I started my career in social impact by mistake.

Tolulope Gbenro is a social impact consultant and advocate with over six years of experience. Her work revolves around climate action, renewable energy, women's empowerment, youth participation in governance, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), and climate migration.

She's passionate about contributing to the development of Nigeria and Africa at large. As such, she shares valuable tips for corps members and graduates and is involved in various initiatives to empower young people and enhance climate awareness.

In this interview, she talks about her work, her thoughts about climate action and women empowerment in Nigeria, and shares insights on starting a career in social impact.

What inspired you to start your career in social impact? 

I started my career in social impact by mistake. Enactus always came to talk to us in school and encouraged us to join. I wasn't interested in joining anything in my first year in school, but one Sunday, I remembered they had their meetings around 3 pm, so I decided to attend. When I arrived, they were wrapping up the session, but they were still receptive and welcoming, so I decided to attend the next meeting, and I did.

Eventually, I joined Enactus to keep busy and eliminate boredom, but after two years, my mild interest grew into a passion.

A pivotal moment for me was participating in the Enactus World Cup in 2019. We travelled to the United States for it. I remember seeing many high-level people in the room, like the mayor, amazing people from the UN, and different international agencies. I told myself: if all these people—with their thriving careers tied to the SDGs—can gather for a conference for young people, there's money in this field. That was a defining moment that kick-started my career in social impact.

What does a typical day in your life look like? 

I have a routine, but it's not properly defined, especially since I've pivoted from a 9-to-5 into consulting. 

My day typically starts at about 12 am. I pray by 3 am and 6 am and then prepare for the day. The rest of my day plays out depending on what's on my to-do list. Today, for instance, after my prayers, I had a shower and breakfast and prepared for meetings. I usually have lunch between 12 and 2 pm2 pm, then I continue with my remaining tasks and rest in the evening. 

In your experience, what are the biggest challenges against climate change and women's empowerment in Nigeria?

The biggest challenge against climate change in Nigeria is policy implementation. Whenever a conversation comes up around policy in Nigeria, we have three problems:

1. We're lacking in policy.

2. We have policies but aren't implementing them.

3. We have policies that aren't well-rounded and directly address specific pain points.

So, if there's proper policy implementation, we'll make significant progress in our climate action efforts.

For women empowerment, it's a problem of lack of self-awareness. Over the past two years, I've been on a journey of self-discovery to become more self-aware and emotionally intelligent.

So far, I've discovered that awareness of your strengths, weaknesses, and the power you possess will make it easy to channel your strengths to achieve valuable goals and improve on your weaknesses. But most women believe whatever they're told and accept whatever norm society throws at them, and that prevents them from actualising their full potential.

How do you measure the success and impact of your initiatives? 

Generally, there are two key ways to measure impact in any project: quantitative and qualitative. 

The quantitative way refers to a numerical value, a record of the number of people impacted by your initiatives. For instance, I implemented a project on climate education in Kwara state last year, and we reached over 40 teachers. 

I value the qualitative metric more, and that's how I measure my success. Instead of focusing on the number of people you could reach, what sustainable changes have your initiative been able to birth?

For instance, if I do a poverty alleviation project and share foodstuffs to 100 farmers, I've impacted them, but that's short-term because when the foodstuff finishes, what happens? But if I give foodstuff to 100 farmers and also teach them innovative planting methods, I'm making a sustainable, long-lasting impact.

A common notion about successful women is that one cannot have it all—a great career, a loving family, and a thriving social life; something has to give. What do you think?

I share both perspectives: you can have it all, but eventually, something has to give.

For example, I do many things, but I don't work for all organisations or consult for all my clients at the same time. For two months, I can work with a 90% focus on Project X. For the next two months, I'm working on Project Y with the same 90% focus.

The point is: at some point, one aspect of my life would receive more attention than the others—and that's where support systems come in because a solid support system will help you tie everything together. 

In the end, it depends on you as an individual. If you think it's a myth, you won't try to see if it'll work. It can work for me. I can have a good career, a thriving family, and an amazing social life—and I will.

You read 16 books last year. What kind of books do you read? Who are your favourite authors? What three books would you recommend to anyone?

I read many spiritual, religious, leadership, and self-help books. I also read books on specific subject areas. For instance, "Emotional Intelligence" or "The New Map" to understand energy and climate.

My favourite author is DDK (Debola Deji-Kurunmi). She's an amazing person, and I love all her books. She's like a mentor to me, and I've gone through her coaching programs several times.

For recommendations, my top three would be:

1. The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren: It's a 40-day book, and I didn't consider myself someone who could follow through with that 40-day routine, but I was hungry enough for knowledge then. If you want to find your purpose or understand life, you should read it.

2. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason: It's a great book on finance and wealth.

3. The Girls in the Boardroom by Mrs. Ibukun Awosika: I love, love, LOVE this book. It's a compilation of memoirs of successful women, many of whom are or have been board women. They talk about their lives, career paths, growing up, marriage, and parenting, and also have valuable tips for younger women. For any woman thinking, "Can I balance my career with an amazing family life and a good social life?" The Girls in the Boardroom is a book that you want to read.

Have you ever tried integrating social impact solutions within communities resistant to change? How did you handle that? 

When I started at Enactus, we had a project on a point-based plastic collection system and went to a community in Ogun State to implement it. We did a door-to-door awareness campaign telling people about the project and had a great turnout. However, on the first day of project implementation, when people had to exchange their PET bottles for prizes, we experienced resistance. 

