Thread by @ucheokorolive

19 Things I Learned From Working With Toyin Omotoso @toyinomotoso in 2020.

I knew @toyinomotoso from when I attended @akinalabi 's YECO event while serving in Ibadan in early 2019.

Started following him, @ronaldnzimora, @biolakazeem and most of the people who spoke at YECO. Turned on notifications too.

But it wasn't until late 2019 when he put out this tweet talking about learning Spanish did I get to finally interact with him.

I started with teaching him Spanish 2hrs a day 2 or 3x a week, but by sheer divine providence he took it upon himself to teach me copywriting, sales, advertising and the entire marketing caboodle.

In 2020, I ended up becoming his protege, became the in-house copywriter and Digital Content Manager for 7Star Support Systems Nigeria, and collaborated on several projects too.

All this might not sound like much to most of you but going from teaching Spanish for 2k/hour to working with one of the greatest marketing minds in the whole of Africa, and still making money off of it for me is something you only get to see in movies.

It's been a crazy ride this past 1 year but below are the 19 things I learned from working with @toyinomotoso in 2020.

1. Everything Is For Sale.

Pet rocks. Sparkling water. Small e-books with all kinds of information. Waist trainers. Diet plans. Exercise routines. People will buy anything, as long as it's important to them and they can afford it.

That little piece of knowledge you have that seems common to you could be the difference between poverty and massive wealth for you. Someone somewhere needs it. And they'll pay you for it if you can make it available to them.

2. The Offer Is King.

"I'll make him an offer he cannot refuse." - Don Vito Corleone (The Godfather)

Lots of salesman and marketers talk about different tactics and strategies for making a sale, but nothing beats an irresistible offer.

Your customers want to believe your product or service is the best offer (or at least the second-best) they are getting from the market.

Your irresistible offer is how you get the customer and also how you crush your competition.

3. There's A Marketing Angle In Almost Every Story, It's Your Job To Find It.

Everything has become an opportunity for me to learn since I started working in marketing over the last year. Books, movies, conversations, experiences etc.

These days I've learned to find a marketing angle even in the most mundane stories. This helps with creating powerful leads and story arcs.

People also love it when you share a story with them about an experience they can relate to.

4. Principles Are Everything.

To achieve anything worthwhile in any endeavour, it's important to understand the principles and roots first.

Those principles form the foundation and everything is built on them. Which is why as a salesman, it's important to always have it at the back of your mind that even if everything changes, human nature never does.

Human nature is what drives every emotion, which drives every single sale and purchase. You're making a mistake if you don't pay attention to how people behave.

5. Focus.

a. Focus on what's important and ignore every other thing. There are all distractions towards your end goal.

So, instead of doing 20 low-quality things, how about you just focus on 2 and make them the highest quality possible?

b. Focus on your strengths, outsource every other thing if you can afford it. This will free up time and energy for you to focus on what's important.
If you can't afford it, then keep working till you can.

c. Most people are lazy and distracted today. You can become a god in your chosen field if you just 'outfocus' them.

6. Listen.

Has someone ever told you you're easy to talk to?

Well, the truth is you might not even be easy to talk to in the actual sense, but once people notice you listen to them, they believe you're easy to talk to.

Plus, you pick up more from listening than from talking. People naturally open up to you when they know you're willing to listen to them talk about their problems. Sometimes, they don't even want a solution or an answer to their problem, they just want to vent.

Most people eventually figure it out themselves.

Listening is also how you become a better copywriter and salesman. You learn about your prospect's problems by listening and paying attention.

7. Just Do It.

Start first. Make mistakes. Correct them. Keep going. Learn along the way. You never what it's going to be like until you take risks.

I think I should do this more 😁

8. Stay Curious: You Start Dying The Day You Stop Learning.

Your job as a copywriter/salesman means you have to keep learning till the day you die. You are required to know about a lot of things and how they work.

That's how you create winning ads. That's how you create better presentations. That's how you create powerful leads. That's how you get better clients. That's how you do great work.

Read books.

Research different topics.

Watch instructional videos.

Listen to podcasts.

Try new things and new experiences.

Always be looking to learn something new every day.

