Personal Development

September 6, 2020

How to Conduct a Training Session on WhatsApp

The Notice

Learning is always fun and this past week, I had an interesting opportunity to do just that as I was invited to mentor a group of about 120 people on WhatsApp. It’s a relationship hub but for some reason they wanted to hear about money, business and investments and they chose me because they saw my thought provoking video with the title – What if you don’t get a job.

Timothy Inyang came up with the idea and did an excellent job bringing it to life. He informed me about the session a few hours before it was to begin so I quickly gathered my thoughts on what to share with them.

Timothy I. – The facilitator

Getting Ready

I joined the group via the link provided and was made an administrator so that all other participants could be restricted from sending messages while I was speaking or sharing content. The plan was for everyone to be free to comment and ask questions at the end of my pitch. This may work for some people, but as I observed the first teacher and the quietness in the group, I decided I wanted a more interactive session.

The Right Picture

When it was my turn, the facilitator introduced me and shared my picture on the group. This is a good way to let the participants know who they would be listening to and set their expectations accordingly. So don’t take this for granted. Let the introduction clearly highlight your roles, achievements, profile and make sure the picture is on point. Remember, as you dress, so will you be addressed. On WhatsApp, your picture is what people judge.

The picture I used

Find Your Voice

Once the introduction was done, I asked everyone to write out their comments and questions as we went along so I could easily read them. I also opted for a combination of text and voice notes in sharing my content. There’s something about speaking that makes communication more effective and impactful than it is when you write. It allows people to hear your tone, observe your emphasis, and feel your passion and excitement in a way that mere text cannot convey.

Too much energy…..

Data Bank

In case you have pictures to share, save them in a folder or album that you can easily attach them from. Pictures speak volumes but you must be mindful of your audience; too many voice notes and pictures, and they may run out of data. You could spice things up by announcing upfront a data giveaway to those who engage the most. This could be via questions and comments during the session. Remember to fulfill your promise.

I absolutely enjoyed myself and it’s obvious that I really love empowering others with valuable information. Each opportunity I get to do this is a breath of fresh air.

Wrap up:

So to wrap this up, remember:

Inform the group in advance about the session, ask them to set a reminder on their calendars
Send the group link to all invitees and speakers
Introduce the speaker / mentor when it’s time
The mentor uses text, voice notes, pictures, or short video clips to share
Participants ask questions and the mentor answers
Facilitator wraps up

Introductions are not necessary if the facilitator is also the mentor / trainer, is already part of the group, and is well known to everyone.

I hope you’ll enjoy your first WhatsApp training / mentoring session and will leave a comment about some strategies you use for WhatsApp meetings. Please send me pictures on anietie@bature.com I hope you like the pictures from my session.

Reading a question….

Let me know if this was helpful. Thank you and take care.

Anietie

Life lessons, Personal Development

January 28, 2018

Co-Pilot

He almost got us killed… but a lesson from my dad saved the day. Here’s the story.

I remember my father for many reasons but today I’ll speak of only one. He taught me a valuable lesson that has saved my life on more than one occasion. He said, ‘whenever you sit beside the driver of a vehicle, you must assume the responsibility of a co-pilot’. He said there are hazards along the way that drivers may miss and as co-pilot, you have to timely and calmly bring it to their notice. So, even if every other passenger goes to sleep, you must not.

I took that to heart and even on road journeys that last as long as ten hours, I stay awake the entire time if I am the co-pilot. Sometimes, even when I’m not, in that position, I still remain alert.

Travelling from Minna to Abuja one hot afternoon several years ago, we were in a station wagon taxi and as usual, the air conditioner wasn’t functioning. All the windows were down and a mix of hot and cold breeze made its way through the vehicle as the driver sped on. That road was often lonely until you got to the main express which runs from Kaduna to Abuja.

Sometime into the journey, all the other passengers were asleep and it was pretty calm, then the car began to drift into the other lane and back. From my seat in the middle row, I could see that the driver was battling to stay awake so I began to cough whenever it seemed he was going to close his eyes. Maybe that wasn’t the best thing to do but I succeeded in keeping him awake until we got to the main express and eventually to Abuja.

