The Explorer’s Letter

Life update + opportunities & resources for growth

Hello there,

Surprise, happy new month.

I’m writing a newsletter again, I guess October is going to be full of endless pleasant surprises.

P.S. The second section of this newsletter contains links to opportunities you might want to check out.

What have I been up to?

I’ve written just two newsletters this year—one in February and the other in April. This is the third one, coming to you on the first day of October. Let’s pick up from what I shared in February and April. The bold headings below were some notes from my previous newsletters and I’ll be expatiating on them.

🦄 I was working on my brand positioning and strategy for 2024 and beyond (I got active on IG and grew from 574 to 694).

I made videos (February) on IG covering branding for creators and solopreneurs but I was not as consistent as I wanted to be and it didn’t feel like ‘me’. It didn’t seem like the type of content I wanted to create so every time I had to create content, I would overthink (I wasn’t making talking videos, just video clips with text on the screen and sometimes a voice-over).

I had planned that when I moved to my new space and curated my workspace I would make videos where I sit down and talk to the camera, so after setting up my new home, I posted my first talking video on the last day of April. I created videos covering LinkedIn and branding and eventually decided that making videos in series would help me never run out of ideas & interest. So I started picking themes and creating a series of videos around it.

In May, I mostly created videos to market my second paid LinkedIn challenge (cohort 4), after that, this was where consistency started for me. Around July, I resumed the ‘Come on the Journey Series’ where I wanted to share what I knew about branding and putting yourself out there in a style that didn’t feel as boxed as the previous videos. I did 10 videos in the series and almost got to 1k. I enjoyed creating them and looked forward to the next series.

In August, I started the Job hunting and career-building series. As of today, I’ve made 43 videos in the series and now have 6.3k followers on Instagram.

My brand positioning is evolving and I’ve now decided to focus on creating videos that show there are endless opportunities for young people regardless of whether they are founders, creators, or employees and also document my journey of exploring my ideas.

It was important for me to feel free to create—that was what changed everything for me.

I mentioned I had 5 top goals for 2024 but never shared them publicly. Look at them.

2024 Goals

✓ Goal 1: Move to my own space where I can build

✓ Goal 2: Build my brand and passive income streams

↳ Goal 3: Learn & take courses

↳ Goal 4: Build my character

↳ Goal 5: Travel out of Nigeria (West Africa Road trip/Morocco)

I have moved to my own space and have been creating from that space. I have been playing with ideas, refining plans, crying, dancing, and designing the life I am fulfilled in however painful or sweet it feels.

I have managed to grow my brand past 6k followers in 3 months and am well on my way to 10k before the year ends (content creation and building a brand is not easy but is doable if prioritized).

💶 I have some business ideas I am bringing together

I’ve made more than 500k from both LinkedIn challenges and know I can do more moving forward. This is outside my job and that’s why it’s beautiful to me. I’ve slowed down with this because it’s not easy doing a lot of things all at once. For now, I’ve been more focused on helping people get started at no cost. The next cohort will possibly be hosted in January.

🧳 I moved to another city!

Yes, you already know and I stay at home a lot. I lost my grandma on the last day of April and had to go back home in May to send her to sleep. May was such a painful month. I also had to quit my job simultaneously.

📚 I started reading books again

I’ve read three books: The Purpose Driven Life, the Four-Hour Workweek, and Psychology of Money. After that, I wasn’t consistent and have been reading How to Get Big Things Done for months now.

🌵I lost a job offer because I wanted another $100 on top of it

I got it back, right when I needed it after quitting my ‘then job’.

⚡️Using an app I hate so much for that—TikTok

When I was feeling boxed by my IG content style, I decided to document my journey on Tiktok, I got tired, stopped, and disappeared, though I was growing fast 😂 I really couldn’t like that app, so rowdy.

✈️ Up next: I have to do everything I can to travel.

I mentioned this too but have been unable to both find the time and create the budget for it. There’s just so much to do— It costs a lot to move to a new city and set up a comfortable space, I need to buy a new laptop which is equivalent to the price of traveling, and if it counts, I’ll be in Lagos and Port Harcourt this same year!

Yes, I should count the ability to be in 3 cities in 2024 as a travel experience. Next year, the border gates open!

That was detailed, now let’s look at what’s new—especially spotlighting August and September and focusing on career.

P.S. There are also opportunities you can tap into. All links take you to these opportunities.

Welcome the new

🚀 I am planning to host a career and youth development live workshop in 3 cities this year— LEAP

Another bold step before 2024 runs out—sounded impossible to me, so I’ll try my best to do it. Since I started the job-hunting and career-building series on Instagram I’ve gotten lots of questions and requests from people asking for guidance. You know I’d love to help but it’s not convenient to provide support to multiple people with overloads of DMs.

