Efe Ohwofasa - Motivational Speaker, Entrepreneur and Business Expert

[00:00:00.000] - Martyn Brown

And today I want to welcome, Efe Ohwofasa, thank you for coming along today. I know you're busy and you've spared time for my little podcast here on The Vanil Impressions. Welcome, Efe …

 

[00:00:13.430] - Efe Ohwofasa

Thank you very much, Martyn, for having me for this wonderful interview, and I'm really excited looking forward to it.

 

[00:00:21.140] - Martyn Brown

That's great, and I'm glad you're on because I do interview people that have using this rags to riches thing to make it sound as though they're really important. But the thing is, it's all exaggerations and changes and manipulating what they say. Yours is a genuine, true story. And I was fascinated many years ago when I first saw you, and you told a story about when you started, you were reading books from entrepreneurs, all that we read, and it actually built you up to what you do today. But you started in a very small way. Can you tell us a little bit about your very humble beginnings, please?

 

[00:01:04.650] - Efe Ohwofasa

Oh, yes, it should be my pleasure. I can remember, but I think I met you over seven years ago, and I remember during one event that I did for the Bournemouth Chamber of Trade and Commerce when I ran, I think it was a training stroke, seminar, networking meeting for local business professionals. I remember very well. It has been a journey. My story, even me sometimes, Itry to even wonder how I managed to overcome the challenge that I went through growing up to becoming a man today who run a business, and getting married, and having a wife, and having three children, and having the passion to pursue my dream. I think my journey, I became aware of life and the pursuit of purpose when I was, I think, 11 years old. I was 11 years old, a young, happy shop, and it became dawn on me that I now would be ready going to my secondary school and back home in Nigeria. I'm a Nigerian, but lucky I'm blessed to be living in the UK now. Now, I have been given an admission to study for my secondary school in the next year. It was exciting and at the same time very challenging.

 

[00:02:23.880] - Efe Ohwofasa

The challenging part was that I wasn't sure of how my parents are going to get money to buy the books, of how they can pay for the school fees, because then my father was not feeling too well. His business wasn't doing great. My mum was just a small, petty trader. We didn't have money, but we were determined to figure out how we can get it done to get the money to buy school fees. My mom and I, when I said, Okay, when there is no way we make a way, when I said, Okay, let's go do farm work, wherever we went to our local village somewhere in Nigeria, precisely in Delta State. We did farm work a year before I actually got started in the secondary school to raise money. We went to the tick forest, we did farm work, we have vetted the crops, we sold the crops in the local market, we were able to save money. Then I was ready and excited to go to secondary school the next year. That was how I got into school. Now, the tough first part about it was now. How do I now sustain myself being in secondary school?

 

[00:03:28.250] - Efe Ohwofasa

How do my family sustain themselves? That became a way of living that I had to be fucking groceries on high streets to support my family with siblings and family to support my mom, support my dad, and be able to buy books and sustain myself during secondary school. All through my years in secondary school, right from the age of 12, 13, 14, 15 till I finished my secondary school education, five years, I was in a high street, parking groceries when I'm not in school. During holidays, we were back in the village, back in our farm, we're doing farm work, investing crops, are going to sell those things. That became a way of living. I didn't know that it would affect me in future. Because then eventually my father got really sick and things got tough and life was difficult for us then. Along the line, I remember I finished my secondary school and I think I became a teenager and I was not 21 years old. Things became really tough that I wasn't making any headway. My career was not going the way I wanted it to go. My vision of going to train to become to go to university, finish university and get a job, everything was interrupted.

 

[00:04:53.960] - Efe Ohwofasa

Then this Saturday, my father got seriously ill. He was taken to the hospital for three days. Then he was discharged back home and we were thinking, Oh, my father is back home now. He's feeling fine. He's okay. One afternoon between, I think around 3:15, I was 22 years old. My youngest dad came to call me from a room and that I should come and see what is happening to dad. She doesn't know what is happening. I quickly ran and I went to the bedroom and I saw my dad right in my presence. He had his last breath and he passed away. My mum was not home that day. A young boy at 21, say your dad passed away in your presence, had his last breath, I didn't know what to do. I was confused, I didn't know what to do, and that really had a hard knock on me. It became a double trouble for me. Things went aground. I became depressed. I thought I'd have passed away. There was no money. Things were really tough. Long story short, I became depressed for life for more than eight years. I lost hope. I had no vision.

 

[00:06:12.860] - Efe Ohwofasa

My passion for life, for a long time, I became really depressed. I began to withdraw from friends, from family members, thinking that I was born a failure, that I was born into poverty. That was how my mentality was about that. But along the line, I had a gift from a friend or a pastor. Well, I would say my first mentor, Pastor Chris is very wonderful. He gave me a book. A book that was written by Antono Robbins, this American motivational guru and world-class coach. I read that book. When I was reading the book, I read things that changed the way I thought about life. In one of the pages of the book, it said, Your past is not equal to your future. What you think is what you become. I read that quote again. Your past is not equal to your future. I began to think. That means what I've been going through now to death is not going to be the same thing that I'm going to experience in the future. That gave me hope. That was how and when I have a hard movement. I became obsessed about reading book. I was going to the local library.

 

[00:07:33.540] - Efe Ohwofasa

I was reading everything I could lay my on. I was looking for inspiration. Long story short, within a period of six months, I read a lot of books, gathered a lot of information, wrote manuscript of what I need to publish as a book, and I wrote a small book, but I didn't have money to publish it. If I want to go about how I raised the money to publish the book, it's a three-week seminar I'm going to tell people, but I'm not going to go into details. But somehow along the line, out of shared determination, I was able to raise some part of the money, went to meet a local publisher, published a little book, 32-page pamphlet, and I said, I'm going to share this information with the whole world, starting from young children at age seven, eight, nine, and 10. I went to my local church, and I began to teach in my local church on the school. I was teaching the things I read and I published in that book. Then after a period of time, I was moving from the children department to youth department. They're from a youth class. I was going to secondary schools and universities across where I was raised up in Delta in Nigeria.

