The best moment in my marketing career was an embarrassment. In 2021, I had a client I was helping with LinkedIn. She was a foreigner, an expat. Our first meeting was at Serena Hotel where we discussed the project, expectations, and deliverables.
On our second meeting, the next week, she came with her husband. And it was he who humbled my perceived expertise in marketing. He told me he viewed my LinkedIn profile and was impressed.
Then he tried to engage me in a conversation that ranged from human behavior (psychology), Lehman Brothers (banking and economics), Rory Sutherland, a TV show called Mad Men (advertising), and other topics I barely kept up with.
To his surprise, it turned out I hadn’t heard about Rory Sutherland or watched the Mad Men show -which is kind of like you claim to be a Christian but you haven’t heard of Moses or read Paul’s letter to Corinthians.
He expected me to have the sophistication of someone who is well-read and has a complex sense of perception. Or at least live up to the impression he made of me from LinkedIn.
I learned a precious lesson that day. A lesson I later discovered the masters of delivery such as comedians know very well.
How comedians deliver battle-tested jokes that land
In The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel uses the example of comedians to describe the concept of tail events in investment. He says:
No comedic genius is smart enough to preemptively know what jokes will land well. Every big comedian tests their material in small clubs before using it in big venues.
Chris Rock was once asked if he missed small clubs. He responded:
“When I start a tour, it’s not like I start out in arenas. Before this last tour I performed in this place in New Brunswick called the Stress Factory. I did about 40 or 50 shows getting ready for the tour.”
One newspaper profiled these small-club sessions. It described Rock thumbing through pages of notes and fumbling with material. “I’m going to have to cut some of these jokes,” he says mid-skit.
Practice, practice, practice
Enviably articulate people were not born that way. They take a crazy amount of preparation before they deliver their message to us.
The Dave Chappelle you see on YouTube is hilarious and flawless. But the Dave Chapelle that practices in smaller clubs, or in his room is just OK.
In his words, Neil DeGrasse Tyson ( a master of delivery himself) said on Masterclass that 90% of the words that come out of his mouth publicly —he has written them before. They existed in written form first, which allowed him to organize his thoughts before someone judged him in that instant.
“You need to be 10x prepared in order to make it look like you did not need to prepare at all. To make it look like you just walked in and start flowing”
The stakes are high when it comes to presenting before an audience. It doesn’t matter whether you are a priest, comedian, a general in the army, CEO, or a school teacher. The rules for impactful delivery still apply.
Practice, practice, practice.
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Valuable content has already been shared. Just Google or ask an AI and you will get it all.
“But I have picked a niche” you may argue. Yes, but so do 1000 others. Do you think they are not sharing valuable content like you do?
Also, people know a lot more than you think. So simply sharing valuable information does not work. Your content may be welcome but it rarely helps you achieve what you want. Which is building a name.
What is valuable content anyway?
Valuable content is anything you share that others, the audience you talk to, may find useful.
A quotation from Nelson Mandela or Tony Robbins is valuable information. But can you expect to gain anything from sharing that?
The gurus will tell you that all it takes to build a name is to share valuable content. But what they don’t tell you is that valuable content in itself may not help you build a personal brand. Because, like I said, valuable information is all over the internet.
You have to share valuable content that can be accrued to your name. So you can reap the benefit of recognition and ultimately make money out of it.
A good test to whether your insights can be accrued to you is this; if we remove your name and give the content to someone else to share, will people notice something is off?
If somebody else can own your content and nothing happens, then you two have been merely sharing valuable information.
Look at people who share startup trends or motivation, they amass engagement but their brand authority remains weak. They struggle to monetize their efforts. Why? They simply share valuable information that is all over there.
Bring a different perspective
People know a lot more than you think. But you may gain their attention by helping them see what they already know from a different perspective. Be someone who sees what everyone is seeing but thinks what everybody isn’t.
It is not enough to share valuable information. You have to be effective. You want to leave an impression in someone’s mind, not a simple agreement because you said something obvious.
