Hey 👋🏾 you! Hope you all had a restful weekend and are refreshed for the new week. I did, and I’m so excited for a fresh start!
November 4th, 2021, an incredible woman named Bolanle Williams-Olley launched her book called “Build Boldly”. As soon as that happened, I ran to Amazon to get my copy. Trust your girl now!😂 For those that know me or have been following me for while, know how much value I place on my career.

A little background on how I started following Bola on Instagram. I came across her Instagram profile back in 2019 and was just amazed at how much she has done for herself. For those that REALLY know me, you know there’s nobody I can’t send a DM to!😂 If our forever First Lady, Michelle Obama was reading her personal DMS, she would have read something from me, by now! In other words, I’m not too intimidated not to shoot my shot. What’s the worst that can happen? You ignore…and if you do, WE MEUVE!!! No hard feelings 🙂 So, as usual, I sent a message to Bola on Instagram, just praising her and telling her how much she’s inspiring people like me. I even asked her if she had a mentoring program even though I knew we were not in the same field career-wise. She said she didn’t. I still kept in touch with her though, from time to time with questions and some of my experiences in Corporate America and she was so gracious to respond to my messages!
One of the things I love about her is her humility and her willingness to help people, irrespective of their status! Help comes in different ways, and I can confidently say I have benefited from that help by her just responding to my questions and messages in general. Everything she wrote in her book, is who she really is and that is me talking from the conversations I’ve had with her, whom she has never physically met.
I have had a funny experience in the past, where I reached out to someone who actually runs a mentoring program. I was making inquiries about the program and said I was going to reach out to the individual once I’m ready. I then remembered that I didn’t really introduce myself properly in terms letting the individual know what my background looks like, career wise. I tried to correct that and this individual (whom I thought was the mentor, since it’s her personal page) told me to wait till I enroll in the program and that the mentor isn’t the one responding to messages on that page. Mind you, that page wasn’t a page dedicated to the mentoring program. It was a page that was more of a personal account, belonging to the mentor!😂 I was like whatttt? Don’t get me wrong, no one owes anyone their time to engage in any form of conversation. However, I still felt a direct response such as ‘ I’m busy’ or ‘I don’t discuss things like this on my personal page’ could have made more sense 😂😂, rather than making it look like you are not the one actually responding to my messages! I didn’t even bother enrolling any longer!😂 I have a mentor now though. ☺️
In Bola’s book, she shares her journey starting from being an international student. I found that really interesting and something I could relate with, being someone who also came into the country as an international student. She also shares her experiences at different jobs and how those experiences helped to understand clearly, what she should be looking out for in an organization she wants to work in. I could also relate with that because most times, when we go for interviews, they tell us what they are looking for in the ideal candidate. However, we as the candidates don’t take out to time to ask ourselves: What are we looking for in an organization that we want to work in? What culture do we want to see? What red flags should we be looking out for, in deciding whether we want to work in an organization or not. I’ve learnt that, in my corporate America experience, and seeing Bola reiterate that point in her book, made me realize I’m not alone! If a current CFO have had some funny job experiences in the past, and her story is still being written, then it means mine is clearly not over yet! 😁In fact, I’m just getting started! She also shared about the struggle of looking for a job, which I could absolutely relate with. Rejections can be devastating. At some point, you may feel like you are not worthy of anything good. It’s crazy! That’s when you begin to doubt your ability, not remembering the fact that you can’t get an offer in all the jobs you apply to. It’s not possible. You just have keep moving, knowing fully well, that yours will come!
In conclusion, she really inspires us to be AUTHENTIC and teaches us AUTHENTICITY by being an authentic person herself! I love the book and will definitely keep referring back to it, especially when I need some motivation. 🙂 It’s available on Amazon!
Have a great week y’all! See you when I see you! 😀