FACEBOOK LIVE WITH ANULI OLA-OLANYI: CAREER HACKS FOR MILLENIALS (JUNE 26)
Hello, millennials! You’ve probably received advice on how you can “build a more successful career” from a handful of people. However, very few people give a break down of how you can advance yourself, or what to do when you face a challenge, like when your boss is not paying you what you’re worth – sounds familiar? Designing a career you’re passionate about or deciding on a career path can be challenging, and the chances of getting a good class that can really teach you how to do that are slim. Well, with a few career hacks, you can take small steps every day that will bring you success in the long run and that’s why you don’t want to miss this discussion! Join us on Tuesday, June 26th, for a Facebook Live chat with Añuli Ola-Olaniyi, founder of HEIR Women Development, who will be giving advice on how to achieve the ultimate career for yourself. Añuli believes women are strategizing to become empowered and rule the world alongside men. She has effectively delivered cutting edge training that has elevated people both in their professional and personal life. [bctt tweet=”Design the ultimate career with @anuliolaolaniyi, founder of @heirwoman on June 26th at 1PM WAT! Click here for more: bit.ly/AnuliOla” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Some of the topics we’ll cover So you got the job, now what? Career habits to avoid How to maintain career capacity How to handle job rejection Facebook LIVE details: Date: Tuesday, June 26th, 2018 Time: 1PM Lagos // 2PM Joburg// 3PM Nairobi Watch Facebook Live with Anuli: https://www.facebook.com/sheleadsafrica/videos/2092897934266849/ About Anuli Añuli Ola-Olaniyi is the founder of HEIR Women Development, an enterprise created to support young women in capacity and skills building in a career. Prior to this, Anuli began her career at John Lewis Partnership UK and she is currently the Deputy Managing Director of HM Ltd, ED of DV Solutions NG and an Advisory Board Member of the Women in Leadership Institute (WLI). With a wide range of experience across a number of different sectors and having completed tasks for high profile companies, Anuli graduated from the University of Ibadan with a BSc in Psychology and holds a Masters in Human Resource Management from Middlesex University UK. A believer in continuous professional and personal development, Anuli is a CIPD certified Human Resource Professional as well as a qualified Prince2 Practitioner in Project Management. She also holds certifications for Gender studies from the UN Women Training Centre. PMP trained, Anuli is currently working towards her certification from PMI Institute.
The scramble to the top: 8 things overlooked in a fitness entrepreneur’s journey
[bctt tweet=”People have to see to believe that you are capable of transforming fitness goals into a physical reality” via=”no”] The hustle is real. Becoming a fitness entrepreneur may be one of the hardest career choices a person can make because of the required level of patience and discipline accorded to success in the fitness industry. People often overlook the journey of a fitness entrepreneur owing to the fact that they are not privy to the behind-the-scenes footage in their lives. Most fitness entrepreneurs start out juggling their passion with another job in order to fund their lifestyle, gain experience and get professional certification. Here are eight considerations that are often overlooked in a fitness entrepreneur’s journey to career growth and stability: 1. Food and supplement expenses A small fortune may be spent on food depending on fitness goals; weight loss, muscle gain or maintenance. Protein requirements vary per person depending on their body mass index and daily activity levels, so buying protein and multivitamins may be a major consideration. Sometimes eating a balanced diet may dig a hole in your pocket but the results are totally worth it. 2. Blood, sweat, and tears In order to stay relevant, you literally have to keep training. This could involve coming up with different challenges, hitting personal targets and diversifying your fitness regime to stay on top of your game. A serious fitness entrepreneur trains at least five times a week and rests on other days. 3. Getting that perfect shot It’s time to get into amateur modelling via social media. People have to see to believe that you are capable of transforming fitness goals into a physical reality. Sharing clear photos taken from a good camera is absolutely necessary to showcase your physique to a target audience of potential clients. Early in one’s journey, a good camera phone may suffice but if you choose to engage your clients and audience through workout videos and short inspirational clips then investing in a professional camera will be worthwhile. [bctt tweet=”Building an army of loyal clients may take some time but requires consistent effort” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] 4. Client loyalty Building an army of loyal clients may take some time but requires a show of consistent efforts on your part. Following through with a plan and holding yourself accountable for every bit of information shared on social media will build trust in potential clients and reinforce working relationships with existing clients. Let’s face it, you have to lead by example; don’t expect your clients to be thrilled at their chicken salad dinner when you are actively sharing photos of Italian thin crust pepperoni pizza topped with extra cheese and a glass of South African wine. 5. Sponsorships Becoming a sponsored athlete or fitness professional may not only be for the ‘elite’. You just need to position yourself to attract brands through social media and official websites. The companies that approach fitness professionals may not be in the fitness industry as they may be looking for an unexpected beauty icon or someone to drive their sales traffic. Although it takes a while to get to this stage, doing what you love for photoshoots, working holidays and press briefings will give you a financial boost and expose you to greater opportunities. 