41. Celebrating 1,000 Downloads: A Self-Interview with Aderonke Bademosi Wilson

In this episode of ABWilson's Heart of the Matter, host Aderonke Bademosi Wilson celebrates a significant milestone – 1000 downloads of the podcast. Aderonke takes the time to reflect on her journey, share personal stories, and answer some of the same questions she typically asks her guests. This episode is a heartfelt thank you to the guests and listeners who have supported the podcast.

Aderonke welcomes listeners and celebrates the 1000-download milestone, expressing gratitude to her guests and listeners. She shares the origins of the podcast, which began as a radio program in 2009 after attending the World Appreciative Inquiry Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal. She discusses how she was inspired by the conference and collaborated with Gordon Johnson and Dr. Duranda Green to create community workshops which led to a radio show.

Aderonke explains how she revived the concept in 2023, leveraging advanced technology to create a podcast. She credits her friend Sandy B, a fellow podcaster, for guidance on setting up the show. She discusses the use of Appreciative Inquiry style questions, which are overwhelmingly positive, to foster meaningful and long-lasting change. She highlights how these questions are used in her workshops and on the podcast.

Aderonke answers one of her signature questions by sharing two recent accomplishments she is particularly proud of. She talks about having her abstract photography piece accepted into a gallery in the Loire Valley, France, during the Olympics. She describes the excitement and pride of seeing her work among international art. Aderonke also shares the journey of starting her consulting company after leaving her government job and a brief stint in the private sector. She reflects on her decision to return to consulting, inspired by her past experiences and successes with The Stratford Group.

Aderonke recounts her recent travels to Southeast Asia, where she practiced slow travel, met new people, and had transformative experiences such as swimming with manta rays and meditating on a mountain to watch the sunrise. She shares how these experiences led her to decide to start ABWilson Consulting and expresses her gratitude to everyone who has supported the radio program, which ultimately lead to the creation of the podcast. She looks forward to continuing the podcast and sharing more extraordinary stories of triumph, growth, and empowerment.

Join Aderonke in this reflective and inspiring episode as she celebrates the podcast's milestone and shares her personal journey. This episode is a testament to the power of positive questions and the impact of meaningful storytelling.

https://www.abwilsonconsulting.com

https://abwilsonphotography.com

Transcript

Aderonke (00:01.302)
Welcome to another edition of AB Wilson's Heart of the Matter, a podcast that uses overwhelmingly positive questions to learn about our guests, where every episode uncovers extraordinary stories of triumph, growth, and empowerment. Hi, I'm Adoranka Bademo-Seawolson, and my guest today is well myself.

Today we are celebrating 1000 downloads of this podcast and I wanted to take the time to say a heartfelt thank you. First of all, to those who have agreed to be my guests and answered some really quite frankly tough questions and to you our listeners who have tuned in on a regular basis and have gotten us to a thousand downloads.

So what am I gonna talk about today? Well, I figured I'll ask myself some of the questions that I asked my guests. I'll get to that in a minute. But I also want to share with you how I started the podcast. The podcast started in this year, earlier on this year, 2024. I actually launched in March. However, I started as a radio program back in 2009.

I had an opportunity to travel to Kathmandu, Nepal to attend the World Appreciative Inquiry Conference. And that was my first time going to a conference, also my first time going to Kathmandu. And while I was there, I was in the company of 400 people from 40 countries around the world. And I was, this was early in my appreciative inquiry journey. So I was absolutely absorbing.

everything that was taking place. went to different workshops, I talked to as many people as I could, and just participated and learned from everyone that I came across. So I came home after making copious notes while I was at the conference, and I talked to Gordon Johnson. And you will see that I've interviewed Gordon Johnson. So I encourage you to listen to our conversation.

