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From Law School to LinkedIn Top Voice: Social Impact Leadership & Empowering Nigerian Women to Share their Stories with the Founder of Sisterly HQ
133 Plays1 year ago
Update: I recently launched my newsletter, The Sheconomist, and would love for you to subscribe: sheconomist.com - I share so many tools and resources that help young, high-achieving women with radical money and career self-advocacy.
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Titilope Adedokun is a lawyer, content creator, and passionate social impact leader & entrepreneur. She's the force behind Sisterly HQ, a platform dedicated to empowering Nigerian women through digital storytelling. A LinkedIn Top Voice and recipient of numerous awards, including the Common Purpose’s 25 Under 25 Global Legacy Award and being recognized as a 30 Under 30 social impact leader by Global Governance Initiative, Titilope is a vocal force in the social impact space.
In this conversation, Titilope stresses the importance of offering young women equal access to opportunities and resources, citing her own experiences with women who opened doors for her. We talk about Sisterly’s HQs mission of positively impacting the lives of 20% of all Nigerian women by 2030, and how Titilope found her voice, built a strong personal brand, and learned how to put herself out there.
Titilope’s story is a testament to embracing a multi-faceted identity and portfolio career, and reminds us to embrace our diverse passions, support worthy causes, and stay authentic in our journeys to make a meaningful difference in the world.
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Transcript
Empowering Women: Personal Journeys
00:00:00
Speaker
Because of the kind of support and help I have received from the women around me, women that I know personally, women that, you know, I didn't even know personally before they decided to open the doors for me and pay it forward to me, I am trying my best to be that woman, that safe space, that support system for the women that are coming after me.
00:00:20
Speaker
I'm Tamina and I'm extending a heartfelt invitation to you as we join forces in reclaiming economic power for women in a world that is often structured against us. We'll dive into the minds of accomplished female leaders, investors and entrepreneurs to equip you with the confidence and knowledge to build wealth for yourself and other women. So buckle up, get ready to learn and be inspired to take action.
00:00:47
Speaker
Hello, hello, and welcome back. I've been really looking forward to having this conversation for quite some time, and I am very excited to introduce you all to the one and only Titilope Adedokun. She is a lawyer, content creator, and social impact nerd.
00:01:06
Speaker
who is passionate about the intersection of social impact, business, and technology. She's also very passionate about the empowerment of young people, particularly young women. In 2021, she founded Sisterly HQ, a platform empowering Nigerian women with the community to tell their stories their way and connecting them with opportunities and resources.
00:01:32
Speaker
Through digital storytelling, sisterly HQ is increasing the representation of Nigerian women through and in the media. And by curating opportunities and resources for women, sisterly HQ is shattering the glass ceiling of discrimination and exclusion faced by women in the pursuit of their goals.
00:01:52
Speaker
Didi Lope, I am so, so excited to have you on today. Welcome to the Give Her Dollars podcast. Thank you so much. I am so excited to be here as well, like to be speaking with you today and sharing a little bit about my story. Yeah, I'm really excited. Amazing. So that makes two of us be excited. Great, great start to this conversation.
00:02:16
Speaker
Titi Lupe, this podcast is all about helping women build wealth for themselves and other women. And I always like to say that a wealthy woman can walk out of almost every room she feels uncomfortable in and create opportunities for other women along the way because financial independence equates freedom. So I like to start out with the same question for all of my guests.
00:02:39
Speaker
each season, what does women supporting women mean to you personally? And how does that show up in your life on a daily basis? That's a really good question. And one thing I always like to say is I am because of the women who have gone ahead of me. And so I will continue to be because of the women who are coming behind.
00:03:00
Speaker
Personally, I believe that, you know, the whole women hate women thing that everybody's trying to peddle, particularly like the media and misogynist is a myth because I grew up seeing women come through for other women, like growing up in Nigeria, Lagos, Sipado. I grew up seeing my mom's friends rally around her when she needed help. And I saw her do the same for her female friends as well. And so for me, I would say, of course, the exceptions here and there, but generally I grew up in
00:03:28
Speaker
an environment where women were always supporting women. And even right now in my life, it still shows up. I still see women supporting women and women rallying around women. And so for me, that was sort of like the first introduction that I ever had into seeing women supporting other women.
00:03:46
Speaker
It's more than that, right? Now it has become more than just something I saw growing up to being like an extension of my life's purpose by making sure that women have equal access to opportunities and resources with sisterly HQ and in other work that I do by paying forward, particularly for young women.
00:04:03
Speaker
It's super important. And so because of the kind of support and help I have received from the women around me, women that I know personally, women that, you know, I didn't even know personally before they decided to open the doors for me and pay it forward to me, I am trying my best to be that woman, that safe space, that support system for the women that are coming after me.
00:04:24
Speaker
And so every time I'd see my life story or my success story, I'm still in my success story anyway. I always remember the people who actually sat me down and gave me my first opportunities, the people who cheered me on. Obviously, men did as well. But the strongest and the loudest hairs came from women. So for example, my mom and my sisters, they are my village. They mean so much to me, my female mentors.
00:04:48
Speaker
I had my first mentorship opportunity when I was my third year of university. I was like, I know we've been menting mentor for like four years now, and she's more like a big sister to me. The kind of things that she has told me, the advice that she has given me. The one with sisterly issue as well, like, and I think we're going to get back into, and we'll probably get into that during the course of this conversation. Women like, I actually be, you know, sitting down and showing me how sisterly issue could work.
