That money you want is in someone’s account: Amba Eyang – Ajakaye
Not every “celebrity” is known. There are powerful women who are not just breaking glass ceilings, but also impacting the lives of people they meet. One of such extraordinary women is Amba Eyang-Ajakaiye, a Brand Storyteller and Business Strategist. She is the founder of iDare.NotDread Nigeria, a social engineering platform promoting innovation, creativity, and enterprise through storytelling and value sharing. She is also team lead of the Build My Business initiative born out of iDare.NotDread’s enterprise. Centered on building skills and capacities for young people in the business. This project launched grand ideas such as the BMB Expo and BMB Training school (online) in 2017. Amba has gone from transforming ordinary people who would have never thought of writing their own books, to making them authors. She’s also supporting small businesses to achieve scalability and growth especially, by helping them identify and understand the importance of “target markets” and “market validation”. In this interview with SLA contributor – Wuraola, Amba Eyang-Ajakaiye bares it all about IDare.NotDread and highlights why small business owners should “do it afraid”. Tell us about your company – IDare.NotDread iDare.NotDread is a social Enterprise promoting innovation, creativity, and enterprise in Nigeria. Our focus is primarily to build women communities and empower them with creative and innovative skills for business growth. What’s one business tip you wish most business owners knew and could wield to their advantage? Network. Meet people. That money you want is in someone’s account. That unspoken challenge can be solved by someone. Attend workshops, events, and meet people. Most people don’t bite. How can entrepreneurs begin to understand the power of conducting market validation, and collaboration with other SMEs? I believe in collaboration. This is why I try to build communities. We started the Abuja food community in May, and its amazing to see how much collaboration has happened in a group full of women. Yet, we probably thought women prefer to fight. No. The moment businesses understand that collaboration first means ‘here is what I can give you’, before ‘give me what I want’, they will lead better businesses. With a lot of fake business coaches around, what makes your brand different? We didn’t just arrive. We’ve been here a while. In 2013 we started with creating a platform for entrepreneurs to share their stories and inspire others. Over time, we realized stories weren’t enough. Capacities needed to be built. So we went all in to try to understand the real needs of the entrepreneurs we wished to serve, and since 2016, we started contributing to conversations around digital technology and creating a good impact in the digital space. Since then, our efforts have birthed super brands. In the past 3 years we have successfully trained 4,000 entrepreneurs on digital strategies as well as provided opportunities for business visibility. Many thanks to the opportunity Google granted us through the Digital Skills for Africa programme and a host of other partners who have trusted us to work with them. Why should SMEs understand their target markets before making an entrance into the market? Because if we don’t, we would be hitting our heads on rocks. Hard rocks. You can’t sell to everyone, and this is why research is key to identifying who your market is. Tell us about your Ebook Challenge Its amazing! I launched my first ever ebook on March 2019, titled ‘How to write your first eBook‘ and that’s where the ebook challenge began. We are currently on our 3rd cohort and it’s been amazing!!! Every 2 months we launch a new set of authors who are super proud of their achievements. It feels great to empower people to create wealth with their knowledge. We are looking to expand the community beyond eBooks to help more women create diverse digital products and generate more income. How does the “Do It Afraid” catchphrase relate to entrepreneurs who don’t like taking risks? We all have fear in us. It’s an emotion. I am still learning to tame my fears. And we all should. The best way to go about it is to go ahead and do that very thing you fear. I have coached a number of businesses and one of the areas I tend to focus on is to help them fight those limitations – the little voices and beliefs that make them feel less of themselves and limited. It’s important we act despite fear. Accept your fears but act. What’s the worst that could happen? Failure? Then show me one person who NEVER failed.
