Ona Oghogho’s Burgeoning Media Empire
Ona Oghogho
CEO/Founder of Blk Pod Festival, Blk Pod Collective, Adode Media
Spring 2022 Flourish Fellowship Fellow
Most entrepreneur origin stories have one of three narratives:
1) The founder loses their job and needed to pivot to a new source of income. Then a new business is born.
2) The founder grows tired and frustrated with the way life was set up for employees and chooses a greater sense of “freedom” over the safety of a set schedule and steady paycheck.
3) The founder realizes that to achieve the type of financial success they desire; they would have to do more than simply be the best employee they could be. They had to create something of their own.
Ona Oghogho founder of Blk Pod Collective, Blk Pod Festival, and Adode Media squarely fits into category 1 with a variation of category 2.
But that’s not the interesting part. Millions of people have great ideas and a few thousand of those take action to create something new. How many, though, have the focus, drive, and determination to continue? Not many.
Ona is of those favored few who have launched not just one, but multiple businesses, and has found a way to generate income, hire staff, and remain on a trajectory of growth for years to come. So, what’s her secret? After speaking with Ona and listening to her story, one could readily attribute her success to a few factors:
1) Self-determination and a will to succeed
2) A solid foundation on which to build
3) Leadership and cultivating a winning team
4) A strong “growth” mindset.
Self-Determination and a Will to Succeed
Growing up in a Nigerian household, there was a clear expectation for success. More times than not, however, that success was expected to come through only a few selected fields. “You were expected to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or something along those lines,” she explained. But Ona had a different set of passions and skillset that she wanted to further cultivate and explore. Nevertheless, following the wisdom of her parents, and in the expectation of the family, she journeyed into the medical field where she enjoyed a meaningful and successful career.
Then, Ona’s life was interrupted by an unexpected challenge. She was laid off from her job.
Although she undoubtedly felt the disappointment of losing her job, she chose to have faith in herself and her abilities rather than fear an unknown future. Her innate will and desire to succeed helped position her to pivot towards the life that she truly desired for herself. She didn’t quite fully understand where the journey would lead, but she took action and made her first steps toward what would eventually be the beginnings of a new media empire.
Firm Foundation
Ona’s life-changing layoff was disappointing, but it wasn’t the end of the world. Prior to the change, she had been preparing for a “what if” scenario and had already been arming herself with tools for success. On the one hand, Ona had a degree and background in communications that she had not yet fully utilized in a professional sense. In college, she worked with her school’s radio station and had an interest in the podcasting space. Rather than letting those years of training and learning go to waste she decided to use her newfound “free time” to do something…anything. So, at the suggestion of her friends she started a simple Instagram page. That page would later grow and develop into the businesses and organizations that she leads today.
You may wonder how someone with a significantly reduced income was able to find time to focus on building a brand and business. The answer is that Ona had already learned the power of financial literacy and financial wellness. Over the years, while she was still generating income from her “9 to 5” made her money work for her by utilizing the principles of saving and investing. Even more, she flipped an asset that she purchased in her 20s — her home — into an income generation tool by renting out space to Airbnb guests.
Her years of preparation built a solid foundation on which she could build in what ordinarily would be a time of chaos. Thanks to her future forward thinking, she had the freedom to take a year off from work and make her ever-growing dream become a reality.
Leadership and Building a Winning Team
Naturally, when you plant something in an ideal environment, with the right conditions and proper care, it will grow. The same is true of business. Ona took the initiative to do something. As mentioned before, she launched an Instagram page for Black people with an interest in podcasts and podcasting. Eventually, that page began to grow, and community began to form. People with like minds and similar interests found a place that was uniquely designed for them. They loved it and they wanted more — so much so that they demanded to know how they could help and support Ona in her endeavors.
Understanding the momentum that she generated and the uniqueness of the early COVID-19 environment that we were in, Ona planned and hosted her first virtual conference with more than 800 attendees! If that wasn’t impressive enough, she did it a second time and had more than 1300 attendees.
With the steady and constant growth that her organizations were experiencing she quickly realized that this was not an endeavor that she could tackle alone. Although she was the visionary and brainchild for her businesses and organization, she did not necessarily have to be the hands and feet. She used her positioning as a new CEO and owner as an opportunity to help empower others develop their skills and talents in the space as well. Today, she manages a staff of 12 and they are getting better and more agile every day.
Growth Mindset
For Ona, having a successful launch and receiving the praise of peers and supporters is not enough. She has a desire to grow exponentially and maximize her potential. Where many others would settle, Ona has challenged herself to meet and exceed expectations. This “limitless” mentality, as it were, has helped her secure a 1,500 square foot multimedia studio in the West End that serves as a one stop shop for creatives and entrepreneurs looking to activate and grow their brand with web development, podcast production, photography, and other services.
One of Ona’s superpowers as an entrepreneur is understanding the pulse of her community and the careful attention to detail in crafting unique experiences for them. Her growth mindset allowed her to transition from working for others into full-time entrepreneurship and now she in the final stages of preparation for Blk Pod Collective’s first in-person conference, Blk Pod Festival, taking place at the Loudermilk Center in Atlanta on May 28-29.
Village Micro Fund is proud to have Ona as a member of the Spring 2022 Flourish Fellowship cohort. We enjoy having her as a member of our community and appreciate the unique perspective that she adds for other fellows, and they in turn help broaden her entrepreneurial network and community.
If you would like to help us celebrate our amazing business owners at their graduation and pitch competition taking place Wednesday, May 11, 2022 at 6 PM click here to RSVP.
If you would like to attend the Blk Pod Festival, tickets are on sale now and can be purchased here.