Flavilla Fongang's journey to becoming a tech powerhouse in London is nothing short of inspiring. Her story is a testament to the power of resilience, intentionality, and community-building. But what makes Flavilla's insights truly valuable is how applicable they are to our own lives and careers. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a professional looking to make a pivot, or someone searching for their purpose, there's something here for you. Here are five key takeaways you can start implementing today to shape your own success story:
You will learn:
How to pivot your career successfully
How to build a powerful personal brand
How to create and nurture professional communities
How to overcome rejection and build resilience
How to shape your destiny through intentional choices
What We Discuss:
[00:00] - Introducing Flavilla Fongang: Tech Powerhouse
[05:51] - From Cameroon to London: A Bold Move
[15:14] - Pivoting Through Life's Chapters
[25:19] - Oil & Gas to Fashion: An Unexpected Journey
[32:41] - Black Women in Tech: Building a Community
[37:28] - Creating Black Rise: Connecting African Professionals
[40:28] - Personal Branding: Defining Your Legacy
[46:40] - Overcoming Rejection: Lessons in Resilience
[54:57] - Shaping Destiny Through Intentional Choices
[59:46] - Investment Advice: Wisdom for Young Entrepreneurs
🔗  Connect with Flavilla Fongang
Website | LinkedIn | Instagram | TwitterÂ
Her Ventures:Â
Her Non- Profit: GT Black Women in Tech
Her Podcasts: Black Rise Podcast Â
Resources Shared: The Life Book by Mind Valley
🔗 Connect With Lola on:
Follow the Kadara Woman podcast:Â
Instagram | TikTok | YouTube
Join the Kadara Woman Community - Â Newsletter
00:00 - 00:33
Lola: Welcome to the Kadara Woman podcast where we amplify the voices of inspiring African women making waves across the globe. I'm your host, Lola  Soyebo  Harris. So I'm super excited about today's episode because it coincides with the UK Black History Month which is being celebrated in October every year. And to mark the occasion, I got a chance to talk to her true powerhouse, Favilla Fongang  ,  who is based in London and is a powerful advocate for diversity and tech. So from her Cameroonian  roots to becoming a powerhouse in the UK, Favilla's story embodies the spirit of resilience
Â
00:33 - 01:06
Lola: coupled with the growth mindset. So get ready to discover how she built multiple successful ventures including her latest Black Rise and her strategies for personal branding that has opened multiple doors for her. So whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or looking to make a bigger impact, Flavilla's insights on intentionality, the power of trusting  your gut, and creating your own destiny are sure to inspire you. Let's dive into this empowering conversation. Hello, hello, How are you?
Â
01:07 - 01:09
Flavilla: I'm good thank you. How are you, darling?
Â
01:09 - 01:49
Lola: I am doing awesome. I'm excited. And hello listeners. I'm truly, truly excited to be talking to Flavilla Fongang.  She's a prominent multi award-winning serial entrepreneur known for advocacy for diversity, inclusion, particularly for black women in technology. She's also an award-winning founder of 3 Colors Roll, a creative branding and marketing agency, and also the founder  of the nonprofit organization, Black Woman in Tech. And she's also the founder of her latest venture, Black Rise, which we're going to get into. She's also a United Nations brand partner, multilingual keynote speaker, an author of multiple books, the host of 2
Â
01:49 - 02:03
Lola: podcasts, and  her work has earned her numerous accolades, including the recent ad week, the future is female award, which is her third award this year alone. So, Favilla, how are you doing Really? I'm good, thank you.
Â
02:03 - 02:07
Flavilla: Thank you for this beautiful introduction. I don't think you've left any crumbs. Oh, no, there are crumbs on your website. Anyone who  wants more needs to  go on your  website.
Â
02:15 - 02:20
Lola: But  when you hear all of that, so if somebody reads that, how do you feel about everything you've accomplished so far?
Â
02:21 - 02:47
Flavilla: Honestly, you know, it's a funny thing because I do not let any of this go to my head. I'm very much, I mean, I think this is something that I've learned as well from my partners that I don't, I appreciate the time and I'm grateful for what I have, but I'm always thinking about what's next. Yes, and that's probably just the mind of most entrepreneurs. You can tick this box now, okay, what's next? What's next? But actually it's good to stay in the moment and appreciate what you have. But yes, I'm very grateful for the recognition.
Â
02:47 - 03:00
Flavilla: I'm very grateful to be able to follow my dreams and my passion and do it and pay for it, which is very important. So good job, Jim. You have to make sure you can pay for it as well, for your lifestyle.
Â
03:01 - 03:15
Lola: Well, I think that's great. And I think because of that, I actually want to go all the way to the beginning and figure out how you got started. And so what is your heritage? Which African country do you have your roots in and how did that influence you in your journey?
Â
03:15 - 03:50
Flavilla: Yes, So I'm 100% Cameroonian. My parents were both born in Cameroon from 2 different tribes, which again, a lot of people don't know that if you are from most African countries would have different dialects. So, you know, people come from tribe A, tribe B, to tribe C and sometimes that can be the difficulty. So the language that they speak would be the language of a colonizer or you know if they can't communicate with each other. And so my mom was an 8 girl, my father was an 8 boy. It's funny because I didn't realize that 1
Â
03:50 - 04:02
Flavilla: of my second car was a Mini Cooper. And my father had exactly the same car. Imagine at that time of, you know, time of life, having a Mini Cooper, you have to be a pretty, pretty it boy, right? Because it's not a cheap car, especially.
Â
04:02 - 04:03
Lola: Right. Right.
Â
04:04 - 04:28
Flavilla: Try to try to convince her of a car. But you know, my mom is not that type of girl. She's like, nah, you know, she said no so many times. And, you know, fell in love with him when he, when he designed and tell her the own dress, which is my father was very versatile in the sense that, you know, he had multiple lives and done so many things with, throughout his career. And I think I take a bit of him within my life. You know, you carry the DNA of someone with you. And so I
Â
04:28 - 04:59
Flavilla: carry that. And then my mother was the first to come to France and ask my mom, she wanted to come too. I mean, who says no to Paris, right? So she said yes. And yeah, and I was born in Paris. And yeah, born in Paris, so I grew up with those 2 cultures, the French culture and the Cameroonian culture. So I'm very proud to be Cameroonian and also have, you know, the, you know, these beautiful things as well about France, not all perfect as we know, but he has things that we love such as great fashion,
Â
05:00 - 05:14
Flavilla: great, great food, great environment, in terms of when it comes to being inspired and being an artist is definitely the place. And yes, I mean, I decided crazy enough to, yeah, to come to London and the rest was history.
Â
05:17 - 05:19
Lola: What age do you come to London?
Â
05:19 - 05:48
Flavilla: I was 22 when I came to London. Oh wow. I didn't speak a word of English and, but I was looking for, it was a bit of a dare To myself to say, you know, well, let me go somewhere I've never been and I think I've always been comfortable the unknown most people play safe But I've known for a very long from a very young age that Magic happens and growth happens out of your comfort zone. So you see that dude I do love things like how do you create a tech company? I have no idea,
Â
05:48 - 06:18
Flavilla: but I figured out. That's pretty much, but you know, I'm very lucky to have people around me that support me. So even the director has always been around that. So I came to London, I didn't speak English and I was doing a double degree. So I was doing a BA economics and law and a BA in marketing and communication at the same time. While trying to understand what people were telling me. So it was a lot of effort, a lot of concentration to be able to get it. And yeah, and having a boyfriend after a month
Â
06:18 - 06:21
Flavilla: did help. It's like, what does that mean?
