Today we’d like to introduce you to Vivian Olodun.
Vivian, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have a fantastic relationship with money. In two years, I built a 6-figure business supporting high-net-worth business owners navigate personal challenges so that his or her business can run more effectively but I didn’t start that way.
My vision was as far as my network. I didn’t know any entrepreneurs growing up. My parents were soldiers in the US military. In fact, my dreams were fixed on securing a government job with benefits and a 401K. I started the way many Black & Latina young women do. I went to college and graduated, planning to work a 9-5 job for the rest of my professional career. In 40 years, I would retire and spend my later years being a silver-haired fox on a Tom Joyner cruise, lol.
I completed a masters degree in the middle of the recession and the government jobs I spent six years preparing to work were redlined – cut due to budget restrictions. I quickly pivoted and built my career in the private sector working in compliance, then finance and later real estate marketing.
I never imagined feeling comfortable sitting in executive meetings with senior leadership at Disney, 5th Third Bank or the National Football League but did it.
It’s because of those situations that I know how to navigate climbing the corporate ladder and transitioned from an awkward outsider to a graceful communicator.
I wrote the book Stumbling Through Adulthood; because I know what it feels like to put your foot in your mouth.
We all start out floundering. For me, journaling helped me see my mistakes and empowered me to improve. I want to give the next young woman developing her career those life-changing tools and insights that I wish I had.
Has it been a smooth road?
Have you ever seen a newborn giraffe trying to walk? Lol…
This majestic creature has all this instinct but zero experience and without any intervention, it knows it should be able to stand and it tries right away and of course, it falls. It gets up again maybe trying to balance on its knees and it falls. Ultimately, with stubborn persistence, eventually… it walks.
Here is the thing about that newborn giraffe, we don’t judge its’ falling as a failure. Those initial spills are not negative. We understand that the newborn is in the middle of a growing process.
Writing Stumbling Through Adulthood, a guided journal for failing forward was something like that.
The #STAJournal is a collection of short stories that are all #epicfails. To write this book, I had to go back and pull from difficult breakups, hilarious sexual encounters, tricky professional decision and mortifying truths about self-sabotage.
What I discovered in the process of writing this book were the patterns we created around the person we want to be and how that often contradicted with the people we really are. The book asks the reader to slow down and look at her own patterns.
Was that breakup really the end of the world or was it a lesson in vulnerability? Yes, you were fired from that job but is this the right industry for you? No, maybe you shouldn’t have put that expensive vacation on your credit card but maybe self-care within reason should be a priority.
Young women are remarkable because, despite many outside pressures to conform, many more create new paths. Young women are thought leaders who must learn to process their journeys so that we do not self-sabotage. Now is the right time to embrace stubborn persistence and walk in our goals.
Please tell us more about what you do, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
Serial Entrepreneur, Micro-Influencer, and Author; Vivian Olodun is a rising star, speaking honestly with her peers about what it is like to build a business that serves the rich and famous. Vivian Olodun is the ghostwriter behind luxury real estate articles published in the Miami Herald and Sun Sentinel. She co-founded a boutique marketing firm that has grown to over 6-figures in less than two years. Her nonprofit Behind The Leaf hosts Flourish Media Conference annually in Miami, FL, introducing her little-black-book of millionaires to small business owners looking for angel investors.
Unapologetically Black, she doesn’t hide her Afro-Latino & Nigerian heritage. Vivian candidly jokes about her position as an advisor to thought leaders while facing the fact that she is often the only brown girl in the room. She is professional and witty; bravely pulling back the curtain to show that if she can do it, so can you!
“Money loves me because I make space in the business structure for it to grow. The greatest asset I have to give is the knowledge I’ve acquired working with and for billionaires. My clients like me because I SHOW THEM how to make more money, and I think that is fantastic!”
Do you have a lesson or advice you’d like to share with young women just starting out?
Start now!
I spoke at a conference this past weekend and I had the most delightful conversation with an aspiring public speaker. She hosts a brunch for women small business owners in the southern part of the United States.
She told me about how she started this 20 city tour and why she started it. She lived in Alabama and had a tough breakup. She wanted to get away. She wanted to cultivate new relationships with other women who had passions outside of romantic relationships.
She wanted a fresh start. Simple.
What isn’t so simple about that is… 20 cities?! Where did she find the courage?! Where would she find the stamina? How did she know anyone would turn up to the brunch?
The exciting fact is she didn’t know any of it would work out until she tried. None of us know it will work out. Our responsibility – yours, reading this – mine writing this – is to start.
You do not have to know all the answers, in the beginning. You only need enough courage to take the first step. When you need help, ask for it and believe me, help will show up.
Pricing:
- Stumbling Through Adulthood – preorder with bonuses $37
- 2019 Social Media Guide – $17
- Flourish Media Conference, Feb 21 & 22, 2019 – Tickets start at $66
- PublisHER, A Place for Authors to Flourish. Traveling Book Fair – Fred with RSVP
Contact Info:
- Website: http://vivianolodun.com
- Phone: 347.719.3276
- Email: mail@vivianolodun.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/vivianolo/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vivianolodunmarketing/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/VivianOlo
- Other: https://www.flourishmediaconference.com/business-guide
Image Credit:
Flourish Media
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
