MANAGING POPULARITY INSIGHTS
Popularity is a burden, popularity is an asset, and popularity is a phenomenon. You need to know how to manage it. Recently, I have received phone calls from several countries around the world—from people I schooled with at Federal Government College, Warri, Government College, and even from my tribesmen. I’ve also heard from those I have mentored over the years. In fact, during the June conference, a lady called from the United States who was part of the seminar. I had known her for 30 years. There are those who still know me in Aba, and to this day, I have remained consistent, refreshing, and relevant by reinventing myself.
There are key issues you must learn about popularity: Don’t crave it; it will crash and crush you. Don’t crave popularity; it will crave and crush you. Richard Baxter, in his book The Reformed Pastor, written in 1656—that’s more than 400 years ago—said that church people like novelty; they like the new. But you see, some core things endure: truth, authenticity, reliability, humility, and your interest in humanity. These will endure even if you don’t seek popularity.
As I was telling my secretary, my PA Pastor Abraham, who assisted me in running the 2-day webinar, I want to thank all those who attended. We had 333 people from 26 countries registered. Because of work schedules and different time zones, we will send the recordings to each participant in these 26 countries. The one for July is going to be on the 5th and 6th of July. The theme is Investing for Gain: Profit and Living on Profit. From Tuesday, we will start adding people to the master class. Your entrance into my mentorship scheme is through the master class of each month. Previously, when we were doing it for free, and everyone could join, some people took it for granted. Now, when you register for the master class, you become a member of the mentorship group.
Richard Baxter wrote in 1656 that people like novelty. I was discussing this with Pastor Abraham, my wonderful PA, who takes good care of me. I showed him a set of chairs that had been discarded in the rain after the upholstery had worn out. I told him that most celebrities are like those chairs; when people use you and wear you out, they will discard you. As a star, as someone with anointing, as a person building yourself as a brand, you must devise a way to protect your brand. When I get very popular, I withdraw. I learned that from Jesus Christ. They would be looking for Him, and He would have withdrawn.
Since my interview with the Honest Bunch, I have received calls from all kinds of places and people. Newspapers, platforms, and radio stations want to interview me. I have withdrawn and informed them that any interviews I do will be in 2025. From now until 2025, I need to retreat, reflect, reinvent, rebrand, and represent myself. If not, you will be like a piece of cloth washed by everyone and left out in the sun; after some time, you will lose texture and color. He whom the Lord has honored and does not know it is like a beast that perishes in the field. When you are honored, you must recognize it and behave accordingly so that you don’t perish.
I have studied ministry and preachers, particularly young people, who go everywhere and do everything. I know a young man who was everywhere, and I called him to see me. Today, he is nowhere because he wore himself out by going everywhere. I told him as he was going up and down to come so I could teach him some fundamentals that would help him endure. I don’t need to honor every invitation for interviews or speaking engagements. I have businesses that keep me going, and investments that allow me to live comfortably and healthily without needing to preach incessantly.
Additionally, I have produced materials that popularity brings wealth. I just sent some autographed books to the United States upon request. People are ordering them, and I use this popularity to boost my monthly conferences and webinars. I have a platform to speak and work on. You must always ask yourself: Must you come out? Must you speak? There are three young pastors in Nigeria who talk everywhere, about everything, argue about everything, and criticize everything. I warned my mentees that these pastors would run into trouble soon. I have withdrawn into my shell to recalibrate and recalculate before I reemerge. You must learn this.
William Richard Baxter said in 1656 that church people like novelty—anything new, any new pastor, any new thing—and after some time, they get bored and shift to another person. I have stayed relevant for years because I know how to manage popularity and audience. Another thing is that many people are angry with you because of your popularity. They will always ask, “Why must it be you?” There’s nothing special about me; they think. Why Dr. Apoki? And a lot of them are wishing you will fail or make mistakes. I am always very careful about that.
On Saturday, I was at a wedding, and everyone was greeting Dr. Apoki. They were happy; they know me, they are happy I’m from their tribe, happy I’m from their city—happy, happy, happy. But I am a very wise man. Immediately after I saw the young man marrying the girl, I gave them the little I had and withdrew. I didn’t go to the reception, which was filled with people. I was later informed that the master of ceremonies was quoting me and some of the things I said. It was safer and better that I wasn’t there. You must not always be the center of attention. Learn to practice dissimulation and avoid over-availability. Over-availability reduces value. That is why no one buys air—because air is too available.
The brothers of Jesus asked Him, “Is it not time that you will come to the temple to show yourself in Jerusalem?” He replied, “My time has not yet come.” Truly, my time has not yet come. I am incubating and building the strength to carry greater fame. If you don’t have the shoulders to carry great fame, you will collapse under demand. Everybody wants to hear me, so I am withdrawing. It is only on key issues and in key places that I will go. I have shifted every interview to 2025.
The next thing I want to talk about is jeans. Jeans—blue jeans or Levi’s—were first produced on May 20th, 1873, by Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis during the Gold Rush in the Sacramento Valley. A woman came to meet the tailor, Jacob Davis, and asked him to sew pants that wouldn’t easily tear, as jeans were originally from tarp that miners used in the Sacramento Valley during the Gold Rush. Davis added rivets at the points of stress—those metallic things you see on jeans—and that was how he communicated with Levi Strauss, who was the merchant with the money, and both of them patented it. Jeans have endured since 1873, popularized by the Baby Boomers.
Be an enduring brand, an enduring product. You must have rivets—strong things that hold you together. I want to endure; I want a legacy that will endure. When they told me to start a church in Aba now that I am popular and reigning, I told them I don’t want to be a reigning preacher; I want to reign with Christ. If I had opened the church in Aba, I would have become very popular, but I would have destroyed the institution or affected the institution that raised me up—The Church of God Mission International—and maybe offended my Bishop, Bishop B.C. Ed. Today, he called me as he usually does when he’s passing through Owerri. He must branch into my school, or if I’m at Aba, he will branch to see me. I built a relationship with my past because I was not desperate for popularity.
It is this desperation for popularity that drives pastors into occultism, fake miracles, and all kinds of things just to remain relevant. But I want to be an enduring brand, like Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis’s jeans, which have stood the test of time.
I remain your friend, Dr. Charles Apoki.