Try costly signalling
Anything a person says or does that involves cost tends to inspire trust. For example, humor is a very expensive skill. If you can make people laugh while sharing something, you easily stand out. Can you share valuable content in a humorous way?
Another example of costly signaling is being a contrarian. Share unpopular opinions on what is known to be the case. Just like what I’m trying to do here. I am challenging the popular advice of “share valuable content.”
In this post, I tried to signal that I am an observant person. I tried to explain a pattern I observed at the gym and how it manifests in other life instances from business to politics and scammers.
Stand out with a personal experience
We recently wrote an article at my agency that resonated with many business owners. What is unique about the article is that it is not generic best practices or how to grow a business online. It is packed with experience-based, not Googable tips. Nobody can own what you personally experienced. So try to weave personal experience into the known valuable information you share.
No random person from the internet can claim to have been here and share the experience of what was being discussed. Only me, because it is my experience.
Do not share valuable content
Be opinionated, connect the dots, and share experience-driven insights. Writing for authority has moved from sharing the general “5 ways to do it, or three ways not to do it”, hacks and steal this or that. We are now into opinionated and experience-driven posts. Things that nobody can just take and make their own.
LinkedIn saved my career life. Without it, I would be somewhere; possibly unknown, jobless, and broke. This is my story of how LinkedIn helped me escape Tanzania’s endemic unemployment.
Before joining LinkedIn, I was an endangered candidate. Like the Black Rhinos at Ngorongoro, my chances of surviving the job market were about to go extinct. My degree was no longer a big deal.
Coming from overlooked interiors of rural Tanzania, I had zero connections in corporate TZ. Having attended chronically underfunded and overpopulated schools, I stood little chance in the competitive job market. In short, I suffered a severe Network Gap.
Things changed when I turned to this wonderful invention called the Internet. With the internet, a dim light began to materialize inside my career tunnel.
A laptop and the internet provided me with what Jesus would say “Upon these tools, you shall build your career”. Digital skills are the rocks upon which careers are now built.
So I started learning one digital skill after another, mostly in marketing and advertising.
From content writing to copywriting, graphic design (Canva), web design and development (WordPress), Facebook Ads, and more. I was not going to leave any stone unturned. Specializing or niching would come later. But at that moment, I was determined to be someone who covered many angles in digital marketing.
I built (and still building) a skills arsenal that not only made me competitive in the local job market but also the international started to take notice.
Today, things look more promising about my career trajectory than I was in 2020. And the best part? Since 2020, I’ve never had someone to tell me;
When to be at work
What to wear
How to behave
All thanks to LinkedIn. I am now the most followed Tanzanian marketer on the platform. With over 36,200 followers. What this has brought is I haven’t sent a job application since 2020. I get reached out, not me reaching out.
In the system that works by who knows you, I made myself known through the power of writing online, showcasing my skills, and mastering the art of self-promotion.
If your life is anything like mine, coming from a family with limited resources in a third-world country, then what you want in life will not come to you in a linear fashion. And the unemployment rate in your country will only keep going up. The government will do nothing, as usual.
You have to pick your cross and stumble up the career hill. By which I mean take career matters into your own hands. Learning digital skills is a great place to start. And you have everything to start, like the tool you are using to read this message.
Untapped potential
But despite its potential, LinkedIn is the least used social media platform in Tanzania. It is a bit intimidating to many. I bet this is also the case if you come from a developing country. People haven’t woken up to these online opportunities. They are busy finding jobs in the old, super competitive way.
Your social media pages are not just a mere presence for likes and all; they’re a potential paycheck.
Most Tanzanians who would benefit from the platform (students, graduates, professional workers, founders) either don’t know of its existence, don’t believe in its potential, or think it is simply a place to find a job. LinkedIn is more than that.
As of August 2023, there were 1,171,000 LinkedIn users in Tanzania. This accounted for 1.7% of the country’s population.
