Leaving the world on E..on empty is the core of Isimemen Aladejob. A mother, wife, and founder of Isimemen and the Fulfilled program. Isimemen has paved the way for herself and women to uncover their purpose and live life to their fullest potential.
Not only is she a woman that wears many hats, but her ability to pivot, take risks, and commit to God’s plan for her has carved out a unique path. Her journey has been filled with shifts, reinvention of self, and further growth in community and faith. Throughout her journey, Isi has taken risks despite the uncertainties by committing to self-check-ins and trusting in her core strengths and blessings.
Her dedication to remaining consistent and self-improvement is reflected in her journey as an entrepreneur. Knowing when to implement change has led to her most recent rebrand, Isimemen.
Isimemen is a career and business consulting firm that helps underrepresented women uncover their purpose, land their dream jobs, and live to their fullest potential. Her passion shifted to purpose, sparked by her desire to live version A of her life and navigate career challenges.
Taking a deep dive into the world of Isimemen was a conversation filled with beautiful gems, inspiration, and relatability for anyone. Isi is a woman of action and intention. So, are you ready to be fulfilled?
Tell me about yourself. How would you describe yourself?
I am a fiery, passionate, Jesus-loving, Extroverted, proud Nigerian woman, married to an incredible husband with three beautiful children. I am obsessed with helping people live out the fullness of their calling, recognize the gold in their lives, and equip and empower people to change the world. I am obsessed with self-improvement, leveling up, and being the best you can be. Something that we say in our company is leaving the world on E empty. That’s me.
Growing up, did you ever think you would be a business owner? What was your relationship with entrepreneurship?
So I never thought I’d be an entrepreneur growing up. My parents bred me as a first-generation immigrant to be a doctor. So from the age of three, I was gonna be a doctor. I went to high school and looked up what doctor makes the most money anesthesiologist…BOOM told everybody’s gonna be an anesthesiologist.
It wasn’t until college that everything changed, and it was like, oh my gosh, you know, this is not what I was called to do. And so my parents wanted me to be a doctor because I was sharp. I started reading at a young age, and my dad wanted to see a doctor didn’t work out for him, so he’s like, you will be the doctor, and I’m the oldest of three.
Fulfilled is born from this place and my journey of trying to find my calling. So I started bio and failed organic chemistry too, and I believe the Lord used that as a wake-up call. Anything you fail at is fine; you can always get back up, but if you don’t have a why, a persistent why and a real desire, it’s not you’re not going to have what it takes to push through the failure. And so when I built that class, it made me sit down and think, why am I doing this? Do I want to be doing this? And I looked into changing my major to public health because it’s people-oriented. Then I was like, no, so I changed, and I was like, do I do communication? Cause I love to talk. We’re talking from doctor to communications, but my life has a consistent theme.
I was adamant that I would live version “A” of my life, God’s one for me. Not version “D”; just trying to put it together and hope this version is the okay version; I want the best. I was willing to fight, ready to reinvent, and glad to start over to get that cause I know I’m in my purpose and calling. That is the only way I would try to live a fulfilled life, and if I’m not living a full life, then what is everything for?
And so I remember finally figuring out I wanted to do business. I failed a class, and my G. P. A. It was like 3.0, which is not impressive, but I needed people to see that I was more than a G. P. A. That I was brilliant, I was fiery, and I was incredible. So through networking, someone introduced me, and I got an internship at a big four accounting firm, and then they loved me, and that’s how I got an internship abroad. You know applied to the program, I worked in Australia, and they gave me a scholarship, and my whole life was changed. At this point, I started my major as a senior in college, many people would not have done that, but I was like, I’m doing it.
Then I stayed an extra year to finish and came out of school with two offers that practically networked. And then, I went to a place where I had two offers. I was going to teach for Teach for America or do accounting, specifically advisory work. And then I had to check, am I called to that, do I want to do that? It didn’t feel right. So I went to teach, you know, and I prayed, and I talked for two years, and I talked for two years, and I gave it, my, all my students were killing it, and it was great, and it was work, but it was great. And then two years, and then, of course, you can stay on to teach. I do another check. God, is this it? I was like, no, I’m miserable. I’d wake up Sunday nights with that sick feeling in my stomach. This cannot be it. I didn’t want to start another school year and leave the kids just when I got a job because of the way teaching is. So I told my principal I was not coming back, and I started nannying and substitute teaching. I was getting married and Africans…Nige
rians love having obnoxious weddings, and we adore hundreds of people. I’m like, how am I paying for this? I’m a nanny, babysitting, applying for jobs, but nothing was coming through, and I’m like, wait, what did I do in college that got me these jobs? I said, oh my gosh, I network, and boom, I landed an offer, right?
