Stop Hiding Behind the Keyboard: The Power of the Phone Call

Hello and welcome to the podcast. Today we're going to look at some circumstances when you should be using the phone, when the phone is going to be much more effective than other means of communication that you probably have in mind. Because making phone calls is hard. And going to people's offices, you will find that most people nowadays anyway default to sending emails or sending text messages or sending WhatsApp messages when they want to introduce themselves, when they want to make a sale, when they want to get an agenda going.

And you know, it's understandable because now we have different options. So I mean, think about it, let's rewind back, you know, some 30-40, fifty years, you know, when our parents were getting into business, you know, there was no, I mean, these options just were not there. If you wanted to see Chief Ogi Dengue, you had to go to Chief Ogi Dengue's house. Was was that simple? Because even after Nitel was introduced, that was the Nigeria's national telephone company.

It's not as if everybody had a telephone. So let's say you're one of those families where you are lucky enough to have a telephone, It's possible that Chief Obedebi will not have a telephone himself. So our parents, our uncles, our aunties, you know, they were forced by circumstances of their time to get good at these sorts of things. They had to learn how to walk up to Chief Ogdingby in church or at the village meeting or at the company secretariat, whatever,

and introduce themselves to Chief Ogdenby and try and get some interest and try and hook up a meeting and try and go to Chief Ogdenby's house. So eventually Nighthawk comes on the scene. You know, there are more options. Let's Fast forward a bit after the military era, Obasajar comes in as civilian president, then GSM comes in and now mobile phones are now readily available. Now that's where some people like me come onto the scene because by the time I was becoming a young adult, you know, 20 somethings up to 30

something mobile phones were now hitting the scene. And so these were the new technologies that we had to learn. We had to learn how to use if I can remember when and they don't mind me, it's just from side. Just let me not go into that. Let me stay focused today. So we had to get very good at learning how to use the phone, then eventually e-mail and you know, a bunch of other stuff would come on the scene. And as easier and easier forms of technology get invented, how I put it, OK, let me just say an easy form of technology just means it requires less, less human involvement.

Let me put it that way. You don't have to see somebody, you don't have to talk to somebody, you don't have to touch somebody, you don't have to smell somebody, you don't have to shake somebody's hand. Let me just say those are easier forms of communication. So it's easier and easier forms of communication get invented. And then now with social media and you know, Snapchat and whatsapping and everything, it's a lot easier to just text somebody and assume that OK,

I've done my bit, it's now over to the other person. And because of this, I think a lot of us have lost sight of the fact that there are times when, like in our Parents day, we actually should learn how to walk up to somebody, shake somebody's hand and get a meeting. And there are also times when it would be best to actually pick up the phone and call someone instead of doing the easy thing which is hiding behind the keyboard.

Now for those of you who have been listening to my podcast right in length of time, you already know that I talk about the communications hierarchy, that the best form of communicating actually is face to face. I see you, you see me. The reason why that's the best way to communicate is because we get the full range of expression, the full range of emotion, the full range of context. If I send somebody a text message and I say, oh boy, how you doing?

And the person says I'm good. All you see is text. You don't know. What if you're in front of your homeboy and you say, oh boy, how far? And the guy says I'm good. There's a way that you hear the I'm good or see the I'm good that you that you will know that there's fire on the mountain that your homeboy is saying I'm good. But you know that this guy is drowning in something. So that is why face to face communication is the best means the best way to communicate.

You're trying to sell, you're trying to get across your agenda, business agenda, political agenda, whatever it is, face to face is the best. If you guys are vibing, you can't see it that Chief Ogden Bill is vibing with you. If you are being an irritant, you will see that Chief Doctor Mrs. Tokumbo. You will see it on her face that you're irritating her. If you're making progress, you will know. If you're stalling, you will know.

If you're regressing, you will know. And you will know quickly. Not just because of words, but because of body language, because of tone and because of all the subtle nuances that you can get. So wherever you can, if possible, it's just that is the most expensive because to go and see Chief, you actually need to enter bus, enter Uber or drive your car. And then of course, there's the amount of time that is involved. For those of us who are in Abuja, you know it's not a problem.

