Iyayi Oludapo; seamlessly living out her passion

If you had read the story of Zelophehad’s daughters, you will understand why and when women started taking hold of life with their own hands. The story encapsulated the challenges that women faced and what they had to do in order to affirm their rights with dignity, and that probably, was the beginning of women emancipation.

That same story has excited many women today, especially Iyayi Oludapo, who has taken action to impact the female folks.

It all started while pursuing a degree in Agronomy at Laodoke Akintola University in the early 2000. Then she set up a group called Zelophehad Daughters to empower young ladies, and offer voice to them to express themselves, but not in the ‘feminist’ way.

“I intended the group to be that place where their voices would be heard, not in the feminist way but in a way that if you have value, bring it to the table. It is not having a sense of entitlement that someone is pushing you to the backseat because you are a woman; show that you have value and bring it to the table and that when women bring the right value, they will be listened to”, she explained.

Today, that group, which started probably in an obscure corner in a university, has snowballed into a platform where many women come for result-oriented engagements, empowerment, counseling on family, career issues, coaching classes among others.

From the Zelophehad Daughters, the idea has metamorphosed into Sisters Bound in Love, a dream come true for Iyayi, who despite her demanding career finds time to live out her passion; counseling and encouraging others, especially women to be their best.

Speaking on the rationale for the Sisters Bound in Love, which is a group of 20-30 ladies, she said though Zelophehad Daughters was rested for a while after her university days, still young ladies kept coming after her. “But even with the busy career schedule I usually find time to attend to any young lady that needs my mentoring and in the last one year I started thinking of putting it on a platform and a level of organisation to it, and that is what led to me berthing that dream”, she explained.

The idea, according to her, is to operate a platform where people can understand and share the love of God. For her, it is imperative to do that because the shortcomings of some women today are because of the situations they found themselves and if they were shown genuine love, they would have gotten over it.

“We found out that if you put 10 women together, no new story will come from the 11th woman, you will find your story from number1-10 and they should be able to take encouragement from any of the 10 women and find practical solutions on how to deal and attend to issues of life”, she said.

She also gave credit to her mentors for helping her to berth the platform. “I went to some life-changing programmes in the last two years where I was privileged to meet with Ibukun Awosika, chairman of First Bank, and I also met another woman there who is also my mentor today. If there is anything they encouraged me to do, it is that I have been pouring out myself to others everywhere, and that I should organise myself. So, I called a couple of young ladies to set up this platform”, she explained further.

With the platform and being a faculty member of a sales institute, she is living out her passion. “My passion is counseling and training. I have a group of young ladies that I mentor and coach. I am also part of the faculty of a training institute for sales people. I love to train people and I can do that from morning till night as long as I have water to drink. I love talking to people and encouraging them”, she confessed.

As well, it is very important for her to see people who are just starting in their career to learn that it is not about taking emotional decisions, but being very objective and focused on what they want.

The intrigue is that she has had and still have very demanding career spanning the aviation sector, insurance, telecommunication and financial services. At present, she is a sales director in one of the financial services companies in Lagos. Yet she goes about her career and passion with seamless coordination.

But while the sales job pays her bills, the counseling and training passion gives her fulfillment. “It is my most fulfilling work. On the platform all I have to do is to express myself, there is no cadre and you do not have to like me or agree with what I say because I am your boss. No”.

Already, Sisters Bound in Love is making impacts with some success stories.

“There was a young lady who got to a point of committing suicide, luckily she came to me and said she was suicidal, and when someone is suicidal and tells you, it is a privilege. I convinced her not to do so, she had a change of mind and life she felt was overwhelming and finished. She is doing well today. There is another young lady who was having issues in her career and in getting married. Today she is not only married, she expecting baby. There is also another lady who left her marital home. We spoke and I advised her on what to do, she implemented those things and today, she is back in her husband’s house and giving glory to God”, she enthused.

As well, a lot of career women have benefited from her counseling on practical steps to handle sexual harassments from their male bosses, to gain promotion and other career challenges women face.

For her, that qualitative and practical counseling is empowerment and not necessarily giving money to people as most Nigerians presume, as well as, linking up qualified women with the right people and job opportunities.

“When people think of empowerment, they think of money, though it goes a long way to help, it is not the focus of this group. Information is empowerment too”.

However, the sale director and life coach draws her lessons, thesis and experience for the counseling passion from life.

“The biggest training I have had is life and also the church I attend has been paramount in shaping my thinking about life and that has helped me a lot. I have been to several trainings in my life, but not on how to coach and mentor people, and if there is anyone I want to attend, it is the one they will mentor me because I do not believe I know it all”.

While she insisted that God has orchestrated the events of her life to train and coach her to get here and be able to do this for humanity, her counseling does not have a religious bias.

“It is life and anything that life entails. It is about marriage, about family, career, and about the whole complexities of that total woman. Most people do not understand that women have a lot to go through, especially if they are career women, business women and they also have family life”, she cleared the air.

Again, she said weather Christian or Muslim, women have similar issues.

But joining the group, according to her, is by referral. “If you are a member and you know someone who you think will benefit, you refer her and she becomes part of the group. The only expectation from members is openness.”

In striking balance between her work and passion, Iyayi takes every day as it comes, puts out her deliverables for the day and goes after them.

“Everybody has 24 hours, the question is how do you use your time, and that is the difference”, she said.

But while staying focus to her vision, in the last two years she has tried to raise a supportive team and people irrespective of where they are from.

“The greatest testimony that the people who are working for me are saying about me is how I have impacted their lives and not just their work”, she concluded.