00:05:14
Speaker
Godless of the fear that I had, you know, starting something like sisterly HQ. And so for me, that just resonates so deeply because of the hope that these women have shown me because of the support that they have given me. I will also, whatever I can do with the whole of my being, I will be that woman for all that women that are coming after me.
00:05:36
Speaker
So for me, it's super important to bring other women with you to the top. It's very important for you to mention the men in the rooms that they're not in and bring them to that room as well so that they can use their voices. I couldn't agree more with everything that you just mentioned. And what I particularly loved is that you
00:06:00
Speaker
framed your advocacy and your work as an extension of your purpose. When you said that, I was like, wow, yeah, that's so true because
00:06:13
Speaker
That's what it's like for me as well. In fact, for me, I even consider being a hype woman and cheerleader for other women. That is my purpose in life. And I think if there were more people who took a step back and reflected on what it actually means for them,
00:06:33
Speaker
to be a woman and to engage in vulnerable conversations around the shared experiences of womanhood, I think more women will probably arrive at the same conclusion that
00:06:48
Speaker
being a supporter of fellow women, creating opportunities for other women, opening doors for other women, that that has become an extension of their purpose in life and how they show up each and every single day. So thank you for mentioning that and for shedding some light on the incredible women in your life. Mentors are so, so important, but also having very visible
00:07:18
Speaker
female role models in your life. You're mentioning your sister, your mom, which is absolutely fantastic. I myself was very fortunate to have grown up in a rather non-traditional environment with reverse gender roles where my
00:07:34
Speaker
grandmother used to be the breadwinner of the family. She used to be a very successful pediatric surgeon. So she would spend hours and hours at the hospital each day while my late grandfather, he was still working, but he was able to work remotely from home. So he ended up becoming the primary cure taker. So growing up in that environment, I didn't even think that just by virtue of being woman, I would have
00:08:03
Speaker
barriers from both a personal and a professional perspective. And it took a couple of years until I was a teenager and started experiencing the first incidents of sexual harassment and discrimination that I was like, Oh, wow.
00:08:18
Speaker
Actually, I am one of the lucky ones for having had very, very strong and visible role models in my immediate family. But unfortunately, that's not the case for every single woman out there. So definitely consider both you and I to be very, very lucky to have very strong female supporters who know how to speak up on other women's behalf and just be visible forces in that space.
00:08:42
Speaker
Absolutely.
Diverse Careers and Financial Independence
00:08:43
Speaker
Titi, so one of the many things I really, really love about you is that you fully embrace having what I call a multi-hyphenate or portfolio career, which means that you have more than just one title and you're looking at your career and your professional identity as this mosaic of experiences, skills, and interests rather than allowing others to put you in a box.
00:09:09
Speaker
We already heard it in the intro, but also in your LinkedIn bio, you refer to yourself as a project manager, community builder, social impact nerd, advocate, lawyer, content creator, and most importantly, connector. Walk me through how you've been able to establish that multi-hyphenate identity and what can other women do in order to build a portfolio career?
00:09:39
Speaker
Thank you so much. You know, I would say I've always been somebody who is not just one thing. I was literally having a conversation with my mentor like a few months ago. And she was telling me that from the day that I met you, you've never been one thing. You've been several things at the same time.
00:09:57
Speaker
For a long time, I embraced it, I loved it, but at some point in my life, maybe because of all the things that were going on, I started to question it. I started to feel, oh, maybe could stuff have been better if I just focused on one thing or if I just showed up as one person with just one face set to me? I remember something that a mentor told me, and he told me that there's always a common thread. If you look at everything you're doing, from being a lawyer to studying HQ to
00:10:27
Speaker
Every single thing you're doing, there's just a common thread. And for me, that common thread has always been social impact. I just say this for anybody who's also in that phase or who is going through that phase right now, who's thinking, my God, I have so many things that is going on. Like what's happening? It's overwhelming.
00:10:46
Speaker
I get it, I've been there, but the beauty is the multi-hyphenated nature that we have. This multi-facetedness, if that's the word that we have is such a strength. The point is, if you actually sit down and look at a variable, you'd see that there's a common thread that goes through every single thing that we care about.
00:11:08
Speaker
One thing I would say that has always helped me to embrace that side is being very open to possibilities and doing stuff I've read and also enjoying the process. So many things that I do now, I don't think I sat down and thought, okay, I'm going to do this and become this. Many of these things came as a result of doing other things that I loved and enjoying the process and learning through the process while I was doing them.
00:11:34
Speaker
Just having an open mind is very important. It's something that we always talk about almost in a very flimsy way. However, it's very important to be flexible and open to possibility. Also, like being a stand-up person for yourself is very important. I remember someone saying something about me a few years ago and she said, this is one of those people that
00:11:57
Speaker
If she says she's going to do something, she's going to do it. It's like where we'll have an idea and she's going to bring it to life and she's going to do it. And for me, I count it as being a stand-up person for myself. I'm always going to show for my girls. I'm going to show for women. Yes, that is the entirety of the work that I do.