You can drive 30 minutes, have a meeting one hour, drive 30 minutes back. All you've wasted is or rather all you have investors is 2 hours. But of course, for those of you who live in Lagos, it's another thing. Be stuck in traffic 2 hours getting there, then you have a one hour meeting and then you're stuck in traffic 2 hours getting back. In other words, you've invested 5 hours that day. So yes, face to face is the most expensive, but then the next best thing actually is phone calls.

And the reason why is because for phone calls, you have the words, you don't have the, excuse me, you don't have the visual feedback. You can see, but at least you can hear. And if you've been trying to use the phone to do business by the length of time, trust me, you can hear it when somebody's disappointed. You can hear it when somebody's excited. You can hear it when you're kind of falling flat, like you're never here, you're never there.

This person is maybe feeling you, maybe not feeling you. You can hear these things over the phone. So that's the reason why using the phone is a very useful tool to communicate. Also, forgive me my manners, forgot to introduce myself. My name is Tavishma Ayede. I'm the host of the podcast. I am a former lawyer turned business consultant. Excuse me. And if you like these sorts of things that we talk about over here, how to sell, how to network, how to grow your business, these sorts of things,

then subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, on YouTube, on Apple iTunes, wherever it is that you like to listen to your podcast. Subscribe so that you can get all the juicy business goodness that we talked about here every other day. Then also, if you'd love to connect with me, you can call, send me a text message or send me a WhatsApp message on the 08064 662140. If you have a question, you have a comment, you have a query or you would love to collaborate,

then reach out. I'd like to hear from everyone, but please don't you reach out. I beg you guys, be respectful, especially those of you who are much younger. It's like people haven't taught you guys. If you, if you think you know, say good morning to someone, don't just say you know my name is Kunle, blah, blah, blah. This is my business. I have this problem Yeah. Give me the first. Give me the best 5 tips to solve my business problem.

Business problem. I mean, you guys relax. For some reason, human decency or politeness has like you guys didn't get the memo, You guys didn't get the chip. I don't understand. Say good morning to somebody and you guys learn how to compliment somebody know complimenting will take you guys a long way. Anyway, let me stay focused. Sorry, forgive me. You know, I go on rants sometimes on the podcast. Anyway, before I went on that rant, we're talking about why using the phone is much more effective than other means of communication like e-mail,

WhatsApp, texting, things like that, and when we should consider, well, we should consider using the phone. Now the reason why this is the topic we're tackling today is because one of my former clients, we did some work together in 2025. You know, of course now you're supposed to stay in touch with your people. So we're having, we're chatting, you know, early on, you know, happy New Year. What's up? How you been, housewife?

He has everything, you know, that's all. I can't just. And so the guy says that the year is starting off good. I say good, that means money is coming in. He say, yeah, I said correct. I said, feel me, what's going on? What's going on? So the guy said that he has got 2 clients so far in January of 2026. That has nice. That's the kind of news that I like to hear. Now some of you say 2 clients, is that a big deal? You know, it depends.

Look, we're all at different stages of growth now for somebody who is opening up a boutique agency and they're involved in social media content creation and moderation and those sorts of things. And it's a six person team, you know, 22 clients every single month, 22 clients actually. It's not bad. You know, it's enough to pay the bills and you know, stuff like that. So it's not bad. And then again, remember, it's not just about the number of clients, it also is about the the profit margins.

So if you're having 22 clients every month and each of those clients is worth, you know, 1.5 to you, you see, you get the picture. So don't despise when you hear that somebody only got 2 clients in in general of 2026 because it all depends what are the clients worth? How much money are the clients bringing in? What is the size of the team? What is the operating cost for the business? How much do they need for salaries, for Internet, for fuel, for generator, for, you know, blah, blah, blah.

Sony. Bottom line, I'm just trying to say the guys start off with two customers and I said, correct, we're doing well. We're doing well. So I said give me the rest of the gist. Now what's going on? What's going on? So because then two, content creation, the clients want to run some campaigns and they're going to need to use social media influencers for the campaign, you know, which is of course is not a big deal. Then the clients now that they've gotten also have specific ideas about which content creators that they want to work with.

