Nina Dafe

I plan my work and work my plan! I find that having a set plan takes all the guesswork, emotion and temptation to procrastinate out of things for me.

 

Nina Dafe is the founder and editor of the Faraboverubiescollection.com. She has spoken in summits (such as the Women Entrepreneurs ROCK 24 Hours Empowerment Marathon 2018); is a regular contributor for Thrive Global and She Leads Africa. She has also been featured in Radiant Health Magazine, HuffPost and the TEDx Lincoln Square blog.

Nina inspires Christian women to know their worth, power and purpose so they can speak up, step out and shine as women of God through her weekly Far Above Rubies Collection Video Podcast- where she shares her insights and interviews female influencers. This is also achieved through her 1:1 mentoring programme- Shift!

She also draws on her special interest in feminism, womanism and female empowerment to dismantle the mindsets that keep women from enjoying the same opportunities and human rights as their male counterparts from a Biblical perspective.

Nina’s passion stems from having grown up seeing the negative effects of such thinking during her formative years.

For example, her grandmother was denied an education (whilst growing up in Nigeria) simply because she was female- restricting her options and quality of life. Although Nina was born and raised in London (UK), the impact of tradition, control and systemic sexism were still felt.

This was most especially through witnessing multiple (other female) role models either forfeit their dreams, stay in abusive relationships or operate from a place of low self-worth.

Not wanting to fall victim to these same social constructs herself, Nina completed over 4 years of research to compare these notions to what the Bible had to say about topics such as women and womanhood (which is now lovingly collated in her book, The Ultimate Guide to Eve). Nina’s mission is to share this expertise, exposing women to the truths that she came into during her years of study and that she attributes to “saving her”.

Where did the idea for The Far Above Rubies Collection come from?

The Far Above Rubies Collection was originally founded as a blog and online community out of my frustration with:
• Linear discussions surrounding womanhood
• Stereotypical views of femininity
• The limited representation that I kept on being confronted with regarding what a modern Christian woman looks like
As such a lot of my writing- especially in the early days- drew mostly on my special interest in feminism, womanism and female empowerment to dismantle the mindsets that keep women from enjoying the same opportunities and human rights as their male counterparts from a Biblical perspective.
After consuming my work, the feedback from my community seemed to be “Now that you have confirmed what my purpose is not, how do I go about discovering what it actually is?” I also had ladies from all over the world emailing me and reaching out to me for mentoring on how to do this. This is what sparked my desire to further develop the mentoring side of my platform through things like my programme and hosting a video podcast where my community can also be mentored and empowered by other inspirational women.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

My business is still in it’s very early stages, meaning that I still haven’t quite ditched my 9-5. So, on a typical weekday, I work on my business in the evenings (whether that be speaking to a mentee, writing, hosting interviews for the podcast, PR, social media etc). I make this time productive by being very structured and intentional about what I want to accomplish. What this looks like is:
• Writing “things to do lists,” typically at the beginning of the week
• Ordering the tasks on the list according to priority (either in terms of importance or deadlines)
• Allocating each task to a specific day if they’re small or breaking them into mini-steps to be completed on each day if they’re big
• Following the plan as closely as possible, allowing for any changes (and updating the list, if needed)

How do you bring ideas to life?

Not only am I a huge fan of “things to do” lists, I love mind-maps! So, whenever I have an idea, after praying on it- I do a huge brain dump via mind-maps. I think about what needs to be done and who I can collaborate with in order to make it happen. I then break this down into mini-steps, deadlines, create a “things to do” list and then I get moving on it!

What’s one trend that excites you?

I am excited by the fact that people who are typically on the fringes of society are rising and standing up for themselves. I am also heartened by the fact that they are being heard. As a black woman (and therefore a minority within a minority), I think that the discourse on representation, diversity and inclusion that is currently being had is extremely important…so important, in fact, that I hope it’s not a trend.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

I plan my work and work my plan! I find that having a set plan takes all the guesswork, emotion and temptation to procrastinate out of things for me.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Stop being so reliant on other people to validate you. Stop people-pleasing. Live your life for you. The only person that you can be accountable to and for is you!