Â
06:23 - 06:38
Lola: That is crazy. You couldn't speak English. He came to London and he had a boyfriend after a month of moving. So, and I think you touched on this a little bit, but I just want to make sure it's clear. What was the reason why you moved to London?
Â
06:38 - 07:09
Flavilla: The reason why I moved to London, I didn't have, I think the main reason was that I wanted to learn to speak English. I understood that English was a language of business and I was good in all grades except from English. I think when we are at school, we don't take language as seriously and don't realize how important it is to especially speak English. If you speak English, you can go anywhere in the world. You find somebody who will help you. If you speak just French, then you're limited by just countries where they speak French and
Â
07:09 - 07:26
Flavilla: where you struggle. I mean, nowadays, thank God we have technology that helps us, but you can't always rely on the internet of technology. You have to realize on your own brain. So yes, for me, it was about learning English. I was English. I was meant to go back after a year, but you know, I stayed. And yeah, the rest is just...
Â
07:26 - 07:47
Lola: And you're still based there. So do you remember what you wanted to do when you were younger before you even moved to London? Because it sounds like you were very, very intentional about the move because you just mentioned that you wanted to speak the language of business. But do you remember what you wanted to be growing up in Paris with all the influences around you?
Â
07:48 - 08:10
Flavilla: Yes, I would say that the reason why I was intentional is because I wanted to get out of a situation that I was not happy with. Because I think when I said before I come from Paris, I imagine, oh my gosh, you know, you grew up very wealthy. It's not the case. I grew up in the ghetto of Paris and I need to reinforce that. So it means that I had 1 pair of shoes per year and I had to look after it. And, but my mom would say like, choose whatever pair you want, but remember
Â
08:10 - 08:40
Flavilla: that's your only pair for the year. So I had to be good with this, right? So I was very intentional because I was ambitious and I wanted to come out of a situation that I was in. You know, I wanted to have my freedom, go somewhere else and it was that. So when you, and this is why for me, my mom always told me that your first husband is your education. If you continue to learn, you'll never be in trouble. And I really understood that very, very fast and helped me with everything that I've done in
Â
08:40 - 09:19
Flavilla: my life. When you come from modest background where you are limited, you're driven and you look at people who create great businesses. They are immigrants, they have people move and shakers and they dream big, they wanted to start something different. And I am and I'm still this, and I was and I'm still this person who were very intentional because the past that I had, I didn't want this to be my future. So I wanted to create a vision that I didn't have, which if I stay where I was, would have probably would have not helped me
Â
09:19 - 09:43
Flavilla: where I wanted to be. But actually, you know, it's funny I say that because my partner said to me like, do you think you would still be the person that you are if you stay in Paris? And I think I probably would have still be, I don't know if I would have been an entrepreneur, but I'd probably be a corporate rat. I would like to get to the top. Like, how do I get to see a position? Like, tell me how to get there. I don't know, but yeah, it's funny.
Â
09:45 - 10:06
Lola: Wow. And so you moved to London, and then you've got a whole bunch of degrees, if I remember, 3 degrees or so, right? You got degrees in economics and law market and communication a master's in International business and then you started your professional journey in oil and gas which is very different from where you are. So how did you even get into oil and gas?
Â
10:07 - 10:38
Flavilla: Yeah, so the journey to oil and gas was not as straightforward as you can imagine, because when I graduated, I had I was very qualified in terms of academically qualified, but in terms of experience, I was useless. I didn't do any internship and this is why I always like to take interns and support them and so forth. So I didn't do any of those things. I just thought that, oh, I think degrees would get me a job. Reality is like, no, it doesn't. It doesn't do that. It doesn't do that at all. Because it makes you
Â
10:38 - 11:04
Flavilla: expensive because you want to, if you have a master's, people expect you to have a certain expectation in terms of your salary. And when you say, I want to earn less, people think, oh, they're never going to stay. That's what they, so they create all these things, right? So I struggled a lot. I had to do all sorts of small jobs and worked, you know, in retail and, and also the things, you know, I even did, I even did door to door sales, which was the hardest. I did that for 2 weeks. I was selling at
Â
11:04 - 11:35
Flavilla: the time, I was selling telephone contract, which was an experience. And I learned a lot about body language in terms of how you can use your body language to emphasize a message. And I said to people, you can say, I love you. Or you can say, I love you. You know, it's the same, same words, but the intonation of my voice doesn't have the same meaning. And so I learned that and there was my journey to understanding the power of cells and what to say to you. Yes. So, yes. I've and I applied The reason why
Â
11:35 - 11:58
Flavilla: I find myself in oil and gas because I apply as a receptionist. That's what I could find. I was just, people were happy to pay me little money because for me it was like, okay, that's fine. I would take a receptionist position. And then as soon as I'm in, I will make, I walk my way up. And I chose the startup, which were very ambitious. So people were getting promoted 6 months, bam, okay, you're great. Let's go to the next thing. It's like, Oh, I like that. So I can make it to the top. And then
Â
11:58 - 12:36
Flavilla: in 2 years I was managing my own department. I was managing the client services department. So this company was known for doing international events in oil and gas and and they were international events across the world. So in Africa, in the Middle East, in Asia, in South America, Europe, you name it. We were everywhere. And we were obviously where the money was. And Nigeria was 1 of them. And this is how I found myself, you know, yeah, in Nigeria and Ghana, you know, in Algeria and different location, but also in Asia, Singapore, you know, in South
Â
12:36 - 13:08
Flavilla: America, Brazil, and so on and so on. And really the more I travel, the more I realize how narrow-minded I was, because I had a perception that the way I think, the way I do things is the universal way. But the more you travel, you realize that, oh, people don't act such a way. So you need to understand cultural differences to be able to do business with different people. If you don't have that international experience, it's really hard. And then you wonder why you can't close business. So you know that if you do business in Germany,
Â
13:08 - 13:25
Flavilla: coming on time is crucial. If you do business in Nigeria, a timing is pretty much a bracket, right? So don't get upset. I would say 3, 5. So all these things that you have to learn and so forth, right? And that was my journey to oil and gas, which was a lot
Â
13:25 - 14:01
Lola: of fun. So you went from what I heard you say was you had these degrees, 3 degrees, including the masters, you decided to take on a receptionist job after your door-to-door experience where you lasted for only 2 weeks, but you took your learnings and you were able to pivot from there and travel the world and gain more experience and more exposure, but that's not what you're doing today. And then I know at some point you also went into fashion consultancy. And obviously there's a lot of early influences that could probably have dictated that. But something I
Â
14:01 - 14:32
Lola: want to dive into, because I want to get to where you are today is, yeah, you can talk about the fashion consultancy as well, but what I want to dive into, which is the heart of this podcast, the Kada, which is destiny in Yoruba, every successful person that I have met now through this platform had a pivotal moment in their life, the moment of clarity, the moment where they realized there was more to them, there was more they're supposed to be doing. With your experience, with everything you've done, When did that happen in the corporate world,
Â
14:32 - 14:38
Lola: so to speak? And how did you get to the pivotal moment where you realized your true passion, your purpose?
Â
14:40 - 15:10
Flavilla: It's funny because for me, I do not have 1 pivotal moment. I think I have many. Okay. Like my name, my name Flavilla is also a butterfly. Ooh. It's a Argentinian, Brazilian butterfly. So, and also people be careful of the name you give to your children, it influences them. So for me, I've always believed that I have a moment where I need to accomplish something, what is the next thing that I need to move on? And this is probably why I've pivoted so many times from olengas, fashion, technology, and we're now being focused about, you know,
Â
15:10 - 15:41
Flavilla: focusing on supporting the black community in business. So I would say that there's a, you know, life is like chapters. You don't, you know, you don't open a book and just read 1 chapter. You do something and then something else happen that change and so you keep on pivoting, right? And the magic and the beauty of being a human being is to be able to live your life. It's something fulfilling that you know you you know if somebody was picking up your book of your story would they get excited about the ups and downs the number
Â
15:41 - 16:16
Flavilla: of times maybe you almost died and you survive and how do you you know you stood back on your feet and for me that pivotal moment, going from online girls to fashion started really much when I really realized that when I was going to the supermarket in my tracksuit bottom, the people didn't treat me the same way than when I was going in my suit. I was like, oh. And I really believe that the way I dress changed the way people are dressed to me. And it was more than just a superficial look. It was very
Â
16:16 - 16:48
Flavilla: much in terms of, okay, that's interesting, in terms of how can you apply that in business? And that's why as well from working in fashion, I realized again, something you can have a great business, but a great brand is something else, right? And that's so important in terms of how I do things is that what I what am I supposed to learn the same thing? My pivot from fashion stylist to then you know be starting my own agency without any experience in the agency space And then from the agency space started starting a CSR supporting black
Â
16:48 - 17:20
Flavilla: women and then pivoting into non-profit is being, I think it's naturally having that moment where you realize something is missing and you're creating a demand that people really want. You're not the only 1 who wants it and nobody has taken ownership of decided to do it so you're gonna have to be the 1 doing it. It's like for me it's like why is nobody doing this? Okay let me do it. Why is nobody doing this? Okay let me do it. That's pretty much how I see things, right? And I mean, there's a lot of things that
Â
17:20 - 17:56
Flavilla: I wanna do that I can't because otherwise I create a business every day and I can't, but I think it's very important to be able to just feel the moments like when God gives you that moment, take it, is putting an idea seed into your mind. Are you ignoring it or are you following the mission that is giving you to do on earth? Now, my first business was my fashion consultancy. So just to give you a bit of a background, so Free Colors Wall was initially created as a fashion consultancy before I shifted the definition of
Â
17:56 - 18:18
Flavilla: a business to an agency. So when you look very old, if you do some old research, you'll see a lot of me being a fashion consultant because I used to work with luxury brands or retail brands and so forth until that. So, Fruco Loz of was my first official business, right? But that same business became an agency. So, yeah, that's what happened.
Â
18:19 - 18:32
Lola: Okay. So, it became a brand and marketing agency though, right? And then I'm guessing that was just a business decision to switch the clientele that you were serving at the time.
Â
18:32 - 19:05
Flavilla: Yeah. So, so what I have is that every time I have a ha ha moment, it's all about, are you comfortable with the situation that you are in? Are you, do you want to elevate it? So for me, fashion consultancy was great, but if I didn't work, I wasn't getting paid. My sister's like, okay, that's not sustainable. And I was like, let me do something else. I've been, that's when, and again, my partner at the time, I always, I always talk about him because we're so good friends. And I said to him, why is your, why
Â
19:05 - 19:35
Flavilla: do you have a boiler on your website? He said, that's what I do. I said, okay, that's what you do, but that's not what you sell. You know, even I was giving a class for, I was giving a lecture a couple of weeks ago and people say, oh, I provide trust. Okay, that's what you do, but that's not what you sell. What you sell is legacy. What you sell is protection of your family legacy. So you wanna leave something behind. And people don't realize that there's a big difference in the messaging that you do. And I
Â
19:35 - 19:59
Flavilla: mean, I loved it. I was like, okay, well, that makes sense. I love this. So let me, again, something like I'm a student of life. So I was like, let me go, Amazon is my best friend. Let me go and get some books on amazon read some books and learn about this so a lot of things that I've done was has been for self-teaching so you know you don't necessarily have to go back into a degree you can learn there's a lot of great books to teach you about things I've been you know you read different
Â
19:59 - 20:13
Flavilla: books and you see which what is coming back whatever elements are coming back every now okay that's that seems to be like something that keeps coming back that makes sense and so you just follow blindly but yes so my first business was 3 colors and it's still there
Â
20:13 - 20:32
Lola: so what made you And I don't want to skip over this. What made you decide to leave? Cause you said you were in oil and gas for 8 years. What made you leave that corporate cocoon into venturing into your own thing? Or did you start 3 college rule on the side and then you eventually left corporate? How did that transition happen?
Â
20:33 - 21:01
Flavilla: Yeah. I think the company that I was with was not, was too small for my ambition and I couldn't go any higher. And I had 2 choices, either I could go and work for another company or I can do my own thing. And I kind of chose entrepreneurship. So it was a no-brainer. And also when you have a CEO who is not a great CEO, that really inspired me in terms of how I wanted to treat my employees, you know, not be, okay, I'm in a bad mood, everybody's going to be treated like shit. So I
Â
21:01 - 21:25
Flavilla: swear. Or I'm in a great mood. Okay, everybody, champagne. You know, my personal thing should not affect how I treat my employees, right? So for me, that was very important. I learned a lot about, I guess, if you like, you can learn about other people and do replicate bad behavior or you can say, well, that's not good. I want to do better than this. All right. So that was for me, the reason why I left, I was like corporate space is not for me. Time to leave, time to do my own
Â
21:25 - 21:53
Lola: things. So was it that easy for you to leave? Because you're leaving the safety of a paycheck And that's where a lot of people get stuck, right? But I mean, how did you overcome that? What emotions were you going through even in that decision making period of saying, okay, I have all these, you see all this, you see the CEO that is, you know, has some opportunity to be a better leader, you see the gaps, you have this idea for a business on the side. How did you make that mental shift? What was the emotions you
Â
21:53 - 21:57
Lola: were going through? Because you're making it sound easy, but it couldn't have been easy.
Â
21:57 - 22:22
Flavilla: No, it's not easy. So first thing first is good to, you know, if you decide to start your business, I have a financial pillow, right? So for me, I have myself 6 months of if something didn't work out, I can go back. So I give myself 6 months of that. And also I started my transition when I was still employed. So I started doing fashion consultancy when I was there. So I started because I didn't have experience. So what I did is that, let me try to charge a little so I can have testimonials. So when
Â
22:22 - 22:49
Flavilla: I create my website, I have something to prove that I'm good at what I do. So then when I go full time, then I have a good examples of what I've done and so on. So that transition started overlap each other. So I was like, okay, well, I'm planning to leave. And let me start saving that money. And at the same time, start doing this work. And then it's like, whoop, it's time to let go now. I have 6 months saving. Bye, everybody. See you later. Hasta la vista. So I was gone.
