1. Every week we will feature the adventures of one amazing woman. We aim to celebrate the varied and colorful roles women
play within industry and business. Experience inspirational, real stories by real women; Interested in being featured? Please
send your adventures to info@zarsmedia.com For previous adventures please click here
It is both a pleasure and an honour to be featured here on ZARS Media. I am thankful for the opportunity!
I am Oma Edoja, author, speaker and Women’s Business Growth Mentor. I work with women small business owners and
self-employed professional women who are great at what they do but feel challenged with the marketing side of business.
Together, we work on their marketing and selling skills and overcome any mindset issues that may be standing in their way.
The results are that they then find it much easier to keep up a steady flow of clients and a steady income. I like to say that I
make marketing and selling simpler for women small business owners!
How I got into this role
Necessity became the mother of invention! I struggled with the same challenges that I now support my clients with. After
years of trial and error and much failure, I got support from coaches and mentors. Then I learned what I had been doing
wrong and how to do it right. I fell in love with marketing and since I had been a teacher years ago, I decided to teach other
women what I had now learned. Since my secondary school days, I had been involved with writing and public speaking. I
had been on the school debating team, quiz team and school choir and had compered many school events. We won several
regional competitions and featured on local radio. Individually, I also won competitions for creative writing and for a while,
as an adult I got paid to write for international publications. It therefore came naturally to leverage my writing and speaking
skills and become an author and speaker, to compliment my work as a business mentor.
What my work involves
My work involves coaching and mentoring women entrepreneurs. They could be local or international, thanks to modern
technology! Mostly, my clients come to me through my own marketing efforts, whether this is directly or through referrals
and partners. So it is essential to stay on top of my game with my marketing and selling skills. To this end, I am always
working on my own growth and development. In marketing my business, I speak at conferences, networking events, on
radio, TV and on the internet through various channels. I write for my own platforms and for others in my industry. One of
these currently is a US-based publication for Christian entrepreneurs. I am naturally the kind of person who enjoys engaging
with others, so social media is very handy for me. My work also involves being creative, optimistic and a problem solver!
Life’s Lessons
I have been through a great deal of adversity in my life. I have lost a child, experienced domestic violence, been homeless
twice (with children), been separated from my children and have had to start life all over again on re-locating to the UK. I
started my business with savings from benefits, and at one point, I couldn’t afford a desk, so I worked from my bed! In the
early days, I searched around and got a grant for some much-needed business training. I share this to make a statement that
you can’t hold a determined woman down so it would be best to collaborate with her and not stand in her way! Also, you
don’t have to wait for life to be rosy before you start a business; some great ones have arisen from adversity! I am not afraid
to make mistakes and I have made many. Because one day, through our mistakes, we exhaust all the things that do not work
and we find the things that do. Don’t be afraid to fail, just fail forwards. If you never give up, that’s the only way you are
headed!
Adventures of Oma Edoja
Author, speaker & Women’s
Business Growth Mentor

2. My most valuable lesson to share with women pursuing a career or building a business is that success is a journey, not a
destination! We each have our own unique journey, so don’t get hung up over how things may be working out for someone
else. Let them run in their lane and you focus on running in yours. The race is not to the swift; it is to the strong.
Maximize all the growth opportunities you encounter on the way and be aware that most are disguised as trials. I have
grown a great deal through trying times, both personal and professional. Be ready to do whatever it takes to succeed and be
ready to wait, because success is seldom ever instant. When you plant the seeds of your career or business, there will be a
waiting time before the harvest. So, temper your ambition with patience. There will be not-so-beautiful times on your climb
upwards, such as when your web site crashes or you have a crazy boss. Just do the best you can with what you have, from
where you are. As long as you do this, you are being the best that you can be in those circumstances and you will get where
you are going at the time that is right for you. If you stick with the process of success instead of stressing about the
destination, if you commit to your own development and stay focused on your goal, you will arrive a much richer person,
able to make a bigger, richer impact on the world. Always remember that people who make a meaningful difference have
first come through the fires of testing. So don’t be afraid when the heat is on and don’t try to escape; it is preparing you for
success!
What I am doing now
I am currently in talks with a publisher to publish my next book and am in the process of launching my new support
platform, Women Thriving in Business International. I also publish a weekly faith-based podcast for entrepreneurs, The
Faith for Business Weekly Podcast. I am one of the Cherie Blair Foundation’s international women’s business mentors and I
currently mentor a South-Africa based entrepreneur through this program. To qualify as a Cherie Blair mentor you need to
complete extensive training and pass a rigorous screening test. I am therefore especially honoured to be chosen for this
program. I am happy to reach a global audience through my work and am particularly happy to be empowering women.
What inspires me to do this work every day?
My parents worked hard to empower us with an education and strong determination. Because of this empowerment, I have
been able to press through adversity and maintain the right to self-determination. I have seen first-hand that not all women
in the world are empowered this way. And strange as it may sound, not all women have the right to self-determination.
Some are held back by culture and others have relinquished this right to fear. It is therefore my dream to empower as many
women as I can with the skills to build a sustainable business. With this, they can become economically empowered and
have a say and a choice in their own lives, the lives of their loved ones and in their communities i.e. achieve the means to
self-determination. They can say No to what they don’t want and Yes to what they do! This is the legacy I hope to leave.
My Favourite Quote
For me, this changes all the time, but for now it is:
“To all who have, more will be given, and they will have more than enough. But everything will be taken away from those
who don't have much.” Matthew 25:29. Rather harsh, I know but I find the inherent lesson inspirational: leverage the
resources you have and they will multiply. Do nothing with them and you will lose even the little you have. A wake up call!
Thank you for taking the time to read my career adventures.
Need a speaker for your women’s business event or inspirational school program? http://OmaEdoja.com/Speaking
Oma Edoja
Author & Speaker
Women’s Business Growth Mentor
info@OmaEdoja.com
Click on the cover for free pdf or print copy of my book,
The Essential Get Clients Guide: 14 Reasons Women
Business Owners Struggle to Get Clients and How to Avoid
Them