Positive Life & Relationship Blog

How you position yourself will determine how people treat you and your offers. Always be mindful of the perception people have of your brand or business. You may not be able to control it but surely can influence it. The truth is, no matter the message you carry, people will be attracted to the value and your INFLUENCE. Tips that can enhance your VISIBILITY and INFLUENCE: 1. Be clear about your message. 2. Communicate simply and consistently. 3. Mind your verbal, non verbal and visual communication. 4. Share stories and connect to people's emotion. 5. Be authentic. By: Peter Ochuko Kajovo

Having some savings to help you take advantage of investment opportunities when they show up is a nonnegotiable if you are really serious about building wealth. And you will also agree with me that it is not that easy as a lot of things get in our ways. But it is very much POSSIBLE. You might have tried everything. Though you make some money every month, YOU JUST DON’T SEEM TO HAVE ANYTHING REMAIN WITH YOU. It feels as you are slaving away your life and as the months and year winds down, your heart begins to beat fast again as your bank account remains… ”ZEROLY” EMPTY. Some other times, you just start right. It seems you are getting it right and suddenly village people will carry their wahala and come and in a couple of weeks, everything in your account will MIA just like that. Or maybe you keep getting it right, but the problem is that it seems you are working and just SAVING FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS. Every time you amount something nice, one problem, brother or friend will just com...

This is a question that has generated a lot of conversation and brought diverse responses. Should an employee seek to pursue his or her passion? When is the right time? How do I make time to pursue it and make it profitable? Questions like these have lingered in the hearts of employees. With the uncertainties at some work place, the satisfaction derived from your heart's call and the fear of regret at the twilight of life. These and many more have pushed many out of their comfort zone to run their dreams and same time, the demands have made much more cower and stay in their comfort zone, drained of life - dying daily. Am I saying you quit your job to chase your passion? Of course not a decision to be made in the spur of the moment. You just must start small and take little steps towards them. I don't want to use my experience to explain this but let me share a friend's. I met him at a wedding over three years ago, we were groomsmen to our mutual friend and from the...

Yesterday (the day before the day this was written), I sent out a post for my audience to help me select the cover for my next book. The comments and feedback was superb. My TL was literally on fire and I really appreciate everyone who took out time to comment and share their views. You are the best. That exercise and experience thought me a great lesson that will guide me in executing my goals in 2018 and I am sure it will be of help to you also... Self Awareness is not just knowing your strength and weakness, it's also the ability to learn from your experience. What did I learn from the exercise of yesterday? People are watching – Yesterday night, I received an alert of N7,500 from Chinonye Yukay as she took advantage of the 50% discount for the Achievement Executive Class. This was more of a surprise to me because I really don't know his Lady from Jack and we haven't spoken before. I quickly made a call to her as she had sent a text to confirm her payment. This go...

Have you ever thought about why clients work with you and not someone else? Have you thought about the mind battle that prospects go through before deciding to work with you? Think about it, is there anything really different between your offer and that of your competitors? So why is it that Davido fans discredit Wizkid's creativity? Why does "Ronaldo is better than Messi", "Messi is better than Ronaldo" arguments still receive oxygen till this day? Is it because Messi score goals that Ronaldo cannot score? Or is it because Ronaldo is a machine? I won't spread a red carpet for this comparison. Recently, one of my friends was hell bent on getting a package from a particular lady when she could have gotten same package from any other person. She insisted till she got her wish. Looking back now, I realized she did what she did not because this particular lady has a special tech or strategy. She has only bought into the lady that she became an ardent fan...

I'm not a prophet to have made such bold statement, but experience shows clearly that those who do these 3 things only create content for themselves and a few other people. I know you don't want to keep throwing sachet water inside third mainland bridge, neither do you want to fetch water in a basket. You want your content to increase your influence and maximize opportunities. Let's get right into it... You only talk about yourself always: Some people have PhD in selfishness. You can create 7 different contents and everything will be centered around you. You don't really care to talk about your readers, your audience or address their pains. It's either you are talking about what you had for breakfast, what someone close to you did and all those stuffs. Some even call it storytelling and yet, they fail to relate their stories back to their readers and how that story can help their readers. It's okay to talk about yourself, it's the default thing human do...

The face you give when you launch a new product and instead of people to buy they say "Congratulations, I am proud of you". Am I the only that has experienced this? When I first launched my first book, At the River Bank, I had a lot of people that told me Congratulations, the moral support was something else but that Moral support demoralized me and I gave into depression. Do you know why? Only one person purchased my book on the day I launched it. The person that even purchased the book was my friend, Promise Excel. Over 300 congratulations and only one person purchased the book. How does that sound? Have you been in this same situation? I was sharing this story with Bella the other day and I realized how much I've grown from that experience. I almost took up on Social Media to say "Mbok thank you for all the Moral support but abeg buy the book na". Thank God I didn't do that, I wonder what would have happened to my brand by now. I realized that I ...