Â
22:50 - 23:00
Lola: So you start 3 colors rule. It's a fashion consultancy. It becomes a brand and marketing consultancy It becomes an award brand and marketing. Nope, not
Â
23:00 - 23:22
Flavilla: that That's difficult as all because the fashion consultancy when I keep meeting women So when I do my events because I've always been into the event space, I've always done events for a very long time. I mean, I keep meeting women, I want to do what you do. I was like, huh? I was like, you want to be a fashion stylist? I said, there's nothing out there to teach you. So I want to learn from you because you're a black woman. I love a black woman. I want to learn from you. I was like, oh, okay.
Â
23:23 - 23:49
Flavilla: I mean, other people were not only black men came to me. It's like, let me take everything that is in my head and make a course, right? So I was like, Let me create now 3 colors of fashion academy. So then fashion consultancy became a fashion academy where I would teach people around the world online how to start their own career. And like I learned, so they do it, they learn about color, color analysis, they learn about wardrobe styling, they learn about personal shopping, they learn about, you know, they learn about body shaping. So all of
Â
23:49 - 24:16
Flavilla: that was divided. Like, so if you wanted to be a wardrobe stylist, you can take this course. You wanted to be a personal shopper, you learn about this how to negotiate deals with different brands and so on and so on. If you wanted to be a fashion stylist who have all these course, you know, all about color, color is such an important things. Whatever it is, individuals or businesses, right? So I was teaching that and it was great. I was like, this is a good thing. And again, I got tired of it, right? So what I
Â
24:16 - 24:33
Flavilla: did was I kept the fashion consultants, the fashion training and the agency and people are getting confused. It's like, why would I type 3 colors? Well, I have to choose between fashion academy and agency. So it was like, I have to let go of 1 of them and I let go of the fashion, a fashion academy. And then I made a book out of that, and yeah, it
Â
24:33 - 24:35
Lola: slowly disappeared. What was the book called?
Â
24:35 - 24:43
Flavilla: It was just like, yeah, but how to become a fashion stylist. It was nothing original. We didn't put it on. I should have put it on Amazon.
Â
24:45 - 25:18
Lola: Yeah, but what I just heard you say is you are basically creating content, courses, and a book before it became this thing that it is today. So you've always been at the forefront of just promoting yourself, which we'll get to in a second. And so you do the pivot or you made the decision to focus on just the agency and just to switch gears for a second you also have a lot of impact in nonprofit where you wanted to influence beyond just businesses and you were you are actually you are the founder of the largest European
Â
25:18 - 25:24
Lola: nonprofit dedicated to black women, professional women in tech, which is called Black Women in Tech. Is that correct?
Â
25:25 - 25:28
Flavilla: Yeah, GTA, Globo Tech advocates black women in tech.
Â
25:28 - 25:35
Lola: Black GTA. And so why was that important for you to start? How did you come up with the idea to do that?
Â
25:36 - 26:09
Flavilla: So yes, so the agency was the starting point. So when we used to tell our clients and still tell them, be clear in terms of your niche, pick a niche that is big enough so people see you as the go-to brand for technology companies or FMCG brands. And we were not following the same advice because of my background in energy, in fashion, in luxury, so I had a mixture. I said, wait a minute, Hold the phone. Let's apply what we preach. And then technology was the focus. Because also we love technology because it was impacted scarce.
Â
26:09 - 26:45
Flavilla: It was fantastic, right? So, yes, when we did that, we realized, let's go be further and go out there and do some do some campaigns and I've always been accustomed to being the only woman in a room and then when I get in fashion it's normal right so I'm mainly women okay that's fine or or men you know and then in oil and gas many men in a suit so what are going to take a freaking that can't be happening again it doesn't make sense why is where are the woman especially technology has such a massive
Â
26:45 - 27:15
Flavilla: impact on everything that we do. And again, where are the black women? And I just thought, okay, let's figure out how we can help them do that. And it was part of the CSR of Free Colors World. And it was just a small community. We had social page. We just say that we do event on a regular basis if you wanna come. And it kept getting bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. I was like, what's going on? Where are you all coming from? And I remember our first client was Deutsche Bank, say, we wanna sponsor your event. I'm
Â
27:15 - 27:38
Flavilla: like, what? It's like, we did not even set up as a business. I had to go to my account and like, let's work on company house, let's do this. And they're like, can you send us your invoice? We need to pay your invoice. Give us some time, we'll send you the invoice, okay? So don't worry about it, we'll send it to you invoice. So just a time for me to open a bank account, da da da da da. Everyone would send an invoice and the event happened and it was so happy. And yeah, it all happened
Â
27:38 - 28:11
Flavilla: during COVID. So again, you know, it wasn't intentional, but again, it's my ability to say, oh, wait a minute, boop, There's something there. Can I transform it into something else? So do you see a problem? Do you see a problem or do you see solutions? If you are solution-minded, you will see innovation. If you are problem-minded, you will just see problems and constraint and anxiety. So you have to see it differently. If you live your life with some solutions, then you can come out of that so much better.
Â
28:12 - 28:33
Lola: So it's been a thread that I'm hearing so far. And when I went almost halfway through this conversation, how did you develop the eye to support opportunities, but also discern which opportunity to go after? Because you can see a lot of things like you said earlier in the conversation, you said you could have a business every day, How do you know which ones to go after as well?
Â
28:34 - 29:04
Flavilla: Yeah, good question. I think that my eye for seeing opportunities come from fashion because when you're in a fashion space, you are culturally wired to every time having to create, create every 6 months. You know, you have to create a new collection, spring, summer, autumn, winter, and then you have the mid season, and so on. So when you're a fashion stylist, when you have your client in front of you, a great fashion stylist can see the potential of a client in front of them. So somebody comes, the very wrong color, the wrong shade, your eye is
Â
29:04 - 29:31
Flavilla: supposed to be like, let me see you beyond what you are right now. So that's how I see it. So, and I'm able to see, I've always been able to see like people's potential before they see them. It's like, you'd be good at this. You don't see it, but you'd be good at this. And that's why I've seen people like starting podcasts like, you'd be good at this. Have you considered this? You'd be good at this because I could see it, right? And then around the aspect of what opportunities or to follow is always by research.
Â
29:31 - 29:55
Flavilla: I'm not going to jump in and like, yeah, I'm going to do it. At the end of the day, I'm a marketer. So good marketers always do research. If they jump in, it's like, you know, I'm glad to do this. What do you think about it? So I will always go and voice out an idea in front of the right audience, not the naysayers and the pessimists. I say, I'm going to do this. Who's interested? If it's not going to dress it, then I do it. If you're not, you never jump just, just on your own
Â
29:55 - 30:01
Flavilla: personal, you know, thing, unless, you know, you're an artist and you don't care if you have 1 or 2 people who love your, what you do, that's fine.
Â
30:02 - 30:39
Lola: It sounds like, again, it's like you're learning from every single experience. You got this, you leaned into this opportunity or this superpower through fashion. And then just taking it back again to black women in tech. I know you also have a book series called Voices in the Shadow, right? But are there other experiences that motivated you to just keep pouring into this platform? Cause you could have done it once, it was nice. Yes, you got the sponsorship and you could have, you were busy already, but what made you keep going?
