I was ashamed to use my own name

You’re getting this email because at some point, our paths crossed.

Maybe you signed up for a webinar. Maybe you bought SWOF or EVAA. Maybe you downloaded something I offered years ago and forgot about it.

Either way — hello. Or hello again.

My name is Joel Amawhe. Some people call me The Commando. And if you’ve been wondering “who is this guy and why is he emailing me?” — let me reintroduce myself with a story.

In 2019, my startup MyPadi collapsed.

I had raised money from VCs. We were valued at $500K. I’d spoken at conferences, represented Nigeria at GITEX Dubai, done the whole founder thing.

And then it was over.

I needed to eat. So I started doing e-commerce. Moved products from china to Nigeri, Ghana and Cameroon. Learned the trenches of actually selling things in Nigeria — not pitching to investors, but convincing real customers to pay real money.

By 2020, I had built a system that helps me get bulk buyers across Africa. I called it SWOF. And I thought — maybe I could teach this.

So I created a Facebook page. Named it Joel Amawhe.

I stared at it for about five minutes. Then I changed it to “Joel On Demand.”

Why?

Because what would people say?

I went from building a VC-backed startup to... selling a course on how to buy and sell in bulk? What would my fellow founders think when they saw my ads? The people I have shared stages with. The ones who still had their companies running.

I could already hear them. “Joel is doing what now?”

So I hid behind a name that sounded more... corporate. More acceptable. Less like I had fallen off.

By 2023, something shifted. I changed the page back to Joel Amawhe. Started calling myself The Commando. Posted with my face, my voice, my opinions. TikTok grew to 60K+. Things were moving.

And then I got scared again.

I created Sell & Shine Academy. Told myself it was strategy — “separate yourself from the courses, Joel. You don’t want to be known as just a course guy.”

Same fear. Different packaging.

2024, I went further. Created Bizthom. Moved everything there. SWOF. EVAA. The community. A whole corporate layer between me and the work.

You know what happened?

Chaos.

I couldn’t figure out where to post. My personal page or the business page? When I made content, which brand was speaking? I was managing multiple identities and none of them felt like me.

And then the real wake-up call came.

Some of those founders I was hiding from? They started reaching out. Asking for guidance on building personal brands. Wanting help selling their own books and courses.

The people I thought would mock me were asking me to teach them.

That’s when I saw how stupid the whole thing was.

Why was I building a publishing house just to sell one book?

My courses aren’t even courses. They’re frameworks I spent years designing. I just happened to teach them through video. I could wake up tomorrow and put the same thing in a book. The container doesn’t matter. The thinking does.

And people weren’t buying SWOF because “Bizthom” sounded professional. They were buying because of me. My story. My face. My voice.

The corporate layer added nothing but confusion.

So I killed it.

October 2025, I moved everything back under Joel Amawhe. Bizthom is now building tech products that will brigdge the gap between Business Owners and their stubborn, skeptical African prospects. The education? That’s me. No more layer.

If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ve probably known me through different names. Joel On Demand. Sell & Shine. Bizthom. Maybe you weren’t sure which one was “the real one.”

They were all me. Just me running from myself.

I’m done with that now.

If there’s something you keep avoiding — a thing you know you should do, a version of yourself you’re scared to fully own — this newsletter is going to keep poking at it.

Not motivation. Not theory. Just what I’m learning, building, and thinking about business. From someone who’s made plenty of stupid mistakes and is trying not to repeat them.

Welcome to The Commando Dispatch.

This is Dispatch #1

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