Aderonke (02:22.748)
And in meeting Gordon, I shared with him all of the things that I thought that I should do as a result of learning how appreciative inquiry was being used around the world at that time. And Gordon, to his credit, said, everything. Given that he was the one that introduced me to appreciative inquiry, I think I took that too hard. And so I sat about

with him and Dr. Durand-DeGreen creating community workshops. But also I started a radio program. My first degree is in communications direction and production of radio and television programs. So I felt I had the knowledge and ability to create a radio program. So I started to put everything down on paper and started crafting the show.

My brother, Abimbola Baramosi, amongst other things, many things, is an audio engineer. So I asked him if he would do the audio for the show for me. And Gordon has suggested that I talk to Ron Lightborn. Ron has had a fabulous voice. And when I met with Ron, his first comment was, yes, let's do it. So I had a host. I had my audio engineer. And I was the producer.

And I created five questions. And then together, Ron and I went around Bermuda and interviewed a number of people. And we put the program on the radio, a local radio station here in Bermuda. And part of my journey, I needed to raise some funds to actually buy airtime. I came across in my journey, Mr.

Mansfield Brock, and I went to his organization, the company that he was working for at the time, and asked him if his organization would be interested in sponsoring the radio program. He indicated that the company would not sponsor, but he himself personally will sponsor the radio program. So I had my funding and I have thanked Mr. Brock profusely over the years.

Aderonke (04:47.48)
for believing in the concept of the radio program. And if you look back at the website, you'll see that I have actually interviewed Mr. Brock and we talked about that time when he had total confidence in my ability to create this radio program. So the program was created. I had five questions and Ron asked,

everybody those five questions. And I was a little strict in those days in that we did not ask any other questions other than the five questions. And we listened to each person very carefully as they shared their stories. So when the funding ran out, the radio program took a break and fast forward to 2023.

last year. As I was developing my company, AB Wilson Consulting, I thought about the radio program. I thought about how I could bring it back to life. And I recognized that technology was, had advanced and I was in a position to perhaps create a podcast. So I set about with Google.

to learn how to put a podcast together. And I have a friend, Sandy B, who is a podcaster, and I've interviewed her for the show as well. And I picked her brain. I asked her every single question I could possibly think of on how she created her program and learned a lot from her on the things that I needed to do in order to put this show together. So.

I then sat about finding people to interview, like people who would say yes. And I just asked different people that I thought would say, first of all, who would say yes. And then second of all, who had great stories to tell. And my first guest was Dr. Cheryl Peake Ball. She wasn't, by the way, the first person I interviewed.

Aderonke (07:05.832)
the first person I actually interviewed was Sharon Bailey. But Cheryl was the first person that I launched the program with. so, and you will hear, I think, if you listen to Sharon's interview, and then you listen to Cheryl's interview, you'll hear that I started asking questions outside of the scripted 10 questions that I have for my guests. And in fact, I think I started with

eight or nine questions. And I added a few more questions along the way. And I remember my interview with Dr. Bankoli-Thompson, we started talking about books and I thought, that'll be a great question to ask people for book recommendations, because I absolutely love books. I love reading. I have so many books here in my office and at my house, but I have hundreds of books on my Kindle.

So I felt that books will be an absolutely wonderful way for us to get another peek into the people that were being interviewed. So one of my questions is, are your book recommendations? And so that's how the podcast grew. I use appreciative inquiry style questions, which means the questions are overwhelmingly positive because I truly believe that if you want to make change, which is,

the foundation of appreciative inquiry, you start with overwhelmingly positive questions because the more positive the change, the more positive and long lasting, sorry, let me start over again. The more positive the question, the more positive and long lasting the change. And so the work that I do with clients and I do a lot of workshops, my workshops,

tend to involve a lot of questions where the participants are talking to each other, where the participants are asking each other overwhelmingly positive questions and given the task to listen very carefully to each other. And so these are the types of questions I ask on the podcast and I get to really listen intently.

