A Sales Pitch to Helping People
By: Adedolapo Olisa
Tags: User Research, Strategy, Ideas, Business, Self Improvement

A Sales Pitch to Helping People

This is a rough draft for how I want to spend a bulk of my time moving forward. It’s a sales pitch to begin building a connected community intentionally and purposefully. I’ll tell you a story of how things clicked, what gave me the language to be clear and admit my laziness but willingness to arise. Maybe you can watch me try and be inspired to do the same.

A few months ago, I came to the conclusion that the root cause for my depression is isolation. Yes, I just admitted to being depressed. I was listening to a podcast by Tim Feriss where he described depression as a feeling one who hasn’t had it before cannot truly grasp and one who has immediately recognizes even with the murkiest of adjectives. Okay, he didn’t say it like that but, I paraphrase!

I’ve been depressed and even now, I am one unsupervised thought away from triggering another bout or at least that is the fear that circles me like Annabelle in the midst of a red ocean with sharks waiting for her to bleed.

Community, Easy, right? Wrong. See, I grew up like Bain in Batman except replace “in the dark” with “in isolation.” My best work, my best thought, my deepest thought, my grandest vision, my truest self thrives in isolation, not darkness, isolation. So I find myself looking for the best combination with isolation. Success and isolated. Popular and isolated. In demand and isolated. Loved and isolated. Wealthy and isolated. Leader and isolated. Sexy and isolated. Friendly and isolated. Joyful and isolated. Even Christian and isolated.

Naturally I don’t think some of these combinations are logical or feasible but that hasn’t prevented me from the circular pursuit of them however many times I arrive back where I started like Christopher Columbus. It’s a merry go round that keeps me merry as long as I am moving.

Today, I listened to two podcasts. One about how Tim Feriss built his brand and the other about leadership. The key take away from Tim was that, like I am finding, like I am applying, failing is key. The only difference between uber “successful” people and the vast majority is that they created or someone else created conditions that enabled them to fail almost infinitely and when they reach the inflection point or the point of no return for most, they find ways to expend other things when they run out of the currency that is the limit for most.

In other words, if you spend all your money trying to no avail. Right when you spend your last and decide to be done, realize you can now spend your time, your health, your sanity. Not saying you should but know this — no one is ever out of time, money and knowledge. You typically have at least one. Usually two. You can also add health into that list.

Second thing he taught me was combining focus with efficiency is quite potent. The single biggest determinant of success at least logically, is making sure the people that ought to care, the people with the pain you can relieve, care. Anyone else that doesn’t care or hates your solution or just plain doesn’t comprehend it, doesn’t matter. A vast majority of time, we spend so much time seeking the approval of people that don’t matter and largely don’t care.

Before we go into business let me tell you what that looks like personally. I often times describe what I look for in a woman in three words — godly, sexy, smart. To be honest, sexy and smart aren’t really for me. They are for the eyes that will see us together and see us build together. Really all I care about is godly. But I am still enslaved to the notion of being accepted in isolation. I want to post a pic with my girl and be liked by so many people so I can stay in my room and not need to meet people to grow an audience of influence. Really all that matter though is what my parents think, and what my immediate community that knows and loves me: what do they think?

Why do I spend so much time on opinions that feed my toxic ego and not much else. The ROI is abysmal yet my addiction is merely just named. It’s nowhere near under control. I am addicted to your smile, your compliment, your like, your laughing at my humor, your calling me weird, your intrigue, your love. It is the Genesis of my decisions and the Revelation of my isolation.

The other podcast was one on leadership. The guy, Jonathan Reckford — CEO of Habitat International, basically gave 7 virtues that resonated deeply with me. They are:

Community

Empowerment

Joy

Kindness

Generosity

Respect

Service

It again highlighted community. It also put joy and community in the same bracket which triggered the link between isolation and depression. I have identified before today that there is a link, so much so that I was looking for a way to get my hands dirty and find ways to tangibly serve, volunteer but with Covid and all, I was struggling. The math for me is simple:

Failing breeds isolation which breeds depression which breeds a need to succeed which repeats the cycle.

To get out of this loop, I need to redefine success. Success must not simply be achieving because there is no joy in that. Joy, by the way is part of the virtues. True Success must not be human recognition. It must not be unhealthy. Success must be a loop that enriches my soul in the process of repeating it. In these virtues hide a new formulae, a new loop that can grow and be healthy for me and those around me. I’ll be experimenting with this new definition of success:

Investing into a Community with a Joyful outlook found in Service that Respects and Empowers people with Generosity and Kindness.

Oh. That is good. And the first thing that came to mind was, what community do I wanna serve. Easy.

I started a business 3 years ago: To engineer a world where startups fail less. It’s the first statement you’ll see on our website, www.charisol.io; Grace is a foundational identity of who we are. So much so that it is in our name. Charisol is from two words — Charis Solutions. Charis means Grace in Greek. Grace to me epitomizes generosity and kindness. We have not just hoped to be that but we truly have been graceful. In business it’s been stupid sometimes how quickly we refund money for bad service or do the work for terrible to no margins if it means that the people that come across us have a chance to succeed. The way we treat each other or at least the way I try to treat my team has been one where I’m glad to take the loss. To see them get more than we earn. To make sure that I am constantly serving their needs. I’m not always great at it but the point is Grace is not an after thought.

The community of charisol ex and current employees is one that is deep. There is a pride I have observed from people who had passed through us. The clients we have served feel something about us. We don’t always get it right but we make sure grace is the standard not perfection and they love us for that. I often remind myself that they don’t merely love us, they love the Grace in us.

I say all that to say, I would give anything to deepen my investment in this community. I want to serve more personally. I have structured this business to not enslave me but now I am maybe too isolated. I miss being on the ground floor, serving people! So finally getting to what I want to do next.

But first let me re introduce myself.

I am Adedolapo Oluwaseun Olisa. I am a budding entrepreneur whose currency is Grace. I am the owner of Charisol Limited and I want you to be a part of a community that I hope is bigger than anyone that is a part of it including myself. To engineer a world where startups fail less we need you. We need ideas that are like eggs and ideas that are like stone. We need you. We need daring leaders that know what they need to get done and we need daring leaders that feel clueless. We need you. We need risk takers willing to try and try and try and try and we need risk averse people looking for a clear blue print to follow. Our strategy is simple. Create a digital lab where we have failed in so many ways with our ideas and with others that we can at least get you started in the path that either works or is guaranteed to not repeat mistakes that we have made or learnt from. We want to give away our blue print as we refine it daily. Like an iOS update, we want to out-learn, out-serve, out-Grace!

More on me. When I went into business 3 years ago, I went in looking to maximize profit for myself. I wanted to make the most money and give others just enough to stick around. But I have come instead to recognize that what we give, spend on others is the most significant metric to track growth and the right energy. We have seen quite a few business leaders repeat this same mistake. Your business is the network of people that it impacts not the cash flow. This year 2020, businesses that defined themselves by their cash flow are either dead or dying. Businesses that recognized their network and reconnected them to new or updated solutions, thrived. They went back to their community and they found new ways to serve or old ways new medium.

Lesson 1: trying to keep as much money for yourself only leads to deteriorating health, joy, fulfillment and even sanity. I’ll help you change your metrics to focus on the right growth. You want more time, health, personal development. Money is not worth trading ahead of any of those in the long run.

I’m a full time software engineer that has a passion for User Research. This combination allows me to be obsessed about people, the nuances of why people are and what they want and how to build it.

Lesson 2: break down your business into units and connect the units that are needed to convert the input your different types of users, customers bring into the output that exceeds their expectations for why they pay you. A system is an integrated orchestration of units. If your business isn’t a system of efficient systems, you bare the brunt of it. That deteriorating health, happens because you are the integration. You are the integration because you have not empowered the right people or found the right technology that integrates with each other. I’ll help you identify the people and technical systems that you need to grow in quality sleep, feeling fulfilled and more time for personal development. How will you be a better lover, if you are stuck writing proposals, waiting for emails, worrying about payments, hunting down employees that took time off without heads up etc.

In other words, I’m gonna be creating content around these two lessons hoping you find the link to schedule a call. I want to help.

For me, I need this community. I want to get my hands dirty again. I want to walk alongside people. I’m really good at it and I want to not be shy about it anymore. I want to serve. I want the nut jobs and the class acts alike. They all teach me to spend grace. The labor that causes me too also gives me the best evening sleep. Nothing like manual hard labor and a cold room with a warm bed. I’ve run away from the hard work too long that the sleep is not as sweet.

So here is my call to you. If you are overwhelmed in your business and wanna quit. If you are making good money but everything else around you is falling apart personally. If you are afraid to start. If you have an idea and want to start off on the back of lessons learned. If you want to help me build this community. If you want to be a part of this vision. If you want to ultimately speak the truth in love. Or if you know someone that can learn from lessons 1 & 2. Let me hear from you.

This is my MVP and as a true user researcher. This is my way of identifying if these needs exist before beginning to build around it.

What can you do to say yes!!!: