At 31, Ruby Agu’s health spiraled—low blood pressure, heart complications, postpartum bleeding, and two major surgeries in just a few years. But what nearly broke her, built her. Through grit, grace, and unwavering resilience, she transformed her pain into purpose—and became the force behind FitAuntyRuby. This is not just a story of fitness. It’s a story of survival, healing, and the power of rising again.
Most people have goals. But not everyone has a strategy. Femi Luther-Abegunde (FLA) breaks down the habits, systems, and identity shifts that move people from confusion to clarity — and from stuck to strategic. Purpose doesn’t need adrenaline — it needs structure.
Nkiru Iyabo Emodi, a graduate of accountant from the University of Benin turned entrepreneur, makes bespoke shoes right here in Lagos.
Being unemployed after graduating and the desire to keep busy led her to learning how to make shoes. She is such a talented cobbler who pays attention to the small details. Today she is proud to be an ambitious lady cobbler. Her dreams are quite big, her tagline reads, ‘shoes for all nations’. She believes in being a three dimensional woman – an outstanding woman of many titles; an outstanding inspiring woman; and an independent woman.
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It is important that we understand that everything is possible. Our potentials are limitless, we only need to let the creativity in us soar. Once you start, you can only get better. Just start. We need more of the dreamers who will do. Well lovelies, anyone can cook… but only the fearless can be great.
Instagram recently upgraded their app that enables users convert to a Business Profile on Instagram and get access to new features like Insights, Contact information and promoted posts all from the mobile app.
If you have not noticed the contact buttons for your Instagram business account yet, here’s how to create your Instagram business profile. Be sure you are running the latest version of the Instagram app.
Business profile is a free feature for business accounts on Instagram. Business can choose how they want their customers to get in touch with them: call, text or email with a tap of the contact button as well as get directions to the business location. Business profiles also unlock insights and the ability to promote.
If you have a business account and you don’t see these buttons yet, here’s how to switch below:
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Step 1- Go to your profile settings and tap switch to business account.
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Step 2 – On the Connect your Facebook page screen, you’ll see all of the Facebook pages you’re currently administering. Select the the corresponding Facebook page. If you don’t have a Facebook page, you need to set one up. It’s a requirement.
Review business contact information as necessary. Tap done.
Your new business profile should look like this – with contact details, location enabled.
***Please note the feature is gradually rolling out and may not be available to some accounts.
Once you convert to a Business Profile on Instagram, you’ll get access to Instagram Insights.
Instagram Insights will help you understand more about your audience on Instagram. It will provide information on your top posts, posts with the most engagements, who your followers are, when they are online and more. All of these insights will help brands know when it’s best to post online and what posts engaged followers the most.
Each posts on a business page also has insights, that way you can see how each individual post is performing and the extent to which the post engaged your followers.
Business profiles also allows you to see how many people clicked on your link, the number of impressions you have and your total reach. All these can be done from the mobile app. According to a post on the Instagram business blog,
by learning more about the behavior and demographics of your audience, you can create more relevant and timely content
And I couldn’t agree more. By the way, if you’re looking to get more targeted traffic to your online store using Instagram as a platform, I recommend that you shoot us an email using the contact form.
A chance meeting ten years ago led three American women to establish an organisation that is turning the plight of impoverished Ugandan women around and will soon do the same for a million more impoverished women around the world.
After Torkin Wakefield, Ginny Jordan, and Devin Hibbard met Millie Grace Akena stringing paper bead necklaces to sell in order to earn money to take care of her family, imagination was sparked and BeadforLife was born.
The goal of the organisation was simple, help women achieve financial freedom and independence by creating an international market for the beads produced.
But that one simple idea grew wings and flew to become Street Business School, an entrepreneurial training programme that is teaching women how to setup and run businesses in their communities and thus enable them take care of their families.
Train a woman and you train a nation is not just a saying. From one woman empowered, to an entire empowered community and nation, Street Business School has helped nearly 2,500 women set up businesses and in turn keft 98% of their children in school.
Their vision to eradicate poverty is fuelled by passion and funds gotten from the sale of the paper bead jewellery as well as donations from charitable individuals and institutions, and it is not stopping there.
Their goal now is to reach one million women globally by 2027. To achieve this, they are partnering with organisations worldwide to train members on how to implement the Street Business School programme in their local communities in order to achieve global success as has been recorded in Uganda over the past ten years.
The success stories are numerous. Of the 40,000 people reached by the programme in its ten years, 81% of women are still running successful businesses after two years of graduating from the programme.
The BeadforLife slogan says, “ignite potential, end poverty”, but the Street Business School does more than ignite potential, it is transforming lives and now, it is inspiring others around the world to do the same.
Author, motivational speaker, success coach, entrepreneur, artist, trained and full time working engineer, and blogger, Okechukwu Ofili is a man of many interests turned into successful careers. His catchphrase, “addicted to the truth, allergic to bullshit” perfectly encapsulates the totality of his person as an inspiring individual not just for what he has done but for who he is.
