How to Turn Your Creative Talent Into a Real Business

Today on the podcast, I'm going to share a conversation that I had with a very talented creative, a creative individual. And in the conversation, I was trying to ground this guy in reality because sometimes I think creatives, not just Nigerian creatives, you know, sometimes creatives, you know, you guys, your, your head is in the clouds and you're not thinking straight. And it's one of the reasons why you're not making progress in your business.

So of course there's a conversation with a guy who, you know, the usual now is getting at the time we had this conversation was getting to the end of the year in 2025. We're currently in January of 2026. So, you know, creatives, they're going through that whole, you know, new year, new me, new business, new growth, new this, new that, or sometimes a lot of the reasons why you creators are not making progress. You know, you're a photographer,

you're a video person, you're a painter, you're a sculptor, you are a you know, whatever part of the reasons why you're making progress in your business is because you're not thinking clearly about a couple of things. Now, if you love talking about these sorts of issues, then subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, on YouTube, on Apple or any player of your choice. My name is Tamashima Ayede, I'm a former lawyer turned business consultant and if you'd love to connect with me, you can call,

send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So like I said, there's a conversation between me and a creative Niger guy and I'm trying to ground them in reality. Now. This is the guy's dilemma. The guy reached out to me because he listened to a podcast episode I recorded on the selling outcomes and not features. For those of you who are new to the podcast and you don't understand what that means, when I made that podcast episode,

this is what I was trying to hint at. There are too many of you who when you sell your product, you're trying to sell features. For instance, I got a keyboard for my kids and I was like maybe 2 years back. And the mistake that some of you make when you sell musical equipment is you start talking about features. You say this thing has 88 keys, this thing is touch sensitive, whatever. This thing has 52 programmable sounds.

Therefore, those of you who sell guitars is the same thing. This is a Fender. So, so, so, so this is a Gibson. So, so, so, and so. It has a hamburger pickup, it has a this, it has a that, it has, you know, 52 tones. It has this, this, you know, you keep going on about features, about features, about features and in Niger that is the typical way that we know how to sell. Buy this fan. This is the latest Binatone fan. You can see that it is 5 speed.

Look at this thing, it is made with graphite. It is extra light. You see The thing is very, very stylish and in fact we are doing a promo right now. If you buy 3, you get 1 free. All those sorts of things, selling based on features, but to be successful in selling and in your business, you need to be able to learn how to sell on outcomes because somebody who buys something from you is not buying features. The person is buying outcomes.

Of the people that I spoke to, only one person asked me, why do you want to buy this keyboard? When I said I want to buy for my kids, the person now said, oh cool, you want your children to learn. It is advisable that if they're going to learn, if you can afford it, you should buy a piano that has a full set of keys so they get used to it. Now you can see the person is selling based on outcomes. Other people were saying buy this thing because it has 88

keys. For someone like me who's a novice when it comes to keyboards, because I don't know anything about keyboards because I started off playing guitar, so I know guitar, but I don't know keyboards. If you don't say this thing has 88 keys, like how, how am I supposed to know what that means? So a lot of you are not moving market because you're selling features, not outcomes. So back to the Binauto thing. You don't just say this fan is made of graphite.

You say, Madam, see this fan graphite very, very light. So that means if you ever have to move it from room to room, you don't have to look for the house board to carry for you. This thing is very light. You're speaking in terms of outcomes. Somebody's not just buying a graphite fan for the sake of the fact that it is graphite. The same thing with guitars in Nigeria. People who sell guitars, they always talk about the brand name.

This is a Fender, this is a Stratocaster, this is a Gibson. This is it this this is it that. But I'm glad I bought my guitars while I lived in the UK. So currently I don't have my guitars anymore. I sold them all, but I'm glad that I went through that experience in the UK because was a master class in learning how to sell because they're hundreds of guitars in the guitars the guitar store outside walking and the guys like, sure, we can help you out.

They didn't ask me which kind of guitar are you interested in. They didn't ask me what's your budget. The guy asked me what kind of music do you like or what kind of music are you hoping to play? And that is what guided us looking at guitars, whether acoustic or electric or steel, steel slide and on and on and on. So the creative who reached out to me was after he listened to that podcast because he liked what he heard about selling outcomes and not features.

