Graduate Inspiration

Graduating as a professional image consultant from London Image Institute gives your career a 5-year head start. Many graduates secure clients immediately upon the training program’s completion and continue to fill their appointment books months in advance! Here are some our successful graduates sharing their stories:

Dolamu Badejo
Lagos, Nigeria

Dolamu Badejo is a highly skilled image and professional development consultant with over 10 years cumulative experience in the fields of Project Management, Multimedia, Publishing, Brand and Business Development and Ideas Monetisation. Dolamu has offered solutions and ideas to Nigerian business moguls, notable Nigerian public personalities, organisations, top management executives and start-up business owners.

With a passion for humanitarian and charitable causes in Nigeria and the UK she pursued her preoccupation for ‘people branding and image development’ after graduating from London Image Institute.

After graduating with a Masters Degree from Lancaster University, UK and an aptitude for writing, Dola also has considerable experience in the publishing industry. She recently released the first edition of her own statement newsletter called Eikon:The Allure Issue. This magnificent newsletter which is actually a magazine has been publicly lauded for its content and professional depth contains nearly 30 pages of treasure information, Hollywood representation and secrets towards development of a better individual.

Dolamu’s Inspiring Story

In May 2014, Dolamu held a seminar and workshop for 22 underprivileged young women, under the Work of Hearts™ initiative, at the Ozanam House – a nongovernmental establishment for abused and abandoned children in Lagos, Nigeria.

Her audience consisted pregnant teenagers, abused teenagers and teenage mothers who have been abandoned by family and friends. Her liberating, powerful and very interactive workshop centred on boosting the confidence levels and increasing the sense of self worth in these youngsters with the intent of stirring a desire within them to be re-enacted back into the society.

Dolamu’s workshop with the young women at Ozanam house ended with her providing free makeover for these women in order for them to see and appreciate themselves differently, and even lovingly.

Enoh Inieke
Abuja, Nigeria

Hailing from Abuja, Nigeria and Dubai, Enoh is principal consultant of Talaria. The company designs and delivers individual consultations and seminars on professional presence and personal branding. They also mold and solidify visual signatures to boost the 3C’s: Confidence, Credibility and Charisma.

Enoh’s Inspiring Story

Here is a workshop I put together for the Daughters of Abraham Foundation (it is actually a rehab for prostitutes in Abuja, Nigeria). The girls get to spend 2 years in rehab, and then go out to live normal lives.

I actually went there to speak with them about preparing for job interviews but lack of self-confidence seemed to be a more pressing issue so I opted to do that instead. I started with introductions all-round and established ground rules. Then I showed them a slide with four different women and asked what they had in common. They all came up with different responses which all added up to characteristics of a confident woman but nobody actually used the word ‘confident’. I explained to them that the common denominator between these women is self-confidence.

One of the girls who had tattoos all over and a negative attitude pointed out that it was easy for them because they all looked good and were rich, but with the help of other visuals, I defined self-confidence and used the lights of a traffic signal to keep the exercise interactive.

The first section was about lack of self-confidence and building self-confidence. At this point, I gave them mirrors and got them to say things they like about themselves and their strengths. I also suggested that they say these nice things every morning to the wonderful woman staring back at them in the mirror.

Non-verbal confidence came next such as ladylike etiquette. They pretty much got that right especially the ones who were too shy to say their name out loud or make eye contact but I fought a losing battle getting them to sit with their knees together. I got them to tell me what they would do different to appear more confident. That went well as well. I talked about faking confidence till they feel it and how to avoid negative ways of faking confidence.

“Dress for your body type”, was a popular section and I gave out some print fabrics for them to make something new for themselves, I then gave them a to-do list for a confident woman and talked about role models and the importance of a support system.

We played the game of Chinese whispers which was so much fun especially when someone rushed off to whisper when she hadn’t been whispered to, when the laughter faded, I explained the demerits of gossip and broke them into groups of 5 and got them to write nice things about people in their group and have it handed to them to be used on days it feels like the world is on their shoulders. I also explained the pointlessness of envy as the only person you are in competition with is the person you were yesterday and as soon as you are better than who you were yesterday, you have won.

All in all I think it went well because there was a marked difference in their confidence level between when I got there and when I left. Even the tattooed girl with the attitude not only lost the attitude, the pointless eye-rolling and snorts she actually started interacting with me and gave a vote of thanks unprompted.

Olive Gachara
Nairobi, Kenya

Olive Gachara is the Founder and Key Trainer at Image with Olive. Olive is a Certified Image Consultant from Image Asia, which combines the best of the Academy of Image Mastery, Singapore and London Image Institute, Atlanta. She has over 7 years experience in the Fashion and Corporate Industries as a Model Trainer, Talent Agent, Fashion Show Producer, Choreographer (all under the Kinkey Modelling & Talent Agency umbrella), Fashion Stylist, Image Consultant and Coach (under the Image with Olive brand).

Olive’s Inspiring Story

A small thank you to all those who inspired Olive for the last 10 years in business.