If you’re into numbers, this may not seem significant from a country of 60+ million people. But this isn’t just any number. It is an exclusive subset of the Tanzanian population.
Your employer on LinkedIn.
Your client is LinkedIn
Insightful conversations happen on LinkedIn
Knowledgeable people to work with on a project are on LinkedIn
On LinkedIn, you will be standing in front of an audience full of potential.
When I launched my book in late 2023, I used the platform to promote presales and made TZS300,000 in two days. After launch, I reached a total of TZS1.4 million in two weeks. We recently expanded to provide domain and hosting services. So far, we copy-pasted some 13 customers who already trust me. Thanks again for actively creating content on LinkedIn.
Imagine if I was a silent scrolling ghost unknown to anyone. Would I have sold?
Getting started on LinkedIn
If I were to start from ZERO on LinkedIn, this is how I would get to 6000 followers in less than a year:
First, you have to do the necessary job of getting your content in front of people. Make sure you post not less than three times per week. You can go on the offense by showing up daily.
Send at least 300 personalized connection requests in four months. An example of a personalized request that gets accepted; 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰 𝘚𝘩𝘶𝘬𝘶𝘳𝘶! 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰! 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 🙂
Camping on the comment sections of medium size accounts. What you want is ‘association’. If people associate you with one or two established creators then you join their ranks. I would avoid big accounts because the author may not see your comment. You want someone where the chance of getting a reply is high.
Build a platoon of supporters. You need a team of at least five people to fight and bleed with you on the digital frontline. With these people, you support each other’s journey online.
And that’s it. Growing on social media is actually putting yourself in front of people. Be prepared to face criticism here and there.
Ok, before you go, allow me to insist on this; If the system works by ‘Who Knows You, then you have to make yourself KNOWN. This doesn’t mean going out of your way trying to please people so they include you in their circle. No. Let your talent speak volumes.
The people they know don’t have the skills and talent you have. That’s where you come in, my friend. Let the world know you for what you bring to the table (expertise). Don’t be resentful and say “Ah they give it to themselves”
There’s a way you can get in the game. LinkedIn is a good place to do so. You can go from an unknown nobody to someone whose talent people have seen, heard, and know.
If the policy you make for others isn’t going to imminently impact you as well, you shouldn’t be making policies. Take the machinga problem in Dar es Salaam for example; the machinga understands something about people that policymakers either overlook or don’t understand.
They (machinga) understand that humans are irrational and you can predict their irrationality. Most people end up buying something they didn’t plan to buy.
What a machinga does is interfere with people on their way to or from their daily routines. They position their products where there’s high foot traffic and with some persuasion, you will find yourself buying something you didn’t plan to.
Machinga are the equivalent of those annoying digital ads you come across while browsing the internet; from YouTube ads, to website display ads — they are all machinga interfering with your online experience.
So when policymakers or city planners who are not machinga come up with a Machinga Complex project, a facility where all machinga should be allocated, they miss a big point. They assume that humans are rational creatures who will make a conscious decision to go and buy a collection of random nonessential things.
Organizing machinga that way so you can easily tax them sounds good. But doing so means killing their business. They will go to that place, which has no foot traffic, and spend the whole day without making a single sale. They will eventually abandon the building and you will find yourself with the same machinga problem and wasted money on a useless project.
So what’s the solution
City planners and policymakers have been thinking small about this. They usually have the wrong question when they ask “How do we solve the machinga problem in Dar es Salaam?”
They have been trying to solve a wrong problem, which is why all solutions never work and they resort to using police force to chase the machinga away.
We never had a machinga problem in Dar es Salaam. We have a poverty problem. One sure sign of whether a country is poor is when throngs of petty traders suffocate its cities. This is a grim reality we have to grapple with.
The right question for the authorities would be “How do we increase economic opportunities in rural areas so that young people won’t swarm the city in search of better economic options?”
