Irachy PR CEO, Dr. Bukola Bello-Jaiyesimi, Speaks on Life and Success in Public Relations

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Dr. Bukky Bello-Jaiyesimi

Dr. Bukola Bello-Jaiyesimi, the Chief Strategist of Irachy PR and international president, African Women Foundation for Nation Building, is an entrepreneur, pan Africanist and a multiple award recipient with a vision beyond building a community of innovative thoughtful citizens within the workplace and market place. With close to twenty years of experience as a speaker in conferences, seminars and master classes, stunning Bukola is described as a stylish professional, larger than life and passionate about God’s purpose for her life. In this interview with MAYOR AKINPELU, she shares secrets behind the success of her profession, the future of public relations and real estate, and many more. Excerpts…

 

What accounted for your decision to be in PR?

I discovered that I was doing quite a number of things that were PR functions like sponsorship investor relations media strategy and I needed to put it altogether. I wanted to bring them up altogether. I said, look, these are all PR functions, let me bring them altogether under a PR umbrella. That’s how I started doing PR.

 

How long ago was that?

I started doing the stuffs as I did say as far back as 2006. I put it altogether in 2009.

Dr. Bukky Bello-Jaiyesimi

 

What’s the strategy behind the Irachy PR?

It wasn’t Irachy PR at the beginning. It was different companies owned by me doing sponsorship, strategy media, both in the political scene and business world and even in the corporate world. But I wanted it to come together under one umbrella because my being here, being there, it was like I was being torn apart. So, I wanted a holistic look and acceptance of it from myself first before presenting it to the world. That’s how I got started.

 

How has it been so far?

It’s been beautiful and interesting. When you have to engage people daily, you attend meetings, you try to define problems and proffer solutions for those problems for high net worth individuals, for businesses, for even religious organizations; you find there’s a gap somewhere and you can define that this is the problem, okay how can we get out of the problems and make things better, how do we add value, how do we make things acceptable and more presentable. It’s been quite interesting.

 

In adding value to your clients, what do you look out for?

On a personal note, I want to capture the vision, I want to understand the architecture of the vision behind either a high net worth individual or an organization. What is the vision, where is the gap, because you find gaps where people are deviating from the vision. That’s where you find gaps most times. Or you’ve come across an organization where the employees are not even in line with the vision of the organization. They probably don’t even understand it in totality what the organization is trying to achieve or trying to do. So, you find that there’s a gap. When you find there’s a gap, then you can fill that gap.

 

As a lady in business, what are your experiences like?

(Laughter). Wow, there are lots of experiences. Today’s experience builds me up for the next day. Challenges? Yes, enormous. But I always say I remain unstoppable in the face of the numerous challenges in the world. We still live in a world where gender is a problem. When you operate in a male-dominated sector like one of my businesses, real estate; when people find you there, they think they have a right to keep you in the background. That’s the major challenge that I believe almost every woman in the boardroom is still trying to solve till today. That is one. You also find that the society expects a lot from you while you are trying to work hard to make things happen, while you are trying to work hard to create that enabling environment for businesses and individuals to thrive, you find that some part of the society just think ‘oh, this one is meeting people, making money, so we must be able to get some of the money’, without even thinking that no matter how established a business is, they have challenges, no matter how established an individual is, there are challenges but the society doesn’t want to accept that. You just pass by a street heading to your office and some people think that they have a right to whatever is in your purse, without even knowing that there might not be anything in the purse.

 

How did you get involved in real estate?

Real estate started way back. I have always had flair for space management, interiors and construction. I discovered that facility management also became a part of what we picked up along the way. I just love to see places enhanced. I love to see structures stand; I love to see ‘oh this is a bush path, you have snakes or other reptiles in it’ and suddenly you find it’s been cleared up and done properly and people are living there with even an office space. It just gives me joy. When you have a space that’s empty, it’s occupied by something, maybe cobwebs, cockroaches or all kinds of reptiles. I like to see the place cleaned out properly, put together to fulfill whatever purpose it’s meant to fulfill, be it office or living area, then you spice it up with or two live plants. That makes me very happy. It’s inborn.

