Today we have selected Temple Obike To to take his interview. He is the Founder and CEO of Brand Envoy Africa (BEA), an advertising and marketing agency.
First of all, how are you and your team doing in these COVID-19 times?
It’s such an interesting time to be alive and thankful. God has been good, and business has improved despite the global ups and downs.
Tell us about your career and how you founded or joined this company?
My name is Temple Obike, and I’m the Founder and CEO of Brand Envoy Africa (BEA), an advertising and marketing agency with a presence in Nigeria and Ghana. I’m an author, a certified Life marriage & family counselor & a psychotherapist who has learned to use my innate understanding of humans and their thought patterns in positioning brands in the marketplace. I founded BEA in 2015 because I wanted a space for myself and future “teamsters” to be innovative without restrictions or bureaucracy. In our first year of business, we were blessed to have been selected as one of the few agencies that handled mobile and online campaigns for the Nigerian presidential campaign. This came as a result of some note-worthy campaigns we had all been part of in our former places of employment. A real morale-booster it was for my team and me, giving us the confidence to innovate and squeeze our colors out as a company. https://www.linkedin.com/in/templeobike/
How does your company innovate?
A company is only as good as the people within its ranks. We have never shied away from positive change or transformation in our personal lives. We develop our knowledge base daily, follow niche thought leaders, curate processes that work, and are ALWAYS puppy-like in our curiosity to discover more.
I have taught all my team members that value is not chased after. You will always attract what you are prepared for, and if something bigger comes your way, you can apply yourself and upgrade to a higher version of yourself to accommodate it. This has also been applied to my work life. We upgrade via continued learning, attract value and then repeat the process.
How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?
It affected our business positively because while some of my team members lost their side projects, they still had Brand Envoy Africa. When my partner Jade Obike and I had to make some hard pay-cut decisions, amongst other things, the team was there to support us. This made it easy for us all to cope at the peak of the lockdown periods and throughout the entire period. The negative effect was also profound as we were limited to digital campaigns at the time. We’ve all adapted, and so have our clientele to this new norm.
It was also our day of positive reckoning, and I’ll explain. My team from inception has always worked for 3 days weekly at the office premises, with the remaining 2 days used for their projects while still being remotely available for our work if required. I arrived at this decision because creativity is important to harness, especially if you use it on specific projects week in and week out. In contrast, when given time to express themselves personally, creative people automatically connect with their core. The results of this freedom I gave team members always generated excitement at the office come Monday mornings as the office became some Show-and-Tell center. This corporate culture helps us all bond and motivates our interns to aspire toward becoming more.
Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons?
Personally, the difficult choice of taking a massive personal pay cut and deciding on what was necessary and what wasn’t affected all of us. However, with this situation, I learned that taking a 90% pay cut opened my mind to other novel means to provide for my family and dependents. The universe hates a hand that holds back because all you would have done is miss an opportunity to attract more into your life. Most importantly, we are happy and grateful to have a young growing business still.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to navigate this crisis?
Zoom and google meet for meetings, we transfer/google drive for sharing files, and Join community network groups for quasi-human feedback considering the need for social distancing.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Every day, I compete with yesterday’s success. As difficult as it is to practice, I have always forced myself these past years to stay focused on personal/career development & refining service offerings. That’s how you stay in the game.
Your Final Thoughts
Well, it’s been a tough epoch globally, and this was an issue many were not prepared for. As a businessman, I say “Fall Seven Times, Rise Eight,” but as a psychotherapist, I say, “Be like my dear friend the palm tree, bend when the wind is fierce and AttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricacome back up when it passes.”AttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAttentionAfricaAfrica
- Spokesperson: Temple Obike
- Company: Brand Envoy Africa
- Website: https://brandenvoy.mobi