Glocal Citizens

Greetings Glocal Citizens! This week I had the treat of hosting a woman with sights on a healing revolution. Maya Gilliam is a serial entrepreneur as owner of Hempress Farms and Ma’ati Spa located in her native, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as well as global graphic design firm, III Eye Digital. A graduate of Howard University, she spent her early career in media focusing on sports with stints at USA Today and the NBA. In search of a way to reduce her screen time, she studied massage therapy and other wellness disciplines which led to the founding of Ma'ati Spa, LLC in 2012. Her business was hard hit by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic which inspired Maya into applying her hemp cultivation skills to transforming her spa business and merging spaces with Hempress Farms, LLC. Hempress Farms is a licensed boutique, family owned, artisanal hemp grow. Her products are sustainably produced and responsibly sourced from seed to bottle. The merged space is the only hemp tasting room in downtown Winston-Salem. Another certified #GlocalCitizen, Maya continues to hone her love for travel and luxury as she explores replicating her enterprise experience in Africa given the changing policy landscape in the industrial and medicinal hemp sectors. That's how we were able to connect in Accra on her recent African tour which included a stop in Rwanda. Listen in and get know more about what's now and next for Hempress Farms. www.hempresshealer.com On LinkedIn On Instagram On Twitter On Facebook What's Maya listening to? Burna Boy Afrobeats Other topics of interest: Yadkinville, North Carolina The Hakuna Group My Hempress Farms gift Bella Canna Enterprises CannaAfrikaSpecial Guest: Maya Gilliam.

Greetings Glocal Citizens! This week's episode is close to heart. I have as my guest Bangkok born, Virginia raised, globally trained and now achieving honorary Mbongo status in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Nisha Ligon, a social entrepreneur with a background in media and science, and a passion for education. She has produced content for the BBC, the Guardian, online learning platforms, and an award winning documentary, Twiga Stars-- she's an avid footballer. Nisha holds an MSc. from Imperial College London and a B.S. from Yale. Our paths intersect with her role as Co-founder and CEO of UBONGO, Africa's leading kids' edutainment company. Ubongo creates top quality, localized edutainment to help Africa's 500 million kids learn, and leverage their learning to change their lives. Their vision is to equip Africa's next generation with the educational foundation, critical skills and positive mindsets to change their own lives and communities for the better. Over 17 million families in Africa learn with our edu-cartoons and radio programs, and we're rapidly growing across the continent. At Ubongo, she’s lead visionary, series producer/ screenwriter, and does whatever it takes to get our products made, tested and released! Through a distribution relationship with Ubongo, LEAP Transmedia introduced Ghanaian children and families to the program beginning in 2015. Where to find Nisha and Ubongo? www.ubongo.org On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram On YouTube What's Nisha listening to? How to Save the Planet Podcast The Cipher Podcast Homecoming Pinna for kids Other topics of interest: About Laura Poitras Ubuntu Tom Chi @ TEDxSpecial Guest: Nisha Ligon.

June greetings Glocal Citizens! We're nearly halfway through "the year after" and in the spirit of reimagining spaces and places for our new next, my guest this week is all about personal development. Elvina Quaison, a British-Ghanaian is the founder of SESA, a global personal development organization. SESA is a space, a resource to assist others find answers, guidance and advice to make the life game more enjoyable. She has also served as Business Club Manager at AFFORD straddling continents to add value for businesses in the UK and Africa. Elvina's work in Ghana included a role as Marketing Manager at Beaufort Properties and the Director of Silk Solutions a company that made moving into Ghana easier and opened the market to the small business wanting to expand into a new exciting sphere. Reaching this point followed a path of working with and in African countries for over 11 years in various capacities including include facilitating workshops, trainings and one to ones as well as presenting at events from intimate talks to large international conferences. Fun fact about Elvina, she is also known as "Auntie Vina" and she hosts a story telling channel. She started the channel to share her love for children's books and the amazing journeys the imagination can take little people. She chooses books that focus on black children or are written by black authors. She also includes books that show a diversity of race, culture, religion, gender roles, health and life experiences and so much more, because our little people deserve so much more than just one way of looking at this big wide world. Check it out, her YouTube link is below! Where to find Elvina? On LinkedIn On Twitter On Instagram On Facebook On YouTube [email protected] What's Elvina reading? Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz What I Know for Sure by Oprah Winfrey Books by Brené Brown What's Elvina watching? The Matrix Other topics of interest: Adinkra Symbols Fante People of Ghana Akina Mama Wa Afrika African Women's Development Fund The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the SyndromeSpecial Guest: Elivina Quaison.

African Unity Day Greetings Glocal Citizens! This week we're back in Nigeria with one of Forbes' 30 under 30 in Enterprise Technology. Starting his first company at age 19, he's a serial entrepreneur in the public interest. Iyinoluwa Aboyeji spent the last few years as the CEO of Flutterwave, a business building payments technology and infrastructure connecting Africa to the global economy. He led the company to becoming one of the fastest growing payments technology businesses of all-time processing over $2 billion across over 50 million transactions. In his tech-prenuer endeavors, prior to Flutterwave, Iyinoluwa co-founded Andela - Africa's largest engineering organization with over 1,000 software engineers; Andela’s investors include Mark Zuckerberg and Google Ventures amongst others. Iyinoluwa or "E" now heads Fund for Africa’s Future where he spends time helping founders, philanthropists and investors from around the world understand how to do build fast growing and impactful technology businesses in Africa. Today we salute all that Iyinoluwa is doing to manifest a more unified Africa! Where to find Iyinoluwa: On LinkedIn On Twitter On Instagram On Facebook What's Iyinoluwa reading? The House of Morgan by Ron Chernow The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald American Disruptor: The Scandalous Life of Leland Stanford by Roland De Wolk Other topics of interest: Velocity @ University of Waterloo Learning Management Systems The Gilded Age Niger Delta ConflictSpecial Guest: Iyinoluwa Aboyeji.