The Phenomenal 22 Year Old Brand Guide Making Huge Waves – Mofe Ade

I was literally speechless for some minutes after my interview with Mofe. Such a shrewd mind! While most of us were then in Secondary School (SS3 to be precise) thinking of how we can scale our WAEC and NECO exams only, Mofe was diligently building the foundation of who he is today. Note! He still scaled through all his exams successfully. Phew!

The phenomenal 22 year old brand guide making huge waves - Mofe Ade! Click To Tweet

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Short Biography of Mofe Ade

Mofe Ade is the 22-year-old brand guide that helps new and established business achieve any goal of theirs. With a personal goal of impacting 1 million African brands, Mofe regularly releases helpful and practical content for brands via all media. Mofe has had the opportunity of helping top brands in Lagos using his skills which range from Brand Consultation, Digital Marketing, Website Design, Graphics Design, Creative Content Creation and of course project management.

He is the author of the book ‘2017 shades of social media’ which had 1000 downloads in the first week of release. Mofe also recently conducted a sold out Brand workshop with EverythingNaArt’s Amin Ameen that helped over 50 brands solidify their brand.

You can learn things that will help your brand grow by connecting with Mofe via any social media @mofe_ade.

Amazing biography of the brand guide, Mofe Ade Click To Tweet

(wipes tears) See that? Isn’t he just simply amazing. Hold on, you’ll understand why I’m feeling this way when you read or listen to the interview. If you prefer listening to reading the interview, all you have to do is scroll down to stream or download the audio file but if you want to do both, my pleasure!

Mofe I don’t know if I pronounced your name the right way because I’m not really Yoruba or is there a special cute way of pronouncing your name?

Yeah! It’s M-o-f-e (Lol! Just listen to the interview below to hear how he pronounced his name). It means ‘I want’ in English. So it is Mofe Ade; ‘I want royalty’ basically.

That is a beautiful name. Moving over to the questions I have ; when I read out your bio, I was pretty much impressed. I just hope you don’t get upset but considering the fact you are a 22-year-old Nigerian really pursuing those dreams and leaving a lot of impact, I must say a huge congratulations on that okay?

Thank you very much

I got quite inquisitive so I’d love to know why you picked interest in helping new and established businesses achieve any goal of theirs? What sparked that interest in you?

Since I was little, I always love to build things. I like to see things come from nothing to something and it got me in trouble a lot then because I’d always destroy a lot of things and build them back up. So, over the years as I grew up, I tried to find out ways I could acknowledge that passion of building things. Then I stumbled across branding, graphic designing and the likes. I saw that in Nigeria, we have many people with entrepreneurial skills and I realized I had the skills to help them and I decided to channel those skills to brands and businesses in Nigeria to teach them how they can use digital media and any type of media to move their vision to an actual establishment.

'I saw that in Nigeria, we have many people with entrepreneurial skills and I realized I had the skills to help them and I decided to channel those skills to brands and businesses in Nigeria to teach them how they can use digital media… Click To Tweet

You said ‘you stumbled’ across this passion of helping people. So it has not been there? What was the breaking or turning point that made you say yes! I’ll channel this passion to brands?

I was in Secondary school then, SS3 to be precise and I had a friend called Buzor. He started a boy band in the school and that was in Ikorodu, Lagos. He came to me and told me he wanted his band to be the best rap band in Ikorodu. I thought of how to achieve that so I created a logo for them, brand colours, made sure most students of the school wore their brand jacket, built a website for them all in SS3. It was not standard but at least they had identity. I made sure they all looked the same way and before you knew it, they were one of the most popular rap bands in Ikorodu. My mother heard of it and was impressed. I think that was when I told myself ; Ah! I will direct my whole creative juice to brands!

Mmmhmm! That is interesting! I mean achieving all these things in SS3 is huge. I never even thought of that when I was in SS3. I was just thinking about WAEC, NECO and all that! I appreciate that. It shows you have a level of versatility to actually think outside the box and create a website at that stage. It is something unique and different. Thumbs up Mofe!

Awwwww…Thanks for the kind words

In what possible ways do you achieve all these? You said you design websites. Do you still do that? What exact kind of services do you render to brands that help them stand out and achieve any goal of theirs?

Yes I still design websites. It is one of the biggest things I do. The most important skill that makes brands want to work with you is project management. I know how to utilize their resources to achieve their goal. I also know the right people that can also do the work. For instance, if the work intensity is much, I have graphic designers, video editors, animators, creative writers; like an army that is willing to execute that work so project management is my top skill. Brand Identity in short! I render every other services along with it.