I thought..hmm, black women don’t know how to do this. And at that point, I switched, and I’ve been studying digital marketing independently. So think about this, I went from bio to considering public health and communications, to accounting, to teaching to digital marketing, all within a few years. So talk about reinventing yourself, rebuilding your skills, and bringing them to the surface so that you can transfer them into different things to serve you best, right?
And so I started doing this work, and I realized the women that look like we don’t know how to do this. And I felt it felt like to me the year of the empowerment brunch. So, everybody was doing these brunches; I’m like, is anyone giving people the step-by-step strategy? I’m very strategic and analytical. If you tell me to do this, I’m like reverse engineering baby, and that’s where my gifts, reverse engineering, how step by step give it to me. I don’t feel like I saw enough of that.
I decided I wanted to start a movement called Powerful Women Make Powerful Moves. I taught black women how to take strategic steps towards winning in their lives. Like here is the playbook. I helped my first woman land her dream job; from there, I just continued to double down and grow and grow and grow. And so I have a business consultancy where people work with me through the back door. I work with a special group of people every year, a unique number of people. So whether it’s business owners, I work with influencers or anyone who wants to build an online life in business. At first, I was doing my business and proper woman at the same rate. Anyone knows that you’re trying to taste business at the same time. It’s challenging. I went into prayer again, another crossroads, and I thought the Lord said to stay focused on powerful women. I was like, this thing is not making money like that God which all my focus over here, he’s like I got you, and I go that direction. I build out this program with this curriculum. I spent over eight months and nine months perfecting, and people, why are you spending so much time on this? I was like, because it has to work if anyone purchases something for me, it has to be the best and bring transformation. So I helped the first woman, then I took that turn. I create this entire curriculum, and I begin to sell it and bring women and coach them. It starts to take off, and the success stories are insane, which is how we get to Fulfilled today. And so I do my consulting on the side for a chosen number of people in business consulting, but now I do Fufilled, and I love it.
Now that you are an entrepreneur, how do you stay motivated? How have your entrepreneurial motivations changed since you first started?
My motivation for me, I have a clear why and I’m connected to the work I do. It’s not just cause I get to help black and Brown women. Like that is something that you feel is easy, I’m helping people, I’m changing the world, I’m changing generational wealth. I’m doing all that stuff cool. But even if you have an I. T. Company that does networking, I am so connected to my work and why I do it, and I’m using my strength. Like I’m someone who’s like doubled down on your strength. What are you good at? Like God put that in you for a reason. And so many people focused on their weaknesses, like, oh, I’m not, I don’t know algebra. Who cares? Like you’re the dopest speaker anyone has ever seen, so speak more. So the way I stay motivated is I use my strengths and gifts consistently, there’s a reward like a loop where I get to use my gifts, and then I feel good about myself cause I’m using my gifts. After all, I’m good at my gifts, and I keep going and going. So that’s one way I stay motivated is like, I major in the major, which is what I’m good at, I doubled down on it, and I make sure I do more of it. And then I’m connected to things I brought in. The second thing is my why. I know why I’m doing this. It feels connected at a heart level. I’m aligned. I’m supposed to be doing this; I was born to do work that looks like this, um, using the gifts I have leveraging my past experiences. And so again, when you have that, it is different.
It’s one thing to stay motivated by yourself, but who would you say is your greatest support when facing hardships in business?
Another thing that keeps me motivated is that I’m around the right people and invest heavily in myself. Since the beginning of my business, I’ve had a coach, and the first coach, I asked my husband,” babe, can we get into the savings I need to invest in this?” And he was right there with me, and I’ve not been without a coach, honestly, just having that sounding board, that person who sees the areas where I need to be stronger and helps me. So I’ve always had a coach that’s been a game-changer for me and helped me stay motivated. Then I’m also around the right type of people, like my best friends, the masterminds and communities I buy into, and the people I keep around me. They think differently, and they move differently. So when, you know, people on LinkedIn or other places complaining about there being no good people or the world sucks or company sucks. I’m living in a wholly different world, a different world. I’ve curated that, and then, of course, the big thing is my faith. I am Jesus-loving, and I am not ashamed of it. I’ll say it anywhere in any room. Being connected to the source and God through Jesus Christ helped me understand my identity fully. I know who I am, and my business does not define me. I’m not defined by how much money I make, so I can do this business with a level of freedom because it’s not connected to my value as a person anchored somewhere else. So I can approach the game differently and, in turn, actually experience more success.
Also, my support and my husband are humongous. I’m after the whole woman and the women I know who want a full life and don’t just want money in the bank, right? We have to be honest with ourselves; we want to grow old with someone and do life with people. So I’m not of that camp of just like, oh girl you don’t need…no, I need somebody, okay? I don’t want to be alone with my business success. I’m not interested.