So they're saying, you know, we'll work with you, we'll come up with the concepts, you know, you guys are the ones that were on it, but then this is the social media influencer that we want to use. So I beg you guys, you know, hook up with these people and negotiate on our behalf. Let's make this happen. So that's where they are. The clients have agreed the clients are dropping money is now to reach out to the social media influencer and then my clients now former clients by the way, because it's been a while since they pay me money.

Last night they pay me money was when was itself I think was like like October, September, October 2025 S where was I? So for my clients now then I said, then I told me the thing that I dread to hear the most. And unfortunately for a lot of my former clients, that is the case When I'm with them, when they're paying me money, when I'm responsible for getting them results, I stay on their case. I'm like use the phone or like,

why are you sending e-mail? You are here in the keja. The person's office is in Maryland. Just get in the car and drive down there. It is just Maryland. Worst case scenario, if you enter small traffic, you'll be on the road one hour, it's just Maryland. You are on Allen Ave. it is just Maryland. So we're working together. I can stay on that case. But then, of course, the coaching relationship ends. But of course, I'm still in touch with everybody because I

want to see all my clients succeed. And of course, I hear from them and, you know, they've gone back to some bad habits. And so that was it in this case. So that, yeah, we've gotten details from the person's manager and we're going to be sending them an e-mail now. Another guy, I say e-mail. Why e-mail then silence. Why e-mail? You know who this content creator is. You know who their manager is. You have a phone number.

Why do you think sending an e-mail is the best way to get these content creators on board? No answer. That's OK. No problem. Shah. Let me even see the e-mail that you want to send. And this was copy of the e-mail that he sent to me. Says hi XYZ, we hope you're doing great. I'm reaching out on behalf of excuse me, I have a quote. Let me start again. So hi, XYZI, hope you're doing great. I'm reaching out on behalf of ABC company.

We're currently handling a paid campaign for a new brand that would love to explore having you on board as a brand ambassador. Can you please show us your rates, available deliverables and point us to your manager? OK, OK, no, that was the e-mail that was meant to go to the content creator. That's what they wanted to to send to them. So I looked at this thing and I had to tell my clients that, look, you guys, you're beginning to go for you suppose call this person.

If you have a phone number, call this person with this e-mail that you wanted to send. What is the best that can happen? The best thing that happened is the person will say, oh, thank you very much for your inquiry. Then they will send you a sheet and the sheet is just going to be, you know, what was it called? You know, rate card. If you want me for one day, it is this. If you want me for two days, it is this. If you want me for one Instagram real, it is this.

If you want me for 10 Instagram reals, it is this. It will just be a sheet card. I do send back to you. Now when they send you the information, how you move this thing forward, how you build rapport with this influencer, how you build relationship with this influencer, how you get a vibe going, how you start toasting this influencer when all you did was you sent one e-mail, then they send you a rate card back. How in this situation when you have somebody's phone number,

what the hell are you sending an e-mail for? Now, of course, there are some people who say send me phone number, don't call me. Like let's say I'm trying to chase downloading now because it's like big money on the line or something. So understandably downloading, you know, because I'm sure everybody is begging him for money. You want me to have his phone number, So even if I get his phone number through Conacona means, you know, it might be somewhere for me to send him phone number.

So yeah, if he says e-mail my secretary, what choice do I have? What? e-mail secretary? But of course you get to know how I roll when I e-mail secretary. My next thing actually is you try and get secretary's phone number so that me and Dan with the secretary will be only one-on-one as I like. I can pick up the phone and I can call her direct. That's the level that I'll try and be. I can't get there with his phone number.

No problem. His secretary's phone number, his PA's phone number, I'll get the babe's phone number or the guy's phone number and then we go to relate one-on-one so I can move my agenda, you know, Quick, quick, excuse me. So pick up the phone and unfortunately they had already sent the message and so they now give them the the influence and I'll give them manager's phone number. I say, OK, no problem, you will have goof.

No problem, we can rescue it. So I said what you are. I told him you are going to make a phone call. You guys say yes, so OK, no problem. Where you call the manager, what are you going to say? You guys said, I don't know. By the way, this is typical. I don't know why you work with someone you know. One or two months trying to steal some habits, check back with them in another 5-6 months and they've forgotten half the stuff that you've taught them.

