Life by Design in the Homeland

What does it mean to truly come home? In this episode of Rethinking Freedom, we sit down with Nannette Atuahene — the first in her lineage to be born and raised in the United States — who made a permanent move from California to Ghana in 2022, returning to the homeland of her parents.
As we mark this 250-year moment for African Americans, we explore freedom not just as a legal status, but as reconnection — to land, to lineage, to self. Nannette shares her journey across the ocean, what “returning” really means, and how her coaching work helps African Diasporan professionals live life by design rather than by default — expanding their mindset, skill set, and relationships beyond the West and onto the African continent.

We also break down the numbers behind the growing wave of African Americans relocating to Ghana and beyond, and what's really driving the movement.

TOPICS COVERED
●Freedom as reconnection — reclaiming what was severed by the Middle Passage
●The journey from California to Ghana, and what “returning” means
●The data behind the Blaxit movement
●Life by design: mindset, skill set, and relationships
●Practical pathways for the diaspora — citizenship, land, business, and cultural ties
●A call to action — one tangible step toward reconnection

ABOUT NANNETTE ATUAHENE
Nannette Atuahene is the first in her lineage to be born and raised in the U.S. In 2022, she made a permanent move from California to Ghana — the homeland of her parents. She coaches African Diasporan professionals to live life by design rather than by default, helping them expand themselves, their work, and their impact beyond the West and onto the African continent. Her coaching is built on three pillars: mindset, skill set, and relationships.

CONNECT WITH NANNETTE
Book a Clarity Call:  https://calendly.com/onourwatchglobal/30min
Get her book:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FF2XYXJN
LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/nannette-atuahene-59413b14
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588080897286

WHERE TO LISTEN
This episode airs Mondays at 7 AM on KGRN 98.5 FM and KVBM 104.7 FM, and is available on the Rethinking Freedom YouTube channel and everywhere you listen to podcasts.
Subscribe for more conversations on freedom, identity, and reconnection.

#RethinkingFreedom #Blaxit #GhanaReturn #AfricanDiaspora #YearOfReturn #LifeByDesign #BlackExpats #AncestralReconnection

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

On average, an apartment for two years can cost you anywhere from $600 to $2,000 for the whole two years paying in advance. In that time, I realized that freedom for me before moving to Ghana was about financial freedom. In the definition of freedom for me, freedom now is determined by the fact that I don't have to look to money for permission.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

And you found that in Africa, not in the United States of America.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

And today we are talking about life by design in the homeland. And I want you to stay tuned, take notes. Our guest is someone that I think many of you would want to connect with. Today we're sitting with someone whose life is a living answer to the question: what does it mean to return home? You know, the past few weeks we have been going over the 250th anniversary of the invention of the United States of America and speaking about what that means for us, particularly as people from the continent, people of African descent, even though I know some people don't want to claim that, that is the truth. But also speaking to what it means for the larger sense of what it means to be an American. But as we talk about freedom, freedom for us is certainly a legal status, but it's also a reconnection. It needs to be a reconnection, a reconnection to land, a reconnection to lineage, a reconnection to self. And today my guest is Nanette Atoahene. Nanette is the first in her lineage to be born and raised in the US, but in 2022, she made a permanent move from California to Ghana, the homeland of her parents. She now coaches African diaspora and professionals to live life by design rather than by default, helping them expand their work and impact beyond the West and onto the African continent. Her coaching rests on three pillars: mindset, skill set, and relationships. Nanette, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

And I know you are currently visiting here in the United States of America, and we really appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to join us. Um, you were just in Killeen, Texas. Orchestrating, um, putting together a whole program to help us connect the dots, and we'll get more into that. But you're the first in your lineage to be born and raised here in the United States. What was it like growing up with Ghana in the background of your life? Present.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

That's so that's a great question. And so I tell everybody because I was the first ever to be born and raised in the US, I was an experiment. And so it was very interesting. You know, I had to take my hats off to my parents because they were very responsive to my feedback. And so my very first experience in elementary school was when my mother did my hair and she threaded my hair. I don't know if a lot of you know the traditional threading of hair. And so as I'm leaving the house, my father's telling me how beautiful I look, and I have my chest up and out, and I'm ready to face the world. And then I go to school and I get ridiculed the whole day with the name Medusa. And so immediately I give feedback to my mother, mommy, please don't do my hair like that again. And so this is just one of the examples of me being the experiment in the US. And so for me, Ghana in the background was managing and navigating culture that wasn't always appreciated and wasn't always accepted in the time that I grew up. Today we have Afrobeats, we have social media that bridges a lot of gaps that we didn't have when I was growing up. And so it was a it was a time of a lot of navigation.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

And honestly, when I was younger, I was embarrassed because people couldn't understand when my parents spoke with their thick accents, you know, always saying as though Americans don't have accents and that the accents don't differ from region to me gen. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Right. You know, but it used to like annoy me anytime my father would speak. What did he say? You know what he said, you know. So so just navigating the Ghanaian culture within the American culture was very, very interesting. And it also built my skill around being flexible and and and being very versatile when it came to dealing with different cultures around the world.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