 

[00:08:51.580] - Efe Ohwofasa

Then, I now knew that I've found a new passion, my life purpose, and my destiny. That was, I want to make the world a better place. I want to change people's perspective. I want to stop poverty. I want to stop hunger. I want to stop pain. That got me into public speaking. I didn't train to become a professional public speaker. There are one thing I've come to realize in life. Sometimes if you want to get on with something, you don't really need to get trained to get started. But my passion made me to find a way of how and what I needed to do. I became obsessed about speaking to people, inspiring people, encouraging people. Then I found a book written by Del Canegia, Think About Something About How to do with Public Speaking. I read those books about public speaking, then I would go to places to practice it. I was traveling across Nigeria, most especially the Southern part of Nigeria. I was going to higher institutions, universities, colleges and schools and church, speaking to people. Along the line, I found myself selling those books that I published. Within a period of 12 months, I had spoken to thousands of people, over 200,000 of people.

 

[00:10:19.560] - Martyn Brown

Wow.

 

[00:10:20.190] - Efe Ohwofasa

I sold over 600 copies of that book within a period of six months. I now saw myself making money and making an impact. That book was my first business enterprise. Long story short, I set up a non-profit organization called the Destiny Resource Foundation, and the objective is to help young people to find their purpose in life. I did it for a number of years. I had a member of team with them. Some people were working with me as my team. I got some mentors and some board of trustees, and I did it for a period of time. Then the idea and the desire, I want to travel to the United Kingdom. I know then, many years ago, it's very difficult to get a visa to come to the United Kingdom. I tried first time, I was refused. I tried the second time, I was refused. It was very discouraging, being a young man on the travel, things weren't going well. But along the line, I didn't give up. I made it, and I came to the United Kingdom.

 

[00:11:31.140] - Martyn Brown

My passion- I can't tell you about your challenges because there must have been challenges coming into the country. But like you just said, you never gave up.

 

[00:11:38.280] - Efe Ohwofasa

That.

 

[00:11:39.890] - Martyn Brown

Is the answer. You just kept it. Look what happened. Incredible story.

 

[00:11:45.270] - Efe Ohwofasa

Yeah, I didn't give up. I think it's something people should be mindful of. When you are trying to achieve some set goals, or maybe challenges will come to you, if you make up your mind that no matter how tough it is, I'm not going to give up. You make a decision. That decision will guide you even when the things are tough. That decision will control you. Its to influence what you think and what you say. That decision that I'm not going to give, I'm going to figure out how to make it happen. Eventually, it happened. I came to another kingdom. Then out of my curiosity, I was hungry for knowledge. I was hungry for things I could do to develop my skill set. Along the land, the first week I came to England, I went to a business exhibition at London Excel Center. Then I came across the Coaching Academy where they are promoting life coaching, training, and certification. I bought one of the books and I took the brochure, I read it, and in a week later on I went back, I said I want to get trained to become a life coach. Long story short, it took me two years to train, to acquire the knowledge, and I got a diploma in personal performance coaching as a Life Coach.

 

[00:13:14.730] - Efe Ohwofasa

Along the line, I joined the toastmasters International to develop my public speaking skills and acquire some professionalism as a speaker. Eventually, I was doing it for so many years, more than two, three years, I wasn't making money, but I still loved it. Along the line, being an immigrant in the UK, I had to look for a job to do to be able to get money, to earn money, and to be able to provide for myself. I did cleaning job many years, and I was working and working as a cleaner. Sometimes I was doing customer service somewhere at some of the high street shop, but I was focused. I wasn't distracted. I didn't mind what I was doing then. But the money I was earning there, I was using that money to now re-educate myself, to upgrade my skill, to make me to be fit and ready to learn what I need to learn. Along the line, I worked in a company of the sales executives, and I grew up over a period of time. My expertise, my passion showed up. I became one of the top sales executives there and my income increased, and I learned a lot about the business and I got to a stage with the experience I got from that place being a sales executive and I said, I'm going to set up my own business.

 

[00:14:30.670] - Efe Ohwofasa

Today, the year it has come and along the line, I met my wife, who I'm very grateful for, who has in so many ways supported me, assisted me. The long story short, I have had a privilege with my training and coaching business. I've be able to speak to, train to, mentor, and network with entrepreneurs across the UK. I run events, I run Mastermind, I run coaching sessions, and my wife and I were involved with one of the two other businesses. So it's been a great joy. It hasn't been tough, it hasn't been easy, but I'm grateful that I didn't give up.

 

[00:15:09.040] - Martyn Brown

That's the key word here, just never give up. We've got hundreds of listeners I know right at this moment who run their own radio stations, and they do it from passion. And other people don't realise the work involved. Some have got a team around them, some are solo. They're not necessarily making money out of it. You said you weren't making a lot of money at one stage, but you just had to keep going. It's what you loved. And the passion involved in running a radio station and presenting a radio show, they all do it because they love it and it develops into something, especially online, that does grow. What I find, though, is that because I run a radio station and radio show syndication service, a lot of people seem to start their radio stations and it runs for a little while and fades away. Could you share some of the most impactful strategies or principles you advocate for running a successful business? Because after all, running a radio station is like running a business because it needs to be under control.

 

[00:16:19.720] - Efe Ohwofasa

Yes, indeed. I think, like you said, running a radio show is like running a business. But before we talk about a business part of it is it should be something you have a passion to do. If you have a passion to do it, you should have a vision doing it. Because if you have a radio station, you are there. There's a reason why you come up to do a registration. You want to reach out to the public. You want to broadcast a certain information to the public. The passion that you want to contribute is something that we sustain you on a daily basis. Then the other part of it is it's not just about coming up to run a relationship. You must think about how can I make this a way of making it my livelihood, a platform where I make a difference, then you have to figure out how do I also need to monetize the platform? Because you have to learn the business part of it. If you don't learn the business part of it, you may not serve for too long. You will not be rewarded for the time and the value you contribute in terms of finances.

 

[00:17:38.240] - Efe Ohwofasa

Figure out who is successful in the industry running registration, what are they doing that is sustaining them or that are sustaining them till date? How are they making money? Upgrade your skill, learn from them. How can you provide a service that people will come as a radio station provider, that people want to listen to you, they want to get some part of your expertise, and they pay you for doing that.

 

[00:18:07.450] - Martyn Brown

How important is the innovation and adaptability in today's fast-changing business landscape, especially online? It's changing every six months, it seems. How do you encourage these traits among your audience?

 

[00:18:22.180] - Efe Ohwofasa

First of all, don't get distracted because a lot of things now, a lot of things are involved, especially now social media, we are not in a digital age, and a lot of shining-object syndrome thing, is just find your path. Find what is it you are about and focus on it. Don't do too many things. Just find your path, focus on it, and most importantly, ask yourself, What am I doing right now? Who is doing it successfully? Who has been doing it very well? What can I learn from this person or from these people? Go and learn from them. If you have to invest in their mentoring, if you have to invest in buying the books, if you have to invest in taking their training, learn about it from them. That's what really helped me. When I came to the UK, I had a lot of limitations, but I didn't allow it to stop me. One, my English wasn't great. I'm an African man with the real deep Nigerian accent, and my audience as a speaker, as a coach were English people. The culture and the background here is different from my own culture and back home in Africa.

 

[00:19:38.920] - Efe Ohwofasa

But I got to a stage that I can't remain this way and I have to improve myself. Part of the money I was making from working, I had to invest in some mentors. I remember there was a time I paid about $2,000 to one of my business mentor in America then. It was big, it was heavy. I didn't have the money, I thrashed myself. I paid the money, and within weeks, I implemented a number of strategy that I learned from that mentor. The money that I invested, I made it within a period of weeks, more than what I was paid. For you to survive in this highly competitive industrial now, two things: maintain focus, find your part and focus on it. Secondly, develop yourself by learning from those who you think that ahead of you, learn from them.

 

[00:20:34.960] - Martyn Brown

Good advice. You've already touched on the way that you faced failure and all these problems along the way, and many entrepreneurs and those that want to start up a radio station, they face failures, they face setbacks on their journeys. How do you teach resilience and the ability to bounce back from failures to your audience?

 

[00:21:02.140] - Efe Ohwofasa

Good question. One thing I would say is anything you start new, you are bound to fail the first year. It's like a baby learning how to walk. I have three children. They never started walking immediately the very first day they came into life. First of all, they learned how to crawl. A crawl, crip, and I remember my first son, the first day he stood to walk, he took just one step and he fell again. It's the same thing in business, in life. The thing is you would try so many times from the beginning, you will fail and do not take whatever failure personal. It wasn't you that failed. It was the attempt you made that didn't work at work. If you stick to it, you will learn how to do it better than it was done before the first time. The thing is that overcoming failure is you make a decision that I want to do this thing. I want to give it the time it requires. I want to be persistent in doing what I need to do over a period of time. At the longer line, you will master what works and you keep doing what works.

 

[00:22:24.710] - Efe Ohwofasa

The thing don’t take the failure personally. Failures are just feedback that tells us how better to do it than how we did it initially.

 

[00:22:32.230] - Martyn Brown

I like that. Nobody's explained it as clearly as that, Efe. Thank you very much. I hope that the people listening can now adapt this into their own little business of building. I know that radio presenters will come to them later and can work on their own quite happily. But when you're running a radio station, building a strong team is crucial for any business. But what advice do you have for business owners in creating and leading a high-performing team?

 

[00:23:02.100] - Efe Ohwofasa

I have been asked this question several times. The first thing that I used to say to this is have a vision.

 

[00:23:08.340] - Martyn Brown

Mm mm.

 

[00:23:09.310] - Efe Ohwofasa

A vision for your organization, your radio station business or whatever business you have. A vision is something you want to make happen in the future, it becomes impossible and you posture it on a daily basis. So have a vision of what your business, your organization is all about. Then that vision is what you now communicate to the people who work with you. When people see that you have a vision that is so big and very clear and you communicate it with them, they buy into the vision, they will come with you and to achieve it. So we have a vision, then you now begin to set goals. Goals are the things we want to accomplish within a period of time. You could have a one-week goal, 60 days goal, 90 days goal, one-year goal, five years goal, that move you towards the accomplishment or the fulfilment of that vision. So vision is key. Vision is the secret of every great leader in any industry you can mention today. Talking about Facebook, Mac, super good. Talking about this guy that bought Twitter, Elon Musk, talk about any great leader today, these are people who have vision very clear, articulated, and established.

 

[00:24:37.940] - Efe Ohwofasa

Then they now look for people to work with them in bringing this vision into reality. The Great Book of Life that I believe the Bible says, Where there is no vision, the people perish.

 

[00:24:54.450] - Martyn Brown

In your experience, what are some of the common mistakes or pitfalls that entrepreneurs or radio station owners, in our case, should avoid when starting or growing their radio station? Because so many start and it dies off. What would you recommend?