00:12:13
Speaker
But I'm going to show up for me as well, even if you're ministering, it's afraid, I'm being scared, but still doing it for myself. And so I think just having that mentality of thinking, it's an achieving it, no matter how difficult, how scary it might be, I think that that goes a very long way.
00:12:29
Speaker
just embracing it as well. Embracing the multiple layers to yourself and like I said earlier finding that common thread that goes through everything that I care about and making sense of it. So just to round up I would say like for other women who obviously want to hone into having like a multi
00:12:46
Speaker
hyphenated portfolio, I would say like be very exploratory, like explore as much as you can. There's a lot of learning and discovery that comes with just trying things out, pushing yourself or putting yourself in the middle of things and seeing how it goes if it works out great, if it doesn't work out, I've learned something from it. So being a stand-up person for yourself and showing up for you regardless of you know fear or whatever. Taking breaks as well and taking care of yourself is so important.
00:13:13
Speaker
As someone who has, again, so many layers, so many facets to her, it can get overwhelming and life happens. So it's very important to be able to step back and take care of yourself, as we're discussing earlier. And find also a community of people who are like you.
00:13:30
Speaker
Because the truth is, if you find other multi-hyphenated people or people who are doing amazing things that are different but still have a common thread, then you start to see that you're not seeing those things that are in your head. They're not crazy. Your feelings are valid. You start to see things make sense and take shape because you've seen the community of people who are also doing the things that you want to do and things that you're doing right now. So for me, I've always benefited from having that community of women.
00:13:56
Speaker
who are doing amazing things, social impact, who are still crushing it in a corporate world, are still having personal life, creating content. You have people like you, oh my God, or people like Jasmine. These are amazing people that I have created as my tribe, and they're always there for me, and they always have my back. Having that community is super duper important. A community of people to care for you and also for you to also give care back to them.
00:14:24
Speaker
So yeah, so I'll just round it up by saying the open possibility, do things afraid and enjoy the process and it will get overwhelming. Like learn to take a step back and just care for yourself in the midst of everything that you're doing. Beautifully said. And to reiterate, I think what's really, really important is for that common threat to
00:14:53
Speaker
combine everything that you do or to connect everything that you do in a way that it ultimately makes sense for people because it comes from a place of authenticity. Like you were saying,
00:15:08
Speaker
social impact is the glue that connects all of these different titles that you carry in all of these different professional identities that you have. Similar for me, it's the women's advancement aspect that allows me to combine a lot of the different things that I do and have it be perceived as something very, very authentic by my community. Because at the end of the day, all of the things that I say yes to,
00:15:38
Speaker
They come from a place of authenticity and there are in full alignment with my values, right? And so when you do show up as your most authentic and as your most true self, you can show up in multiple different spaces. But what it comes down to is like, okay.
00:15:59
Speaker
What she cares about is social impact at the end of the day, and she's able to serve people. She's able to serve her community. She's able to serve Nigerian women in multiple different ways, and I think that is so, so powerful.
00:16:17
Speaker
I think more young women should really embrace that and lean into all of those possibilities, specifically because it also allows you to build a more holistic career, a more holistic network, and thereby also create
00:16:36
Speaker
multiple income streams so you will become less dependent on just carrying one title or become less dependent on a corporate salary because yes you might be really really passionate about your nine to five job right and that's fantastic i wish that for everyone.
00:16:56
Speaker
But what happens during an economic downturn when you might be impacted by layoffs, for example, or what happens when you enter a work environment that is
00:17:08
Speaker
maybe a little bit toxic or you don't get along with your team or your manager, right? In those cases, you want to have a couple of backups that allow you to sustain yourself while still feeling very connected to your ultimate purpose and to your values. And I think building a multi-hyphenate identity and building a portfolio career allows women to become
00:17:35
Speaker
increasingly less dependent on other people, specifically men. We're still, unfortunately, many times in those leadership positions, but also create a life that is, like I said, in full alignment with how you want to show up and how you want to serve and in alignment with your priorities and values. So thank you for just validating basically everything that I said and the importance of having a portfolio.
00:18:02
Speaker
career, but prefacing it by saying like, Hey, it's also important to give yourself some grace, take care of yourself because there will be times where it can be overwhelming. I think both you and I have had many of those experiences. We're just talking about it to your point.
00:18:18
Speaker
before we started recording. Because at the end of the day, and this is what I told you, we're only human at the end of the day. And sometimes to some people, it might seem like as if we have more than 24 hours in a day. Again, it all comes down to that threat, that commonality, how all of these different identities are glued together, guided by our overarching purpose and by our values. So I cannot emphasize that enough.
Creating Sisterly HQ: Vision and Challenges
00:18:45
Speaker
Let's talk about Sister Lee HQ.
00:18:48
Speaker
You know, oftentimes successful entrepreneurs and social impact leaders, they create new spaces and build something as a direct result of a pain point that they've been experiencing themselves. And I know that for you to deal, it all started in 2019 when you attended an editathon to write biographies of Nigerian women on Wikipedia.
00:19:15
Speaker
What happened next and how did sisterly HQ evolve to become a community that is hoping to positively impact 20% of all Nigerian women by 2030? Absolutely. So I'll tell you like my sisterly HQ. Fun fact actually, I'll tell you like even the first time, like my first journey into something like sisterly HQ started a little too further before 2019.
