Meet Esther Akinsola

We recently connected with Esther Akinsola and have shared our conversation below.

Esther, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

The process, sometimes things don’t go as planned, coming from a developing country country meant that I had to work 10X harder than some people and I was okay with that if that’s all I had to do. As a child my father taught me that there is dignity in labour and everything was just somewhat set in a way that I realize nothing may really be handed over to me but if I could do what was necessary then achieving my goals will be possible so I would say from my father he had lived over 9 decades ahead before he gave birth to me and he didn’t have it easy so I drew inspiration from his story and they formed some of the basis to how I view both work and life

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My name is Akinsola Esther, I am a marketing coach and consultant; I help travel and tourism SMBs build simple marketing systems that increase their sales and business growth but before I became that, I was a content writer going through a transition that could have plunged me into depression and taken away my hope if not for God.
I had a part-time job as a freelance content writer for a company in Australia. Everything was going well until one day I woke up and learned that the startup had been bought out by a company in Los Angeles
I didn’t know how to feel, it was the first time I was working with a company that was sold without employees notice.
I was not contacted
The project manager only told me that they were restructuring
I heard from my colleagues that we had been sold
For a while I waited because I thought that the new company would restructure and sort things out
When I was starting out at the time I didn’t realize that I should hedge my bets as a freelancer and maybe take on more jobs instead of relying on just one.
Months later, I was not called back and things got serious
The new company only focused on housing and tax and didn’t need my skill set.
I was back tojob hunting again
I got a job with a travel company in Italy, and the boss was overbearing that I left after two weeks
There was so much to do since they were a startup and they had unrealistic marketing expectations different from what we had discussed.

The company was very new and had no digital assets, I knew I would either leave or hold on to the stress that comes from working with them at that stage.
My error was agreeing to signing a contract after working for three months, that ended in the founder offering me something outside of our initial agreement when I was supposed to be paid.
I refused; I’ve always told myself no one will cheat and neither will I cheat my way out of anything.
I had a few people say I would have collected what he offered so my time and effort would not have been wasted.
Well, I didn’t and that became one of the basis for the great work I currently do in the travel and tourism industry.
Things became pretty had as my responsibilities increased, I kept showing up on interviews for some I had an impressive first round for others I made it to the third round but I didn’t get the job.
And for nine months I remained without a job, just getting by, acquiring new skills, navigating life with joy and meditating on the scripture.
Before the contract crunch, I was studying at the London School of Journalism, and as I approached my final months as a student.I had to decide on a niche. Some of the results I got from the Italian startup and just staying that long enough in that process allowed me appreciate the journey more, I’m ordinarily a fast-moving person: if one thing does not work I try another and I seldom get discouraged or have enough time to grief over things.

That protracted time of just figuring made me realize “perhaps there could be something here.”
So I wrote internship requests to travel publications. I sent out 20 emails, and many of them replied with reasons why they’re unable to take me on as an intern, I got 15 rejections in a week to put it simply 3 days just spaced out, that was another phase that tested me it was the first time in over 3 years that I’m having that much rejection in a week.

I did cry for a couple of minutes, reached out for my journal and tried to separate the emotions that I was feeling from where I’m headed.
I talked to God about it too, and I had clarity and what to do.
I stood up and sat behind my laptop and began to send emails to everyone who had said “No” explaining why I was a great fit and the things that I can deliver.
The reason for their rejection was not about my talent but the companies current capacity and location and my ability to move.
One of those I wrote back to was GoNomad, the second largest travel magazine in the world according to Ahrefs.
The editor had his doubts about Nigeria and Nigerian partly because of the Media and some truths.
We had a chat about his concerns and I was hired.
Because of my experience as an intern in the industry, I was able to approach more travel companies, and I was hired as Chief Marketing Officer at a travel tech company in Miami
Two months later, I set up my travel marketing company in the UK. I currently work as an independent marketing and sales consultant for several travel and tourism companies in different regions of the world.
In March 2024, I graduated with honors from the London School of Journalism
I also have a travel community with over 2400 travel agents, tour operators and travel consultants from over 70 regions of the world.

We just launched our travel affiliate platform for vetted tour operators to list their tours and we launched a travel media arm of the business too so travel and tourism writers can send us their stories.

The most exciting thing about the work I really do is that it’s impactful; seeing travel and tourism SMB’s transformed gives me so much joy and makes me think, oh I might found it (purpose).

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The ability to constantly show up and show up my authentic self
Focus on growth, looking around for validation is a waste of time
It becomes purposeful if it changes lives, so always look for ways to help other people with your craft.

Sometimes these things take time for you to notice but continue working on yourself, there’s no point putting yourself under pressure knowledge will reveal your level of preparedness for the next phase and when it does fill the gaps accordingly.

The greatest sales men are the greatest givers; doesn’t mean they all give the best things some of them just create an illusion of giving customers the best thing but if you are ever in a position to sell make sure you don’t lie to score a point, make sure whatever you’ve built or has to offer is really helpful

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

My father loved the idea of me being educated and he would talk about it from time to time, it made me love reading more, after my university education I’ve got two diplomas. One from the London School of Journalism and currently on another one from the Cambridge International College and perhaps a masters soon. and tons of certificates on short courses I find that admonition particularly useful because the marketing landscape is constantly evolving and if I didn’t like to read and adapt I would probably become obsolete

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Esther Akinsola

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