It is true that you achieve what you put your mind to. January 27 2017, I was seated in the office to have my final interview. I have read lots of interview questions and answers online before then like I was going to get a 10 million naira job. Staying without job for a year was the lowest point of my life. I answered every questions pragmatically and then the very big question! How long do you see yourself working with us? "I can only guaranty that I will be here in the next one year", I replied. I didn't even last a year because I have my purpose and focus in view. I knew exactly what took me there so I wasn't that employee who has the mindset of retirement. In fact, I never participated in anything long term there. Maybe you also want to have total control of your time to play a bigger game. The following steps will guide you. Find your purpose: Every decisions I took springed from my discovery of Oladipupo. Though I was jobless in 2016, I used that year t...

Poor people are the worst people to deal with, especially when it is a case of poverty of the mind. A poor man is angry and ungrateful; it bewilders me the more when a poor ignorant man is proud. I am beginning to understand why poor people think the rich are wicked. All a poor man wants from you is money, and believe me, money is not the problem. I have tried many times but at each try, I have been left frustrated. You cannot help a man that have built his life on wrong paradigms, never! I have seen people whose actions and lifestyles tended directly towards abject poverty. The worst form is when a man is financially stupid and when you try to advice him, he throws the 'who are you to teach me how to spend my money' at you. I have said this over and over, that 100k you are about to blow may be your only 100k for life. God gives every man an opportunity to gain access to greatness which may be in the form of money, knowledge, or relationships. Everyone on earth have had an o...

While a lot of us have heard about Goal Setting and may have even taken classes on Goal Setting; not many of us have given much attention to budgeting. However, when it comes to financial goals, budgeting is a critical aspect. Budget is a broad concept and a little complex. However, I am going to try and make it as simple as possible so you can get a good grasp of it. Simply put, budgeting is stating how your money will be spent. Now that will be easy if you already had the money in your account and you are only drawing up a list of how to spend that money. But it is not so. The reality is that you don’t have the money yet but you still have to plan how to spend the money. So you are drawing up a list of what you will need money for in 2018 and how much money you will need. It is that information you will then input into your financial goals for 2018 so you can come up with a plan on how to get that money. What are the expenses you will incur in 2018? You have to be detailed. Capt...

I am a member of "The Let's Talk About Series" community. I'll be sharing notes from one of the sessions held earlier this year, on Developing a Personal Career Pathway by Samuel Akinlotan. ---------- Samuel Akinlotan : Whether you want to run your own company or snag the corner office at your current job, you probably have an end-goal for your career. But do you really know what you need to do to get there? It's important for people to see the steps that are actually involved in having a successful career in whatever profession and industry they choose. I hear so many graduates and professionals say things like, 'I want to be a financial analyst' or 'I want to be an HR Professional'. The truth is that so many of us are often carried away by the enthusiasm and optimism of some professions which often leave us blind to long term career planning. Things don't just happen, you make them happen. This leads to our conversation today on Develop...

I am a member of "The Let's Talk About Series" community. I'll be sharing notes from one of the sessions we had this year. The session was on Tony Elumelu. ---------- (Diligent Amaka speaking) Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu (born 22 March 1963) is a Nigerian economist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, the United Bank for Africa, Transcorp and founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation. Elumelu holds the Nigerian national honours, the Commander of the Order of Nigeria (CON) and Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR). He was recognised as one of "Africa's 20 Most Powerful People in 2012" by Forbes Magazine. Following his retirement from UBA in 2010, Elumelu founded Heirs Holdings, which invests in the financial services, energy, real estate and hospitality, agribusiness, and healthcare sectors. In the same year, he established the Tony Elumelu Foundation, an Africa-based and African-funded philanthropic organisatio...

I'm not certain of the actual writer of this, but I think it's worth sharing on this space. Thumbs up to the Writer! ----- The major secret of billionaires is their ability to find solutions to the challenges of humanity. All of them created solutions that brought the billions. Presently, Bill Gates is spending millions of dollars in search of renewable energy. By the time he finds one and become a major player in the electricity industry, we will say he is lucky. But we forget that he didn't pray for financial breakthrough, he only found a solution to a global problem. Wealthy people don't necessarily look for money, they create solutions, and money will follow them! Larry Page and Sergey Brin went all out to help humanity find things faster on the internet, and billions of dollars followed them. Mark Zuckerberg created platforms for socialization, and over $71 billion followed him. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak went all out to reduce the size of computer. What ...