So it's just, it's normal. Just so you know that if you're going to pay for a consultant and you guys come up with guidelines, you guys come up with frameworks, you guys come up with, you know, certain yardsticks that you guys have to meet. Please take these things seriously and continue to do it, Continue to imbibe it on a daily, on a weekly, on a monthly. That is the way that you're going to get the best results. There's no point in hiring a consultant, in paying money for a consultant if you're not going to do what the consultant says.

So I said, OK, you call the guy. Well, you say I don't know. So I had to remind him that, look, remember when we're coaching, I told you guys about a simple conversational framework? Didn't I say yes? I said, what is that conversation framework? Conversational framework is greeting, intention, question, proposal, close. I'm going to say it again for those of you who are listening for the first time between me and my client, I say, how far you remember the communicational framework?

The guys say, yes. I say, what is that simple omnibus conversational framework. Omnibus just means, you know, like it applies everywhere. If you're face to face, you can use this framework by sending an e-mail, you can use this framework. You're on a phone call, you can use this framework. Wherever you are, you can use this framework and the framework is simple. It is greeting, then intention, then question, then proposal,

and then close. By the way, this framework is not original to me. I can't remember if it was Brian Tracy or Greg Cardone, but I remember, you know, when I started taking sales seriously, I came across this thing. Whoever it is, whether Greg Cardone or Brian Tracy does, it is a simple framework. It applies everywhere. And I was like, well if this thing is easy, it's only 5 things. I'll never forget it and I've been using it ever since.

Excuse me Now, the other conversation frameworks that we're going to come across and that we have explored in the podcast in the past and that we'll explore the explore on the podcast in the future. But just know that is a simple one that everybody can use. Let me say one more time for people in the back and for those people who are brand new on the podcast, the framework is greeting, intention, question, proposal, and then close.

Greeting just means you will hail that person. You would greet them in the manner that is appropriate to them or appropriate to your context or to your culture or to your circumstance. The reason why I say that is because some people assume that the greeting should always be good morning, Sir. It depends. Sometimes appropriate greeting is car BSU, or sometimes appropriate greeting is bras or sometimes appropriate greeting is big CS.

Your boys are loyal. So it depends. Greeting doesn't always have to be good morning, Sir. Good morning, ma. It depends on the context. All right, So appropriate greeting then next will be intention because people are busy, people are skeptical. People value that time. So people always want to know that this guy that is in front of me, this girl that is in front of me, what's the 411? What do they want waiting in a fine, like what's going on?

Who is this person? So we have to get to the intention quickly. We need to put them on notice, put them on blast. That This is why I'm here. You're helping them and you're helping you. You're helping them because now that they know us up, they can relax and people can get down to business. You're also helping yourself because once the person hears your agenda, if they're not interested, they will let you know and you can promptly leave and move to somebody else.

So intention quickly. Why are you here? Then? Question questions. That is the part of the relationship or the part of the conversation where you start obviously asking them questions. Because you need to learn something about the person. You need to learn something about the opportunity. You need to learn something about the problem, about the vision, about the mission, about the context, about the whatever. Because the next step is that you are going to make a proposal.

A proposal is when you are suggesting something that this is what I think we should do next. The only way your proposal will make sense is if you asked questions that make sense and that are relevant after proposal, you now close. close just means try and get the person to take action. Try and get the person to commit to that next step. Excuse me. So I repeat again, greeting, intention, question, proposal close. So this is my former client.

So I now let's walk through this thing because after we are done with this, you will pick up the one and you make a call. Because if I hear that you got the manager's phone number, but you send text message, you send WhatsApp message or you know, if I hear the next time I'm in Lagos, I will grab you in a chokehold for real. I will choke you. I'm just kidding. By the way, I'm not physically violent. Don't don't worry, I'm not violent anymore.

You know, of course, the secondary school boarding school now, you know, you know, they be with boys now, but that was that was a former life. So appropriate greeting, you call up the manager and you say hi or you say Brossi or you say whatever and you identify yourself, you say that blah blah, blah from so, so, so company. And in this case, you also state whatever the prior context was. In this case, you got the phone number from his client.

