Hakeem O. Akiode

Bullish $FAR
Startup Growth Executive|
Marketing communications| Advertising and Sales| Product Led Growth

Head of Growth and Marketing @Youverify

[Hakeem O. Akiode @Carbonfive1]

https://t.co/RfVmF8vdEP

[Moe @Mochievous]

I like food so when a friend was asking for recs on where to eat in Lagos, I was like “hold my beer”

Caveat: This is a rough made-in-the-moment draft

Limitations: Locations are limited to only one side of the bridge

Bias: I follow the food mostly. I like green spaces

Enjoy!

[MumZee✨🇳🇬 @_DebbieOA]

Humanity 😭❤️

So this mum posts about her son Levi who has been fighting leukaemia and is always in the hospital.
But this time, this year he will be celebrating his birthday at home but sadly doesn't have any friends cos he is always in d hospital.

Now she posts and asks if people can just drive by and say hello and happy birthday to her son between 2 and 3pm and this was how people showed up for her.

[Michael Taiwo @AskMichaelTaiwo]

Shell and other companies usually include a “technical presentation" as part of the interview process.

I had one the day before my Shell Recruitment Day.

Presented to a bunch of folks from the Technical Safety Engineering team.

One of the biggest scams in the corporate world is in that name – technical presentation – because I can assure you that the last thing they want is something technical.

I have seen so many smart candidates fall for this.

You think you impressed them.

But the next thing you get is a rejection email.

Because nobody is actually evaluating your technical skill.

They are looking for something else entirely.

(I wish they’d just be more honest about this.)🧵

[SIR DREY (🍉,🍉) @_Dreyville]

Gotta eat pasta in italy, croissant in paris, burger in united states, sushi in japan, tacos in mexico, shawarma in lebanon, paella in spain, poutine in canada, kimchi in south korea, curry in india, pho in vietnam, fondue in switzerland and fish & chips in united kingdom.

[Alok Kumar @Alokkumarzz]

Instead of watching an hour of Netflix, watch this MIT professor deliver a brilliant masterclass on how to effectively present your ideas with clarity, impact, and purpose.

[Jaynit @jaynitx]

MrBeast: "If you knew what I knew, you could get 10 million subscribers in six months"

"Your videos suck. You think your videos are good, but they suck. They just do. And the sooner you learn how to make good, great videos that people actually want to watch, the sooner you'll get views."

MrBeast shares his early reality:

"When I was 14, I thought my videos were the best in the world. They weren't, they were terrible. To be successful, you kind of have to have a little bit of that ego where you think your content's great. But also, if you have sub-1,000 subscribers, there's a good probability your videos just suck. They just do."

He explains what to do about it:

"You need to make hundreds of videos. Improve something every time. And just get to the point where they don't suck. When you make good content, you'll blow up. It's not the algorithm. It's not anything. Most people who are in my position just made terrible videos, and that's okay. Because you've got to make a bunch of videos and improve over time to be great."

MrBeast uses an analogy:

"You don't just pick up a baseball and become an MLB-level athlete within a year. It takes many, many, many years. YouTube's kind of the same way."

On analysis paralysis:

"A lot of people get analysis paralysis. They'll sit there and plan their first video for three months. If you have zero videos on your channel, your first video is not gonna get views. Period. Your first 10 are not gonna get views. I can very confidently say that. So stop sitting there and thinking for months and months on end. Just get to work and start uploading."

He gives the formula:

"All you need to do is make 100 videos and improve something every time. Do that, and then on your 101st video, we'll start talking. Maybe you can get some views. But your first 100 are gonna suck."

How to improve something each time:

"The second video: put more effort into the script. The third one: learn a new editing trick. The fourth one: figure out a way to have better inflections in your voice. The fifth one: study a new thumbnail tip and implement it. The sixth one: figure out a new title. There's infinite ways. The coloring, the frame rate, the editing, the filming, the production, the jokes, the pacing, every little thing can be improved. There's literally no such thing as a perfect video."

On the algorithm:

"What YouTube wants is for people to click on a video and watch it. That's what it is at its core. By studying the algorithm, you'll learn that you're more studying human psychology. What do humans want to watch?"

