How do you measure success outside of your terrain?, Especially when it is something you had considered abstract, weird or even an outright waste of time
I had one of the most humbling experiences in recent time. I represented my boss at an event called the readathon 2.0. My idea behind the gathering was simply to read and probably see people dress bougie and decent to depict a supposed imagery that connotes "responsible".
Truth be told this is the kind of atmosphere I consider boring based off the kind of audience I am used to( football, party and night outs). The first thing that stood out for me when I got in was seeing faces that I never assumed were in the same city as me. Then it dawned on me, this people exist for what they consider "important" to themselves, i doubt most of them were club and party freaks( there's always exceptions). In the same vein I didn't see any of my regular faces in that space.
Now to the most interesting part, the atmosphere oozed responsible and class, I immediately felt out of place considering that I had to sit in the front roll alongside other prominent guests. My outfit felt out of place ( maybe I am overthinking it), but I was pleasantly impressed by how different the environment was.
Few hours into the event, we had a few minutes set aside for networking and that my friend changed my thought process!. Luckily for me I sat in between two interesting personalities in the name of Dr osas and Ogbo Awoke. The latter is easily one of the most humble persona I have met in my life, soft spoken, empathetic and kind. I saw him help a little girl struggling with stage fright. I pitched the idea of coming to our podcast with him and then we had a little chit chat. He told me he had about 600 clients from around the world who he coaches on financial literacy and stocks(paid), sounds basic right? We exchange contacts and then i decided to look him up on the Internet and I was marvelled(you should look him up too). I will come back to my realisation in a minute.
Now to the former and the main reason for this article, Dr osas. He was the lead speaker for the event, to be honest I wasn't really paying attention to his lecture as I was exhausted, hungry and zoned out. And then he said something that would live with me for the rest of my life. He owns an elite book club where people pay him money to hold them accountable to read books.What!!!!!
You mean you can make money from something that flimsy and outrageous??!! Then it clicked " audience ", it was all about finding the right audience. Value attracts and people will pay for something they consider valuable. By being an outlier that is very good at something, you can sell the uniqueness to an audience tailor made for you.
On the flip side these are men i would never have met if I didn't stumble on that event by chance, to be honest I would have declined if I had a choice. Think about it, we have over 240 million people in Nigeria based on estimation and on average we barely know few thousands, what do you think the remaining people do? It means you only see what is in front of you. Simply put " if your audience cannot change you, change your audience "
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