The Brand Evangelist

The harder the question the deeper I dig to the heart of men and mine.

The events in the past few weeks have generated converstions and comments. Some I have participated in, while I only look & listen on while the debate goes on with the rest.

First, Of ART and MONEY

Beauty is in a work of art. Artists take delight in creating work of beauty. How easy is it for a true artist who is spured to create, but limited by the quest for survival -- *Ki la ma je*?

So I asked can you be true to your art and still be a successful business paerson? When art meet with a desire to generate money, what happens?

Or perhaps I should ask, what should be the core motivation for creating a work of art?

I asked the question on twitter and I got a response - art is good, but use your head. Show me the money, a lady responded.

I love to write on this blog to share lessons I have learned and improve my work as a communicator via writing and teaching. Then on the other hand, I have to make a decent living. I can stay completely true to my art and make it relevant. This is the chore -- figuring out the ideal audience for my work of heart.

When Art and money meets there is battle. If you're involved in a work of art, I would like to know how you mearge the two.

Not all who stay true to their art make enough money from it. Some are torn between staying true to their art or finding out what the people are ready to pay for. You can tie the two together.

With the Nigeria youths, entertainment is huge. If you can build entertainment into your work of art you're more likely to catch their attention. What will help is define your ideal market -- that requires work. [I am working on a series on how to target the ideal and paying customers]

I have written this post not to teach, but to share what I have been pondering about, to open a discussion. I would like your contribution in the comments let me see how you are managing your art with the need to earn money, stay relevant and still enjoy your work.

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Please share with your friends.

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How do you feel when you go online to search for information and you get the result you're looking for on the first page of Google? Great, right? Sometimes you may have to sort through irrelevant information before arriviing at the relevant one..

When it comes to mobile phones, mobile tech news, startups and other mobile industry news worthy items, don't go so far, Mobility Nigeria brings it to you door step.

Our Pride

Our pride and edge include but not limited to:

1. The growing community of mobile and tech lovers. I was just reading through the short report of the new update on Nokia's Symbian Anna when I notice something I have always known. Members of the community where helping each other arrive at a solution. It's a place you can come for information and be rewarded with some nice friends always ready to help.

2. We have over 1,000 published article and counting. Searching through our achives will definitely yield some treasure to you. Let me know if there's something you're looking for but has not been written about we'd bring it to you.

3. We are working to grow the strenght of the community and the richness of our offering. If you interact with our favourite readers, they would tell you how they've seen improvements over time, and we're not stopping yet.

There are more, but this is not a sales pitch. Why not go over to mobility.com.ng and see for yourself. [you can also follow us on twitter htttp://twitter.com/mobilitynigeria]

By the way, mobile is getting bigger and bigger. If you'd like to be updated on how to use mobile devices and applications to make you work and live simplier and smarter, Mobility Nigeria is the place to be.

While relaxing this Sunday you can enjoy some of our past write ups. Feel free to write personally to me if there's anything you'd like to know or share [business@mobility.com.ng].

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Due to my new appointment I may be writing less here. But I will always take my time to keep sharing relevant information for SMEs and startup entrepreneurs as I have always shared in the past. Thanks for your support.

One of the challenges of Entrepreneurs starting out in Nigeria is getting an office space and having access to power. With the epileptic power supply and increase in the cost of office space, It would be a good deal for Startups to consider the offer below.

There is a privately partitioned Office cubicle: 1.63m x 2.05m available for rent. It is available with the following resources;

- 1 desk

- 2 chairs

- Backup power provided (you don't have to worry about power failure a.k.a - NEPA)

- Office hours 9am - 5pm

- Location, Ojodu, Lagos.

Annual sign up fee is N5,000

Monthly service charge N10,000

I personally think this is a good offer. You can have easy access to Ikeja from Ojodu. You won't have problem accessing Victoria Island as well.

If this offer suits you need. feel free to send a mail to me at jesse.femi@gmail.com or call +2348023119038.

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Do you have any product or service that is suited for tech entrepreneurs and SMEs. You might want to use this medium to reach them.

Feel free to provide answer to any of the questions to the best of your ability. I am not the judge of which answer is right or wrong, feel free to express yourself.

If there are questions agitating your mind too, feel free to increase the number of the questions. I will add yours to it.

1. What is the truth?

2. Where can I find the truth?

3. What is the benfit of knowing the truth?

4. Why do we hate, kill, loot and destroy one another?

5. Why can't we live in peace?

6. Why do we preach peace and produce weapons of mass destruction?

7. Are the problems facing mankind bigger than man?

8 What brought us into these mess - war, famine, murders, hatered, looting, selfishness, jealousy, crime, terrorism, bombings?

9. Why does injustice prevail?

There are many more. This is a developing piece. As time goes on I will add more.

P.S. Man is hunted by his own creation. Our activities and inventions have moved us further backwards. It's a paradox of high proportion. The good has become a tool for destruction.

IMHO the only thing that needs fixing is humans. Humans are malfunctioning and filled with bug. Until that is done, we will continue to move in circles.

THE ULTIMATE QUESTION - Who will debug man?

Why am I blogging about a trip and wedding in a blog that I usually talk about marketing?

Well, marketing on the social web in a whole new game entirely. I wrote a post titled - It is wrong to come to the social web to SELL - where I ponited out that those who use the social web use it mostly as a means of sharing and connecting based on interest. I am sharing this trip and the event sorrounding it to share with you my reader and friend.

In case you don't like it, please feel free to check back when I start blogging the marketing stuff. ;-)

My last post was on how Oshogbo is a place to be. I did it late at night when I got to Oshogbo, so I did not include photos. In this post, you will see photos of -

* Clean and neat Oshogbo
* The favorite Okada [Motocycle] used
* My friend in the Native Agbada with his wife
* A pic of myself in clean Oshogbo.