MrBeast shares a simple reframe:

"Anytime you say the word 'algorithm,' just replace it with 'audience' and it works perfectly. 'The algorithm didn't like that video?' No, the audience didn't like that video. Literally, that's it. If people are clicking and watching, it gets promoted more. The algorithm just reflects what the people want."

On titles:

"Short, simple, and just so freaking interesting that you have to click. If someone reads it, are they like, do they have to watch it? Is it just so intrinsically interesting that it's gonna haunt them if they don't click?"

He adds nuance:

"Keep it below 50 characters. Above 50 characters, on certain devices it goes dot, dot, dot, and that's the worst thing because then people don't even know what they're clicking on."

MrBeast shares the extremity principle:

"The more extreme the opinion, typically the higher the click-through rate. 'Fiji water sucks', that'd do fine. But 'Fiji water is the worst water I've ever drank in my life', way more extreme, would do way better. But then you have to deliver. The more extreme you are, the more extreme you have to be in the video."

On the first 5 seconds:

"Before you film a video, what is the thumbnail? What is the title? Then what's the first 5 seconds? Then what's the first 30 seconds?"

He explains why autoplay changed everything:

"On YouTube now, videos automatically play. So many people don't even see the thumbnail because it autoplays so quickly. The thumbnail is irrelevant for them. I have to visually convince you to click on the video in the first 5 seconds. Before, the hook was important because you had to convince people to watch. Now you have to convince people to click and watch at the same time, with the first 5 seconds."

On matching expectations:

"Your title and thumbnail set expectations. At the very beginning of the video, to minimize drop-off, you want to assure them that those expectations are being met. If you click on a video called 'Tether is a scam' and at the very beginning, he starts talking about literally anything else, you're like, 'Oh, this is BS. This isn't what I clicked on.' But if at the very start you go, 'Tether is a scam and I'm gonna teach you why,' then it's like, okay, you match the expectations. Then you want to exceed them."

He emphasizes the importance:

"The thing people undervalue the most is literally the first 10 seconds of the video. That 15% difference in viewership between losing 35% of viewers in the first 30 seconds versus losing 20%, that really does make the difference between 2 million views and 10 million views. You just had a more strategic intro that hooked them."

On removing dull moments:

"You basically want to remove every dull moment. Find the 10 most critical people you know, make them watch the video, and just roast it. If I talk to a camera for 10 seconds without a cut, a lot of people will get bored. Having a B-cam and C-cam three seconds in, cutting to a different angle, now it's more interesting even though it's essentially the same thing."

On keeping viewers watching:

"Give them why they clicked. Tell them why they should watch. Then just stick on topic. That right there isn't even super complex, but I would already put you in the upper echelon of YouTube. A lot of people drag it out. It's like, 'I'm going to eat $100 ice cream, but first...' and then it's them birthday shopping for their mom. That's not why I came here."

On quality over quantity:

"It's much easier to get 5 million views on one video than 50,000 views on 100 videos. A lot of small YouTubers just post videos that aren't bad but aren't great, and none of them ever pop off, so they never get an audience. It might be better to upload half or a third or even a fifth of the videos, but make the videos you upload so freaking good that the algorithm has to promote it."

He warns against the consistency trap:

"When you set a consistent schedule and you're constantly having to upload videos that aren't as good as you'd like because you gotta hit 'Oh, this Monday I said I'd upload', that's a dangerous trap. The viewers notice the quality isn't as good and it makes them less likely to watch. I think it hurts your longevity."

On the real metric that matters:

"A big thing that everyone underestimates, what was your experience with your last video? If people loved the last video of yours that they watched, they're more likely to watch your next one. When people watch your video, you don't want them to go, 'Okay, that was good, but that's enough of you for the day.' What you want is them to go, 'Holy crap, that was crazy! Oh my god, what's that?' and they watch 10 videos. That's how you get high view counts. People watch 10 videos, not one."

On thumbnails:

"You want it to be simple. When they're scrolling, you want them to instantly understand what you're conveying and feel some type of emotion. Make it so interesting, or spike their curiosity so much, that if they don't click it, they'll wonder before they go to bed what happened?"