You create the machinga problem in Dar es Salaam when you fail to subsidize smallholder farmers in rural areas. Or when you provide rural dwellers with mediocre infrastructure. Mind you, umeme “umepita” vijijini, wengi wanaona nguzo tu.
The reason I’m here in Dar is that, like thousands of other young people, I looked around my village and saw dark days ahead. It is not fun staring into the unknown next week not knowing how you will make aftatu. You will eventually conclude “Cha kufia nini, bora niende mjini”.
At least in the city, you can make a dollar per day engaging in petty trading.
Dar es Salaam is projected to reach 10 million people by 2030. It will be a stampede trying to solve the machinga problem by then.
Entrepreneurship is a journey filled with highs and lows. Sometimes, all it takes is a bit of cinematic inspiration to reignite that entrepreneurial flame.
Here, we’ve curated a list of six movies every founder, creator, or freelancer watches. You’ll not only enjoy but also learn invaluable lessons and motivation for navigating the unpredictable waters of entrepreneurship.
Grab your popcorn!
1. The Social Network
Discover the genius behind Facebook’s Rise
The Social Network is a fascinating story behind the creation of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg’s relentless pursuit of his vision and the challenges he faced make this film a must-watch for budding entrepreneurs. The film explores the entrepreneurial spirit, shedding light on the complexities of startups and the determination needed to overcome obstacles.
The internet’s not written in pencil, Mark, it’s written in ink.
Erica Albright
2. Joy
Empowering entrepreneurs with grit and resilience
Joy is a powerful narrative of a woman’s journey from adversity to triumph. Jennifer Lawrence portrays the tenacious Joy Mangano, a self-made businesswoman who transforms her life by inventing the Miracle Mop. The film beautifully captures the entrepreneurial spirit, emphasizing the importance of resilience, creativity, and unwavering belief in oneself.
Don’t ever think that the world owes you anything, because it doesn’t.
Rudy Mangano
3. Wall Street
Navigating the ambiguous world of finance
Wall Street delves into the cutthroat world of finance and the pursuit of success. The iconic character Gordon Gekko, portrayed by Michael Douglas, embodies the drive for wealth and power. For entrepreneurs, the movie serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of unchecked ambition and the importance of ethical business practices.
Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.
Gordon Gekko
4. Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year
Celebrating honesty and integrity in business
This Bollywood gem tells the story of Harpreet Singh Bedi, an unconventional salesman. This film stands out for its emphasis on ethical business practices and the value of honesty in entrepreneurship. It’s a refreshing take on success that inspires entrepreneurs to build their ventures on integrity.
Customer ke liye hum customer se jyada kuch nahi, aur employee ke liye hum company se jyada kuch nahi.” (For the customer, we are nothing more than the customer, and for the employee, we are nothing more than the company.
5. Pirates of Silicon Valley
Chronicles of tech titans: Jobs vs. Gates
For tech entrepreneurs, Pirates of Silicon Valley is a riveting exploration of the fierce rivalry between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. The film captures the birth of the personal computer revolution, offering insights into the determination, innovation, and strategic thinking that fueled the success of these industry titans.
We’re not pirates. We’re not stealing, we’re extending a hand to them. We’re saying, ‘Join us. Invent your future with us.
Steve Jobs
6. The Pursuit of Happyness
From struggle to triumph, a tale of perseverance
Will Smith’s portrayal of Chris Gardner is a heartwarming tale of resilience and determination. Gardner’s journey from homelessness to a successful career on Wall Street serves as a testament to the power of perseverance. This film is a motivational compass for entrepreneurs facing adversity.
You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can’t do it. You want something? Go get it. Period.
Chris Gardner
So there you have the list of business epics every entrepreneur watches. These movies not only entertain but also provide valuable insights and motivation for entrepreneurs. Whether you’re navigating the complexities of a startup, seeking inspiration for ethical business practices, or craving a dose of perseverance, these films offer a diverse range of lessons.
Where to Watch?
You can find these movies on popular streaming platforms such as Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Max, and more. Go and have some valuetainment!
