Elizabeth Akanbi-Ogabi is a Firebrand, go-getting communications expert. Her work and passion are focused on supporting women in reaching their full potential. We found out about Elizabeth through her platform, For Working Ladies, a beautiful online hub for the modern working lady, to get all the resources you need to kick ass in your work/profession.
Elizabeth has an amazing, collaborative, adventurous spirit that we absolutely love, so we reached out to her to ask her about how she works and the big picture of For Working Ladies.
For Creative Girls: Your work and personality are so enchanting, can you share your career journey with us?
I’m blushing and thank you for that. So, I studied Law but during my course, I was fortunate to have worked at a startup PR company which was really fun. However, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but I knew it was no longer Law so I decided to do a Masters in International Business and that was the best decision I made. I absolutely loved the course and it opened my eyes to the world of Marketing. My first real job was at Unilever, where I learnt the fundamentals of Communications and PR, I then went on to manage Corporate Communications and Branding for a global Investment Bank. After 5/6 years in the corporate world and a new found love for all things digital, I decided to start freelancing. I’m now a freelance Digital Communications professional, from digital marketing to digital content creation and anything to connect with your audience online basically.
Besides this I run a Boutique communications brand which consults for female entrepreneurs/startups, I’m passionate about supporting females in establishing strong brands. I also run an online and offline platform called For Working Ladies. I created this to share practical advice for women around career, entrepreneurship, and lifestyle. Most importantly, the brand focuses on sharing stories from a diverse set of smart successful women with the aim of inspiring other women.
For Working Ladies is an inspiring platform, what eureka moment led you to create the platform?
I never had a mentor or someone I could ask questions about career choices and business. I was always online googling things, wanting to know how certain women made it in their careers, how to handle career issues or how to even start a business. I figured other ladies would be facing this issue so decided to create a platform that would be an answer. As a brand, we are really evolving and hope to do more to support and equip women this year.
How do you create a structure for your work, considering that you do a lot of traveling?
I have a set of countries I plan to visit every year which helps in creating a structure. I travel around my breaks as my priority is work. Travel comes second simply because it doesn’t pay the bills although I have had a few brand partnerships and would love to have more in the future.
Your work revolves around creating a lot of content, do you ever suffer from sudden moments of inertia?
Of course! This is mainly with written content and so sometimes I just take a break. However, with FWL, I have contributors so I don’t have to write as many articles anymore. I mainly focus on interviews and of recent our new podcast. Being that I love digital I am moving towards trying to create more video content this year so I would love collaborations with any videographers.
What does Creativity mean to you?
Doing you and expressing that.
There’s really no right or wrong way, it’s either people love your creativity or they don’t. I find that once you keep creating it becomes easier.
The first For Working Ladies offline event holds tomorrow January 31st, what should career-focused women living in London expect at the event?
To learn! Gone are the days of having to make plenty mistakes, of course, we will always make them but they can be minimised by learning from other successful smart women. There’s also going to be opportunities to network with other like-minded women which I find very fortunate because we all need a tribe.
Morning person or Nocturnal? What’s your most productive time?
Morning!
I love mornings! My body is fully pumped from about 4:30 am, it’s quiet and I just feel so full of energy to produce. I really don’t believe in working into the early hours of the morning, I would rather sleep well and wake up very early.
If you had a superpower, what would it/what would like to be called as a superhero?
Hmmm. My superpower would be to read people’s minds. Superhero name – lol. Absolutely no clue!
Tell us about 3 women you admire.
This changes on a regular basis, as you can imagine I meet a lot of women and read about them too. I admire so many women, however, most recently I’ve been inspired by Otegha Uwagba, Sharmadean Reid and will always love Sophia Amoruso. They are the definition of REAL hard work and have learnt to build impactful brands. Otegha recently won Forbes 30 under 30 and I’m super proud to see a young Nigerian woman representing, she is a role model for young black girls in the U.K. and I’m excited to see what she’s going to do next.
I’ve always loved Sharmadean for her smartness and creativity! I’m in love with how she grew WAH nails to become a cult brand, only a few people can achieve this.
Lastly, Sophia will always be an icon to me. She created and drove the Girl boss movement. I know the term Girl Boss tends to make some of us cringe but it was a movement that empowered women to boldly step out and become their own bosses, we have to appreciate what she created.
Favourite websites and platforms.
At the moment my favourite websites are:
My Domaine
The Lifestyle Edit
Create Cultivate
TED Talks
and I’m always on Sky scanner as I’m always looking for travel deals!