6. Becoming a thought leader Want to become the next Lita Lewis? Growing in your area of fitness expertise will allow you develop ideologies on a certain type of fitness goal or exercise. Trying and testing what worked for you in your fitness journey will spark peoples’ interest and increase your following. This can be reinforced by testing your ideologies on yourself and a focus group to build credibility. [bctt tweet=”Maintaining relevance in the fitness industry can be likened to a product life cycle” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] 7. Competitions Sports, physique or athletic competitions are great ways to advertise your personal brand, challenge your physical capabilities while escalating your career to a different level of professionalism. Placing in a competition usually attracts endorsements from supplement and fitness apparel brands which may be in the form of money or free products in exchange for regular promotion and modelling. 8. Guest appearances Making a name for yourself in the fitness industry requires you to actively network at fitness festivals and other related events. Popular fitness entrepreneurs may often have the chance to speak at health and wellness workshops or lead a corporate wellness event. These appearances will ensure that your face becomes familiar to fitness enthusiasts and people that are just beginning their journey. Maintaining relevance in the fitness industry can be likened to a product life cycle: a fitness entrepreneur will get to a stage that requires innovation to maintain steady growth. This phase is mentally and physically tasking but the benefits accrued are insurmountable. Apart from growing in discipline and perfecting your time management skills, you get to be in the best shape of your life while turning your passion into profit! This career path may not be suitable for introverts or socially awkward people unless they are willing to grow in their confidence and interpersonal skills. Are you ready to step outside your comfort zone and embark on this journey?
Twitter Chat with Iman Mkwanazi: Building your brand while in school (Nov 10)
Your university years are an important time to lay the groundwork of your career and build your brand. Many people even choose to begin a side hustle while in school. This side hustle can become a full blown business or just work towards establishing your authority in a certain field. While the idea of building a brand is great in theory, the practicalities of doing so can be daunting. We assure you it’s not too complicated. Building a brand consists of not acting a fool, and planning your moves. Whether you are looking to be a blogger, a model, an entrepreneur or simply be an authority in your field even before you receive your diploma, building your brand while in school is essential to all your future endeavors. Join us Thursday Nov. 10th for a twitter chat with South African entrepreneur, blogger & model, Iman Mwkwanazi. While studying for her BSc Honours, Iman was also hustling to co-found a construction company, build her modeling and blogging careers and establish herself as a creative director. Needless to say, it took lots of branding and planning ahead. She will be sharing her advice and processes for establishing her thriving brand while completing her studies. Whether you are in school or not, this webinar is one you will not want to miss. Some of the topics we’ll cover: What it means to have a brand Balancing school & your side hustle Finding and networking with people in the right industry Establishing your voice & authority early one What to do when your studies and the industry you are going into don’t align Webinar Details: Date: Thursday November 10, 2016 Time: 7:00am New York City // 12:00pm Lagos // 1:00pm Johannesburg Location: Follow She Leads Africa on twitter and use the hashtag #SLAChats Help us spread the word: [bctt tweet=”Tune into #SLAChats on twitter Nov. 10 @ 11am GMT to learn from @ImanMkwanazi about building your #brand in school:” via=”no”] About Iman Mkwanazi Iman Mkwanazi is a busy girl. As a Bsc Graduate, entrepreneur, blogger, model, creative director, influencer and speaker, she works with companies and brands to optimise their brand awareness through digital, content and social media marketing. She is also the co-founder of Mkweni Groundwork. Mkweni Groundwork was founded two years ago and they are contractors for City Parks and Studio Six interior design. In the short time that the company has been around, it has been featured in Forbes Woman Africa and Iman and her partner Nene Mboweni are Levi Pioneers Nation speakers. Iman is also the Creative Director and contributor for online magazine; MadMash, which focuses on lifestyle, health, wealth and fashion. She most recently covered Africa Fashion Week for MadMash. Iman has collaborated with various brands on an array of projects, including Puma, Spitz, and Styling for Mr. Price. Iman has also modeled for companies such as Edgars, Legit, Cell C, Adidas, Nike, Samsung and Foschini.