So I decided to host LEAP— An event where I’ll provide life career and growth support to my people. I’m shooting to host it in Abuja, Lagos, and Port Harcourt starting from November till December.

First, I created a plan with phases and milestones. I’m currently in phase II

• Phase I: Create a survey form to see if people need this (got 85 responses now, so that was a green light).

• Phase II: Reach out to hubs, workspaces, and cafes in Abuja, Lagos, and Port Harcourt for collaboration and support. I plan to make this event free so I need support from hubs to use their space. I’ve reached out to a couple of hubs, gotten some responses, and done some presentations. At this point, I want to do this now no matter what. I also have to start stashing out money for this. I am now sharing it with you. Once I secure at least one space, I’ll make it fully public (not just in this newsletter).

🥑  Scholarships

Back in Uni, my friend would say, we’ll apply for scholarships for our Masters and I’ll just remove myself from the conversation. Why? I like to control my results. I would prefer to be rich enough to afford my tuition and then apply, that way I am mostly in control of the result.

With scholarships, I can qualify and even be a part of the best candidates but then they just need 3 candidates and I have to go—nothing personal. I didn’t like that I had to wait for a verdict for my dream to be realized. But I’ve worked with this amazing man in my team that has pushed me to go for it. So I’ve been looking up scholarships actively.

First I was shooting only for Japanese scholarships based on association. I was going for the MEXT and ABE initiative (JICA) programs. I missed the first one because my transcript was not ready and the second one because in Nigeria it’s only based on nomination from a Nigerian organization and I don’t work with a Nigerian organization. So, lately, I’ve been looking into the Laidlaw Scholarships.

🌏 Global opportunities

While pursuing scholarships, I also created a long list of fellowships, ambassador programs, and international fully-funded events to apply. Since I started this in the middle of September, I’ve missed the deadline for most applications. But I sent inquiries to follow up on most of them like Global Changemakers and more.

🥑 HundrED Ambassador

While on the quest above, I discovered HundrED and applied as an ambassador. Recently, I got accepted into the community and I look forward to my onboarding call.

🥑 Attending Make with Notion event virtually

If you know me, you'll know I always say Notion has changed my life. So even though I’ll not be able to make it to San Francisco this year for Make with Notion, I’ll attend virtually. It’s Notion’s first ever in-person event and I already signed up.

🥑 Coursera learner’s story feature

Last month, I created a LinkedIn post telling people how I learn for free on Coursera and how they can do it, I didn’t even mention Coursera’s company page but ended up getting noticed by the internal communications and I was asked if they can feature me for their learners’ story. That was fun.

🥑 McKinsey Forward Learners Program

Let’s go back to my 3rd goal for 2024

↳ Goal 3: Learn & take courses

I’ve been slacking on this goal and I don’t want the year to end without taking a good program. So, I applied for the McKinsey Forward program last month and got in. I already started taking the course. I don’t like that it’s mostly a text course so I have to read the content. I prefer video programs. Aside from that—all good. I’ll let you know how it goes. I created a closed study group on Instagram to help me with this goal.

📚Misk Accelerator (Misk Startup School)

I signed up for Google startup school Aichi, but the live classes were all in Japanese so I sadly had to drop off the program. I’m glad I was able to discover the startup program offered by Misk Hub—though it’s a Saudi Arabian foundation, some programs are offered in English. I mostly stumble upon Japanese or Middle Eastern opportunities.

I am mostly excited about the module on startup funding.

🥑 Google Cloud Startup Summit and Startup School Gen AI

Google for startups offers nice resources to learn from and tap into. I signed up for the Google Cloud Startup Summit (this one was random, just because). My main focus was the Startup School Gen AI program.

Final Note

I’ve been a hunter lately, a true explorer. Figuring out what I want to get done learning about myself, seeking opportunities to help me get there, and sharing them.

While creating this newsletter, I wanted to give up halfway because there were urgent tasks to complete then I asked myself, ‘What’s the significance of life if we can’t even stop and document it?’ That was all I needed to get this done and I enjoyed it.

Writing this is making me aware of my journey and the fact that I am indeed in motion.

This is your sign to also document what happens in your life. It’s also a sign to chase your ideas and not give up.

This month the planning, follow-up, and meeting continue. Work continues, and I have to do my very best. And I also want to prioritize my health and wellness. I was at the hospital last month and somehow I am glad, I have been procrastinating getting checked and I am glad I did. I’ve been feeling better these days after my medications.

Closing Note

I love hearing from you, I love seeing your comments. If you read this newsletter, please say hi in the comment 😊

I might host a meet and greet in the future if you do that ✨

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