In this powerful episode of the Africans in Tech Podcast, host Sahr Lebbie sits down with Adetayo Ibijemilusi to unpack his incredible journey — from dropping out of nursing school, battling depression, and attempting suicide… to becoming a high-earning AWS Cloud Engineer, retiring his parents, and building a blueprint for $500K/year and generational wealth.

This one is raw, faith-filled, and practical. If you’ve ever felt stuck, lost, or ready to give up, this conversation is for you. 🙏🏾💻

In This Episode, You’ll Hear:

🕊 Mental Health & Faith

Taio’s lowest moment and suicide attempt in his garage

How leaning on God, patience, and purpose pulled him out of the storm

A message for anyone currently battling depression or dark thoughts

👨🏾‍💻 Breaking Into Tech & Cloud Engineering

Growing up Nigerian-American in Maryland, African parents & pressure to do nursing

Failing certs multiple times, bad bootcamps, and still finding a way into tech

Landing his first toxic IT job and how it turned him into a “dog” mentally

How he went from help desk to AWS Cloud Engineer, making $135K+

💰 From $21/hr to $489K/Year

Getting multiple six-figure offers and ethically job stacking

Using AI (like ChatGPT) to write his resume, prep interviews, and do the job

How he invests 95% of his income into assets to escape the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle

🏦 1% University & The $1M Net Worth Blueprint

Why he teaches two skill sets:

Cloud Engineering (AWS, Terraform, Docker, CI/CD, etc.)

Getting consistent interviews & becoming a top candidate

His 1% University framework:

Freshman year: never live paycheck to paycheck

Sophomore year: make $25K/month+ with cloud

Junior year: use your money to make more money

His long-term vision: building free tech schools in Nigeria and other third-world countries

Connect with Adetayo Ibijemilusi

📲 Instagram: @tayolusi
👉 DM him “1%” if you’re serious about learning cloud engineering & his 1% University pathway.


If this episode blessed you or gave you hope:
👍🏾 Like the video
💬 Comment your biggest takeaway
📲 Share this with a friend who needs encouragement or wants to break into tech
✅ Subscribe to the channel and hit the notification bell to catch our full-length episodes, whiteboard sessions, and tech talks.

Diana Mungu’s journey is powerful, layered, and deeply inspiring 🌍✨ Born in a refugee camp in Kenya to parents from Uganda and South Sudan, she shares how her family’s refugee story shaped her mindset, ambition, and deep sense of purpose 🙌🏾

In this episode, Diana walks through her career from early retail jobs 🛍️ and sales roles 📈 to building a strong corporate foundation at General Mills, where she earned promotions, managed major accounts, and became one of the company’s top-performing sales leaders 🏆. She explains how that experience eventually opened the door to Amazon, where she first supported Black-owned brands through accelerator programs ✊🏾 and now works in a public-facing role helping entrepreneurs understand how to launch, grow, and scale businesses through Amazon’s ecosystem 📦🚀

Diana also breaks down what many sellers get wrong when entering Amazon ⚠️ — from skipping trademarks 📝 and misunderstanding inventory strategy 📦 to relying on the wrong third-party providers 💸. She explains how Amazon’s account health system works 📊, why compliance matters, and how small mistakes can lead to major setbacks for sellers.

Beyond business, Diana opens up about navigating grief ❤️‍🩹 after losing her brother, processing the emotional weight of Murder of George Floyd happening on her birthday 🕊️, and why therapy, faith, and reflection became critical during that season of her life 🙏🏾

This conversation also dives into salary negotiation 💼, public speaking 🎤, leadership 👑, mentorship 🤝🏾, and what it means to represent one of the world’s biggest companies while continuously proving your value in high-level rooms 🌟🔥

From being permanently banned from Uber and Lyft 🚫🚗 to becoming a Cloud Architect specializing in cloud and AI infrastructure ☁️💻 — Demecos Chambers’ story is a powerful example of resilience, determination, and betting on yourself when life hits rock bottom.

In this episode of the African Tech Podcast 🎙️, Demecos shares his unfiltered journey growing up between North Carolina and Atlanta 🌎, navigating a challenging upbringing, dropping out of high school, and eventually earning his GED 🎓. Like many people trying to find their path, he spent years figuring things out — working as a bouncer 🛡️, hustling in nightlife, and driving for Uber and Lyft 🚗 just to survive.

At one point, life hit rock bottom. Demecos was driving 12-hour days doing rideshare, sometimes making only $37 in profit after expenses 💸. His car had over 300,000 miles, leaked oil constantly, and he was often sleeping in parking lots waiting for rides 🅿️😴. Eventually, customer complaints and difficult circumstances led to him being permanently banned from both Uber and Lyft 🚫, leaving him broke and unsure of what his next move would be.

But everything changed during one unexpected Uber ride.

