Posted in Article, Autobiography, Boss Shoes, Inspiration

Turning Thirty: 30 Simple Lessons!


As I approached turning 30 on the 1st of November this year.
I had multiple moments of reflection on my journey and life so far.
While I documented a number of things, and spent some time apart to fast, pray, reflect and prepare for the next phase of my life.

I also thought about what to share in a simplified form with people in my circle of influence.
So here are 30 lessons or nuggets you may find as useful.

Wishing you a splendid week.🤍



1. You are not helpless.
There is always a seed in your hand.
Ideas, Gifts, Talents.
Don’t disregard that seed because it comes easy to you or seems too small.

2. Put your best foot forward. Always!

3. Correct people in love.

4. Be the friend you want.

5. Focus on what’s before you. Your lane is yours.

6. Smell good. Smell good for yourself first. Make sitting beside others a pleasant and comfortable experience.

7. You can’t buy the affection of anyone or perform to get their affection.

8. Be yourself and improve to become a better version of yourself. Do it for you.

9. Be happy and laugh often, life is too short to live a sad and empty life.

10. Take joy in the little and big things. Enjoy those moments and let them encourage you.


11. Some of the best advice will come from those much younger than you are, so be open minded.

12. Give your younger siblings the respect they deserve.

13. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, there is no shame in that.

14. Dream big, but start young.

15. Don’t be afraid to start again. With God’s guidance, you can build better this time around.

16. Don’t let the unrealistic pressures of society, dictate how you should live or spend your money.

17. Be prudent with what you have, live within your means and try to have multiple streams of passive income.

18. Don’t give up before you begin to see the rewards.

19. It’s okay to stop, if it’s costing you your peace of mind, health or finances.

20. Prioritize taking care of yourself. There’s no need to feel guilty.


21. Pay attention to your body. Don’t ignore signs when you are overworked, tired or need better care.

22. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Stop stressing over the small things.

23. Just be kind.

24. The world doesn’t revolve around you alone, so be sensitive enough to observe when others need your help.

25. If you don’t have firsthand knowledge about something or someone, give things time.

26. Don’t be a gossip.

27. Handle disagreements with grace. Diverse perspectives help you understand people and also see the world the way others see it.

28. Stop worrying. Pray instead, then do your best and leave the rest.

29. Pray ooo. Don’t get tired of praying. Pray about everything and anything. God listens but you also need to listen too.

30. God loves you unconditionally, so you can learn to love, and trust Him.

Thanks for reading.🤍


Article by Opeolu Adeyemi.
Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant.
Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!

Posted in Autobiography, Guest Post, Inspiration, Public Relations, Women

Brave Icon: Meet Brenda McWilson-Okorogba, our very own #MomentsWithBren

Celebrating an #Iconic Woman, Learning Experience Designer, Grant Writer, Training Facilitator, and Positive Psychology Coach, Brenda Mc Wilson-Okorogba.

Tribe: Woman, Business Woman, Thought Leader, Multiple Award Winner, Learning Experience Designer, Grant Writer, Training Facilitator, Public Speaker, Humanitarian and Activist for Gender Parity and Peace Building.


Profile:

Brenda McWilson-Okorogba is brave icon and dynamic young woman with a global footprint. One who defies all odds and redefines success for young women globally.

Her impact in the education sector and influence in the career path of many remains so inspiring. She excels at what she does with much intention, humility and a brilliance that is undisputed, driving initiatives that continue to empower and impact positivity many globally.

Brenda Okorogba is a multiple award-winning service and learning experience designer, Grant Writer, Training Facilitator, and Positive Psychology coach with over 9-years of experience ideating, designing, and delivering outcome-based programming for diverse learners across industries, sectors, and geographies.

She has an educational background in Psychology, Biological Sciences, and Business Entrepreneurship. As a lifelong learner, Brenda is an alumna of the University of Manitoba, and a host of other reputable schools and organizations.