Aderonke (09:30.168)
to the answers that are given. Many of our guests are not known outside of their immediate circle. Many are known in larger and larger circles. And so I always welcome opportunities to talk to people that I know and people that I don't know. People who have, I think, amazing stories to tell. And we all absolutely have incredible stories, incredible life.

giving stories of things that we've done, people that we know, people that we interact with, and just maybe our philosophy on life. So this leads me to some questions that I am going to answer for this show. Okay, so I'm not quite sure which questions I'll ask and answer myself. Let me just quickly look through the questions. Okay.

Number two, the question that I ask my guests is, can you tell us about a recent accomplishment or success that you're particularly proud of? So given that I'm interviewing myself and there's nobody here to stop me, I'm gonna give you two accomplishments that I am truly proud of. The first is I'm a photographer.

people may or may not know that about me. And I'm an abstract photographer. So you're here in the podcast, an ad for abwilsonphotography.com. And I talk about my art and how people can find it. So this summer, 2024, the Olympics were in France and a gallery in

France put out a call for artists from around the world to submit black and white art to be featured in a gallery in the Loire Valley in France. And so my agent, Lisa Howie, my agent and curator, Lisa Howie of Black Pony Gallery contacted me and her other artists and said that this opportunity existed.

Aderonke (11:57.94)
And so I submitted a piece of art and it was accepted. And I was like so excited. I was like so thrilled. And I didn't initially plan to go and see it. My husband, Mark, and I talked about it over and over again. And part of my hesitation was it was an unplanned trip, an unplanned expense. And we will be

going into the midst of the Olympic games in Paris and thinking about the millions of people who will be on the streets of Paris, at least thousands of people. But we agreed that we will go. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see my art in this gallery. So we went, we went to Paris, we flew to London.

and then caught the train to Paris, and then from Paris went to a town called Sumer, which is where we stayed, and then from Sumer we caught a cab to Moncero, Chateau du Moncero.

and we saw the art. It was really, it was, I'm trying to think how I would describe it. When we got there to the gallery, they said the art was on the fourth floor. So Mark and I took our time going throughout the gallery, the various levels of the chateau, seeing all the art that was there, building up the anticipation of seeing my art. And so when we got to the fourth floor,

I walked in and I did a quick scan and I didn't see it. And I was like, no, I don't see it. So I then had to really just take my time and walk through the space and I saw it. And I was so excited to see a piece of art that I had created and submitted to see it amongst all of this art from around the world. And it was a...

Aderonke (14:13.386)
It was a moment in time that I will always appreciate because when we do things, we don't know where it's going to land us. We don't know how it's going to be received. We never know how, how it will help us to grow or change or help and support others. And so this was an opportunity that I feel gave me, I don't know. It made me feel.

seen and helped me to gain greater confidence as an artist. so seeing my work in France was definitely one of the highlights of my professional photography career so far. So that is one accomplishment that I am extremely proud of. Another one.

is starting my company, AB Wilson Consulting. And this is a little bit of a long story on how the company started. And so I'll give you the quick version. In 2021, in November 2021, I left my job with the government of Bermuda. I was the head of the Department of Communications. And the last 18 months of my time with government,

I was, we were dealing with COVID and COVID as you can remember back in 2020 was all that we focused on, all that the world focused on quite frankly. And we had some really trying times. And so I was in a job that on a regular day was extremely stressful during COVID.

along with many, many, many, many others, went through, I guess, hyper stress. And so when the opportunity came at the end of 2021 to move to another position, I did. I took it and went to the private sector. And that didn't work out the way I anticipated because I started that job in December and by

Aderonke (16:40.45)
the end of August, I was no longer there. And it was interesting as I look back at that time. And so what I did is I gave myself permission to stop, to just stop and figure out what I needed to do. I remember in August, 2022, was frantically looking for a job here in Bermuda online.

and saying, you know, I don't have a job. I don't know what I'm going to do. And it suddenly dawned on me as I was looking for a job that I can do this job search from Thailand. So I was like, right, I'm going to Thailand. And so after talking to my husband, Mark, who was full agreement and support of me taking this journey, this solo journey, I set out. I went to Bangkok.

