If you've ever worked for a company or a family business and you didn't feel like it was a good fit, you'll be inspired by this episode as Sherul Mehta joins Akua to share how he leveraged his vast experience to become an entrepreneur, investor, and operator.

Knowing the value of IT in business, Sherul studied computer science and business management while at university. He went to work at Goldman Sachs, then joined his family's diamond business. Finding himself bored and unfulfilled, Sherul went into business with his cousin, where he acquired two businesses that focus on helping entrepreneurs and businesses grow. Listen in to find out how acquiring these businesses helped him build his own!

Sherul also discusses the three main pillars he believes are core in supporting entrepreneurs, gives his advice to founders and service providers, and discusses what it's like to work with family.

Investing in outside support for your team can be intimidating. If you are a business leader, founder, or manager, you might be asking yourself what kind of service provider to invest in for that support and how to get the most out of your investment.

Here you will learn why it's important to reflect on the type of help your team needs, and all about pricing and whether the cost of bringing in a professional is worth the investment.

As a certified professional coach, facilitator, and speaker, Akua Nyame-Mensah has an insider's perspective on pricing and budget to share with you. She'll also help define what success looks like as you're supporting your team or individual.

This episode is the last in a three-part #ASKAkua series in which Akua guides you through the process of finding an outside service provider to support your team or a team member.

In part one, Akua talks about how to identify if your team could benefit from a professional coach. In part two, she discusses the types of service providers and the differences between a course, workshop, and coaching.

Find out the three top issues that coaches and consultants face when starting their businesses and why it’s important to master them to be a successful executive and leadership coach!

If you are interested in starting or growing your own coaching or consulting practice or want to find out how to get clients consistently, you don’t want to miss this episode.

Leadership and Executive Coach Akua Nyame-Mensah comes to you from the business side of her coaching business to reveal the results of a survey of accomplished professionals who are either new coaches or considering becoming a coach.

She also invites new and aspiring coaches to become Beta members of her new coaching container. There you will find new approaches to solving the roadblocks facing coaches, receive support and accountability in achieving your goals, and gain access to experts and content that will be game-changing in growing your coaching business.

Get inspired by Jokotola Edu "Joko," an entrepreneur who has pivoted careers several times and has a wealth of experiences in different countries and sectors. In this episode, Akua welcomes Joko to chat about her perspective on being able to evolve and adjust the definition of success.

Joko is the founder of Joko Edu, a stationary company using storytelling to highlight and preserve the rich culture and history of Africa. She tells the story of how she fell in love with history while going to Gustavus Adolphus College in the US. There she learned US history from many perspectives and wished she knew the same about her home country of Nigeria. Eventually, this curiosity would inspire her to create Joko Edu.

From banking to the education sector, bag design, and finally, entrepreneurship, find out how Joko has evolved her definition of success and learned how letting go is not a sign of failure.

As a team leader, department head, or founder, it can be challenging to know where to invest in order to increase your team’s capacity. In this episode, coach and facilitator Akua Nyame-Mensah talks about the different questions you need to ask yourself in order to decide if a training, workshop, or course would be most beneficial to your employees and team members.

With so many online and in-person options, it can be hard to know where to start. Here you’ll find out important differences between training, workshop, and course, and then what questions to reflect on to make sure you are investing in the right place and the right people.

This is the second in a three-part series; the first part is about whether hiring a coach is a good investment for all employees, and the third part will be focused on ways to find the right person to deliver the appropriate support to your team.

If you’re a CEO, founder, or solopreneur who thinks it’s impossible to take time off, or you’re afraid of missing out on money or helping a client, this episode is for you. Leadership coach Akua Nyame-Mensah is back from vacation, and she’s ready to share how she prepared for her time off so that she could return feeling re-energized, rested, and not overwhelmed with a backlog of work.

Learn what Akua feels she did well in prepping for her holiday, how to make the most of your own vacation, and what to do upon return to ensure you won’t feel like you need another break to recover from your vacation!

Understanding yourself is the most important thing you do to make your business profitable and productive - this goes for taking breaks as well. Knowing what recharges your batteries and visualizing what a restful holiday means for you is the best way to start planning for some time off.

Kuorkor Dzani is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully started and grown several businesses while working a full-time day job. Today she joins Executive Leadership Coach Akua Nyame-Mensah to share the secrets of building capacity when you are working a 9 to five and tending a side hustle (or several!).

By day, Kuorkor works in Ghana for a local lender. But as someone who gets energy from new ideas, she has also found time to start businesses, including Twists & Locs, Indigo, Kiddie Med, and Joey the Brand. She has a passion for natural remedies and healthful living, and as founder of Ghana’s first natural hair salon, Kuorkor has changed the conversation around - and the landscape of - hair in Ghana.

Though she is very free-flowing when it comes to her personality, structure, and scheduling is the core of Kuorkor’s work life. Discover her other secrets on managing time and energy in this episode!

Leaders, CEOs, and founders who have benefited from great coaching know how powerful it can be in setting and achieving goals, so it's natural to want to recreate the experience for your team. But is hiring an external, professional coach a good investment for all employees?

On today's #AskAkua episode of the Open Door Conversations Podcast, certified executive and leadership coach Akua will answer this common question in depth so you can make the best decision when it comes to supporting your team. This is part 1 in a 3 part series that dives into Akua's perspective on coaching and what you can expect (and not expect) from working with a coach.

Akua believes everyone deserves a great coach and that anyone can benefit from coaching tools and techniques (almost immediately), but that does not mean everyone will necessarily benefit from a coach. In this episode, you'll learn why and how to pinpoint your employees' needs and support them best.

Finally, you'll get a list of helpful questions to help identify if a coach is the right fit for your employees or yourself!

Employee retention is key to building a sustainable and scalable business. In this episode, Akua talks about what leaders, managers, and founders should look for in attrition rates and how to avoid high turnover.

During this era of “the great resignation,” employees reflect on the type of work they do and often take advantage of better or more aligned opportunities. Subsequently, it is more important than ever that leaders focus on retention and on the workers that are already in the company rather than constantly recruiting new ones.

Akua has personally experienced hiring and even firing hundreds of employees, and she is ready to share what she has learned and expose the seven true costs of losing an employee.

Learn how confidence in the bedroom leads to confidence in the boardroom as Akua welcomes JingJin Liu, founder, and CEO of ZaZaZu. The two talk about the connection between sex education and female health, self-confidence, and how to overcome self-limiting beliefs.

Guest JingJin Liu is a serial entrepreneur, active Angel Investor, and Advisor to female-driven, early-stage startups. She has a corporate background, having served as the first and youngest woman to become Global Marketing Director at WABCO, managing portfolios of up to $800 million.

She started ZaZaZu in 2020 to help women navigate modern challenges both in the workplace and at home. It is the first platform of its kind in Asia. ZaZaZu aims to break taboos behind female health, sex education, and intimacy while empowering women in all aspects of their lives.