I can totally relate to that. This morning I was actually on a walk, but I was talking with a friend who happens to be um a Nigerian living in the UK. And as I was walking, someone who knew me said, Hey, Aya, and stopped, and we started to have a conversation just briefly. And um, and then I, you know, we parted ways, and then I went back to my conversation and continued on my walk. And then I ran into another friend who happens to be African American from Mississippi, and we had a conversation. And at the end of it, my friend who was on the phone and could hear all the conversation segments, you be like, how quickly you switched he said when you were speaking to the Nigerian American, you sounded a totally different way because I switched to more of a Nigerian accent. And when I was talking to my friend from Mississippi, I switched and I said, Hey, it talking about that versatility, right? But certainly, as someone who was born here in the US, went back to Nigeria and then came back to the United States of America, I can relate to hairstyles, food. Um, you know, my father coming to speak to my chemistry class in high school, and this man is a jodicist, right? There are very few of them in the world, and these kids going, what is he saying? Is he speaking English? Can you interpret what he was saying? And you know, I was quite frankly livid. But so what was the impetus for you to make the decision after living here your entire life? Whereas here, United States of America. What led you to make that decision to move back to Ghana?

SPEAKER_01 7:21

So I have to give you a little background. So growing up as the first ever in my family to be born and raised in the US, my parents actually never made an attempt to bring us back home, never made an attempt to bring us back to Ghana. And one of my older cousins explained it to me because I didn't understand it honestly. She said, you know, in their eyes, they had made it to the pinnacle. So going back home was kind of like going backwards, right? And unfortunately, my mother passed away at the tender age of 50. And interestingly enough, her dying wish was to take her body back home. That was our first exposure to Ghana. And so from there, that's when I started going more. I was even an exchange student at the University of Ghana, learned so much about Ghanaian culture, more than Ghanaian students do in the current school system. And so I would go every seven to ten years and just stay in touch with my family, make sure my children knew the continent, etc. And then 2017 was when there was a shift. I was speaking to a friend of mine, and funny enough, she happens to be Nigerian American. She was born and raised in the US to two Nigerian parents. And my nickname for her is Sister Kei Ikaite. And Ikaite and I were speaking about our last trips back home, hers to Nigeria, mine to Ghana, and we were talking about all the business opportunities we saw, all the problems that could be solved, and we were just excited, trying to mastermind how do we overcome the obstacles to be able to get back home. And this was a time of the social media hype. And there was this social media hype about the Chinese takeover of Africa the same time we were having this conversation. So I get off the phone with Sustachi and I marinate on our conversation and I literally say to myself, Nanette, really Chinese are going to Ghana and you're not? That was it. That was the I always ask people what was that point that really made you change your mind? What was that point that really transformed the whole conversation, the whole commitment, the the whole the whole momentum of what you're doing now? And that was my moment. My moment was talking to my girlfriend about all the opportunities back home, knowing that I could contribute something with my skills, with my knowledge, with my experience, with my connections, etc. And realizing that Chinese who have no background in Ghana, no family connections, no nothing, are going back. And I was sitting in the US. And that was it. That was it. From there, I committed. I had to recondition myself because I tell everybody, Ghanaians in Southern California, going to Ghana was like going to Mecca. If people don't know the Muslim culture, there's a there's this trip, the Hajj to Mecca. And most people do it once in their lifetime, right? That's how Ghanaians treated going back to Ghana. I mean, they made it a big event. And so I had to recondition my mind when I made that commitment. I literally told myself, Nanette, don't make it a big event. Make it like it's going from New York from California to New York. I had to do all that work when I committed. I didn't know how I was going to afford it because I was raising four children with their father at the time. But I made the commitment because I knew if I didn't do it, the hands of Ghana was going to be in the hands of someone else. And I had to be there to represent our interests. So that was that was the impetus to get me to move back home. Even though I had never lived there in my life, I didn't have too much background or anything.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

