Olawunmi Oyedeji is a creative and serial entrepreneur, currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Viesan Media Concept, a boutique firm with 3 distinct practices serving clients primarily within Africa’s creative industries.
Born in Lagos on October 16, 1984, Olawunmi is the first of two children raised in Lagos Nigeria by a single mum. She is a graduate of Chemical Engineering from the University of Benin, Edo State. Her career in the media started in her 4th year in the university when she got an opportunity to be a presenter on the morning show at Independent Television (ITV) Benin, further to which she has since trained, particularly with Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria and worked with various media houses before deciding to be an independent producer. Her passion for positive media and quality production has progressively grown over the past 13 years despite several challenges.
Through the course of her career, she managed the PR and media events account for Braman Solutions and various politicians across Nigeria, worked with DBN television Lagos, Lagos State Television, Independent Television Benin and many other media outfits within Nigeria.
Viesan Media Concept, which she founded in the year 2006 has been involved in various productions and managed the brand portfolio for various companies across Nigeria like Oracle, Gemstone Ultra mart, Mart Energy, Winco Foam and Comic Republic to mention a few.
Olawunmi believes the future is now and that young people have to start taking responsibility for the country and their futures. She is also ensuring that she influences her society positively in every way possible, which is the bedrock of the various projects she has embarked on overtime. To highlight a few;
- Project Renew – her pet project aimed at renewing the minds of the average Nigerian starting from the grassroots; a three-pronged program that includes a seminar, skills acquisition, and talent hunt. She has organized four editions in different local government areas since its conception in 2017.
- Grassroot Politics – she believes that everybody, especially women, should be actively involved in the decision making that produces their leaders in order to have a true semblance of democracy and subsequently, good governance. Her interest in governance and passion for service led her contest for the Surulere Local Government chairperson position in 2017. She continues to play an active role in politics at the local government level.
- Try My Job – a reality television show which she created in 2012 with the aim of tackling social justice issues especially in the area of unemployment using entertainment as a major tool.
- A documentary on the Odi massacre and the development after.
Olah has a Certificate in Basic Communication from the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, and an Acting Certificate from the Royal Arts Academy amongst others. Presently, she is working on other talk shows, reality television shows, movies, television series, and her book.
Read and Enjoy our Q&A with Her.
Why do you do what you do for a living? I do various things for a living and I have various reasons for doing each of them. For my media career in which I function as a content creator, producer, director, and presenter – I have a passion for positive media and my vision is to create media contents that will positively, directly and subliminally influence lives across the globe.
As the media is a major tool that influences behavioral patterns. I created a reality TV Show tagged #TryMyJob to help tackle social justice issues focusing on the area of unemployment in Africa by getting influential people to try blue-collar jobs for a day. It’s also aimed at promoting SMEs and giving them a platform to showcase their products and services.
You can check it out on Olahtv on YouTube. And my talk show which is tagged #TheOlahShow is aimed at using talk as a healing tool, as there are so many pressing issues that we don’t get to talk about in this part of the world and everyone needs a platform where they can share and find solutions. You can watch that on Pop Central TV.
As a politician, my motivation is to give the people at the grassroots a voice, create equal opportunities for everyone irrespective of their social or financial status and ensure that there are equal rights for men and women. Also to encourage more youths to be politically active and take the bull by horns.
In branding, my motivation is excellence, prompt service, and product delivery, good customer service and consumer satisfaction. I’m happy when our clients are happy with our products and services. As tourism practioner, I enjoy exploring and seeing people happy when we share new sights and experiences with them. I basically turned my passion to profit with our tour company called Kauna Tours.
What would you say is your secret to happiness? My secret to happiness is in trusting Gods’ plans for my life; being content but not complacent; pursuing all my dreams as I will rather try and not get it right than not try at all; knowing that my loved ones are fine, and celebrating small wins even if all I can afford at the time is to buy myself a muffin as a reward.
What are some of the challenges you have faced so far doing what you do and how do you resolve these challenges? I think the major challenges entrepreneurs face is funding and getting the right team. That’s why I have at least four businesses and they feed off each other, I learned this from Alibaba the comedian at one of the seminars that I attended way back in the University. He said to survive the Nigerian economy one should have at least four sources of income as an entrepreneur to help you stand well, using a stool as an illustration. As for the right team, I give people the benefit of doubt, I pray about every project and am involved in every aspect of the project so that nothing slips through the cracks and excellence is achieved. I try to have an idea about everything so that I can at least spot mistakes and correct them immediately.
Who inspires you? Oprah Winfrey, Barrack Obama, Sarah Palin, Richard Branson, and recently Mo Abudu. My inspiration comes from the fact that I was created to make the difference in every aspect of my life be it media, politics, branding, and tourism. The smiles on the faces of my clients, the people at the grassroots who benefit from my pet project tagged Project Renew and the entrepreneurs whose products and services are promoted on the #TryMyJob Show, is basically what inspires me.
What would you like to be remembered for? Excellence, championing the cause for positive media; positively impacting the lives of as many people that I come in contact with as possible, and championing the cause for equal rights and opportunities for all.