A passenger introduced him to the world of cloud computing and Amazon Web Services (AWS) ☁️. At the time, Demecos had never even heard of cloud architecture — he was studying for a basic IT certification, hoping to land a $14/hour help desk job 💻. That single conversation opened his eyes to a completely different career path.

With almost no money, Demecos found creative ways to learn — even trading free Uber rides for access to online cloud training 🎓💡. He studied relentlessly, failed certifications multiple times, and kept pushing forward despite setbacks and financial pressure.

Eventually, he landed his first IT role installing laptops for the State of Georgia 🏛️, earning around $14 an hour. But he kept studying and building his skills until he finally passed his cloud certifications and landed his first cloud engineering role starting at $60,000 a year 💰📈 — a massive leap from where he started.

Today, Demecos Chambers works as a Cloud Solutions Architect ☁️👨🏾‍💻, specializing in cloud infrastructure, AI infrastructure, and disaster recovery, while also helping aspiring engineers learn how to break into the tech industry.

Throughout the conversation, Demecos also breaks down:

• Why many people don’t take opportunities even when the blueprint is shown to them 🧠
• The difference between gatekeeping vs. lack of discipline in tech education 🚪
• The sacrifices required to break into high-paying tech careers ⚡
• Why resilience and persistence matter more than talent 💪
• The mindset shift needed to go from survival mode to long-term success 🚀

His story proves that your starting point doesn’t determine your ceiling — but determination, consistency, and the willingness to keep learning can completely change your life.

If you're trying to break into tech, pivot your career, or push through setbacks, this conversation with Demecos Chambers is a powerful reminder that sometimes the hardest chapters of your life lead to the biggest breakthroughs 🔥.

Ayanna Williams went from job hopping at Marshalls 🛍️, Six Flags 🎢, and BWI Airport ✈️ to holding a secret security clearance 🔐 and working as a systems administrator in Baghdad, Iraq 🇮🇶 — all without a college degree 🎓❌. In this episode, she breaks down every step of that journey and what it really cost her along the way.

Ayanna got her start through the Year Up United program 🚀, which placed her at Freddie Mac 🏢 at just 20 years old. She climbed through help desk roles 💻, spent four years at Pew Charitable Trust 📊, and eventually made one of the boldest career moves you'll hear — packing up her entire apartment 📦 and boarding one of the last flights out of the US in March 2020 🌎 to take a government contracting role overseas at the height of COVID-19 😷.

What followed were years of 12-hour shifts ⏳, extreme heat 🌡️🔥, bombings 💣, and a lupus diagnosis 🏥 that forced her to finally slow down and listen to her body 🧘🏾‍♀️. She came home with a new title 🏆, a new perspective 👀, and a new mission 🎯.

That mission is Tech Wellness Society 🌿 — a community she's building to help tech professionals take care of their minds 🧠 and bodies 💪🏾 while they chase their careers. Think international retreats 🌍, yoga 🧘🏾‍♀️, breathwork 🌬️, networking 🤝, and real conversations about sustainability in tech 💬.

In this episode we cover:

✨ Breaking into tech through Year Up United with no degree
🌍 Working in Kuwait and Baghdad during COVID
🩺 Getting diagnosed with lupus overseas
📜 How to break into GovTech and what certifications matter
🌱 What Tech Wellness Society is and how to get involved
🏖️ Her upcoming 2026 retreat + an exclusive 15% discount for our listeners

Follow Ayanna on social media: @ayannacwilliams 📲
Learn more about Tech Wellness Society and the Master Restore Network 🔗 and stay tuned for retreat details dropping soon 👀✨

This is a powerful interview that covers a wide range of topics—from the high-stakes reality of working in a war zone during a global pandemic to the deeply personal journey of managing a chronic illness while building a career.

In this episode of Africans in Tech, host Sahr Lebbie sits down with Brandon Okpalobi—founder of Dibia Athletic and Dibia Dream—for a powerful and honest conversation about building real impact through STEM, sports, and community.

Brandon shares how he moved away from traditional pitching and focused on telling the true story of the work, leading to the impact of over 45,000 youth across the U.S., Bermuda, and internationally. From being told “no” for an entire year, to self-funding his nonprofit, to hosting STEM experiences in major stadiums, this episode reveals what it really takes to create sustainable change.

This conversation covers:

Growing up in New Orleans and navigating adversity

Transitioning from athletics and engineering into entrepreneurship

Why after-school STEM programs are critical

Building partnerships without selling empty promises

Making science exciting, accessible, and fun for kids

Leadership, legacy, and investing in the next generation

This isn’t just an interview—it’s a blueprint for purpose-driven leadership and long-term impact.

📌 Subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of tech, culture, and community
📌 Follow Africans in Tech for more stories shaping the future

In this episode of Africans in Tech, we sit down with Victoria Walker, a powerhouse software engineer at JP Morgan Chase and founder of Vivify Solutions. Victoria’s journey is a masterclass in resilience—overcoming the foster care system, personal loss, and legal hurdles to build a thriving career in fintech and her own product development agency.