That's really interesting that you'll say that and talk about other citizens of other countries that are going to Africa. We see every multinational corporation wants to be in Africa. All of these European and Western countries are going and signing deals, Asian countries, so on and so forth. And yet within the African diaspora, we've been taught to dismiss one another. We've been taught to look at Africa as backwards, right? And we are actually abdicating, I, in my opinion, our responsibility for that continent. I want to share this some statistics with our audience. And audience, I want to thank all of you. Um, this channel has just taken off. We are at over 21,000 subscribers, which is mind-blowing to me. Of course, there's thousands of you who also listen on the radio um show. So whether you're listening to us on the radio or you downloaded the podcast or you're watching on YouTube, thank you so much. Continue to share the great work that we're doing here because our job is to help us rethink what freedom is about. But here are some statistics that some people may not be aware of. An estimated 1,500 black Americans, African Americans, relocated permanently to Ghana between 2019 and 2023. Those are the latest numbers we've got. And this is according to Ghana's Diaspora Affairs Office and also a reporting from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Some estimates put the number of African Americans living in and around Accra alone between 3 and 5,000 people, African Americans who are now living in Accra. We're not talking about the entire continent of Africa. We're just looking at Ghana right now. In November 2024, Ghana Grant had citizenship with 524 members of the African diaspora. Um, and relocation consultants are reporting the demand for support moving to the continent has grown by roughly 20% year over year since 2017, with one firm estimating that 10 times as many African Americans are seeking to relocate today than they were five or six years ago. In fact, I have a girlfriend here in the Killeen area who is renting out her home here in Killeen. And her goal is, she already spent, I think, four months or so in Senegal, and her goal is to be on the continent permanently. So national survey data also shows that a majority of African Americans continue to view racial inequality as a significant unresolved issue in the United States, having personally experienced discrimination, and many of them who have moved are frequently citing this racial discrimination as a motivating factor behind their reason to move. So let me ask you this. Um, how do you define freedom differently now that you have relocated compared to before you made this move back to Ghana? Has there been any difference at all?

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Big difference. You know, when you're in the United States, you're really surviving. You're doing everything you can to keep up with bills, with responsibilities, with demands, with expectations, with distractions, right? So when I got to Ghana, I was finally able to think. That's what one of my friends, Steve Coakley Jr. said. He said, when I moved back to Ghana from Chicago, I had time to think. And in that time, I realized that freedom for me before moving to Ghana was about financial freedom. How do I get from under this business that's running me? How do I get from under this job, right? How do I set myself up so I can do what I love? That's what it was when I was in the US. Now that I've moved to Ghana, I've been able to do what I love. And so the difference in the definition of freedom for me, freedom now is determined by the fact that I don't have to look to money for permission. And that I have the courage to live my life by design. To me, that's freedom.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Yes, yes. Because so many of us is just like work, work, work here in the United States of America and hope that you've saved enough for retirement. And maybe there might be Medicare and Medicaid, and maybe there will or not. But it's this, as they call it, this rat race that we're constantly in. So you have found more peace and more freedom of time to actually do what you love, to design the life that you want. And you found that in Africa, not in the United States of America.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Absolutely. Just because you have less pressure, I can tell you, even because I live in Cape Coast. So Cape Coast is like a farther suburb from the big city. So Accra is the main city in Ghana, and Cape Coast is like two and a half hours from Ghana. And that's where I live. So on average, an apartment for two years can cost you anywhere from $600 to $2,000 for the whole two years paying in advance. So that alone, having that alone.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Wait a second, slow down, repeat those numbers again. What did you just say?

SPEAKER_01 17:19

In Cape Coast, just a one-bedroom apartment, simple one-bedroom apartment, all the way up to a nice, luxurious one-bedroom apartment can cost you anywhere from $600 every two years to $2,000 every two years. So that alone, having that handled is such a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Okay, I don't think I don't think my audience can comprehend what you're saying. You're not saying $600 every month. You're not saying $2,000 every month. Do you say $600 to $2,000 for two years worth of accommodation?

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Yeah, yeah, yes. And like I said, it's for a one-bedroom apartment. If you want a two-bedroom, it may go over up to $3,000, $4,000 in Cape Coast. Our crowd, of course, is a little miserable. Two years. Yes, for two years. Yes. And so that alone allows you the space to think. Because most of us, our biggest expense is our housing. And so because housing is so inexpensive, like I said, in the Capitol, it's more expensive, but it's still not as expensive as it is in the US. And so that alone frees you up to think more because when you're always thinking about how am I going to get this mortgage paid paid? How am I going to get this rent paid, right? That takes up a lot of your brain space. It rents a lot of space in your mind. And so once you get from under that, it's like there's this freedom that overtakes you.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

I'm sitting here thinking, so for what I pay for my mortgage for one month, I could have my house in lockdown for two years. Oh my goodness. Yes. Yes. So the statistics that I shared earlier show that this movement back to Africa, back to the continent, is not a fringe movement. We we actually, there, there are numbers to back it up. And you are a coach for Africans in the diaspora who want to connect back to the continent, who may want to do business. Everybody's not going to move there permanently, but who want to build something beyond what we have here in the United States of America on these western shores.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

Absolutely. Absolutely. And what we're seeing, because before it was mostly retirees because they have a social security check and they can live more, right? They can they can do more with their social security check in Ghana. Now we're seeing younger people come to Ghana. I have a young mentee who has a food truck. She's from New York. Um, she has a food truck in Accra and she's about to expand it to Nigeria. She's like in her late 20s, right? And and recently we had iShow Speed take his tour of Africa. And so that's opened up a whole new world to so many younger people. So I see it on every level. I see people all the time. And and one thing I notice is that people know something's not right with their spirit in the US. And they're looking to figure out how do I recapture my spirit? Because some people, their souls have been sucked out of them. And you know who I'm talking about out there. When you're working for corporate America, the corporate West in general, sometimes there's so many things that are are siphoning your energy, the the code switching, the microaggressions, you know, all these things, you don't realize how they're impacting you until you leave. I have a friend, she said, when I left the US, when I left New York, I came to Ghana and all I did was decompress for a whole year. I didn't do anything. She said, because I didn't realize how much I had to navigate in the US. I didn't realize how many microaggressions were piercing my armor. I didn't realize how that system that I was living in was chipping at my self-esteem and my identity. And so she took a whole year just to decompress. And so when people come back home, and I'm not saying it's all fine and dandy because we have our challenges, right? We have the infrastructural challenges, we have challenges. What people share with us, what people share, my clients share with me, is that they feel peace. piece overcompensates for infrastructure challenges for of those challenges.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

