Emilia Dias: I learned to let my work speak for itself early on
[bctt tweet=”Emilia Dias is the only lady as well as the youngest on her board, here’s how she does it” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] The versatility of marketing allows me to navigate into any sector as long as I’m dedicated There must be programs to attract more women to the Telecom sector – Emilia Dias Emilia Dias is an incredibly hard working young woman whose achievements speak volumes. She is a founding partner of Evision Consultores, a start-up focused on strategic consulting and marketing services founded in 2009. Emilia is also a founding partner of the first online consulting portal for entrepreneurs in Angola, ABC do empreendedor. Divided between management, marketing, and entrepreneurship, Emilia left the banking sector 7 years ago to pursue a career in the Telecommunications sector. She currently works as Sales and Marketing Director at Infrasat, a satellite business unit of Angola Telecom. Emilia is a winner of the Star award from Moneygram International for the implementation of the Brand in Angola in 2009 while working for BPC Assessed Moneygram International in Angola. SLA contributor Anelisa Nokoyo recently had the honour of interviewing this dynamic young woman to find out what fuels her drive and passion for life and work. Tell us about yourself, who is Emilia? I’m Emilia Filomena Dias, 36 years old born and raised in Luanda, Angola, with no significant other and with no kids. I’m a very enthusiastic person who believes in the multitasking capabilities of women to change society. My career path started as an intern at BPC, at the time the biggest and oldest state-owned commercial bank in Angola. Later on, I was recruited as a junior marketeer, then promoted to a marketing analyst, and two years later was again promoted as Head of Strategic Marketing. While working on strategic management, I was also part of the team assigned to do the implementation of the microfinance division and was then invited to be part of the FIPED program (financial institutions for private enterprise development) at Harvard university in USA where I got a certificate in Microfinance. What encouraged your foray into the largely male-dominated world of finance and marketing? I consider myself a natural born entrepreneur and marketer, but I went into finance because it was the first option I had after university. Once there, I found that I really enjoyed it and became passionate about my work. The versatility of marketing is a plus, as it allows me to navigate into any sector as long as I’m dedicated and willing to learn and that’s how I went from finance to Telecoms. Both sectors are still male dominated, and I believe there must be a network and programs to attract more women to the Telecom sector. I’m the only lady as well as the youngest on the board. I feel that I have to dedicate more time in everything I do and be proactive, working by anticipating. Most of all I look at each new day as a new chance to be the best I can to inspire and promote young women to enter the Telecom sector through entrepreneurship. [bctt tweet=”Each new day for Emilia Dias is a chance to inspire young women to enter the Telecom sector” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] What obstacles have you had to overcome in order to excel the way you have? Being a dedicated Sales Manager in a sector with fierce competition and the need for constant innovation really places a lot of demand on my time, but the drive to make it happen and excel in every project I dedicate myself to has always been strong. [bctt tweet=”Emilia Dias: My drive to excel in every project I dedicate myself to has always been strong” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] On the professional side, I didn’t really face many obstacles as I let my work prove my worth and it happened naturally. People considered me a young woman with no experience and no brain, so early on I learned to let my work speak for itself. Now, it has become easier because I’ve been successful to an extent to build a reputation and I’m taken as the professional that I am. On the entrepreneurial side, I’m still struggling to find my dream team that shares the same vision and will help me achieve my targets and conquer my dreams. My main dream is to have my swimwear brand, +244 Moda Praia, sold beyond Angola as well as having any of the brands I helped to create being recognised worldwide. How do you balance your work and personal life and what challenges have you faced in that arena? I had to put aside some quality time, and really have my time dedicated to my objectives, being employed and working on my personal start-up dream company focusing on different areas from marketing consulting to fashion and software development. I’m still building my dreams, paving my way but feel that I still have a long way to go before I accomplish them. On a candid note, it has had its drawbacks and I won’t lie about it –it can be difficult to keep a relationship alive when you as a woman seem to work more than your partner and when that is misunderstood it proves to be hard on the relationship. This has been a challenge which I feel is not mine to take on alone in a relationship, so here I am still waiting while continuing to do my work. How do you stay disciplined and focused? I try to maintain an equilibrium, I usually define month and weekly goals and have a daily to-do list which I try to stick to (not easy I have to admit). I work non-stop from 8 to 5 for Infrasat and from 6 to 9, as well as on weekends for my personal entrepreneurship projects. What are your other interests outside of finance, marketing and telecommunications? Outside finance, marketing, and Telecom I’m engaged in promoting entrepreneurship. I take part in different events aimed at gathering, assisting and promoting entrepreneurship among youth
