Meet Lady V: The Amazon Best Selling Author

Lady V is a confidence coach who helps individuals become the best versions of themselves, through counselling, mind management techniques, passion and purpose identification and development amongst many others so they can live a more fulfilled life. In this interview with ANTHONY ADA ABRAHAM, the certified international speaker speaks on her passion and other sundry issues.

Lady V, you have titled yourself “your one and only confidence coach” and indeed there aren’t a lot in the industry so tell me how you came about deciding to be a confidence coach and what you do as a confidence coach.

I have always been a bold person. I was the child my siblings would usually pick to do daring things like say certain things to my parents on behalf of all my siblings and things like that. My confidence is something that has grown over the years. Understanding that confidence is both a gift and a seed to be nurtured to grow, I realised I have the experience and knowledge on self esteem development to help people who struggle with low self esteem and lack of self worth. I saw many friends and strangers approach me to help them with public speaking, relationship matters, family matters and I saw the common denominator was the missing link self confidence and identification of passion and purpose., whenever I interact with others , especially my mentors ,  they always quickly point out to me how confident  I am in action and words. This continuously rang a bell and hence, I decided to call my self a confidence coach as well as a very bold and eloquent speaker.

That is how I came to the decision to be a confidence coach. I help individuals become the best versions of themselves, through counselling, mind management techniques, passion and purpose identification and development amongst many others so they can live a more fulfilled life. Although my academic background is in Microbiology, having a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Benin, with further education in London. I worked in various laboratories in London, but I always felt the strong need to follow my passion of  speaking, coaching and mentoring. As a certified international speaker, I have by God’s grace the privilege to travel all over the World encouraging, inspiring and motivating many and transforming lives.

Your tag line is “living life unapologetically” as seen in your Amazon best seller “The Liberated Woman, No Apologies”. Could you tell us a bit about how that line became yourmantra?

The tag line actually stuck when I was almost done writing my book. The Sub title of the book is “A guide to living life unapologetically”, so unconsciously I started attaching the word “unapologetically” to whatever I do that I consider bold. That’s how it became my mantra.

 You became an Amazon Best Seller of the book “The Liberated Woman, No Apologies” in December 2017. Once again congratulations! Do tell us the inspiration behind writing the book.

After attending, my mentor’s seminar “Speak and Write to Make millions” in San Diego, California, I was fired up to share my story and my lessons learned with the world of how to live your life with no apologies, especially while being a woman, in a world where women are still considered second class citizens in many cultures around the globe. It was my opportunity to tell my story of dealing with all sorts of internal and external factors living life as a woman and sharing the lessons I have learnt to help other women and men in their journey as well. All the juicy details are in the book, it’s a great short read.

 You have conducted workshop/seminars in Abuja, Nigeria – Redefined with Lady, and in Dallas, Texas, USA – Lady V in Dallas. Tell us the inspiration behind making those events happen and your favourite parts of those events.

I mentor many young women so I thought it would be powerful and impactful to have women of all ages in a room to have that personal dialogue. A safe space to share experiences and inspire each other. Redefined was focused on key note speaking and questions and answers, Lady V in Dallas was more like a roundtable discussion. Both events were very impactful and the women in attendance left with new friends and fresh insight and inspiration.

 You are a very engaging and passionate speaker, and I’m sure you are influenced and mentored by great people. Could you please tell us who your mentors are?

My mentors and great people who influence me are Lisa Nichols, Oprah Winfrey, John Maxwell, Bishop TD Jakes, and Joel Osteen.

I’ve had the privilege to be trained by John Maxwell and Lisa Nichols on their respective programs and I have had the privilege of meeting Bishop TD Jakes and Joel Osteen  on a number of occasions.

 Your Facebook live and pre-recorded videos have gathered over 2 million views on facebook and you have 13k followers on your Facebook page. Tell us about your journey as a media personality on facebook.