The second time I experienced this was in the UAE. My entire family was in a taxi that was conveying us from Dubai to Abu Dhabi for a final day of rest before returning to Nigeria. Once again the driver was falling asleep. My husband and I immediately came up with a plan to engage him in a conversation in order to keep him awake. It worked. He told us a lot including the fact that he was in the last four of his twelve hour shift and he was getting really tired. He dropped us safely at the hotel. We could only hope his return leg was safely completed.

I wonder how many lives have been lost in road accidents as a result of driver fatigue. I’m glad I’m not part of that statistic. This is one good lesson to keep in mind and to share with our loved ones.

Stay Safe!

Picture Credit: www.cdc.gov

Anietie

Life lessons, Motivation, Personal Development

September 24, 2017

Joy switch

I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting a rehearsal session can be. It’s like therapy for me and I relied on this a lot while I was in school. No matter how tough the week was, I just had to wait for the next rehearsal. Reminds me of a song from way back that said ‘Music makes me high’. Music is powerful in itself but it’s an even greater blessing when the lyrics edify the hearers.

Fast forward to this time in my life when I can go beyond learning other people’s songs to writing mine and working with skilful instrumentalists to build the musical accompaniment. When you have a good team, you don’t have to say too much. It’s like people who understand music think in a certain way… almost like when you begin to tell the story, they can predict where you want to go and they express it with their instruments. Awesome!

Yeah. It doesn’t feel like work when you do what you are designed to do, what you’re naturally graced to do. It comes so easy and I’m tempted to think that the expression of this gift and the nurturing and polishing of it to make it more effective and impactful is connected somehow to the joy switch in our brains. So when we do those things we become super happy.

I’m glad I have this passion, this gift, this grace… and I’m grateful for the Sunday School teachers, choir leaders, friends, mother and mentors who helped me nurture and hone it in one way or the other. You know, I see an interesting orchestration of events that have brought me to where I am today – the hand of God behind the scenes constantly surrounding me with people I can learn from and opportunities to grow and be better. I think I seized almost all the opportunities that came my way, musically speaking, except the ones that may have taken me completely off the main course of my life.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Everyday we have to make them, and not making them is also a decision. You know the saying by Benjamin Franklin, ‘If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail’.

Well, I hope you know what flips the joy switch on for you and I hope it’s something that adds value to your life and to the lives of others. Finally, I hope you have found a way to make it a regular event in your life. Remember, ‘a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength’*. You might as well use this as an avenue to keep yourself healthier for longer.

*Proverbs 17:22
Picture credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/420805158909527880/

Anietie

Life lessons, Personal Development

August 27, 2017

Blame Game

Sometimes we learn from the craziest situations. What do you do when you’re under pressure? Some people switch to the ‘blame somebody else’ mode and that just saturates the whole place with negative energy. But seriously speaking, the blame game doesn’t help the situation. Here’s an instance.

Our flight was for 7 a.m. I packed the night before and the kids’ luggage were mostly packed; just a few loose items were to be packed in the morning after bath time. My hubby planned to pack by 4 a.m. since he didn’t have much. By morning, he found that a number of those “loose items” needed to go in his luggage and it was clear an hour would no longer be sufficient. Needless to say, departure from the house was at about 5:30 a.m.

We set out, praying as we went. A few times I looked at my wristwatch and thought we wouldn’t make it. It began to rain, visibility was poor and the road was wet. At this point, I thought of the worst outcomes: 1. Drive with caution, which in this case meant slower that we wanted to, and probably miss the flight. 2. Drive faster and risk getting involved in a car crash? NO! Or 3. Drive faster and with luck, get to the airport on time. But when it comes to safety, you can’t rely on luck. So we went with option 1.

You see, he could have blamed us for giving him more to pack than he planned, I could have blamed him for not packing the night before, and I guess we all could have blamed God for the bad weather. LOL. Imagine that! Then we may have argued all the way to the airport, and that may have become so distracting to him that a car crash may have happened anyway. No. We refused to play the blame game.