So I was going to ask you this question and you are you are already leading into it. What are the reasons that you are seeing for for your clients and yeah for your clients what are the reasons you're you're hearing for them to make this move back and what would you say to others who maybe are hearing this as an opportunity for the first time or maybe they have been thinking about this.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

So my clients the first thing they say is I'm just tired. You know I had a client he's an engineer in Los Angeles and he said I was busy climbing up this corporate ladder and then I realized there's no ladder and I got really disillusioned right another client says I'm I'm I'm just tired. This system is not healthy for me. Another client says I just want to be able to be myself. I don't want to keep doing I don't want to keep code switching. I don't want to keep holding back my my my opinions as a black woman so I won't appear to be aggressive. Right? This is some of the feedback yes this is some of the feedback I'm getting from my clients who are saying listen I have to make a move and and and I'm not telling everyone that they have to move back. I'm just saying consider other options I've traveled the world I've traveled Latin America I've traveled across the African continent because those are the two places that I really wanted to I call myself a low-key anthropologist. I love to see how African people live all over. So Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Colombia one more I can't think of it now. But I've been to all these places looking at the African influence. And so I've I've I've traveled the length and and what I noticed is that we have the same conditions all over and so what I would tell people is just consider your options consider your options we have so much out there but and anytime I travel I noticed the US was always looking to inject fear into me. When I went to Brazil it was the Zika virus. When I went to Cuba they said there was an advisory of an attempted bomb threat at the U.S. embassy right anytime I would travel there would be some kind of advisory to scare the heck out of me and and I was speaking to a uh a lady from Waco on my way to uh Marlin recently and she said I'm just afraid I don't know if they like us and you know and and what I notice in my travels around the world I can say eight to ten out of a hundred people are mean. I've traveled the world I've been lost in countries where I don't speak the language people are always looking to help another person naturally it's a small percentage that are not. And so when you travel to Ghana Ghana is known for hospitality we do have people you know who may not be upstanding like all people like anywhere in the world yes one thing you'll see in Ghana is people love to accommodate strangers right so like people that are outside of their downfall wasn't it in terms of the and with us coming back we have to know that we will be embraced you know there there are a small number of people that may say oh you guys stay where you are right but the majority are excited the the majority look up to the US because of the branding that they've experienced growing up I mean I you know I mean from the time you're young people are always praising the US that's the goal right and so people the land of milk and honey there's gold on the streets you can just pick it up we're all living great over here yes and so with that people look up to people who come from the US so I would just say consider your options I'm not saying move and pack up all your things I'm not saying that I'm saying consider options beyond the West we know that Africa their population is growing we know that the West we know that Africa is the future and they absolutely their population is the is declining the West the population is declining. That's why we have people like Warren Buffett we have people like Bill Gates. Warren Buffett's son founded a university in Rwanda called Rwandan Institute for conservation agriculture a lot of people don't know that MasterCard Foundation is heavily funding tuitions for African students across the continent because they know we are the future we are the future consumers when you think about baby boomers that's what Africa is right now. All the companies were following baby boomers so when we think about all the innovations it was because they were following baby boomers you know from Gerber all the way to Mustang right they were following baby boomers along their path as they aged. So Africa is that because our populations are younger than the rest of the world. So they know that their future consumer is on the African continent. So they're coming in droves that's why you see China there. That's why you see the US there I mean Germany's there heavily Netherlands yes they're all there because they know we're the future so so our task is to make sure we share this information and spread it as far as possible because usually we're always the last to act and so my my goal is to make sure the information is disseminated so that you can make the choice from there. If you don't know you can't make a choice but if I'm sharing the information you can't say you didn't know. And then from there we can position ourselves to make sure that the interests of Africa are properly represented because if I'm a Chinese person I'm not looking to represent the interests of Africans and and I don't blame I don't blame Chinese people right and and and that's why I went back to the continent I can give you an example East Oakland when I was moving from Kleen Texas as a military we were a military family and we we were leaving the military in Kleen we moved to the Bay Area California Bay Area. And at that time what motivated that move was gentrification and gentrification for those who don't know is when a an in a depressed area all of a sudden has middle income white populations moving back and then redevelopment plans of those areas right to to revitalize and and rehabilitate. Exactly and so for me I saw that on a micro microeconomic level I saw that happening in Oakland and so I moved to Oakland because I knew that the people who were moving in didn't have the interests of our families at heart didn't have the interests of our communities at heart. So I wanted to be inside that that that transition and that's what I did. So I was able to sit with community development block grants uh boards I was able to sit with school site councils and make sure my my voice was heard when people couldn't speak because they were beholden to the district to the city as workers and so their paychecks were on the line right I was part of all the neighborhood councils in Oakland because I wanted to make sure our voices were represented and that's the same thing I'm doing in Ghana not only in Ghana across the continent and the diaspora and we're definitely going to get into that um the number of things you've said first of all you talked about these microaggressions I need to go research it but I feel like whoever came up with that term was disingenuous because the what we're calling micro like you said chips away our our souls our spirits i i call it death by by a thousand paper cuts if you have a paper cut you can you can really see the cuts but so bad yes if you get enough of those cuts yes you can be in in in in Hongry and don't let it get infected I love that death by a thousand paper cuts that's what we're talking about but in the meantime while we are under siege here in the United States of America there's also this undercurrent of let's keep Africans across the world devalue it.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Let's prevent them from ever really working together. And for those of you who want to go into the history go and look at the parallels between anytime a group of Africans anywhere in the world started to fight and progress it positively impacted other Africans when we talk about Haiti and the Haitian revolution that positively impacted Africans here in the United States elsewhere you know in like hey we can fight back and when you look at the civil rights movement here in the United States and you look at the independence movement in Africa those timeframes coincide so there is a reason why there's so much disinformation and misinformation about the relationship between Africans on the continent and Africans in the diaspora because we raised this this whole idea of will they even like me you know they they they they think they're different or they think they're better and it could be on both sides but we need to stop letting other people prevent us from reminding and coming about this.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

