Her media company, Nibo & Tac Media, produces television shows centred on work, business and personal growth. Banigbe says its syndicated programmes reach more than 60 million viewers quarterly, giving the company an audience that also attracts advertisers.
In retail, she says she started jewellery brand Bland2Glam with less than $200 in 2012 and has since expanded it to stores employing more than 30 people.
In this interview with Business Insider Africa, Banigbe discusses the commercial value of educational content, what she has learnt from Nigerian shoppers, and how she manages several ventures while pursuing a wider mentorship platform for Africa.
Business Insider Africa: You trained as a lawyer, worked in Tax & Corporate advisory at PricewaterhouseCoopers, specialized in oil and gas law, and later built businesses in media, retail, legal services and facility management. As a woman building across different industries, what has connected all these chapters of your career?
Seyi Banigbe: My desire to die empty and utilize all of my God-given ideas and talent is a key connector across my career journey and businesses endeavors. The need to do whatever I do excellently and professionally definitely fueled my spending over 10 years in corporate Nigeria but the entrepreneur in me would not go to sleep, so I eventually took the big-dive into full-time entrepreneurship and hoped it would pay off.
With respect to thriving in entrepreneurship, when I develop deep interest and passion to solve a specific problem, I deploy blind focus to ensure I build a system that can solve the problem in a sustainable and profitable manner.
My belief that no one is gifted at just one thing also gives me freedom to explore my talents and ideas without holding back.
Business Insider Africa: Your media company, Nibo & Tac Media, reaches more than 60 million viewers quarterly through syndicated television. How have you turned inspirational content into a scalable media business?
Banigbe: The desire to inspire, mentor and educate people across every socio-economic class and geographic location across Nigeria was my initial drive to develop inspirational shows such as “Binging with GameChangers”, “Cooking with GameChangers” and “Chatter that Counts”; The shows were not only created and produced but we went on to have them syndicated across all major cable and terrestrial TV platforms in Nigeria.
Although impact was the key driver to aggressively building outstanding reach across terrestrial and cable TV, the reach we created happened to align with exactly what the large and multinational brands sought for when placing their adverts and product integration into content.
The world-class visual quality of our shows has never been in question and this has made us a media platform that organizations are always proud to affiliate with. We have however been repeatedly told over the years that one thing that stands our content out at Nibo&Tac Media is the strong entertainment value that all of our productions carry.
My initial desire to make impact has now morphed because I asked myself one question recently, “why change only Nigeria when you can change Africa?”. This birthed my journey to taking one of our successful TV format shows, “Cooking with GameChangers”, into Ghana to provide inspiration, mentorship and business education to Ghanaians even as they get entertained through the show.
Our ability to leave viewers smiling and happy even whilst learning is what I’ll call our super power at Nibo&Tac Media and this keeps brands and organizations consistently partnering with us in order to communicate their brand message effectively through our content which is distributed across digital and traditional media. Our exceptional production quality and distribution reach are factors that cannot be ignored.
Business Insider Africa: You are known as the creator of “Binging with GameChangers” and several other shows focused on success, wealth, work ethic and personal growth. Why do you believe the media is one of the strongest tools for helping Africans, especially women and young people, become financially empowered?
Banigbe: Media is a powerful tool. Can you remember the effect “Wakanda” had on everyone across the globe when the Black Panther movie was released? Everyone suddenly felt proud to be African, the movie made black look desirable and strong.
Media makes you feel, think, cry, laugh and most importantly, it makes you change. If we are going to take African countries from third-world to first-world countries, media will play a huge role and I am delighted to be a part of folks already changing the continent via media.
Sometimes the only thing that a hopeless young African needs to see is a fellow African with similar limitations, doing big things and breaking ceilings in business/career. It fuels him with the needed energy to chase his own dreams despite the many setbacks that being Africa comes with.
Business Insider Africa: Bland2Glam has grown into an award-winning jewellery brand retailing across upscale malls in Nigeria. What did building that business teach you about modern consumers, pricing, branding and the Nigerian retail market?
Banigbe: Building a jewelry brand that provides costume jewellery to thousands of men and women across Nigeria on a monthly basis has taught me that it is possible to live your dreams in Africa.
I started Bland2Glam with less than 200 dollars in 2012 and for many years, I would get laughed at with statements like “how many Nigerians buy jewelry?”, “who builds a proper business from selling jewelry in Nigeria?”. I’m happy that 14 years later, we can boast of a staff strength of over 30 people across our retail locations nationwide.
I’ll tell you for free that Nigerians love good and affordable fashion. Nigerian men are very stylish and they love to be adorned in jewelry. Nigerians are happy to support a local brand that delivers good quality products with competitive price points and shopping convenience.
