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We’ve all felt the expectations that other business owners have placed on us that in order to be successful we have to get up early, run our businesses like they say, and so many other things that just may not fit our brands. In today’s episode, Akua Konadu is sharing her own experience in business and how she’s gone against the norm in building her business. Listen in as she shares a day in her life, what her business looks like, and how she’s doing it all in shorter workdays without waking up at the crack of dawn.

Welcome to this Behind the Scenes series on So, Here’s the Thing Podcast! In this series, we’re exploring the lives of successful entrepreneurs and business owners to find out what it takes to keep a business running!

Meet Akua

Akua Konadu is an educator and Storytelling Strategist. She believes in providing teaching experiences that are innovative and meaningful. After every speaking engagement Akua makes sure to leave her audience with the tools and resources to market successfully in their business. 

Akua will be speaking at the 2023 Creative Educator Conference, so if you’d love to meet her in person and hear more from her, make sure you grab your ticket!

A Day in the Life; Storytelling Strategist / Going Behind the Scenes

As a business owner, you get to choose how you want to run your business. In addition to being a storytelling strategist and maintaining that arm of her business, Akua also works as a consultant on retainer with brands in social media, branding projects, events, and more. Currently, she’s heavily involved on retainer for one client while also serving her storytelling clients too. She loves this approach to her career, because it allows her to flex her skillset while serving a variety of clients.

Akua’s “Morning” Routine

One thing that Akua has always struggled with was getting up in the mornings. After years of feeling really guilty about it, Akua decided that she’d embrace it and build a routine that worked for her. Not everyone is wired to be a morning person, so sometimes this means sleeping in or taking a slow morning.

She starts her day with yoga, a shower, and breakfast. This allows her to manage the stress of work by not working immediately. While she may not start work until 10 or 11, she’s most productive in the afternoon.

Not every successful business owner follows the trends of other entrepreneurs who claim that early wakeup calls and specific morning routines are the only way to find success. Not every season or business will look the same.

Balancing a Business & Retainer Clients

One thing that’s unique to Akua’s job that many small business owners don’t often explore is having retainer clients. Retainer client allow for consistent income in your business, while also giving you the flexibility in pricing yourself, accepting responsibilities, and maintaining your schedule.

The juggling of retainer roles comes into play when you have to allow your own business to take a backseat or even try to coordinate scheduling for one retainer contract ending as you bring on another. This could mean that you’re outsourcing in your own business as needed.

If you’re interested in exploring retainer clients, take a look at the big picture and the schedule to determine what you can manage and the impact it has on everything else.

Akua’s Hacks to Productivity

As she’s found her groove in the her business and how she wants to work, Akua admits that she still doesn’t have it all figured out. So she has incorporated a few productivity hacks that have helped her manage her time and her workload. On average, Akua works about 6-7 hours per day. It depends on the season that she’s in.

To start, she enjoys time blocking with her days, along with specific hours of work to be focused on certain tasks.

Additionally, Akua uses an app called Groove, which is a productivity app that allows you to cowork with others, work for 50 minutes, then recap. It’s a wonderful way to connect with community while working alone, yet still get work done!

Unpopular Opinion

In regards to entrepreneurship and being a small business owner, Akua believes that you built this business for you and you can do whatever the f*ck you want, whenever the f*ck you want to do it. If the cost of your peace is too expensive, it is not worth it.

Your journey is your own and their journey is their’s.

Connect with Akua

akuakonadu.com

instagram.com/akuakonadu_

Mentioned in this Episode

Creative Educator Conference

Trader Joe’s Chicken Fried Rice

Groove

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