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Nina Malone is a Talent Agent at IAG and Founder of Dope Black Mums movement, a digital safe space for black women to navigate motherhood together. In this episode she joins Tokunbo (@tokunbo_koiki) to explore the ways and functions of being a 'Dope Black Mum' whilst also being intentional in caving out sacred time and space for yourself, even if it is just taking time to watch Netflix! You can find out more about the work Nina does at IAG here www.iagtalent.com/about-us To join the Dope Black Mums safe space, check out her website for more information www.dopeblackmums.co.uk

Host Tokunbo Koiki shares how the Covid-19 Pandemic has resulted in her recent decision to changed the goals she started the year with. She is now actively working to combine her love of coaching, fashion and mental health advocacy in her professional and business endeavours. You will learn her tips and strategies on how you can start to do the work to make your dreams come true. Life is a series of pivot and taking time to get clarity of what you want, why you want it and a clear definition of your purpose are the basics to actualise any dream. Dreams have no expiration date and it's never 'too late' to get started on making yours come true. FOLLOW TOKUNBO'S ADVENTURES: www.tokunbokoiki.com CONNECT WITH TOKUNBO Instagram: www.instagram.com/tokunbo.koiki

“Most adults are just big babies who are winging it. Adulthood is actually a scam!" – Amina Aweis Amina Aweis is a revolutionist and dynamic young woman who wears multiple hats as a software engineer, writer and content. At only 22 years old, Amina is already chartering her own path and been unapologetic in raising the issues she faces as a young Black African Somali woman. She shares her journey from making a decision not to attend university despite it being expected of her to working in tech and having to leave her comfort zone. Whilst Amina showed an entrepreneurial streak at a young age she decided to pursue her creative side applying for a digital marketing apprenticeship after her completing her 'A' Levels where she had her first experience of microaggressions as a young Black woman in a very white corporate space. Her next work experience in the film industry was a more positive work experience in which her hard work and creative genius was not only recognised but also appreciated and rewarding. Amina also learnt the power of using her voice to effect change. Now working in tech, Amina shares how she was able to make the move through her persistence and ability to network effectively. Amina's is keen for many more Black women to enter the Tech space and actively shares her knowledge on her YouTube channel. Sit back relax and enjoy the Chronicles. CONNECT WITH AMINA: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yeahshewrites_/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/yeahshewrites YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNvmrkupu7a5vFFvO_migCg

Host Tokunbo Koiki shares how the Covid-19 Pandemic has resulted in her recent decision to changed the goals she started the year with. She is now actively working to combine her love of coaching, fashion and mental health advocacy in her professional and business endeavours. You will learn her tips and strategies on how you can start to do the work to make your dreams come true. Life is a series of pivot and taking time to get clarity of what you want, why you want it and a clear definition of your purpose are the basics to actualise any dream. Dreams have no expiration date and it's never 'too late' to get started on making yours come true.     FOLLOW TOKUNBO'S ADVENTURES: www.tokunbokoiki.com     CONNECT WITH TOKUNBO Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TokunbosKitchen Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TokunbosKitchen Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokunbosKitchen

Blessing Timidi Digha identifies as a fearless Feminist. She is Community Based Researcher with over twenty years of experience working on issues concerning African girls and women. She specialises on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights and the intersections between Culture, Religion and the perpetuation of Gender Based Violence. She has recently started sharing her experience with grief through her platform #DealingWithGrief TRIGGER WARNING - This episode touches on the issues of suicide, mental health and the loss of young children. There are also some swear language used during our conversation so you may want to put on your headpiece if there are young children about. Earlier in the year when I first started recording episodes of this podcast, I reached out to a social media friend who is now basically a sister to me and ask her if she would be happy to share the circumstances of a major and incredibly traumatic loss she had suffered a couple years back. I held off on releasing it earlier in the series as I felt that it would be an important issue to discuss as part of mental health awareness week which takes place from 18 - 24 May here in the U.K. In this episode, Blessing Timidi Digha shares how her lifelong role as an advocate for girls and women started during her childhood and the impact growing up a girl child living in Nigeria led her to becoming the steadfast feminist she now is. She also discuss the highly traumatic experience of losing her two youngest children to a fire whilst on a work trip. Though Blessing did receive immediate support from her community and friends from all over the world, her pain and trauma was further compounded by the nature of living in a highly insensitive culture where people including those she thought were her friends imposed blame of this loss on her. The grief and guilt Blessing continued to feel even after she had left Nigeria led her to becoming suicidal. Since her last attempt back in November 2019, she has continued to receive psychiatric support to help her deal with this trauma and is learning to let go of the guilt. I am honoured that Blessing was happy to share her story not only as part of her recovery but to help break down the degree of stigma that is attached to mental health, death and suicide. If you are affected by any of the issues discussed in this conversation, you can contact The Samaritans UK on 116 123. CONNECT WITH BLESSING: LinkedIn: https://www.instagram.com/blessingtimidi Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperGirlTimidi

“When you are a dark-skinned beauty, you might not want to be called Mocha or Midnight or something of that nature.” – Tahlia Gray Tahlia Gray is the Founder of Sheer Chemistry, an empowering hosiery brand specialising in tights for women of all shades of brown. Born in Australia of Jamaican heritage, she is passionate about challenging traditional beauty standards and helping women reach their potential. Before starting Sheer Chemistry, Tahlia graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in International Business, and began her career in New York working in HR for some of the world’s largest organisations including UBS, Morgan Stanley and Linklaters. Tahlia Gray was born in Sydney, Australia of Jamaican heritage where she spent the first 15 years of her life. Her family then moved to the UK where what was meant to be, according to her mum, a yearlong ‘Trip to Broaden your Horizon’ became a more permanent move. Tahlia chose to study International Business with a course that offered her year abroad living in Brazil. Following this Tahlia then moved to live and work in New York where whilst trying to “live her best sex & the city life”, her inability to find tights to match her skin tone propelled her to start Sheer Chemistry, an empowering hosiery brand, driven by a mission to create a more diverse perception of beauty. When Tahlia stumbled across this problem, she considered writing ‘an angry letter’ to someone but then realised that the person likely to be on the receiving end wouldn’t understand or nor would ‘HE’ care about her issue. In that moment Tahlia decided that the ‘only person who can really fix this problem’ was herself. And thus began her journey of creating her first business starting with the receiving the name which came to her in her sleep. She also did some market research by speaking to make up artists to better understand the different shades for Black women and other women of colour. You will hear in this episode how Tahlia has been so intentional in how she set up her business thinking very carefully about her branding and marketing. And this comes through from the moment you receive your package to the point of you putting on the tights and getting on with your day. She backs this up with the ‘Tahlia’s Promise’ that allows you to get your money back if you feel anything short of LOVE for her products. So sit back, relax and enjoy the Tahlia’s intrepid travel chronicles VISIT SHEER CHEMISTRY: https://www.sheerchemistry.com/our-story/ CONNECT WITH TAHLIA: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheerchemistry_tights

“It wasn't always easy, I definitely had my dark moments. I had my moments when I didn't has as much motivation. It wasn't all hype." – Arlan Hamilton Arlan Hamilton built a venture capital fund from the ground up, while homeless. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a fund that is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Started from scratch in 2015, Backstage has now raised more than $10 million and invested in more than 130 startup companies led by underestimated founders. In 2018 Arlan co-founded Backstage Studio which launched four accelerator programs for underestimated founders in Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and London.  Arlan was featured on the cover of Fast Company magazine in October 2018 as the first Black woman non-celebrity to do so, and her new book "It's About Damn Time" comes out on Penguin Random House's business imprint Currency on May 5, 2020.  On this episode of The Tokunbo Chronicles podcast, Arlan shares her incredible story from being homeless to becoming a Venture Capitalist. Arlan states that getting clear on the problem she was seeking to solve and knowing the value she would provide kept her going during the dark moments. CONNECT WITH ARLAN: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arlanhamilton/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArlanWasHere

Tokunbo Koiki is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, founder of the award-winning Tokunbo’s Kitchen and the London African Food Week. Tokunbo means ‘From across the Sea’ in Yoruba – a language and tribe from Nigeria. In true embodiment of her name, Tokunbo has brought her heritage from across the sea sharing her passion for the numerous culinary delights that Nigeria has to offer. Tokunbo has a fervent desire to build communities. She believes food to be a great unifier and is just one of the means in which she uses to accomplish this. As a result of her award-winning skills and warm personality, Tokunbo has had several press features as a leading voice for West Africa cuisine. She has also curated events on food, entrepreneurship and diversity with business giants such as Google and Facebook. A former social worker, forward-thinking fashionista, Podcast host and “social-connector” Tokunbo is continually embracing her multi-faceted nature. When she is not cooking up a storm in the kitchen or regaling guests with my epic stories, you are most likely to find her in the centre of a dance floor bringing the party to life!

