Olaitan Olatunji

I attribute my success to my two girls. They are definitely the reason I'm really doing this. I've learned from a younger age that female empowerment is very, very important, so I told myself that I would definitely leave something for my two daughters - a legacy. No matter what, I want to leave something for them. When they get to a certain age, I'll give them a choice - do you guys want to take over, or you just want to leave it? But at least they will meet something on ground. My dream is that they would take it and take it to the next level. Maybe then, you know, they're young, they know about social media, so maybe they can now take it beyond social media and go further with it. They're definitely the reason.

The best advice I've learned so far is that you are your business, your business is you - don't separate it. Your behavior, your attitude matters. Your work ethic can be flawless, but if your behavior or your attitude is nasty, it's going to automatically affect your craft. So don't separate it. Your craft is you, you are your craft, you're one. I actually find myself giving this advice to the people I meet in the business, like cameramen, cake people, food vendors. I tell them, don't talk to clients like that, don't show this type of attitude. Your attitude matters.

Start as early as you can, and trust yourself, believe yourself, be strong. That was one thing - every time I sit down and think about it, I should have started this a long time ago, because it's already inbuilt, but there was no one to push it out. And I didn't have the gut to follow through as well until something strong happened in my life that gave me the audacity to follow through. So the advice I'll give to a young person is when it starts, just start. You can start anywhere.

Some of the biggest challenges is people like it, but they don't want to spend the money. They like it, they don't want to spend the money. Sometimes I get lucky and blessed to find a client that really understands the vision once I explain it to them, and they see the difference in the quality. But the biggest challenge is to convince them to come out of the pocket, that it is expensive. Your money is not sitting in my account - I'm using it. Not until the event starts and they come into the venue, that's when they see it, like oh wow, this is what I invested in.

Trust and transparency are the most important values to me. I always request that from my staff, from my clients - it's the first thing I say before we start the conversation. I need trust, I need transparency. That would give me a soft gateway to be able to do my job.