00:19:43
Speaker
But then I wasn't really thinking about it actively, but it was 2018 where I got to write a book with my faculty then, basically interviewed women on their success stories and even the things that hurt them, the most painful parts of their stories as well. And so that was my first ever introduction into like the world of telling very deep.
00:20:02
Speaker
heartfelt stories of Nigerian women. Fast forward to 2019, there is a thought that happened and a friend of mine asked a bunch of hosts and said, oh, do you guys want to volunteer for this cause editing and writing Wikipedia pages for Nigerian women? And I was like, you know what? That sounds like my thing. Yes, girl, I am going. And so, yes, I showed up that day. I learned how to do the technical aspect of writing on Wikipedia.
00:20:25
Speaker
But then more importantly, I got to write the stories of amazing and phenomenal Nigerian women who were doing amazing stuff. That experience made me realize all these women are women who are high at achieving the highest of the highest. These women have gone beyond Nigeria to achieve great things and they didn't have a Wikipedia page. Like it was, for me it was even mind blowing to realize that some of these women didn't have a Wikipedia page because I wouldn't have thought that they wouldn't have that.
00:20:54
Speaker
I thought about it that if nobody's telling the stories of these phenomenal, groundbreaking women, then who's telling the stories of me and the every other day woman, the every other day Nigerian woman, the regular Nigerian woman, who's going to tell those stories, if nobody's even telling the stories of people that should naturally, you know, should be on the headlines.
00:21:15
Speaker
that experience, a learning experience, but then it also shifts my mind and shifts my thoughts towards thinking that there needs to be a platform that does just that. But at the time, I just thought there needs to be a platform, but then I didn't think I would be the one to create the platform. There's something I feel like in my life, I think about things, I have ideas and I do stuff, but then at the same time, I guess at that point, I was just looking at the idea of something that someone else needed to do because I had a lot of my pleats and it wasn't going to fit me.
00:21:45
Speaker
And so while I had the idea, I just thought it would be nice for somebody to do this, but I never thought that it's local could actually be the one to do that. First words, I think 2020, I was still thinking about it then because I mean, I had run into some publications in the US and the UK.
00:22:02
Speaker
I used to read so many of these publications, and I saw that, for example, we had this, what's it called, Money Diaries by Refinery29, and it was super interesting to see women talk about money. They were just talking about it, so unashamedly, so open, and at that point, I'd never seen anything like that in Nigeria that was focused on only women.
00:22:21
Speaker
talking about money. And I was like, oh, this would be nice. And I remember seeing other publications like The Cuts and so many other publications that were really focused on women. It would be so nice to have a Nigerian version of this. But then again, I never thought I would be the one to do it. So fast forward rather to 2021.
00:22:39
Speaker
where I got to participate in a coaching program with the amazing A.R. Chibi. She's the former African Union News Envoy and a Pan-African feminist rather as someone I really look up to. So I got the opportunity to work with her for like three months or six months and it was a very transformative process for me because
00:22:58
Speaker
I got to talk about things I wanted to do when it came to feminism and women's rights and the change I wanted to make in the world and how I wanted to use storytelling as a tool to help to inspire, to empower, and to impact Nigerian women positively. With her coaching session, I went from thinking about someone else could do it to thinking that I could do it finally. I'm not only thinking now, but then taking the step and taking the required action to do it.
00:23:27
Speaker
So honestly, those months were super, they were super helpful to me, super transformative, one of the most transformative experiences I've ever had, because it really took me from thinking that other people needed to do the work to seeing that I myself can't do the work, even though I was afraid, even though I felt like I didn't have the resources.
00:23:46
Speaker
I didn't know what I was doing, but then she helped me and gave me the tools, gave me the resources and the confidence to be able to say, oh, you know what? I can't be the one to make this change. I want to see because this change affects me. Growing up, many of us like Nigerian women, we didn't see representation in places of power. So we've never had a female president. Even in the elections that happened this year, I don't even think we had up to 5% female representation.
00:24:10
Speaker
honestly and so it's something that we grapple with everyday growing up and even now as adults so this issue affects me as well and so I was able to see that I could be the one to bring about that change to increase representation for Nigerian women and bring those amazing opportunities.
00:24:25
Speaker
closer to Nigerian women to bridge that opportunity gap. However, so I decided to start in, so I would say I decided to start formally in August 2021, and I always say my village is super amazing. Gosh, I'm so grateful to have a village
00:24:40
Speaker
of people who always support me. I literally have friends that they don't care what I'm doing. When you see T-lock, they're like, don't come through for me. And I know that it's a privilege and I do not take it for granted at all. So I remember when I started, I had people, a lot of my friends were just like, I don't know what this is about. Of course, I tried to explain to Steli Hit you at the time. I don't even think I knew it was going to be like this at that time with all my scattered ideas in my notes app.
00:25:04
Speaker
and the excitement of making a change, they were all in and many of them just volunteered their time, their effort, their skills, and helped me to start to study HQ. But a fun fact was, I started to study HQ literally the month I reached my final university exams.
00:25:20
Speaker
And in Nigeria, when you're done with undergrad, the next thing is to go to law school for you to become a lawyer. And at the time, at that point in my life, I already knew, like, I would go to law school. And obviously, there was a study hit you up there, and I was like, God, like, how am I going to do a study hit you? And the Nigerian law school.
