The Esthitude Place

Hi guys, how have y’all been and how has life been in general? Well, I’ve been spending the month of May reading, learning, attending conferences and on a host of other things.

So last week Saturday, I was the Upgrade Conference 2017 which held at Oriental Hotels, Lagos. Y’all must have sensed my love for conferences by now right? (especially when they are great and FREE).

The conference was hosted by Mr. Akin Akinpelu and it held both on Saturday and Sunday. However, I was able to attend only on Saturday and to say that I’ve Upgraded is to say the least.

Circumstances change, what you make of them is what is important.

– Mr. Demola Aladekomo

The conference speakers are great movers and shakers in their field, and there was only a female speaker amongst the speakers of the day, and that’s the amazing Kemi Onabanjo. Some of the speakers at the conference are Gubernatorial Aspirant, Jimi Agbaje; the great Chef, Chef Fregz; IT Geek, Udo Ubong; Mr. Demola of Chams Plc and the Executive Coach, Leke Alder. Did I hear someone scream whoop whoop?

If I were to share my notes from the conference with you word for word, I don’t think this post would be enough for that. So I’m just going to summarize key points from the speakers with you.

Side note: Mr. Alder shared “7 rules of beating Goliath” with us at the conference, but I’ll be sharing that as a blog post on its own, kindly check back for that.

Key Points on Building Yourself, Your Personal Brand and Making Nigeria An Economic Power

• As Nigerians, we must want to be an economic power
• We need to believe in Nigeria for it to grow. Let us see ourselves first and foremost as Nigerians and not just as tribal people
• What three new things have you learned in the past one month?
• Branding is very important; your social media handles is very important. “Remember this point from the last post I wrote?’”
• If you are on leave for three weeks, will your organization miss you?
• Conquer your fear. Don’t be afraid to DO IT AFRAID.
• It’s important to network and it’s so easy to network when you know who you are.
• Plan your life, plan your future. Research into the future, observe future trends.
• Be insanely good at what you do. In this age, merit is used more.
• Upgrade yourself; don’t shortchange yourself.
• Have an idea of what you want to do with your life.
• Actively develop your passion.
• Sometimes you are going to be part of something that is bigger than one person. Be the best at what you do.
• Re-invent yourself; publicize yourself; build skills and expertise.
• Be multi-skilled. Choose least two things, be extremely good at them.
• Don’t struggle in the wrong place. Find your place; find your oasis.

Key Points from Mr. Demola Aladekomo’s Speech: WHAT IS YOUR EXCUSE?

Mr. Aladekomo started his speech by telling us his life story. One major takeaway from his story is: circumstances change, what you make of them is what is important.

• The most successful businesses started with zero capital
• Take risks
• You don’t need to know people before you approach them with your ideas. You don’t need a third party; approach them straight up
• Be bold
• Failures if survived can lead to massive successes if you are focused
• Be proud of your achievements, but be proud in Christ
• When you pioneer something, you dominate
• Make the move

Key Points from Mr. Leke Alder’s Speech

Mr. Alder is someone I think should be categorized in the Solomon’s Category (i.e. in the category of super duper wise men). You cannot seat under his tutelage and remain the same. At a point, I was struggling with listening, learning and writing all at the same time. He is detailed, smart, wise,…( you can borrow me some more English to insert).

• In life, you are only a visionary after you’ve won.
• You don’t need to prove yourself to anyone but yourself
• If your talents and gifts are marketable, you have to put it on a commercial platform
• What is it that you can produce that the market will want? You have to do something to know
• You can’t say you are out of a job, do something
• You have to come to terms with the fact that life is hard. You can’t afford an easy life but you can work to get an easier life
• You need to be mentally tough so that life will not overwhelm you
• Be a maximalist at devotion to everything you do
• There’s no room for excuses in life. As an entrepreneur, do not bore your clients with your failure stories
• You know too much already. It is the ability to use what you know that matters
• Be competitive. Be so focused on excellence
• If you are building a brand, it presupposes quality. Be deliberate about excellence; be attentive to details
• When you are an unknown identity; you cannot just beat the popular identities by a few marks, you need to beat the goliaths mercilessly
• Be persistent: first in your head before outside your head
• Attune yourself to the possibility of unapparent opportunities

I know right, this post is very long. However, I’m sure you must have learned a thing or two.

Watch out for part two of this where I share more of Mr. Alder’s talk at the conference.

Some pictures from Upgrade 2017..

Some pictures from Upgrade 2017..

I couldn’t share plenty pictures with you, ‘cos of the length of the post. I’m sure you don’t mind. Don’t forget to share this post with your friends on the various social media platforms.

Do have a great new week ahead and for those of you that were at the owambes today, don’t forget to send my portion of the beef, chickens, snails, etc. (don’t worry I won’t collect the rice, all I need is the assorteds *grins*). Tenkiu feri mush *in Fal’s voice*