The NDINI Podcast

Leslie ‘Lee’ Kasumba was born in Cuba and raised in South Africa. Her father initially wanted her to become a doctor, but Lee found her passion in another field which would later make her name known in the African media and entertainment industry.

At the young age of 19, Lee began working as a DJ and producer for the biggest radio station in South Africa, YFM. She also functioned as the editor at Y Magazine during the 8 years she worked there. She also wrote for Centric Magazine, hosted the Price of Fame panel with Quincy Jones, and even interviewed Tony Blair for the first ever 'MTV Base Meets'. Lee has served as a TV host for Emcee Africa, and also hosted the African Live 8 music concert, and presented the Key Note address to the United Nations at the Global African Hip-Hop Summit. 

Her radio show, “Arambe” was the biggest radio show to come out of South Africa and the first to actively promote and support South African nationals. Lee has also worked internationally as an on-air personality both as a host and panelist, including being a panelist for Big Brother Africa.

Lee is also regarded as having played an important role in Hip hop in Africa, having been labelled the 'First Lady of Hip hop' in South Africa. She's hosted several hip-hop battles and travelled around the continent as TV host for Emcee Africa, interviewing various International hip hop acts like Damian Marley, K’naan, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, and Missy Elliott, among others. She's also the First African woman to be featured in XXL Magazine. Lee also emceed Beyoncé's concert in South Africa, and has been a judge at several music awards as well.

In this episode, Lee talks about her career, how she started, and where it led to. She shares how all her experience in the creative and entertainment industry, the highs and lows, the blessings and the challenges, has shaped her into what she is now. 

Identifying as a ‘global citizen’, Lee talks about being the bridge between the creative industry and sociopolitical change. She discusses important issues like how the creative industry has done a better job of uniting Africans in ways that politics can’t do, and the need of a cultural shift as Africans to move towards true unity. 

We’re down to the last quarter of the year.  If you’re like me, this is when “the wheels come off the bus” so to speak!  All the good habits, and all the goals I’ve been working towards go out of the window.

If this sounds like you…. BUT you want this year to be different, then this is for YOU!

I’ve been there so many times – ending the year disappointed in myself, and even further from my goals than when I started the year.

I’m sharing some of the things I’ve learned that I think will help to make this year different for you.  It doesn’t matter how close or far you are from your goals.  Using these 9 tips will absolutely help you to make these last 90 days your best!

… And it will set you up to go into the new year feeling inspired, and ready to take on the new decade!

Let’s finish 2020 STRONG!

This week, we wrap up our Quick Fire Q&A series with bestselling author, CEO of Motivating the Masses Inc., and global motivational speaker, Lisa Nichols.

You can watch Lisa’s two-part interview in Episode 107 and Episode 108 where she shared her phenomenal story and life-changing message of courage and determination.

In this Quick Fire conversation, we get to know more about Lisa and some of her interesting quirks. She also shared a very interesting story about he time she travelled to Swaziland (the Kingdom of Eswatini) with her son -- an experience that she called “a very embarrassing mommy moment” that involved the queen. This is a conversation you shouldn’t miss!

This week on our Quick Fire series, we have CEO and founder of Curlshoppe, Natasha Sheppard. 

Natasha joined us in Episode 118 where she shared her story and journey to becoming an entrepreneur, and talked about her goals, dreams, and challenges, and her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.

As a child growing up, Natasha’s hair was consistently relaxed by her mother to make styling easier. She was even convinced that her hair was naturally straight (or ‘wavy’ at most) and ironically always wanted curly hair. Through many chemical relaxers and weekly wash-blowdry-straighten routines, her hair got more and more  damaged, until she finally decided to cut her hair short. Doing this started to reveal her true natural curls the moment she started growing out of the relaxers. 

As years went by, eventually Natasha could not resist the urge anymore to do the “big chop” -- to cut all of her hair off -- so she could grow out her true curls from scratch.

Doing her own research on how to grow her curls and have proper hair care, she decided to start sharing her journey (via blogging, YouTube and Instagram), and continued learning until she became more confident in herself embracing her new found natural hair.