00:25:37
Speaker
Law school anywhere in the world is not a game. In Nigeria, I would say it's even much more serious or something, because it's literally just one year, and that one year determines whether or not you are a lawyer. And so we have these like a negative spreading system, which is very complex, and I don't want to get into it. But there's a lot riding on that one year that you don't want to have any distractions. You're all in. And I was thinking, why did I decide to successfully hit you three months before I started law school?
00:26:05
Speaker
But you know what, as scary as it was, as confusing as it was, we made it work. And again, shout out to my village, shout out to all the volunteers that worked with Sisterly HQ in the last two years. Shout out to my family, my friends, people who have really rallied around me with Sisterly HQ. Having an amazing team was super helpful for me and still continues to be very helpful for me with Sisterly HQ.
00:26:30
Speaker
I would say that, that really, really kick-started Steli Hichu. And all through law school, it was very great to work with an amazing team and make it what it is seeing. But somewhere along the line, Steli Hichu's vision changed. And I'll just say that because I feel when people start something, they're always scared of it evolving because they feel, or if something is evolving, especially when you're like under three years old, it seems like you're not serious.
00:26:56
Speaker
And honestly, I thought that like at some point I had that fear. Oh my God, like I am changing a few things about StudyHQ. We're not even three years old. Yes. Well, people are not like, take me seriously. Well, people get tired. We cannot understand the vision. But I mean, I did it again, very afraid with the help of my team. And right now that's what we're doing right now. We made it work so far. So StudyHQ when we started was a publication. So we're running a publication model, which
00:27:21
Speaker
were trying to tell stories of Nigerian women and also of course connect them to opportunities and resources. And so at the time we had like a publication that had like several columns. I remember that we had finance, we had health, we had culture, we had tech, we had so many columns and it was like writers were just like
00:27:39
Speaker
write articles, interviews, stories, whatever, and then we'd publish it like a regular, like everyday newspaper or like publication of magazine. And while that was super impactful, I remember the feedback that we got was phenomenal. At some point in October last year, I sat down and I thought about the fact that I really wanted to hone in on those deeply personal uncomfortable stories that nobody was telling.
00:28:03
Speaker
And we're doing that already, but I felt there was an opportunity to even go in deeply. And so we decided to just strip off all the other columns and just focus on those deeply personal stories of Nigerian women that nobody was telling. And it wasn't something that I had necessarily seen before. Very scary move, but I'm so glad that we did that because we've been able to tell the personal, again, very deeply personal stories of over 30 Nigerian women.
00:28:29
Speaker
And in March, we had this amazing series called Period Diaries. It was Women's History Month. And we thought, what can we do to celebrate this month? And what can we do to shed a light on something that is happening in Nigeria right now? And so we chose the idea of period health.
00:28:45
Speaker
And we had women send us their weekly, their period calendar, their period diary, basically like how they experience being on their period for every single day of their period. It was so insightful and transformational. And I think a lot of people were shocked by the things that they were reading. So for example, the first story that we ever published was a medical student.
00:29:06
Speaker
here in Lagos, Nigeria, who's actually experiencing period poverty. I remember the day that the story went live. We sort of had a mini viral moment because someone that had like 80,000 followers reported it and many people were coming to read the story because you were surprised. They didn't realize that period poverty is not just something that is so far away from us. It's happening to our classmates, a league that work. It's something that is happening to people that you're friends, literally. And I think it was such a reality check for everyone to understand that while period poverty is not just something we hear about, it's
00:29:34
Speaker
happening right now in our society, in our families, in our communities, to our friends, people that we know. And we continue to tell those stories, those periodary stories. A lot of people would say, and I thought it was also a very huge success because we also go to what lights and highlight the work of amazing Nigerian organizations doing stuff about period poverty and helping Nigerian women and Nigerian girls to get out of period poverty in Nigeria. It's just type of stories that
00:30:01
Speaker
I wanted to tell. And it's just very interesting to see it taking shape. And one other thing that I would say when it comes to our evolution was also focusing on being a community and all the encompassing community that is empowering women to tell their stories their own way, rather than telling the stories for the women. Because as I said, we had a publication model where we just write stories, publish it. But this time, we're actually giving women the platform for them to come and tell their own stories their own way. So we're not telling anybody stories for them, no.
00:30:30
Speaker
while letting everybody have a safe space and Nigerian women have a safe space to come and be their own voices and tell their own stories their own way. Because I mean, I feel that's another conversation for another day about being a voice for people and actually letting people tell their stories themselves. We really wanted to zero in on being that platform that would let Nigerian women, okay, it's like you have the mic, you say what you need to say, or you say what you have to say, rather than saying, we're going to tell it for you. No, no, no, we're not doing that.
00:30:59
Speaker
So that transition and that evolution, I'm very proud that we made that evolution. It was scary at first, as I mentioned, but, you know, I mean, fear will do what it needs to do and you get it done and you'll be glad when you come out of it and you see big growth. So I'm very glad to see how far we've come.
00:31:16
Speaker
Again, I cannot overemphasize or like underemphasize the power of having an amazing and supportive community from like a attribute who literally like mentored me and coached me to start to still hit you to the team of volunteers that always support their sisterly hits you. Fun fact.