How to tailor a career development plan to your personal development goals
In creating my own career development plan, I’ve realised the importance of aligning my career with personal development goals. Also, everyone should possess this skill. At the end of the day, we’re the masters of our own careers. We owe it to our future success to do this. Your company’s goals should align with yours Before building a personal career development plan, determine if it agrees with that of the company you work for. Be sure it already aligns to your specific role. That way, you can have a great starting point. This will help you align the company’s goals with the goals you’ll put in place for your own personal career development plan. If there isn’t a career development plan specific to your role, don’t worry. It really isn’t a train-smash. The career development plan from your company will not be the be all and end all of your career. But it provides a good start for establishing your short to medium term goals, and how to achieve them. Determine what your goals are The first step in putting your plan to paper is determining what you ultimately want to achieve. This process might seem tedious at first, as it requires a considerable amount of effort and thinking. However, knowing the end goal lets you clearly define the intermediate steps to getting there. Strategise How you craft your end goal is up to you. One may model themselves after someone they look up to. Others may visualize it in their mind’s eye and work towards a ten to twenty-year projection. Some may decide to dwell on what’s most important and what they’re passionate about. You may actually combine the first two examples, creating a model of yourself. I’ve been using the latter to help guide me to envision my end goal. I also believe as the years go by, this image of yourself will change, and so will your goals. Set timelines Once an end goal has been set, finding the intermediate steps could be done. Ask questions about what you need to do in the next year, two years or three years to get to the end goal. I’ve found that this helps in answering the questions of where I want to be in the very short term, and ultimately the long term. The time frames here can be different for different people. Others may be comfortable with monthly time frames, while others could be more comfortable thinking in years. As I’ve said before, this process may seem difficult at first. But once you start putting goals on paper and executing them, it’ll help you have a sense of control over your own career. Set comprehensive goals A good career development plan is one that spans over different areas of your life. It’s important to note that a personal career development plan will include setting goals for your career, finances, physical/body, social and personal goals. These categories may also be divided according to short, medium and long-term goals. To actually make your plan as comprehensive as possible, your goals are also divided over three and six months (short term). One and three years would be considered your medium term goals and five and ten years are your long term goals. For a category like career, you should have a comprehensive plan and you’d need to set the short, medium and long-term goals. Under each time period, you ask yourself what you want to specifically achieve for that particular category in three months, six months and so on. Once you’ve established what you want to achieve, you’ll need to answer why it’s important for you to achieve this and if it speaks to your core. There are various questions you can ask yourself until you fully understand your goals and why and how you can achieve them. Keep track It’s well known in management circles that you can only control what you measure. The next step in taking control over your goals is keeping track of them. The onus is on you to make sure that your goals are constantly updated. In six months to a year, your goals might have changed. Putting this on paper is important because it shows you the transition in your life, from where you initially thought you’d want to be to what you have become or wanting to do. Keeping track helps show growth. Finally, it’s important to be transparent with your plan and to also remember it is as important as setting goals. Treat your goals like chains and be bound by them. Your career development plan is meant to be a guide that can be amended when needed. With that said, however, changing your short, medium or long-term goals shouldn’t stem from laziness. Rather, the changes should be necessary in aiding the achievement of set goals. After all, it is your guide to navigating through all spheres of your life.