Â
30:40 - 31:11
Flavilla: Because there's so many of us. I think what really upset me when it comes to, you know, the black narrative, it's always driven by, not always, I would say always driven, but when you think about history of black people in Western countries is always driven by slavery. And I wanna change that mindset that people have about what is a heritage, but also we can't beat what we can't see unless, you know, there's a few people who think like me that nobody's doing it, I'm going to do it. But most people need to feel inspired to be
Â
31:11 - 31:46
Flavilla: able to think that they can do it too, right? So the more you normalize those stories, the more people think they can do it too. And it's super, super, super important to not just do it for ourselves, but also can we make an impact. I'm always been impact driven. That's for sure. You know, the more I talk to you about this, I think is that when you come from limitations, and I'm going to talk about limitation that you're not born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you have to be very creative in your survival mode,
Â
31:46 - 32:21
Flavilla: right? How can I make the best of that chicken? So this chicken that the dry chicken that you know has been here that's been here for 3 days on this third night I'm gonna make a chicken soup out of this. On the first night it was a nice and juicy Whatever is left is a carcass and the dry part. Can I make a chicken soup out of this? So that mindset of that, what can I make out of what is in my disposal always helped me to be creative? And I think by nature, I come from
Â
32:21 - 32:28
Flavilla: a family of creative people. So it's somewhere in my DNA, you know, to just create. It's just normal for me.
Â
32:30 - 32:40
Lola: And, Voices in the Shadow, those book series, how many years have you been doing that? You give out free books to secondary schools in the UK and Ireland, right?
Â
32:41 - 33:08
Flavilla: Mm-hmm. Yeah, so 4 books so far. So we're producing our full book this year. Yeah, So 4 years we've been doing it. I mean like so DJ Black Women Tech is 5 years we've been doing it since, we started doing it from the first year. I know after our first year it's like you know there's too many great black women I've never heard and I couldn't stop at 1 at just 51 stories when there's so many more. So we're all these women coming from and they keep appearing like from nowhere. It's like, where have you been?
Â
33:08 - 33:16
Flavilla: You know, so I just felt that we just carry on. So we committed ourselves for 10 books. So the next 10 years, we're gonna do this. And so we'll see what happen.
Â
33:17 - 33:33
Lola: No, I love the initiative. And I think that's probably why you got recognized for 1 of the, for being 1 of the most influential tech women in the UK, which you probably didn't see that coming. That wasn't your goal. Do you remember when you got that award? That recognition?
Â
33:35 - 34:03
Flavilla: I do remember but again, you know at least doesn't really excite me I'm excited about the change that can make on people's life like getting recognized is great Fantastic, and I say Thank you so much and I'm grateful. I move on to what for me is important. So the attention, I'd never do it for meditation of being rewarded and so forth. I do more for the intention of changing somebody else life, that I really want, I think for me, what breaks my heart the most is that people not being able to achieve a full potential, God
Â
34:03 - 34:26
Flavilla: gives you the possibility to achieve, to do something with your life. And sometimes a system creates limitation into your mind and you freeze. And I want to defreeze people to be able to do all the great things that they're capable of doing. They just have to believe and the rest is magic. Okay, it's not magic, it's hard work.
Â
34:27 - 34:55
Lola: No, but that is essentially part of why this podcast was created, right? To amplify those kind of stories, to let people know that everything you need is within you and it's up to us to bring it out and do what we need to do with it. I appreciate you actually saying that and so again very busy woman Flavilla and you're doing a lot of work, you're getting a lot of recognition, and I know that's not why you're doing it, but there's still 1 more venture that we haven't talked about, which is your latest venture, Black Rise.
Â
34:56 - 35:02
Lola: So I want you in your own words to tell me and listeners what Black Rise is and why you started the platform.
Â
35:03 - 35:33
Flavilla: Yes, I'm going to start by why I started the platform. So the launch of GTA Black Women Tech, I never thought it would take us this far, but we started just in London and then we had we expanded across the UK and then we opened in Ireland and then we opened in France and then this year we opened in Germany. I think what really fascinated me is that it wasn't just me, it was the desire and the drive for people to see us going places and what we brought into their lives, a place where they could
Â
35:33 - 36:03
Flavilla: connect and achieve so much more. And, you know, being black in the corporate space in Western countries, you are so lonely. And you find a place where you can be with other people that you can relate to, where you can share, and you can share knowledge and share opportunities. I found that it was beyond me it was not only my brain it belonged to the people and we became a 23 000 strong community as a wife is amazing and I thought that because of Ben were asking me like what about us what's the ex-co black woman
Â
36:03 - 36:40
Flavilla: in tech I can't really make it everybody's welcome obviously and say what about us but what oh I would love to come to even event, but I'm not the woman in tech. I'm like, okay, there's something else there. I always admire communities that have managed to thrive, you know, and build generational wealth. I'm talking about the Indian community, I'm talking about the Jewish community, the Asian community, how they know each other. And 1 of our biggest weakness as black people is that we're so scattered because of tribes, countries, Nigerian, Ghanaian, then you go into Nigeria, Yoruba.
Â
36:40 - 37:11
Flavilla: I mean it doesn't end right? And how is that serving us? And you say you're divided to conquer. So now I'm trying to bring us back together for the magic of technology and this is how Black Rise was born. Black Rise was born with a mission to help black talent and business connect, share knowledge, people who have achieved success or you know or the chess game, the chess game to achieve success and opportunities. Because the people are there and I've looked in terms of my own personal circle, in terms of what I've, how I've been able
Â
37:11 - 37:39
Flavilla: to work with some of the biggest burn around the world is because somebody made an introduction. Somebody say, you have to make sure that Flavilla is there. Those people say my name was not in a room because they trust me and they believed in me and they wanted they didn't share they didn't keep that opportunity for themselves like I'm going to help you and so forth. And I think it all started with black women in tech because of black women, as you know, is probably the most undervalued human on earth. And those black women that I
Â
37:39 - 38:11
Flavilla: helped and put in on the limelight of his book became them, my soldiers, my army, my supporters, like I'm going to get you and some of them invest in Black Rise and and it's so beautiful that I didn't have to go far and chase money which I would have failed if I didn't have a network right And that's why people when I hear people say oh my gosh no money is being given to black people is because we don't have a network we don't have the people who who have the money we need and it's harder
Â
38:12 - 38:29
Flavilla: to convince somebody who doesn't know you than somebody who knows you let me say okay Favela why don't you tell me I'm I got you I was like you don't want to see my dick? No, no, no, I got you. I know you're going to do well. And that's powerful, right? And that's why I say to people, you don't build your network for today, you build it for tomorrow.
Â
38:30 - 38:45
Lola: Yes, yes. No, wow. So there's a lot to unpack there. But before we go off of Black Rise, you also have a podcast to support this. And you also have a book coming out as well, right? To amplify the message of Black Rise.
Â
38:46 - 38:46
Flavilla: Yes.
Â
38:46 - 38:48
Lola: And when is the book coming out?
Â
38:49 - 39:26
Flavilla: So the book is coming out this October. So if you listen to this podcast after October 2024, it came out. So it's on Amazon. So we were inspired by the stories of the podcast and decided to create some fictional stories with different lessons and strategies. So the strategies then transform into a story so people can apply it. And then part of the beginning of the book starts with how to build generational wealth. The 6 pillars to building generational wealth. I'm gonna try to remember, right? So 1 of them is community. 1 of them is philanthropy. 1
Â
39:26 - 39:42
Flavilla: of them is entrepreneurship. 1 of them is education. 1 of them is investment. And the last 1 is financial literacy. I didn't say anything about it, but if you have those 3 pillars, you do very, very well. And that's the secret to building generational wealth.