 

[00:25:13.150] - Efe Ohwofasa

Self-doubt. People doubt themselves.

 

[00:25:18.230] - Efe Ohwofasa

It comes in different ways. They will be saying, Will this work? Can I really make it happen? Those are limiting beliefs. You have to let go and master your mindset. Those thoughts of, Will it work? Will it ever come to fruition? What about if you ask yourself, What if it works? The thing is don't doubt yourself. Just keep at it. Going back to the fastest man in the world today, Housain Bolt, who is still the current fastest man in the world today, I remember the very first time he went to the Olympics, nobody recognized him. But he went back home and trained, preparation for the next four years. He came back and he became a world champion. Why and how? He went back, he didn't doubt himself. Yes, he didn't do well for the first performance. He went back, he believed in himself, he trained, he went back to the drawing board, and now he became the world superstar. Don't doubt yourself, believe in the vision and keep at it on a daily basis. Be persistent in doing what you have to do to make it a reality.

 

[00:26:37.440] - Martyn Brown

I can see radio stations lasting longer now. They need to watch this Vinyl Impressions podcast for sure. As a motivational speaker and successful entrepreneur yourself, what key communication skills do you believe are essential for radio presenters to engage their audiences effectively?

 

[00:26:57.680] - Efe Ohwofasa

First of all, I understand the audience. Understand your audience, research your audience, understand what information is relevant to them, what is there concern, what are the challenge? What interests them? What is it they really want to hear? Then do a research. Then pass communicate these things to them. Like me, when I have the privilege to go speak to an audience as a public speaker or as a motivational speaker, even as an entrepreneur who work with businesses, the first thing I do is to research my audience. What are they they want? What are their concerns? What are their challenge? What is their goal? What is their desire? As a radio station owner, if you say things that are relevant to your audience, they will keep coming back. They will keep talking about your station to the family members. They will keep talking about your station to their friends and colleagues. They will share whatever they have online because you are talking about what they really want to hear. You are sharing information that addresses their challenge and the concern they are faced with. They become evergreen. You become a place they go to.

 

[00:28:07.300] - Martyn Brown

In the competitive world, and it is competitive, there are now thousands of radio stations online. How do you recommend radio presenters, rather than owners, but presenters differentiate themselves and build a unique personal brand?

 

[00:28:23.560] - Efe Ohwofasa

I love that question. In the business world, we're called Find a Niche. A niche is a very crowded marketplace out there. If you are not known for something, you will never be remembered for anything. To find a unique thing that is special about you and your station or you as a presenter, what do you think people should be thinking about you and your station? What do you want to be talking about? Do you want to be talking about a business on the station? Do you want to be talking about family and relationship? Do you want to be talking about politics? Or you want to be sharing your own personal story? Do you want to be talking about issues that you think people are interested? Just be known for something. When you are known for something, when people are searching for that information, you are the one they come to. So have a niche. Don't be a generalist. That will help you to stand out.

 

[00:29:26.660] - Martyn Brown

That's very interesting because on talk radio, particularly, I think I've only got one or two talk radio on my syndication, it's pretty well all music, but the music is niched. So I do vinyl, somebody else does a country show, somebody else might do a specialist niche in the music. When radio presenters that they often need to connect with diverse audiences in that case, how can they adapt their messages to resonate with different listener demographics?

 

[00:29:59.000] - Efe Ohwofasa

Good question. I think you have to be unique. They got to know you about something. And because of that thing that is unique about you, most of the things you will be presenting, they will pay attention to it. Do you have a story that people need to hear?

 

[00:30:14.720] - Martyn Brown

Glad you mentioned stories. Stories are so important now.

 

[00:30:17.910] - Efe Ohwofasa

Do you have something unique about you? It doesn't have to be something all about success. Do you have a struggle you've been through? Do you have some challenges you've overcome? Do you have a unique story about yourself or maybe about your journey? Or it could be why you have the radio station. Let people hear about that. That would help you to differentiate yourself. With that in place, people will come to you and they will even tell you what they would like to listen to. They will tell you what they want and you give it to them as they want it. That's what I think I would say in that regard.

 

[00:30:56.520] - Martyn Brown

That's interesting. Of course, your entrepreneurial skills would come in. If you were a radio station owner, you'd still be able to do it without ever being experienced in radio because it forms a pattern, and especially I hear so many people say before they start a show, for example, they get so anxious and the first few links that you can hear the quiver in their voice. And I know that you teach speaking, you've got speaking courses on your website and the contact details at the end of the podcast. But how do you suggest radio presenters, in particular, overcome performance anxiety or nervousness when addressing especially large audiences or conducting interviews?

 

[00:31:41.860] - Efe Ohwofasa

That's panic. That panic at the very beginning is a normal thing to every presenter or every speaker. Either you want to present on radio or either you want to speak on stage live to thousands or hundreds of people. It's a normal feeling. I still feel that panic today. Even if I want to talk to audience, the first few seconds before the time, I still panic. How do you overcome that? It's prepare ahead of time. Preparation. Know what you want to talk about. When you prepare, after the first few seconds panic that normally that every presenter or speaker go through, your preparation will show thought, your confidence will grow fought because it's something you are passionate about and it's not all about you. Because you as a presenter, you want to share some information to people. That passion and the preparation just go there and shine forth. When you feel that nerves at the beginning, it's a normal thing, but rather prepare as well and express yourself with the passion and you will win the audience quickly.