A ‘Maternity Leave’ Revolution is taking place on the continent
The topic of parental leave in Africa is a commonly contested issue that is brought to question time and time again. In many parts of the continent, actual maternity and paternity leave are non-existent. Distiller giant, Diageo have made a huge step in a positive direction regarding parental leave by being the first large scale employer in Africa to provide their staff with six months paid maternity leave and four weeks paternity leave on full rate pay in all their markets across the continent. Diageo made this announcement in conjunction with their move to increase parental leave in their Western and Asian markets as well. This is a big step in the corporate world given that very few (if any) employers in Africa are permitting six months of paid leave – which makes it easier for women in the workplace to be both mothers and have a career with little stringent time complications. The International Labour Organization (ILO) states that 80% of women in Africa and Asia are deprived of maternity leave. In terms of paternity leave, the numbers are even lower with only eight countries out of 54 giving fathers more than a week’s paternity leave. This debacle has made it difficult for African women who are/want to be mothers to progress in the workplace because it forces them to choose one or the other but never both. SLA contributor – Diana had a sit down with HR director of the Diageo Africa division, Caroline Hirst, and Clemmie Raynsford, Head of Market Communications to learn about the steps taken and reasons for making such an empowering initiative come alive. Why did Diageo decide to do this now as opposed to say 2 – 4yrs ago? Caroline: We have been really progressing on the gender diversity perspective, we’ve worked really heavily on representation on a leadership level and in every aspect of our business and in particular generally where women are underrepresented. That has been really successful. However, we have recognized that the gender diversity agenda can’t just be about how many people of which gender you’ve got doing what things. It’s much more a breakdown of stereotypes, how do you create an environment where everybody can succeed, that’s really our aim. I was really keen to bring this policy in Africa because I think you can be forgiven for thinking that the gender diversity agenda is all about enabling women in Africa to do what men do which is not the case. It’s about all of us think differently about how we work together and so having this shift around parental leave and particularly the shift around paternity leave across Africa has not only given men more benefits and women too but it’s also got people talking about the diversity agenda as something that’s relevant and a means to change for everybody. Clemmie: It’s about us being a supportive employer and saying you can take more time with your family. With the beverage industry being such an old fashioned industry, most of our big breweries in parts of Africa took it positively commenting that it’s a really pioneering step that’s actually saying we are an employer first and we care about our people and giving them the right to the environment to do their work in the best way possible. If they need to be at home they can be and have their family and have that balance. As a working mum, what does this new initiative by Diageo mean to you and your family? Caroline: I was fortunate enough that when I had my children, the UK legislation already allowed mothers to take up to 40 weeks off. When I had my daughter and took 6 months off leave, the main consideration for me as the primary bread-winner in my household was how would I afford to take that much time off? When I had my son, I took a year off, most of it being unpaid so I feel that if this policy was in existence then, it would have made a lot more financial sense. This new policy will make a difference for women across Africa. I also hope that more men will feel welcome to take the 4 weeks paternity leave and spend time at home with their families. One of the things that we are seeking to do in our business is to make it okay for anybody to be a parent as opposed to it being something that only women can talk about or experience fully. Clemmie: I think what’s great about this policy is that not only does it take the financial pressure off which probably is sort of 70-80% of the main factor. But also, in saying that your company will give you full pay for 26 weeks off, it’s also saying that slightly the company is expecting you to want to and is absolutely fine with you taking that extended period of time off. It’s the combination of being allowed and your employer saying – we support you and we know that you have a family, this is a crazy new stage in your life so not only will we help you financially but here is some extra time you most likely need. The feedback from a lot of our African markets included people just suddenly feeling that sense of support that never existed before. It has been very positive from our various East and West Africa businesses. Why can’t fathers get the same amount of time off as mothers do? Caroline: In the future, we could look at a possible potential for that. Our intention is to create an environment where men can be fathers. And we think that moving to four weeks paternity leave whereas before in most markets it’s usually just two weeks or less, signals a progressive step forward. We have operationally a few constraints around how we would extend that to six months here where the majority of the workforce is male, but
What went down at the #IAMORIGINAL Boss Brunch & Panel – Johannesburg
