Nelia Gyemfi is raising women who aspire to attain a level of self-actualization and fulfillment
What's your story?
My story is what I love to describe as “disguised appointment”- dis-appointment! It is a story of purpose and passion vis a vis power. As a young girl , I made the bold decision to contest for the prestigious enviable position of the women's commissioner in the year 2015/2016 for the Students Representative Council in my university. I took the bold courageous step as it was not an easy decision to make especially with regards to the tension which engulfed the elections that year.
Fast forward to vetting, campaigning and finally the election day. I lost the election...and I thought to myself, this is the end of the road. But howbeit, as I lay down on my bed in tears that night, I felt a burning sensation that was so real and persuasive. It was then that I understood that I do not need to be in power to be a leader! I can still make that impact without being given a mandate...and that's when people acknowledge the impact. Disappointments occur because there are positive possibilities in your life. Use the occasion to explore and express the best of those possibilities... Turn those disappointments into a possibility of fulfilling your purpose and birth the passion in you!
That was how The Phenomenal Woman started, without a plan or anything. I just knew I had to move and a year down the lane, this is where we are.
Where do you see your company in the next 5-10 years? What's the dream?
Our mission is to raise a generation of mighty women, who having a sense of purpose, in the full knowledge of Christ Jesus, aspire to attain a level of self-actualization and fulfillment that flows from within. We intend to achieve this by building an international network of young Christian women, who support each other in anticipation of attaining self actualization and fulfillment.
If you were a book, what would your title be and why?
My title would be “THE PHENOMENAL WOMAN”.
The reason being that I am building myself, and a network of other women, not to be ordinary, but to phenomenal woman. To be women who standout in the crowd because of who they have built themselves into.
Which three Adjectives Describes You?
Goal-Oriented, Articulate and Thorough
Based on your experience as a founder, what is the most important thing to figure out in the first few years- perfect the product? Best marketing strategy? Beautiful branding? Grow the network? Something other than above? Why?
In my first year of building this network of young intellectual Christian young ladies, especially through blogging, writing, interviews and what have you, the most important thing to figure out was my niche: that is to say creating a certain space for myself which is peculiar and exclusive to only me. For instance, in my first few blog posts, people defined what I was doing as ‘oh she’s just another feminist”. Not that I have anything against feminists or feminism but that wasn’t just what I was about so I had to take time to make people understand my niche. And now, they would rather call me Phenomenal Nelia rather than a feminist.
Why do you do what you do? What made you start? What keeps you going?
I seek to bridge the gap and make known the possibility of the woman achieving all her life’s goals and success and still be wife, a mother and be the woman God created her to be. I want to further iterate the possibility of doing all three and not being limited by any of the three. I strive to be an example and to raise likeminded women of such calibre. What keeps me going is the fact that I know I’m fulfilling purpose and making a remarkable impact our generation of Christian Women.
What does it mean to "succeed"? Is it ever achieved or is it an ongoing journey?
In the late Dr Myles Munroe’s words, success is not the comparison between what you have done and what others have done, success is rather what you have done, compared to what you could or should have done. In effect, until you come to the point where you’re able to say that you’ve actually exhausted what you could or should have done, you have to journey on.
Share a memorable story that happened to you since you started this business. Why is memorable? How did it affect you?
This interview is actually the most memorable and amazing thing that has happened to me since the inception of this vision. I haven’t been interviewed yet but I do interviews every month on my website so I was wondering, who will ask to know my story as well. And here I am, awed and pleased.
Do you have a fixed work routine? How does it look like? Do you have specific work ethics?
Yes I do have a fixed work routine, especially for my website and Facebook fan Page. I have days for interviews, for profiling and celebrating women, for studying female characters from the Bible among others.
My work ethics has to be being better and building on everything that I have done. That is basically to grow and be versatile.