch yeah engine let me come to you okay so for me i would like to ask so she's in sales i'm in business development and sales so very similar um background but um so for me like i said earlier networking is personal and it's professional but where i'd like to go to is the strategic part of it now that can be a bit of an issue because there's almost no line between the personal and the professional so you you have to that you there's a different there's almost a different mindset you have to use to to tackle that and you know when you get like like we rightfully so for the personnel it gets too personal sometimes and for the professional you already drawn the line so you kind of keep it that way so how can you what are some of the tips that can help with effective networking within that strategic you know lane where you don't want to you know you understand you don't want to make it too personal you don't want you want to be able to use it as it comes depending per case so how do you do that what are some of the tips that you know we can we can learn so again it goes back to relationships but i i'll first say some basic things i think people know or should know about certain standards certain standards and stick into your standards because scenario an h&i wants you to come to this house it's in my standard but he's going to spend $20,000 with me so so if you keep your standard say my standards i don't do such can we meet at a restaurant and say no and you're okay with losing that because what i think mostly about standard is that it's more of a long-term approach net net in the long term you're better for for it's sticking to its standard i'm not saying that going to meet an h&i and a hotel has to do with your own standard if that's your standard yes go ahead if it's not stick to it the minute you start um flip flopping just because of an opportunity what you find is that you open yourself for all kinds of things because you don't have a state set standard and then you get to start there's also people whether you need them or you don't need them or all sort of propositions are coming to you and i understand particularly to a networking is is also critical for women because it's it's a whole new ballgame you meet someone you think you're doing business next thing they're giving you a they're giving you a room key to go somewhere so i understand the peculiarity of it which is why it's also good to belong to groups and communities for example um in our community we have subgroups we have 40 of them for something of that well one i mean all of the groups except one the women's group we have a woman's group only woman they talk about business and anything else guy they're talking to guy they're interested in their kids their family we have a parenting group as well and the reason why we do all those things that not even necessarily business is that the relationship so people may have interacted in the parenting group oh what kind of food does your toddler eat or kids don't sleep from that conversation what do you even do self and then people start talking oh really are you freaking come to my office in so the reason if you at the conference and you saw how the members were interacting very you think that we are family it's not just because we talk about business all the time is that people have lives so um a regular personal industry that you may not know versus a CEO of a hundred million dollar company also talking about parenting we have the same problems we have the same issues we've worked the same path so um being part of groups and organizations also to help protect people in networking because i don't expect someone to just come at you with crazy stuff they will at least first think about their the community and the repetition but but i it's it's cool to have these conversations and assume that everything is a broad brush but we also also understand what women particularly women go through the peculiar challenges for women in networking because again you don't know if it's business you you can tell us you cannot tell so do you see why i don't sound just like you said it just like he said well i was going to say that so let's come back to you because i was quite intrigued i mean when i was in the hall at the federal palace by morah hall when you guys had that event i mean so many people i think it was over a thousand people that attended that event everybody kept on saying somebody said he's the something tiger or something like you know they're calling you so many powerful names i said okay and we didn't need to meet this guy because i never has been on my neck oh and you have to come to pee pee pee i said i they come you know and you know when i went there it was interesting to then hear from people because i guess sometimes we they say our people finish maybe i don't see a letter of finish i can't i can't believe what she's saying to me well now hearing your name you know come out of the mouth of a lot of people how you've impacted their businesses how you've transformed their businesses how you connected to them to their next level it was quite impressive and i like people because maybe because i'm a person of impact i like when i meet someone and i'm not leaving you the way i met you i should be able to at least add some level of value to your life and that's why i loved your buzzwords value and all of that so tell me first of all what were you thinking when you decided that you wanted to grow a community right that would give a platform to different people to build their their net worth and their networks and you know grow their business what were you thinking what was in your mind before i even go so there's this book called idea i just read the book a few months ago it's called never eat alone i can't remember the name of the author author but if you go it's an orange cover never eat alone i think people should read that book so first of all i wasn't thinking anything i wasn't able to create the group so there's a distinction between creating the group and growing the group creating the group we just wanted to eat barbecue in my house in houston one of my guys said great group now but it was supposed to be for like-minded folks that you know leave abroad but have business locally set up corporations and things like that and 10 became 20 we go to our 80th member informal you just refer your friends uh before we had our first woman in the group wow yes i was like telling that wow because in networking too you realize that a lot of it is a boy's club in politics there's so many women now it's even easier for men that's why you see in politics a lot of men are either because they meet us at night or their places where not everyone is comfortable to be in and so i always like telling that part because it's a journey um so create was informal uh grow we said okay the name was called nida business partners like please take this razz name and so we got to get out we branded the the group um we had a group of uh initial uh members called um governing council that helped put things together and when we saw that you know especially if you're in the diaspora some of us like you and i don't do this a lot of people have gone gotten burnt they send money for car to sell cars and also they get burnt and i just feel like the connection because the way it started it was a lot of my friends a lot of some of the guys who started together and then um i had been doing business in my address since 2016 this started like pbs started two and a half years ago