Curated within the beautiful landscape of Jozi on a peaceful Sunday, She Leads Africa in partnership with The Cut Life and Originals by Africa’s Best held a Boss Brunch and panel with the finest Motherland Mogul influencers of Africa. The location was a hidden oasis of tranquility, The Gabriela’s Tea Room, perfect for some girl chat, champagne was flowing, the crowd was buzzing. What a beautiful Sunday. In the era of feminism and self-love, you do find some false prophets that don’t live up to their campaign inside as loudly as they may be online. What was important about the #IAMORIGINAL panel and brunch was that it focused on the challenges black women struggle through. The theme that stood out from the event was the need for women to back each other up and actually mean it. For the older and younger generation to join minds and create solutions for the Motherland Moguls that follow. The event kicked off with a warm welcome from the bubbly Shanon Stanislaus of Originals by Africa’s Best. She spoke about the benefits of their new Coconut Creme range that has nutrition rich formulas, helping your natural hair with the foundation its needs for hair goals. I tried some of the samples from the gift bag and I am sold on the products, which are available from Clicks nationwide or through The Originals by Africa’s best website. We then proceeded into an hour-long networking bingo session, that had our Influencers and Motherland Moguls buzzing through the room, the energy was so lively- It felt like the best girl chat session I’ve been to in ages. We held bingo cards that had questions such as “Who in the room has three pets, Who is an only child”. These were great ice breakers, especially for an introvert like myself. Back to our tables, we were served incredible dishes by The Gabriela’s Tea Room patrons, everything delicious and mouthwatering. This amazing panel was moderated by Tahira Joy of The Cut Life joined by Shanon Stanislaus (Originals by Africa’s Best), Enhle Mbali (Actress), Azania Mosaka (Broadcaster) and Jamelia Donaldson (Founder of Treasure Tress). They spoke on self-care and beauty, ways to effectively run your business and respect yourself and values in the process. We all got a few tips on how to reach your next Boss level in entrepreneurship through their stories, lessons and best practices. Azania Mosaka dropped so many nuggets that had all the women in agreement throughout. In the entertainment industry women are made to choose to get ahead either giving their bodies or having to dumb down their intellect so at to seem less of a threat to colleagues. As shocking as it may sound, these are challenges most women are still overcoming. A recurring theme throughout the Boss brunch and panel was how women need to remain educated and curious in our endeavors and not forgetting the people we build our dreams with. “If you’re starting your race, be invaluable to your team.” – Shanon Stanislaus.. There’s only so much you can do as an individual, once you realize your expertise is invaluable, the impossible is just as attainable as anything. We truly are better together. On the theme of staying curious in what your interests are, Jamelia Donaldson of Treasure Tress stated… “ You don’t know what you want to do until you’ve tried it all”. This tied in so well with the events hashtag of the day #IAMORIGINAL, when you apply yourself and work on what your secret sauce is, what do you really have to lose ? All in all, this was an event, unlike any other networking event I have been to, which is saying a lot as I have been to a ton of networking sessions and gone home feeling as though I barely received much value from the speakers. It could be just how intimate the brunch was or the fact that everyone left their egos at the door and simply wanted to celebrate each other. I have nothing but praise for what these women aimed to share through the event and I believe that we can all learn from them. As Motherland Moguls we are constantly inspiring those around us, we may not realize it a lot of the times, the best thing we can do is live an intention-driven life in our goals, decisions, and actions. Work within the passion and not ego, power or status. I’m definitely looking forward to more events from these powerhouses. Sponsored Post.
Colleen Higgs: Digital publishing has brought new opportunities for publishers
Colleen Higgs started Modjaji Books in 2007 as an independent feminist press that publishes southern African women’s fiction, poetry, and biographies. She felt African women deserved to tell their stories on an authentic and conscientious platform. Many Modjaji book titles have gone on to win numerous prestigious literary awards both locally and internationally. In this article, Colleen Higgs talks about her work and what it takes to be a feminist publisher. What are the top three things someone needs to consider before opening a publishing business? Do you have enough starting capital? Publishing requires money up front and it takes time to earn that money back. Think carefully about why you are doing it. After many years of publishing, you might find it tough to deal with all the many demands made of you, the lack of appreciation for what you have done for writers and how little money you make from doing the work. What is your focus going to be? It is good to have a very particular focus, it will help you to find an audience and to make decisions about what to publish. Tell us about your work as an independent publisher. Being a writer I understood what it was like to want to get published and the inflation and deflation of the relationship with a publisher. It didn’t prepare me for all the work that it takes though, the ongoing attention to the big picture and to detail that the publisher has to manage. Publishers do a vast number of things. You don’t just read through submissions and select books to publish. There is a huge amount of admin. You work out a vision and focus for your company and keep a firm eye on the money and cash flow. You must constantly maintain relationships with all the people you work with: printers, writers, editors, illustrators, artists, proof-readers, shareholders, accountant, book-keeper, bookstore owners and employees not to mention participating in book fairs and doing interviews! Why was it important to open Modjaji Books as a ‘feminist’ print? Modjaji fills a gap by providing an outlet for writing by women that takes itself and its readers seriously. Having lived through and enacted publishing only women, I became aware of how this has been a deeply political act. When you think about the way publishing is owned, media is owned, who gets to make the decisions, and how women are represented, here and internationally it just made sense. Women do have a different experience of the world – not just because they are women, but because of the way power is structured and filtered. I had experienced my own writing not being taken seriously because it is too ‘confessional’. I wanted to make a way that other women could be published where a set of values and perceptions that were not patriarchal and were not centered in the “Dead, White, Male canon” would make the decisions about what should be published. Many of your authors have been nominated to win prestigious literary awards. How do you feel about this? Modjaji has been lucky enough to publish the work of very talented writers. I like to think it is also because we have done a good job of editing the manuscripts