You no know wetin you sabi

Last time, we looked at what claiming yourself actually looks like. Notice. Name. Keep.

Today we move to the second pillar. Message. Your voice.

Let me start with something I hear all the time.

"DK, I don't know what to post. I don't know what to say online."

I used to think that was a content problem. A strategy problem. A pick-a-niche problem.

It isn't.

If you don't know what to say, it's usually because you haven't claimed your voice yet.

Or to put it the way we'd say it at home:

you no know wetin you sabi.

You don't know what you know.

That's not the same as knowing nothing. You know plenty. You've lived, worked, failed, fixed things, sat in rooms and figured things out that other people are still guessing at. The knowledge is there.

What's missing is that you've never owned it.

And you can't claim what you don't own.

There's an old song I keep coming back to.

Wetin dey for Sokoto, e dey your shokoto.

What you're chasing all the way to Sokoto is already in your trousers (shokoto); it's already in you. 

We do this constantly. We look outside for the thing we already carry. We watch someone else's posts to work out what ours should sound like. We borrow their framework, their format, their five bullet points, their voice. Then we wonder why nothing we publish feels like us.

It doesn't feel like us because it isn't.

Your message is not a replication of everybody else.

Your message is a compilation of everything you are.

The work you've done. The things you survived. The faith you hold.

The stuff you notice that nobody else in the room notices. The way you explain a hard thing so a person finally gets it. All of it, together. That combination does not exist anywhere else.

That's your Knowledge. It is what you know , na wetin you SABI  

So Message is not about finding a clever tagline or squeezing yourself into one lane so the algorithm can file you. It's about claiming wetin you sabi and then saying it plainly, in your own voice, at your own volume.  It's about stopping trying to make noise but becoming an authority, a VOICE 

And here's the part I want you to hear, especially if you're the quiet one.

You don't have to get louder. You have to get clearer.

So, this week's quiet question.

What do you know that you've stopped giving yourself credit for?

Not your job title. The thing people always come to you for. The thing you explain so often you've decided it must be obvious.

Write it down. That's where your message starts.

In my next letter, we'll look at the third pillar. Strategy. Your direction.

DK