Â
39:43 - 40:17
Lola: Wow. Well, I'm excited. And I know this book is probably going to launch during the UK Black History Month, which I learned about recently, which is October. And so definitely I'm sure this is going to coincide with that celebration or recognition. Before we leave the Black Rise platform, I'm curious to know, because you started this in 2023, I'm curious to know if you've had any unique challenges and opportunities that you've encountered while you were developing the tech, right? This was an app. This is an app right now. Have you had anything surprisingly come up while you
Â
40:17 - 40:19
Lola: were building something specifically for the black community?
Â
40:21 - 40:57
Flavilla: No, not really. I think actually I'm lying. I think we see like why only black is like I was guessing that anybody can join. The only thing that I'm putting on the pedestal, black people, because on the platform, we have non-black people, right? People are there. But if you're intentional about working with black talent or hiring as suppliers or hiring as employee, then this is your space. Because you hear so many times, oh, I can't find Black Talent. Oh, really? OK, well, you no longer have an excuse. You know where to go. You know where to
Â
40:57 - 41:15
Flavilla: find it. And there it is. All right. So that's important. So this happened. And I think people try to pivot me that, oh, your day is so great. It can be applicable to everybody. I'm like, as you can make more money. And again, something like, if you don't have values, you can say, okay, let's chase the money. Let's be for everybody. And I'm like,
Â
41:15 - 41:16
Lola: And
Â
41:16 - 41:25
Flavilla: I really had to question myself for me. It's like, do I really want to be for everybody? Like, no, no. Plus I already trademarked the name. It's like going back to change again. So yeah, so.
Â
41:27 - 41:56
Lola: Okay. Well, there is something you said when you were talking about Black Rise and you said, and let me make sure I get this right. You said people were saying your name in the rooms that you were not in. You had a network that was available for you to tap into to raise money that if you had not had that network to tap into, you wouldn't have been able to do that. And so with all these incredible, incredible initiatives, I think your personal brand was probably what helped you navigate all those different opportunities, challenges and opportunities.
Â
41:56 - 42:27
Lola: And so I met you in, in Cannes this year at the Cannes Lion Festival of Creativity. And I could see your personal brand even in effect. And I just met you. And I just thought it was amazing how you were able to just stand out, even in rooms where you didn't know anybody. And it was just amazing to see that. But I'm curious to know how you figured out that was your superpower and how you were able to capitalize on that on building your personal brand.
Â
42:30 - 43:05
Flavilla: I think when it comes to personal brand is that if you do it for yourself, you'll be very self-conscious. But if you do it with the intention of helping somebody else, you will do it anyway and that will remove the fear. So for me, is that being driven by the why, I have a purpose, I have a mission to accomplish, then who's going to do it if it's not me? So I let go of the fear, I let go of all the ids in the world. And I go for, I think that's for me is that
Â
43:05 - 43:27
Flavilla: I've learned that how you become so fearless is that what is the worst that can happen? And I see them and say like, what is the worst that can happen? And I always say to myself, like people don't even remember what they had for breakfast last week. If there's something wrong or, you know, they say no. If they say no, they say no. If they say yes, then brilliant. But you miss all the chances that you'd never take right so if you don't ask you don't get and you'd be very surprised how many people are ready
Â
43:27 - 43:48
Flavilla: to help but you'd never ask so a lot of people ask people say oh some people came for investment, some of them I ask them. It's like, okay, great. Sometimes you have to go, others are like, you know, why are you not investing? What are you waiting for? And so forth. And I push a little bit, you know, I'm a salesperson at the end of the day as well. Yeah.
Â
43:50 - 44:19
Lola: Speaking of saying no though, I was right there when you asked a very popular marketer and you were pitching Black Rise and she said no. And I thought you did the most incredibly brave thing. And you went on LinkedIn and you talked about that experience because you wanted to document what rejection looked like, but that doesn't mean it should stop you. You want to talk about even your decision to, for lack of a better word, put this person on blast. And you can say the person's name if you want to.
Â
44:20 - 44:48
Flavilla: Yeah is it Bozoma? Yeah Bozoma. Yeah. So Bozoma was you know she's and you know things that you have to respect people's time people is that people don't have to tell you yes. See what I mean like I don't also I don't take things personally like maybe I'm not for you maybe you know maybe you are on a different path right now. Because it will come to me over time. Can you mentor me? And the first was like, you you know, even approaching mentoring the right way. And I say over time, like people, you need to
Â
44:48 - 45:15
Flavilla: learn to ask quality questions. If you want a mentor that's not the way of getting a mentor. It doesn't work. You don't go and approach somebody randomly. It doesn't know you. Oh can you support me? You're basically waiting for somebody to save you. That's what you're telling me. And I was like mentoring is not about saving you it's about guiding you to greatness super important so you really need to feel that you you're already there you just need to be given the slight directions to adjust it but it's up to you to do the work. Yes
Â
45:15 - 45:42
Flavilla: so I think people part of success comes over failures that people forget or don't see, right? They say, oh my gosh, you're so lucky. It's like, there's no luck in this. It's me waking up at 06:00. It's me working sometime until 10 in the evening. That's, if you call that luck, please be out there. Take the same luck that I have done right luck is like staying at home and winning you know and not even playing the lotto and somebody tells you like oh I found a suitcase of 10 million pound do you want it that
Â
45:42 - 46:10
Flavilla: is luck right the thing that you do every day increase your chances of converting and achieve what you want but you have to be comfortable and for me as I expect the no's and the no, every no gets me closer to a yes. I was like okay so I mean you calculate it, you can calculate everything. You can say okay I know that that's what you learn when you do sales like or a marketer, you know that you're gonna need to approach 3 other people to convert 10 of them So you say okay, well the nose
Â
46:10 - 46:33
Flavilla: are part of a possibility if I approach nobody then I get nothing Right, or if you don't approach enough people, you're not gonna convert enough So when you understand the metrics of success, okay I know if I approach 5 people 1 of them will say yes. So I need to keep approaching and approaching. And again remember that method you actually told me when I was kind of like you ask you make a request 1 of the top requests if they say no you should have a second option and we should have a third option at that
Â
46:33 - 46:39
Flavilla: point they say no 1 to say no second 1 further they have to say yes otherwise it's just evil
Â
46:40 - 47:05
Lola: well no let's clarify you were doing it but I put a formula behind it right I just told you the the psychology of what you were doing, because I saw you do that when we were talking to the guy from SNL. And I just, and I just to make sure it was clear for the listeners, you had already, you were talking to him, I met you from another meeting, and I saw maybe the tail end of that conversation, and I just said, oh, that was amazing what you just did. And you told me all the things
Â
47:05 - 47:35
Lola: you asked for and when he said yes to and I said, oh, all you did was give him 3 options, right? Which was basically the very high end, you're pretty much pie in the sky ask, and then you had the middle ground, and then you had a very low yes. So he's forced to say yes in a way. The question is, what is he going to say yes to? And you got a yes. You got him to advertise Black Rise for free, which you posted on LinkedIn as well. Remember? So you already did it. But it
Â
47:35 - 48:02
Lola: was just understanding what you're doing and being intentional again, and even in how you ask. I love that because when you did that post, And I was telling somebody about it, like, oh my God, why would she go put this person out and call them out of, you know, you didn't call them person out of their name, you actually respectfully did it. I thought it was very well done. I thought it was, I liked it because you were showing what rejection looked like. And there's nothing wrong with that. Cause to your point earlier, people talk about
Â
48:02 - 48:30
Lola: success stories and you don't get the nose and I don't want to call them failures. I call them lessons learned in between. So that being part of your journey as you build Black Rise, I just thought that was so on brand. And then just 1 more thing before we move off of something else is, for anyone listening who wants to start their own personal brand, what is the 1 thing pivotal strategy that they could do to get started? What would you advise them to do?