So remember, whatever business you're involved in, we are selling results, we are selling outcomes. We don't sell features. So let's say buy this Toyota because it's red or don't buy this, don't buy this Tesla because it's purple. Don't. Don't sell based on features, you sell based on outcomes. The person who's having the conversation with you wants to achieve a certain outcomes with this purchase. Have a conversation with the person, try and figure out what the outcomes are and then you now align with that as best as you can.

So back to the keyboard thing. This keyboard that I bought will always have 88 keys, will never change 88 keys, some have 55 keys. Your goal is to figure out what the person wants and then blend it with what the person needs. So in my own case, the man said if you can't afford it, it will be nice to start off with a system that has a full set of keys so that your children are used to it when they play in the future. And then we started talking based on 88 keys.

For some other person, the attitude would be it's not a starter keyboard. I don't want to waste money on this thing. In that case, you will now say, oh, that's not a problem. Ignore this one of the 88 keys. Here are the keyboards that have 55 keys. You know they can learn based on that and you know blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But you don't just wait when somebody shows up, you now start vomiting features on them. OK, buy this keyboard 55 keys ivory battery powered electric disc dot dot dot finger weighted something something especially if you're selling to a novice.

All these features mean nothing to someone who's buying for the first time anyway. So basically, that's how this creative guy, that's how he discovered me and he'd been listening to the podcast. Now this fellow, the creative, he considers himself a multi potentialite. I have a problem with you people. I won't lie. Multi creative, multi hyphenated, multi potentialite, multi dis, multi dis multi that look, you will love yourself too much.

Relax, relax. It's not about being good at, you know, 1520. You know different things. Can you be good at one thing? You know well enough so that we can tell you that make some money. So you have multi potentialite. And so this guy that reached out, he's good at music, he's good at painting, he's good at fashion, he's good at acting, he's good at writing. And so yes, you have all the talent, you know everything. But this is business here.

We're trying to put money in your pocket. What does it profit you? If you're good at music, good at painting, good at fashion, good at acting, good at writing, good at dancing, good at everything, but then you can't put some money in your pocket. I'm a talented guy myself. And trust me, if you're talented of the, you understand what I'm saying. As in you're not lacking for talent. But in pocket is always empty. The children say don't want to buy ice cream you say because you don't have money.

You shout on them. You're struggling to pay school fees. You can't load data on your phone. Who fueling your car is a problem? Then what is all this talent doing for you? You multi potentialite. Relax. You need to settle down and pick one. We can't start off by doing music and by doing painting and by doing fashion and by doing acting and by doing dancing and by doing writing. We can't. We have to stand somewhere. If you try to do it all, you will be overwhelmed and you won't know how to market yourself effectively.

Think about it now. How is this guy supposed to market himself as a dancer, as a musician, as a painter, as a fashionista, as an actor and as a writer? How will you market yourself? Let's be practical now you want to buy adverts on the radio, How you advertise yourself. You want to start posting on LinkedIn. What kind of posts will you write? You want to start posting on Instagram, What kind of posts are you going to create?

How you will overwhelm yourselves and you'll be able to market yourself effectively. So that's one thing you multi potentialize multi creatives, multi hyphenate, multi something, something. What's the one that used to call themselves again, something man, something Renaissance, Renaissance man, Renaissance woman. You should calm down. 252025 didn't work because you're not focused. You're trying to do it all when 2026, now 2026 is not going to work if you are not focused.

Pick one. We have to stand somewhere. It doesn't matter who you like, if you like. What's his name? Is it Gregory Hynes? I think was was it Gregory Hynes? I can't remember. This black guy that used to tap dance. He didn't start doing tap dancing and then acting and then jazz music and everything on day one. He started from somewhere and then career evolved. The same thing with this guy that produced Michael Jackson's album I was the guy's name again, Quincy Jones.

Aha. Quincy Jones did not start jazz, then start pop music, then start big band music and start eating to it all on the same day. I think he started off as a trumpeter. Yeah, I think he started off as a trumpeter, You know, before big band music, then before scoring movies and before, you know, small, small, small. You don't just do everything on day one. So creatives multi, have multi, potentialite, multi, dis multi,

that multi, whatever, whatever, whatever. If you're not happy with how 2025 turned out, 2026, pick one. We have to start from somewhere. As a salesperson, I'm telling you, even if you paid me a million naira, I don't even know how to start marketing you. It's too much. What is the messaging supposed to be? I don't know the targeting, what we're supposed to, what we're running advertisements, What are we supposed to be targeting in the ad campaign?