He gives an example:

"If you uploaded 'I rode a skateboard with 1,000 other people on it', and people are falling off the side, it's about to go off a big ramp if you don't click that, you're gonna be so curious. Later in the day, when you're daydreaming, you'll think, 'What happened to those 1,000 people on that skateboard?' That's the mindset you should have when making thumbnails."

On knowledge being the only barrier:

"It's all knowledge. It really is. I could start a new channel tomorrow without using my face or my voice, without ever promoting it, and in six months have 20 million subscribers. I just could. It's purely knowledge. If you knew what I knew, you could get 10 million subscribers no matter where you are right now within six months."

He addresses the skeptics:

"90% of the people watching don't agree with that. Everyone has excuses. 'Nah, YouTube just doesn't work like that, Jimmy.' But I mentor a lot of people. I see it all the time. It is possible. It is simply knowledge. The second you accept that it is knowledge and you start your journey of learning figuring out what makes a good video, what does my audience want, how can I elevate and then you take that knowledge and just assume 'I will never understand what the perfect video is' and every single day be devoted to learning and improving as much as possible there you go."

On money not being the barrier:

"There are tons of viral ideas that don't require money. It does not require money to go viral. One of my most-viewed videos was spending 24 hours in a desert, we just grabbed a tent and some stuff and went to the desert. It got 60-70 million views. People say, 'I could be MrBeast if I had money.' A, I didn't start off with money; I was poor, I had no money. It took me seven years just to buy a camera saving up from YouTube. And B, some of our most-viewed videos literally anyone can do."

On why no one will outwork him:

"No one's ever gonna do what I do better than me. It's just not humanly possible. I reinvest every penny I make. I work every hour I'm awake. I devote every atom in my brain to solving this. I hire the best people on the planet. I've been doing this for 14 years. And I think in decades, not years. I'm gonna be doing this for another 20-30 years. If I thought someone was doing better than me, I'd just start sleeping less so I could work even more."

But he doesn't recommend it:

"I don't have a life. I don't have work-life balance. My personality, my soul, my being is making the best videos possible. That is why I exist on this planet. And I don't recommend it. You should have work-life balance. You should not devote your entire life to this one thing. I have a mental breakdown every other week because I push myself so hard. I don't recommend it."

The only question that matters:

"Subscribers don't matter. Views don't matter. I mean, they do. But everything you want as a creator comes from making the best videos possible and thumbnails. The video part's the hard part. Ask: 'How can I make my videos better?' Do that every single day for years. And then you'll probably get views."

[Evan Luthra @EvanLuthra]

Every time you accepted a salary, chose a price, or walked into a negotiation, the other person was running GAME THEORY in their head.

You were guessing.

This 1-hour Yale lecture by Professor Ben Polak will permanently change how you read people and make decisions.

Most MBAs pay $150k to learn this. Yale posted it for free:

[Tope Dada @TopeDada17]

I don’t still understand how we picked POP ceiling designs over this

[Gamer_Architect @QHVZYMY]

Bungalows don’t have to be boring.

Modern residence in Morocco

[Jaynit @jaynitx]

In 2019, MIT professor Patrick Winston gave a legendary 1-hour lecture called “How to Speak.”

It has 18M+ views for a reason.

His frameworks:
• Your ideas are like your children
• The 5-minute rule for job talks
• Why jokes fail at the start

15 lessons on communication:

[Tansu Yegen @TansuYegen]

A woman from a sneaker shop teaches a simple trick for shoelaces that won't come undone👟

[Tips Excel @gudanglifehack]

My wife and I have been married for 30 years. I’m 63 this year and worked as a financial analyst at JPMorgan Chase. During my retirement party, my daughter told me she wanted to learn about investing, so I started writing a simple investment guide for her. My wife suggested that I share this guide for free on Threads. If you’re interested in investing, please like and follow. Hope this guide can be useful to you.

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

So many nuggets here

[Toby @TomolaGroup]

If I had to start all over again, here are the 10 stocks I would buy for the long term:

1. Banking — ZENITH BANK. P/E of 2.4x. ₦1 trillion profit. Dividend yield above 6%. Cheapest tier-1 bank on the exchange relative to earnings.