It seems real estate is huge in Nigeria now and has become an all-comer affair, while most people are not doing it properly. What’s your view about the way real estate is being run now?

It has become a jack of all trade for everyone. All it takes in Nigeria to say you are in real estate, without even specifying which sector of real estate you belong to, is to have a piece of land or to have a rich uncle or to be able to even buy a plot of land yourself, then you become a developer. This is wrong. All my years in this sector, I have never attempted laying blocks myself or through direct labour. There are people that are schooled in this area, there are indigenous big companies that are into construction and also foreign companies that are present in Nigeria. You don’t have to be the one getting the tiler, the labourer to get the job done. You can be at the helm of affairs of any construction without having to do it yourself because you don’t even know what you want to do. There are people that know what they need to do, there are people that have invested their time to be schooled in this area with wealth of experience to build even a bungalow and you will think you’re inside a multi-storey building because it will look very beautiful with structures and quality uncompromised. Those are the kinds of people to work with if you have flair for real estate.

 

Before Irachy PR and your involvement in real estate, what were you into?

Beautiful. I was doing PR without knowing that PR was what I was doing (laughter). I was doing sponsorship for a lot of organizations. I have been doing trainings for a long while. I just love to impart knowledge from middle management, senior management even to top management. I was doing personality development trainings, workplace ethics; in fact, workplace ethics is my passion and my baby. I discovered that in the workplace, a lot is going on and a lot is going wrong. Even in the marketplace. That was before I came into real estate. Up till now, I commit myself to developing a community of innovative and thoughtful people within the workplace and the marketplace.

 

You are very prominent in public speaking, how did you get involved in that?

It’s inborn. I never went to any school to be taught in public speaking. I just discovered that when I talk people want to listen. So I decided to ask myself at a very tender age that it’s not just about talking for people to listen, what am I saying? Then I started talking from a point of view that is useful to anybody listening. Whatever we’re discussing I’m talking from that point of view. Then I began relating it to some projects that I have done in the past, like the cultural diversity awareness training that I was doing in countries where you have cultural shocks, where you have culture minority and you needed to bring to the forefront what was happening in other cultures from across the world. I discovered that a lot was going on that people were not feeling it. I’m not talking about people doing motivational speaking, talking to people at events and making them happy. What I’m saying is, engaging in very thoughtful, innovative discussions and also getting people to see from a point of view from wherever they are standing either as an employer or as employee or as a group of youths or women when you talk of gender. Whatever we are talking about you must be able to get people to see what is happening right now around the world and then they can relate it to their day to day activities.

 

When was the first time you had that breakthrough when people started calling you to come and speak to them?

I have done a lot of freebies when it comes to speaking. I remember I have gone to friends’ organizations and trained for free and I had even hosted events for free. You know there’s always a time. I’m not sure I can really put my finger on that day, that month and that year but I remember that I had done something for someone who had a youth event in Abuja. He called me to Abuja to do it. I discovered that after that particular event at the International Conference Centre, till date I have been getting calls to events to speak. Some don’t even have an idea of what they want to do but they’d just say ‘this is what we are thinking, we don’t know what to do, you give us a programme, give us a schedule’. I discovered that even churches would call me and say ‘we have our youth week, we have our women week, we have our businessmen’s meeting, we want you to please come and talk to them’, and so on. The rest is history.

 

You’ve been invited to speak in places abroad like Dubai, South Africa; how did you get that breakthrough?

It started from somewhere just as I said. For me, breaking into Southern Africa was just one event I had been invited to speak. The organizers of the event I’m not sure even knew about me. Someone just said to them ‘there is the person for the opening of this event; if you can find her you would have a good event’. Since then, South Africa has become my second home.

 

What is the difference between public speaking and motivational speaking?

