The first time I went to see my mentor (Ronald) for our first meeting
It rained heavily that day.
I was soaked (head to toe)
And I also had to wait for 3hours.
Eventually, he arrived from the Embassy
Had a huge smile on his face,
Said "Nice to meet you Andy"
And then apologized that he took a while.
Later on when we were in the seminar room,
I asked that we turn down the A/C a bit as I was getting really cold
Then he asked if it was raining when I was on my way and if I got drained by the rain
And I said yes:
That it was raining and I got drained but I had to come as the meeting was really important to me
Then he said:
"Yeah, you know... if you didn't come today I never would have agreed to see you again — for any reason.
You came inspite of the rain because it was important to you.
There's something my mentor (Dr Sunny Ojeagbase) would always say:
If it's really important to you, it doesn't matter if there's a flood,
Your willpower will force you to find a way around it to be where you have to be — and on time"
===
And you know what....
A few weeks later,
Just as I was planning to go to Head of Service Abuja on a Wednesday
To tell them in person that I didn't want the automatic Federal employment (signed by the President himself — Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR) —as the primary benefit of my NYSC presidential honor's award...)
....And mostly to ask them if the benefit could be "transferred" to a relative instead... (as my people wouldn't allow me rest because I refused to go take my appointment letter)
I got a DM on Twitter from Ronald that Monday:
He was asking me if I could make it to his office on the same Wednesday I was to travel from Lagos to Abuja
He didn't even know about my plans)
I said yes right away.
Cancelled my plans and on Wednesday, I was sitted in his office 1-hour before time.
That was June 26, 2019 (my 26th birthday) —
That was the same day he offered me an irresistible Royalty deal that almost made me fall out of my chair
===
{... FUN FACT:
I'll have you know that I share the same birth *day (June 26th) with Legendary Copywriter, Bond Halbert,
Son on Copywriting Great Gary Halbert — with whom I also share same birth month (June *12),
Alongside other Copywriting greats like David Ogilvy, Craig Clemens, Chris Orzechowski
So was it a coincidence I was getting my biggest Copywriting Offer on that day?
Or perhaps....
It was just Mother nature doing her thing?
A befitting reward for my persistence all those years when things were rough and I was mocked and ridiculed for choosing a career path as silly as Copywriting?
=....}
Anyway, I couldn't believe it
No one had ever offered me that kind of money
And I was so flattered by the deal,
Instead of just saying yes right away
I wanted to play hard to get and then asked him if I could think about it and get back to him before weekend?
His response (straight face)
" I need an answer now, if you leave this office I will assume you're not interested and that will be it. And if you're going to give me a response, I need it quickly, we don't have all day. "
Long story short:
I replied with a counter offer (Can you imagine the nerve asking for more on top of the generous stuff already offered?)
To my surprise, he didn't object
He just removed a slice of the counter offer — and said that he wouldn't go beyond that
As as you might guess...
The final thing was a much better deal that what was initially offered agreed.
The following Monday or so (both of us went thru all the legal stuff in his office and signed the deal...)
And later on he was talking to some of his mentees and told them how I made a counter offer following his proposal and he said:
"If he didn't ask, I wouldn't have cared. Yes, I knew I could have offered him more but at fist I only offered what I thought was a good deal and it was up to him to say YES or say NO or simply make a counter offer — which he did. Sometimes, you only get what you ask for.... There's always room to negotiate for a better deal. And never be afraid to walk away if you don't think you're getting what you honestly believe is a good deal for you"
Spot any lessons so far?
You say you do?
Alright then...
That will be all for now.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
A.
P.S: There's just a few people in this life I'd happily take a bullet for
Ikenna Ronald "Water" Nzimora is one of them.
I will be continuing this series in subsequent emails
Maybe I'll try to do one "Ronald email per week" until I exhaust all the lessons
Or maybe I'll just mix it up "seamlessly" with other emails in the coming days, weeks or months.
The next one will be marked: Ronald Nzimora (Part 7)
But for now...
I want to brief you on something I've been working on in the last couple of days..
It's my new mentorship program primarily for freelance Copywriters and business owners who want to do better in terms of
The kind of clients you work with,
How much you charge (and get) for your work
The amount of money you take home every month.
Your network (the kind of people in your circle)
The quality of your marketing and Copywriting
And more...
It's not necessarily cheap — and as with all my programs
It's definitely not for everyone.
But if you're interested...
Use the URL below to see if you're a good fit (and how you can get in today — for a generous discount of $350 — before the official launch date, August 1, 2021):