And I wanted to add something to what you said because there's a lot of history that we have when we join together that's been wiped from the books as well I had learned from Dr. Ashra Kwazy about the Ethiopians fighting against the Italians. And what we don't know is that Battle of Adua yes yes the Tuskegee airmen airmen helped them with their air force to develop their air force you understand and they were able to defeat Mussolini and the Italians and so there's so much history of of us working together that has been wiped out and and it shows how when we work together we were able to do amazing things and make amazing progress. And so we just have to know that it's for a reason and and me I don't I don't aim to demonize people I just aim to take tell the truth because my whole vision is a prosperous Africa. And so if we are looking to become prosperous that starts with a prosperous you Aya a prosperous me right and so in order to do that we have to see what happened in the past what models do we have to follow that were successful and we have so many models if we just take time to look at the history of of diasporans and Africans on the continent working together.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

And we have worked together as a matter of fact W.E.B. Du Bois probably possibly the greatest African American historian is buried in in um Ghana.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

So I'm glad you talked you you know you started to talk about the work that you do with those who might be interested your coaching is built on three pillars mindset skill set and relationships can you walk us through each one and for those who might be peaked um what it is they can receive if they work it excellent so I've worked with real estate developers I've worked with with doulas nutritionists I've worked with corporate professionals in corporate America corporate Europe right and so what I found was mindset is at the foundation of every single thing we do. So I have a framework so my framework is called the Visions Unlocked framework and there are five elements to this framework and underneath that framework lie lie those three pillars the mindset skill set and relationships so number one is reconnecting to your vision because my whole thing is most of us our visions have been put on the shelf to die to collect dust and so what we start with is reconnecting with your vision that vision that lights you up that vision that inspires you that vision that when you're in it time doesn't even matter right so number one is reconnecting to your vision. Number two, remember we're talking about mindset that's that's your mind right recognizing the beliefs that you have the ones that are propelling you and the ones that are hindering your progress and what I find there is we don't understand I've had powerful powerful professionals when we talk about mindset it might be a relationship that they had with their mother that's interfering with their business life. Right? And so recognizing the beliefs that are hindering your progress and and the beliefs that are even propelling you is so monumental to this work of unlocking your vision. The next we rewrite the beliefs that are hindering your progress. So when you remove a belief you have to replace it or else there's going to be a void. Once we do all that work now we can talk about a roadmap now we can talk about skill set now we can talk about relationships that you're building and so the roadmap goes through all of those pieces. And then finally rhythms of resilience how do we create rhythms to make sure that the success that we obtain is sustainable and that it lasts for a long time so this is the framework I call the visions unlocked framework and the pillars beneath that support this framework are mindset skill set and relationships. And I want to add we have brilliant people in our community that because they are in this system they don't even acknowledge how brilliant they are and so a lot of my clients I'm like you're telling me what you're doing in your position in your business don't you know how brilliant you are and they'll laugh and they don't know they don't even when I ask them what value do do you bring to your client what value do you bring to your job they have trouble sharing that. Meanwhile I can see it blatantly right so these are the things I work with my my these are not these are professionals these are white collar professionals right and blue collar as well I'm just saying white collar because everyone looks from the outside and thinks oh yeah these people have it all together and what I say is listen once you get to know who you really are once you get to know how amazing you are billionaire or broke peak or valley high or low success or failure up or down when you know you're amazing no matter what you walk the world as if and this is what I help my diasporum professionals to do.

