Coach Toby Jonah

Once saw someone talk boldly about business in private, but become strangely restrained the moment it is time to post their offer online.

They knew their product was useful, they had real people who needed it, and they even wanted more sales, but you could feel them shrinking because they did not want to look desperate online.

Shame wear them agbada!

This explained why many good businesses remain stuck for too long.

It is not always because the offer is weak or the market is dead.

Sometimes the real problem is that the owner feels embarrassed to keep talking about what they sell.

They start worrying about what people will think, how many times they have mentioned it, or whether they are starting to look too forward.

So they post once, go back into hiding, and hope the market will somehow remember them.

But business does not usually reward that kind of hesitation.

People are busy, distracted, forgetful, and often slower to act than you expect.

Many of them need to see your offer several times before they understand it properly, trust it enough, or finally decide that the time is right.

That is why embarrassment or shame can be expensive in business. It can stunt your growth in a way you'd never really see coming.

It makes people underexpose what could have grown, and then they misread the weak response as proof that nothing is working.

If what you sell is useful, honest, and well thought out, then speaking about it repeatedly is not something to be ashamed of.

It is part of the work.

A lot of growth is delayed, not because the market rejected the business, but because the owner became too self conscious to stay visible long enough.

Keep refining your message, keep showing the offer, and stop treating repeated visibility like a personal offense.

Many people do not need less selling from you.

They need more reminders from you.

If you want to build muscles, lift weights.

Toby Jonah

A while ago, I watched someone complain that posting was pointless because nothing seemed to be moving for them.

They had shown up for a few days, made a few offers, and already sounded tired of the whole thing.

What struck me was not that their product was bad.

It was that they expected the market to respond before the market had even fully noticed them.

That is one of the biggest mistakes people make when they sell online.

They mistake early silence for rejection, when in many cases it is just delayed attention.

People are distracted, skeptical, busy, and often not ready the first time they see what you do.

Sometimes they need to see you explain it again in a different way.

Sometimes they need to watch you stay consistent long enough to trust that you are serious.

Sometimes they are interested, but life simply gets in the way and your next post becomes the reminder that brings them back.

This is why you keep posting about what you sell.

Not because every post will convert immediately, but because repeated visibility helps people understand, remember, and believe.

If what you offer is useful, then staying visible is part of serving the people who may need it later.

A lot of good offers die too early because the person selling got discouraged before the audience had enough chances to respond.

Keep posting, keep refining the message, and keep giving the market enough opportunities to meet what you have.

Mme diongho k'imemme (I know it's not easy)

But...

If you want to build muscles, lift weights.

~ Toby Jonah

I attended an ads class recently, and one thing the teacher said stayed with me long after the session ended.

She mentioned that she uses ₦30,000 as her daily ad budget, and while explaining how to judge performance, she made the point that sometimes you need to let an ad run for about 24 hours before deciding what is happening.

If the results are not good enough, you make the necessary adjustments and run it again. In practical terms, that means an ad may need 48 hours of testing before you can make a proper decision.

There was nothing wrong with what she said. In many cases, that is exactly how ads work.
What struck me was the financial meaning of that advice for the average small business owner sitting in that class.

At ₦30,000 per day, 48 hours of testing is already ₦60,000 spent. Stretch that test into a third day, which happens often in real life, and you are looking at ₦90,000 gone before the business has even found a stable winner.

That is the part many people do not think through properly.

When ads are taught, the conversation usually stays around testing, creatives, copy, targeting, conversion, and performance.

All of that matters, but there is another issue underneath it that small business owners need to understand clearly, and it is this: paid advertising is not just a skill issue. It is also a financial readiness issue.

A lot of businesses want to run ads because they want faster sales, more reach, and more customers. That part is understandable. The problem is that many of them enter the process without enough room to absorb the cost of learning what works.

And ads do require learning.

Sometimes the first creative does not connect. Sometimes the offer is not strong enough. Sometimes people click, but the landing page does not convince them. Sometimes the audience is fine, but the message is too weak to move them. Sometimes nothing is badly broken, yet the business still needs more spend before the pattern becomes clear.
That is why testing can be expensive, especially for smaller businesses with tight margins.

If a business owner cannot comfortably afford the testing phase, every disappointing result will feel heavier than it should.

AI will not replace musicians.

But musicians who understand AI will quietly replace those who ignore it.

