Hello SABTrends,
I
believe you are having and enjoying your day. It is my aim to help
young folks to achieve their goals. You learn from the experience of others to
kick-start your own journey.
It has been a while since
I bring you another top fish for educative and informative interview. Our Preview interviews were;
Top
bloggers in Nigeria, Entrepreneur, Online marketer and social marketer in person
of Mazino Oyolo Kigho.
Promise
Excel the founder of MaverickExcel was also interviewed on this blog. This interview was also
fantastic. We have also introduced to you a brain box, intelligent, top
blogger, Tunde Sanusi Popularly known as Tuham the owner of NetSocialBlog.
However, our last interview on this blog was with Balogun Muhammad the
brain behind the Sound Health
Doctor Blog. The interview with this Young Doctor was powerful.
Another
big deal today, I introduce to you an amazing writer, Smart brains, content
writer, author and a young man who has the heart to illuminate the world with
genuine information. This young lad is into News Agency, Consultancy, Tutorials
and others. I believe SABTrends will learn from him because as a student of
Prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, he still manage to cover and manage
this large audience.
You know SABTrends will
always bring you what you will learn and gain from. I brought the man today for
you to tell the secret of this agency and he copes with the stressful academics
and also still succeed as a journalist. He is a young man with passion which many
youth in Nigeria should emulate.
Don’t
let me talk too much , my guest is on the seat already. Over to you sir. Let’s
meet the Smart Brains of the day.
1.
Good day sir, Please
kindly introduce yourself to our community. (Education, State of origin, family
background, business, project or whatever you would like us to know about you)
ANSWER: I am
Olubanjo Morenikeji Emmanuel, a part 3 student of Botany, studying at the
Prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State. I hail from Osun
state (Ile-Ife to be precise ), though I live in Lagos where I finished my
primary and secondary school (Towergate private school, Ipaja, Lagos ). I am
from a happy family though the First son of my dad (Mr Olufemi Olubanjo) &
the only child of my mum (Mrs Florence Olubanjo ) but I have step sisters and
brothers (Tope, Victor & Glory ). I
love creativity & always believe I can do my best in changing the world
with little way I can.
My hobbies are dancing, surfing the net &
gisting. In everything I do I also put God first as I believe with him noting
is impossible
2. Tell us about your startup,
SMARTBRAINS.
ANSWER: I
started SMARTBRAINS started year 2013 with the passion in mind to impact
the people .SMARTBRAINS first started then having only one segment (EDU CONSULT ) with the aim to help
student with ease in admission processing majorly in OAU (As it was my major Niche because I school
there ). Then, from 2013 till date there
have been positive increase and change
in the organization, first with the name changing from SMARTBRAINS EDU CONSULT
to SMARTBRAINS CONSULTATION & CO (which now consist of various segments
such as Edu consult, News agency, Blog
segment, SMARTBRAINS TV, Advert & publicity segment etc ) .
In a bid to impart the world in general and
help the students (Majorly those in tertiary institutions or seeking Admission
) SMARTBRAINS CONSULTATION & CO now have representatives/cover about 40
different institutions in Nigeria (e.g LAUTECH
SMARTBRAINS, FUOYE SMARTBRAINS etc while OAU Chapter remains the
headquarter ). We believe we are still
crawling and have more things to cover as we try to balance all the students’
needs with our various segments
3.
How long have you been
into it?
ANSWER: I have
been into running of SMARTBRAINS since when it was started which was August
13th, 2013.
4.
How did you get the
idea for the Platform? What inspired it? What’s up with the nick name “SMARTBRAINS”.
How did it come about?
ANSWER: SMARTBRAINS
idea came one night (2013) at home while I was talking with one of my cousins
,Mr Damilola Eneobong (Who is now A graduate of Petrochemical Engineering , Covenant
University ). We were talking on how to start up something of impacting and be
different from others, so I looked into the tertiary institution sector and I
noticed some students lack information about various things such as admission
processing, happenings on their campuses, etc
I also noticed as students some believed in
just reading with no addition thing which in turn later affect some in the
labour market, with that we looked for ways in balancing all things even as
students such as promoting reading (Edu
consult), keeping student informed (News
Agency), Helping students achieve their dreams e.g a student good at things
can start up and then earn something even as a student (Advert & publicity segment), then lastly as students we should
not forget totally about our social life as some even want to be an artist
etc (SMARTBRAINS TV). Looking into all these, I believe only a SMART
BRAIN can, so that brought about the name but one has to take it a step at a
time (Making we launch the segments one
after the other till date & we still progressing) .
5.
Why did you start this
News Agency Platform? Money? Passion? Hobby?
ANSWER: I
started the news agency as something of passion i.e in a bid to feed the world
& students information as I believe information is power
6. What does your News platform offer?
ANSWER: SMARTBRAINS
NEWS AGENCY offers general news on the
blog & promote campus journalism i.e feeding students in a school with
happenings which some don't get to know themselves e.g in OAU you can't get
campus gist on OAU website which some
fresher’s or aspirants don't know. So in our little way we keep the students
informed & updated about happenings in their school & around the world
in general.
7.
We know how difficult
it is to get traffic to a site. What are the strategies you use to generate
traffic to your site?
ANSWER: SURE, it
is not easy but with consistency and good content with technical research you
can build the page views of your site. I do what I believe in.
