Interview Spotlight With Otatade Okojie

Otatade Okojie with 534, 757 hits later, has a literary agent, and a portfolio of engagingliterary prose along with being I a journalist, writer,blogger with a combined honours Degree in Journalism and Sociology, a BTEC in media production,and experience working with such brands as Black filmmaker magazine, part of the BFI, G3magazine, Company magazine and New nation newspaper. I have worked in publishing before with

Hope Road’s Rosemarie Hudson, Otatade is currently being mentored to produce her first novel by her sister writer Irenosen Okojie. Previously asked to be a digital advisor to the Financial times, Otatade remains an influencer byexpanding her creative brand.

Despite her disability (epilepsy controlled) Otatade has been commissioned for her work with the FA Cup, Prince Charles and Crazy Clothes, a company who used to produce clothes for Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss. Currently, Otatade works on her new novel Dark Sunday whilst actively looking for a publisher for it.

Can you take us through your journey to where you are now?

I started out as a Photographer and a Blogger I was blogging for myself and initially developed a following of over a million plus followers on Google+, and was very prolific on LinkedIn 13,000 connections, many of them leading brands, investors, elites, key industry contacts.

Since starting, have you made any changes to your business model?

My focus now is to develop an author profile and promote the impact of my books. Yet initially I was and still am an active blogger, writer, freelance journalist and digital marketer.

Have you ever had a mentor? If so how has this benefitted you either personally or professionally?

I was mentored by Sunil Patel Student Loan Millionaire, mentored by Paul Lawrence an investment banker who helped me with developing my company Lunchbox Millionaire, and I also started a new company Hotbox community development hub CIC with John David who is the founder of Amnick a smart cities firm that deals with Mayors across the globe, Paul Jolley based in China who deals in renewables and the Chinese government, and Keith Fraser the Chairman of the Youth Justice Board at Number 10 Downing Street.

I was also invited during a competition to pitch my business to pitch to Number 10 Downing Street ‘s business advisor but was not short listed to the second stage. 

Was invited to a second stage interview with Buckingham palace where I made it to interview number 2 yet sadly did not go all the way. Have worked with Vogue photographer Marco Gaffarelli to develop my own magazine formerly Alchemii Magazine now called The book spa ( diary of a question Mark), was invited to develop my own show on Voice America based on how much profile I was creating for myself independently with my digital marketing skills through social media via promoting my book Lunchbox Millionaire. Was offered a few indie publishing opportunities but did not take them as I wanted to negotiate a original publishing deal for myself. Developed the Ebony East Magazine on facebook which gets 6,700 followers.

What outlets do use for marketing?

Pinterest, was very active on LinkedIn,  Instagram, Facebook, twitter, tailwind, Hootsuite at one point.

What or Who has inspired you most recently?

Eric Thomas the motivational speaker, my family my sister Irenosen Okojie MBE, my brother Amen Iseghohi, my Mother Josephine Iseghohi, Originally my Dad Amen Senior , David Goggins, Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Janet Fitch the author , Iredia Okojie my little brother , Joel osteen, Malcolm Gladwell, inky Johnson

What is the best piece of business advice you have received to date?

The best business advice I’ve actually recived funnily enough comes from a very  interesting video from Eric Thomas, who talks about not just not giving up , but almost going to war with yourself and the doubt and voices in your head.

How do you create an evenly balanced work and personal life?

Funnily enough I don’t know how to answer that as I spend a lot of my time over compensating whilst trying to create effective marketing campaigns, concepts, ideas. I go for walks sometimes. I do exercise when I can, but do a lot of relaxation writing as a form of release, listen to rain music, sit in the park and embrace the cold air.

Name a seminal point in your career so far?

When I first got my agent after pitching to him from the impact of building up my following and doing all those online sales courses, and videos. From YouTube sales, udemy, attending networking events, attending the publishing conference. Then I made my pitch to him after an article I had made build profile on Facebook formerly called million dollar countdown , I turned it into lunchbox millionaire as a title after it got over 5000 likes on the internet. I posted it on twitter and it was tweeted by the Los Angeles times, I sent this to my agent, as a pitch in an email along with my pitch about my blog getting profile, my Google plus followers which I had as evidence and social media following, I had reached over 1 million plus followers on Google plus well over, and on the other social media platforms I had a large network and following of brands like Lamborghini, mercedes, Gucci, Versace,Prada, Nike, Tiffany’s, and many more.

What gives you ultimate career satisfaction?

Building my audience and creating content that helps me build relationships with potential clients and contacts, potential friends

Are there any leading entrepreneurs or SME leaders that you admire and if so, why?

I admire my friend  Paul Jolley who is based in China going it on his own building his renewables, but what I also admire is those that have been able to go viral on LinkedIn , at one point linkedin was my passion. I have seen people crushing it, going viral and getting 1 million views and followers, including connections on LinkedIn. This is what I was trying to get done on LinkedIn at one point, and I saw a few other contacts had done it. I  was also trying to achieve this on Quora , as Quora is great for promoting content.

Finally, what can we expect from you next?

My book series guys get lots of pre-orders on my book series. Support guys , I would really appreciate it, I’m really deep diving into my journey as an author looking for traditional publishers to publish my work, speaking opportunities and lots of interviews, so will be very busy the first book will be coming out soon. Will be discussing it more on the platforms, and at speaking events. Feel free to reach out to show your support for pre order. 

I am also working as a mentor for the princess Diana mentoring awards , and the Greenwich enterprise accelerator hub. I look forward to connecting with you all sharing stories, and getting to know each other, let’s set those markets ablaze.