In Nigeria, we respect the grind. From Wizkid to Burna Boy to Davido, every generation that blew had one thing in common. They adapted early.

From Alaba CDs to streaming. From Instagram to TikTok. The smart ones moved with the shift.

Now AI is here.
Not to replace talent.
But to multiply it.

Write faster. Test hooks quicker. Create better rollouts. Understand your audience deeper. Move at speed.

Because today, speed is leverage.

This is disruption. It does not shout. It quietly raises the standard until those who refuse to adapt start playing catch up. And sometimes, catch up is too late.

This goes beyond music. Designers. Writers. Media buyers. Entrepreneurs.

The future is not man versus machine.
It is man with machine versus man without machine.

Choose wisely.

⚠️You don’t need to “find your niche” before you start posting.
You need momentum.

Post random thoughts.
Post consistently.
Build the muscle first.

Call it a Random Thoughts Series (RTS).
7 days. 10 days. 30 days.

Clarity comes after consistency, not before.

Just start.

I’m still basking in the love y’all showered me on my birthday. I don’t even want to forget or move on in a hurry. Thank you so much.

I realized the algorithm loves a consistent mess more than an inconsistent perfection.
If you’re just starting out on your content journey, this will help you get started.

If you’ve been planning your content for years and somehow you still don’t show up, it’s time to flip the script. Stop overthinking, stop waiting for perfect. The content that connects isn’t always the content that’s planned.

As I write to you, I also write to myself.

I hope this helps.

I realized the algorithm loves a consistent mess more than an inconsistent perfection.
If you’re just starting out on your content journey, this will help you get started.

If you’ve been planning your content for years and somehow you still don’t show up, it’s time to flip the script. Stop overthinking, stop waiting for perfect. The content that connects isn’t always the content that’s planned.

As I write to you, I also write to myself.

I hope this helps.

#

Let’s talk honestly about ads for a moment.

When a business owner says, “I have ₦10k–₦20k for ads”, what usually isn’t clear is this:

👉 Is that ad spend
👉 Or payment for the service
👉 Or both combined

Because if ₦20k is meant to cover strategy, setup, testing, monitoring, optimization AND the actual ad spend, then the math simply doesn’t work anymore.

An ad manager still has to:
• Research your audience
• Create or guide creatives
• Set up campaigns properly
• Monitor and optimize daily
• Report results

Now ask this honestly:
If the manager takes even ₦10k for their work, what happens to the ad budget?
And if the full ₦20k goes into ads, how is the manager compensated?

With rising costs, tighter competition, and platforms prioritizing data and testing, ads now need room to breathe to perform.

This isn’t about greed on the ad manager’s side
And it’s not about business owners being unserious either

It’s simply the reality of the economy and how digital advertising now works.

Understanding this helps both sides:
✔ Business owners set realistic expectations
✔ Ad managers deliver better results
✔ Everyone avoids frustration

Ads work best when strategy, skill, and budget are clearly separated and respected.


AdsThatConvert EntrepreneurshipNG BusinessOwnersNG
MarketingReality GrowYourBusiness

Most ad platforms are quietly phasing out detailed targeting.

Before, running ads felt like operating a control panel —
“Target cooks… target chefs… target kitchen lovers… target people who watch cooking shows…”

That era is gone.

Not because it didn’t work, but because platforms now make the decisions for you.
You set your ad, choose location, maybe age range — and the algorithm says:
“Relax, I’ll find your people.”

And yes, it works.

But here’s what most people miss:

👉 Targeting still matters.
It just doesn’t happen inside Ads Manager anymore.
It happens inside your creative.

The algorithm finds people.
Your message decides who responds.

If you sell to mothers, your content should sound like something only a mother would stop for.
If you sell to freelancers, they should hear themselves in your headline.
If you sell kitchen wares, start with:

“If you cook every day, you’ll understand this…”

Instantly, the right people lean in.
They feel seen.
The algorithm notices—and goes to find more of them.

That’s the new targeting.
And it’s powerful.

Don’t try to speak to everybody.
Speak to your person.

Ads that feel like a mirror win.

Use their language.
Their reality.
Their frustrations.
Their hopes.

This isn’t just marketing.
It’s connection.
It’s understanding the human behind the data.

And today, that’s your real leverage.

If you want to build muscle, lift weights.
If you want to run better ads, speak to real humans.

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