and because of how the company is positioned and how we have framed and spotlighted particular works. We have published a lot of debuts short stories and poetry collections, many of these have won prizes, and yet they are books that most commercial publishers would not touch. How has society changed by reading your published books on infertility, stillbirth, homosexuality, etc. I have seen how these books have added to a growing discourse on topics that were taboo or not in the mainstream but now have a more prominent place. I’m proud to have had Modjaji Books be at the cutting edge of this kind of publishing here in South Africa. Haven run Modjaji for twelve years, have you faced any challenges running an African press? Yes, there are challenges, we are not supported by government policies that help us to grow and increase our sales. Recently the SA Book Development Council funded our participation in the SA Book Fair. I don’t think this goes far enough. I think there needs to be an active policy of buying local books for libraries. If we as independent South African publishers knew that even as few as 500 of our really good titles would be bought by the library system, it would make it all much more viable. Trade routes and avenues of distribution into other African countries are not nearly as strong as are those to Europe and the US. It would be great to see work on this taking place at a national level Publishing is a very expensive industry. As a publishing brand, how do you approach your need for commercial success? I have to confess I have not focused too much on commercial success! I thought that if I published something that needed to be heard it would be commercially successful. This has not been the case. I have tried to publish books and voices I have loved. With the increase of digital books, self publishing, and rumors of the “death of print”, how do you plan on staying relevant in the industry? If one continues to publish books that are well written, powerful and have a clear voice, a particular story, we as publishers will remain relevant in my opinion. It is important not to get stuck in a particular mind set and to be open to new technology and to new voices and perspectives. Having said that, there have been many changes in the last 12 years. Social media has become a force for publishing books, and for writers to connect with each other. Digital publishing has brought new opportunities for publishers. Self-publishing has its place, but there is still a great deal of room for publishers to work
Why Your Business Ideas Aren’t Working
By ensuring that your goals are S.M.A.R.T, you set yourself up to experience the thrill of an achievement that will become a motivation for future successes. Did you know that you can give 110% effort and fail miserably, even with a good business idea? I’ve seen it more times than I can count. An eager entrepreneur has a brilliant idea and quickly forges ahead, only to come back disappointed that things did not work out. By the time they come to that realization, they have likely invested a lot of money, energy and time that they will never get back. Entrepreneurs going through this experience usually assume that they are simply not cut out for entrepreneurship. It is at this point that I dig a little deeper into their execution process and I find that the real problem was that the idea or goal was underdeveloped, leading to poor execution. It was a set-up for failure from the start. I then have the task of talking the entrepreneur off the ledge by explaining that there may have been nothing wrong with their effort, resources or intentions. The reason for the apparent failure was likely that the goal was an inherently bad goal. When it comes to execution in business, a good goal is not just noble in its intention, but it also S.M.A.R.T. It is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Ensuring that your goal meets these criteria increases the likelihood of success. It eliminates wasted time and hones in on the best strategy for success. Specific goals break down your general goals into manageable pieces so that they are easier to achieve. A great example of this might be to increase your annual revenue. “Increase revenue in 2019” is a noble general goal. An even better goal is to “increase revenue in 2019 by identifying profit leaks and creating monthly marketing campaigns in order to obtain new clients.” Using that example, it’s easy to see how an entrepreneur can go from casting a wide net and taking a chance on what sticks, to identifying a specific strategy for success. Even that specific goal can be further developed as you think about other factors that will affect the outcome. By adding metrics and changing the goal to “increase revenue by 40% in 2019, by identifying profit leaks and creating monthly marketing campaigns in order to obtain new clients,” the direction and initial action steps are even clearer. This way, there is little room for wasted resources and time. The attainable and realistic factors in the S.M.A.R.T. formula are subjective factors determined by the individual’s readiness to start working on their goals. An entrepreneur who does not have a marketing budget needs to first raise the money or create a budget for marketing before embarking on the goal above. It seems obvious enough, but many entrepreneurs still do not count the cost before they set their foot on the pavement. The last piece of the formula is timeliness. This ensures that the person setting the goal has a sense of urgency and can fend off complacency when working toward their goal. It is easy to overlook this final piece, but it is just as critical as the others because it has two extremes: too much time allotted for the goal, and not enough time. When there is too much time, it is easy to fall into traps of procrastination and complacency. These are traps that force individuals to believe they have more time to do the work than they actually do. They lose their sense of urgency, which opens the door for others to leverage their ideas, or for a competitor to get to a product launch before they do. The other extreme is not to give yourself enough time. By rushing toward the goal, entrepreneurs stand the risk of sabotaging by not properly assessing the risks and all of the factors necessary for success. After all, there’s value for the entrepreneur in trial and error and even failure. However, by ensuring that your goals are S.M.A.R.T., you set yourself up to experience the thrill of achievement that will become a motivation for future successes.