Three ways to build an awe-inspiring career
Within the past year, I have asked a number of young people in Nigeria about their career and the responses have been overwhelmingly similar; they hope to be successful at whatever they do. But beyond just being successful at what you do, leaving a legacy that stands the test of time in your chosen career is simply amazing. For me, it is the way to go if you would leave visible footprints on the sand of time. So how do you achieve that? Use your career to solve problems Whatever your career is —whether you’re a singer, entrepreneur, writer, civil servant, lawyer, healthcare professional, artist, engineer— it should a source of blessing to others. I mean your career should be the solution to that problem that keeps many people awake in the dead of the night. Simply put, whatever career you have chosen should be to impact the lives of as many people that come your way. That’s why I can’t agree less with Denzel Washington who once said; “At the end of the day, it’s not about what you have or even what you’ve accomplished. It’s about what you’ve done with those accomplishments. It’s about who you’ve lifted up, who you’ve made better. It’s about what you’ve given back.” As a writer, I craft words to make the readers of my articles see beyond their horizons, to make them leave the zone of despair and connect with their dreams. Similarly, as a transformational speaker, I make people think less of what and what does not work in their lives and instead, create the kind of future they prefer to live in. After all, the future is not uncontrollable despite what many people believe. You can deliberately build the future you want. Stay in the know, always If you’re going to build a great career, it doesn’t come easy. I’m not saying it’s impossible, I’m only stressing the fact that it’s requires a lot of hard work. You know nothing good comes easy. The hard work here means you’ll have to be up-to-date as far as your field or industry is concerned. To stay in the know, you must be a voracious reader consuming all the latest stuff. The world is moving at a pace and if you are not fast enough, you might not catch up. You have to keep yourself abreast of the latest developments in your line of career. From hard copy books to E-books, there are lots of useful information on the internet. Attending conferences, fellowships, meet-ups, workshops, seminars will also give you the kind of exposure you need to move your career to the next level. There, you would hear from the leaders in your industry, network with the people that matter, and leverage on new opportunities. They are a great way to build an inspiring career. Take the risk, be unique It doesn’t matter what kind of career you have chosen, you have the right to make the huge difference that no one has ever made. But whether that will happen or not depends on you. It all depends on whether you really want to establish a never-to-be-forgotten career record. Take a look at this ageless quote by Robert F. Kennedy; “There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” If you want to build a great legacy for yourself, you will not only have to go the extra mile, you will also need to be a trailblazer. While others in your line of career are asking “why,” you should go ahead and ask “why not.” Always think out of the box— be innovative. And it doesn’t matter how challenging it seems, make sure you don’t feel comfortable with the status quo. Try out new ideas at all times. Your purpose and passion and vision are unique, so should your career As a young entrepreneur, use your business to solve problems, connect people with their dreams and leave a lasting legacy. As an artist, use your drawings and paintings to tell stories that inspire others to work on their dreams. As a musician, let your music give hope to the hopeless and lift up the downtrodden. It doesn’t matter what you do, you can still make your career a huge source of inspiration to the many people you come across. But there’s a price to pay, you have to stay in the know and take risks. You might not end up as Folorunso Alakija, Ibukun Awosika, or Tara Durotoye, you can end up better. Your name will also go down in history as one of the greatest of all time in your chosen field. It doesn’t matter what career path you have chosen, you can do it, too. It’s in you; you only have to bring it forth! Go ahead and build an awe-inspiring career and the world will be better for it. What are your thoughts? I’m eagerly waiting to hear from you.