00:31:32
Speaker
We're currently working on a story on Split Light and Sisterly Hit You alumni, because I realized that after Sisterly Hit You, a lot of people who worked with us actually went on to start their own social impact initiative. It's amazing to see how Sisterly Hit You has even started inspiring other social impact initiatives for people and for volunteers that have worked with us. So let me just cut this short by saying,
00:31:54
Speaker
The entire idea of Sisterly HC was something I started very afraid, knowing that they're not thinking I would be the one to do it. But I'm so glad and grateful that I finally took that leap of faith. And we're still doing it today. It's not like it doesn't have its challenges. It does have its challenges, internal and external. But I'm so grateful for our growth so far, and I cannot wait to see us really, really become what we're meant to be.
00:32:20
Speaker
I can't wait for us to, as you said earlier, achieve our goal of positively impacting up to 20% of Nigerian women on the internet by 2030. So yeah. Be the change you want to see in the world. I think that is the overarching theme here. And I really admire you.
00:32:42
Speaker
and commend you for taking that step because initially when you started telling the birthing story of Sister Lee HQ, yes, you identified a pain point, a challenge that your community was facing, but at first you didn't believe that it should necessarily be you who would be the change maker in this case. Actually taking that first step to building something
00:33:09
Speaker
A lot of people don't do that. A lot of people are too afraid. I mean, you're still very, very young and you made that very conscious decision to build something for other women. There are thousands of other incredible Nigerian women out there, many of whom have
00:33:28
Speaker
more years of experience, right? Might be better connected or are not just about to start law school, right? And be, be very challenged to juggle a social impact enterprise and a very challenging, but what differentiates you from all of the other women out there is you went out and did it.
Adapting and Authenticity in Personal Branding
00:33:47
Speaker
You did it. And yes, you didn't do everything by yourself. You were able to find volunteers, you were able to build
00:33:56
Speaker
a support system, and I love that you pointed it out so many times that it's so important for you to have a support system of people who don't just help you with getting the work done, but who also provide emotional safety and allow you to vent or be active listeners, introduce you to other people, mentor you, sponsor you, name your enterprise in a room full of opportunities when you might not be in the room, right? I really, really commend you for taking
00:34:25
Speaker
that step to build something and something else that really resonated with me was the way you describe the evolution of sisterly HQ. This is something I deeply identify with because for me, it was, it was similar. I started my first podcast and first kind of community fem hive in, in 2020 at the beginning of, of the pandemic. And at the time it was like, I didn't really have a big plan, right? I just knew that I wanted to do something that would help
00:34:55
Speaker
Young female professionals be more successful in terms of advocating for themselves in the workplace and navigating that transition from school to the real world and becoming a functioning adult. I didn't really know what to expect. I just knew that I wanted to do something and get started and it kind of developed.
00:35:14
Speaker
its own life from there. And then when I moved to New York a year and a half, almost two years later, I felt like I had almost outgrown my own platform and there was that need for
00:35:27
Speaker
pivot and to allow my platform, my community to evolve alongside me and alongside of what I was seeing happening around me. So to your point, I wouldn't say pivoting or making strategic changes to your enterprise should be considered as like.
00:35:48
Speaker
failure or you not being consistent. I think you just learn more over time. You get to know your community, your audience and their needs over time and you'd pivot. I mean, some of the most successful companies in history that have existed for decades, they've had to pivot over and over and over again.
00:36:07
Speaker
reinvented their logos, their slogans, color palettes, all of that, right? I think it's only natural for organizations and for companies to evolve over time. They do that in order to better serve their communities. I love that you pointed that out. I would love to talk a little bit more about content creation.
00:36:33
Speaker
because you are a content creator and a LinkedIn top voice. And that's actually how I first discovered your work because your posts just kept showing up on my feed. And when I mentor and coach young women, I always tell them how important it is for them to build a strong personal brand in order to attract opportunities.
00:36:58
Speaker
and become increasingly independent. How did you learn to develop a voice and put yourself out there? I know it was a process for you with sisterly HQ, but what have been your biggest takeaways when it comes to developing that voice and mustering up the energy and oftentimes also bravery to really put yourself out there in the public with your name and your, you know, your
00:37:25
Speaker
image, your personality, your resume and everything that is attached to your identity.
00:37:35
Speaker
Gosh, that's a very good question. So with being like a brand and telling my story, I would definitely say LinkedIn has been a huge part of it that didn't just start from LinkedIn. Many people don't know this, but back in the day, I used to have like a WordPress blog where I was vlogging about everyone, anything, so politics, movies. I was always trying to express myself in some way and writing was such a huge part of that.
00:38:02
Speaker
But I started to take LinkedIn seriously out till 20, just at the beginning of the pandemic. And for me, I felt I had a lot of knowledge to give. And my question was, how can I help fellow Nigerian students, particularly at the time, to learn or to understand or know the things that I know?