9. Quality Over Quantity, But Quantity Begets Quality.

Every day in this digital marketing world, we hear a story about someone who has made hundreds of millions of dollars from putting together an incredible offer. But nobody asks how many times they had to try...

or how many different things they had to do or how many projects they failed at or how many duds they had put out before or how many years it took them to get to that level.

The truth is to get to the level where you consistently put out quality work, you might have to put out a lot of mediocre work at the beginning. But consistently improving on them and getting better is how you eventually win. Which leads me to the next lesson.

10. Practice, Practice, Practice.

Ask Ronaldo, Ask Kobe Bryant, Ask Michael Jordan. Consistency is how you win. Which is why you have to keep practising every day.

11. Just One Good Offer + One Good Sales Copy Can Change Your Life.

"Just one good sales letter is what will change your life as a copywriter. It changed my life. It changed @ronaldnzimora Ronald's life. It changed @akinalabi Akin Alabi's life." - Toyin Omotoso @toyinomotoso

12. Garbage In, Garbage Out/What You Sow, You Reap.

What you consume is what you give out. Consume quality and you give out quality. Consume garbage and you give out the garbage.

13. There's Money Everywhere.

But first, you need to understand the difference between you and the guy who has money is value. And then when you do, add value too. That's how you make money.

14. Attention Is Scarce But Money Is Plenty.

People will pay through their nose for what they are interested in, but first, you need to find out what is this thing they are interested in and then figure out how to get their attention.

If you can get their attention, manage to hold their interest and then give them an irresistible offer, they'll chase you down with their wallets open.

15. Strive For More.

@toyinomotoso once sent out an email where he said he gave himself a target to be one of the best guys doing marketing in Nigeria when he first started. Years later, he feels he should have set his goals higher. I've never forgotten. Has stuck with me since

16. Research Is Everything.

Know your market. Know your product. Know your competition. But you can only know all this through research.

Everything required to sell depends on excellent research and it's on you to do it.

17. The Road To Success/Greatness Is Long, But A Mentor Takes You There In Twice The Time And Probably Half The Effort.

There are a lot of great people on here and in real life I see as mentors and learn from. Some of them I've never met physically and will never meet. But...

...that's not a barrier because the Internet has made it easier to access their knowledge through their books, articles, posts, and materials they put out.

Which is why it's important to study the masters or anyone who has succeeded in something you're interested in.

There's a reason why they succeeded. If you are humble enough to learn from their experiences and implement, someday you might become a master too.

18. Invest In Yourself.

People get to a certain level, make some good money or get some fame and decide to relax, but Toyin Omotoso @toyinomotoso has spent around N2million (that I'm aware of) between January and now on new materials just to continually upgrade himself.

If someone at that level keeps adding to themselves, then who am I to stay stagnant?

He once told me the reason why I give you all these books is that I know you'll read them. That's my inspiration.

19. Positioning is everything.

Everything about your approach to life changes the day you discover this.

There's a reason why someone would see you and think you're too cheap and not want to work with you or buy what you're selling because they think it's not worth it.

Positioning affects your relationships, your product and service offerings, how people see you and even how they regard you.

People like Toyin Omotoso entirely changed the game for young people.

Aside from opening our eyes to how enormously profitable the sales and marketing industry is, you have to think about the different roads he's helped pave: Consulting, Advertising, Media Buying...

...Affiliate Marketing, E-Commerce, Persuasion, Personal Development etc.

I mean, you look at young copywriting geniuses like @andy_mukolo or affiliate marketing mavericks like Bruno Nwogu @bruno_nwogu, or kings like @Emmanueladiotu1 & Yusuf Adedeji @princeofecom crushing it in E-Commerce and how much he's influenced them and then you'd understand.

Lupe Fiasco once said, "Hip-Hop saved me." Well, @toyinomotoso saved my life.

So, thank you for the opportunity to drink from your fountain of unending knowledge and learning at your feet. Thank you for everything, Baba mi. Every day I feel like I won the lottery.

And here's to many more years, Maestro's Maestro. 🥂

You can read this thread as an article here:

https://twitter.com/ucheokorolive/status/1362213684974522369?s=19

Also, I think I was lucky enough to be in this position. Many people reading this would wish they could. But not to worry, you too can learn from the master himself when you click on the link below 👇🏿

expertnaire.com/manager/produc…