"Being an entrepreneur means taking life into your own hands and being the creator of your life's outcome."
Fur Wale has been a natural leader since ten years of age, and through adversity discovered how to manage her mindset to maintain her wellbeing and success. Teaching this to her two younger brothers through visualization practices. She is the founder of SHE Talks. By the time she reached her 40s, Fur had educated thousands of individuals on how to master their mindset for success. Fur is an expert in her field, having been featured as a keynote speaker and authored a bestselling book. Fur has a remarkable background in theatre, radio, TV, modeling, public speaking, training, mentoring, event hosting, entrepreneurship, human behavior, sports psychology, leadership, and self-empowerment.
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Table of Contents
Thank you so much for giving us your time! Before we begin, could you introduce yourself to our readers and take us through what exactly your company does and what your vision is for its future?
Fur Wale: I coach multi-passionate business owners to overcome self-doubt, overwhelm, procrastination, and imposter syndrome through the power of public speaking, growth and development mindset, and primal wisdom — so they can become credible leaders they were born to be without anything stopping them. I created the SHE Talks and HE Talks platform to enable empowered individuals to transform the conversations of our culture, because “What we say or do not say will be the ripple effect, that affects the wellbeing of generations to come”.
NO child ever says I want to be a CEO/entrepreneur when I grow up. What did you want to be and how did you get where you are today?
Fur Wale: Since the age of ten I have been a natural leader, rallying the neighborhood children to the front of my cubby house to purchase items that I made to be able to buy my family Christmas presents and other times to recount one of the philosophies on life from a book I had just read. I wanted to purchase a strobe light kit when I was 12 which was going to cost one hundred dollars, so I offered to do odd jobs around my neighborhood and I did this until I went to University to study art, drama, and media.
After University I decided to work in hospitality until I decided what I wanted to do for work – that was a fun time only I decided that I didn’t want to work in someone else’s business. I began working as a contracted costumed entertainer which transitioned into being a face painter for events. To this day I still have that business. I wanted to start a second business in personal development so that I could share the wisdom I had gained from all of my many life experiences, so I created SHE Talks and upon request the HE Talks platform – creating self-empowered leaders through the power of public speaking, growth and development mindset and primal wisdom. Reading philosophy books is what inspired me from a young age to want to be an author and speaker when I grew up, and today that is what I am known for.
Tell us something about yourself that others in your organization might be surprised to know.
Fur Wale: I love listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and other classic jazz muso’s, with my cat by my side and writing.
Many readers may wonder how to become an entrepreneur but what is an entrepreneur? How would you define it?
Fur Wale: An entrepreneur is someone who has a passion for creating their enterprise and is willing because of their passion to take on all the risks that come with starting their own business. I also view an entrepreneur as someone independent, multi-passionate, sees possibilities where others see the difficulty, has a creative vision, and willingness to put in long hours and try again after multiple failures to make their vision a reality. Being an entrepreneur means taking life into your own hands and being the creator of your life’s outcome.
What is the importance of having a supportive and inclusive culture?
Fur Wale: I strongly believe in a culture of support and inclusivity; one based on authenticity where individuals don’t feel the need to mask their identity. This allows for natural self-expression where everyone’s voice is heard, opinions are considered and input is highly valued. This culture allows for each individual to display their full potential.
How can a leader be disruptive in the post covid world?
Fur Wale: Keep asking what the problem is, and instead of solving it in a non-black and white way: “to do it or not do it”, open up all possibilities for discussion. Make the right choices for the growth of the enterprise, even if those choices seem unique or bold, and keep in hyper-clear communication about the decision-making (so that everyone can evolve with the change).
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Fur Wale: The most difficult decision I had to make was to take all of the training online in place of face-to-face workshops. What made this decision so difficult and why it felt like a bold choice was the concern by my loyal followers that the live online workshops wouldn’t be as effective as the in-person ones. Plus, I love being in the room with the participants from start to finish – it feels like I am the conductor of an orchestra getting all the parts to work together in harmony. It turned out to be the best decision I made for SHE Talks because now participants get to attend at a fraction of the cost and I can run the practice workshops weekly instead of monthly; the results are even more effective because of the commitment I made to the content, activities, and engagement working just as powerfully online.
If a 5-year-old asked you to describe your job, what would you tell them?
Fur Wale: I help people make decisions that make them happy.
Leaders are usually asked about their most useful qualities but let’s change things up a bit. What is your most useless talent?
Fur Wale: I can set a time in my mind to wake up after a nap or a full night’s sleep and I always wake up within 15 minutes of that time. This is a useless talent when it comes to facilitating a workshop where so much is happening, it is hard to manage time this way.
Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, we do have one more question. If you wrote a book about your life until today, what would the title be?
Fur Wale: “Becoming fearless”
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Fur Wale for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Fur Wale or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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