Natasha eventually learned enough to create her own formula and people started buying her products. This led to building her brand, Curlshoppe, which she now co-owns with her best friend, Rowan McAnoy. 

After being able to create her own business and brand, a lot of people would ask her how she was able to do it. With her own experience and strategies in this field, she and her partner Sanjay created Hustl works, a platform to help aspiring entrepreneurs start their own businesses.

This week for our Quick Fire series, we have Strategy and Growth Consultant and founder of My African Corner, Chioma Ifeanyi-Okoro.

Chioma joined us in Episode 115 where she shared her story on how she became a CPA, and eventually fully going into entrepreneurship.

Chioma is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CMA) with over 8 years of experience working with corporate and nonprofit organizations.

 As a growth coach and consultant, Chioma has helped a lot of professionals and entrepreneurs build creative strategies and grow their revenue. In 2018, She was named by Elevate Tech Fest as a Leader in the Canadian Innovation ecosystem and nominated for a Toronto Region Board of Trade Business Excellence Award for Young Professional of the Year.

Her work had been featured in a number of publications including Canada's top outlet for senior executives and professionals (The Globe and Mail) and PayPal. She has also spoken in stages and universities. She currently sits on the newly formed CPA Emerging Leaders Advisory Board and is a mentor to various startups, business owners and professionals across the world.

Chioma is also the founder of My African Corner, a platform dedicated to accelerating entrepreneurs and professionals in the Black community. This platform holds various events like BUILDfest, which is focused on experiential education on business, and Dajara, which focuses on helping students and new graduates.

For our Quick Fire episode this week, we have motivational speaker, coach, entrepreneur, and author of 'A Walk In My Stilettos', Makini Smith.

Makini joined us in Episode 122 where she shared her personal journey and how she had come to write her book.

Makini was a straight A student when she was in high school, but her turbulent youth and environment at that time ended up causing her to become a mother at a very young age. She had to prove herself to her family and to society that she was not going to be just a statistic. She went back to school. 

Despite having to work full time to support herself in college and being a single mother of two small children all at the same time, Makini graduated with honors. Her challenges would not end here as she had to deal with difficult and toxic relationships after. She also had to deal with anxiety, depression, and health issues because of this. But Makini rose through all these challenges and was able to provide for her children and be present to raise them by becoming an entrepreneur. Makini shares how the passing of her sister greatly affected her change in perspective in life. Witnessing how her sister had made a difference in many people’s lives, this inspired her to do the same.  

Makini shared her journey in her book ‘A Walk In My Stilettos’ which has become a source of inspiration for many. She has also written several other books to help provide the tools needed to overcome self-limiting thoughts of doubt and fear, as well as to integrate the importance of gratitude in this process.

Makini Smith has also become an international speaker gracing platforms in Canada, the United States and Africa with her transparent storytelling of real life testimonies. Her authenticity and relatable message empowers women to walk boldly with their head held high. As an extension to her books, Makini also hosts a podcast called A Walk In My Stilettos Podcast.

Joining us this week in our Quick Fire series is mother, entrepreneur, and life coach Robina Abramson-Walling.

Robina joined us in Episode 120 where she talked about her life journey of discovering herself to her core and her pursuit of purpose and happiness.

Robina worked as a nurse, got married and had children, then left her job to focus on raising her children. She had done what was expected of her and was living a life of how other people thought she should. One day she woke up and realized that she didn’t even know who she was anymore. She had given so much to everybody else that she stopped caring about herself. At this point, she knew that she had to make a decision to change.

Robina searched for ways to help herself, one of which was going to the gym. Eventually, this led her to go all the way  into fitness competitions. But even when she was competing, she realized that she was not happy. She needed to recreate who she was.

Despite the backlash and self-doubt, Robina decided to follow her heart and not her brain. She started building her character and mind by not only being physically healthy, but also mentally and spiritually. With the help of books, meditation, and surrounding herself with the right kind of people, she was able to develop the right mindset that helped her truly find her passion.