“I was failing upwards...climbing all these heights but it wasn't my dream" – Kerrita McClaughlyn   Kerrita McClaughlyn is a global communications professional who has worked for a number of multinational companies, global NGOs, governments and multilateral organisations on strategic communications, corporate communications, reputation, stakeholder engagement, crisis, media relations, advocacy and policy. Kerrita has worked across the Europe, Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. She has a passion for helping individuals and organisations to tell their stories and is passionate about ensuring the inclusion of cultural and lived experiences. On this episode of The Tokunbo Chronicles podcast, Kerrita shares her story about growing up as the daughter of immigrants who left Jamaica for a better life to the USA . This inspired her to venture across the world to Europe, Africa, Middle East and The Americas as she sought to advance her professional career. Kerrita often found herself the only Black woman or minority in the room as she climbed up the ladder of corporate Europe. The level of responsibility that came with her senior roles, lack of support system coupled with the daily microagression she experienced led her to a burnout. A subsequent visit to a Neurologist found there wasn't anything physically wrong with her but he did warn her that persisting with the lifestyle she was on would lead to her death. A month later, Kerrita quit her job. Two days later she was on a plane to Brazil where she lived for the next six months before then travelling across Latin America for another year Kerrita used this period to gain better clarity about what she felt was more important to her. After spending her life trying to please her parents and essentially failing upwards, she came to realise the burnout was actually the best thing that happened to her.  "Be Curious, Be Courageous" is Kerrita's parting piece of advise. CONNECT WITH KERRITA: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerritamcclaughlyn/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/KerritaMcC

“I'm an artist with the canvas of a baker.”–Nastassja Lusengo Better known as Ms Sugar Plum: The Cake architect, Nastassja Lusengo is the engineer behind the concept bakery, The Indulgent Sugar Plum (TISP). Renowned for her sky-scraping artisan cakes, her distinctive decorating style marries her creative disciplines in fashion and art giving her clients a contemporary perspective on cake design. Ms Sugar Plum focuses on creating one off edible art pieces where no two cake designs are the same. Unique and flamboyant, the results ooze style, beauty & theatre. Thus creating masterpiece cakes that inspires conversation. On this episode of The Tokunbo Chronicles podcast, Nastassja shares her journey from fashion student to working at her dream brand, Diesel then going on to turn down an opportunity to work at Vogue to focus on her brand TISP. She is featured on Channel 4's 'Extreme Cake Makers' currently online and on Food Network Canada's show The Big Bake. Born in Zimbabwe, Nastassja came to England U.K at the age 1 and was raised knowing her heritage with strong family roots. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE INDULGENT SUGAR PLUM AT: http://thesweetplumandsuperpr.wordpress.com/ CONNECT WITH NASTASSJA: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ms_sugar_plum/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Theindulgentsugarplum/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Indulgent_SPLum

Alex Pemberton shares the moment he decided as a child that he would one day be running his own business and signing cheques. Despite spending two months putting together a business plan, Alex believes doing a SWOT Analysis on himself was more useful for him in launching his first business idea. Alex now works to support other people in his community to launch their business ideas using tried and tested methods of marketing and branding. LEARN MORE ABOUT LAUNCH SEVEN AT: /https://www.launchseven.com/ CONNECT WITH ALEX: Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexdpemberton Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexdpemberton/

Alex Pemberton shares the moment he decided as a child that he would one day be running his own business and signing cheques. Despite spending two months putting together a business plan, Alex believes doing a SWOT Analysis on himself was more useful for him in launching his first business idea. Alex now works to support other people in his community to launch their business ideas using tried and tested methods of marketing and branding. LEARN MORE ABOUT LAUNCH SEVEN AT: /https://www.launchseven.com/ CONNECT WITH ALEX: Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexdpemberton Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexdpemberton/

Who is Tokunbo? A social worker, award winning chef, and forward thinking fashionista, I'm continually embracing my multifaceted nature. The things I have faced to get to where I am today are enough to fill their own series, but I will also be sharing the stories that inspire me. From a young age, I've experienced how the power of hearing other people's stories can shape the course of ours. I believe in learning from those that have already walked a similar path and using their lessons to propel your own aspirations. I've also been blessed with the mentorship, guidance and inspiration from the people around me and the books and podcasts I seek out. The Tokunbo Chronicles are my way of paying all that forward. Whether it's through sharing stories or sharing food, I believe it's important to nourish ourselves and our community. So plug in your head phones, pull up a chair and feed your heart and mind with the latest episode of the podcast.