Â
48:32 - 48:57
Flavilla: If people were saying your name in the room and you were not there, what would you want them to say about you? That's the rule number 1. When people, you're not in the room, what do you want people to say about you when you're not in the room? When you think about Trump, something comes to your mind. When you think about, you know, Barack Obama, something comes to your mind. And I think it's important to know is like how do you want people to remember you? Then you go from that. You have to have clarity. And
Â
48:57 - 49:27
Flavilla: then from that point, you build your strategy, then you build your identity, and then you go out there and create the content. So it's very clear that you need to know in terms of what do you want to be known for? People know me as a marketer who also, you know, is very black focus. That's very simple. I'm a marketer creative person who, you know, who is on, who understand branding as a background in technology, understand how to do, to use that to advance as well. You know, the success of black people, that's what people know
Â
49:27 - 49:30
Flavilla: me for. And therefore, everything that I do is a line of this.
Â
49:33 - 49:35
Lola: Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you.
Â
49:36 - 49:54
Flavilla: Yeah. What, if you're not knowing what you want people to, to say about you, how do you improve someone, If you let somebody introduce you, what would they say about you? There's a good test actually. Let people introduce you. Let somebody introduce you. It's like, how would you introduce me? When you know what they know about you, how they perceive you. So, ah, interesting.
Â
49:55 - 50:30
Lola: Okay. Yeah. That is a good exercise actually. Yeah, and make sure it's not just family when you're doing that exercise. Cause it's very biased. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So switching gears here, we talked about personal branding, we talked about everything you've built. I am now curious to understand, and you've touched on it in some parts, but I'm really curious to understand the mindset that keeps you going because you talked about wanting to leave a not so great situation when you're growing up. You talked about being intentional about speaking the language of business when you came
Â
50:30 - 50:38
Lola: to London and why you came to London. You talked about seeing opportunities, but what would you say are some of your success habits that have just kept you going?
Â
50:41 - 51:15
Flavilla: I think very simple. I think for me is that I'm driven by family and building my own legacy, I wanna be able to leave something that makes an impact for me and people that are part of it. So I'm very big and my family is very important to me. And my mom have made such an amount of sacrifice and I can't disappoint her. You know, my mom has the first child when she was 16 years old. She's always been surrounded by children. And for me, she's my first driving force. You know, I wanna make sure that
Â
51:15 - 51:29
Flavilla: I give something back for what all the sacrifice that she's made for myself. I want to be, I'm proud of myself, but I also want to be proud. My mom always makes me laugh. She, she always brag about her father to have a master's. I was like, do you know that my sister's for words? Like I tell everybody that you have a master's.
Â
51:30 - 51:35
Lola: I was just about to ask, does she know about everything you've accomplished? And what does she
Â
51:35 - 51:39
Flavilla: think of that? More that person who likes all your posts. That's my mom.
Â
51:41 - 51:53
Lola: I love that. Wow. How have you, again, because of everything you've accomplished, I'm sure you've had times when you made a bad decision, made a bad move. How did you recover from that?
Â
51:55 - 52:01
Flavilla: I think what's important about everything that don't go as you plan it is to learn the lessons. It's not just like, oh,
Â
52:02 - 52:03
Lola: damn it.
Â
52:03 - 52:38
Flavilla: It's like, why am I supposed to learn in this moment? And then if you don't learn anything from it, you're gonna keep doing the same mistakes. So that's super, super, duper important to learn from it. And life is about that. Life comes ups and downs. You have to learn to adapt to the good moment and the bad moment and believe in yourself that you will come out stronger. You come out, you know, with another chapter of your life that make the book, your book so amazing, right? I did an exercise called the live book. It's fantastic,
Â
52:38 - 53:03
Flavilla: it's part of the Mindvalley, if anybody don't know Mindvalley program, there are something called the live book and I highly recommend, no promotion, I'm not gonna pay for that. But I really, really thought it was brilliant is that you know 1 thing that you know when you when you're successful and you know, there's a lot of obviously a lot with black so many black women are there was single and Feel that you know, it can it had to be difficult to find love And for me at some point I thought it was difficult. Oh my gosh
Â
53:03 - 53:25
Flavilla: I've accomplished in every area when it comes to relationship becomes you know, because you know, what most you said we are more You are you have high standard right and have this book really showed me that you can really control Even that your life life in terms of high intention you you are the way, you know That you know if you want to get a sale you have to make those calls You have to send emails you have to do that and so on. The same way, if you wanna have a relationship, what I think that
Â
53:25 - 53:49
Flavilla: you need to undertake on a regular basis to achieve the closest to the person that you want to meet. And that is so key and obviously now my situation has changed and so forth but you can I think that prayers and you know whether you believe in God or the universe you know be intentional? I think when you're intentional You get what you want. If you don't know what you want, the world will decide for you.
Â
53:50 - 54:16
Lola: Yes Yes, I totally agree with that because there's a decision a trade-off that's happening either way whether you're aware of it or you're not But it's something that's happened. So great great point there How do you find balance and stay true to yourself? And when you're wearing all these different hats, black rise, black woman and tech, even 3 colors rule and probably all the other ventures you ever mentioned, how do you stay balanced? How do you stay true to
Â
54:19 - 54:42
Flavilla: to Flavilla yeah I think you set rules you have to set rules for yourself and respect them so rule number 1 is I always have 7 hours sleep no matter what happens like sleep is very important to me rule number 2 is that yes true new number 2 that it is 1 day of the week I don't work there's no work involved yeah like and Sunday I would do a bit of preparation for the week after. So 1 day of the week I do not work. So Saturday should be the day I don't touch my laptop.
Â
54:43 - 55:11
Flavilla: And then I went for that. And I think the thing that is very important is that do not be the burden of your own business. What I mean by that is that everybody should be replaceable in your business, that includes you. If you keep all your ideas in your head, then you put yourself at risk that it doesn't work without you. So this is why, you know, you need to, I get everybody in my team to document their role. How do you send an email? How do you create a campaign? How do you do that? Go
Â
55:11 - 55:38
Flavilla: to Notion, that section. Go to this, just do it. So once somebody leaves, okay, go to that Notion marketing, you can see, oh, okay, cool, somebody has made the video. So we all, everything is process driven, right? So I'm not there like, you know, I went delegation. You have to delegate. Part of delegation is that you then empower your team to feel that you know you trust them but if you want to have people want to be known in every part you never gonna you're gonna go crazy so for me is that okay I know how
Â
55:38 - 55:57
Flavilla: to do this now okay let me document it put pass it to somebody else now you do it okay you try this okay documented pass it to somebody else put documented person somebody else because it's always documentation and processing systems. And this way you don't mind as rule number 1, we document everything. Right. I've been yet somebody else take over.
Â
55:57 - 56:30
Lola: So we're almost coming up on time here and I would like to go into what I call the lightning round. There are no wrong answers. It's whatever comes first to your mind. So what is the, and 1 thing I know before I even go into this is a lot of the women that I've spoken to, they're intentional about what they do and how they show up in the world. That means that to me, it looks like they have a growth mindset. So I'm always curious to know what the last thing a Kadha woman has learned. So
Â
56:30 - 56:35
Lola: what are you learning now? What was the last thing you learned? I was like, whoa, that was mind blowing.