SPEAKER_00 38:10

Work the walk the world as if yes yes so the coaching that you provide like it's not just for oh I have a degree and I'm already a C-suite executive this could be for anybody this could be for a current college student this could be for a plumber this could be for someone who is great at construction this could be for anybody in terms of your ability to work with them and help them create a different vision or tap into a different vision.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Absolutely and and and so for the my business the visions unlocked program I have a specific community that I work with I also have mentees through my nonprofit Converged for Africa that focuses on African youth right and so for for the visions unlocked program I focus on diasporum professionals just because I understand that we must bridge that gap as soon as possible. For me that's the urgent that's the urgent move right and so I'm I'm looking to work with people that really want to reconnect with their vision that are tired of working for someone that doesn't understand the value they bring and even for them to reconnect to the value they bring right but for for those people who know that they are meant for more for those people who are looking to impact the world at a greater level those are the people I'm looking for because what I find is once I impact and and support those people to transform their lives then they go out and impact so many more lives of other people in all sectors.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Yes. So I you were you know in Killeen Texas and you had a program called Connect the dots can you tell us a little bit more about that program and you also mentioned working with youth so tell tell us what you're working on and where people can plug into all right so so what I'm working on um when I first started when I made the commitment to go back to Ghana three months out of the year I would go twice a year six weeks at a time and so before I would go every time this was 2018 19 2021 I would go on eventbrite.com I would go on meetup.com and I would look up all the business events networking events happening in Accra and I would attend all of you I thought you were gonna say you went to look for dating apps and not wait wait even though my family members thought that's what I was doing they were like why does he keep going back it must be a man right listen because I know people are going back and getting their men I'm telling you yes yes I'm telling you it's so I would I would go to all these events these business networking events and I noticed that Ghanaians culturally were used to staying in their click.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

So whether it was their senior high school click their church click so these were networking events where you were supposed to network but there was no real networking. So that's where connect the dots networking extravaganza was born I said I'm going to create an event where every single person gets to know who's in the room and every single person gets to share what they do who they are what they have to offer any needs they have in the way of resources and connections. And so we started that in 2022 in Accra 2023 we added Kumasi Ghana 2024 we added Cape Coast Ghana 2025 we added Ho. So now in December in Ghana December in Ghana is a time where we have so many activities for the diaspora that's coming back right and so every December from like the end of November to the beginning of January so many promoters are working with the tourism authority to promote their events during that time and so that's when I started the Connect the Dots Networking extravaganza since then I've had the Connect the Dots Networking extravaganza in Rwanda in South Africa we did a U.S. tour last year Oakland California Palmdale California Los Angeles California Atlanta Georgia Philadelphia Pennsylvania Washington DC and New York City New York last year we did Queens New York so this year we're doing it again the first stop was Colleen Texas the next stop will be Los Angeles will go to Oakland Atlanta Philadelphia DC and New York again and so this this came all out of me problem solving me seeing a problem that people weren't really networking and solving that problem and so many amazing things have come out of that even this um event at Colleen in Kleene that we had this last Thursday.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

Which you are a phenomenal facilitator I have never seen an event where everybody shared and found connections to solve their problems in that room that was amazing to watch what amazing to experience thank you and that was the point the point was we have so many solutions to our problem our problems in the same room it's just a matter of knowing who's in the room and and that was how Connect the Dots Networking Extravaganza was born.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

So what is this work that you're doing with the youth right so another story 2019 three two men and I got together two men and I got together One was Jamaican descent and one was like me, uh US born and raised Tuganian parents. And this was during the time the UN had a decade of where they were acknowledging African people of African descent.

SPEAKER_00 44:14

Yeah, it was a decade of Africa, basically, yes.

SPEAKER_01 44:17

Yes, 2015 to 2024. So when we found that out, we said we wanted to do something. We wanted to have a conference in honor of that. And the problem we saw was that a lot of Africans like to talk about problems, but they don't like to talk about solutions. And so we said, okay, we'll look at the problems, but we will look at the continent and the diaspora for people to showcase the solutions to those problems. And that was our idea for the conference. And then, of course, COVID hit and derailed everything. So we came back to the drawing board 2023, and now it was only two of us because the one of the co-collaborators had to go take care of an ailing father. So he said, Lynette, I know you wanted to have this conference in Ghana, but if it's going to be Pan-African, let's do it somewhere else. So I had heard recently during that time that Rwanda was becoming like the conference capital of the continent. They were developing infrastructure to put on conferences. So I was like, why don't we do Rwanda? He said, Bet. So that was January 2023. August 2023, I made my first trip to Rwanda. And I always say my hats off to Rwanda. I sent an email to the Rwandan Development Board. They immediately directed me to the right person. That person got back to me by email, said, Nanette, as soon as you land, call me and we'll set up a time to meet. I landed on a Thursday, called him, we met on Friday. I shared the idea with him. He said, Nanette, this is amazing. And I have to, like I said, commend the Rwandan Development Board. They have a lot of young energy, uh, a lot of 30-somethings, 40-somethings working, where you don't see that across the continent. So he masterminded with me. He was so juiced. He was giving me all kinds of advice, feedback, referring me to people. And he referred me to one specific person, Sunny Kayunamura. She's a diasporn, a Rwandan diasporn, was displaced by genocide, got the opportunity to go from Uganda to the states. So when she heard my idea, she was like, Nanette, this is brilliant. She said, I love this idea of involving not only the continent but the diaspora. Why don't we focus the first annual conference on youth in agriculture and agribusiness?