I don't know. It's too wide, as in from a very practical or tactical point of view. I don't know what the next step is. You have to pick 1. So 1 moment. It's hard to sell here. Let me just I hope the noise doesn't come. All the noise doesn't come in too much on the microphone. All right, so where was I? OK, so I was talking about how we ought to be. We multi talented people, we ought to be focused, targeted. The next thing.

I was trying to give this guy one reality check on it to ground him because the guy was talking a lot about his dreams and I'm trying to. Whenever I'm talking to people who consider themselves artists, creatives, whatever, I tried to get them quickly from dreaming to doing because dreaming is very, very easy. Anybody can dream. I can sit down and dream all day, but the problem is if we want to see progress, we actually have to start doing.

So we have to move from dreaming to doing very, very quickly. So I wanted to get this guy focused. I told him, OK, all these fancy ideas, OK, we've picked a couple, so this is what we're going to do. You need to write down a list of 10 people, whether they're friends, they're family members, or associates, and you have to go and pitch one or two ideas to them. This is not just a matter of thinking or dreaming anymore.

Write up a list of 10 people who might be interested in the product, might be interested in the service, might be interested in the collaboration, and then go and start talking to those people. Sitting down and dreaming is not going to get you anywhere. If you are a multi creative, multi talented, multi hyphenated, multi, this renaissance man, renaissance woman, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah genius. You know how you spent all of 2025 dreaming and you're not happy with how it went. 2026 is going to turn out the same way.

If you spend all your time dreaming. Narrow it down. Then come up with a list. 10 people, friends, family, associates. Go and start pitching your idea, your product, your service, your collaboration, your you know, whatever it is you want to do an exhibition, draw up a list of 10 museums. I say museums, 10 art galleries or 10 art collectors or 10, you know, whatever in your city. I go and start talking to people. You can't just sit down in your room and start dreaming and then you're going to manifest a successful creative career.

It is not going to happen. Write a list. Stop thinking about networking. Go and do networking. Anyway. The good thing about that session with the artist, and you know, I mentioned it on a former podcast episode, was this guy thought he had a big, big network. When he started putting it down to paper, all those many, many people he thought were on his network. It turns out he only has two people now. We know the work that needs to be done.

You can see that the talent is not the problem. You can be a talented individual, but at the end of the day, when it comes to planning your art career, selling some paintings, organizing an exhibition, organizing a music show, organizing a whatever, if true, true, true, you only have two people in your corner. How are you going to do it? Which successful business has been built on the back back of only two customers or two collaborators?

It's not going to happen. You creatives, you multi talented, multi hyphenated, multi water, whatever. I hope you guys are listening. I hope you can see why 2025 didn't work for you and what you need to do in 2026 to move things forward. So my business advice to him, in case I haven't figured it out, was quite simple. There are a couple of red flags we need to deal with #1 there's a niche problem. You need to niche down.

You're trying to launch music, you're trying to launch fashion brand, you're trying to launch this, you're trying to launch that, You're trying to do all of it at the same time. Guy, it's too much. Business is hard. It is hard to build 1 business. Ask anybody who has tried. Take pure water. There are people who try to do pure water business and have failed. If doing pure water business alone is hard enough, think about when you're now trying to do pure water business, then you're trying to add suya business, then you're trying to add restaurant business, then you're trying to add taxi business, then you're now trying to add real estate to do all of them at the same time.

Business is hard. Make things easy for yourself in the beginning. Start somewhere. News now small. It is hard to validate 2345 different businesses at the same time. Pick one lane to start first, then another. Red flag. When we're trying to grow our sales, when we're trying to move forward, when we're trying to build a career or whatever, whether we like it or not, we need numbers. As our sales is important, we need numbers.

