The 2025 edition of the Guardian Woman Festival holds on March 14, at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. As we prepare to host women from all walks of life, our guest on the column ahead of the festival is Oyinkansola Alabi, popularly referred to as The Emotions Doctor, a US Army Behavioural Health Specialist and a productivity enhancement and life validation, strategist.
Share with us your career journey?
My career journey has been interesting. I started out as the Merchant of Romance where I was planning surprise gift delivery for lovers and couples, and it was very interesting. I did all of that for a couple of years, and then I wanted to go deeper, because I discovered that couples were having arguments and issues that were hindering their romantic life. That’s when I set out into the world of emotional intelligence, people, relationships, conflict resolutions, negotiations and everything that I do now. My career journey is a blend of the creative part of me, and the educational part of me. So, creative education, whereby I teach people but as much as possible, I give them practical examples, stories, videos, conversations they can relate with on a day-to-day basis.
What does ‘Women Mean Business’ represents for you?
For me, my career is not about my passion. It is about my calling, and when I say that, I mean business. It means that every day of my life, I am dedicated to this calling, which is to help as many people as possible to achieve emotional stability, and to experience internal congruence, where they have joy and peace despite what is happening in the world. They are contented. They are not looking for perfection, they are looking for daily improvement. For me, a woman meaning Business means showing up in your full self as often as you can. Remembering that every conversation is beyond speaking; it is an encounter. That’s what Women Meaning Business means for me. People may call what they’re doing passion, but I call what I’m doing a calling.
How can women continually stay relevant and build a successful business?
My response to that will be by being a student of life, by following the voice of business and ensuring that they pay attention to the changes in the world, so that they don’t become redundant. Because the world is changing faster than we are changing, and we need to adapt to what we need to adapt to. We may not be able to adapt to everything, but the world is changing, and we cannot operate in 2025 how we operated in 1984. A woman must be ready to learn, she must be ready to be a student of life, a student of nature, and we must be ready to listen more than we speak, so that we can hear things that words cannot articulate, and that voices cannot vibrate. We need to be able to translate body languages, translate unspoken words, understand what is going on and use our intuition. Women are powerful and deep. We are like wells, and wisdom lives within us. So, if we pay attention to the conversations within, we will be able to lead at the external level.