Dear Grandma S was at the airport waiting. With our heads clear, an idea came to mind. We sent her our booking reference and she helped us complete part of the check in. We arrived on time to do the rest, clear security and board the plane. We made it. Thank God!

Blame games don’t help at all in resolving problems. In the heat of the negativity, you can miss even the simplest of solutions and fail to see your way out of your predicament. Just in case blame-gaming is a major sport for you, change your strategy today. No more blame games!

Picture credit: http://aircraft.myhogan.us/aircraft-taking-off-picture/

Anietie

Motivation, Personal Development

July 30, 2017

Perfect Day

It was time for a seven-seater. A red Ford Explorer, I thought. I pasted a picture of it on the divider in my workspace; right beside my monitor. All of a sudden, it seemed Ford Explorers were everywhere. I finally went to the showroom to closely examine one. It had most of the interesting and exciting features I was looking for but two things made me change my mind – it was too large and it was beyond my budget. A Santa Fe eventually did it for me – everything I desired in the right size and at the right price. Perfect!

So, you! What are you dreaming of? Where do you see yourself in two, five, ten or fifty years? What will you be doing? What would you have achieved by then? What would you like to be known for by then? Ask yourself ‘How do I want my life to be at age 25, 40, 60…?’
‘The path of the just is as the shining light, that shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day’. That’s what a wise king said to his son. We should be getting better and better, continuously progressing toward a pleasant endpoint – the perfect day.
What does your perfect day look like? Imagine it. Dream about it. Make a picture of it and paste it on your mirror or another surface you look at a lot. Even better, make it your screen saver.

Albert Einstein said imaginations are a preview of life’s coming attractions. This is one way we influence our future, a way we make input during the ’roundtable discussion’ of what the future will bring us. If you’re not already dreaming, planning, and imagining your future, I encourage you to start now. If you don’t dream today, you will have to deal with whatever life throws at you. If it’s bad, you can only blame yourself.

DREAM

IMAGINE

VISUALIZE

WRITE IT DOWN

WORK TOWARDS IT

BETTER DAYS ARE AHEAD!

KEEP ON MOVING. DON’T STOP NOW!

Let’s toast to your perfect day and mine. Cheers.

Anietie

Life lessons, Personal Development

June 25, 2017

Jesus Is Lord Service

Jesus Is Lord Service. We call it JILS for short. It’s quite an interesting service that holds about three times a year at the City of David, Eket.

We all take time to prepare… fasting and prayer for sure… and other instructions as God directs. The testimonies are simply amazing.

One lady who attended the JILS of March 2017 shared her testimony today, June 25, 2017. Her son had been afflicted by asthma for a while. During the service, the Pastor mentioned her son’s case amongst other cases. They were all to meet him during the prayer session but being her first time at COD, she didn’t know where the Children’s Church was. She thought – Jesus is everywhere – so she asked Him to locate her son where he was and heal him. From that day till now, they have not had any episode.

Her testimony reminds me of the centurion who met Jesus about his paralyzed servant and when Jesus asked ‘Shall I come and heal him?’, he said ‘Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed’. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go, let it be done just as you believed it would’, and it’s recorded that his servant was healed at that moment. Awesome! Great faith. Great God!

There were more testimonies – healings, supernatural provision, scholarships, and so on.

Miracles still happen.

Have faith. Dare to believe God for a miracle when you need one and if you happen to be in or around Eket during the next JILS, join us.

Right now, you can take your troubles to the Lord in prayer, ask specifically in the name of Jesus, and believe that He will meet your need. He actually gave a personal invitation in Matthew 7:7 & 8 – ‘Ask and it will be given to you… For everyone who asks receives….’

Go ahead, ASK!

Picture Credit: chosenvessel26

Anietie

Life lessons, Motivation, Personal Development

June 11, 2017

Memory Lane 5 – Cakes 2

Memory Lane 4 – Cakes 1

Aha! Cakes! I knew how to make cakes.