 

[00:32:50.140] - Martyn Brown

Of course, a lot of the audience don't notice that you're uneasy anyway because of your technique or methodology. With me quite often on a live show, I'll have the opening script there and I'll follow that. I've even pre-recorded it before now, but then I come in live with bullet points. Sometimes the bullet points are just in the head, but I know what I'm going to say. So you make good points about preparing, and so long as you know what you're going to talk about. And I think it makes it a much more interest in broadcast as well. If you're playing music, you don't say, That was, this is, that was, this is. If there's something in between the records that's meaningful and important, content is the Important thing.

 

[00:33:29.980] - Efe Ohwofasa

In addition to that, before you actually come live, either as a radio presenter or as a public speaker, whatever, look for things you could do before you actually go live. For me, before this interview now, I went for a walk. I went out to my neighborhood, to the about four or three buildings. I just went for a walk to get some fresh air. I went to my garden to just a little bit of stretching and all that just to get my breathing and my emotions well centered. Look for something you could do before you actually present. You could just stand up and stretch, whatever, or you could just stretch. Whatever thing you could do just to make yourself feel good, the intention to feel good about before you actually get on stage, that would help as well.

 

[00:34:19.840] - Martyn Brown

I like that. I was talking about content just now that running a successful radio show or station requires consistent creativity and content generation. How do you maintain inspiration and fresh ideas to keep your content engaging?

 

[00:34:39.190] - Efe Ohwofasa

Good question. Again, it comes from you being intentional on everything you do. You keep asking yourself, What can I do to improve from what I have been doing? What else can I do to become better than what I did yesterday? Again, you have to have a practice of being productive with your daily activity. To do that, when I consult with my clients, is one of the things I suggest to them is plan your day the night before. The things you want to do today, sit down, as I said, but tomorrow, these are the things I want to do. These are the activities or the things to do. Get a notebook and actually write them down.

 

[00:35:21.350] - Martyn Brown

Good.

 

[00:35:23.130] - Efe Ohwofasa

Point. That will help you now to structure your daily activity in order of priority. If you want to create content tomorrow or if you want to do research tomorrow, anything you want to do, plan it the day before, most especially the night before. Or if you can do the night before, the morning before you get on to actually do things, sit down, spend five or 10 minutes, sit down, prepare and plan for the day. That will come along. We're helping you to be more productive, which are things to do.

 

[00:35:54.330] - Martyn Brown

I did ask for some questions from my audience, so if I may ask you a couple of those.

 

[00:36:01.690] - Efe Ohwofasa

Yes.

 

[00:36:04.870] - Martyn Brown

Find this myself, when I'm doing a pre-recorded show, it doesn't really matter, you make mistakes, you can waffle on, you can play music in the long version instead of the short version or whatever, and it doesn't really matter because you can do it all in the edit. And when the show is, in my case, syndicated out, it's pretty slick and it's almost perfection, they can do their own editing if they want, but they very rarely do. So the question is, radio presenters often face time constraints during live broadcast rather than recorded. How can they deliver impactful motivational messages in this case effectively within limited air time? Is there a technique they should be using?

 

[00:36:52.490] - Efe Ohwofasa

Yeah, a few techniques I would share. First of all, to plan it, plan what I want to do, and there should be brief, sharp, and straight to the points with the content of the message you want to say to the people. Again, earlier I said you should assess your audience. The thing is, plan what you want to say, structure it, and follow the structure and the plan you have planned and prepared for, and just act on it. Then you will see how you can improve as you go. Over time of doing it the right way, you perfect it, you get good at it, you become more professional doing it.

 

[00:37:29.900] - Martyn Brown

Yeah, quite often when I see or when I hear shows a year after they started, and then you bring the collection in so that I can syndicate out to stations, and you find that you get all the shows, and the one, two, three, four, and five shows, to be honest, are dreadful. I know. But how they improve as they go along. So you're dead right. Looking back, you see how you've done it. I often listen back to mine and I think, Oh, I better change that, or stop saying that or stop doing that, and it does work and improves over time, hopefully the same thing will happen, whatever you do, whether it's podcasts, video promotions, or whatever, what strategies do you recommend for radio presenters to maintain high energy and enthusiasm throughout their shows and maintain listener engagement? So many times I hear them come in, the first three or four links, they're, Hey, powerful. This is me. This is what I'm doing. But as the show goes on, it's, Okay, that was my favourite single in this next one. They lose their energy. What's going wrong in their head that they do that? They don't keep the energy and enthusiasm going, so the listener switches off ultimately?

 

[00:38:38.550] - Efe Ohwofasa

Yeah, I think in that regard, they have to know that at some point that energy was low. They need to be aware of that. Then make a decision that they were not going to go back to do that again. Because that, in a way, it could put the listeners off, it could make the listener not to show interest in their few short presentation. What could lead to that? Maybe it could be they need to manage their energy well, rest well before your show, prepare ahead of time before your show, try to balance your life. If you're not eating well, eat well, drink a lot of water, get a little bit of exercise on a daily basis. It could be 10 or 20 minutes on a daily basis. Do exercise and just be aware and go back to your previous presentation and say, Is this good? Is this good enough? Can I improve this? What should I improve on this one? Have a review of what you've done and figure out what you think you should do better next time. With that review, you are measuring your progress. If you do that consistently and if you have a standard where you commit to excellence in delivery, because of that standard, you would want to settle down for whatever that is not up to the standard.

 

[00:40:02.860] - Martyn Brown

Yeah. When I've worked on radio stations that they all do live shows, each presenter passes onto the next one, wherever they are in the world, you'll see the ratings high, perhaps on my show, for argument's sake, and then on the next show that comes along, they die right off. And you say, Why are you switching off? And on the customer service, they say, Oh, so-and-so was boring. And it's nearly always because they haven't done what you've said. It does make a difference. It's to keep that enthusiasm going. That's a useful insight to people. Maybe your show isn't built to be energetic, but you can still give that energy in your audience's eyes so that it's appropriate to them. That's really important. And touching on that again, aspiring radio presenters might face rejection or setbacks before establishing their careers. How can they stay motivated and persistent in pursuing their passion for broadcasting?