We need the business list, the contacting lists, the prospect list, whatever. We need numbers. Two people is not enough. If you only have two people in your corner, then the two of you need to sit down. The three of you are come up with a plan for how you're going to reach out to more people. You need numbers. You're not going to have a successful art exhibition if you only know two people. You need numbers. You're not going to be able to,

you know, pull off your dance production, whatever. If you only know 2 art directors or two dance directors, you need numbers. You need to reach out to people. You need to reach out to people. You need numbers. This is business. You need the numbers. Should I repeat it again just in case somebody hasn't gotten the point? You need numbers. So I gave this guy some homework because this guy loves Quincy Jones. He really loves Quincy Jones.

Of course, who doesn't love Quincy Jones now like Quincy Jones? Not my guy. When it comes to the horn, the guy is correct. It's on point when it comes to producing Big Bang music is on point. The Michael Jackson album, in fact, the first time I heard that I think was Thriller. The first time I heard that was Quincy Jones that produced Thriller. I said no lie. I said it's not possible. I said Quincy Jones is a jazz man, how can he produce Thriller, Michael Jackson's Thriller?

I say no lie until I saw the document documentary myself and I saw Quincy Jones in studio with Michael Jackson. That is when I believe I say OK, true, true. Now Quincy Jones produced this album. I was shocked because I know Quincy Jones from his jazz background. So I told this guy, now this creative, I said, so you like Quincy Jones? I mean good. Go and look at Quincy Jones as a case study. Quincy Jones was a master of many things.

He did jazz, he did music for films and he also did pop music. I told him go and look at Quincy Jones. See how Quincy Jones built his network or see how Quincy Jones was validating one idea after another. Go and study Quincy Jones. Whatever Smithy Jones did, come back and tell me this is what we're going to do in your own particular case. So for those of you who are multi potential, multi hyphenate, multi talented, multi, whatever, there's somebody that you respect.

Go and sit down, do some small research. This guy that I respect, how the guy take blow. Write down the pattern, then we'll now model one or two things. It will help you. It will help give structure to your ideas and structure to your execution. I'm not saying just copy blindly, but I'm just saying if you're a multi, hyphenate, multi, talented, multi, whatever. And let's say you love Arnold Schwarzenegger because Arnold Schwarzenegger was a bodybuilder, then he became an actor, then he became a businessman, then he became governor.

So if you like it, sit down, go and study Arnold Schwarzenegger. What was the pattern? How did he do it? There will be one or two things we can learn and one or two things you can execute to help you on the way. I'm not saying well, copy Schwarzenegger. I'm not saying that if you love the guy, you respect the guy. Well, study the guy. You will learn one or two things. He will help you. Execution is the key. And again, in Schwarzenegger's case, he didn't do everything at the same time.

He didn't do governor at the same time as bodybuilding as the same time as acting as the same time as business. It was step by step. Oh, and by the way, Schwarzenegger was a bricklayer for a while. So ties people like to think like this thing comes easy or more is work because while he's doing bodybuilding you guys to pay the bills now how you pay the bills for him was bricklayer at work and some of you feel too fancy.

This guy, I think was it Prince. I think Prince did cleaning work used to go and be cleaning cleaning studio brew my mop vacuum cleaner be washing toilet. They will be feeling too fancy. You love your art. You're not willing to suffer for it. Meanwhile, you're heroes. See what they're doing. Washing toilet, Doing bricklayer work. If you have too many ideas, honestly it's the same as having no idea. Let me repeat, if you have 20

ideas, you are on the same boat as somebody who does not have any ideas. Pick one idea, write down 10 real people you can talk to about it. See if the people are willing to pay for what you have. See if the people are willing to collaborate on a project. When you're able to do that, then will not start making progress. Now, for those of you who are in this guy's situation, you want to do music, you want to do all blah, blah, blah, blah.

Pick one. Let's say we pick music. The first step now is I think my music sounds good. That is one thing. What you need to see how the market reacts to it. I think my music sound good. That is one thing. Everybody thinks that music sounds good. Whether the market, whether other people think your market your your music sounds good is another thing entirely. So if you want to validate this music thing, if you want to start this music thing, the goal actually is to validate your musical ideas.

It's not just about record deal. Now you need to prove that people actually want to listen to your music, don't want to listen to your specific sound. So I've spoken a lot about minimum viable product, which is the smallest version of your product, your idea, your service, your whatever that people can see, people can taste, people can interact with so that you will get the feedback to know whether you're on course, whether there's demand for your product or not.