As an author, his three unconventional books – How Intelligence Kills, How Laziness Saved My Life and How Stupidity Saved My Life – have inspired many to change their outlook on life, while his fourth and most recent book, a children’s book titled, Afro: the girl with magical hair, released late last year, is an inspiring African story that challenges the stereotypical western literature African children have been exposed to in the past.
As a motivational speaker and success coach, Ofili speaks frequently on how to think outside the box and beat the status quo and expectations of intelligence and success with the aim to get many to live more fulfilling and effective lives.
As an entrepreneur, Ofili is the founder of Okada Books, a digital publishing platform that allows writers connect with readers from all over with the aim to make access to books easier.
But beyond his art, entrepreneurship and writing, Ofili is inspiring because of his passion for helping people, whether it is children from low income families or families in low income communities. From raising funds for school children to return to school, to collecting donations to renovate a block of classrooms at a low cost school, Ofili does not just think of the change he wants to see in the world, he goes out of his way to effect it.
In 1972, Life magazine published a story depicting the adventures of John Goddard. His story was one of undying determination filled with personal purpose. When he was fifteen, he heard his grandmother say, ‘If I had only done this when I was young.’ Determined not to spend his life playing the ‘if only’ game, John Goddard sat down and decided what he wanted to do with his life. When he finished writing, 127 goals came to being; he called it his Life List.
“to dare is to do… to fear is to fail” – John Goddard
John Goddard decided there were ten rivers he wanted to explore, along with seventeen mountains he wanted to climb. He decided to become an Eagle Scout; Visit every country in the world; Learn to fly an airplane; and dive in a submarine. He wanted to retrace the travels of Marco Polo and ride a horse in the Rose Parade. And this was just the beginning.
John Goddard committed himself to reading the Bible from cover to cover, reading the entire works of Shakespeare, Plato, Dickens, Aristotle, Socrates and several other classic authors. He planned to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica and yet have time to learn to play the flute and violin.
Marriage? Yes! Children? he has six, and his plans also included a stint with church missions, along with a career in medicine.
At forty-seven, 1972, John Goddard, had accomplished 103 of his 127 goals and according to the speakers source book by Glenn Van Ekeren,
“Goddard exemplifies the excitement of determining a purpose in life, setting goals, and pursuing them with determination”
At 84, John Goddard still hopes to achieve his remaining goals. He has just 18 more to go.
You may not have much interest in exploring rivers and climbing mountains, but how would you answer the question:
John Goddard passed away in 2013 at a ripe age of 88. At the time of his passing, the LA Times recorded that his son, Jeffery Goddard said his father had reached all but a few of his goals, but could not be exact. You can see the actual list of goals and the ones he achieved here. From the list of 125 goals, he had 15 more to go.
The LA Times called him – “The real life Indiana Jones” and one of his expeditions, “the most amazing adventure of this generation.”
As a mom, one thing I wanted to do, was to ensure the kids get busy learning the right things. Over the past years, I have found several online resources that could be really useful in aiding how and what they learn. Here’s a list of my top 6 online resources for kids:
One of my favorite go-to websites is oxfordowl. This is one great website the kids love. We all enjoy reading and listening to the e-books together. The great thing is that because the e-books can be read out loud, the kids are able to improve their pronunciation skills. For me that’s key. Oxford Owl also combines math lessons and quizzes with advice for kids’ activities for children from the ages of 3 to 11. The website has up to 200 free e-books that can be accessed once you log in which is very easy to do. I also love this site because it provides teaching guides for parents and teachers.
Another great online resource I found very useful is a youtube channel called Kidstv123. Your child can take their first steps in the world of education in a fun and exciting way, by watching and listening to animated rhymes, and several songs that teach subjects ranging from numbers, planets, countries of the world, objects, shapes and much more.
Another online resource I found really useful is Scratch – a free programming language and online community where kids from ages 8 – 16 can create interactive stories, games, and animations, and share their creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.
It’s OKAY to be SMART is a helpful YouTube channel that teaches children all about science, the amazing universe we live in, and how it connects to every part of our life.
Incredible Science is a great YouTube channel because it is so fun for the children and even for me as a parent. The kids get to watch simple and fun science experiments and I like the fact that the presenter keeps the videos short and simple. It is a great channel for fun and practical learning, and the children are guaranteed to enjoy it and you will too.
For kids who love art, ArtforKidsHub is a must especially for visual demonstration. You will definitely have fun with your kids learning how to draw common objects, animals, and people and also learning to sculpt all kinds of cool things.
Are there other online resources or video channels your kids watch? Feel free to add to the list when you drop your comments.
Rotimi Williams (36), an entrepreneur that is changing the face of agriculture in Nigeria. The former journalist is the owner of Kereksuk Rice Farm in Nasarawa state, the 45,000 hectared second largest rice farm in Nigeria. With three degress in Economics, Finance and Development Studies, Williams is putting his education into good use with a dream to help Nigeria achieve economic sustainability through reduction of importation of specific consumable products such as rice.