2. Oil & Gas — SEPLAT. Revenue $2.73 billion. EBITDA $1.28 billion. Cash flow up 276%. Dual-listed on NGX and London. Targeting $1 billion in shareholder returns over 5 years.

3. Energy (Integrated) — ARADEL. ₦697 billion revenue. First vertically integrated energy company in Nigeria. Exploration to refining to distribution in one ticker.

4. Industrial Goods — DANGOTE CEMENT. ₦1 trillion net profit. 46% EBITDA margin. P/E of 9.4x. Operations in 10 African countries.

5. Consumer Goods — BUA FOODS. ₦1.8 trillion revenue. 97% ROE. Largest listed company by market cap. 220 million Nigerians eating more processed food every year is not a thesis. It’s math.

6. Insurance — NEM. P/E of 4.3x. ROE of 55.6%. Almost zero debt. Up 3,977% since 2015. Still undervalued.

7. Telecoms — MTN NIGERIA. ₦1.11 trillion profit after two years of losses. ₦20 per share total dividend. Revenue ₦5.2 trillion. Every data bundle sold in this country is revenue for this business.

8. Conglomerate — TRANSCORP. ₦544 billion revenue. ₦136 billion profit, up 44%. Power + hospitality + energy in one ticker. Over 20% of Nigeria’s installed power capacity. Just crossed ₦1 trillion in total assets for the first time. Gearing ratio of 13%. Diversified and still cheap.

9. Agriculture — PRESCO. ₦207.5 billion revenue. ₦76 billion profit. +135% earnings growth. Palm oil demand in Nigeria is structural.

10. Financial Infrastructure — NGXGROUP. Zero competition. Every stock transaction passes through them. ₦2 dividend plus 1-for-3 bonus issue. As market participation grows, this is the toll gate.

The one thing I’d add that most people miss, energy exposure. Oil and gas still funds 90% of Nigeria’s dollar earnings. A long-term portfolio without that sector is incomplete.

[Osaretin Victor Asemota @asemota]

After reading the book "Apple in China," I learned that a key reason for China's current manufacturing dominance is a strategy by the Xi-led CCP called "Made in China 2025." It wasn't a mere wish, but a goal to be achieved, and all sectors in the country worked towards it and achieved it.

Their goal was to be a manufacturing superpower by 2049, but I think they are already well ahead of schedule. They learn from everyone and offer incentives to global players to manufacture products in China.

Most African countries lack this plan because the leaders cannot think beyond 4 or 5-year election cycles. They are also very self-indulgent, and there is no national planning. Nigeria is a disgrace because we have not been able to carry out a proper population census in 20 years. You can't plan when you can't measure.

We keep lying to ourselves and everyone else about unemployment and inflation numbers just to borrow more. This is why I get upset when I hear that tech or AI cannot help us achieve progress. We need tech and AI to gather data and understand it, so we can build.

The Nigerian government and others in Africa may not have a coherent strategy for dominance, but it doesn't mean that the private sector should wait until things are perfect. One key takeaway from that book was that there is widespread corruption in China, but there is also an overwhelming sense of national pride. Huawei and others were able to take on Apple and win until Trump and others came into the picture.

Huawei is still building great stuff and hiring a lot of people. We need our African versions of Huawei, Foxconn, and others, but we MUST build with the cards we are dealt rather than waiting for conditions to be ideal. I keep learning new things about China daily, and I remain in awe.

We MUST look East and not West.

[Gym Store @gym_store1]

Your minimum base fitness level should be:

- 40 push-ups
- 8 pull-ups
- 100 squats
- 2km run without stopping

If this sounds unrealistic, you have SERIOUS work to do my boy.

[Peter Agboola @baba_Omoloro]

Anthropic has launched free courses to master AI with certificates for $0.00

https://t.co/hwJvuJHIdo

[OurFaveOnlineDoc 🇬🇧 🇳🇬 @OurFavOnlineDoc]

“Make money of no consequence in your home” -Ibukun Awosika.

This woman is always worth listening to.

[Rishabh @Rixhabh__]

Claude FULL COURSE 1 HOUR.