I'm so totally honoured to share that I spoke at The Rise to Millions Conference in Paris and received a Legendary Woman of Impact Award there recently 🥳🥳🥳
It was the last weekend of October to be exact
As I stood in front of the crowd, trying to find the words to express how honoured I was, I ended my speech by saying something like: “Well, this wasn’t on my bingo card, but it’s real, and it’s happening because I chose to follow my dreams...literally"
Here's what I meant by that 👇🏾
In September, I found myself asking myself a series of questions
I know you’re thinking “Such as?”
Well…
Like: "What is it that makes me the most happy, and how can I incorporate that into my life on more of a daily basis?"
But that was very much at the beginning of the month
I think that anybody who knows me well, knows that I love traveling
Yes, it's because I get to experience different cultures and spend time with the people that I love and eat delicious food and all of that sort of jazz
But I also realise that part of what I love about holidays and traveling, is also the person that I am when I'm on holiday
I know what I'm going to wear on each day, and I'm hyped to wear those things. I know what I'm going to do, I know who I'm going to see
So, not only am I more relaxed, but actually, I am more organised
With this in mind…
In line with that, one of the things that I started to ask myself every day in September (after this realisation) was:
What kind of birthday celebrant are you?
Are you the sort of person who:
A) Is very low-key (as in “I don't celebrate at all” or “if I do, it's just on the day?”)
B) Is more of the mindset that the whole month is your birthday?
I'm the latter, as in:
I always say “October is my birthday” even though it’s only technically today
(October 3rd, on the day of sending this email)
This whole idea of October being my birthday is not just this self-centred wish to make it all about me, though
Believe it or not…
It has always been a celebration of life and an acknowledgement that there but by the grace of God go I
My grandma was born in the village in Nigeria at a time where girls were not sent to school
That meant from then until the time of her passing in 2022, she never learned to read or write
Despite this, she worked her butt off as a trader in order to afford my mum's school fees when she was growing up
This is because, to this day, education is not free in Nigeria
My mum was then able to move to the UK in the early 80s, where I've been born and raised, and push both me and my sister all the way to degree level
"So you really want me to do this, huh God?",
This was something I said to Him while I was actually on the plane to Mexico
It seems stupid now, and me and my loved ones have definitely laughed at this when I've told them about it...but that's how surreal it felt to be hosting my first retreat
A retreat where I would be teaching business women a quick and systemised process to pitch the media so that they can get onto more top platforms, be seen as industry experts, and start raking in larger paydays.
Thinking about it now, I know that this was because of a phenomenon called "confirmation bias"
Which, according to Steven Barlett is caused by the fact that "humans tend to search for, favour and recall information in a way that confirms or supports their existing beliefs or values"
In other words, I had no evidence that I could actually jump the final hurdle of hosting a retreat; so I still found it hard to reconcile that this was my new identity and reality
This, despite all the:
Praying
Planning
Meetings
Coordinating with and for attendees etc
That had got me up to this point
According to Bartlett this is typical as "the further [your] new evidence [or reality] is from [your] current beliefs, the less likely it is to change [your] thinking". This was especially true for me because of my background
You see, it's deeper than the fact that this was my first retreat
If you follow me on social media then you’ll know that I love to do monthly recaps
In these reels I, not only share what I got up to (visually) during a particular month, I also share what I learned (through a voice over)
When I think about July, it just feels like there were so many lessons learned
Which is unusual because I can usually distil it down to one thing/theme
The reason being because I achieved a major goal. I put on a retreat for women in business who want to go from stumped to savvy about how to get PR for their businesses (Media Magic)
See 👇🏾
If you follow me on social media, you would have seen that I recently 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), 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. So, I took a few days to think about it, and these are the words that came to my heart and landed on my page:
