Episode 63: Create What You Wish Existed with Ekiuwa Aire

Transcript

00:03

Welcome to the Push Or Pivot podcast, a podcast that inspires you to trust yourself in the crossroads of life. I'm your host, Thea Charles. As a life coach, I know that when you put fear aside and trust yourself, you'll know when to push through adversity, and when to stop, reassess, and pivot. I believe magic happens whenever a push or pivot story is shared. And that magic is exactly what you'll find here.

00:41

My guest is a Ekiuwa Aire. She is a self published children's book author. And we talked about her push to create her book, and what drove her vision to write stories for children. Welcome Cuba to the pusher pivot. I am really, really excited to talk with you today.

01:04

Thank you for having me here.

01:06

Yeah, my pleasure. I am. I know this is gonna be a great story. But before we start, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

01:16

Okay, sure. My name is a que la ira I was born and raised in the city has been in which is in the south central region of Nigeria. 14 years ago, I moved to Canada to pursue my MBA. As a kid, I loved poetry and writing. I even co wrote a book just before I graduated high school, after high school, moving into university coming to Canada, I got caught up in the corporate world and in getting bills paid. I went into finance migrated into it. I am currently data engineer by day. But things changed. When I had kids, I was racing them in an environment that I hadn't been raised in, I noticed the differences between my childhood and there's the lack of diversity. I tried to make up for this by doing various things, including strategically buying books to boost your sense of self. That it was in doing this that I noticed that while there are a few books out there on black history, there was literally nothing that I could find an African history. And this is where the idea for my book was for.

02:39

Yeah, I can't wait to talk about your book. So what would you say? Your crosswords was?

02:48

I, um, I spent a lot of time researching. So it was between the time that I said, Oh, I should write a book and then actually doing it. So I think I spent three years saying I should write a book. And I got really caught up in the research aspects and just everyday nipping away at it little by little, I remember to this day was a Sunday and my husband and kids had gone swimming, I had the house to myself, I was an Instagram doing nothing. And I said, You know what, I'm going to get this book off of my to do list. So I sat up and blasted out a few pages of my manuscript. And I was done and done. And I was like, You know what, I'm going to start looking for an illustrator. Mind you, I had no clue how to create a book. I just write it. I just I just thought you write a book, you illustrate it, you print it, you're an author, and that was the end. So I went and Upwork shared my manuscripts with a few freelance illustrators, I remember was one of them, who was quite frank with me and told me that my manuscript really wasn't ready. It wasn't anything. It wasn't close to anything she'd ever seen. She'd asked if I'd shared it with an editor. And this was the first step in a long, long journey of learning how to self publish, it was taking many missteps, correcting myself as I went along. I did eventually find an editor and I worked some more in my manuscript. From there, I finally got an illustration and got the illustrations done. And I never looked back since then. At some point, though, I think my goal changed Initially, I just wanted to get writing a book off of my to do lists. Somewhere along the line, I fell in love with it, and it became my baby. I wanted to give it its best footing in the world. From the quality of the book to the launching to the marketing to the branding, I took courses to ensure I was doing everything right. And if there's one thing about me, I'm the worst kind of introvert. I'm extremely quiet and private. And in trying to market this book. I learned that I need to put myself out there more, you know, this is a book, do podcast, press releases, author interviews. So when he was suggested to me at first i Bolton like he would know my picture on me, I'm not a celebrity. But in reaching out and putting myself out there, I'm chuckling, giving you responded to me. So, so here I am.

05:16

Yeah, that's something that comes up a lot that when you realize that marketing and whatever it is that you're working on, it's really your giving of yourself. Yes. And it's such a different, different way of looking at things. I'm curious, how did you keep yourself pushing through, like, learning about all the different parts? Like, was there ever a time where you're like,

05:37

I don't know.

05:40

I think every day, I'm still like, I don't know. But I think it's a bit of it is my personality. I don't know how to give up. I am constantly tweaking and tweaking, and if something is not working, instead of giving up at it, I just tweak. Not everything has worked the way that I thought it should work. But I'm just tweaking as I go, because it is my baby. Even my kids have scared to talk about this book in front of them. They're like, are you working on the book? Again, I'm just constantly working on it. I'm passionate about it. And I think, and I think that's where it is, it's the passion because I'm a pivoter, I've pivoted a lot in my life. I've tried even photography, I've tried quite a few things. And when they turn out not to be what I thought they would be, I found myself pivoting or being like, if I'm not enjoying it, why am I wasting my time with this, but with this book, even the trials, and even in the launching, and the publishing and the marketing, even though it's not everything has gone to the way I wanted it to. It's just like that your kid is missing exactly the way you imagined motherhood or, or, or having to be a parent to feel that way. It's my passion. And that's what keeps me pushing.

07:07

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07:51

And it's also interesting how this is something that you've done before. You know, like going back to something that you've worked out, you know, like, because you mentioned that you had a book before. So that's Yeah, that's awesome. So what's your book about?

08:09

My book is about an ancient African Queen called iidea. She lives in the bidding kingdom, which is where I am from, she is quite well known. She was the first in her kingdom to go to war for the kingdom. She was spiritual, she was a warrior, she was a dancer. And she, her son made a mask out of her image when she passed away. And this mask is sitting in the British Museum right now, it was referenced actually, I think in the movie Black Panther. And this mask has become a symbol of africanism. Whenever you see someone that's trying to show that they love Africa, I see them using the mask of T shirts made out of this mask hats meet other snap. But I don't know that everybody knows who this person is, or who her story, what her story is. And not everything is known about her. But I think that the fact that not everything is known shouldn't shouldn't mean that we don't know that she existed. So I took the facts that we have about her that she was a warrior that she loves to dance, and that she was quite mystical. And I put that into a story that just introduces her to kids. And I'm hoping with my book that when the four year old, a five year old, a six year old, reads this book. It doesn't give all of the details. It tells you who she was, when they're 10 they're more likely to go on the internet and find all of the details about African history and who we are where we came from.

09:54

I love that. And I think it's so important for people to see themselves in a story. Yes, and that that is something that's lacking a lot, because a lot of times you'll hear things like, like I can think of books that my own children have. It ends up being about civil rights, or you know, like all the things before but we don't ever have African stories with African people. Yeah. being great. Yes,

10:22

yes. And it also teaches Africans that before the history was marred, you were still great. But we it's not like we came from nothing. We weren't good. Before this little this not little this blip in our in our history.

10:38

Yeah, I think that's fairly important. And cats. I think it's just really awesome that you're doing this. Are you going to stop there? Two brothers.

10:49

Oh, yes. So I'm already working on Book Two. Book Two is on another queen in singer. She was quite feisty. She are located she was she lived in what is now Angola. She was she is a symbol of the fight against slavery. She She fought against the Portuguese and she, she dedicated her whole life to fighting against slavery. And really, it was only after she died, that slavery really took hold and went haywire in Angola. Good. She's a good story as well. And I'm hoping to release that book in January. I'm hoping to write and it's now that I see how much work goes into it. When I started. I'm like, Oh my god, there's so many amazing Africans in history. I'm going to write 100 books was my goal. It's still my goal, but it's a lot of work therapy. I do I would like ideally, to saturate the market with impressive stories of Africans being great before Colin. Colin, yeah, listen. Yeah,

11:58

I love it. And I love like strong women story to

12:02

strong women and strong men. They're few men are nice as well.

12:07

Ah, awesome. Oh, my goodness. So let's look at when's the book coming out that you're writing currently

12:15

are currently available for pre order? I would the books are on their way to me right now. They should be here. end of November. And I would be shipping them out first week in December.

12:31

Ah, great holiday gifts.

12:33

Yes. What the title is so tight. So. Yep. So

12:39

I've already have to say I'm buying one for my niece, I've already decided. So phase one for us here. We'll have a copy here. And she'll have a copy because I you know, just the illustrations are beautiful. I mean, I've been looking at it. And it's just like this is.

12:54

So that's the thing with the illustrations, the illustrations. It took so long to find somebody who could illustrate African characters. It was and you know, there is the saying that we're all the same. It's just the skin color. But we're really not all the same. My features are very different from a location features. So you cannot for a lot of the illustrators, they would give me someone that looks Caucasian, but they just shade it the person Brown. So it took me months, it took me so long to find an illustrator that could illustrate African characters looking good because a lot of a lot of times they look caricature, I wanted the illustrations to be a celebration, and even the book to be a celebration of, of black history and African history.

13:52

Beautiful, it must be so rewarding to see your vision come to life.

13:57

I am so I can't believe that I did this. I'm very odd. It's a beautiful, it's a beautiful book, and I'm very proud of it.

14:07

Um, what piece of advice would you give somebody

14:11

I would say just get started. You'd figure it out. Mistakes are the most effective teaching tool. In my journey. I made a lot of mistakes. Some have been quite painful. But I've taken them all in good stride. And I've learned a ton of them. And I have what I wanted at the end of the journey. And I would also give one more piece of advice, which is you should keep pivoting, keep pivoting. There's nothing wrong with pivoting. And then when you find your passion, you push I

14:46

love that. Thank you so much. How

14:51

divots in quitting, but I don't think so.

14:53

I don't think so either. I don't think so. I think you know, I think it takes a lot to stop and reassess, and really Think about what is it that I actually want? What am I doing what I want to do? What's my passion? Or am I doing what I think I should do? Like the path that's already been made for me. And, yeah, I made for myself, you know, just sharing for myself, I always felt that work had to be hard. You know, like, it's got to be hard work, you have to do this. But really, the zone of genius that you have is the thing that comes so easily. Like when you get to sit down and write a book. It's like, I can't sit down and write a book. And I just love to be able to read someone's book, you know, like, when you have your, your thing, you just bring so much to everybody else.

15:36

Even with my kids, I do the same thing. I like to instill discipline in them. But after some time, you just know that it shouldn't be this hard to get them to do this. If they're complaining all the time. This is not for them. Let's move on. What's the next record collectivity will find your passion?

15:55

Yes,

15:56

yes. That's great, great advice. Ah, so how can people find you and find your book,

16:04

my website, www dot our dash accessories that come from there, you can join my mailing lists, I give out free activity sheets to parents with African history. I also have a blog where I'm constantly sharing about African culture and history. Or you can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, where I do the same thing spreading the word and our beautiful African history

16:33

equal again, this the name of your book.

16:37

Oh, yeah, that's this, that idea of the bidding kingdom.

16:41

Beautiful.

16:42

So everyone looked for that book. It's beautiful, so beautiful. And of course, we'll have all of your links in the show notes so everyone can find you in the queue. I just want to thank you again for being on the pusher pivot. This

16:54

was a pleasure. Thank you for this platform.

16:58

my conversation with a co op made me reflect on what we can all do to boost our sense of self. And she also made me think of the importance of not letting time stop you from achieving your goals and passion projects. Just taking one step at a time and letting the step snowball into becoming the person you want to be. Think about your own goal. What's the first step that comes to mind to achieve that goal, like Acua? Don't let the steps that you don't know stop you from taking the actions, you know, will push you in the right direction. Thank you for listening to the push or pivot podcast. If you enjoyed the episode, hit the subscribe button. And please leave us a review. To learn more about the show and to access the show debit.com. I'd also love to hear from you. Share your thoughts and takeaways with me on Instagram at pusher pivot. Thank you for listening, and join me next time on the push or pivot podcast.