Leaving his job in the banking sector to pursue his passion for agriculture while learning all he knows about farming through Google, Williams shows that where there is a will, a way will indeed be found. The farm is currently producing 8,000 metric tons of rice per year, a number Williams hops to double in the coming year.
But perhaps what is more inspiring is how he has managed to deal with the challenges of farming in Northern Nigeria, specifically, with the Fulani herdsmen prevalent in the region. Setting up an initiative that trains Fulani women in rice farming at the same time as employing their men as security while allowing them feed their cattle with the rice straws from the harvest.
This ingenious approach could just be the solution the Federal Government might want to employ to help greatly reduce incidences of clashes between herdsmen and farmers. If that doesn’t say inspiring, we don’t know what is.
Gbemisola Olateru Olagbegi (GbemiOO) is a media personality; broadcaster, presenter and producer who in a short while, carved a niche for herself on Nigeria’s air waves.
But that is not the only thing that sets her apart. She is also the founder of Gbemisoke shoes (an idea born from her own personal experience), the first Nigerian OAP owned shoe line to cater specifically to women with big feet.
Doing exactly what only great entrepreneurs and creators do, seeing a need or a gap in society and going out of their way to fill it.
To inspire is to push the boundaries of what can and can’t be done, Gbemi O. O did it and shows that if you believe you can, you will.
Recently, I have been working with my team on a client’s project. The client wanted a web based database application.
The client gave us large sets of data in Excel sheets, and then the data had to be restructured to a new format that will work with our app.
Working on this project reminds me of my love for Excel and its magical power. I have been busy doing many other things so I haven’t had the reason to dig into Excel until lately. But as I always knew, every challenge has a solution and a better way, so I am that type who always look for a more effective way to solve problems.
There are basic simple things that you can all do to improve your Excel knowledge and to help you work faster in any version of Excel. I am mentioning 4 major things we did on this project that tremendously helped to save time. When your formula is right, you don’t need to worry about data accuracy. In any case, for me, I usually still double check to be sure that my results are as expected.
The project required that we change the date format so it can fit into our new program: this formula will help change any date format in Excel: =TEXT(A17,”yyyymmdd”) – where A17 represents the cell that contains the old date format.
The project required that we layer data that were in different columns into a single column, (even if the column ranges from A to XY), this command will help you achieve that: =OFFSET(GDPTable,MOD(ROW()-ROW(MergedData),ROWS(GDPTable)),TRUNC((ROW()-ROW(MergedData))/ROWS(GDPTable),0),1,1). For this to work, you will need to first name the range of cells where the data is (in the formula above, the name of the data table is, GDPTable); and then name the first cell where you want the result to appear (in this case MergedData). Once you have done that, copy the code above into the first cell in the column where your results should appear and then press the enter key. The first result appears in the cell, you can autofill until the entire result for the table is now restructured into one column. Read this post on how to define names or follow this method if you are using office 2010 and newer versions. Select the Data Range, Click on the Formula Tab, Select Define Name.
The project required that we change data in rows into columns and vice versa: the Excel transpose function will help you achieve that. The formula for that is =TRANSPOSE(B11:B21); where B11:B21 is the range of the original cells, close the brackets and then press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER.
And lastly, we needed a clean number range without scientific notations (MS Excel by default changes all numbers in a cell that has more than 12 digits to scientific format e.g. 2.97E+24). To show the entire number, Just select the columns or rows with the numbers, right click, click on format cell, and then select number.
“You can kill a revolutionary but you cannot kill a revolution”
Afeni Shakur Davis (born Alice Faye Williams), Legendary mother of a legendary rapper (Tupac Shakur), a black panther, poet, fighter, activist and much more died yesterday. She was 69.
Despite her background, she was different, she was strong and fearless, making her voice heard in whatever situation. In 1971, according to F. Kennedy Taylor, she represented herself in court and was acquitted on 156 counts and charges, and released from prison shortly before Tupac’s birth.
Interestingly, her name “- Afeni Shakur, derived from the Yoruba term for “lover of the people”– and a new vision for the future.” thereby identifying with her African heritage.
You can follow Tweets from around the world and tributes on her passing in this link.
She seems to me a phenomenal woman, who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to go for it. Some of her quotes that inspired me are below:
“We continue 2 fail these brilliant young people because they R not saying what our message was.”
“You can kill a revolutionary but you cannot kill a revolution”
“If you can’t find somethin’ to live for, you best find somethin’ to die for.”
“Don’t isolate me. If you do, it will relieve ordinary people from assuming their important roles.”
“It’s important to know the stuff you came from.”
“Life comes in cycles. When God gave war, he also gave peace. the most important thing is to b the best & most peaceful u can.”
“I guarantee that the seed you plant in love, not matter how small, will grow into a mighty tree of refuge.”
More importantly,
“Remember to keep yourself alive, there is nothing more important than that”.
Rest in peace, legend momma!
Tupac Shakur with his mother Afeni Shakur
Featuring: Afeni Shakur
Where: United States
When: 17 Dec 2003