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on

There’s no such thing as failure- only feedback. I truly believe that when things don’t go as planned, they simply present a platform and opportunity for us to grow from and move forward. Does it feel good in the moment? No, but I believe that every situation can be turned into a positive- even if it doesn’t look the way you originally pictured. Failure is only failure if you choose to see it as such and stop at that.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Actively develop and build positive relationships- with your community/audience as well as peers and mentors.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

One strategy that has really helped me to grow my business is doing PR such as appearing as a guest on other people’s platforms (blogs, podcasts, summits etc). This has grown my email list, social media followers and readership. It also helped me to establish myself as an authority, leading to a lot of the collaborations that I’ve been fortunate enough to have been a part of. I can also directly attribute my PR efforts to the events that led to the development of my mentoring programme. If you want to learn how to gain PR and media opportunities, I highly recommend “Impacting Millions” by Selena Soo.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

One of the biggest failures on my part was to continue to try to do things on my own for too long as the mission and vision of The Far Above Rubies grew. When it was “just” a blog, it was easier to manage. However, when I started to expand into hosting interviews, developing my mentoring programme and wanting to get more intentional about my use of social media (while still blogging, writing to my email list, pursuing PR etc!)- I should have hired a VA and sought (business) mentorship a lot sooner. I learned the hard way the importance of delegating, team building and relinquishing control! I became so overwhelmed that I began to have sleepless nights, feel constantly anxious but also suffer from analysis paralysis (because I wasn’t sure of the right path to take but also didn’t have the time (or interest/skill, in some cases) to actually research it).
To overcome this, first I thought about and wrote down all the things that I either did not like doing, know how to do very well or have time to do in my business. I then wrote down all the things that I enjoyed doing within my business. I delegated all of the former things to my VA (at the time it was mostly social media) and then continued to concentrate on the areas that I naturally thrived in.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

I don’t see this as a new or novel idea but-
I have received quite a few compliments and queries about the way that I transcribe my video podcasts in order to make my show notes. I did, at one point, think it was something that could be offered as a service. Not only would this be a great way of making an additional income, it would by default become a great way to learn and receive mentoring from industry experts (especially if these are topics/discussions that you are genuinely interested in). If you were to do this, I truly believe that it would be a win-win for everyone involved!

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

This cost more that $100 but investing in new brand photos because they now truly reflect the mission and vision of my brand- as well as me personally.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

I love Calendly. I use it as an online diary for scheduling online appointments (such as interviews for the video podcast). I love it because simply including the link to this diary in emails allows people to schedule time with me without having to waste time emailing back and forth to negotiate a time. It also cuts out time spent having to navigate different time zones because it automatically converts it for you. I have also embedded it on the opt-in page of my mentoring programme so that the process of booking discovery calls can be as automated as possible too.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

My favourite personal development book is “The Wisdom of Andrew Carnegie” by Napoleon Hill because it is full of such timeless; comprehensive gems about the steps people can take to become successful in whatever business endeavor they want.

What is your favorite quote?

“One, one coco full basket”. This is literally one of my favourite sayings. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I remind myself of it. It basically means that if you were to only pick and put one coco in your basket a day consistently, eventually that basket would become full of coco. It’s the same with our dreams, we may not always be able to dedicate as much time to them as we would want to. We may not have the resources that we need to get it done as quickly as we would want to either. But, if we
1) Don’t use that as an excuse to give up
2) Do what we can towards it consistently, no matter how small, eventually we will reach our goals and dreams.
One, one coco full basket!

Key learnings:

• Plan your work and work your plan. Having a set plan takes all the guesswork, emotion and temptation to procrastinate out of things
• There’s no such thing as failure- only feedback
• Stop being so reliant on other people to validate you. Stop people-pleasing. Live your life for you. The only person that you can be accountable to and for is you!
• Actively develop and build positive relationships- with your community/audience as well as peers and mentors
• Seek out PR and media opportunities to establish yourself as an authority and, ultimately, grow your business

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