'The most important skill that makes brands want to work with you is project management. I know how to utilize their resources to achieve their goal' - Mofe Ade; the phenomenal Brand Guide Click To Tweet

Wow! Mofe I think at this point you should clap for yourself!

(Laughs) Okay! I’ll do just that!

I’m impressed! You said you have a band or rather a whole crew of creatives. How did you mobilise these people to work with you? Did you just meet them or they work under your brand?

Actually, I’m very sure you are a fellow creative so you know in Nigeria, we have many people that are very creative. In fact, if you just dedicate one day and go to creative communities online, you’ll see a lot of them. Over the years, I’ve created personal relationships with these people. We have a system depending on whatever works best. I’ve noticed that they don’t like to be confined in one space. So they work remotely and based on the kind of jobs they have at the moment and because of the relationships we have, I’m sure that they will always live up to the expectation at any given job. The only time they work in a space is when we have a deadline and we don’t want to disappoint the client. That is the only time we consolidate in one physical location and work together as creatives to achieve the set goal.

Yeah! That’s huge. I know in Nigeria most content creators are undervalued occasionally but the future I’m seeing has them calling us frequently to work for them. It will get to a point and I think it has gotten to the point already where people are realizing that these creatives matter and can help your brand tremendously and I’m happy you are doing that already. It is a big inspiration.

You are right. In addition to what you just said, a lot of creatives don’t really have their services valued like people always trying not to pay them what is worth for their services because they think creativity is just something one can sit on their beds and think of, not knowing we also have bills to pay. I think it is getting to that time where we see those skills and it is ranked as a ‘top profession’.

According to your bio, you’ve helped top brands in Lagos achieve their goals. It made me wonder if it is just in Lagos. Are your services location restricted?

I live in Lagos and I’ve lived there since day one. If you will understand, physical relationships are the most important form of connection. So most of my partnerships or jobs come from brands that are in Lagos because then, I can feel, relate, converse and understand the person’s passion. However, I work for people outside Lagos and even had jobs outside Nigeria where people communicate via online media but I said Lagos because she is the heart of everything  and most jobs I enjoy are from Lagos where i can see them coming to fruition because they are around me. I’m also available for travels if there is any job that will take me out of Lagos physically.

'Most of my partnerships or jobs come from brands that are in Lagos because then, I can feel, relate, converse and understand the person’s passion' - Mofe Ade Click To Tweet

It’s good to know you are not location restricted because it got me wondering. Now, the last question; There was a point of starting , a point you wanted to venture into all these and give it your all and I guess you had fears at that time. Fears like ‘can I really do this?’, ‘what if a brand expects so much from me and I don’t live up to those expectations?’. So I want to know what those kind of fears were like and how you were able to overcome them and start anyways

Wow! That’s deep! I think the major fear was trying to create something that people will love and is sustainable. Sustainable in the sense of people recognizing you for that and refer you to prospective clients because whatever one is doing and very good at, if there is nobody to patronize you, soon enough, you’ll get tired. Another fear I had was most of the people i dealt with were quite older than me. You can imagine some being in their 40s, 50s, 60s and so on and they’d be like ‘what does this little boy know about branding’, ‘How many million dollar businesses has he handled?’. I had those fears as well. It got to a point that these two major things held me back. What really helped me were the people I had around as mentors. My parents really helped me. I was also very fortunate to work with two different bosses at different times that trained me and made me understand that once you are confident, good at what you do and know the value you can offer, every other thing will fall in place. Those words have really helped me plus the experiences I gained working with them. It is more than what I’ve always asked for. These two factors helped me conquer my fears and also when you start getting opportunities, it boosts your confidence.

Mmhmmm! MOFE! I am impressed once again.

(exclaims) Now you get the pronounciation!

Oh really! I’ve not been doing that well enough?

Not really but this time you pronounced it perfectly.

See? I haven’t been doing that well and you’ve been stroking my ego. It’s okay!

(Laughs)

Thank you so much for being with us on the show as our beauty hub crush. I know I’ve used these words a lot but I’m so impressed again! I love it when young determined people are pursuing their dreams fearlessly. It is something people need to acknowledge

I feel like taking these words out your mouth, frame it and just hang it in my room so I’d always wake up to see it everyday. Thank you very much. It was nice. I really appreciate! I can’t wait to meet you!

I know you are all smiles right now. What’s not to love about Mofe! I had fun listening and asking him questions and I’m sure you did too.

Connect with him on Instagram and twitter @mofe_ade. Also like his Facebook Page ‘Mofe Ade’. The kind of content and nuggets he drops on social media is mind blowing

Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comment section and subscribe. Here is the audio file which you can stream or download.

Always remember the Holy Spirit will teach you ALL things.

Shalom!