People brought PET bottles, but they didn't meet the minimum weight required to redeem their equivalent prizes, and the community started ganging up against us, calling us frauds. I learned a lot from how the officials in charge handled the situation.

They got a stakeholder representative within the community on the spot and made a peace offering of 2 sachets of Indomie to participants to build trust again. The incident made me understand the importance of: 

• stakeholder mapping

• having a community representative on ground for a project

• carrying the community representative along

• communication, and 

• building trust with recipients during a project

What challenges have you faced in securing funding and resources for your projects, and what strategies have you found effective in overcoming these obstacles?

I've faced many challenges in securing funds. A number of my early failures were in 2020 when I was in charge of business development, and my job was to apply for grants and get money. I applied for a lot, but we didn't get any because I didn't know what model to use. I focused on the problem and our solution and didn't tailor my applications to suit the grants' requirements.

Eventually, I got the Nigerian Youth Future Fund. A key strategy I learned and implemented was collaboration. If you don't learn from people who have gone ahead of you or stand on the shoulders of giants, you'll make avoidable mistakes and repeat classes in life. So, if I were to advise anyone, employ these strategies:

1. Have a clear plan and goal. You can go to a community to solve a problem but get there and realise your solution isn't useful for them. So, do your feasibility studies and fieldwork properly.

2. Collaborate. Winning a grant as an individual is difficult, but having an organisation creates a sense of security for investors.

3. Storytelling and reporting are crucial. I wasn't talking about my work as a social impact activist for a long time. In the fourth year, I made a video documentary about my work, and so many people had no idea what I did. Telling your story is always important because if you don't tell your story, nobody will do it for you. Besides, when people want to fund your projects, they need evidence of what you've done to trust you with anything.

4. Lastly, network. Leveraging your human capital and networking skills is a key strategy to access resources for your project.

Aside from your social impact work, you handle speaking engagements. Have you ever experienced stage fright? If yes, how did you deal with it? 

Yes, I have experienced stage fright a number of times. Practising speaking to a mirror helps, and I also use my siblings to practise. It also helps me mentally map what I want to say and how. So before a presentation, I think: What do I want to say? How do I want my audience to interpret my words? You can communicate something, but if the recipient doesn't receive it as intended, there's a problem.

Plus, my sibling taught me something: when you feel tense before speaking, sip water. Now, I always sip water before any presentation. Even if it's a webinar, there's always water beside me. So whenever I feel tense or like my mouth is dry, I pause and sip water to cool my nerves. 

What are the most common misconceptions you've encountered about climate change in Nigeria, and how do you address them in your work?

The most common misconception is that climate change is not real.

There are three types of people: people who know about climate change, climate literate people, and those who know about climate change but don't know what it's called. They may initially say it's not real, but when you explain it to them, they can relate, like, "Oh, that's what you call it?" 

I handle this misconception in the field of work through communication, majorly through question and answer, especially for people in or above my age bracket. I often use food size as a key "evidence" of climate change. Before, a family of five could buy two bags of yam and eat them for a month, but now, that's impossible because the tubers are small and expensive. Food insecurity is clear evidence of climate change. 

Besides, the 2022 floods did a good job of addressing the misconceptions. 33 of 36 states in the country were affected, so nobody needed anyone to tell them something was wrong with the climate.

You've written two books—Wisdom Series: Buy Fields & Mantles For Mountains. Can you highlight any significant lessons you've learned from the process of writing and publishing them?

Fun fact: I wrote both books within the space of a week. 

It's quite shocking how much effort goes into creating books. I used to think books were expensive until I started reading actively, writing books, and working on writing projects. In truth, some books are not priced well for the kind of value they offer.

I learned a lot while writing "Buy Fields" because I was inspired by the Book of Ruth in the Bible. I learned about the mentor-mentee relationship between Ruth and Naomi and how the people who are key to your success are often around you but may not be actively involved in your life because they're observing and waiting for certain things to happen. I also learned a lot about design because my friends criticised me a lot about the cover alignment of the texts. I learned about publishing and selling ebooks as well.

What advice would you give to young women in Nigeria and Africa who want to contribute to social impact but don't know where to start?

1. Start from where you are and put in the work. Be excellent. 

2. Think about sustainability. Having a long-term vision for whatever I do helps me plan accordingly and trains my mind to conceive big dreams.

3. Know WHY you're going into it—that will help you stand out.

4. Collaborate. Partner with other people or organisations.

5. Don't do anything for validation or recognition. Be authentic and honest with yourself.

6. Volunteering is a good way to get relevant experience. I'll always recommend volunteering with grassroots-based organisations, so you'll get a more holistic view of how things really work.

7. If you don't document your journey and tell your story properly, nobody will know what you're doing, and you might be another statistic. Also, documenting your journey helps you to see your progress over time.

8. Put in the work and be patient. You may not see the relevance of what you're learning now, but it'll become clearer in the long run.

Tolulope Gbenro's journey into social impact began by chance but has grown into a deep-seated passion that drives her work in climate action and women's empowerment in Nigeria. With her focus on sustainability, she's creating impactful, lasting change.

Plus, she’s not only a smart, visionary woman; she also serves looks and style every single time! 🤭

Are you inspired by her as we are? Any questions on social impact work, climate change, or youth/women empowerment? Tell us in the comments!

If you’d like to connect with Tolulope Gbenro:

• Learn more about her work

• Read her books, too

• Find her on LinkedIn

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