Her Expertise:

She is especially known for developing and giving individuals the tools to excel in very challenging roles and stages of their personal and career life. She has a passion for classroom, workplace, and community learning and a gift for creating targeted learning solutions that address relevant career, community, and business needs.

Brenda loves to distill concepts or methods into meaningful frameworks and make ideas accessible for others to learn. Brenda brings experience in youth civic engagement and leadership development, transdisciplinary research, and UDL facilitation to her role in leading program design, strategy, technical capacity building, and external outreach at Momentswithbren Consulting.

As a Learning Experience Designer and Trainer, Brenda has taught in diverse learning environments and to audiences from a multitude of socio-cultural backgrounds. To offer effective online learning, she believes in the potential of integrating creativity, learning experience, strategic thinking, and technology.

Brenda currently facilitates a workforce development program funded by the IRCC Canada that provides resettlement and broad-based services to newcomer women and Government-assisted refugees (GARs) in Ottawa. She successfully creates soft skill presentations which have helped increase the career readiness and self-improvement of diverse clients and community members.


Her Humanitarian Activities:

Brenda is also passionate about gender parity and peacebuilding. She raised awareness on the unsolved missing and murder cases of Nigerian women and girls using the hashtag #MissingAndMurderedNigerianWomen.

This campaign is to create awareness of unsolved cases and the gender-based violence meted out on Nigerian women and girls that people barely talk about. Uxoricide, Femicide, Rape, Murder, Kidnapping, Organ Harvesting, Domestic Abuse and Misogyny in the Nigerian society.

She believes that the missing and murder cases of Nigerian women are an alarming societal issue that needs to be addressed and put to an end because, every Nigerian woman deserves to live and thrive in a safe environment or society #MMNG..


Her Consultancy, MomentsWithBren:

In all her projects, Brenda emphasizes the vital need to tie learning efforts to the performance goals of the individuals, organizations, and communities. Brenda has received widespread recognition for bridging needs, skills, and opportunities across an international footprint, known as “Momentswithbren”.

She is a team player who is passionate about supporting impactful programs to improve economic opportunities for those experiencing multiple barriers to employment. She has proven experience working in personal and professional development, career coaching, and mentoring for job seekers from underrepresented communities.

Her active curiosity enables her to think, see and hear from a variety of perspectives, a place where every day is different, and having the courage to grow is part of who she is. She is popularly known by the moniker “Momentswithbren” which is also her consultancy in Canada.


Her Projects and Impact:

Brenda’s activism is centered on economic dignity and security, education, gender parity, and collective prosperity. In 2018, Brenda was selected as a young leader to join a team of 100 Gender Equity Advocates with the YWCA Canada who went to the Parliament of Canada to lobby for $75 Million.

She spoke to Manitoban MPs and Senators on pressing issues and the need to invest more in economic security, employment opportunities, access to quality education, housing, and healthcare services for women and young girls across Manitoba. The Day on the Hill started off with a federal funding announcement totaling $1.25 Million from the former Minister of Status of Women, the Honourable Maryam Monsef (more here).

Brenda has provided college and career readiness coaching to diverse students across the world who have successfully secured $80.4M in scholarships, bursaries, differential tuition fee waivers, and graduate assistantships and currently has a published directory AMEKETUNI with $446B worth of financial aid for diverse students across the world.

Individuals who have benefitted from her services have recorded academic and career success rates of 98%, launched profitable businesses and transitioned into new careers in the past 5 years. 

As a Grant Writer, Brenda provides cross-functional leadership, interdisciplinary training, and knowledge transfer sessions to present-focused, future-ready R&D organizations, NPOs, Startups, and SMEs enabling them to develop action plans with tactical roadmaps to execute strategic initiatives that drive operational excellence, market-entry, and opportunity progression and revenue growth. Brenda loves to distill concepts or methods into meaningful frameworks and make ideas accessible for others to learn.

