Interview with speaker, coach and author Lillian Ogbogoh
Read how Lillian Ogbogoh became an international speaker, a coach, a corporate trainer, a podcaster, and an author.
What’s your career background?
I have worked in project management for various corporate sectors; while working, I started a business on the side creating events for women to empower themselves and celebrate other women to stand up and shine.
Then I became an NLP Practitioner and coach after using coaching and NLP to unlock my fear of public speaking. I started to speak on topics that I was passionate about, which focused on women stepping up and owning their power and giving them tools to get out of their own way.
I am also an author, I was a part of the bestselling book “Success in High Heels”, a compilation book of 30 leading female authors, and I complied the book project titled “Born for This!” The Journey to Success in Life, Love & Business.
I have recently released a brand-new e-book called “The 7 Habits That Rob Us of Our Power”, which focuses on the habits that stop women from owning their power, making an impact in their business or career.
I fell into training after applying for a part-time tutor role for South Thames College, where I developed my training skills, and in 2018, I started delivering training for corporate clients. I am also a Podcast host; I have interviewed founders, owners, and coaches across the world who are using their skills to change the world for the better.
My current podcast Shine Out Loud Show began in 2017, with a focus on interviewing creatives, owners and CEO’s from the BAME community to shine the light on their work and the impact they are making in the Uk and across the globe.
How did your career change after having children?
I do not have children yet. When my youngest sister had twin boys, three and a half years ago, I wanted to make my business flexible enough so I could be on hand to support her with raising her two tiny bundles of energy and so I can be an involved aunt.
Where did the idea for your business come from?
I had started by creating an events company with a friend, and we were passionate about creating experiential events. We seemed to gravitate towards business growth and exhibitions that focused on growing women.
In that time, I started being coached myself and discovered NLP and decided to become a certified practitioner and coach. I then started working for a personal development company as a Project Manager, surrounded by speakers and coaches.
I decided to create a business that supported the growth of women and helping women to tap into their power. It seemed inevitable that I was going to create a business around women; it seemed that everything I did had that focus.
How did you move from idea to actual business?
I started gradually; I was teaching adults personal development skills part-time for a college in London. Then I started working with coaching clients on a part-time basis while learning about what it took to grow a business along the way.
What’s your USP?
My unique selling point is using stories, Jungian psychology, and meditative tools to work with my clients. I work on the premise that my clients are not broken but have a forgotten who they are. I give them the tools to reclaim their power from within.
Who’s your target audience?
I work with women in their late 30’s to their late 40’s who are ambitious and know that they are here to make an impact but have lost their fire after experiencing setbacks and failure.
They are now suffering from self-doubt, fear and procrastination, which is currently keeping then blocked and stuck and now afraid to step out into the world.
How do you spread the word about what you do?
I use social media quite often; I am also a great fan of building up connections and networking with other women and men in business and building collaborative opportunities. I also use speaking on stage and reaching out for clients directly to spread the message of what I do.
I also rely on people’s network by guesting on other people’s podcast. I leverage the “Oprah method” of getting known for interviewing other experts.
I set up my first podcast in 2008 where I interviewed other experts and coaches for three and a half years and my current podcast I started in 2017.
What’s been your most successful marketing strategy?
I would have to say, being part of the first book project Success in High Heels, it became a great business card, I used it as a conversation starter. I used it as an outreach tool to approach events organisers to get speaking gig.
What’s been the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome?
Honestly, the biggest obstacle I have had to overcome has been the long-term relationship I had with my Chimp committee. What is the Chimp Committee? These are the negative voices/self-talk that lives in our head, with one purpose to tell you the worse things about yourself.
In the past, the Chimp committee led me down the road of feeling like an impostor and not good enough, which cost me passing up on some great opportunities.
And your proudest moment so far?
There are a few moments I am incredibly proud of looking back. I am proud of working with a consortium of women to create the annual event “You’re Beautiful Woman” which ran for five years. Its goal was to celebrate and grow BIPOC women in the UK.
Then creating a podcast in 2008, which ran for three years and in that time, I had interviewed a coach, author, healer, speaker, founder, and owner from five of the seven continents. I am also proud of the book project I curated that had twenty-six people from across the globe represented.
Talking about our failures on our journeys to success and the lessons we learned from those failures to help us grow. I am also really proud of my current E-book the 7 Habits That Rob Us of Our Power, as I talk about the habits I have personally struggled with and the habit breakers that I have used.
Why is work so important to you?
I work with women who have forgotten their power after experiencing setbacks and have started to feel like their previous success was a fluke, and they are frauds. They allow perfectionism, self-doubt, and fear to keep them playing small.
Because I have been her in my own life, giving up my power and playing small, afraid to try again after failing, afraid to show up because I was feeling like a fake and a fraud.
Until I decided to break up with these habits and reclaim my power and stop playing small and stepped up to bring my goals to life.
Who inspires you?
I have been inspired by loads of amazing women and men, from Oprah to Barrack Obama. To people closer to me like my parents, friends, my partner.
However, one of the people who inspires me the most is my maternal great-grandmother Agnes. She was a trader back in the day in Nigeria. She was a fiercely determined woman who was an entrepreneur at the time when the expectation for women was to be in the home.
She lived by her terms and was unafraid to use her voice in defence of others.
How do you balance your work with your family?
I will have to be honest here I don’t believe that balance is achievable as I have struggled with this in the past. I am learning that something must give.
If I am busy, I let my family and partner know not to expect a lot of me during that time, and then I carve out more time to spend with them. As I recently learned from a guest on my show she said be willing to be bad at somethings, let go of the idea of being the domestic goddess, super mom, and business mogul all the same time. Be willing to farm out certain tasks to give you more time.
What are your three top pieces of advice for someone wanting to do something similar?
Don’t be afraid to fail welcome the failing as you learn faster and become more creative and innovative in how you do what you do.
Don’t worry being about being liked by everyone, as you have no control on who will gravitate to you and what you do. However, if you are trying to tie yourself in knots to please everyone and how they believe you should show up, you will not succeed and still be in knots. So be you! Not the version of you, who Jane, Jack and Jill believe you should be.
Get yourself a life team; this is a team of people who are in your circle that will champion you, support you and pick you up when you stumble. They will be the ones who will lovingly talk you down from your metaphorical ledge and will be the ones who will kick your behind kindly when you need it. They will be your life support system that you will need on your entrepreneurial journey.
Learn more about Lillian Ogbogoh.
