The Familiar Spirits

"Here we go again." I thought in my mind when we began having a conversation about a partnership with one of the banks in Nigeria.

Even though we were having an interesting conversation, I was struggling to hear what this lady was saying. I mean, the struggle was real and it also brought back a lot of memories.

Call it beef but when I was younger in my career, I used to have an issue with people who spoke too much English. For example, before I joined Utiva, my colleague and I went to the headquarters of an Insurance Company to discuss the communication strategy for the launch of our new partnership.

5 minutes into the conversation, I was already playing with my pen - a sign that I was off - and was not throwing in any meaningful ideas. The lady, being a communications expert noticed this and she expertly switched and told her story of how she had spent so much time in the UK and was pretty used to talking fast. We even went as far as communicating in pidgin, however ragged, and it was sweet!

I also remember one of my clients when I was in the agency, a marketing manager at one of the biggest leisure group in Victoria Island. She was so eloquent but too fast in speaking, and I often misunderstood her communication until I got the key - CONFIDENCE.

I realized that even though these folks have bri-ish accents and seem high up there, I have so much value to give and that is why we're having a conversation. This is what I do since then: I put my chin up, put on a smile and speak with the confidence of a royal.

Familiar spirits for me were the 'IJGB accents' that used to throw me off but today, I can confidently say I've overcome because I now have meetings with folks from diverse backgrounds and nationalities across the world. I also get to put on my tush coat of accent whenever the occasion calls even though, a Yoruba man will always be a Yoruba man ??

What are your own familiar spirits and how do you respond to/overcome them, whether professionally or otherwise?