I started Facebook a couple of years ago just on my personal profile, when I discovered the public profile page, I started recording videos of motivational talks usually directed at women. I was consistently releasing videos and to my pleasant surprise, it received a lot of attention, and the views and engagements grew exponentially. When I saw my numbers of likes and followers were growing I decided to start a facebook community called “Therapy Boat with Lady V” which initially was solely for women, focused on being a safe space to encourage and inspire each other. When I saw my male audience was growing rapidly as well, and I kept getting group requests from men, I decided to open the group to both men and women. Facebook has been mostly a delightful journey, I’ve met amazing people and I continue to learn so much.

 We see from your feed on Instagram that you love travelling. Tell us about some of the places you’ve been to and where you’d love to go next?

I absolutely love traveling, it’s one of my favourite past times. I have been to the United States on several occasions, from Atlanta to New York, Los Angeles to Dallas, San Diego to Orlando. I’ve also visited Mexico and the UAE (Dubai)

I’ve also toured Europe for holidays, Austria, France, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands.

I would love to visit, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and the Caribbean.

 We love your dreadlocks, you rock them with so much confidence and they are almost at waist length! What inspired you to grow dreadlocks coming from a society that frowns upon them?

I have always admired dreadlocks. Coming to the decision to grow locs was actually an easy decision made, not only because I was fed up with going to the salon to fix weaves and things like that but also because I had reached a new level of unapologetic living, where I really didn’t care what people would think of me if I grow locs because I was putting my comfort before other people’s approval. Growing locs is also journey that teaches patience, self love and confidence so, I do not regret it at all. My daughter admired my locs for years and decided to grow hers herself. She’s 2 years into her journey now. My locs are almost 9 years old, and I really love and appreciate it.

 There is an ongoing battle I see in the inter web of coaching, the battle of diverse versus homogenous services and content and I see that you branch out unapologetically. Could you tell me what you think about that?

Uniqueness in ability, in features and characteristics in our past and our ventures is what makes the world beautiful, it’s what gives the word its colour. So it is a shame to see one human dictate to another human how to live their life and how to run their business when it is not harming or hurting anybody else.

I strongly believe in the part of the parable in the Bible that talks about the talents where God gave the talent according to ability, he would not give to one 5 Talents if he did not think that she would be able to reap from those five talents

I want to urge everyone today, never think you are in a box to do just one thing and to focus on just one thing all your life if you feel like you have other gifts in you and other passions in you, by all means do what you need to do to nurture and show it to the world and to help other people. Never allow someone to tell you that you can’t be a singer just because you’re a doctor don’t let anyone tell you that as a speaker you can’t be a chef, you can’t do this and you can’t do that, that is not true we are all beautiful and multifaceted and Multi talented we all have potentials in us that we haven’t even discovered yet

If you are blessed to have discovered yours please by all means nurture it, develop it, work on it and let your light shine

No one can tell Beyonce to not act because she should stick to singing, you can’t tell Steve Harvey to stick to comedy and not go into talk shows.

Mere human beings are not God, they do not have their manual, let them be who they are meant to be.

Behind every great person there is a great story, please do tell us what have been some challenges you’ve faced and how have you been able to overcome them?

Every one has their own challenges and I surely am no exception I’ve had challenges in a lot of aspects in my life, some things you would never even guess, but I would say the common denominator is that I firstly step back, because I notice when you’re in the midst of your problem you really do not see the whole picture from a clear and objective perspective. So I step back, in prayer. Not only do I step back spiritually but I step back physically. I take more walks outside, I try to occupy myself with something productive to take my mind away, then face the challenge head on with a fresh new perspective. I believe one can overcome any challenge when they realise how small it is compared to God.

 We see you are always travelling for one speaking engagement or the other. How does one get in contact with you to book you?

My email address is contact@ladyvglobal.blog, my Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/ladyvglobal, instagram is http://www.instagram.com/ladyvglobal

I’m always open to going to a new place and speaking. I love meeting new people and giving my all to inspire.

Lastly Lady V, we are eager to know what you are working on and what you have in store?

I am working on my sophomore book and I am also working on an online academy of online courses but at the moment, I am launching various online packages, two are available via my website and social media pages, and there are many more to come. There are many more which I choose to keep under wraps for now.