Olufemi Oguntamu Speaks on Juggling His Personal Brand with Managing Top Talents
- Multi-award-winning serial entrepreneur and CEO of Penzaarville Africa, Olufemi Oguntamu, opened up about the intricacies of working with top talents
- While having a chat with Legit.ng, the ace PR strategist discussed the highs and lows of managing talents alongside maintaining his brand's vision
- Oguntamu delved into the depths of the good, the bad and the ugly sides to occupying a position such as his, as well as being a family man
It was such a delight to get an exclusive one-on-one with Olufemi Oguntamu, aka Penzaar, the brain behind the success of some of the hottest content creators in the Nigerian entertainment space.
As one who has walked the media space for over 10 years, and has managed some prominent faces, like Layi Wasabi, Tomike Adeoye, Broda Shaggi, Tayo Aina, to mention a few through his company Penzaarville Africa, Olufemi shared his wealth of knowledge with us.
Without a doubt, it's not a walk in the park to maintain being the leading face at his company, as well as being the power house being some of the biggest deals we see today.
Source: Instagram
We wanted to know what challenges he faces in managing his personal brand while also overseeing the careers of top Nigerian talents, and how he navigates these challenges?
Olufemi said:
"Regarding the challenges I face while managing my personal brand and also overseeing careers, one of the things that has helped me so far is that I started my career quite early in the media space. While I was in university, I was building my career, I was already selling magazines, I was student rep for some of the publications, I was able to grow my own brand and became very popular in uni."
"I worked at Red Media, worked at Media Craft, I learned from Debola Williams and Chude Jideonwo, about building personal brands. As much as the agency was doing well, they also had accolades on their profile. They were given awards, attended conferences, and people loved them. One thing I'm also learning to do, and it's working for me, is that if people love you, know you, and respect you, it definitely has a way to influence your career generally."
"So people will come to your company to engage your services, not because you're the only one who can do it, but because they love the CEO, the boss. That's also the same way it has worked for me for managing talents. They come to be because they love me, they know me, they respect and like what I do, and they like the way I've packaged myself. So they also expect the same thing for themselves."
"I remember when Tayo Aina, a travel vlogger, came to me, he said he saw my page, and he said if this person can package themselves this way, he'll be able to do much more for me, and it's been working. I try not to take their shine or be in the forefront. I like to be in the background. I do my job, when people see it, they see me through them, and that works for me, and I don't try to shine."
"When I go to events with them, I allow them to shine, I don't even do interviews, I like to just be BTS [behind the scenes] because I've come to realise that my work is strategy, backend. Because I know that when they become successful, people will tie it back to me. So yeah, I push my personal brand, and I also push theirs, and because of my experience in PR, I'm able to handle all these sectors smoothly."
"So yeah, the only challenge that I see at times is that I forget to focus on myself, and I do a lot for the talents. I see them as my first set of kids, and it kind of makes me focus a lot on them. But once in a while, I try to also package myself, because the more I grow, the better I become, and the more relevant I am, and even the talents will respect me more."
Because he wears many hats, we figured that there may have been times when his personal brand and talent management responsibilities intersected, and wanted to know how he handled such situations.
His response reads:
"We have had a series of awards where I was nominated in a different category and my talents were nominated too, and we had to seek votes. Sometimes, I get kind of uncomfortable because I also don't want it to look like I will win and then it would seem like I'm pushing myself more than them."
"So I just ensure that I try to focus more on them because if they're happy, I'm happy. So I try to do a lot to ensure that their brand grows. So yeah, that is one major one I remember. I think there were also some trips that I had to travel with them and also have speaking engagements in Nigeria. There were also times that I would travel together and have business meetings in the same period."
"So there are usually times where there are clashes around my personal brand and the talents, and I play my responsibilities well. They've come to realise that I don't just manage them; my company manages a couple of talents too. So they wouldn't expect my 100% presence all the time, but as long as the work is being done, I try to ensure that it is well communicated, and they don't see it like I don't have their time."
Olufemi Oguntamu and his team have also catered to the communication needs of high-profile clients like Microsoft, Bolt, Wema Bank, Aura by Transcorp, YouTube, Google, and Red Bull, to mention a few.
This brought us to the next question, where we asked him he prioritises his time and energy between building his personal brand and managing the needs of his high-profile clients.
"I just try to delegate a lot to my team. Although I am at the forefront, I have a full team that handles conversations around talents."
"For every talent that we manage, I have account managers who are in charge of conversations, negotiations, and correspondence for each talent. I also have a family, and I try to balance things out. It's not easy, but I try to handle these things," he said.
Source: Instagram
In what ways do you think your personal brand influences your approach to talent management, and vice versa, and are there any specific values or principles that guide your work in both areas?
