We were lucky to catch up with Davina Ugochukwu recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Davina, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
Most of the time, I feel chaotic. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was six years old after once again disrupting math class by standing on a desk and singing while hopping in circles. Even though my behavior seemed chaotic during that math class, when asked to repeat the lesson back to my teacher, I could do so, word for word. My parents decided against medicines, opting to help me “get my energy out” through more play time, including time to scream at the top of my lungs. Throughout high school and college, the ADHD seemed to be less of a presence in my life throughout highschool and college. During law school, however, it seemed to come back full force. I considered dropping out, thinking I would never be able to sit through lectures, let alone the bar exam or day to day life as an attorney. I was right in that I wouldn’t be able to sit through those things, unless I figured out how to. My work ethic comes from necessity – while being organized is difficult for me, it’s essential to being successful in the work I do with survivors and overcomers of human trafficking. I need to be someone my clients can rely on. During law school, I figured out systematic ways towards building a reliable work ethic system – making lots and lots of lists with easy to understand titles, keeping several calendars for distinct purposes, blocking off days for certain tasks (I’m still working on perfecting this), and other methods I’ve found have been helpful. While ADHD, now called ADD, still affects me, it motivates me minute by minute to persistently pursue more effective ways to building a strong work ethic system.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I always thought I would act and be a playwright professionally. During college I was a theater major and wanted to work with vulnerable communities, such as human trafficking survivor communities, using theater as a vehicle for advocacy and community income. My family did not think this would be a viable career path, and suggested law school. Even though I never considered myself the attorney type, I ended up loving law school. After law school, though, I thought it would be impossible to connect my passion for anti-human trafficking work with my legal and creative background. I started volunteering and providing pro bono research for various organizations that provided direct services to survivors, but I felt this was not my exact purpose.
During the work I was doing, I had the opportunity to speak with several people who had lived experience as survivors and overcomers of human trafficking. Through several conversations, I learned that many of those with lived experience were accomplishing advocacy and business work, but were not being recognized or paid as advocacy or business people. I also learned that many media outlets, individuals, and other entities were re-victimizing survivors by stealing the stories of survivors without providing compensation or acknowledgment. I realized that many survivors are entrepreneurs doing advocacy work without knowing it. I also realized that the lack of this acknowledgment creates a gap in the protection of survivors and their pursuit of an independent and stable future away from their traffickers. Through my own experience as an entrepreneur and work with legal boutiques in the space of entrepreneurship, I knew I had the skillset and knowledge to provide business coaching to work with survivors to start businesses. I was able to find my place that way, ensuring the advocacy and business work of survivors is both protected and a viable stream of income.
I created MiCreate to be the world’s foremost incubator and network of innovators, creatives, and entrepreneurs dedicated to ending all forms of human trafficking and modern day slavery. MiCreate accomplishes this by connecting human trafficking survivors to free business and IP law services, mentorship opportunities, and financial resources to encourage entrepreneurship as a form of advocacy, independence, and stability. In practice, this looks like one-on-one coaching, incubating business ideas, incorporating businesses, and providing start-up costs to newly created businesses. MiCreate is in the process of launching its industry-expert and peer to peer mentorship program, as well as its pay it forward program. MiCreate is also launching its Youth Entrepreneurship Program as a form of prevention of human trafficking to vulnerable youth.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three most important qualities/skills/areas of knowledge are:
1. Persistently follow your dreams – you will get there if you never give up.
2. Pivot when you need to – this will allow you to continue to follow your dreams persistently.
3. Be true to yourself – this will help guide you when you need to pivot and give you the strength you need to continue being persistent. When you’re true to yourself, you’ll remember why you’re being persistent in the first place, and gain the motivation and innovation to know how and when to pivot as needed.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
MiCreate is always looking to collaborate, especially with those willing to provide pro bono mentorship or services to survivors.
MiCreate collaborates with legal service providers to provide survivors with business legal solutions for business formation, contract drafting, business-focused legal aid and more; legal resources such as research, short consultations, blogs providing important legal ‘know-how’s’ for entrepreneurs, and various mentorship opportunities; and innovative entertainment law advocacy for contract negotiation, copyright registration, trademark filing, and litigation support for breaches of contract and misuse of artistic licensing.
MiCreate also collaborates with business coaches to help with one-on-one, business coaching, business consulting, and mentorship towards helping survivors incubate, incorporate, and accelerate thriving businesses from speaking engagements, pet grooming services, and restaurants to beauty product creators, artists, fashion designers, and more.
Finally, MiCreate partners with financial experts to provide financial literacy and financial services to survivors to ensure survivor-created businesses can grow healthily and steadily.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.micreate.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/micreateus/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiCreateUS/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/micreate/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.commicreateus/
