It was a palpable silence on Saturday at the Nigerian Marketing Award, when one of the country’s most successful advertising icons, Steve Babaeko, spent a few minutes to share‘a heart touching story’, on his grass to grace trajectory in the marketing communications industry.

His agency, X3M award clinches notable awards in various categories at the event.

In a keynote address titled; ‘Whispers that Moves Mountains’ Babaeko held guests at the event spellbound, as they listen keenly to a man whose life, style and businesses have become morale boosters to young and upcoming entrepreneurs, especially in the marketing communications industry.

At the event, Babaeko spoke more like a motivational speaker and a poet. Laced with appropriate words, language and artistry, Babaeko took his listeners on an historical odyssey that revealed his humble background, determination to dare and the hands of God.

“Sometimes, the most powerful forces in life are not loud. They do not arrive with the sound of drums or the blare of trumpets. They appear softly like a breath, like a thought, like a whisper.” the X3M Ideas CEO, had started.

While using his mother, a major character in the story as a systematic tool to draw comparison between yesterday and today, the top advertising man recalled his early days in Kaduna State, when his mum was practically in charge, following the death of his father at a very tender age.

“Growing up, I remember quiet mornings in our small home. My mother would wake up way before the sun, moving gently through the room, humming a familiar hymn. There were no grand speeches. No dramatic lessons. Just a soft melody rising into the stillness. Yet it was the cue for us to get up or else…”

He paused and stated that something in those moments rooted itself in him and taught him that life is shaped not only by the noise around man, but by the quiet voice within individuals -the whisper of purpose.

On what has changed, he stated, “Today, we live in a world that rewards noise. The loudest opinion is often mistaken for the truest. The most visible person is assumed to be the most valuable. We are encouraged to announce our every move, to demand attention, to shout in order to be heard.”

At this stage, Babaeko, who was recently elevated as Vice President and Area Director for Africa on the global board of the International Advertising Association, still admitted that history shows that the greatest transformations begin quietly.

“The seed that becomes the Iroko tree takes root underground. The first light of dawn does not argue for space, it simply fills it.
Faith, when it is real, does not scream. It knows. “The whisper is direction. It is conviction. It is the inner assurance that says: This is the way. Keep going.”

Using his experience as a case study, Babaeko painted a gloomy picture of when he left Kaduna for Lagos about thirty years ago, with neither a google map or a seer to show him what was ahead.

“I had no guarantees. But I felt a whisper pushing me forward.” he said emphatically.

From here, this former President of the Association of Advertsing Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), who was recently appointed a visiting Fellow at Henley Business School, UK, moved on to when he started his firm with little resources but trust in God and determination to succeed.

“When I founded X3M Ideas, thirteen years ago, the resources were very scarce and the risks were obvious. Yet the whisper said: Build. Trust. Create. The world will catch up. Today X3M Ideas has footprint in about nine countries and still counting. The whisper does not promise certainty. It promises clarity of purpose. And purpose is what moves mountains.”

To drive home his point, the award-winning creative master looked into the eyes of the various guests and awoke them. “Mountains, in our lives, take many forms. They may be fear. Doubt. Inequality. Limited opportunity. The labels placed on us by systems, by history, by perception, by the world’s storytelling, even by ourselves.

For Africa and for Nigeria, one of our greatest mountains has been the narrative others created about us.”