You got the phone number, his phone number from the social media influencer. That's his client. So appropriate greeting in this case will now be what's up? Good morning, Bruce here, Chief senior man, whatever your appropriate greeting is, so, so and so from this company. And I got your number from your client, Genevieve Naji. By the way, Genevieve Naji is not the influence. I'm just using that name. OK? Now use another name because people know who Genevieve Naji is.

You know when when I was a much younger guy, I'm still a young man, but when I was much younger and Nollywood, Nollywood was beginning to blow. There was this fine starlet, very fine girl. Genevieve Naji, nobody finer. If you don't believe me, you've never heard of her. If you don't believe me, just go and check what we look for the old pictures. When she was much younger, very fine babe, finest Nollywood starlet ever existed.

Ever existed. Very fine girl. Black Beauty, premium skin, see her eyes, see nose to die for. So Genevieve Naji. Yeah, she used to be big back in the day, but eventually she would become a movie director. And I think one of her early movies, sorry, movie producer, one of her early movies got featured on Netflix. I can't remember what it was, what the movie was called again. But anyway, where was I? So what I'm just trying to say basically is whenever you're doing appropriate greeting, you also have to state the context.

So hello, I'm so, so, so, so I got your number from blah, blah, blah. It's also a way of building commonality. So you listen to the podcast now you know, you think you know me because you've been listening to a couple of stuff that I say, but you know, I don't really know you. So if I need to achieve commonality, OK, let's pretend that you've not been listening to the podcast. So we don't know anything about each other.

If I need to achieve some commonality, it would really help if the first time I call, I say it was up. Is this Jude Chukunyam say, yeah, this is Jude who is speaking. Oh, my name is Tavishima. I got your number from Auntie Alice. The moment you hear Auntie Alice, your mind will calm down because Auntie Alice is your favorite auntie. So therefore the person that Auntie Alice gave this phone number to, the person calling you must also be a reasonable somebody must be a reasonable person, so you be calm.

So inappropriate greeting. If there is a common context, be sure to state it. So in this case, the propagation will be, hi, I'm so, so so from social company. I got your number from your client. Let's see who is an influencer now that everybody will know. I was going to say Mr. Macaroni, but if I say that, you guys now be laughing at me like, oh, Mr. Macaroni was so five years ago that times have changed. OK, you know what?

I don't know any social media influencer by name, so let me not call anybody, but you get the point. Hello, I'm so so from this company. I got your number from your client, blah, blah, blah and person will say, oh, oh, OK, OK, OK, how can I help you then You now go straight into your intention. You will now say I have been looking at your talent, Jamaka, I've been looking at your talent, your clients, blah, blah, blah.

And I think she will be brilliant for one of our own clients. So, so, so and so campaigns. Of course the manager will be interested because when somebody calls like that, it means money is about to change hands. So of course you want to know some more. Then you now start asking up question. You now start asking questions about availability and blah, blah, blah. And eventually we get to the point where you say, can we set up a meeting so that the four of us, you, me, your clients, my own clients, can we set up a meeting so that we can discuss,

We will discuss the scope of this social media campaign. We will discuss what we need you guys for. And after we talk about the whole idea, then after that, can we start discussing rates? How does that sound? When you put it like that, any manager of a social media talent will of course will say yes, OK, well there's some social media managers who don't want you to have direct contact with the client. So don't say don't worry, I'll handle the meeting myself.

But basically from asking questions, that will be your proposal. Can we hook up this meeting? How about XYZ date next week? Does that work for you? That is a proposal. Can you see how it flows from greeting? You stated your intention, you asked a couple of questions. You are not able to make a proposal. How about we set up a meeting on XYZ date and the guy will say yes or he will say let me check my schedule. Hopefully he doesn't say no.

If he says no don't worry let's we'll we'll deal with that problem later. If he says yes then they close trying to get him to committees. OK cool no problem. Hope you don't mind if I call you a reminder. If I make a reminder call 2 days before that is one way of closing. You're seeking a small commit, which is? We have agreed for this day, Abby. OK, No problem. If it's like that, I will boss you a day before or two days before to be sure that we're still on course.