We dive deep into:

The Reality of Self-Teaching: How she mastered code without a traditional degree.

Corporate vs. Startup Life: Navigating the politics of big banks and the hustle of entrepreneurship.

The MVP Strategy: Why most founders fail at app development and how to do it right.

The AI Shift: How Victoria is building AI agents within one of the world's largest financial institutions.

Whether you're an aspiring engineer or a non-technical founder with a big idea, Victoria’s "no-excuses" approach to success will give you the roadmap you need.

Connect with Victoria:

Instagram/TikTok: @sixfiguretechie

LinkedIn: Victoria Walker

Business: vivifysolutions.net

In this powerful and unfiltered conversation, we sit down with Blessing Douglas — entrepreneur, mental health advocate, and development leader — to unpack one of Africa’s biggest challenges: the gap between policy and enforcement.

We explore how weak compliance systems, lack of accountability, and poor data practices impact mental health services, governance, privacy, and development across the continent. From working in IDP camps in Nigeria to navigating Medicaid mental health systems in the U.S., Blessing shares real-world insight into what works, what fails, and what must change.

This episode dives deep into:

Why Africa has policies but struggles with enforcement

Mental health stigma and cultural barriers

Data privacy, compliance, and accountability gaps

The contrast between African and Western systems

Entrepreneurship, leadership, and building impact-driven solutions

Lessons from working in tech, development, and mental health

This is not theory — this is lived experience, hard truths, and forward-thinking solutions.

📌 If you care about Africa’s future, governance, mental health, or building real systems that work — this episode is for you.

In this powerful episode of Africans in Tech, host Sahr Lebbie sits down with Aisha Diambou, a Georgia Tech biomedical engineering graduate, to unpack her raw and unfiltered journey through healthcare, corporate America, layoffs, discrimination, and ultimately pivoting into tech.

Aisha shares what it was really like working as a clinical specialist in cardiac electrophysiology, assisting in life-or-death heart procedures straight out of college — and how the pressure, toxic workplace culture, and discrimination led to her being fired from her first corporate job.

From there, she opens up about:

Being first-generation and navigating corporate America alone

Facing workplace discrimination as a young Black woman in healthcare

Getting hundreds of job rejections during the tech layoffs

The emotional toll of unemployment, pride, and starting over

How AI and ATS systems are changing hiring and blocking qualified candidates

Why networking became more powerful than resumes

Pivoting from biomedical engineering into a remote tech role

How she rebuilt confidence, strategy, and direction after burnout

This episode is for anyone who has ever:

Felt stuck after being laid off

Questioned their worth after rejection

Struggled with toxic corporate culture

Tried to break into tech during a bad economy

Felt alone in the job search

💡 This is not a success story wrapped in perfection — this is real life, real struggle, and real strategy.

In this powerful episode of Africans in Tech, we sit down with Leander Howard II. Father, GTM Advisor and Career Coach

Leander breaks down what it really takes to win as a founder in today’s world — ignoring social media noise, blocking out unqualified opinions, and focusing on respect, execution, and results.

We dive into:

Why being respected matters more than being liked

How social media can distract founders from real opportunities

The importance of standing on your values as a leader

Building a tech company when nobody looks like you

The real pressure of running payroll and leading a team

Why mentors, relationships, and conviction are the real cheat codes

This episode is a masterclass in mindset, leadership, and building with purpose — especially for entrepreneurs, students, and tech professionals navigating today’s economy.

Like 👍 | Subscribe 📲 | Turn on Notifications 🔔
Join a community focused on execution, respect, and results.

What does it really take to break into the music industry — and stay there?

In this episode of Africans in Tech, host Sahr Lebbie sits down with Ayo Beatz — UK-based rapper, producer, and global creative — to unpack his journey from freestyling as a teenager in New York to producing a Top 3 UK charting record.

Ayo Beatz shares the real, behind-the-scenes path of building a music career from the ground up: learning production just to get free studio time, balancing artistry with business, and navigating the financial risks that come with chasing global success.

The conversation also dives deep into how AI is reshaping music, creativity, and ownership — from AI-generated vocals and stems to major-label contracts restricting AI usage. Ayo breaks down why understanding music fundamentals still matters in an AI-powered era, and how artists can protect their creativity while leveraging new tools.

This episode covers:

Growing up in London and moving to New York as a teen

How environment and exposure reshaped his mindset

Learning music production without a traditional university path

Producing “See Nobody” by Wes Nelson — a Top 3 UK hit

The business realities of being both an artist and a producer

Budgeting wins, losses, and costly lessons in music

AI in music: ownership, ethics, and future opportunities

Building songs through live layering and collaboration

Touring internationally across the Middle East and Asia

If you’re an artist, producer, creative, entrepreneur, or technologist navigating the future of work, creativity, and ownership — this conversation is a must-watch.

🎧 Stream, learn, and share.