00:38:19
Speaker
at the time and so I remember that I started making posts just tips and things that I did when I was in university or how to just do stuff basically I was just giving a lot of tips then and from there I started to share about the things I was passionate about so beyond sharing those tips and helping Nigerian women and Nigerian students for me actually was Nigerian students at the time to get ahead
00:38:42
Speaker
I was also very passionate about women's rights and gender equality and equity and feminism. And it was just natural to talk about what I was, to be vocal about what I was passionate about. And honestly, it just took off from the essay to also share more and more of my passions. So the first thing I would say is I've always been somebody who
00:39:02
Speaker
If I like something or if I like something or I'm passionate about something, I'm not going to keep it to myself. I'm going to fuck up about it. I've always been that type of person. Even before living thing happened or before social media happened, when I had my blog,
00:39:17
Speaker
Even within my family members, I used to be kind of pressing that if I discovered something I was really cool, I would tell everybody in my family because they had to try it as well. So I've always been vocal about things that I loved and things that I was passionate about. And it really just flew like the whole thing just flew into like my experience with LinkedIn as well. So like being vocal about women's rights just came naturally because first of all, as I said, I grew up around very strong female figures from my mom to like
00:39:44
Speaker
aunties or like in Nigeria we call everybody like all the adults who they're not necessarily family members but because they're adult women who like you grow up we call them aunties so like that could include like moms of my friends like I literally was having this conversation with my sister like last week about how we grew up with amazing boss lady women and all of those experiences
00:40:05
Speaker
made me super passionate about women's rights and gender equality and obviously also seeing the discrimination that women generally women in my life men outside of my life faced despite the amazing and phenomenal things that they were doing. So it just made sense for me to talk about it. And I'll just say being authentic to myself
00:40:25
Speaker
has just always been everything that I've been trying to do. So I will never be who I'm not. I will always show up the way that I am, like take it or live it. And with LinkedIn and with even building my personal brand on and off LinkedIn, I try to show up as authentic as I can be. I am a Nigerian woman rather with short hair, with my Nigerian accent. Those are the things that make me me and I will not pretend to be anybody else.
00:40:51
Speaker
When I'm very passionate about things in danger, I will say you carry it on top of your head like football. Whether I like it or not, I'm the kind of person that I will literally be talking about something else. And somehow I would find the way to just put women's rights and gender equality inside of it without even trying. And I've just come to embrace that. I will not be ashamed of it. That's who I am. I will carry women's rights on top of my head like football. That's just how it is. So yeah, just being authentically me, being very vocal about what I was passionate about.
00:41:19
Speaker
definitely helped me as well with building a brand and using my voice with building a brand. That's pretty much it. One thing I will point out is when it comes to creating content, I'm building a personal brand. I think we've been talking about this a lot, but I'll just still retreat as well. Please take breaks when you need it.
00:41:37
Speaker
activist burnout, creator burnout is so real. And I mean, you would know as well, you create content on LinkedIn as well. And even like your podcast has storytelling and content creation too, you know, with it, burnout is real. So I feel as creators learn to understand your body, understand when your body's telling, do not create right now. You do not need to create. We find the world would go on if you don't create for one day. And
00:42:02
Speaker
and embrace that and then obviously come back up the next thing because I mean people don't know but I'm taking so many breaks on content creation but always come and it's so funny because every time I take a break from content creation for some reason I feel like more people are messaging me telling me that oh my god they're seeing my content and
00:42:19
Speaker
And they're like, they love my content. I'm like, I'm not even creating right now. The work that you've done will continue to speak for you. So don't think that you always have to create when the last thing that you want to do right now is to create. Understand that the work that you've already done, the precedent that you've already set will always show up for you. And I think I should just mention something about consistency as well. So when it comes to building a personal brand, consistency is something that, you know,
00:42:45
Speaker
Has everybody in a chokehold? People want to be consistent. I mean, absolutely be consistent. Being consistent, of course, will speak for you again, will shop for you in your work and shop for you in your content creation journey. However, understand that. Consistency means different things for different people. Try to define what consistency means to you and then stick to it. So don't go and say, oh, because this lockdown is crazy and content is every single day,
00:43:11
Speaker
then I have to create content every single day. Honestly, what you need to do, you need to sit down and determine if consistency means to create content once a week or twice a week, or just figure it out and stick with it. When you fall off because you will fall off because life is life-ing.
00:43:29
Speaker
So you will fall off. There's nothing you can drop out. Nobody is perfect. So I would focus less on falling off and focus more on how can I get back into the groove of what I was doing before and why I love to create content. Don't really focus on falling off and mistakes that you didn't make or you didn't create content for like six months. Okay, tomorrow is a new day. Can you create content tomorrow that you love?
00:43:51
Speaker
focus more on that rather than focusing on, oh, I didn't create content for six months and because of that and this or that. So yeah, that's all I would say. So for me again, it started from just honestly, just from just like expressing myself, trying to help people to understand or know what I already knew, and then it morphed into like being passionate, being vocal about what I was passionate about.
00:44:13
Speaker
and sharing all that I know about. Beautifully said, authenticity, but also setting boundaries every now and then and taking a step back from content creation. I think that's so, so, so important because to your point, yeah, and we talked about this before, burn out for content creators and activists is very, very real and you don't want to be burned out by something that you
00:44:41
Speaker
usually love doing, right? So you got to know how to set those boundaries and don't always just create for the sake of creating. I don't know how it works for you, but I get inspired at the most random times when I walk down the street and listen to a podcast episode or I read an article or I have a conversation with
00:45:04
Speaker
with a friend or a coworker and so I use Notion for everything. I live in Notion basically so I keep a running list of all the things that come to mind and then sometimes it sits there for like days, weeks, or even months and I don't do anything with it but at some point that spark is coming and I know okay.