 

[00:41:02.470] - Efe Ohwofasa

Well, if you don't have a reason why you're doing anything, you can easily get discouraged. And when you're faced with temporary failure or setbacks at the beginning, you will quit. So overcome that, to the answer to that question is, first of all, ask yourself, Why am I doing this? When you have a strong reason why, that makes you wake up every morning and when challenges come, you don't get discouraged. What is the motivation behind why you are doing this? Do you have that passion, that drive, that vision that you want to use your registration to make impact in the world by the music you play, by the things you talk about, by the interviews you do, because you want to communicate something meaningful to the world? That's the reason why is what will keep you going. It will make you become unstoppable. For me, I came to England as an immigrant. I had no money. I didn't come to England with any certification whatever. But I remember where I'm coming from. My reason why is I want to make a difference in the world. I want to succeed so that we're able to look after my mom and support my siblings.

 

[00:42:24.240] - Efe Ohwofasa

I must especially now that I have children, there's nothing big enough to stop me. In that I must push through so that I will be able to contribute enough with my business, I'll be able to earn enough money, make a difference, and be able to look after my family, my children, my mom, my wife. I must especially to make the world a better place. Why are you doing what you are doing? What is the reason behind it? Think about it. Write it down. That's become your secret companion, whereby you wake up every morning, get up your bed, and you pursue the purpose you are after. If there is no reason why, I would strongly advise you look for something else because in the world of success in any industry, not just in radio presentation, not just in business, not just in technology, in anything, when you don't have a passion behind it that come from having a reason why, you will not last long. Nothing good comes easy. Anyone you see that is very successful as a radio presenter today, name it, somewhere in America, in Canada, in the UK, wherever, they have been doing it for a long while.

 

[00:43:44.820] - Efe Ohwofasa

They have had their share of setbacks and failures. But because of the reason why, because of the vision and the passion they have for it, they refuse to quit. I know anyone listening to us today, if you find your reason why, back it with passion and you are determined to persist, you will make a great impact with what you did.

 

[00:44:09.360] - Martyn Brown

That's amazing. I'm sure if people start putting this in with their business and in with their presenting, it will make a big difference from day one. I can see that. As well as being a motivational speaker and running your own business, and I know your wife's got a very successful business as well, you come over to the UK and almost shown us how it's done, and it's done brilliantly. But you're also behind the scenes, a bit of a marketer. And we've had some questions in from our radio station and radio presenter audience. And in today's digital era, how can radio presenters leverage social media and online platforms to expand their reach and connect with their audience beyond the airwaves?

 

[00:44:59.320] - Efe Ohwofasa

Thank you, Martyn. I think in the business world, while from my own experience in running my business and working with other businesses, there's a difference between marketing and sales. If you get your marketing right, you will increase your sales, and when you increase your sales, you make more profit. Simply put, marketing is about communicating what you do to the audience that you want to attract to your business. The first thing you want to do in your marketing, your radio station is what is it you do? What are you standing up for? What is the station for? Is it a faith-based station? Is there a station that talks about family, relationship, finance? Is there a station that talk about politics? Is there a station that talk about anything? Marketing is, first of all, I have to define what is it you are about and the market get to know you about that. Because a lot of people, when I consider with a lot of businesses, is they try to reach out to everybody. In the long run, they don't get noticed. So what is your message? What is it you do? How are you doing it? You have to now communicate this in a very simple, clear way.

 

[00:46:45.560] - Efe Ohwofasa

Then when you constantly communicate what is it you do and how you do it and how you help, people will not be drawn to you. When people are drawn to you, making a inquire, reaching out to you, those people that are drawn to you, making an inquiry, asking questions, they become your prospects. Then you now serving them, providing the answer and the solution to the question they are asking, it becomes something you now convert those prospects into sales. In summary, what is your message? What solution are you providing? What is it you are about? Establish that and keep talking about it, keep talking about it, keep talking about it, keep talking about it. You will attract people that will be drawn to that. Then from there, you become someone who they trust with those information, with those solution, then you have them as your audience, and this time, as a client, to your business.

 

[00:47:57.370] - Martyn Brown

Yeah, and involved in that, especially with the marketing, is the storytelling. As we've already mentioned, it's a powerful tool in both motivational speaking and radio presenting. How can radio presenters effectively incorporate storytelling techniques to captivate their listeners?

 

[00:48:15.240] - Efe Ohwofasa

You could tell your story or story of your audience. One of the things that is very powerful about storytelling is not really all about talking about how successful you’ve been, where you've been in the business world. It's not only coming about talking about how much money you make or how successful you are, whatever. Story that are compelling and inspiring to people include story of struggle and challenges. Like you as a presenter today, there must be a reason why you decide to get on these to become a presenter. There must be a story behind it. A story could be something that happened when you were younger, it could be something that happened, I don't know, when you were walking in the corporate world, something that happened somewhere, somehow. Communicate the story, share the struggle you've been through. Talk about the pain you've been through and talk about at what point the things happen differently. Are you now have an experience of breakthrough to be doing what you are doing now? What led to it? The struggle and the breakthrough moment. Now you're not begin to share some of the success stories, some of the successes you've gotten and why you are doing what you are doing now.

 

[00:49:42.670] - Efe Ohwofasa

When you do, that makes you unique and different in the crowded marketplace, that's what makes you stand out and people want to come to listen to you. Then you can serve with your gifts and your expertise.

