During the week, our media team met with Ms. Faith Moyosore Agboola, a written/audio/visual storyteller passionate about healing hearts, lifting minds and inspiring destinies. She is also an historian, editor, content strategist and author publicist.
She is the Founder and CEO of The African Writers, a multiple award winning pan-african literary brand with the aim of showcasing, developing and connecting the new generation of African writers. She is also the convener of African Writers Meet, a yearly event with the same purpose.
We had an exciting chat with her and we want to welcome you to experience a bit of her awesomeness!
Let’s meet you.
I am Agboola Faith Moyosore, a written, audio & visual storyteller, historian, author publicist, and Founder of The African Writers, a leading Pan-African literary brand dedicated to raising the new generation of African writers.
Tell us about your business. [How did you come about the idea, what was your mission, what is your mission now, what prompted you to go into this industry? etc.]
The African Writers began in 2016 as my response to writers platforms on Instagram that didn’t seem responsive enough to writers of African descent. I was fed up with not getting featured and not seeing writers from this part of the world featured on their Instagram pages. I remember searching for a brand like mine and was shocked that it didn’t exist. As a result, I felt compelled to do it and till this day it has proven to be a highly desired platform.
What started as a response to discrimination is now a brand showcasing, developing, promoting and connecting African writers through diverse mediums. We produce valuable content, regularly hold competitions and challenges, partner with authors and brands and host a yearly conference which brings together industry leaders and trainers to develop our community. There’s a lot to us, but this is a summary of what we have done thus far.
How do you define success and what major challenges have you experienced growing
your brand?
Success for me is having a community of people live their dreams and become successful because of my actions. This is why everything I do as a storyteller, publicist and CEO of a brand for writers is to spur people on to their own success.
For challenges, at first people didn’t take it seriously until they witnessed the impact. Also, the Nigerian literary space isn’t yet as lucrative as most industries so most of the regular business issues are heightened because the dynamics are tougher.
You have been doing very great with your brand, what has been your expansion
strategy and where do you see your brand going in the next few years?
Hmmm. Thank you for the kind words. I just always try to do better than the last. We set a goal, work hard to achieve it and then set a higher one. Also, ensuring that we are intentional with our activities. Before we do anything we think of the bigger picture and we do not shy away from reviewing or making hard decisions.
What concerns do you currently have about your company?
Honestly, for now I don’t have any. We avoid dabbling into things that would give us sleepless nights. I understand that businesses have risks, so anything we do that has potentially devastating consequences would have a contingency plan.
What is the toughest decision you have had to make concerning your business in the
last few months?
To go on a hiatus for rebranding purposes.
What keeps you motivated as an entrepreneur?
That destiny chose me. I didn’t choose to do this, I was born to do this and no matter the challenges, that which deemed me worthy would see me through.
What were you doing the last time you looked at the clock and realized you had lost all
track of time?
Admiring well shot videos on Instagram.
How do you wind off from the day’s stress?
Music, social media and a new hobby- working out. since we must have this summer body. Hahaha
What movie, no matter how many times you’ve seen it, do you have to watch when
it’s on?
One Tree Hill and I’ve seen the complete nine seasons a dozen times.
Describe a time you felt you were right, but you still had to follow directions or
guidelines?
Lol. A funny story. So a few months to my undergraduate degree convocation in 2015 when I was preparing to win about 11 academic excellence awards – including best graduating student in my faculty – I got a call from the head of my department informing me that I might not graduate because I didn’t register for the semester.
It was the craziest thing ever, because I remember registering in the company of friends who registered as well. I knew it was a computer error but my already saddened lecturers didn’t think it was wise to prove a point. They stressed that I should write that I was sorry and made a mistake and ask for mercy.
I really wanted to simply state that the computer made an error but out of respect and the risk involved should Incase my stand was taken unreasonably, I followed their instructions.
I’m glad I did though because they later discovered some other students whom were in the same position as well but didn’t actually register. They were sympathetic to me because of my academic standing and favored these other students because of me. So I’m definitely sure that I was used as a vessel to save them.
At Developing Afrika, we believe so much in reading books, “What book would you
suggest everyone on the team reads?
Three books:
- Steal Like An Artist
- The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck
- The War Of Art
What is your advice to every entrepreneur and aspiring entrepreneur out there?
- Know your why, it is what would keep you going.
- Don’t compare yourself to other entrepreneurs, you all have different destinies and journeys. Don’t try to change your vision because of what you see now. What might be bad today might be “it” tomorrow. What might be the “it” might fizzle out tomorrow.
- Have a life outside of your business. A not for profit passion. A hobby that you love. Have real non business related friendships and just live. You don’t want to wake up at 60 with a billion dollar business with no real life experiences or relationships.
- Enjoy the process and stop obsessing about the results. If you don’t enjoy the process maybe you should rethink doing it in the first place.
What issues would you suggest has to be tackled to bring about a better Africa?
- More Africans need to study history to understand the dynamics of things. A lot of our problems are centuries old and until we collectively understand how we got here we can’t objectively make a change.
- The storytellers and writers need to use their power to educate people on the possibilities. We need to sensitize the minds of people and stories are the best ways.
- Every citizen should work on their heart and stop blaming the leaders. Corrupt people produce corrupt leaders.
- We need to reduce our religious fanaticism and tribalism and start to operate objectively.
- African countries should unite and build a formidable bloc. Alone we may be disadvantaged but together we can pull our weight.
What are your personal and business social media handles (Instagram, Twitter and
Facebook) should our readers want to connect with you?
Personal: @afmstories on Instagram and Twitter. Faith Moyosore Agboola on Facebook.
Business: @africanwriters on Instagram. @africanwriters_ on Twitter. The African Writers on Facebook.
Website: www.theafricanwriters.com