00:45:24
Speaker
Now I know the angle. Now I have a hook for this. Now it is also timely with what is going on on a macro environment. But sometimes you just got to take a break. I was on vacation. I went to Costa Rica and was offline for the first time in my life for an entire week. And it was amazing. And I came back and
00:45:48
Speaker
felt so much more at peace and rejuvenated and inspired to keep putting out content. And up until that point before vacation, I was really like holding onto a thread and was really close to burnout if I wasn't already burned out, to be quite honest. So cannot agree more with everything that you just shared.
00:46:12
Speaker
One final question for you, Titi. I don't only like to always start out with the same question, but I also like to close with the same question for each of my guests. We talked a lot about increasing women's visibility, specifically Nigerian women, making sure that their voices are heard, that their stories are being told and ultimately, why is that so important? Well, because visibility,
00:46:38
Speaker
is important to attract opportunities and ultimately to be paid,
Financial Support for Women's Causes
00:46:45
Speaker
right? So we'd love to talk a little bit about finances and specifically what financial milestone you have achieved that you are most proud of, can really be anything.
00:47:02
Speaker
Okay, so I'm not sure whether this is a milestone, but I've pretty much cared about financial freedom. And for me, financial freedom is not just for yourself. It's very important for yourself as a person, yes, but then it's also important to impact the community and all of that. And so for me, one thing that I hold very daily, and I'm glad that I've been able to
00:47:24
Speaker
to do rather is to be able to support the causes I care about financially, practically when it comes to women's rights and women's focus organizations. And I think for the first time it was about three years ago or so when I was in my fourth year of university or fifth year of university.
00:47:39
Speaker
I set it to consistently on a monthly basis give to the Women's Rights Organization in Nigeria. I remember at the time, I didn't even know I could do that at that time. I was going to make it work anyhow, anywho, and I was able to make it work. And it's something that I've kept up till today. And it really, really meant a lot to me because women's rights organizations in Nigeria, anywhere in the world, are severely underfunded. The work that we do is so important.
00:48:07
Speaker
But then they get like the list of the money allocated to like social impact causes. I remember reading something from Awid a few months or years ago about how I think like women's rights organization literally get like less than 1% of overall funding when it comes to social impact causes. It blew my mind because these women's rights organizations are doing like the entire world a service and I felt they should be supported more. But then it's one thing to say, oh,
00:48:33
Speaker
they should be supported. It's another thing to be able to actually provide that support in terms of monetary support. And whether we like it or not, I would say the second time I'm seeing this on a podcast, whether we like it or not, social impact on a large scale costs money.
00:48:49
Speaker
It's the truth. People don't want to believe it. People think, oh, it's just Kumbaya, everybody happy, whatever. Passion is important. Yes, you can use the skills that you have. Absolutely. 100%. But on a very large scale, you need financial resources to be able to make impact. For example, one of the organizations I support, they're the first rather sexual abuse referral center in Nigeria. They have to buy rape kits. You need money to do all these things. If you care about climate change, planting trees costs money. You have to buy fertilizer.
00:49:19
Speaker
We have to be real and understand that making change, there's always going to be that financial aspect to it. And so to be able to support these organizations that I care so much about and be able to do that out of pocket, you know, has been something that I would say is a financial milestone for myself.
00:49:37
Speaker
Honestly, going forward, I hope that more people will support women, lay down women for cost organizations. Honestly, it doesn't have to be much. I remember starting out with very, very, very little amount, but then I just used to tell myself that, oh, I mean, I was contributing every month. So at the end of the year, it will all add up to something bigger. And yes, it did, right? Even if I was only able to help them, which is one or two rape kids or three rape kids, whatever, that definitely helped.
00:50:03
Speaker
I'd really like to encourage people to please support those women's causes that you care about. Those things cost money, show impact if we're being honest, and in large scale, particularly cost money. And so please let you know, support them as much as we can. And then I understand, and I have to say, like I understand that it's an immense privilege to, you know, support social impact causes, particularly women's rights causes, you know, financially, because not everybody can do that.
00:50:30
Speaker
But then if you have the means to do that, I think it's something that everybody should participate in. Because trust me, I don't only see it as a privilege, but then I also see it as such an honor to be able to support the groundbreaking work that is positively impacting women. And at the end of the day, I always say this thing, don't just talk the talk and walk the talk, but also fund the talk. Because it's not just about walking and talking. You've got to fund the change. So yeah, so that's what I would say is a financial milestone.
00:51:03
Speaker
I love that and I couldn't imagine better words to close with today. Social impact work requires financial support. Put your money where your mouth is and be inspired by incredible women like our wonderful guest Titilope today. So thank you so, so much for your time. It was a wonderful conversation. I'm so, so inspired by you. To everyone out there, make sure to follow her on LinkedIn.
00:51:32
Speaker
Make sure to follow sisterly HQ on Instagram, check out their website and help spread the word for her incredible work and make sure that we can provide more visibility for Nigerian women. Thank you so much for being here with me today. Thank you so much for having me. I had such a great time. Honestly, this was phenomenal. Thank you.
00:51:57
Speaker
Hey there, not so fast. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you've listened in from today. Reviews are a podcaster's most important currency. It helps me create visibility for the incredible women who join me on this show. And if you've made it this far, I'd like to believe that supporting women is one of your favorite pastimes.
00:52:21
Speaker
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