Good enough, a kind gesture towards helping a friend make her birthday more memorable had led me to buy the basic cake decorating kit while I still had money. So I thought – if I could make her birthday cake for free and it came out so well, why can’t I do the same for others and get paid?

I designed and printed flyers, and after some weeks of having them in my locker, a friend of mine named Oge, said ‘We have to put them up this night. What are you waiting for?’ So together, we posted all the flyers at strategic locations around campus. It was about a week to February 14, St. Valentine’s Day.

The next night, some guy came to my window. Guys weren’t allowed into female hostels; that restriction came with the territory. He said he wanted a Valentine cake for his sweetheart. He went on and on about how he wanted to make her feel special. I told him the price; he agreed and said he would be back on Feb 13 to pick the cake.

Excited about my first order, I went shopping for consumables and made an extra cake in case someone swung by for a last minute ‘make my babe happy’ solution. Feb 13 came and the guy didn’t show up. What was I going to do? Bongzie, another friend, put a quick end to my misery when she suggested that we sell the cakes at a supermarket in town. We were able to sell one and on Feb 15, she said, ‘We can’t lose the money for this second cake. Let’s cut it up and sell it off piece by piece’. I agreed, and she went from room to room shouting ‘delicious chocolate cake… have a piece. Fifty naira only’ until every piece was sold. With her help, I earned more money than I would have if it was sold as a whole. Now I think about it again. Without these two friends, I may not have overcome those challenges I faced at start up.

I documented the lessons learned from this experience and restrategized accordingly. I offered smaller cake sizes that students could easily afford, took down contact details for each client and didn’t proceed with any order until a down payment was made by the client as a show of commitment.

Orders began to trickle in and I applied my engineering skills in designing colorful cake boxes and in replicating a gas fired oven such that my cakes, though baked in a pot, tasted and had the aroma of oven baked cake. That gave me an advantage and drew more clients to me.

Eventually, I had to maintain a log to enable me track all my orders. I planned my days and weeks in advance to enable me manage my time well and keep from negatively impacting my academic performance. I bought materials in bulk and made additional earnings from retailing eggs and renting out my large pot. My visits to the bank were now more for deposits than withdrawals. I gradually became financially independent and it felt good. I also enjoyed helping people out from time to time when they had a financial need and when it was time to deal with research project related expenses, there was no anxiety.

I maintained this art as a main or side income stream for a while after graduating from the university. I’m ever so thankful to my mum for teaching me to bake and to God for wisdom, strategy, good friends and prosperity.

What skills are you passing on to your kids and younger relatives?

Who are your friends? Do they make you better and vice versa?

Anietie

Life lessons, Motivation, Personal Development

June 4, 2017

Memory Lane 4 – Cakes 1

Yesterday, I went to visit a friend. We chatted for a while and she offered me cake. I said ’em… who baked it?’ and after she replied I proceeded to tell her about how picky I am about cakes and why.

There’s a whole story here. My mother taught all her daughters to bake. In retrospect, she did a good thing by making us acquire this skill because it has come in handy not just for birthdays, Christmas celebrations and other occasions; it has been a tool for survival.

You see, when I gained admission into the university my mum had recently moved to Abuja. We still had our home to maintain in Calabar and being a civil servant, that wasn’t an easy task for her. I had two other siblings in university so you can imagine, finances were spread thin.

I didn’t have the usual pre-university shopping for clothes, shoes, and other supplies. She paid all my fees, gave me pocket money, and that was it. I wore hand-me-downs from my sisters who were bigger than me so I used to say no one should try hugging me because if they did, they risked getting pricked by one of the pins I used to hold those clothes in place.

Thankfully, my self esteem was at an all time high. It didn’t even cross my mind to compare my clothes with what others wore. Schooling in Northern Nigeria also helped, I guess. We had a handful of people who wore kaftans, bubus, and outfits made from Ankara and other African fabrics, so not much pressure.

By the time lecturers started demanding that we buy handouts, I knew I had a problem. My mum sent money from time to time but it was not enough. I first attempted to sell Bic biros but sales were slow and the profit marginal. Some friends and I applied for a scholarship and got it. That helped a lot and things also got better at home over time so I enjoyed myself for a while but in my final year there were some admin issues and we didn’t get paid. At first I didn’t feel it but about the same time, my mum retired.