8. What were your challenges starting SMARTBRAINS?
ANSWER: My major
challenges then starting were fund and getting a trustworthy team to work with but
with time and God’s intervention, I could overcome that.
9. What is unique about your News
Agency?
ANSWER: Hmmm, I
can say in my agency the most unique things are publishing of real &
factual information (as we don't post just to pull crowd and lead the people
the bad way, we post to feed the people the real info they need to get) also my
news agency cover lot of media platform (I.e in OAU chapter, we cover more than
100 WhatsApp groups, with each having minimum of 100 OAU students & 120
Facebook pages having about 20k Members amidst of other media platform.
10. Do you have people working for you or you do
it alone?
ANSWER: Though,
I started alone but in a bid to impact people the more I have a great team I
work with. Some might call themselves staff but I call them my family.
11. What
three pieces of advice would you give to someone who wants to start his own
business?
ANSWER: My pieces
of advice in three statements are;
1. Setting your goals right
2. Putting God in all plans you have
3. Believing in oneself & be ready to face
challenges.
12. What sacrifices have you had to make to be
where you are right now?
ANSWER: Sure, one
needs to make some sacrifices to keep moving forward, as it's not easy for me
as a student to balancing things, putting in mind my primary assignment is my
education I still have to make some sacrifices of missing some classes
sometimes. Reading overnight in a bid to cover up, using some of my personal
pocket money to finance some of the organization’s projects to keep going etc.
13. How do you combine school and Reporting? What
are the challenges you encounter as a student Pressman?
ANSWER: As a
student journalist, our job is to inform the people with no string attached, so
there are some times I have to miss some lectures to cover the event; as in
SMARTBRAINS we publish things as they are, or standing for more than 3 hours
sourcing for factual information which might be stressful at times. Again, as a
press personality some people look at you anyhow, so one need to be able to
deal with such things to keep going
14. Has it affected your studies in any way?
ANSWER: As
a student of OAU, majorly one can cover things done in class so with this I try
to balance things by reading more sometimes overnight and also making sure I
attend all my practical classes. Also with the help of God, have been moving on
in my academics so I won't really say it affects my studies as I believe there
shouldn't be an excuse for failure.
15. Will you continue
school if your News Platform was to generate, let’s say $5,000 every month?
ANSWER: Lolz. Sure, even though my agency or even the
organization generate more, I will continue my education to the last stage as I
believe it is the best legacy.
16. When
will you say, “yes, SMARTBRAINS is successful”?
ANSWER: We
aren't successful yet as we have been achieving our aims on campuses. Though, I
will say we are fully successful when SMARTBRAINS covers all institutions in
Nigeria and even in Africa then the World in general.
17. How
did you get funding for your platform?
ANSWER: SMARTBRAINS
generates its fund from its segments as some generate little revenues from
their projects e.g the Edu consult gets little money from tutorials even though
we impact the students more by making the tutorial cheap & giving them the
best tutor . Also, we get source from outside (helping hands) or individual
finance from my pocket.
18. What are your plans to take SMARTBRAINS to the
next level?
ANSWER: My plans
are numerous, as taking SMARTBRAINS to a next level which I planned won't be an
easy thing (e.g Having representatives in all institutions, full registration
of the organization etc). With the help of God, SMARTBRAINS will get to its
permanent site.
19. What have been some of your mistakes (personal
or business) and what have you learned from them?
ANSWER: Wow,
sure we learn every day. Even as a CEO I learn from my family (staff) as I
believe no one is an epitome of knowledge, e.g I believe in helping students so
some of my recruits just get little auditioning in which some later misused it
but now I take the audition process serious (i.e limiting people that will be
accepted) which have been paying out well till date.
20. Did you really have any expectations (short
term, long term, financially) when you started SMARTBRAINS? If yes, what were
those expectations?
ANSWER: My short
time expectation was to be a boss of my own which still link to my long term
expectations which one is living fully
on my brand (My organization) and also impacting people all over the world even
in my absence.
21. Do you
have any specific goals to be achieved for the rest of this year?
ANSWER: My goal
this year is to increase and not reducing in brand no matter the challenges and
also been successful in all our planned projects this year covering all
segments.
22. Do you
normally set goals you want to achieve each year for your blog?
ANSWER: Sure, first
thing I do in anything is setting a goal & a target which I use as a guide.
So for my blog I set goals such as minimum daily page views I want to have etc
23. How
would you rate your own News Platform on a scale of 1 to 10 and why would you rate it that way?
ANSWER: I will
rate my agency 7/10 based on the fact
that no one is perfect and we still
are in short of some tools we need still we deliver with the limited
tools we work with and also the journalists/reps of schools in my agency are wonderful.
24. How
would you rate SABTrends’ Blog on a scale of 1 to 10 and why would you rate it
that way?
ANSWER: I will
rate SABTrends’ blog 8/10 as I love seeing creativity & impact. You guys
are wonderful and doing a good job, keep it up & God bless.
Thanks
for the interview sir, I really appreciate.
Thanks
for the opportunity given to this blog to interview you.
I really appreciate this .Thanks again and Godbless sabtrends
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome Mr Lee
DeleteIt is a pleasure having you on SABTrends Blog.
You contribution is also appreciated.
Thanks