Annesophie Achera: Bringing African fashion to the forefront of the retail industry
Annesophie Achera is the founder and creative director of AAchera Designs, a chic African fashion brand born in Nairobi, Kenya in 2011. She created the unique clothing line for women to feel bold, vibrant and confident and has since taken her brand across the region to Rwanda, Ghana and across the pond to the US and the UK. Annesophie takes pride in her designs as they show her love for the African print and African culture unabashedly. A fashion force to reckon with, Annesophie has had quite the journey and in this article, she shares her eagerness to do a lot more for the burgeoning fashion industry in Kenya. On how my career in fashion began… A few years back, I would make my own clothes to wear to family functions, and would always get positive responses about the clothes I designed. People always wanted to know where I got this dress or that top and it became so frequent that I started getting a few orders here and there and with the constant push from my family, I decided to start my own line. Being in the company of my cousin Liz Ogumbo, a well-known fashion designer based in South Africa and my mentor also got me very interested in the fashion industry. Having worked with True Love magazine as a stylist also helped me learn my ways around styling people from all walks of life. What inspired my fashion line – AACHERA… I’m very passionate about fashion and style and I personally like dressing for occasions – every day is my runway. That is what inspired me to create a line for both myself and for people out there who love fashion and want to look and feel confident in what they wear. I currently have two fashion lines. One is a luxury line which mainly has stock for occasions – this was inspired by wanting and appreciating the finer things in life. I recently rebranded the line and what inspired that was the need to have local fashion businesses in the retail space, I felt the need to fill that gap and bring African fashion to the forefront of the retail industry. My thoughts on the fashion scene in Africa… I think the fashion scene on the continent is doing quite well. I always say Africa is the new luxury at large as a brand in itself. The industry is really thriving in West and Southern Africa and it is picking up quite fast in East Africa as well. I have done business in Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, and the US and England – so as a designer in Africa, you have quite a big market, especially in the diaspora because they tend to prefer locally made clothes to support their own. The African Development Bank (AFDB) stated that fashion in Africa is sustainable mainly just by the virtue of creating employment opportunities for our own here, especially for a lot of women and creating a positive working environment. How I think the fashion scene in Africa can improve… One challenge I think we face a lot is the challenge of production, and this is something I am constantly working on and gradually overcoming. It is a case of either growing your in-house production team or taking your designs to the factories and that is always a challenge if you are a small business. I wish we could have more people taking in small – scale orders so that the businesses that are just starting out can still get the same quality of clothing. My fashion do’s and don’ts… Don’t – wear clothes that do not fit. They give the impression that you’re either not too confident with yourself and it kind of reflects badly on you as a person. What you wear says a lot about you without you having to say anything at all. Do – have a good base/foundation to your dressing. By this, I mean what you wear inside your clothes should also be as good as what you wear outside. Wearing the right size bra, good clean underwear, provides a positive base for what you will wear on top of all that. Your style should be a reflection of who you are. Lousy foundations = a lousy fit = lousy confidence. Don’t – rush into trends I prefer to make classic pieces that can be worn for a long period of time. Trends tend to die out quick and you end up wasting money and time on pieces that won’t serve you a long time. Buy clothes that you intend to keep forever. Quality over quantity any day. Do – have a signature style. Be known for something. You don’t need to be a fashion designer or a stylist to be known for that particular style. How does one get to know their signature style? One should ask themselves various questions like who are you really? What do you like to do? What do you stand for? My top 3 fashion icons, locally and internationally… Asiyami Gold Elie Saab Michelle Obama What motivates me to create and develop new designs… My motivation comes from different things. I look to different cultures, I try to learn and understand them to appreciate what they offer in terms of creativity. When I travel I take time to engage with different people from different parts of the world and get to learn the history of the place and the people and understand why certain things are done in a certain way. All this inspires my designs in one way or another. Some of my collections stem from a personal story that I’m relaying in my work. AAchera is basically made to incorporate African cultures into the design and telling an African story through our textiles and collections. When it comes to designing, I look a lot to the seasons we experience. I use different colors according to the season and pick small elements fro what is