A friend of mine invested over 1.5 million Naira of his Internship earnings last year on MMM and some other network scheme; he was making some earnings and had this thought that he was definitely on a journey to becoming rich and successful; but few weeks before Christmas, tragedy struck... The rest we all know is now history; now he's financially unstable and in debt. Remember what Warren Buffett said: Speaking to a group of students, the billionaire made this statement about the potential to succeed in life: “Everybody here has the ability absolutely to do anything I do and much beyond. Some of you will, and some of you won’t. For the ones who won’t, it will be because you get in your own way, not because the world doesn’t allow you. As long as you are moving in the direction of your goals you are a success in my mind. If you are moving in the right direction you will do well in life’’. . What if my friend invested in some other business; maybe real estate, buying and selling...

The most popular answer these days is "become an entrepreneur", "start your own business". I have seen lots of articles with the quote: "If you don't follow your dreams, you'll end up working for someone who did", but there is something about this statement I don't agree with... I would come back to it in a minute... In order to maximise your earning power and have the ability to invest in my business as an entrepreneur, you need to pursue a career or side hustle you are passionate about and create multiple streams of income. Becoming rich does not necessarily mean you have to become an entrepreneur. The reality is, not everyone is cut out to be their own boss and you need to learn this early on... that's why I don't agree with the statement that without following your dreams, you may automatically end up working for someone who did... What if your dream is heading a board as maybe an executive with the world health organization ...

If You ain't Serious with Business Online, You're Wrong!! The digital world today is a place that has given everyone a level playing ground, where you can gain the relevance you desire and still impact into lives outside the digital sphere. Everyone now has a chance to become either a celebrity or an entrepreneur!! The digital world has no boundaries. To make an impact in our digital age, you should either do something that is worth writing about or write something that is worth doing. The digital sphere (google) will not recognize your name until you do something worth celebrating or write something worth doing in the digital space. Which means: "You either Write or Do". For me, I decided to do both, from the comfort of my toilet, office, kitchen, room or village, I can touch and reach out to millions, make an impact, start up an online store... Why should you embrace the digital media? it's for 3 strategic reasons: • Influence, • Visibility, and • Wea...

How you sell and communicate to your clients will affect your positioning and credibility also. Use Solution Oriented Marketing Approach! A lot of marketers are still using the old selling approach where they talk about themselves. For example, "Look at how good I am", or "my goods are the best around, pay me money and I will sell to you". If you are always talking about yourself or how good you are whenever you engage in conversation with clients, you will be perceived as pushy and a fake wannabe expert. An expert selling approach is to talk about how you can help them to get the results they want. Clients are simply looking for people who can solve their problems. The amount of money they're willing to pay you will be in direct proportion to the amount of confidence and trust they have in your ability to get them results or solve their problems. Demonstrate that you can help them by actually giving constructive and result paying solutions to them. Gi...

Growing up, I have always heard this saying, "you can't eat your cake and have it back". Why then do people think they can crave for security and have freedom as well? Looking back few years back I can vividly remember that faithful day, when all the job seekers in Abuja gathered at the Stadium for a ghost job – the immigration job interview. Some who are even gainfully employed but they seek Security. They seek NHIS. They seek federal mortgage. They seek Retirement and pension. The Job never did come, lives were lost and lessons learnt. I have found out that we all have control over our life and destiny. You are the reason for where you are today. You are the reason why you are in this same spot now. You are also the reason why you will be some where tomorrow. Hope and Security is not a Plan. You can either choose to grow or choose to depreciate. God can't be held responsible for that. You are responsible for the person you become. You can either choose to grow ...

You can't speak against money and still have it; it's just common sense. You can't find a rich person holding such discussions; only poor people do. Poor people don't spend time or resources knowing or learning how to be rich. They rather spend time discussing and criticizing the rich. That's why they remain poor. But rich people are too busy using their money to do stuff. Or learning how to have more, for greater stuff... By: Bimbola Tayo-Bamidele

As long as day and night occurs, the singular factor that separates successful people from the average person is ACTION. A lot of motivational talks have been written about taking action. But only few really show people how to take action. So, I want to show you how I discipline myself to take action even when I don't feel like. The strategies work like calabar juju. Okay, enough of the joke. 1. Set a goal. You can't achieve anything if you don't set a goal to achieve something. So the fist strategy to taking action is setting a goal. 2. Tell everyone about your intentions. It depends on the goal anyway, you can tell just a person or tell many people. When you tell people about your intention to do something, you feel obligated to do it. It becomes like a promise that needs to be fulfilled. Personally, what I do is to announce it on Facebook. When I share it on Facebook, I feel accountable to the people who I have told. 3. Get an accountability partner. This is on...