I always tell women who you marry and decide to do life with is crucial. My husband is insanely supportive; he coaches me out of my funk and supports me financially. My husband has paid all our bills till today, and I now pay for child care and food. I pay for Target and miscellaneous things like gifts and stuff like that. But since day one of this relationship, as I built it, I had someone paying bills so I could build from a place of flow. I’m a type A and very hard on myself, so no matter what, I will always kick myself in the butt. So there is self-imposed pressure, but he never said, “oh yeah, you better hurry up, make this business thing successful.” It was like build because he also was a man of vision, right?
He’s a man submitted to God under vision. He’d say, “I am also convinced you’re called to do this because when we got married at that time, I still hadn’t had a full-time job.” I was like, okay, the right thing to do would be to get a job. And I felt the Lord saying no, do your business full-time, and I never give that advice. I’m always like, do your business on the side; if it outpaces your 9 to 5, then cool, go for it. But don’t just be out here in these streets cause Instagram told you to quit your 9 to 5 is dumb. Don’t be dumb. And the Lord was like, go ahead, be that dumb, go ahead, quit. I mean, go ahead and do this full-time. And I was just like, what? He was convinced cause he was one of the first people that heard from God about going full-time for it.
He is my best friend. So, when I say phenomenal, I cannot. I cannot praise him enough. And even when people say your wife stays home all day while you just pay all the bills? He’s like, we got this, like we’re good.
So I must mention the importance of partnership and someone who’s not threatened. He doesn’t value me by how much money I’m bringing home. So he’s not intimidated by what I make or don’t make. The business is making all this money, and we’re shooting for multiple millions. He’s like that’s dope; let’s go. He’s not like, so when you are going to start paying…I mean, when I tell you he’s just not from this world, I’m very grateful.
How important is having a sense of community in your day-to-day life?
I mean, it’s super important. It shapes your reality, like what you take in, who you talk to, and who you spend time with. It shapes your culture and your atmosphere. So if you talk to people who are mad negative and they’re not doing anything with their lives, you’ll think the world doesn’t have much going for it. There’s not much opportunity to do. So it changes; it shapes my outlook. My outlook is different; I’m upbeat. And yes, one part of that is the joy of the Lord. I definitely know I have that. And the other part is it’s just sustained through having good people in my life. I have my church community; I’ve been attending church for over 20 years. Beautiful people surround me, and I’m a part of a campus ministry called Bethel campus fellowship. I’ve been in it since I was in college, like 17. Um, and I’m 33 now, right? So it’s like 16 years, I can do the math, 12, 16 years, whatever…. beautiful people who look at life differently from how the world may look at life have sustained me and helped me.
Briefly tell me about your career background and journey. Do you feel that your career background directly impacts your business?
A lot of times, when we change direction, change careers, or get into business, there’s a tendency to discount how what we’ve been through has brought us here. Still, I would say everything I’ve done digital marketing and strategy for business growth to teaching. Teaching classrooms of fifth and fourth graders and the coaching and teaching I do now absolutely have shaped and impacted me. For example, I love numbers. I’ve always loved numbers. Right? And so that’s that accounting background. I have my own, I have an account, and I don’t do the accounting for my business, but I can see how every stop in my journey has set me up for this place.
What inspired you to rebrand and start your Fulfilled Program?
We have been undergoing a rebrand for about a year and a half, working with Shar Biggers. She’s the creative director of Provoke Design phenomenal, incredibly talented, fiery black woman, who has worked on the most incredible brands. We went into a place of really like who is Isimemen, so Isimemen is my name. Yes, it’s the name of the company. It has a profound meaning when my parents name me Isimemen; it means when two people from two different places come together though they’re different. Their byproduct will bring them wealth and elevate them, which is our work; what a calling to carry on my life and to see it like it lived out.
Regarding Fulfilled, I had the older version of my program, Millennial Job Blueprint. And I got to a
place where I was hungry to do more. Like I love women getting jobs, we help women do that. But there’s another angle of fulfillment. I’ve had women turn down high six-figure roles because they weren’t aligned. I’m like; we are not cattle going to the highest bidder. How do they treat black people there? Will you be happy? Do they honor that you’re a mom and have to take baby girl to soccer practice?
If they can’t, that’s not the right place for you because we don’t work to pay bills and die. We work so that we have fulfillment as well, and you cannot have a job that supports that fulfillment and supports you living a rich, and when I say rich, I mean quality, right? Like rich chocolate, rich milk, and quality life. That’s not a good place for you. So I was just hungry to go deeper.