The Afropole Presents The Wax Print Festival Ghana: June 14 – 16
What does it mean to Build Black Globally? The Afropole, founded by Amma Aboagye has got answers. Amma believes that as the continent’s influence is experienced worldwide through food, music, and fashion, it is no surprise that various sects of blackness such as Africans, Caribbeans, Afro-Latinos, African Americans, Afropeans share similarities. With the objective of addressing market inefficiencies, The Afropole is a brokerage that connects African and Afrodiasporan businesses within the food, beauty, and creative industries. Through events, communications, merchandise, and business advisory, The Afropole aims to build trust and community, develop resources and enrich value chains to Build Black Globally. It has now become more obvious to tap into said similarities and likeness and celebrate our differences while encouraging unity through shared economics. About the Wax Print Festival… The Afropole’s Wax Print Festival is an event that provides an opportunity to showcase the creativity of African and Afrodiasporan businesses across the textile value chain in order to build those connections. The Wax Print Festival showcases all of the elements that The Afropole believes can Build Black Globally. With the recent controversy with Christian Dior, it is reaching a point where Africans and Afrodiasporans are unable to claim ownership or worse still claim inspiration about their own wax print industry: there is a continued surge of big brand names claiming ownership through trademark legalities. African or African-inspired textiles have key attributes that reflect our identity, heritage, ancestry, and dynamic cultures thereby making it hard to pass off these textiles as someone else’s. As it happens, there is an ongoing conversation about wax print that has people asking: Is Wax Print African? Through the Wax Print Festival, we hope to unpack prejudice and uncertainty about the topic, create informative experiences, and encourage new opinions about Wax Print and African textiles overall, in order to foster ownership and coordination in the industry. What to expect… Attendees of the festival should leave the event with informed answers to the aforementioned question that will spur them to take decisive actions to develop and innovate within the local textile space. The Wax Print Festival will be a three-day, cashless event powered by over 30 partnerships meant to add range and texture to the authentic African and Afrodiasporan experience attendees will have. This includes giveaways and other fun activities leading up to the event days. The festival will also feature the following: Exhibitions divided into four bits dubbed, The Past, The Present, Intersections, and The Future. Live demos on kente weaving, batiking and bead making The best food and other vendors across the region within the marketplace Music concerts each night Film The Quick Stitch Station which will be a fashion design kiosk where attendees can have clothing made from a menu within the duration of the time spent on the grounds Open Spaces described as good-natured conversations done in “un-panel style” about the African wax print industry. All this excitement is happening within the milieu of containers that make the artistic setting of The Untamed Empire. It will make its mark as part of the official “ Year of the Return” celebrations being promoted by Ghana Tourism Authority under the Ministry of Tourism and Culture and is an opportunity for diasporans to also engage in this meaningful work. The Wax Print Festival will be a positive step and mark made towards Building Black Globally. Need Tickets??? The Wax Print Festival tickets are categorized into three types: Daily tickets, All Access tickets, and VIP All Access tickets. To purchase your early bird tickets please visit Egotickets or Wax Print Fest websites. Get 15% off your ticket purchase to the Wax Print Fest – using our discount code WPFSLA. The SLA team will be at the Wax Print Fest, so ensure to get your tickets now to save big. See you there. Whether the wax print is African or African-Inspired, The Afropole’s Wax Print Festival is an event for Ghanaians, Africans and Afrodiasporans alike to claim and celebrate what African textiles mean for us culturally and economically.
Meet the 3 Kenyan Women in fashion collaborating for the culture
By Ruth Mbugua In 2009, Nelly Tuikong was a nurse in America but there was something tugging at her heart about makeup for the African woman. Her entrepreneurial instincts kicked in after looking around stores for makeup that suited her African skin and didn’t find any. With no prior knowledge in manufacturing makeup, but armed with a passion, Nelly started her journey that birthed Pauline Cosmetics (named after her mother) after three years of learning, research, and trials. Pauline Cosmetics is a makeup brand that designs, develops and manufactures makeup products with the African woman in mind. The brand has now grown to become an established makeup brand with a line of lipstick, lip-gloss, eye shadow, and mascara. Enter Caroline Mutoko, a celebrated renowned media personality, a woman of her own caliber. With more than 20 years of experience in the media, her name speaks for her in the Kenyan entertainment industry. Caroline Mutoko also has a YouTube channel where she takes the spotlight that is on her and shines it on you. In 2017, she was featuring Kenyan women who were making strides and shattering glass ceilings on her YouTube channel. One of these women happened to be Nelly Tuikong of Pauline Cosmetics. In November 2018, Caroline Mutoko challenged Nelly to work with her to come up with a lipstick line for all the women who are ‘becoming, women in different spaces and phases of their lives and for every woman in you. This brought about the I AM limited edition lipstick. To add more synergy to this powerful collaboration, these two amazing women, Pauline, and Caroline Mutoko, didn’t just stop there. They collaborated with Wandia Gichuru of Vivo Woman to distribute the limited edition lipstick in 8 of the Vivo Woman stores in Nairobi. Wandia Gichuru has rewritten the narrative of modern day fashion. She founded Vivo active wear in 2011 to offer comfortable casual wear for the sporty woman and official clothing for the professional woman. Here are the 5 things I have learned from the partnership of these three glamorous women. 1. Collaborate instead of compete An African proverb says “If you want to go fast if you want to go far, go together”. Nothing is better than working with other women who get your perspective and challenges you face as a woman in business. 2. Have a defined purpose and vision When you have every partner pulling in different directions, there is bound to be no progress. To collaborate, you need to have a clear and shared vision and an agreed direction on how to achieve it. 3. Bring a unique value Each partner should bring a differentiating factor into the equation. This helps to ensure that you do not view each other as competition. 4. Have mutual benefits The partnership should be beneficial to all partners. This removes the perception that one person is bearing a bigger load than the other. 5. There is room for more than one queen There is no winner takes all award in entrepreneurship. As women, we need to get over this attitude and view women as a community to help each other grow and not competition. “My advice to girls is always this: Be supportive of each other. I can’t say this enough. We have to be our best friends, each other. That means we cannot be catty, we cannot compete and see one person’s failure as our success. We can all rise together, we can all win! We’re sometimes taught in our societies that we have to compete and we have to hold each other back in order for one of us to succeed. That is not true. We need each other. And all over the world, we have to be a team of women and girls who love each other and value each other and cherish one another. Because if we don’t cherish each other, no one else will,” – Michelle Obama
Here’s how you can jumpstart your career and business in 2019!
New year, new you right? 2019 is all about turning ideas into goals and turning concrete goals into actual results whether it’s in your career or business. Here are 5 ways you can jumpstart your 2019 and keep winning all year long! Set goals! I love setting goals at the beginning of the year because it’s a wonderful opportunity to take a break, think about what you’ve accomplished so far and where you want to go in the future. This SLA article gives you a step by step guide to setting goals in 2019. Look the part I remember in one of my first jobs after school, there was a colleague who never wore makeup and people definitely clowned her. They would say she didn’t look professional or always looked tired. Hate it or love it, in the professional world, how you present yourself can be the difference between you getting that opportunity to shine and people overlooking you for not looking the part. Makeup is not compulsory to look the part but looking neat, clean and pleasant will. This Forbes article explains how savvy business women should dress for success. [bctt tweet=”Jumpstart your career and business this year with 5 tips from She Leads Africa’s co-founder @helloafua! More in this article.” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Fail forward Failures and setbacks in life are inevitable! Even the most successful people have failed at something. To fail forward means to become better because of your mistakes, you can only do this by acknowledging your mistakes, and learning from them. Here’s a great article by a Google employee, Tanuja Ramchal on how to fail fast and fail forward. Be accountable! The key to achieving your goals is ACCOUNTABILITY. This can be in the form of a Vision Board that you check every week or in a club where you share your goals out loud. However you choose to do it, accountability can make or break whether you see real progress in your goals this year. The SLA team has pulled together resources to help you set and achieve your goals in 2018. Visit sheleadsafrica.org/2019 to find out more and jumpstart your 2019. Don’t forget to take out some time for yourself Don’t forget to take out some time for yourself! When it comes to self-care; the main lesson I’ve learned is that you have to control your life so that you don’t wake up one day and not recognize the person you’ve become. Be mindful. Be thoughtful. Be present so that you enjoy every single experience on your journey to becoming a better you. As Nigerians say, I can’t come and kill myself! In this article, Arianna Huffington, the founder of the Huffington Post makes the argument that you should sleep your way to the top! She means sleep, catch actual zzzz’s. Here’s wishing you an amazing 2019! See you at the top. Visit SheLeadsAfrica.org/NewYearGoals or OkadaBooks.com to learn how to jumpstart your 2019. She Leads Africa is a social enterprise dedicated to supporting young African women and their journey towards professional success. The organization has been featured on CNN, CNBC Africa, Black Enterprise and Fox Business and has more than 600,000 community members across Africa and the diaspora.