SPEAKER_03 46:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 46:44

So that's what we did. And so, because of that idea for the conference, we backed into a nonprofit. And the nonprofit is now called Converge for Africa. Converge, the number four, Africa. And our mission is to educate, equip, and empower African youth to become economically self-sufficient. And we do that through workforce development and business building. So we had our first conference in Kigali, Rwanda, day one, Busogo, Rwanda, the breadbasket of Rwanda day two, and then we had an international panel virtually. Year two was last November, and we had that in Ghana. So day one was the breadbasket of Ghana, the Bono region, Techiman, and then day two was the elite educational hub of Ghana in Cape Coast, University of Cape Coast. Day three, again, was the virtual portion where we had people from all over the world: Somaliland, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana, St. Lucia, the UK, US speak on agriculture and agribusiness for the youth. And so we have three objectives for our conference. Number one is to give the youth a platform to speak, give them a voice. I was attending a lot of conferences for youth. And one of the things they shared was you all talk, talk, talk, and then you we run out of time for our sessions. And then you tell us we only have time for one or two questions, right? So this event gives the platform to you to really speak and share what they're seeing, what they're doing. Number two is to mobilize all the stakeholders, the NGOs, the academic institutions, the researchers, the industry, right? The farmers, the workers. We mobilize all of them in one room to support the youth. And then finally, it's to build a bridge between youth all over the African diaspora and the continent so that they can work together, import, export, collaborations, building hubs, right? To build industry. Because I want them to start young so they can figure it out, make the mistakes, you know, and then learn and grow, and then build industry together. So this is what we do with the conference, Converge for Africa. The second thing we do, we have a webinar every month because leading up to the first conference, we were like, how do we engage youth so that we can get them involved in the conference? And so we started in 2024, March, to have conferences every single month, except November and December, because of the conference, the month of the conference. And so we have people from all over the world speak to the youth on different topics: business success, agriculture, and agribusiness, agri tech, workforce development. So, like last month, we had the owner of a Ronden Tea Company. He spoke to the youth about the skills that will be necessary to succeed in the workforce. This month we're having Nori, uh Research Institute, talk about how our education must transform for our youth so that they can thrive in the world, the global marketplace. So every month we have that for our youth. So this is some of the work.

SPEAKER_00 49:57

What is this open to the webinar?

SPEAKER_01 50:00

You know what's funny? That's a great question because it's focused on youth. And what I find is adults join it as well because they love the speakers we have. And so that's that's what we've been doing since 2024.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

So can anyone access the webinar or do they have to pay a fee? What's what's required?

SPEAKER_01 50:20

The free webinar, and all you have to do is make sure you go on converge for Africa and we'll put it in the the comments.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

Yeah, we'll put it in the description. Yes. So come over to the YouTube side so you can go to the description and pull all this information as well. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 50:37

Yes, so go to converge for the number for Africa on Instagram, and then DM us and let us know you want to be put on the mailing list for the webinar, and then we'll be sending you out the monthly reminders for the webinars that we have. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 50:53

Now I do have a few minutes left. Why agribusiness?

SPEAKER_01 51:02

Everybody eats. And there's so many more opportunities. This is another thing. There's so many opportunities for us to add value to just our raw materials. And so it's going to take our youth starting now. And we already have amazing youth. I've met them all over the continent and the diaspora that are doing amazing work in agriculture and agribusiness. And this is our low-hanging fruit. This is our green platinum. I don't even call it green gold. Green platinum, because we have 60% of the world's arable land, meaning we have six out of 10 plots of land that can grow food on the African continent. So we have to take advantage of this. And we also expose opportunities beyond having equipment that you use to grow food. You know, we talk about bookkeeping for farmers, we talk about marketing for farmers, right? We talk about adding value. Like I was in St. Lucia recently because that will be our next conference this coming November. And we had women, rural women who got support from the government to turn breadfruit, their green banana, and their one more. I can't think of it. Oh, sweet potato into flour, right? Whether it's for baking, whatever. And so these are the things that we're looking to build on because this is the biggest opportunity. And another thing is our food is being tampered with globally. So it's important that we take control of that sector so that we keep our healthy foods, our healthy soils, our healthy lands, because there are things happening right now that are putting all of that at stake.

SPEAKER_00 53:12

So I know that you have listeners who are saying, where do I start? Do I start with um getting a passport? Do I need to save on a certain amount of money? How do people start reconnecting to the continent? What is your advice to them?

