It’s great to have you here. If you are new to my platform, my name is Abiola Iyiola. I’m a coach, I help talented people like you to make sustainable income out of ordinary things they never thought they had. Do not be like most people. Read to the end, answer the little questions and join the accountability group. Now let us start the series. See you in the group.
“What feels ordinary to you is extraordinary to someone else. That gap is where income lives.”
There is a woman in Ibadan who earns ₦400,000 a month teaching other women how to tie gele. She did not study business. She did not have a large following. She did not wait for the right moment or the right platform.
She simply decided that the thing she had been doing at weddings and naming ceremonies for fifteen years the thing people begged her for, the thing she could do in her sleep was worth charging for.
And it was.
This series is for people like her as it is for you.
Why Most People Never Discover Their Marketable Talent
The most common reason talented people stay broke is not the economy even though it looks like it. It is not lack of education, even though being educated serves a purpose, lack of connection, even though connection is leverage, or lack of opportunity.
It is the belief that what they have is not special enough.
We call this the Proximity Problem. The closer you are to your own gift, the more invisible it becomes.
You have been doing this thing for so long, so naturally, that your brain has filed it under ordinary. Not because it is ordinary but because familiarity removes the signal of value.
The seamstress who produces flawless Ankara designs in two hours thinks everyone can do it. The mechanic who diagnoses an engine problem by sound thinks everyone has that ear. The teacher whose students always pass thinks it must be the students. The cook whose parties always run out of food thinks everyone can cook like that.
None of it is ordinary. All of it is a business waiting to be activated.
The Three Signs Your Talent Is Marketable Right Now
You do not need a professional qualification to have a marketable skill. You do not need a certificate, a studio, or a website. Here are the three signs that what you have is already worth money:
Sign One: People come to you for it, repeatedly and unprompted. Not once. Not when you offer. They come to you first. Before they go anywhere else. They trust you specifically with this thing.
Sign Two: You complete it faster than others, or at a level others cannot match. Speed and quality are both expressions of mastery. If you can do in two hours what takes your neighbour two days, that efficiency has a price.
Sign Three: Someone has already paid you for it, formally or informally. The recharge card. The free lunch in exchange for your help. The “let me send you something” after you solved their problem. These are primitive markets. The market exists. You have just not formalised it yet.
Talent Is Not Just for the Knowledge Business
Here is where most conversations about talent to income make a critical mistake: they assume the only talents worth monetising are speaking, coaching, writing, or consulting.
That is profoundly wrong.
Let me show you what talent to income actually looks like across different lives:
The tailor in Surulere who starts a made-to-order Instagram brand and has a three-month waiting list.
The secondary school biology teacher who begins weekend tutoring classes for WAEC students, then builds a YouTube channel, then sells a revision guide.
The mechanic who starts a YouTube channel called “Car Talk Nigeria” answering questions, builds 80,000 subscribers, and earns from AdSense, branded merch, and referral income.
The stay-at-home mother who makes chin-chin for her children’s school events, packages it properly, lists it on Jumia, sells it on her WhatsApp status, takes it to church and now supplies three schools and two offices.
The graphic designer who stops doing odd jobs for ₦3,000 per logo, builds a portfolio, raises her rate to ₦300,000 or more per brand identity project, and has a waiting list.
The fashion designer who starts teaching sewing on weekends to eight women, charges ₦25,000 per student, runs the class four times a year, and earns ₦800,000 annually from teaching alone separate from her design work.
The security consultant who spent eighteen years in the military, offers private security training, and serves banks and corporate organisations at ₦500,000 per engagement.
The fitness trainer who documents her clients’ transformations on Instagram, builds a following of 40,000 in eighteen months, launches an online workout programme for ₦15,000, and sells 200 copies in the first month.
None of these people are exceptional. All of them made a single decision: to stop treating their talent as a hobby and start treating it as a business.
The Talent Audit: Your Starting Exercise
Before tomorrow’s lesson, I want you to do one thing. Not a big thing. Not a scary thing. One honest thing.
Open a notebook or a notes app and answer these four questions. Do not filter yourself. Do not decide in advance what is relevant. Just write.
Question One: What do people consistently ask me for? Think of the last ten times someone called or messaged you for help with something. What was it?
Question Two: What have I been paid for — even informally? Not just your job. Include everything. The favour exchange, the gift, the “let me appreciate you,” the side income.
Question Three: What do I do in two hours that takes others two days? Look for speed and quality. Where are you faster than the room?
Question Four: What would I do for free if money were no object? Not because free things make money but because genuine passion and talent almost always overlap. Where they overlap is your sweet spot.
Write your answers. Keep them. We are going to use them every day this week.
TODAY’S ACTION STEPS (Do these before tomorrow’s lesson)
Complete the four Talent Audit questions in a notebook. Write without filtering. everything counts.
Identify 3 things from your list that people have paid you for, even informally.
Write one sentence: ‘The thing I do naturally that others find difficult or impressive is _________.’
Tomorrow we go deeper on why having talent is not enough, and the one thing that turns a skill into a business.
Thank you for joining the M25 series today.
©Abiola Iyiola, 2026
Join the optional accountability group where you can ask questions, give feedback, and discuss with others building income with their talent and skills via this Link
https://chat.whatsapp.com/Gb8e1q3DhiS06loJAif8uF
This is definitely what I need.
I was anticipating this challenge and I'm sure I'd be coming out with a result at the end of this series.
Thank you Sir
Truly we all have talent but we bury it and keep on questioning why we are broke.
Thank you sir for this series