I was in Nairobi, Kenya some time ago and I had just been on a panel session along with representatives of multinational companies and successful entrepreneurs. We were talking about the power of building online communities.
Of all the speakers, I felt I was the least qualified to be there. Afterall, all I had was a couple of books and an online community of 14,000 people. I frankly didn’t know what to expect when I was asked questions.
I couldn’t lie of course. I had to answer my questions the way I knew best. I had never worked with a multinational company or been in a Managerial position before. But I knew how to be intentional in starting and growing a community as an author.
So I spoke from there. I spoke from my experiences. I spoke from my heart. I used the power of storytelling to get my message across. In those few minutes, I grew in influence from just Author and Facebook Group Creator, to an International Speaker, International Author and Founder of an Inspiring literary movement in Africa, using New Media as my platform.
Let me tell you: I cried when I got back to my hotel room. After the panel session was done, I received an all-expense paid invitation back to Kenya, this time in Mombassa. The organizer of Social Media Week Nairobi was moved by my story and wanted me to inspire young women in Kenya to find purpose and live it.
I met a representative from Procter and Gamble, the company responsible for making many of the consumables you use today, including Cowbell Milk. He was interested in learning how they can use published assets to grow their brand. This is a multi-billion dollar company.
I had a one on one meeting with the Twitter Head for Africa and he was so inspired by the work I do for authors, he gave me his WhatsApp number and offered to help in growing our platform on Twitter.
That experience catapulted my career to the stratosphere. The opportunities that have come to me, came simply because I refused to remain an ordinary author, just writing and selling books.
I wanted to build a career and be known for whatever I wanted. I’m not more special or more intelligent than others, I just knew what I wanted.
If you want to know my secret to being successful in my ventures, growing in income, impact and influence, building a global brand and scaling my different income streams fast, here’s the secret: I DON’T SETTLE. That’s all!
I understand that it can be hard to comprehend and put into practice. Afterall, how exactly does one not settle and grow a successful authoring and knowledge-based business?
Now more than ever, there is a hunger for home-grown books. People are realizing that the market is saturated with non-African books and are looking for fresh new content.
We as Nigerian authors are at the forefront of this new trend. If we can set ourselves up in front of this trend, the opportunities are endless.