 

[00:49:57.460] - Martyn Brown

Yes, some presenters, many of them, in fact, have side hustles or personal projects. What advice do you have for them to balance their entrepreneurial pursuits, if you like, with their broadcasting careers?

 

[00:50:13.560] - Efe Ohwofasa

Structure your day, structure your week, structure your month. What I mean by that is decide which day of the week you should give to your side hustle. Which day of the week should be for your radio or presentation station. You could decide that every Thursday and Friday, I am not doing presenting or radio station. I'm doing my side hustle. You are disciplined, Fridays and Thursdays. You give it your time, you do what you need to do. Then you could decide Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesday is where I show up for my radio station and give my gift and do that. Structure your day. For me, I structure my days in three things. I call it the focus day, the preparation day, and the buffet day. The focus day are the days I do things that gives me money in my business. The preparation day are the days I prepare to do the things that give me money. As a presenter, decide which days of the week you should allocate to your side also thing and you give it all the text. Locate which days of the week you should use for your presenting. Then focus, discipline yourself, and keep at it, and review what works.

 

[00:51:47.170] - Efe Ohwofasa

Then over a period of time you will know what works and you keep at it and you plan your life around those activities.

 

[00:51:55.280] - Martyn Brown

The next question I've had is really about interviewing, and many stations want to bring in a guest. So public speaking and conducting interviews, they require strong interpersonal skills. So what tips do you have for radio presenters to improve their interview techniques and connect with the guests effectively?

 

[00:52:22.240] - Efe Ohwofasa

One, ask the right question. Ask good question. Two, learn how to listen when your guest is talking. When you ask your guests some questions, we have the open and the closed questions. Now, to get your interview session to be very powerful and engaging, ask questions that have to be with what, how, tell me. Questions that would get people to be talking about themselves … then you listen. Now, when you listen, sometimes when the guest finish talking, you need to listen attentively and paraphrase the things they say and ask them, How do you mean? What do you mean by that? An example could be, let's say you're asking the guest about that, about something, and the guest will say, I've got truly picked something, and I said, Without that, I didn't do it. You now say, Okay, how do you mean by being picked up? That guest will not be talking about what he actually meant by those words and phrases. You could find that guest now engaged in trying to explain what they actually meant with that. It's about asking good question, listening and paraphrasing what your guests say, and engaging the guests in something that is more important to them, which is themselves.

 

[00:53:56.630] - Martyn Brown

Can you share any personal experiences or anecdotes from your entrepreneurial journey that radio presenters might find relatable or inspiring?

 

[00:54:09.360] - Efe Ohwofasa

Yes. What I would say is if you don't have a passion for it, don't do it. I love the word passion because fashion is what sustain people in anything, in any industry, in the world. Being a radio presenter or not, if you don't have a passion for it, you will easily get discouraged. So in my own entrepreneurial journey, passion has been one of my secret weapon. Because when you are passionate about it, family members cannot stop you, friends cannot stop you. Because people are very close to you, they have a tendency they can discourage you when you're not making progress at the beginning. But because you're not very passionate about what you are doing, you don't give anything as an excuse. You don't make excuse. The second thing I would say again is to take 100% responsibility for themselves. Be responsible for whatever happened. Do not blame people. Do not blame family members or friends or colleagues. Whatever that has happened, even if it was you that did or not, say, I am responsible. That way of thinking and going about life and taking 100% responsibility about your results in life, it puts you in a better place.

 

[00:55:27.920] - Efe Ohwofasa

It makes you become a leader who is responsible in making decisions, taking actions, and making things happen for them. So as a radio presenter, don't give excuse, take responsibility. If it's a passion, keep at it. If it's not your passion, I promise you you will not last up to 12 or 24 months.

 

[00:55:50.570] - Martyn Brown

And I think the word passion goes throughout the industry because most of the radio presenters, almost all of them now, you notice today that they have got the passion, but they just need the skills. They need to develop certain skills within that passion to help them for the future. So as a motivational speaker, you understand the importance of compelling calls to action. How can radio presenters craft effective call to action messages to encourage listener engagement and feedback? Because so many just don't get the interaction they want. They don't get people writing to them for a request even. How would they do that?

 

[00:56:32.950] - Efe Ohwofasa

Call to action is very important. If you are presenting, if you be talking about something, don't just talk and live away. There should be something you are asking your audience to do, an action for them to take. It could be you telling them, Go to this website and click on this link and buy this thing or listen to this station or do this or go to my Facebook page and join my group. Always have something to ask, something to say by telling your audience what to do next. Don't assume they know what to do. Don't expect they know what to do. Tell them what you want them to do. It could be maybe you have a guest coming up next week, tell them, Please come to the station again next week. Tell them the time. If there is a link they need to go through to register to be part of it, share the link with them. Or if you have a big announcement to make, tell them about the announcements, the date, and have a call to action. For me, when I go to speak to audience, I don't assume my audience know what to do next.

 

[00:57:49.480] - Efe Ohwofasa

I tell them what to do, and I'm going to put it into practice right now. If you are listening to me and Martyn right now, you are a radio presenter, or maybe you are an entrepreneur or a radio station owner, anything you're doing and you are finding it very difficult to find motivation, you don't have a sense of direction, I want to offer you a free breakthrough strategy session with me. It's free because this is my first time with Martyn on the station. During this free session, it's going to be a 30-minute session, there are three things I'm going to help you to do. One, I'm going to coach you to clarify your direction so that you have more energy and know what you are doing. Two, I'm going to help you to uncover any hidden challenge that may be slowing you down, standing in your way, or sabotaging your growth. Number three, you will leave the session renewed, highly motivated to make things happen for you. If you think this will be useful to you, it's free of charge, send me an email at efe@focusguru.com. f-o-c-u-s-g-u-r-u.com. Or you could send me a private message to my direct mobile number, 079 44426005, and I will help you to get forward with your business, with your life, and with your career.

