Open Door Conversations

Today’s Open Door Conversation is with Kim Witten. She has a history of working in different fields and has gained wonderful experience from diverse occupations. Each one has taught her lessons and led her closer to her current passion, coaching for individuals and small organizations on the path to finding their more true selves.

With over 20 years of human-centered design experience, a Ph.D. in Sociolinguistics, and an accredited diploma in Transformational Coaching, her unique approach addresses the root of confidence issues. Find your WAY to your WHY is her new program to help people understand who they are and where they want to go. Akua and Kim discuss the wonders of being multi-passionate, recognizing and adjusting in toxic environments, and the process of finding your path.

Creating goals is a wonderful habit for leaders. But are you keeping track and checking in on those goals? How often? Akua shares the simple 3 step process for checking in on your goals. Doing this regularly will help you hit the next level of success in your business. 

Without goals, you won’t have a compass to navigate your personal and professional life. Reflecting on your goals is a huge part of using this compass correctly. In this episode, Akua explains the 20-minute check-in she does with her goals.

Negotiation comes naturally to some and is quite uncomfortable for others. In this Ask Akua episode, she welcomes her client, Morgan. Morgan is the founder of Geometric, a handcrafted accessories and apparel brand in Ghana. 

Akua and Morgan walk through a coaching session to discuss negotiation conversations focusing on negotiations for startups and small businesses. In this real-time coaching session, you will hear Akua and Morgan get to the root of the negotiation troubles Morgan has experienced and together brainstorm ways to prepare for future negotiations. After listening to this episode, you too can feel more confident going into your next negotiation.

Are you living for the weekends because it is your only time to rest? Maybe you can feel yourself burning out, yet you are still pushing yourself until your next scheduled vacation. Both of these behaviors lead to an unhealthy relationship with rest. 

In this episode, Akua walks you through the 7 different types of rest (yes, 7!) and examples of how you can practice them. As human beings, we should build rest into our daily schedules. By following Akua's strategies, looking inward, and possibly asking for help from others, getting the rest you need will be easier than you think.

In this Open Door Conversation, Akua has the joy of speaking with life transformation and mental fitness coach Amy Yip. Amy works with high-achieving women to help them recognize what they want in life and become the author of their own stories. She reminds us that if we don’t author our own story, someone else will. 

Amy shares her journey from a high-level corporate job at Google to living and loving the nomadic lifestyle she has now. Akua asks Amy about what challenges she faced while deciding to leave behind the expectations of others to find the happiness she has now. Amy courageously pushed her way through the “shoulds” that prevented her from pursuing her dream life. Now she helps other women do the same.

Akua interviews serial entrepreneur Kenny Schumacher. Kenny has been starting businesses since college, where he studied accounting. For him, the thrill is all in the startup and the building of the company. He has founded many businesses and successfully sold 2 of them. He thrives in handling operations and building out teams to operate the business.

It may sound crazy to many business owners, but Kenny tries to remove himself from the business he created as soon as he can. Many CEOs would say their business is their highest priority and that they can’t imagine things running without them. Akua asks Kenny to explain why he delegates so much, how he delegates effectively, and when he knows it’s time to move to the next project.

The Open Door Conversations Podcast is your weekly opportunity to accept leadership support. Accepting help can be difficult, especially when we have to ask for it. It is natural for humans to prefer doing everything themselves and avoid the guilt and fear of delegating tasks to others. Akua sheds light on why we have trouble asking for help and provides ways to get the support we need. 

Leaders who feel overworked and burned out are often not delegating enough. This is completely normal and often the case with leaders who are passionate about their work. We must recognize how we feel about asking for help, learn to turn off the limiting beliefs that keep us from getting the help we need and start using our incredible teams to shed the burden of work. This process will help invigorate your work, the work of your employees and eventually raise your bottom line.

Akua is excited to share this educational and entertaining interview. In this episode of the Open Door Conversations Podcast, she brings on Eyram Tawia. He is the CEO of Leti Arts, a globally successful game developing company focused on preserving African culture in modern forms that can stand the test of time. Eyram is passionate about his work, his family, and the legacy he leaves for his children and millions more on the continent of Africa. 

Today Eyram shares his origin story, about life as an entrepreneur through a pandemic, and a glimpse of what the future holds for Leti Arts. This company is not just creating a profitable video game. When Eyram realized there was an absence of African representation in the gaming world, he set out to change this. However, he went far beyond bringing in African characters and stories. He established and began to grow an entire industry of African-centered storytelling through the world of gaming.

In today’s #AskAkua episode, Akua is answering questions that will help to improve your public speaking and our email habits. To start, she gives tips and tools that will serve both beginners and seasoned speakers with in-person and online presentations. Communicating is a critical part of building and growing a business. Practicing can turn the most nervous speakers into confident and prepared ones.

Akua also covers email prioritization. Everyone gets emails, probably too many of them, but most people don’t know how to treat their inbox. Your inbox should not be your task list. Contrary to how many feel, your email does not have to be the source of great anxiety. Akua shares ways to structure and prioritize your inbox so that you can quickly get through messages and move on to the more critical money-making work.