Retirement? I didn’t know what to expect so I kept on as if nothing had changed until one day, a friend of mine who had gone to Abuja returned with a question from my mum that was a reality check. ‘What did she do with the money I sent to her a few weeks ago?’ At this point, I gave myself a lecture. ‘Your mother has retired. Cash flow has reduced. You must not give her reason to worry or put her under pressure by continuing to ask for money’.

I began to think – what can I do to earn money? What do I know how to do very well? Biros didn’t work. I knew very soon I would be faced with project expenses. I had to find a stream of income… Aha! Cakes! I knew how to make cakes.

To be continued….

Picture credit: www.abujacakes.com

Anietie

Life lessons, Motivation, Personal Development

September 25, 2016

Piano Nanny

Some years back, we bought a piano for our son and got him a teacher. I wanted him to have the opportunity I didn’t have to learn to play at a young age. I looked at the piano sitting there a few times and wondered if I should join him on the journey, but each time I thought about it or even went further to attempt it, I would give up because I imagined I was too old to start learning that now. I wondered when I would become good enough or when I would be able to play like so and so.

A few weeks back, my husband sent me a video of Deshun Wang, an eighty year old Chinese Grandpa who started learning English at age 44, started working out at 50 and did his first cat walk at 79. I realized I had allowed the thought of being too old become my excuse for giving up on learning to play the piano.

After acknowledging my plight and coming to terms with the truth that it’s never too late to start something new, I decided I would try again and just take baby steps… no pressure at all. I moved the piano to my room and found a good teacher online www.pianonanny.com I wonder if this has anything to do with my baby steps plan or it’s just a coincidence. I think they’re absolutely amazing. In today’s world, if you can read, you can learn almost anything online. I’ve asked a friend to check on me from time to time to see if I’m still on it.

So, what’s your story? Is there anything you’ve put off as well for the same reason? Feel free to share and be encouraged to make a fresh start. We can do this!

Picture Credit: http://www.pianonanny.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/PianoNanny-367×103-imagelink.png

Anietie

June 19, 2016

LIKE POLES REPEL

People always talk about ‘chemistry’ in love relationships but who would have thought Physics had a role to play in matters of the heart? “Like poles repel and unlike poles attract… so make sure you marry a tall man”. That’s what my physics teacher said to me one day as he provided clues to help me solve a problem. I laughed and left his office but that word was planted like a seed in my mind. I was going to marry a tall man so my kids would be privileged to see the world from a more elevated perspective than mine. I made sure I didn’t give any guy who wasn’t tall a chance to win my affection.

You see, even in business, we keep the future in mind when considering partnerships. What is the other party bringing to the table? What value will they add? Will they help or hurt the vision of the company? I took time to know myself and identify my deficiencies, then I did my best to become better in areas where improvement was possible, and to be on the lookout for someone who could complement me in those areas I had no control over.

The fact is that no one is perfect, so even in love relationships, we need to keep synergy in mind. No matter how wonderful you are, you should marry someone with whom you can bring about better results, higher returns, more stability, more influence, and so on. Both parties should be better off as a result of the union. Your mate should really bring out the best in you. As iron sharpens iron, couples should sharpen and influence each other toward increased effectiveness.

This goes on throughout the life of the marriage and because we’re thinking as a team with a common agenda rather than as distinct entities chasing our individual ambitions, we draw on each other’s strengths to make us and our family as a whole better.

So here’s a call to you to look out for and maximise synergy opportunities in your relationships and in your life as a whole. Happy Hunting.

Anietie

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How to Conduct a Training Session on WhatsApp

The Notice

Getting Ready

The Right Picture

Find Your Voice

Data Bank

Wrap up:

Co-Pilot

Joy switch

Blame Game

Perfect Day

Jesus Is Lord Service

Memory Lane 5 – Cakes 2

Memory Lane 4 – Cakes 1

Piano Nanny

LIKE POLES REPEL

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