So think in terms of minimum viable track. Track, for instance, don't want to waste money and buy, you know, all the equipment and all the whatever, Record one or two things. Nice quality demo. The goal is not to have a polished final product. We're just trying to see our hook, melody, the emotional impact. Are people feeling this thing? Try and get it out there now. Since this is music, 10 is not going to cut it. Except if you know the top 10

music executives in Nigeria. 10 is not going to be enough in my own opinion. I'll say, I'll say more like 100. Send your music to people. Plenty people, plenty of them. Any DJ, you know, send. Any club promoter, you know, send. Even your friends and family, you know, send, let them hear. Ask for people's feedback. Ask people, would you put this to your playlist? If people say it's nice but they didn't say yes, I will jam this thing all day, then you are not as talented as you think because that's not people.

Don't blow because it's nice. That's not how people blow in the music industry to try and validate your idea. Anyway, I've already spoken about the assignment that I gave him about how you try and model himself after Quincy Jones or learn a couple of lessons about how Quincy Jones was able to move his his career forward. But for those of you who are multi creatives, multi potentialites, multi hyphenates, multi this multi, whatever that are listening, please learn.

If you're not happy with how 2025 turned out, I've given you some possible reasons about why the ministry did not move in 2025. Right now we're in January of 2026. We need to make sure that the ministry will move this year. Even if you don't hammer, at least try and move forward small, especially for those of you who are in relationships, you know, so your wife likes you, she supports you. Your girlfriend likes you, supports you.

But after a while, it gets tiring that I love you, I support your dreams, I support your vision, you know, but it's been five years. I'm not seeing any progress. You know, it's not as if the girl is bad. Oh, she's not bad. It's just like she can't really. She can't put her knife on pause for five years now. She loves you because you're talented and you're creative and you're this and this and then and that and that. But The thing is, it's been five years.

She has not seen some progress. Put yourself in her shoes. What do you expect? Now, she's not a bad girl. She's not a gold digger. She too, she wants to build her own life. And if it's the other way around, you know, you're the lady. Put yourself in the guy's point of view. Yeah, he likes you and he's been supporting you. But it's been five years. Then what? They see progress. This is Nigel. Nowadays people are afraid of liability, so it's not as if he doesn't believe in your dreams or anything.

But you know he doesn't want to wake up one day and you know the guy don't enter one chance yes, I do himself with liability and then before I know it, the children will come. Then what next? Plezo multi creatives artists multi talented multi hyphenate multi every every let 2026 be different. By the way, my partners and I launching a program on the 12th of January to the 23rd of January 2026. It's about how to sell effectively over the phone.

If you've been listening to the podcast for the last 2-3 weeks, you've already heard me talk about it. We're still talking to people. It's today's date is currently the what's today's date 5th of January. So we're still talking to people who are still taking applicants. If you're interested in the program, reach out. The goal of the program is to learn how to sell effectively over the phone. If you're multi potentialite,

multi, creative, multi, hyphenated, multi, whatever. The goal is to make sure that when you draw up this list of 10 and you're talking to 10 people, you want to know how you can build relationships over the phone, how you can set meetings and appointments over the phone. If you guys are far apart and you need to make some kind of proposal, some kind of pitch, whatever, and do it over the phone. Do it over Zoom. The goal is to try and see how you can do that effectively, how you can sustain this relationship over the phone.

Or you can move your hustle over the phone. That's the focus of the program because these things are in our pocket phones and it's just not, not just for Netflix and YouTube. Why should you use it to grow our business? These things are valuable assets that we have on ourselves. So if you're interested in the program, call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140 or connect with me on LinkedIn, my name again,

establish my aide. Now, even if you're not interested in the program, I love hearing from people who listen to the podcast all the time. So just reach out, say what's up, say I enjoy the show, say I like it, or say I don't like it or tavish. And when you said this thing, when you said it like this, that invets me. Let me know, let's have a conversation. Who knows, I might have made an error and you're the one that will correct me.

Either way, they're going to give me useful perspectives about what people want to hear about on the show. You will be making the podcast better if you reach out. So that's it and that's all. Thank you very much. I'll catch you all some other time.