The power of narratives and storytelling
If you can change the narrative, you can change your destiny.
-James Baldwin
Uchechi Kalu is a Nigerian writer, speaker, and certified life coach for women creatives. She first found her voice in a writing class and started speaking and reading poetry. Through this work, she learned that language has the power to elevate us or destroy us.
Her love of poetry took her to design and technology, where she served as a business consultant to creative women entrepreneurs.
She soon learned that narratives are at the foundation of any personal or professional transformation.
Each one of us holds the narratives we tell ourselves about who we can be. We inherit these stories from culture, community, society, and family.
There are the stories we tell ourselves and the stories we tell others about who we are, why we are here, and what we value.
This realization led her to find her calling, integrating creative work as a lover of language with her occupation as a coach for digital entrepreneurs.
The common thread was always language.
Whether she’s coaching women creatives or speaking at an event, her mission remains the same: to reimagine who we can be by reimagining storytelling. And in reimagining ourselves, she believes we can begin to reimagine and live into our soul work in the world.
This is what she continues to do in her life and work.
Speaking Topics:
- Creative Resilience
- Integration as a path to personal and professional success
- Thriving instead of just surviving
- The power of nuance in our creative work
- Showing up in the world as a sovereign being
- Finding your impact
- Redesigning your lifestyle via integrative business foundations
- Rediscovering your voice and using it
Uchechi Kalu’s work is love in action.
-Claudia Mauro
I’ve seen Uchechi enthrall audiences with the sheer power of her words.
-Thomas Simpson, Afro Solo Festival
Keynote #1
How To Create A Change Making Career
Key message: Focus on your impact instead of your job.
How do you create a change-making career that is emotionally and financially sustainable? She will share her story and her journey from poet to web designer, and how trusting her journey and focusing on the impact she wanted to make allowed her to build the life she wanted.
Key Takeaways:
- Understanding your impact is essential to know how to move forward when you feel uninspired in your creative career.
- Stay nimble. The job you are searching for might not exist yet.
- A multidisciplinary career path will give you an advantage.
That speech was so moving and I am so thankful that you shared your knowledge with me. I carry your words with me to this day.
-Allie F.
Keynote #2
Changing The Narrative: Finding Your Voice + Aligning Your Vision
Key message: If you can change the narrative, you can change your personal and professional destiny.
Most of us have a list of things we really want to do in our lives. When we think about self-improvement, we often start with a list. We make lists of the things we want to achieve. Sometimes our goals are simple and personal: Maybe you want to be a better parent? Maybe you want to find your dream job? Sometimes, our goals come from a deep desire and fulfillment: Maybe you want to let go of fear and go after whatever it is you want.
Key Takeaways:
- Changing the stories you tell about yourself changes your perspective and allows you to see the story as the problem to be shifted.
- Our narratives impact our imagination and what we believe is possible for our lives.
- Some narratives were correct for you a long time ago, but they now need to be updated.
Me encantó el taller! Yes – soul work, and collective generational shifting of narratives.-April M.
Keynote #3
The Power Of Nuance: How Embracing Nuance Can Create More Empowered Cultures
Key message: What if we could all embrace our nuance and celebrate our personal and professional diversity?
As a multi-creative Nigerian artist with global connections, Uchechi has learned the value of bringing nuance to our professional and personal lives. We easily put people into certain contexts and demographics without insisting on the complexity of who they are and can be. She insists that embracing complexity is both vital for creating a better world and a more creative and empowered culture of entrepreneurs, creatives and innovators.
Key Takeaways:
- Celebrate your professional diversity and leverage it in the same way you would celebrate your cultural diversity.
- Your complexity has value. It’s up to you to show up in the world and insist on the value of your complexity.
This was my favorite talk of the day.
-Rodrigo R.
Uchechi Kalu is a Nigerian-born writer, speaker, and holistic coach for intentional women entrepreneurs. She has been mentioned in Forbes and Linkedin. She writes about the power of integration as a catalyst for resilience at uchechikalu.com