Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Favour Obasi-Ike. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Favour, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

First of all, thank you CanvasRebel for this sweet return to serve your beautiful community! Feels good to be back and share how God has blessed my life!

You know, people often look at a successful business and think it just popped up out of nowhere—like one day, boom, you’re making multiple figures in revenue and profit. But the truth? It’s never that simple. My business, Work and PLAY Entertainment, took almost 13+ years of grinding, learning from mistakes, and constantly adjusting before it got to where it is today. There’s a super long way to go but when you think in decades, like lasting companies we know, you can achieve a lot more, using a special ingredient mix of faith and focus.

I started back in 2013 with nothing but a laptop and a drive to make something of myself. I was still in school, studying media and communications, but I knew I didn’t want a traditional job. So I took on any freelance gig I could—photo editing, branding, social media—whatever paid the bills. My first real job was editing hundreds of photos for a TV network modeling agency, and let me tell you, that taught me real quick about deadlines, precision, and speed.

After graduation, I kept pushing. Fast forward to 2017, I got my first Master’s in entertainment business and then an MBA (scored a 3.86 GPA), all while bootstrapping my company. I made every mistake in the book—hired the wrong people too soon, took on projects that didn’t align with my goals, and sometimes undercharged just to get clients. But each misstep taught me something disruptive.

The real turning point came in 2019. I stopped chasing random gigs and focused on what actually scaled: SEO, Pinterest marketing, and podcasting. I built systems—using tools like Honeybook for contracts, proposals, and retainer payments, Calendly for scheduling meetings, and ClickUp + Primavera P6 for project management—so processes actually ran smoothly instead of just winging it—at the same time, I was wrapping up my second Masters of Business in Business Administration (3.82 GPA).

And the We Don’t PLAY podcast (wedontplaypodcast.com) – It became a booming game-changer. We’re now ranked in the top 0.5% globally, and it’s brought in clients I never would’ve reached otherwise, by the Grace of God. We just launched Season 11 earlier this year, celebrating over 555+ episodes streaming across 151+ countries.

But here’s the thing nobody tells you: scaling isn’t just about making more money. It’s about making better decisions—learning when to say no, building the right team, and setting up processes so you’re not constantly putting out fires. It took me years to figure that out and I’m still figuring it out. Learning never ends. The more I know, the more I don’t…

So if there’s one thing I’d tell anyone trying to grow their business, it’s this: Success isn’t overnight. It’s a grind. But if you stay focused, learn from the mistakes, and keep refining your approach, you’ll get there and you’ll be happy you went through a road you never want to go back through. And when you do, it’ll be so much sweeter because you built it the real way.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

You know, people often ask me how I got started in this industry, and the truth is, my journey has been a mix of passion and practical learning. I’ve always been a creative at heart – I’ve been playing drums since I was six years old and making music for as long as I can remember. But it was during my studies that I discovered how to turn creativity into a real business.

The name “Work and PLAY Entertainment” actually comes from the Biblical excerpt, Ecclesiastes 3 – that idea that there’s a season for everything. For me, it represents that perfect balance between smart work and joy, between serving clients well and maintaining that creative spark. At our core, we’re about helping businesses shine online while treating every client with genuine care and respect.

What do we actually do? We’re your digital growth partners. Our specialty is taking businesses from invisible to invincible online. Whether it’s through SEO that gets you ranking higher, digital marketing, Pinterest SEO, podcast management, website development that converts visitors to customers, or strategic advertising across platforms like Facebook, Google, and even billboards – we’ve got you covered.

One of our proudest moments? Working with a bariatric surgery practice in California that came to us with zero online presence. Within the first month, we helped them hit over 50,000+ monthly impressions on their Google Search Console dashboard (think of your dashboard like a car). Now they’re not just getting seen – they’re getting leads and growing their business locally to regionally, in ways they never thought possible!

What makes us different? We don’t just do marketing – we build systems. Using AI-powered tools and proven strategies, we create sustainable growth that keeps working long after we implement it. From technical SEO audits to Pinterest account management to podcast strategies, we look at your entire digital ecosystem and build systems within 3-12 months.

We offer everything from complimentary 30-minute consultations to full-service SEO management, across 3 tiers, because we know every business has different needs. Our ultimate goal? To make sure your website isn’t just another URL, but a powerful tool that gets you seen, remembered, and – most importantly – gets you results. Visit https://www.playinc.online to access all our web links.

At the end of the day, we measure our success by yours. Whether you need help with lead generation, content strategy, or just figuring out where to start, we’re here to help you build a branded business that lasts.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The best and most effective strategy we applied for growing our clientele has been four major components; Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pinterest Business, Digital Communications (email, text, image, video) and Podcasting.

My podcast, We Don’t PLAY has amassed 555 episodes within 11+ seasons, streaming across 151+ countries because of staying consistent and passionate about the end goal which has always been to educate, empower, and relate with listeners and potential clients who need help with active strategies to improve their business operations and scale their marketing efforts.

Growing my business, Work and PLAY Entertainment for the past 12+ years and deciding to launch a podcast halfway through my journey (August 12, 2019) was the best decision I ever made. Knowing that we help clients improve their lead generation and conversions using SEO made a no-brainer move to start a show that will highlight established business owners and simultaneously, impact other marketers to know and do better with their online presence.

The best part about this now is that, after discussing niche-specific keywords and phrases/questions that are frequently asked, our article pages and podcast links are getting cited by AI search engines like ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and 6 more Large Language Models (LLMs), because of the earned brand mentions and covered topics that were transcribed through text, audio, and video.

If I was to start my business over again, I would bootstrap with a podcast and website to retain attention (today’s currency) to maintain relevance with an omni-channel presence. Attention is the new currency. Retention is how you keep it attention-flowing.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Relationships that don’t exist create businesses that don’t exist. One of the best things you can do yourself and your business is to stay in touch with prospects who are yet to work with you or clients who have already worked with you.

Majorly, I focus on building a strong email list where we send at least two emails minimum per month, because out of sight, out of mind.

When business owners and operators are looking for our digital marketing, Pinterest, podcast, or SEO services, we always inform them to visit our Zoom, Roam or phone meeting calendar that is readily available to schedule at your earliest convenience so we can run a website and AI visibility audit report and share with you so you are aware of where you are and where we could be within 3-12 months of working together, depending on your preferred retainer package.

When we onboard our clients and work with them on a weekly schedule (at least 1 hour per week for virtual meetings), my personal phone number is accessible to them because of the trust that has to be established from the beginning.

We also use ClickUp, which is a client project management tool, to delegate tasks and achieve milestones across our clientele workflow system.

Fostering brand loyalty is super effective when you are going for conferences (as I’m writing this, I just wrapped up attending a VIP Entrepreneur Level Summit in Vegas), guesting on podcasts, hosting your podcast (like I am), and building intentional long-lasting relationships will get you where money won’t.

One of the greatest things I have done so far is answering questions clients ask me in the form a podcast episode which sparks curiosity and demand for our services because of giving audiovisual case studies that people and listen to and take action from.

Thank you and God bless everyone that reads this and I pray to see your business flourish. There’s room for all of us to shine. 8.2B people, and you’re shining!

Thank you, Canvas Rebel, again for this beautiful opportunity! I hope something new was learned and action-tasked after reading this!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.playinc.online
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flaevbeatz
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/favourobasiike/about/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/favourobasiike/
• Twitter: https://x.com/flaevbeatz
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@wedontplaypod
• Other: https://www,wedontplaypodcast.com
  https://workandplayentertainment.myflodesk.com/seo-marketing-strategy-zoom-call
  https://calendly.com/flaevbeatz