I had my camera and my only goal was to take pictures. That's all I wanted to do. And I would travel around Southeast Asia. Sometimes by fluke, I would be in a cafe somewhere, sitting down, talking to different people, meeting people from around the world. And somebody would say, you should go to Cambodia. And I'll think to myself, right, I've never been to Cambodia and figure out how to get there.

And one thing that I will say, once you get to, once I got to Southeast Asia, I found that it was relatively easy to travel around to various countries. And I took my cousin's guidance, my cousin Topad, she said, consider slow travel. So that's what I did. I didn't rush around the way you would or the way I have done.

when I was on vacations, I gave myself permission to just travel as slowly and as inexpensively as I possibly could. And so in my conversations with different people, I learned about different places, places I had never heard of like Hoi An in Vietnam. I had never heard of that space, that town.

Aderonke (19:02.288)
And it was wonderful. It was a wonderful place to visit. went to amazing countries, ate some really, really cool food, and took some fabulous pictures. And part of my journey, I met a gentleman in Dampasar in Bali, and he suggested I go on a cruise around the Indonesian islands. And so,

It was a very small boat. It only accommodated 12 people, I think. And it shared bathroom accommodations. We all dined together, community style, sitting on pillows on the floor of the boat. And I got to know some of the passengers. And...

We did various hikes. swam with the, I'm trying to remember what those fish are called, manta rays. And so that kind of threw me because I'm not, first of all, I'm not a deep water swimmer. And although I can swim and I feel relatively comfortable in the water, but you're...

there were so many people and so many of these fish in this water that I didn't go too close to them, although I could see several swimming beneath me. And then once I had seen them and they had seen me, I felt comfortable to get out the water after having had that experience. And our last morning on the boat, they woke us up early so that we can climb a mountain to

watch the sunrise over these Indonesian islands. And so that's what I did. I got up early, I climbed most of the way up and I found this really great spot with the sun rising in front of me. I sat there and I meditated. It was quiet, it was peaceful, the air smelled just so fresh. And I sat there and meditated and I asked

Aderonke (21:25.492)
myself two questions. The first was, what was the best time in your career? And the answer was when I was consulting. So I made the decision that I would consult. I will go back to consulting. Many years ago, my brother, Olu Ramey and I started a company, the Stratford Group, back in 2006. And we had the company for nine years.

and we had some amazing experiences. And so when I reflect on that time and the really wonderful jobs that I've had before and since, I really wanted to go back to have the consulting experience. So when I got home in December, in December, 2022, I started really thinking about

what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. I came up with a name for the company and it is AB Wilson Consulting. I started mapping out what I needed for my website. I found my web developer and the name AB Wilson Consulting really is not original, but I already had AB Wilson Photography. I already had a logo, a website for my photography. So I figured just keep the brand.

keep it simple, use the same logo but change photography for consulting. And I had a look and feel for AB Wilson Consulting. And when I initially started, I thought I was gonna be doing pure consulting work, pure communications work, which is what I know, what I feel comfortable with and perhaps some.

change management and project management in there as well. However, along the way I found I was invited to become a part of an organization called Xchange. And Xchange really gave me the tools that I needed to consider facilitation and training full time.

Aderonke (23:41.336)
And when I sat down and did an audit of my skills, I recognized that as long as I have been a communications professional, I have been a facilitation professional as well. So I made a switch. I decided to do 80 % facilitation, training and workshops and 20 % communications. And I think it's a really good balance because

I still keep my love of communications going and I get to create some amazing workshops for organizations and individuals using a lot of the principles of appreciative inquiry. So that's the other thing that I'm proud of. So that's, as I said, it's pretty long answer, but that is the other thing that I am really proud of, AB Wilson Consulting.

The fact that I get to meet and interact with very interesting people, it gives me time to work on the podcast. It gives me time to work on my photography and really focus in on what I love doing, which is helping organizations and individuals to uncover aha moments in the workshops that I create.