DiElleCi: Working with sisters can be light on tough love
Diasy, Luisa and Cleo are Angolan sisters who are leaving their imprint on the blogosphere not just in English but Portuguese too. Their blog DiElleCi, a mash of their names, is becoming the go-to for advice on beauty, fashion and health. These sisters are all students, Cleo recently graduated with a degree in engineering, but find the time to give readers a peak into their lives. SLA reached out to them curious to know more. We learned that working with sisters is great but can be light on the tough love and reduces the need to micromanage. DiElleCi share more about running a bilingual blog, including what’s in their purses below. When did you start your blog? What lead you to it? We started our blog on February 10th, 2016 because we have always had a creative side. We also had the desire to do a project together. However, we noticed that as university students, the academic side of our lives was taking over the creative side that we very much exercised when we were younger. For that reason, we decided to create an outlet where we could share another side of us and our additional interests. Also we, as young African women, felt like we weren’t represented in social media, especially in the Portuguese speaking market. Have you faced any difficulties blogging in both Portuguese and English? Which of your audiences is bigger? The only difficulty we’ve had with running the blog in two languages has been ensuring that our voice remains the same both in English and in Portuguese, regardless of translation. So, it takes some time when translating posts since we need to add expressions for each language. But we are glad we have done so, since our biggest audience is the Portuguese one. Have you taken any special steps to grow your audience? Social media has been a great catalyst to the growth of our audience. Firstly, Facebook is great since almost everyone has an account, so we make sure to keep our Facebook page current and engaging. In addition, Instagram has been equally great since it has so many pages that cater to girls that share similar interests to ours. Because of that, we have been featured on some high quality pages and have seen more growth and exposure from them. Most importantly, we have made it a priority to remain consistent in both the frequency of posts and in the quality of content. How can a young African woman reading this start monetizing her blog? Blogs can be monetized in many ways. As a starting point for us, we decided to monetize our blog through affiliate links. However, we have noticed that it’s not the most sustainable option. We’re currently working on developing different ways to get a more sustainable return without compromising the overall brand. What is it like working together as sisters? Is there any conflict? Working with sisters is great because we share the same values and know each other very well so when conflicts arise, there are no issues in addressing certain situations. However, since we know each other so well and care about each other, sometimes it is hard to give much needed “tough love”. Above it all, the biggest benefit since we know each others weaknesses and strengths is that there is no need to micromanage, which makes task distribution easier. How do you find time to update your blog regularly as students? Being students has taught us about discipline and multi-tasking, so we have applied those attributes to our blogging routine. In addition, like we mentioned before, we separate our tasks according to our strengths and weaknesses. We have seen it has helps us save time and energy when tasks are well divided and only the best person for the job is in charge of a specific task. What’s the process of blogging like for you? How do you come up with content ideas? The process of blogging for us is very interactive. We have been very lucky because our audience has been very good at telling us what they like and what they want to see. Even more, we get inspired by our everyday routines and experiences and share what we think would be helpful or interesting. Most importantly, we gain inspiration by seeing ourselves as the audience and consistently asking ourselves what we would like to see. Can you share what’s in your purses right now? Wallet, student and Oyster card (for public transport in London), our blog planner, snacks, chapstick, a book we are currently reading, iPhone, portable charger and of course keys. What is the last song you played on your iTunes/iPod? We were just listening to the new Rihanna song ” Sledgehammer”. If you’d like to share your story with She Leads Africa, let us know more about you and your story here.