Well, I think that motivational speaking is an aspect of public speaking. When you are speaking either as a motivational speaker you’re still speaking to the public. But what are you saying as motivational speaker, maybe you’re trying to motivate people, refine their thought pattern to understand the right path to be. You don’t motivate people if there’s no problem. Motivation means you’re trying to get people to be on one side or on the right side while public speaking can be intellectual and it can also be religious.

 

You are into real estate and public speaking. How extensive is public speaking in what you do?

When there’s a need, you bridge the gap. I discovered that when I started it was with workplace ethics and speaking to people about what is wrong in the marketplace. Personality development came along which is a very good one. Then the vision matters as well when you engage people to understand what the vision of an organization or an individual is. Now, to link it with what you do day to day, then you can make good success of whatever that thing is. That is one aspect.

 

You also have an NGO, tell us about it.

It is called African Women Foundation for Nation Building. It was founded in 2014 by African women but it is also for youths and men. What we do is to intervene in all the nation building processes across the continent of Africa. We have various sectors of the economy and multitude of challenges in different areas of the economy across the continents of Africa. And we don’t want to say we are doing Nigeria only. In fact, I’m impressed at the way African women have embraced the Foundation. Currently, we run about five different projects. We have the education fair series because we believe that not every woman, man or youth will ever sit down in the four walls of a classroom till they die. These are other informal settings where we bring people together to engage them about what is going on, current affairs and other things related to business across the economy of Africa for them to understand and run with it. We also have the orphanage challenge which is our very beautiful project where we intervene in orphanages, motherless babies homes and for the indigents, both children and women. And we harness a lot of opportunities and partnership from multinationals to bring food, clothing and comfort to these children. Essentials we get and move them unto the children so that at least they can have the kind of life that enhances human dignity which is scarce in some parts of Africa especially in my country, Nigeria. We also have and we run with the project where we have young girls and young boys to learn skills. You have a woman learning tiling, you have a woman trying to be a mechanic, you have a woman trying to be a meter installer and so on, away from the normal organic products that are being done. Yes, that is good as well but we want to give these people what they can eat tomorrow. We want to empower them with skills that can make them to go back to their own communities and also empower other people. By so doing, you reduce the level of poverty that you find around you on daily basis.

 

How fulfilled would you say you are looking at the activities of your NGO?

The NGO gives me even more fulfillment than my daily job. When I see somebody being assisted to assist other people, that is the giving back we’re looking for on the continent of Africa. Not assisting, enriching or empowering somebody to go and sit at home and become a local champion and begin to tell stories in the media that he has arrived. How did you arrive? How did you get there? Have you sat down and tried to allow other people to arrive through you? So, that gives me so much fulfillment because if you’re able to even change the smallest community where either you reside or your office or where you’re from in Nigeria or across the continent of Africa, it’s going to spread out. Allow one person and let the one person find his one. Allow 10 people and let those ones find their 10. We are now multiplying. That’s how it goes round.

 

How is the issue of funding?

It’s terrible. I started by funding from whatever I have and the women who started the Foundation with me would also give what they have to get one project or the other done. That was how we started and it was a big struggle. But for different projects that we run now, like the orphanage challenge for instance, we go into partnership with FMCGs across  the continent. They give us products and they partner with us to host the orphanage challenge events. That has really given us some comfort. But I must say that it wasn’t easy getting to this point. It is not everybody that is a believer. You find that to a lot of wealthy individuals and organizations, it is not their business who eats and who doesn’t eat. You also find some who have embraced it as CSR.

 

What could be done to make the NGO more effective?

We must work triple harder than we are doing now. We must be to work extra hard. As an organization, when we’re done with our training centers and most of the big constructions we want to do to host big empowerment events, we would generate money to push it forward. We are trying to replicate this in the five countries that are members on the Foundation.

It is tough for professional women to combine so many businesses and taking care of the home, how do you cope?

I have always been like this right from when I was in primary school. I remember I had a teacher then. She would always write at the end of every term ‘dynamic’ and she would put her comment there. I didn’t even know what the word ‘dynamic’ meant then, but I grew up to discover that I’m dynamic indeed; I can handle multiple projects at the same time because all these projects are important to me, I give them as much attention as I can give each project be it in the home front or office. I just discovered that since all parts are important to me, I try to give them what they all need.