"I try not to procrastinate when I'm on projects. Talents want to do a lot sometimes, and they don't have concrete plans, so I try to execute all of these things. In a way, principles have also helped me. I also emphasize appearances, looks, and feel. Your attitude. I keep saying that attitude is more important than social status."
"So, it means that no matter how big you are, people need to fall in love with you. And I also try to inculcate these things into my talents to ensure that they constantly have a good appeal, aside from the work that they do. I've been in this industry for over 10 years, and I can say that my experience with clients has made me understand how the audience wants to be engaged."
"With that, I understand the kind of content they should put out, dressing to events, and every other thing around them. So, these things help me navigate on both ends."
Do you ever feel like talent management overshadows your personal branding sometimes? What would you like the audience to look out for in that regard?
"I would say that most times people see me and they say, "Oh, this is the guy that manages so-and-so person." That's how they sometimes introduce me, and it's funny to me because before I started managing talents, I had been running a proper media agency. I've worked with big clients like Google, Microsoft, Redbull, WEMA Bank, Mastercard, and others."
"So when people just box me as the guy who manages Layi, Broda Shaggi, it's funny. But I'd say to you that it still gives me joy because it means that if my talents are not successful, you won't link me to them. So I'm glad that people tend to still link me up with my success stories."
"But I'd say that you should understand that Olufemi Oguntamu is much more and not just a mere talent manager. He's a media expert, strategist, and he runs a media agency. And for the work that we do, I'd say that I'm not just a talent manager. I work with strategy, with my clients, I help them with their media plans, and my talents are not the usual content creators."
"I can say for a fact that it's about the work we put in and our experience in the game. So the talents that we manage, it feels like they get three packages in one: they get talent management, they get strategy, and most importantly, PR - media relations. These help them and also give them ideas on how they can evolve their brands over time."
"We are not just the usual manager that gets percentages off all deals. I'm not an agency; we do much more than that. That's why we don't work with just any talent. We work with talents that we see that our visions align, that can listen to us and evolve."
"In terms of what people need to see more, I think they should just see me as a 360 guy that knows a lot. I've won awards in the media and marketing communication industry. I've won 35 under 35, gotten accolades as ECOWAS ambassador, we've won influencer marketing agency of the year, I've been nominated for 40 under 40, different kinds of accolades."
"People see me in that light, but I think they just need to see more. I'm not trying to compete with my talents, not trying to get more accolades than them. It's just that everyone wins at the same time, so it's just to find a very good balance, and everyone is winning."
Additionally, he emphasised that for them, it's not just about making money. They make sure that talents align with brands that match their vision. In his exact words:
"I'd just like to add that for talents, they often only want to make money, so at times they don't understand the kind of brand that they should align with. Because it's not just about making money, it's about working with the right brands that also align with your values. So, we advise them on certain clients."
"We know that Talent A is different from B, and their audiences differ, so we try to ensure that the brands you work with align with your values and also with the audience that you have, so that there won't be a disconnect, and so that people can continue to respect you as a brand.We also try to create events or activities that will impact you in the long run."
"We also look at your demography, your audience, your backend experience to see the kind of people that follow you, and that also informs the kind of content you post, the activities you engage in. Last year, we took Layi Wasabi to London for a UK media tour, and that happened because we realized that he had a huge UK fan base, and we needed to reach out to them."
"So, I figured it was the best way to get that done. It was very strategic, and it helped Layi Wasabi last year. We've also done something like that for Broda Shaggi in Kenya and Dubai. Recently, Tomike signed a deal with Light Hill as the MD/CEO, and that was very strategic at the time, as it was going to help her career-wise."
"So, these are the things we look out for. If it doesn't work, we let you know, but that's why we like to work with talents that listen to us. Because we are way beyond you, you just see your talent now, but for you to keep being the best, you need to keep evolving and listen to us. We don't like yes-men, but it also doesn't mean that we don't listen to the talents. We see beyond what they see, so we usually just advise them to "follow who knows the road."
"I just try to have a good balance, but as long as both brands are doing well, they rub off on one another, and my talents are happy that it's working well. We use our contracts for our talents, and we get things done fast because of the people that we know, so it's a lot of balance on both ends."
"AMVCA didn't come as a shock": Layi Wasabi's manager Oguntamu
In a previous report by Legit.ng, Issac Olayiwola, professionally known as Layi Wasabi, became the talk of the town on Saturday, May 11, 2024, after he clinched his first AMVCA award.
The creative juggernaut won the Best Digital Content Creator award ahead of Elozonam, Taaooma, Lizzy Jay, Jemimah Osunde and others.
In an exclusive chat with Wasabi's manager, Olufemi Oguntamu, he shared that the young creator has been "cooking" for a while, and the award did not come as a shock at all.
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Source: Legit.ng