and um because i knew a lot of people on ground too i'm like sure it's not adding the folks on ground so the people on ground to start adding their own friends on ground some as folks in diaspora and people just started connecting and i saw in the real time how things were moving and it was contextual value was bringing people we had a member that has four thousand goats sold about 100 to a member wow they sold goats to themselves sold cars they launched business together they've helped members launch business a member has carried members to call about to go speak think of it members literally think of it they've done it together like this is something we need to formalize so um we just branded it and then standardized stuff put code of conduct together because it's very important to put infrastructure and structure in place because things can happen privacy policy you start to put all the structure in place and which is why i you know especially for people that may be vulnerable is always going to be in an environment that you're protected which is why i advocate for people to join networks communities groups because because they do a lot of the work uh half of the work for you it's just now and people are there you can connect and mingle with them and so we just started to see a lot of success story a lot of things and i like it for me to do this you know we register the business locally register the business in the u.s it's a proper community communities the service um it needs to be paid group ah people complain i used to be from like you want us to put the infrastructure in place you want us to grow and connect people i for you know i get embarrassed all those things you're saying it embarrasses me a lot because to me i'm like this is what i'm supposed to do people are supposed to connect it drives me crazy when people don't connect it actually bothers me so to me it's something that it comes to you effortlessly effortlessly and makes me happy so in fact i was the people that i do this because i'm selfish because i'm doing it because it makes me happy uh i'm doing it because it's going to help you too and everything but seeing people connect and extract value that word value that i mentioned earlier makes me happy and i also feel like we increase our network collectively each time someone moves up raise money uh does amazing numbers um gets appointed some of our members gotten appointed with the government some members one of our members for example just became an ed at one of the big commercial banks you continue to grow a lot of CEOs the conference we couldn't have food at conference or without the community there there was one panelist that couldn't show up and the person i just went to tap and say hey i'm going to speak is a big name in the tech ecosystem you know like name who and who that is in the tech industry they were all there like and not just and small businesses massive businesses unicorns all of them they were there and it was quite interesting and to think that you just did that out of you know something the love that you have for you know people connecting that's what's really amazing so let me take a comment says good evening ladies and gentlemen your guest is very intelligent it says um it says and an interesting person it says the book never eat alone is by Keith Ferazi yes correct and it says the book is very good this is from adi adi is watching us from the uk hi adi thank you for your and nj have a comment grieving my my dear beautiful sisters of what are you saying ways hashtag leveraging networks to grow your business to grow your business we need two things number one we need to introduce our businesses that is creating awareness and number two is the need to create relationship between two parties a very strong one and look for a very strong one and look for a way to keep in touch after the relationship is built according to my dear sister um relationship is personal and professional nigeria needs to be admitted to nigeria needs to be admitted to a hospital it will cause we are sick i think he's he just went he just went from here he just went from here i said today i'm going to be a nice let's discuss let's discuss what we personally grow us can i finish his comment so i'm going to take that again go ahead according to my dear beautiful sister um relationship is personal and professional nigeria needs to be admitted to a hospital because we are sick what is 25 000 allowance for doctors compared to what our ministers and governors go away with and you are saying that they shouldn't and you are saying that they shouldn't leave the country i'm not in support of riding bicycles or the highways is very risky i want bicycles are meant for the estate and nothing more my name is daniel illo ways regular fan thanks daniel and we take a what's that name miri to told me language but we have one minute left if you had one thing to say to anyone you know that is looking to probably change their circle because i believe so so strongly in your circle and how it can impact your overall growth as a person what would you say to that person well it's if it's a change their cycle or whatever it is you want to see expand change whatever well this is what i'll say ultimately and it's cliche but but it's true when it's a close mouth don't get don't get fed speak up speak up as as straightforward and simple as it sounds speak up whether it's about not being able to sell or not being in the right network speak up to people around you because most what are likely someone may be able to point you to the right direction um i've always been a proponent of people speaking up and saying things however you feel you hide under a mask you don't want to ask that problem you die alone you die speak up um you notice even at the the theme of the conference you see people connecting and speaking up and saying the things they need to speak up thank you so much for that thank you mary hat want me to say no mary is quiet who wants to send that to told me but thank you're gonna buy a bike okay okay okay i would you should actually join the bikers club i have a friend they ride from from vi they go all the way to international airport you have to i don't think it's that one i think she means the no she we do bike as well but we joined her there but thank you so much bola i am looking forward to joining the premier business network uh not because uh allera is cohesing me too but i again because i actually saw the value uh and i think it's it's actually an i am not a network person i'm not a community person i run away from all those things but i believe in you know what you're doing and i think more people should actually join the premier business it's different you'll see it is actually it is different it is trust me i've seen things i know you have i know you have but thank you so much it's been an amazing time you know talking with you now before we go thank you ladies thank you thank you thank you before we go and show you follow us across all our social media handles at waste your africa you can interact with us further drop a comment and more importantly follow all our engagements and social media likes and invite your families and friends to watch and follow the conversation now if you missed our quote for today here it is again networking is an investment in your business and it takes time and when done correctly can yield results for years to come we'll see you guys live on monday at 8 p.m as we bring another great conversation to your screens ciao