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Glory Edozien has a doctorate degree in Real Estate and Environmental planning from the University of Reading, UK. She has worked as a Project Development Executive for an environmental management company based in Lagos, as well as working with the popular blogsite, bellanaija as its features editor and editor at large. Glory currently works as an entrepreneur and is the founder of 9to5Chick, a forum that connects ambitious female professionals to accomplished executives to discuss strategies for rising to the top as well as enabling young women advance in their careers. On the sidelines of the Women in Tech Panel at the Running in Heels Conference which featured MTN’s GM Corporate Affairs, Omasan Ogisi and other female tech titans, Glory shares with BDSUNDAY, insights on how women can straddle between managing their careers and working as entrepreneurs, amongst other issues. Excerpts:
Tell us about 9-5 Chick. Where did the vision come from?
As a former career woman myself, I had worked in environmental policy and climate change for the last 15 years. Understanding the career woman’s journey, I felt that in Nigeria there was so much focus on female entrepreneurship and considering that right now, I am an entrepreneur, I fully understand the reason for the focus. I also understand that we want to build sustainable businesses and that over fifty percent of Nigerian women are involved in a type of entrepreneurship activity or the other. But the truth is that not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur. People want to live fulfilled career lives but where are they getting trained, where are they interacting cross-sectorally, where are they meeting influential career women who can teach them, inspire and mentor and sponsor them? Where are the resources beyond competency? In the workplace after a certain level of career, you and the next person across your desk have the same certificate, you have the same years of experience, you have everything but it is the soft skills that will transition you to the top. The pertinent question is where are women getting these things? I saw there was a certain gap in the market and because fundamentally when I was a career, one of the things that I was lucky enough to do was I learnt how to build my brand and I learnt work beyond my job description.
Naturally, I got the opportunities I got because of God but also because of my foray in entrepreneurship. I learnt that I was the CEO of my career, there was never a time I was waiting for my company to go and train me. It just was not something I would do, I would train myself. I wanted to pass on that knowledge and when I speak to career women, all the time I will find out that they are stuck. They are in jobs doing well and being good at it but they are not enjoying themselves. I wanted to create a place where career women can thrive, where they can come and get the resources they needed to upscale their careers, find fulfillment and live passionately and that is why I created 9-5 Chick.
How has that experience been?
We are just over a year, so it has been amazing and has been a learning curve. I love networking, interacting, learning about women and meeting women. It has been a real learning curve and an enjoyable one at that.
What makes the experience amazing and can you share some success stories?
At this Running in Heels conference, there are women here that have come for every career event we have done and this is our sixth edition since we started in February 2017. I meet people on the street and they ask me if I am the 9-5Chick, even someone was asking a question and mentioned a quote from our social media page. When we have champions in the career world, come and talk to younger career women and you see the exchange that takes place, it is such a humbling experience and we are able to facilitate that. You will hear women that have used some of the things that they have learnt at our events and they have been able to scale up their careers. For example, we had a power breakfast session with Aisha Ahmad who used to work in Diamond Bank but is now the CBN Deputy Governor. She was just teaching us some things that you overlook in your career – how you speak up at meetings, how to deal with a difficult boss, real practical tips that you can use in your day-to-day work experience. As we listen to feedback from people who come again and again because of the value of being a member of 9-5Chick platform. It’s very humbling and it just shows that there is a market for what we do.
Could you take us through the process that birthed this Running in Heels conference?
This conference for millennial women has been organized in partnership with Leading Ladies Africa. It’s really a Leading Ladies Africa brain-child which is championed by Francesca Uriri but I have known her for a very long time because I run another organization called Inspired by Glory Academy where we also train women. Francesca came to me last year to say she had this idea and I said it is amazing and lets run with it. The idea behind this was “let’s show people that two women can come together and create something, let’s dispel this myth that women cannot collaborate”. Secondly, we wanted to create a space for cross sectoral networking where women in Tech, Finance, can come and have conversations. Let’s also empower women that want to make bold moves in their careers, how can we get champion career women to come and distill practical tips from their careers to women who need these tips. Which is why we have been able to bring together personalities such as Omasan Ogisi, General Manager Corporate Affairs at MTN Nigeria; Omokehinde Adebanjo, Vice President & Area Business Head for West Africa, MasterCard; Bola Atta; Group Director; Marketing & Corporate Comms, UBA; Eme Essien Lore, Country Manager, International Finance Corporation; Rimini Makama, Government Affairs Director, Emerging Markets (Nigeria & Ghana) Microsoft amongst others. We asked ourselves, what sort of fun can we create and we realized that women are running with so many issues – they want to scale up their careers, balance family issues and they want to live healthy personal lives. How do we empower women to do that? We are all running in heels and this is how we got here.
There is a sense out there that platforms like this can be tokenistic in the sense that they are coming at it from a women first perspective. What would say to people who are viewing this kind of initiative from that kind of paradigm?
I will say that they are grossly mistaken. Everywhere that there has been a collective action towards a cause, there has always been success. All you need to do is to look at Freedom Marches in the US, the #metoo movement and even in our country, the #BringBackOuGirls movement, anywhere that there is a collective action towards a course, and that’s not tokenism there is always success. Women make up half of Nigeria’s population. This is not just by the way, it is something that affects half of Nigeria’s GDP, whether we like it or not. So this is not a tokenistic action, it is something that is relevant and for the United Nations to designate a day as International Women’s Day, they knew the implications as we press for progress. It’s so much calmer now, not necessarily just giving them opportunities but to empower women to take advantage of the opportunities that are available and that are what Leading Ladies Africa and 9-5 Chick are trying to do. Where the opportunities are, let us empower women to take advantage of these opportunities and that is not tokenism at all.
As someone who has enjoyed the best of both worlds as a career person and an entrepreneur, how would you advise people who want to make the leap either way?
Entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted. It may be easier for me to be in my previous job or the sector in which I was trained. It is a much easier transaction and life but with entrepreneurship, what keeps me going is my passion and drive. Honestly, if I had a choice I would not be doing this but every time I wake up, this work is all I dream about. This is my why, my everything, and this is where I feel the most alive. My advice is- understand your why, and your motivations. I had fought with my dad because of my decision to become an entrepreneur. It is not a decision I have taken lightly or I have not weighed the pros and cons. A lot of people will tell you that you can profit from your passion but the biggest lesson I learnt last year is that you will not profit from your passion, if you know what the value of that passion is because people pay for value. They don’t pay because you are passionate. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you must understand the value you are bringing to the market and the problem you are solving before you even venture out.
What is the best advice you have got that has aided you to be where you are now?
Listen to your spirit. Your spirit knows where it wants to go in life and if you are able to develop the practice of silence and internal meditation and spiritual growth, you will hear your spirit dictate or push you in the direction you should go.
What would you be telling that fresh young female graduate who wants to work in corporate with the benefits of your experience, what would you say to her?
Keep an open mind to life. You know we are so worried, would I make it in life, would I get a promotion etc. If I knew all the things I know now, I will worry less and I will keep an open mind to life.
