LEAN FORWARD with Sam Semako

Getting a job for graduates is the usual thing after graduation. However, there is a glut in the job market. That said, most graduates still follow the LINEAR WAY (traditional) way of getting a job. In this podcast episode, deviated from the LINEAR way of getting a job. Listen and alternative ways of getting g a job.

I met two ladies who were volunteers at www.AfricaNXT.com. I had opportunity of having conversations with them. I was impressed by what they do. Take a listen and learn from them.

One of the opportunities I get at www.AfricaNXT.com is the opportunity to meet people from different fields. On Monday I meet Wunmi Akinsola. I joined the session she was on as a panelist with other panelists. She started WWW.FASTTRACKER.COM a fashion e-commerce site. Prior to this, she was project manager for the 2018 Bridal Fashion Week in Lagos. On September 20, 2021, Akinsola’s fashion-tech startup, Fashtracker, won TechCabal’s Future of Commerce pitch contest. Her journey into entrepreneurship started with working with her sisters in 2008 when her siblings co-founded a fashion brand called Virgos Lounge, a London-based womenswear brand. She worked with them as brand coordinator where she was involved in almost all levels of the business’s value chain, especially the fulfilment part. In 2014, she monitored transactions worth over £1,000,000. In 2015, she graduated from the University of Kent, England, where she studied fashion and textile. She turned her final year project into her own company, called Pearls and Portrait, a B2B fashion outlet that designs and outsources production to manufacturers in China and India, then sells the ready-made clothes to businesses across the world. After two years and a lot of financial and strategic mistakes, she decided to pursue a master’s degree in entrepreneurship and innovation. It was here that she got a better grip on how to run a business, especially a tech-enabled enterprise. She came back to Nigeria She also worked with Jumia to lead its Women’s Fashion Category. She left Jumia and started Fashtracker in February 2020 to provide a pan-African marketplace for the continent’s fashion. Check her out at www.fasttracker.com

This is an interview with Joana Chemel. We met at www.africanxt.com. I attended her session. So, who is Joana? Joana Chemel is a Creative economy and Project management consultant living in Ghana, West Africa. We talked about what brought her to Nigeria. We talked about how she was able to lean forward. We talked about opportunities available to you. ABOUT HER: When she is not fully booked in strategic planning, implementation and evaluation of a client project, she spends her time training and facilitating Human-Centered Design/Design Thinking sessions with the youth, business/industry and government institutions. As a Project manager and Design Thinking facilitator, she has engaged over 500 young girls, children and cumulatively over 1,000 young entrepreneurs, students and relevant stakeholders using Human Centered Design approach to train, draw out experiences and write stories for various partners such as Netherlands Embassy Ghana, British Council, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, UNICEF, UNDP, PACT Ghana and Kosmos Innovation Centre (KIC). She is passionate about Human Dignity and the development of African Youth so she spends her time working on programs and projects that empower, promote and enhance young people in Ghana and Africa. She loves to travel to experience new people and cultures. She is a lover of afro beat and dance.

Greatness demands that you accept the card you have been dealt with by Nature/God. You can't have it all. You can't knowbit all. You can't be in everywhere. Embrace your inadequacies and move on with your life.Pyemwa Samantha Deshi, a copywriter, writer, script writer and so many things thrown into one person was my guest talking

The solution you are seeking is hidden in a conversation.

In 2019, I was at Social Media Week Lagos. While there, one of the resource persons said, "Don't allow your age to be your cage." That stood out for me. Thinking about that I realised that most of us really have allowed our age to be our cage. Our age has limited us from attempting some projects or ideas. So, how can you unlock yourself from this cage? Listen to this.

"If your life is a STATEMENT, what is it saying? " - SMK My life, for some years now has been centered around certain life themes. Some years ago, a young lady drove herself to a cliff of a mountain, came out of her car went close to the edge and jumped and killed herself. A man who was a lecturer, who was not far away saw this happened. He was shocked! He reflected on that experience. That experience had a profound impact on how he lived his life afterwards. He felt if she had been shown love adequately she wouldn't killed herself. He became THE LOVE TEACHER. He created a course unit on love and asked his university to allow him teach that. He was allowed. LOVE became his LIFE THEME. That was what he taught. Spoke about. Wrote about. That was what encapsulated his life. He LIVED and DIED for LOVE. His name: LEO BUSCAGLIA. In making sense and meaning of your life, there are things you must do. One of those things is FINDING/DISCOVERING YOUR LIFE THEME. What is a life theme?

I am looking at 3 Unfair Advantages that you have that you often overlook. This might be the reason you often think somebody else is better than you. If you look deeply into your life, there are some advantages that you have that stands you out in what you do or should be doing. Here are three unfair advantages that you have:

I was listening to Dorie Clark, a marketing communication expert when she mentioned these three words: Passion to Explore. That got to me. Passion to Explore. Also I came across Suzy Kazeem's words. She says, "I have been finding treasures in places I did not want to search. I have been hearing wisdom from tongues I did not w ant to listen. I have been finding beauty where I did not want to look. And I have learned so much from journeys I did not want to take..."* This year, one of the things you need to put on your to-do list is PASSION TO EXPLORE.