Nobuntu Webster: I let go of the parts of my business that were not aligned with my purpose and values
Nobuntu Webster is Director of African Pursuit, a social enterprise using media and story for economic and social development and Avad Media, a content production, content distribution, and content marketing company. She has extensive leadership experience in development organizations such as the International Women’s Forum, Businesswomen’s Association of SA and KZN Youth Chamber of Commerce. She holds a BPhil Honours degree and postgraduate qualifications in Strategic Leadership and International Trade Management. Nobuntu Webster expresses her joy of living out her purpose through her business and career and contributing to meaningful work on the continent. In this interview, we asked her how other aspiring Motherland Moguls can use their businesses and careers to do work that fulfills them and impacts lives. What is your purpose and how are you using your career and business to fulfill it? I’m a storyteller and I am moved by injustice. I want to see economic justice, economic equality, and social justice. You’ll find me using stories to create narratives for justice and to bring in new thinking and ideas. I develop Media strategies and content for social justice and economic inclusion through African Pursuit. I am also perturbed by distorted narratives. With Avad Media, we create content that challenges people to question the narratives that we have been taught. My heart is for Africa, so we create platforms and content to engage, grow and build Africa. [bctt tweet=”We are building towards an Africa that has enough for its people – @NobuntuSA” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] What steps did you take to turn your career and business to fulfill a purpose? My faith drove me to pursue purpose. The first step was looking to God and growing my faith. The second step was to sacrifice. I had to let go of the parts of my business that were not aligned with my purpose and values. The next step was going for it! I discovered that where my purpose would be fulfilled is in Media. I had to make the bold, courageous steps towards Media. Go boldly into what and where your purpose is. Be humble and willing to learn from others if you’re getting into a new craft. Learn the technicalities of the craft, and know what your specialty is. Also, know what the business model looks like in that craft and then think about how you turn that craft into a profitable business. Using business for a purpose is a long journey, you have to be willing to be in it for the long-haul. It is going to unravel layer by layer, you just have to keep taking the steps as you discover them. [bctt tweet=”Learn the technicalities of your craft, and know what your specialty is – @NobuntuSA” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] What meaningful work on the continent have you been able to contribute to and which have you found most fulfilling? One of the projects I am working on currently is Abundant Africa. We are building a narrative for a restorative economy in Africa; saying, ‘how do we create an economy that is influenced by our own unique African values? How do we go back to Ubuntu and create an economy that is good for people; to making sure that the poor are given opportunities to pull out of poverty?’ I am part of building teams that create content that moves from policy ideas to stories that people can relate to. We are building towards an Africa that has enough for its people and that protects its environment. How does one discover their purpose and identify meaningful work they can contribute to, as a business? The clues to knowing your purpose are in the things that you do without trying hard; things that you would be willing to do for free. To identify meaningful work you can contribute to, you have to know your calling. Ask yourself, ‘what moves me?’ What can you not ignore? What do you want to change? [bctt tweet=”There is so much need on the continent and that need is an opportunity – @NobuntuSA” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] How do we grow from a survival and profit mindset to a service and purpose mindset? There is so much need on the continent and that need is an opportunity, and you can still have a profitable business. Every entrepreneur should have a service and purpose mindset. As Africans, we are people of ‘Ubuntu’. If we go back to who we are and we go back to the need around us, we easily move to a service and purpose mindset and build sustainable businesses that contribute to the continent. How do you turn your business to fulfill purpose without losing profitability and your current clients? I had to let go of clients whose work did not align with my values. There is always a risk in these kinds of bold and courageous steps. The greatest rewards in life come with sacrifice. There are things that you are likely to lose. How do you secure your team’s buy-in into the new purpose and vision of your business? A great leader is someone who is able to bring the people that they lead with them on the journey and get them to buy into the vision and own it. People though are also on their own journey. Give them the option to come along on the journey or not. The new direction of the business might not feed into their purpose and career. I had to relocate anyway so I had to start new teams that are passionate and that buy into the new vision. [bctt tweet=”Go boldly into what and where your purpose is – @NobuntuSA” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] “I have the blessing of living my childhood dream… It looks completely different than I thought it would but it is so much more meaningful!” – Nobuntu Webster How are you growing and glowing this month? We want to share your story! Click here to share.