And so those are two things, my photography and AB Wilson Consulting, the two things that I am extremely proud of. So if you want to get more information about AB Wilson Consulting, go to abwilsonconsulting.com and you will get to see some of the things that I...

some things I do and the services that I provide. Okay, so one more question. I will answer one more question.

Aderonke (25:47.032)
And I'm frantically looking through what the question will be.

Okay, so I'll go to question number seven. How might sharing your experiences of success and growth create a positive ripple effect in your family, community, the world? Well, one of the things that I will say is that, and people have said this to me time and time again, when I've hemmed and hoored about just me doing a podcast by myself, the only voice you hear is mine. And one of the things that

people always say is listeners want to hear stories and they want to hear what people have gone through in order to get the success that they have. And so for me, sharing my experience of success and growth, I hope helps others to at least make the first step. I also produce a calendar.

It's called Let's Spend the Year Together. And I first produced it last year for 2020 for. And one of the things that I recognize is that it took me a long time to get it to move forward. The calendar was ready. The calendar had had been designed and I sat on it for maybe two or three months.

because I was nervous because I was really, really nervous about how it would be received. Would anybody buy it? Would anybody like the pictures? And one of the comments that I heard regularly was, people don't use calendars anymore. Everybody's got a phone. And I was thinking, no, what am I going to do? But I pushed through. I call it overcoming inertia.

Aderonke (27:53.91)
just getting the energy to move forward from stop. And it was, I learned a lot about myself in that process because often I say, I'm fearless, I'm gonna do it. Like once I make my mind to do something, I'm gonna go do it. And I usually get it done. But in this instance, I did not have that same push, that same drive. I knew I wanted to create it.

but I hadn't found the impetus, I guess, to just move forward and get it done. And so I had two friends who I was in conversation with and they gave me a deadline and said, you need to get this done by this date. And I was like, wow. And they were quite brutal.

They were tough on me, which is what I needed, right? And so I did it. I had a 8 p.m. deadline for the next day after our conversation. And I got it done by 8 a.m. the next day. And from then, I just moved forward. I was able to move forward and get the calendar launched. I experienced

somewhat similar circumstances again this year because I had to get the calendar created and printed for 2025. And so I ran into the same stumbling blocks. I'm not quite sure why, given that this, I knew the calendar, 2024 calendar had been successful, but I still had a lot of the same hesitation. But this time I did it myself.

and push myself forward over overcoming inertia, as I call it, and finding a way to make the calendar a reality. And so how might sharing your experiences of success and growth create a positive ripple effect in my family? Well, would say family, community and the world. I would hope that as people hear this story that

Aderonke (30:16.258)
they are able to overcome whatever is stopping them. And it's usually something, a mental block. And I say, just go for it. I had to find that energy and give myself that pep talk many times along the process of creating the calendar. Creating it was easy. I gotta say creating it was the easy part. Preparing it for the world.

and taking the step to get it printed was what I had to overcome. And so I think learning, my learning is if you need somebody to push you, find those folks who will just push you enough and probably more than you anticipate to help you move forward.

And then also find the strength within yourself to feel confident that what you are creating, only you can do. Only you can do it the way you do it. And if you know that and understand that and accept that, I think it makes it easier. So I'm gonna try and remember this next year when I'm creating my calendar and my 2026 calendar, because yes, I will do it again.

just keep reminding myself and hopefully reminding those around me that there are things that stop us and it's usually ourselves, but once we get out of our own way, we can achieve wonderful things. So that's how I hope my experience of success and growth create a positive ripple. So.

That's me, Adoranka Badamosi Wilson. You are listening to my podcast, AB Wilson Consulting is my company. AB Wilson's Heart of the Matter podcast is the name of this podcast. And thank you for listening. Thank you for joining me. This is, we're celebrating the 1000th

Aderonke (32:36.118)
download of the podcast interviews that I've done. And so this podcast where I'm interviewing myself just talking is in celebration of all of those who have said yes to being interviewed and all of you who have taken the time to listen to my conversations. Thank you so much for joining me.