When I was little, I would sit glued to the TV for hours upon hours watching my favourite shows during my spare time
Shout out to you if you also grew up watching Nickelodeon, The Disney Channel and Cartoon Network!
Up to today I still remember many theme songs, but do you know what else I still remember?
Years ago, my good sis Michelle told me I have the gift of communication
When she said this, I thought, “Yeah, I have a way of communicating, I can speak to others, teach, write, and use my gifts to convey big ideas”
But what I’ve also come to realise over the years is that my gift of communication fuels my curiosity about language
Hi, I’m Nina, and I’m a word nerd
I get curious when I hear or see a word that I’ve never come across before or suddenly have the urge to know where the origins of a phrase comes from
Even if I’ve heard it lots of times in the past
One such phrase is “North Star”
We often hear people talk about something being their North Star
I’ve always understood what this phrase meant as the thing that gives us purpose or fuels us towards a particular goal
Or our why
But, recently, I’ve been curious about why we say “North Star” in the first place
Here’s what Google told me:
Recently, I had the pleasure of being interviewed on the Melanted and Proud podcast. It was a great experience that allowed me to pause, sit down, and reflect on my journey so far in terms of the challenges I’ve overcome to get to where I am today
From launching The Far Above Rubies Collection in its first iteration as a blog, to then learning PR to get more eyes on it, to coaching people on PR, and, ultimately, turning it into a luxury retreat business
For example, I’ve experienced the death of family and friends, my parents have been sick (sometimes at the same time and sometimes right before a launch). I’ve also experienced health issues, depression, anxiety, and feeling unmotivated. I’ve had to navigate the loss of friendships, money being funny, limiting beliefs, and, at times, family and friends not seeing the vision
Although I didn’t get to go through everything, just talking about and looking back on some of the things I’ve achieved, I realised that I’d accomplished so much while navigating life
A question that stuck out to me was: “What kept you going, and why haven’t you given up?”
To which I answered:
In Summer 2023, I went to Germany for my friend's beautiful wedding. In the few weeks leading up to her big day, my dear friend and soon-to-be bride, Kelly, asked if I could read a prayer at her ceremony
I was honoured, and of course, I said YES!
My first thought when she asked me was that all I needed to do was read a verse from The Bible
I was a little mistaken and would soon realise this, thanks to a message from the best man.
Fast-forward to a couple of messages later, and worry starting to kick in (lol)
Why, you ask?
Because I learned that it wasn't a reading of the word that Kelly needed from me. She wanted me to write a few lines that I would say in front of the congregation!
I won't lie; I was a little nervous because I was wondering what I could possibly say to the bride and groom
I took a few days to think about it, and these are the words that came to my heart and landed on my page:
If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen that I recently went live with the lovely Gladys Obaze
She's a coach and brand strategist who helps creative women heal, grow, and build thriving, and authentic brands that attract success
One of the questions she asked me was how PR has helped me
Well...
The short answer: it changed my life
The longer version?
When the ladies attended Media Magic, in Tulum (Mexico) last July, 0% of them knew how to get relevant PR opportunities
I know this because of the results they got from my PR readiness assessment
This means that, at that point, I could have given them the exact language, structure and anatomy of a successful pitch but it would have meant nothing because they didn't then know how to pitch platforms where their ideal clients were actually hanging out
Which is an issue because showing up on such podcasts, magazines, stages and so on leads to not getting a return on your efforts or investment
By the end of the retreat, though, I had them assess themselves again and the results revealed that 100% of them knew how to do this
What led to this success was…
There is a saying that goes, “Tell God your plans and watch him laugh” and if I’m being frank with you, I realised subconsciously last year that this was something I was subscribing to
E.g. when things didn’t always look 100% for Media Magic, I questioned God.
In so doing, I realised I didn’t question God’s power or ability but I did question His will and His desire towards me
In other words I didn't question if He could bless me but I did wonder if He would. Can you relate, sis?
What this really comes down to is past disappointments
As Nigerians say, life will show you "shege" (trouble or hardship), leading us to believe that what we want isn’t always in the cards
But, I think that what I came to realise is, as cliche as it may sound, delay is not denial
If you ever find yourself not wanting to engage in something or give up because you’re not sure whether it’s for you:
If you’ve been rocking with me for a while, you’ll know that I struggle with productivity anxiety
I’m happy to report that I’m getting over it, and while it’s an everyday thing, I can look back on my progress and see how far I’ve come
In case you’re unfamiliar, productivity anxiety makes you feel like you’re not doing enough which meant that I used to hate planning and saw it as a waste of time
Can you relate, sis?
For me, it was better to get stuck in and do the damn thing than “waste time” actually planning. But then, I audited my life and realised the havoc this was wreaking. For example:
