Welcome to my online space.
My name is Tinukemi Olaoye. I’m a Certified Career Coach, a Corporate Trainer and a Lawyer. Professionally, I wear many hats, but right now, I’ll just tell you a little about myself and what drives me as an individual (if you’re eager to read my professional profile, please feel free to download a PDF copy right HERE).
I help and support people in their personal growth and development and I’m passionate about helping people to create and enjoy their ‘Ideal Career’ in each season – one that is:
- Purposeful
- Passionate
- Productive, and
- Personally Suitable
My driving force can best be understood by learning about my personal mission and my career journey. I tell my story at great length in my book ‘Create Your Ideal Career’. This is the shortened version:
I studied Law at the University of Lagos, graduated with an excellent degree and wrote international certification exams. I was determined to excel as a Lawyer.
I got a good job as an Associate in a Lagos Law firm and things were good. At a point, I decided that it was time to focus on building a career in Entertainment and Intellectual Property Law, an area that I had been interested in for a long time.
So, I applied for and got a job at a bigger law firm (also in Lagos) with a bigger salary and a bigger opportunity in Intellectual Property Law. I left my job at the smaller firm and moved to the bigger firm. However, due to some matters of convenience, I had to decline the offer at the new firm that same week.
I was so sure of the fact that I would get another job right away. I believed that no company or law firm would be able to resist my good degree, additional certifications and experience.
I was wrong.
Six months later, I was still roaming the streets of Lagos applying for jobs and going for interviews. I applied for work everywhere I could think of, but I never got a job offer. For those six months, looking for a job became my regular job.
Finally, out of desperation, I settled down and decided to go into business for myself.Since I was an experienced lawyer, I started a legal consultancy and focused on serving the legal needs of small businesses. I hustled and hustled and hustled for clients and made some decent money from time to time. Finally, things became better and I even got a couple of juicy retainerships.
I began to carve out a niche as an Intellectual Property and Entertainment Lawyer. I created a regular blog and wrote a series of four intellectual property publications that were published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). I also began to write a weekly legal column for a national newspaper as a paid columnist.As a support project for the legal consultancy, I started a legal education enterprise and wrote an e-book and blog posts to explain the law in easy-to-understand ways to non-lawyers.
I accomplished all these ‘legal exploits’ in less than two years. Things were a lot better and I was certainly doing better. I was well on my way, you’d say. Well, I didn’t think so.
You see, somehow, I knew that there was something missing in my career. I always had that niggling feeling that I was supposed to be working in another capacity. It’s like washing your feet with your socks on. I knew there was more to living and working with purpose. And I wanted it. I knew that it didn’t matter how fast I was moving if I was going in the wrong direction.
So, I went on a personal Ideal Career quest. I wanted to find and understand my unique place and significance in the world and I wanted to be fulfilled and successful in it. I wanted to enjoy my work in the best way possible knowing that I was in the right place that God had created deliberately and purposefully for me.
After several seasons of confusion, doubt, fear and trial systems, I found my Ideal Career for this season.
I knew that I wanted to work with people in the area of their personal development. I knew what I wanted to do before I knew that there was a professional name for some of its aspects. I wanted to teach by speaking, writing and creating relevant tools, products and programmes.
Now, it was one thing to understand what I wanted to do, it was another thing to summon up the courage to do it. So, even though I knew what I wanted to do, I didn’t allow myself to think of doing it. After all, I had spent years and years learning to be a good lawyer and building a good client base as lawyer.
I battled with several fears, especially the fear of failure, the fear of success, and fear of what people would think or say. It made more sense to continue with my legal practice. Finally, through the grace of God, I conquered fear (for the most part) and underwent a gradual career transition. The rest is history.
The more I studied the personal development scene and my own life’s journey, the more I realised that I wanted to help people in the area of their career.
I believe that a person’s work or career is central to their life. I feature on the personal development scene as a whole, but my focus is on the subject of work.
You can be a business owner or an employee, and you can be involved in a profit-based business, a charity, a social-enterprise or a religious ministry. You may be an athlete, artist, writer, actor or serial-entrepreneur. You may even have a blend of two or more of these.
Whatever it is, the work you do is:
- A personal extension of who you are as a unique, original individual creation of God;
- A way through which you express your unique skills, passions, experiences and personality to add some form of value to the world around you;
- A means by which you exchange value to earn income and recognition; and
- Your personal and unique offering to yourself, to your world and to God your Creator.
I recognise that it is one thing to understand what your ideal and purposeful career should be in different seasons of your life. It is another thing to be liberated enough to truly be yourself and do the work that celebrates you the best, regardless of any fears or limitations you may have previously struggled with.
I certainly didn’t create or figure out my career path all on my own. I didn’t learn and do all the things I did through my own personal ingenuity. My life and career story is a product of God’s grace and wisdom through Jesus Christ, and I am deeply committed to sharing the truths and principles that will help you to experience His grace and wisdom so that you, too, can live and work with purpose, passion and productivity.
That is why I’m on a mission: My mission is to inspire, challenge, empower, and liberate YOU to discover and maximise your God-given potentials in and through your work.
On this website, everything you will encounter is towards this end.
Please, click HERE to learn more about the professional services I offer. You can find several useful products in different parts of this website.
I encourage you to join my community by subscribing to my Career Blog for inspiration and empowerment that will help you to maximise your personal and career potentials. You can do that HERE.
You may also connect with me on social media:
LinkedIn: Tinukemi Olaoye
Facebook: Tinukemi Olaoye
Twitter: @tinukemiolaoye
Instagram: @tinukemiolaoye
It’s a great pleasure to have you here. Thank you for stopping by.
Tinukemi Olaoye.