Â
56:35 - 56:47
Flavilla: What I'm learning now is AI. Ah, yeah, very big on this. Yeah, because black girls will have AI, so I need to make sure that I'm on top of it.
Â
56:48 - 56:54
Lola: Awesome, I like that. What is a favorite book or quote that has influenced the woman that you are today?
Â
56:56 - 57:22
Flavilla: It's hard to pick 1, but I think it's the power of reciprocity. I read that a long time ago. Most people think about relationships by taking and if you think about giving first with authenticity and not calculated, you will get 25 million back. So you might give to someone but that might not come from that person but it might come from somebody else. So the power of reciprocity is super key.
Â
57:25 - 57:29
Lola: I like that. And what would you consider your greatest achievement to date?
Â
57:32 - 57:49
Flavilla: I think my greatest achievement to date would definitely be the work that I've done with GTA Black woman in Tech that gives me the most fulfillment. And the book and I think the idea that all the stories that we've written are archived at the British Library, that's something that is super important for me. So the books and the story will never be vanished and forgotten.
Â
57:50 - 57:51
Lola: What matters most to you?
Â
57:53 - 58:10
Flavilla: Family values. Family and being a good human. I think being a good human, Money is great, but money is not everything. And I think we often associate success with money, but there's so much more that is the definition of success.
Â
58:11 - 58:21
Lola: And we kind of talked a little bit about this earlier in the conversation, but In your own words, how would you say what your purpose is? What are you supposed to be doing in this world?
Â
58:23 - 58:53
Flavilla: Enable, I'm an enabler. My job is to enable people to find themselves, find the best of themselves. For everything that I've do is always been about enablement, whatever it is as a fashion stylist, whether when I was helping people build their brand, whatever I'm doing with GTA Black Women in Tech, it's always about that I'm an enabler. If people have to define me this way, that's how I see it. And therefore, everything that I do is around that. Even with my team, you know, I never see that greatness. They come, you know, with some of them a bit
Â
58:53 - 59:00
Flavilla: more, you know, shy whatsoever, but then they leave, they feel so much bigger from what they've achieved.
Â
59:00 - 59:04
Lola: What, What is your personal mantra, the words that you live by?
Â
59:05 - 59:06
Flavilla: I have so many.
Â
59:08 - 59:10
Lola: No, it's fine. Okay, fine. I'll give you 2.
Â
59:10 - 59:31
Flavilla: 2 sets. I always say that everything works out for me. Everything works out for me. Everything works out for me. Everything works out for me. Everything works out for me. Â And I think it's very important that we talk to ourselves in a positive manner. Everything works out for me. And therefore that mindset always helped me find solutions. Like, ah, okay, everything works out for me. Everything works out for me. And I find a solution.
Â
59:33 - 59:44
Lola: I like that. If you could go back in time and talk to your younger self, maybe in your 20s, maybe even before you moved to London or when you got to London, what would you tell young Flavilla?
Â
59:46 - 59:47
Flavilla: Invest.
Â
59:48 - 59:49
Lola: Invest.
Â
59:50 - 59:55
Flavilla: Buy some  stock. Buy some Amazon stock. I know
Â
59:55 - 59:59
Lola: that's right. Oh my goodness.
Â
01:00:03 - 01:00:08
Lola: I agree with you. All right. 3 words that you would use to describe you, the Kadara woman.
Â
01:00:11 - 01:00:15
Flavilla: 3 words. I would say glam, funny, and ambitious.
Â
01:00:16 - 01:00:29
Lola: Ooh, I knew ambitious was going to be in there. If you didn't have it in there, I would have given you a fourth word. What are your thoughts on destiny? Which is what Kadara means.
Â
01:00:30 - 01:01:19
Flavilla: I think destiny is made by the choices that you make. Isn't it interesting? Because destiny, I think what is destiny? Destiny is, you know, so think about it like as a code or maybe as a matter of fact. So you know that for example if you choose to eat fatty food and stay at home in bed and exercise your destiny will be you know likely any form of disease and cancer whatsoever. So you can, your destiny is mold by the choices that you make every day. So yeah, so A destiny is not so much pre-written, it
Â
01:01:19 - 01:01:48
Flavilla: can still be, I think it's palpable to what you against everything, what you believe it is. So your destiny is very much attached to the vision that you set in your mind. So what is the destiny that you set for yourself? And based on that, you will act on it to achieve that. And this is what I say is like, if you are intentional, you will create the destiny that is the best for you. But if you're intentional, you may have, nobody choose the destiny to be killed or to die early, right? Sometimes life is what
Â
01:01:48 - 01:01:55
Flavilla: it is. But if you choose, if you are intentional and act on the destiny that you have for yourself, you will get there.
Â
01:01:56 - 01:01:57
Lola: I don't know
Â
01:01:57 - 01:01:58
Flavilla: if it makes sense, but in my head it does.
Â
01:01:58 - 01:02:33
Lola: Wow. That is so, so, so yeah. And I agree with that. And I think it's actually echoes a lot of the women who I've interviewed say about destiny. It's at the end of the day, it's what you have to show up for yourself to simplify, to summarize that. Last question. As you look back on your journey to date, what would you say has been the most important thing you've learned about finding and pursuing your purpose?
Â
01:02:34 - 01:03:10
Flavilla: I think 1 of the biggest things I've learned is that taking the leap of faith is so important in your life. If you take chances and let fear not be the control of your destiny, then you can achieve great things. Right? So think about 2 of us, we met and can, we both took a plane and decided to go and to be unknown. We were intentional about destiny, right? And that brought us together. This would have never happened if we let fear be stronger than our desire to achieve our destiny. So it's important to take the
Â
01:03:10 - 01:03:33
Flavilla: leap of faith. Faith, this is what it's always a mental exercise first. Your mental strength determines your physical decision, you know, your actions. So if you start with the mind, if you start with gratitude and faith and belief, you are good, you will be good.
Â
01:03:37 - 01:03:54
Lola: Yeah, I love that. I love that. Wow, Favilla, this has been a very incredible, engaging conversation. And I truly appreciate your time. I know September, October are very busy, especially in the UK. So thank you for making time to be on the Kadara Woman podcast.
Â
01:03:55 - 01:03:57
Flavilla: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Â
01:04:01 - 01:05:08
Lola: And there you have it folks. Flavilla Fongang's journey reminds us that our destiny is shaped by the choices we make every day. From embracing the unknown to building powerful networks, her story showcases the importance of being intentional in pursuing your dreams. Remember as Favilla says, everything works out for me. It's a mantra that has transformed challenges into opportunities for her. So whether you're starting out or looking to level up, let our wisdom guide you in taking that leap of faith towards your own success.Â
Thank you for tuning into the Kadara Woman podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to rate, review, and reshare. You can also follow us on social media at Kadara Woman. Until next time, This is Lola with the Kadara Woman podcast reminding you that your Kadara moment of clarity may have already happened and all you need to do is embrace it. This podcast was created, produced, and recorded by Lola Soyebo Harris and sound edited by Mo Isu.Â
The Kadara Woman podcast is a production of Kadara Media.
Â
Â