She supports sustainable projects/programs/initiatives that require analysis, optimization, and refinement of existing processes; and the creation and implementation of new processes. She advises various internal teams and external clients on best practices for employee wellness, human-centered design thinking, resource mapping, monitoring and evaluation, process improvement, psychological science to guide the design of products/systems/devices we use every day, go-to-market strategy, community outreach, developing and aligning personas and buying processes with lead nurturing flows, and demand generation program development.


Her Recognitions and Awards:

Some honors received by Brenda include the 2022 Top 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women, Manitoba150 Honours Award (a once-in-a-lifetime award), the 2019 Top 25 RBC Canadian Immigrant Award, the 2019 Diana Award UK, the 2019 and 2020 Top 9 Future Leaders of Manitoba Finalist, the 2019 Volunteer Manitoba Award, and many others including recognitions in the UK and Nigeria.


Taking a moment today to celebrate this outstanding woman and #BraveIcon, Brenda Mc-Wilson-Okorogba!

Posted in Business, Career, Review, Women

Brave Review: How Women Rise

Reading “How Women Rise” by Sally Helgensen and Marshall Goldsmith has really been an eye opening book.😌

In reading this book, business owners, and leaders across all levels, particularly women, will certainly certainly experience a mind shift.

For centuries, women have continued to accomplish outstanding feats.

However due to many constraints (economic or environmental, self imposed) and limiting thought patterns, the progressive contributions and innovations in business and leadership by women across all sectors has received less recognition than it deserves.

In reading this book, you would learn a whole lot:

1. You will learn to embrace your strengths.
2. You will learn to identify your weaknesses, self sabotaging habits and how to overcome them.
3. You will learn how to enlist the right help and strategic support needed to forge ahead.
4. You will learn about the importance of effective communication, speak up for yourself, your work and your accomplishments.
5. You will learn the importance of setting the right boundaries, saying ‘No’ to the wrong opportunities and saying ‘Yes’ to the right opportunities
6. You will learn the importance of authenticity and why this is crucial to your progressive movement as a leader and woman.
These and lots more are turning points from reading this book.

With case studies and real stories of people that remain memorable and relatable, this is certainly one book you will enjoy reading alone or with friends!
A highly recommended read, authored by @sally_helgesen and @coachgoldsmith.😊🙌🏽

Posted in Podcast, Publicity Posts

The Brave Publicity Podcast, Episode 12: Your Dreams and Order

We’ve got a brand new podcast up!🎧😆🥰

This episode highlights the influence of the mind on our dream and actions, the place of purpose and order, and what perspective to take when our dreams don’t play out exactly as we envision them.

Listen in now to “Your Dreams and Order”, Episode 12 of the Brave Publicity Podcast!

Listen in here: https://bravepublicity.com/podcast/
Enjoy!

Posted in Leadership, Review, Self development

Brave Review: Go For Gold

“Go for Gold” by John C. Maxwell is such an amazing book.
A little pocket sized and companion guide to “Leadership Gold”

I first came across this book in my final year as an undergraduate. It was a pivotal period in my life and the peak of my leadership experience while on campus.

It was such a great read, that you would find me smiling at myself while reading or nodding in agreement to the lessons I was being opened up to.
Curiosity got a hold of others around me that they would eventually ask about the book, as I carried it every where I went, even to our farm practice sessions. Lol!

Every chance I got, I read and it really helped me stay focused, organized and aligned as a young leader.
The small size of this book makes it so easy to read.

With a weekly schedule of 26 lessons broken into days of the work week and a notes section. Helping you reflect on what you’ve learnt, almost like a devotional.

So it’s so easy to read, even as you learn in small bites great lessons for impact as a leader.
I eventually got the main book Leadership Gold and I totally enjoyed that as well.

I highly recommend “Go for Gold” by John C. Maxwell.
It’s truly an amazing and empowering book for every leader, team member and business oriented individual.

Such a great book, full of so much actionable knowledge and much wisdom.
Gold truly!
Highly recommended.