 

[00:59:14.100] - Martyn Brown

Thank you, Efe. that is very kind of you. I didn't know that was coming. That is amazing. And Efe is very busy and there's lots going on. So to get a session with him like that is absolutely incredible. I'll put the details with the video and certainly make them available in the members portal. So thank you, Efe. That is absolutely fantastic. I've got, I think, there's two more questions. May I ask you two more?

 

[00:59:38.830] - Efe Ohwofasa

Yes, please.

 

[00:59:39.780] - Martyn Brown

In your experience, what are the most effective ways for radio presenters so they can leverage networking and collaboration to grow their careers and platforms? Because you're an expert in that.

 

[00:59:55.350] - Efe Ohwofasa

Yeah. First of all, desire to grow. If you don't desire to grow, you will not take action to grow. Then secondly, go out there and ask yourself, Who do I need to know or meet in the industry? Where can I meet them? How can I meet them? And go to these places and actually meet with them. If it's online, connect with them online. If they are on Twitter, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, request their friendship, join the Group they belong to. If there are people you really want to know and meet, whatever they are doing, show a little bit of interest in it, make comments on their post, get them noticed to you. If there are people who you want to meet physically, ask yourself, where do these people meet or go for networking meetings? Where can I meet them? Make an attention. Go to this place and meet them. I will give you a story in my own story about, I think before the COVID, there was this expert, here where I live in Bournemouth, she's a lady, she has a very successful company, and I wanted to network and meet with this lady. First thing I did was to request a friendship with her on LinkedIn and on Facebook.

 

[01:01:15.470] - Efe Ohwofasa

Luckily, yes, it was accepted. Then after some months, I just sent a message to this lady on Facebook. She didn't respond. I get it. She's a woman. I'm a man. She might think, Oh, this guy, is he trying to chat me up? I just select it like that. I was looking for any possible networking meeting that she would attend or any event that she would go to be speaking to a group of people, I want to be part of it. Within a period of three weeks, I noticed she was being invited to speak at an event. What I did, I requested I met the meeting organizer and I said I want to be a speaker at that event. Behold, they accepted me to be a speaker. I went to that meeting, myself and that lady who were speaker. That was how I got to meet her, I got to connect with her, and now we became friends and we do business together. If you want to grow your network, be intentional about it, be proactive about it, go to places, meet people, introduce yourself, get seen, get known. That would really accelerate your business.

 

[01:02:27.610] - Martyn Brown

Incredible. Finally, what advice do you for radio presenters who aspire to become motivational speakers themselves? Quite often I find when I interview people that they're not just radio presenting, that that's not their whole life. They could be an actor, they could stand in front of big audiences doing talks and things like that, so they do other things. So somebody who wanted to do this, how can they transition between the two powerful roles from being presenter to a motivational speaker themselves? What would they do? What steps would they take?

 

[01:02:59.820] - Efe Ohwofasa

They don't necessarily really need to be a motivational speaker to impact the world with whatever message they have. But if they want to become a motivational speaker, they can become it. They should have the desire to make the world a better place with whatever they are doing, and make a decision to be good at it by developing their skill set, and have the desire to actually make a difference in the world with what they do. Then becoming a motivational speaker, it can come along the way. They don't necessarily have to be a motivational… they can be a speaker, they can be a presenter who share message, who share information, who share story that inspire people. It is all about making a difference in the world with the platform they had and with their story, with their message, with their guests in their station, and doing it along the way. Then to become a speaker is a skill set. Stand up and speak to people. It's not something you wake up in one morning and say you want to be a speaker. You learn it. It's a skill set. The truth is when you master the skill set of being a speaker or speak on stage, it becomes child’s play.

 

[01:04:31.300] - Efe Ohwofasa

If you think you need a help to learn the basic public speaking skill, either speaking on stage face-to-face or either speaking to group online, on Zoom, or whatever, I can be of help to you. I could mentor you. I have a speaker training. Again, reach out me on the contact message, Martyn going to share on this page. I will help you to improve and perfect your public speaking skills, learn the techniques of how you could use them to reach a bigger audience, and use public speaking as a skill to promote what you do and people come to you, then you become part of those making a big difference in the world.

 

[01:05:16.720] - Martyn Brown

Thank you for your contact details there, and indeed for the offer earlier on to get involved with you. It's very important. I'm sure many people have watched and listened. We've got the video version of the podcast, and of course, the audio version, and they're inspired by what you've said from your early beginnings, how it's become now to you being very popular, award-winning, entrepreneurial speaker. And it's an amazing story. It's fascinated me ever since I met you.

 

[01:05:46.830] - Efe Ohwofasa

haha

 

[01:05:48.850] - Martyn Brown

Very big thank you for your time, and time is the most valuable commodity anybody can give for us here at Vinel and Impressions Podcast. So thank you very much indeed.

 

[01:05:59.800] - Efe Ohwofasa

Thank you, Martyn. It's been a great pleasure, and I'll say I'm very grateful for this opportunity and I hope you will grow stronger and stronger with your station. Thank you, listener, for listening to us. If you haven't listened to Martyn, check out Martyn with his other businesses. He's a very good friend of mine. He's very good at what he does. Not just good, he's very passionate about supporting people. Thank you, Martyn. It's been a great pleasure knowing you.

 

[01:06:24.340] - Martyn Brown

Thank you, Efe. Bye-bye for now.

 

[01:06:25.870] - Efe Ohwofasa

Bye-bye now.