 

You were honoured recently in Dubai, tell us about that event.

Yes. The Foreign Investment Network is a UK based organization. They have been into this for about 41 years. They do a lot of foreign investment networking around the globe. Such is the case of Dubai in the month of November 2021 where I was honoured and given the award on the NGO Leader. It was one of the events where you have world business leaders gather. It was a very big one.

 

When you’re not doing all these activities that you’re involved with, what do you do with your time?

I don’t think I’m free anytime but I try to create time to be free. I love music a lot. I love cooking and I love to travel and play golf. So, when I create that time, you find me doing my golf, you find me with music and you find me trying to cook.

 

How did you get involved in golf?

If I can remember, I think I had gone to the golf course once, the IBB Golf Course in Abuja so many years ago. There was an event there and I saw a lot of people playing golf, pulling their kits around. I like to dare things. So I asked ‘why do you have so many men dragging their kits. I could count how many women that passed by me but I lost count of men. And I was determined and I said I love this green area, I would like to see how this game works. So I started learning as amateur.

 

You have a golf mat in your office, what’s the use of it?

When I get into office in the morning, the first thing I try to do is to pick my putting stick and try to play. It just gives you focus. You’re looking at a hole in front of you and you’re trying to get that tiny ball into that hole. You need to concentrate, you need to focus, you’re aiming at a target. That is what it does to me. It helps me a lot to start my day.

 

How did the idea start having a golf mat in your office?

I never knew it existed. Though I had seen the pictures so many times online but I didn’t understand that it could actually be in the office. So I said to myself that if this can happen somewhere, it should be able to happen anywhere. Then I had spoken to somebody who does the enterprise of golfing kits and he said to me that what I needed was golf mat and the putting stick. I said I’m right that it’s possible to have it in the office and he said yes that a lot of people even have it in the bedroom. That’s how I decided to get one in the office.

 

What are your likes and dislikes?

I love to travel because traveling exposes me to different cultures, it helps to widen my horizon, it gives me more knowledge. So traveling for me is an experience that I don’t compromise. There was a time I was supposed to go to the Democratic Republic of Congo for a particular project, while people were saying oh! there is war between DRC and Congo Brazzaville, I was not scared because I am adventurous by nature. I said if no one is going, I am going. And I went. Stepping into the aircraft from the onset is an experience for me and acquiring knowledge. I learn from everything and when I write as well I write from everything I have seen and experienced.

 

Who are the ladies that you admire either here or abroad?

In fairness I admire every lady I meet because no two ladies are the same, be it powerful, wealthy or influential. Even for the ladies that are still on their way somewhere, who have not even found the right place that they are supposed to be, there’s still something about everyone. Either from speaking with them or from the way they behave, there’s something unique about every lady. So I will dare to say I admire every lady that has been crafted by God.

 

What’s your view about women in politics?

I did mention at the beginning of this chat that there are some male dominated sectors in the economy across the world, not just in Nigeria. Politics is one of them. So, what I have to say is, you need to dare to be different. While we were in college and people were studying aviation, medicine, engineering, business administration and so on, I’m not sure there was never any class labeled just for boys. So if you have women or girls that went through that class where you probably find few girls and plenty men, now is the time to come out and be in the politics as well because it’s not labeled for men only. And nobody serves you that a la carte. You fight to get into that space, you fight to carve out a niche for yourself even in politics.

 

What do you hope to achieve in the future?

A lot. I’m not even anywhere yet. There’s a lot to do. The world is a global village, so you can do things in Nigeria and Australia would feel the impact of what you’re doing. I’m looking forward to that. Content is the critical aspect of any business in human life. I’m working hard daily to enhance the content in my life either in work, social or emotional space that would continue to give rise to other efforts. Let me sum it up with the word of Mother Theresa; ‘I alone cannot change the world but I can cast a stone in the middle of the ocean that can cause many ripples’. I want to cause many ripples.