Robina is a mother of 4 children, a lifestyle entrepreneur with Arbonne, and a health and life coach. Her goal is to help women get unstuck in life and empower them to reinvent and recreate who they are and who they want to be. She started her own podcast called Unstuckable.

Joining us this week in our Quick Fire series is Keynote Speaker, Inclusion Consultant, and Co-founder & Editor-in-Chief of ByBlacks.com, Camille Dundas

Camille joined us in Episode 113 where she shared her journey from becoming a career journalist, and to pursuing her own path as an entrepreneur.

Starting at an early age, Camille loved reading and writing. Some of her fondest memories are of mornings spent reading the weekend newspapers from cover to cover with her father.  As a teen she got exposure to working for a local TV network….and she was hooked!  She knew she wanted to be a journalist.  

Camille’s journalism career started when she was just 15 years old when she got a gig as a part-time newspaper columnist. At 16, she was commissioned to write a biographical poem about Nelson Mandela. She got to read the poem and present it to the late South African leader in 1998, which is a memory she treasures. She spent more than 10 years as a news writer and producer for leading Canadian news programs such as CBC National, CP24 Breaking News and CTV's Canada AM.

Living in Canada, Camille had a strong desire to create a platform for the black community in the country to promote their businesses.  Camille and her husband Roger Dundas came up with the idea for ByBlacks.com. Since its inception, the platform has evolved into a full scale online magazine featuring stories of inspiring people from the Canadian black community. 

Camille was recognized by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for her media activism; and the ByBlacks team has won national media awards. She has been recognized as one of the ‘100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women’.

In 2016 Camille made a career jump from TV news to the tech industry, becoming a consultant for global social media management leader Hootsuite. She now uses her storytelling skills to show organizations how they can leverage social media as part of their digital transformation strategies.

Camille and her husband Roger, who are parents to two young children, are also business partners in publicity and marketing firm Konvo Media. She is also passionate about women's rights, and mentoring underserved groups. She is a prolific public speaker, delivering keynotes and workshops across all sectors.

In this week’s Quick Fire episode, we have inspirational and motivational speaker, life coach, and expert spray tan therapist Maria Michelle Lee.

Maria joined us in Episode 111 where she talked about the challenges and struggles she had to overcome to ultimately find her purpose. She shared her reflections on her experience joining fitness competitions, as well as about her beautiful family, and the people that inspired her.

Maria owns Brown Sugar Spray Tanz, offering natural luxury spray tan services, specializing in spray tan education, certification, & competition tans. She does the best of both worlds -- mentoring many women to be their best mentally, spiritually and physically, while expertly doing their spray tan sessions. If you want to know how that works out, you’ll want to hear it straight from Maria as she talks about how this began, and how she has found her purpose doing it. 

Struggling though living as a ‘people pleaser,’ Maria got burned out to the point of considering ending her own life. With the help of a friend and some divine intervention, she was able to overcome this critical point in her life, and come to realize her purpose. Maria understands that so many people go through this kind of sadness and struggle, that she made it her goal to do everything she can so that nobody would ever go through such an experience.

Maria herself started in the fitness industry, joining fitness competitions professionally. She even aimed for one competition after every child she had -- she has three children -- and did one more competition for her 40th birthday. With her knowledge and experience in this field, she knows well about how athletes could “look good on the outside, but don't feel good on the inside,” as she had experienced this herself. Maria also helps people overcome body and self-esteem issues, and ultimately finding their true happiness. 

Maria’s goal and focus is to build a tribe of empowerment, by teaching women how to love themselves through Mirror Workshops, Vision Board Sessions and Mindest Coaching programs.

It’s time once again for our Quick Fire series! And to start it off, we are having Canada’s Queen of R&B, Jully Black.  

Jully joined us in an awesome 2-part interview in Episode 104 and Episode 105 where she shared her journey in her music career, life lessons throughout her experience, as well as her goals and purpose. 

In this candid conversation, we get to know Jully a bit more, including the time she answered the door for the pizza delivery man “in her panty.” She shares everything from her favorite popcorn to wanting to have dinner with God and Bob Marley. Jully is truly hilarious and you definitely should not miss this quick fire interview!