If the person gives you permission, you have made one small commitment. If the person says I left my diary in the office, let me check my secretary and get back to you. You said. Oh, sure, no problem. Sounds reasonable. So in this case, now the clothes would be OK, How will I put it now? OK, so he says he wants to get back to the secretary. So he said OK, how will I put it now he wants to get back to your secretary. First of all, you now try and narrow things down.

OK, No problem. Sure, that makes a lot of sense. Or you said you were heading into the office today, right? So yes. So would you be in the office like around afternoon time between 3 or 4? Oh, you're sure I've gotten to the office by then? Oh, fantastic. In that case, can I call you back by 5:00 so that we can be sure that we have timing that works for both of us? They will say, OK, no problem. So you can see now that in this case, closing is you're trying to get the person to commit to something.

So you can see now that honestly speaking in this context, you can see how making a phone call actually is the best thing to do. Because if you e-mail this social media manager, the e-mail that will come back will be. Thank you very much. Here are our rates. Pick the rates that you like. What are you going to do with that? If you want to start pricing, how will you start pricing over e-mail? If you don't think they understand the concept, how you make sure that they understand the concept very well over e-mail If you're trying to toast them so they can get small discounts like how you start toasting somebody over e-mail,

but then when you pick up the phone, you guys get in a conversation and then you set up a meeting. Since they're both in Lagos, you know it'll be easier. You catch our Maryland distance is not far. If you drive to the office, what will it cost you? Or if you get them to come to your own office, what will it cost you is the best way to go. Now, for those of you who don't want to pick up the phone because you're afraid you don't know what to say, please,

please, please and please get a pencil and a paper. Write this thing down. The simple outline, the simple framework is greetings, intention, question, proposal, close call the person. The first thing you do is greet the person. After that, say state your intention clearly, then ask a couple of questions. From the questions you'll be able to make a proposal that makes sense. After that, try and get the person to commit to something and that is how you move the agenda forward.

Small, small, small. If you wonder if you want to know or how they put it. If you think you like the creativity about how to use this framework, no problem. The artificial intelligence tools that are available, Google, Gemini, HR, GPT, whatever, you can make that as a prompt. You can say I'm a Nigerian entrepreneur in the oil and gas space and I'm talking to potential contacts at so, so, so and so company. I would like to make a phone call to make sure to start discussing agendas around this and this and that and that.

I'm not quite sure how to handle the conversation, but I heard about the conversation framework that goes through these stages. Greeting, intention, question, proposal, close. What kind of things do I have to say within this conversation framework that would increase the chances of me closing a deal? And then send. So that's your prompt. Yeah, I know it's a long prompt, but trust me, the longer the prompt or the more context you have in the prompt, the better.

So you write that prompt and then you send and then ChatGPT, Google, Gemini, clawed perplexity. Whatever you use autopilot, it will send you. It will give you some suggestions. Some suggestions will make sense and some will not. The ones that don't make sense, delete the ones that make sense. Write them down, rehearse them small. Keep it in your pocket. Trust me, it will help a lot when you're having that conversation because you have some structure to this conversation.

You have some structure, you have an agenda. You'll know where you're going. You'll be able to Telegraph. I say Telegraph, you'll be able to, to, to, I wanna put it to guide this conversation where. But anyway, it's been 30 minutes. So let me bring this podcast recording today to a close. The main thing that I want to say is this, there is a communications hierarchy. Some forms of communication are better than others.

If you can see somebody face to face, that is the best way to communicate. Young men, if you don't believe me, remember back when, when secondary school, back when, when university, when you are at the, the letter writing stage, some of you won't know this because like I said, you know, GSM didn't come until I was in, you know, 20 something like into my 30s. So my generation was generation where in secondary school, if you like the girl, you'd have to write letters.

You know, like I was in Greg's, there was one baby that I like and she was in what was it called, I was in Saint Gregory's College of Ban and then there was a girls school that was just across the fence. So back in those days that's what you do. You write a letter, you give it to your guy because you're a border, then your guy will give it to another girl. That girl will now go and give it to her, be writing letters back and forth.

So at the letter writing stage it is hard to know whether the baby is feeling you or not. But then when you see face to face during holiday, you will know for sure whether you're making progress or not. Because at the later acting stage, you'll be feeling as if she's feeling me while making progress. But then by the time you see and you see the level of disgust on her face, you now know that child that this thing is not working.

