A day in the life of a media entrepreneur
By Ilana Gensler, MA’19
As the clock strikes 5:30 am, Adebukola Ajao’s, MPS’20 alarm clock sounds initiating a stretch session and shower. By 6:45, she’s buckled up and on the road to her day job as a high school educator. Between the hours of 7:30 to 3:30 pm, Ajao helps students with their socio-emotional needs and postgrad life preparation. Curling up for a nap, Ajao recharges her battery at work before driving to Curry Student Center. During a light dinner she puts finishing touches on her assignments and studies until class from 6:30 to 9:30. Sprinkled throughout the day in intervals, Ajao works on BDY CONSULT – her boutique consultancy.
For those who are looking to build the digital arm in their business or marketing career, Ajao has three pieces of advice.
Never give up
“How are you going to make money?” is the concern that Ajao was met with upon sharing she’s pursuing a master’s degree in digital media studies. In 2018 Ajao was selected as one of six recipients of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Graduate Fellowship, a scholarship program offered by the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute. “There aren’t a lot of colleges that have an institute for people of color,” says Ajao. Having lived in the Mandela Homes across from Northeastern—where she wanted to go for undergrad—it’s full circle that the school was where Ajao took her business to the next level.
What you want to be and who you are doesn’t exist yet
Ajao says there would have been no way to express as a teenager that she would become a digital marketer when she grows up, and she’s here to disrupt the notion that you have to know exactly what you want to do. “Having a computer in the early 2000s was a major luxury,” says Ajao, “and you never know what new technology will come up in the future that you’ll be an expert in.” If you have a vision, you have to do things that people don’t completely understand, according to Ajao.
May 3, 2022
There aren’t a lot of colleges that have an institute for people of color.
Adebukola Ajao, CPS’12
Actively seek your purpose
By Ajao’s senior year of college she knew she was going to serve small businesses of color, after observing the knowledge gap that entrepreneurs who only attended high school—like her mother—face. With a goal of doubling the amount of small businesses that are online by 2022, Ajao used her studies in the socialization of black culture to encourage people in her community to use digital marketing as a resource. Through the opportunities made available in Ajao’s newsletter, ten small business owner subscribers received over 100K in funding. “I’m really tethered to my purpose,” says Ajao, “it could permeate education, fashion…any industry; think big and disseminate out.”