I would love to write a full post, but I'm a little tired. Enjoy the photos.

I tell you, when you do visit Nigeria, Oshogbo is a place to see. I should return to oshogbo sometime, either to stay or for visiting so as to have a more detailed write-up.

I wish you a fabulous week ahead and enjoy yhe rest of your sunday.

This morning, as I got up from my bed, ready to start writing on my laptop, there was power cut - PHCN seized power. I felt like hitting something hard - I wept, but all I got was dry tears.

In my mind, I could not help but remember how the short stay in Oshogbo was. May be I am obsessing over Oshogbo already. Power cut is one huge problem I experience in Lagos.

There's also the problem of heavy traffic, overcrowding, bad roads and more. Things are not that bad, but in Oshogbo a smaller town, things are calmer and slower.

Perhaps it's time for me to move before I exhaust all the dry tears in my eyes.

But, I am happy for Co-creation hub, a social innovation center in Yaba, Lagos - I wrote about my visit to Co-creation hub at otekbits.com - it will provide an opportunity for some awesome networking that I will find valuable. I was also interviewed as the community manager. Lagos has huge opportunities. The cluster of people is one huge opportunity - people equals to market.

It's a mixed feeling, as I crave for the clean air, slow pace, good road, abundant power supply of Oshogbo, My heart is still waiting for the goodies Lagos has to offer.

Who says choosing is easy? I say you've never been at a crossroad. Not choosing is worse than choosing wrongly.

This is the story behind my early Monday morning dry tears.

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It's Monday and I'm wishing you a fabulous week ahead. Do not let scarcity of resources limit your creativity and ability. Keep exploring ways to make the little you have of value to you, as many people would consider what you have as a great spoil.

What's your own story of scarcity? I will like to hear from you in the comment. Thanks.

We arrived Oshogbo at 8:30pm, though we left Lagos at 2:30pm. I slept and read a few pages of Blue Ocean strategy along the way.

As soon as we entered Oshogbo, I switched on my phone and Tweeted, "Now Entering Oshogbo." First observation GloNG network is super sharp here. I would see if it remain so tomorrow.

We were treated to a nice evening meal by our host, Amala & ewedu soup. Amala is made of yam flour while ewedu is a green leaf used in making soup. I immediately felt at home.

There has been power since we go in. I was moved to ask our host how electric power is. I was shocked to find out that they enjoy fairly constant power. Power outage do not last more than 30mins on the average. This sounds like a perfect location for my kind of business as power problem is huge in Lagos.

I know many of my Tech friends in Lagos who have been thinking of moving to Ghana due to power problem will find this apealing. You may want to move down to Oshogbo.

Also worthy to note is the low cost of transportation. You can get 'Okada' for NGN20 a drop, wow!

I am already thinking how sweet it would be to move down to Oshogbo.

I have only spent a couple of hours here. Tomorrow is the day of the wedding. I hope to still observe the town and share what I see with you. I would be taking some pictures to add to the next post.

I still don't know if I will dance tomorrow. My dancing steps are a little awful. I am open for tutorials please.

Would you like to ask me any question about Oshogbo? If you live in Oshogo and reading this. What interesting things about Oshogbo would you like to share with me?

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Won't you love to go back to what they share over and over again? You may even want to refer someone to it.

The sad thing I have noticed is that most of these wise sayings [tips] are being tweeted away. Tweets are gone after a while and gone forever. You won't be able to assess them, except if you favorite them. Blogs on the other hand, can store those wisdom for life.

Setting up a blog is very easy. I once wrote about simple steps to set up a blog. You can equally blog from your mobile via email. [60% of the posts on this blog are written via my Nokia E71, including this one]

If you need help to set up a blog get in touch with me, I will guide you through the steps. And btw, who says you can't blog 140 words only?

If you know someone who belong to this category, encourage them to start a blog. It's very easy.

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P:S -- You can set up blogs for FREE using blogspot, tumblr, posterious, wordpress et'al.

You have just read, Please Don't Tweet Wisdom Away. Consider leaving a comment.

Most companies compete instead of innovating and creating new means of generating profit. See the Smartphone and Tablet war between Apple, Samsung, RIM and Nokia.

We also have the competition based on price that occured when Airtel took over Zain Nigeria. MTN Nigeria and Glo Nigeria joined the price war. To what result?

They are contesting for thesame customer thereby creating Red Ocean. Red Ocean is what happens when companies are fighting in the same market for the same customers. Blue Ocean is calm water where competition in non-existent or irrelevant.

When Etisalat Nigeria came into the country, I notice they had products for all category, but focused more on the youths. Many of the people I have observed around me who are raving fans of Etisalat are young people. Many of whom are using mobile phone for the first time.

Easy clique, a plan that allows you to connect with your friends at a very low rate, make midnight calls and send lots of messages for free became a hit among the youngsters. To top it up, there is the usual 15mb weekly that you get for free each time you recharge NGN200 airtime.

This young people who are between 15yrs and 25yrs are growing and will change roles soon. With Etisalt giving them a rich first experience, they are more likely to remain with Etisalat and maintain their first line.

MTN Nigeria has had a fill dominating the corporate and high end spenders for a while. Etisalat has been busy building this untapped young audience for a while and growing from strenght to strenght. This is what I admire about the strategy used by Etisalat.

I am interested to see how this will go down three years from now, especially with Etisalat lunching and testing its 3G network. I for one, would cross over to Etisalat as soon as the 3G service gets better.

You can learn from how Etisalat emplyed this strategy and apply Blue Ocean strategy in your own business venture too.

How do you handle competition in the industry you operate? Will you like to use Blue Ocean strategy too?

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