So that's why face to face communication is the best. You see it all. The full range of emotion, the body language, volume, intensity of voice, tone of voice, everything. That's the best way to communicate, especially in business, not just relationships. After that, voice. If you're going to do WhatsApp call, Telegram call, GSM call, mobile phone call, landline call, that is next best. After that, for now is video. I don't know why I'm thinking maybe because lots of people are still nervous when it comes to video.

So when the video is on, you know, they're kind of guarded, they're kind of nervous. You don't know, should I look at the camera? Should I not? So maybe people are too busy being nervous to have an effective conversation. So who knows? But right now, as in 2025, sorry, 2026, when 2026, right now I'm making this podcast recording in January of 2026. So right now in general of 2026, voice is more effective than video. If you're listening to this podcast in 2072 and things have changed, you know, go, you know,

blend with whatever is the best practice for your day. But right now, 2026 voice more effective than video. Then after you pass video, we now enter into text. When it comes to text, please SMS that is text message and WhatsApp message a lot better than e-mail. e-mail is very formal. I repeat, today in 2026, e-mail is considered a formal communications channel. You can't build rapport in e-mail. You can't vibe in e-mail.

You can't joke in e-mail. You can't tassi somebody in e-mail. You understand what I'm saying? So if it must be texts wherever you can, try and do SMS first. In fact, try and do WhatsApp first. Because WhatsApp is conversational. It is expected in WhatsApp that you will use emoji, or that you send voice note, or that you send thumbs up, or you send a GIF, or that you can use paging language or you can contract your sentences in e-mail.

You can't contract any sentence. You write everything out in full. So if it must be text, please SMS or WhatsApp. If you have no choice I will go ahead and send that e-mail. But that is the hierarchy. Face to face is at the top, e-mail is at the bottom. What I'm just trying to say today is you have absolutely no reason to just go ahead and start from the bottom if you have other options. So if I try to enter Dangote's network, everybody blocked me.

All they give me is e-mail. I will work with e-mail, but if I can get one person's phone number for a physical meeting with one person, believe me, I'll take the physical meeting straight. If I can't get the physical meeting back and get the phone number, good, I'll take the phone number. Once I have the phone number, I will try and be doing text message and WhatsApp. If that one is not open and all I have is e-mail, OK, I'll work with what I get.

But please don't be in the situation where this, my former client is in that you have somebody's phone number but you are choosing to send e-mail. Please don't do that. If I see you, I will joke you and then let me stop saying I'll choke you before, you know, before somebody flag my content on Spotify. Don't say this guy's advocating violence. I'm not advocating violence. I'm just saying. Anyway, you get the point. So that's it.

Thank you very much for your time and attention. My name is Tavishima Ayede, again, your host for the day and let's see what else. Yeah, if you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140 in case you have questions, comments or queries over anything that I said. Maybe if you want to disagree with me. I like people who disagree with me, as long as you're being respectful, of course.

Don't be a rude twat. Then if you want to collaborate with me, then sure, no problem. By the way, please. Collaboration means that there's a business deal and by the time we enter this thing, you will make some money. I'll make some money. Don't come at me with an opportunity where you're the one who gets all the profit and then you say no collaboration. How is this in collaboration? Collaboration means you eat and then I eat, so we have to eat together.

That's why collaboration is. In case those are some of you don't know, you surprise kind of things we want to collaborate with me on and even when I asked them like, OK, it's a collaboration. I'll be saying yes, OK for you. What you get to say, I'll get this is me. What like what what like get those connections. How is that? How is that collaboration connection? You you make money, you earn currency mean is the connection I would job anyway.

So yeah, that's it. Also remember to subscribe to the podcast and if this is your first time listening, you like all the things you talk about over here, subscribe because there are plenty more wonderful episodes. And then also share the show with others because I'm still trying to grow the podcast. I have 4000 subscribers on Spotify alone and I'm really thankful. But of course, you know, more growth. In fact, let's see if we can round up 2026 and let's see if I

can get another 4000 subscribers. So that's it. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you all some other time.