And so I took this program that I had. I created a container where I could coach because the other was a course. There was some coaching, but with Fulfilled, we surround you with client success managers who check in on you and have an HR director. She’s bringing all her genius and making sure you’re supported. There’s me, the founder, the mindset ninja, and the career growth strategist. We are encompassing you and calling out the crap you believed about yourself. We’re tearing it down and showing you that there can be another way. We’re teaching you to believe in yourself, and we’re not doing it so that you depend on us because you have to be able to do this even without me. So it’s an equipping you to go out there and take on the world. I was hungry to do more of that, and that’s how Fulfilled was born because I want to help women come to prosperous, fulfilling lives.
I can tell you that I know my program, and the reason we have to do the rebrand is that there’s so much more for me to do in this world, fulfill this one arm of it. When I come under Isimemen, it gives me the space, breadth, and depth to impact the millions around the world that I know I will impact. We had to upgrade the look because, with the work we were doing, the level of transformation did not match how we were showing up online. It was cute online but what we’re about to drop is like, okay, they are in the building; they are in the business of changing lives. So I’m just so excited.
What are the main roadblocks or challenges you experience when starting your business? If any, what are your current challenges?
Building a brand is a lot of work. I have three beautiful children and a fantastic husband. One of the challenges is I want to go fast. I want to grow and ensure I keep what’s important in front of me because often, people will forsake the very thing they’re trying to get in the name of getting it. So you’re looking to spend more time with your children, so, your like, let me build a business, so I have time for you. Yes, there are seasons where you go harder in the paint; let it up.
But what people do is now become a slave to their businesses and not see their kids and try to replace time with stuff, and then your kids want to see you. They hit 18, and the kids are like, that’s it, you never get that time back.
I refuse. As you said, self-awareness and self-reflection check in to ensure I’m not missing the thing. So one of the challenges is making sure I am present and have mental space, not just physical time. I can turn off work, look into my daughter’s eyes, get on the floor with her, play pretend, and not just be on my phone or think, what’s the next business move? Especially someone who gets excited by the growth and not just the financial piece of it. Like, yes, we’re growing and by God’s grace, doing excellent numbers. I’m just someone who loves numbers and growth. How far can I push it? How big and bad can I go? I love that stuff. That’s the competitive spirit in me.
Another challenge right now is I had a baby this year. Sometimes my friends are like sis; you had a baby, don’t be so hard on yourself. I was like…oh yeah. Like right now, I’m behind on my sales goals, but I remind myself I had a whole baby…BABY. So it’s sometimes the challenges like tempering myself. Sometimes there are challenges when you don’t hit specific goals that you wanted to, then the “man I should have,” could have,” and “would’ve” enter your mind, but I’ve been blessed.
I have a phenomenal team. I have six women who work for me, and they’re all moms. We know what it is. So I’ve built an incredible culture; if our kids are sick or I don’t feel well, there is flexibility. Honoring people and honoring their gifts is what we do at the company, and people love it. There’s a new role I’m trying to hire for; it’s a sales role getting people, you know, to bring people into the program because our program is a higher ticket program. It’s not like 100 bucks; it’s like, no, you going to come over here and invest your whole life. And so, just getting someone to go into that role and finding the right person can sometimes be a challenge.
But yeah, and then it’s balancing all the things …you should see my to-do list. It just grows and grows and grows and grows. Um, for me as a CEO and founder, there are things that I do, like I delegate as much as I can, but there are things that need my direction, my eyeballs myself. And so yeah, those are some of the chops. I gave you like 25 challenges.
What are the next steps for your business? What do the next five years look like?
Next steps, increasing our reach. Also, receiving press and just getting in front of them. And the number of people who know about us through content through ads and me speaking and being on stage is where my women congregate. That’s a big thing.
In five years? I’ll be honest; as much change as I have undergone in the past decade, I no longer planned for five years. I don’t know what it will look like, but what I can tell you is what I would love. I would love to be reaching millions of people, including men. I want to expand into impacting men as well because I mean as the sisters love, we need the brothers to come right along. I see myself doing that soon by God’s grace and impacting millions of people. Building a company that is in five years, coaching thousands of women, so in the $25 to $30 million revenue range and now I’m I have books. I’m speaking worldwide, and Isimemen has become an international brand synonymous with transformation shift fulfillment, being fulfilled. I want to become the woman you think about when you hear Fulfilled. Yeah, easy.
You don’t just want a check? Do you want to feel happy? Do you want to wake up on many mornings excited, not just excited that money in your bank account, but actually enthusiastic about your life? Isi is your girl. I want to become synonymous with fulfillment.
What advice would you give to other women entrepreneurs?
Stop to self-reflect and determine if you are in alignment with what you want and the version of life you are aiming to achieve. Be open to the changes that come, remember to pivot, ask for help, and most importantly know thyself.