Nigerians love options, they love to see “New Arrivals” come in very often because Nigerians are very social and appearance-conscious hence there is always a reason to look fabulous or send someone a super stylish gift. Nigerians are very generous with giving gifts and I must mention this as this factor keeps our jewelry and gift-packaging materials at Bland2Glam in constant demand.
Nigerians value ease and that is why despite our online presence, our brick-and-mortar positioning across premium malls remains a favorite with customers. It appears many people still like to feel, see and touch their jewelry when shopping.
Business Insider Africa: Many African women entrepreneurs are building businesses while carrying family, social and professional expectations. How have you managed pressure, ambition and leadership while building multiple ventures?
Banigbe: I like to say that “I take it one day at a time”. My Christian faith is pivotal to my ability to juggle so much work while raising kids and building a home. Maintaining focus while being confidently peaceful is a superpower I draw from God daily and I believe all of this is essential for growth, whether you’re male or female.
I should mention that building structure and processes across my various businesses has been critical to aiding outstanding and consistent service/product delivery. This keeps the engine of each business running whether I am present or not.
They say “retail never sleeps” and this is so true for us at Bland2Glam because our jewellery retail locations are open 7 days a week from morning to late evening, we would never be able to meet such market demands without a solid back and front-office structure.
Our media operations has us airing our inspirational shows on TV all year round whilst intermittently executing principal photography which requires no less than a 100-man for each recording. Although I am responsible for the strategic growth of these companies, I am thankful for the team that keeps our engines on and running every single day.
I am quite keen on treating people the way I would love to be treated, this guides me and keeps me centered hence when challenges arise with leading people across my organizations, I remain principled, dispassionate, firm, assertive yet guided by the need to treat everyone the way I would want to be treated.
I never fail to acknowledge that life is in phases and I choose to recognise every phase and achieve the best I am able to achieve at every specific period.
There was a phase where I did not travel as much because my kids were younger and it was important to me that I handled school runs myself in order to foster communication and influence. My girls are however older and are now in boarding school, so this gives me a bit more time and travel flexibility.
Business Insider Africa: You have built businesses across very different sectors, from media and jewellery to legal services and facility management. What systems or leadership habits have helped you scale without losing focus?
Banigbe: Setting timely goals regularly is critical. There should be daily, weekly, monthly, biannual and yearly goals set for myself and the team. Goals keep getting set and reset while the team and I stay disciplined and focused on crushing most of our goals.
I learnt early in life that if I don’t improve myself, nobody will improve me; if I don’t make my project work, nobody will make it work; so I take responsibility for whatever my life or work turns out to be and although I delegate a lot of things, I do not take my eyes off the ball to ensure my vision is executed as expected. I ultimately take responsibility for everything that comes out of any of my companies and this keeps me very focused on ensuring I build strong leaders and teams across all companies.
I also believe that if you are not growing in any area of life, you are decaying, so I get quite uncomfortable when growth doesn’t occur for a long while in my organizations. For this reason, the team and I are consistently reaching for more while working daily to improve customer satisfaction.
Business Insider Africa: You are often described as the “Queen of Success Talk.” What does success mean to you now, and how has that definition changed as you have grown as a woman, entrepreneur and leader?
Banigbe: Success to me is ensuring the basic needs of myself and family are met. Success to me is choosing not to sleep on my ideas but bring them to life despite the fear of failure. Success to me is doing work that will enable me leave the world better than I met it.
Success to me is giving myself to projects that will transform the lives and minds of people for good. My approach to success has stayed the same most of my life because it emanates from the Bible and it has always been very important that I consistently measure success by God’s expectation of me as I believe this is the ultimate definition of success.
I choose not to be defined by people’s expectation of me as this can easily make you rest and feel accomplished. I choose to remain focused on attaining the bigger picture and best version of all the work I do.
Business Insider Africa: Looking ahead, what is the bigger vision for Seyi Banigbe? Are you building a media empire, a business education platform, a women-focused empowerment brand, or something that brings all your ventures under one African success mission?
Banigbe: The bigger vision is to ensure every African has access to transformational mentorship. I believe Africans must build Africa. If each of us takes it upon ourselves to share our stories and provide direct mentorship to people climbing up, we would be able to churn out a larger number of success stories across various sectors of the economy.
All of the content on our Youtube channels @B2GNETWORK and @SEYIBANIGBE are stirred towards challenging people to work hard and chase legitimate success with all they have got. So whether a person is watching any of our shows or signing up for direct mentorship via our platform, the ability to shape people’s minds for good remains the core driving force. So the bigger picture is to be an inspiration hub for all of Africa.
People will watch our shows and movies from everywhere and be challenged to chase their dreams despite being African; people will get connected to phenomenal minds from their respective territories and this interaction will enable people move forward faster in business and career.
If you have watched my talkshow “Binging with GameChangers”, you’d see that I end every show with my personal mantra: “be the best in whatever space you find yourself”, I live by this and that is what I intend to achieve in all of my work and business endeavors.