SPEAKER_01 53:34

I would say start watching programs like this because there's so much information online. And then if you don't have a passport, get it. Then I would say just save up to buy your ticket. So a trip to Ghana, I can say, because I know that for sure, can go anywhere, depending. If you go in February, it's very inexpensive, right? So it can go anywhere from like eight, nine hundred dollars all the way up to three thousand if you go in December and you buy a ticket at the last minute, right? So just start looking online for tickets. These days you can look at dates and the prices come up automatically if you go on somewhere like Google Flights and you can plan when you want to go accordingly, because it'll give you the the prices for those months. You can see the less expensive times of the year, the most expensive times of the year. So I would say just start with when I travel the world, the first thing I do is I buy a ticket because I already have my passport. The first thing I do is I buy a ticket. Because once I buy the ticket, then I can save around all the other stuff: the hotel, the transportation, the food, right? But I buy my ticket first because my once I buy the ticket, I'm committed. And and and I want to share with you, please travel the world. I become the person I am because I've interacted with so many people across the world. When you travel, you learn the truth. I tell you social media just because that's what you have access to right now. When you travel, it's like the next level.

SPEAKER_00 55:13

I've learned so many things about and you make and you make the next thing.

SPEAKER_01 55:18

Yes, yes, absolutely. And and and I want to share, I've learned so many things that have been hidden in our books just by traveling. So many. And and we'll talk more in the future. I know we're running out of time, but there's so much happening that we don't know about. And I just want to say one more thing. Please know who you are. When I used to hear that when I was younger, it was like it was like a cliche.

SPEAKER_03 55:42

But now I understand what it means.

SPEAKER_01 55:44

What it means is know you are amazing. Know you are amazing no matter what. Like I said, success or failure, billionaire broke, up or down, high or low, peaker valley. Know you are amazing no matter what, especially as an African, especially as someone who's overcome all these challenges. Because once you do that, all those isms fall away. That's what I learned from, and we'll talk about this in the future from the movie Hidden Figures.

SPEAKER_00 56:13

Well, I have been a recipient of how amazing you are. Um, my son, by some I'm some connection, was invited to your event clean, and he happens to be majoring in agribusiness. And I'm telling you, just that time he spent with you, he's walking taller, he's walking with his shoulders back, chest out, he's got a plan, he's and he is looking forward to being part of this conference in St. Lucia um in November. So can you tell us again how members of the audience, those who are listening, who are interested in learning more about the work you do or who want to start getting coached by you because this has been a dream of theirs, they just didn't know where to start. It felt overwhelming. How do they reach you?

SPEAKER_01 57:04

Okay, so I have two ways. So I have a book called Ghana, The Great, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, A Journey of Truth and Repatriation. And we'll make sure we put the link to that book in the comment section. And that is on Amazon. So that's for the do-it-yourselfers. The people who know they need support, that's the Visions Unlocked coaching program. And so we'll put a clarity call link in there. And in this clarity call, it's a complimentary clarity call. What we do is we look at what you're planning, what you've done so far, where you want to go, what's holding you back, and then how can the coaching program support you? And you can say, Yes, I want to go with the pro coaching program. No, I don't want to go with the coaching program, but at least you'll get clarity. That's why I call it a clarity call. You'll get clarity on where you are, where you're going, what's holding you back, and what the next steps are. So that's what the clarity call supports you to do. And I have to say, I've supported so many people to transform their lives just because we started with mindset and we ended with skill set and relationships. So this is the work we're doing to transform not only the US, the UK, but also the African continent.

SPEAKER_00 58:11

I'm glad you said that because we have a global audience. So wherever they are in the world, they can read out. Give us the title of the book.

SPEAKER_01 58:20

The book is Ghana, The Great, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. A journey of truth, a journey of truth and repatriation.

SPEAKER_00 58:30

And this can be found on Amazon. Yes. Wonderful. Well, to all of our listeners, I hope you are as inspired as I am by our guest, Nanette. Just the courage to step out of what seemed like a comfort zone, even though it was slowly training you, and saying there is more to life and I'm going to go and pursue it. And then now showing others the path. Thank you for your resilience. Thank you for your vision. Thank you for your commitment. And um we certainly wish you safe travel mercies as you traverse the country and return back to Ghana.

SPEAKER_01 59:10

Yes, yes. And look on Diaspora Visions Unlocked on Facebook to follow our US tour so you can be part of that as well.

SPEAKER_00 59:17

And so we're going to put all of these links. Um, go to the YouTube, the description, you're going to see all the links there. And you know what? Post your questions on there. She may come back and answer your questions, or I'll send her a text message and we can we can make sure that you get your questions answered. But rethinking freedom is about taking action. It's not just I wish things would do better will be better. It's the actions you take to create the life that you want. This is life by design in the homeland. And we want to thank you, Nanette, for joining us today. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 59:48

My pleasure. My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for your work and thank you for your commitment.