Meet the Boss: Tokunbo Bakare, AskToks.com

Toks Bakare is the founder of asktoks.com. an organisation that provides developmental services to children with autism and other developmental delays.A trained Behaviour Analyst who has over a decade of experience in the field of developmental psychology, Ms Bakare is a specialist consultant who has relocated to Nigeria to fill a gap by providing Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) services to children with developmental disorders and Autism Spectrum Disorders. She talked to me about her motivation, being an entrepreneur, and what every Nigerian should know about autism in this interview.

 

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Meet the Boss: Seun Tayo-Balogun, Brief Essentials

‘The “aha” moment that led to the birth of Brief Essentials came in the year 2009 when I was looking to purchase high quality underwear at prices that wouldn’t  cost the earth. At that point my husband and I realised that there were no major stores that focused on varieties of relatively affordable, good quality underwear that were conveniently available or accessible. Furthermore, e-commerce was just kicking off in Nigeria, and there was a desire for us to meet the need of Nigerians who had the same problems we had. The idea of Brief Essentials was birthed in 2011, making us the first full-fledged online focused store that revolutionised lingerie and underwear sale in Nigeria.’

Read my full interview with Seun Tayo-Balogun HERE.

 

Before My Daughter Sees Disney’s The Little Mermaid…

In the original story, Ariel’s fate can hardly be described as triumphant. She rescues the prince from the shipwreck, falls hard for him, trades her voice for legs, and makes her way to land in search of love- just like in the movie. The prince befriends her, but this is where similarities with the Disney adaptation start to fade.

A romance never develops. Instead, the mute mermaid-turned-human is forced to watch the prince for whom she gave up everything – the sea, her family, her identity, her voice – marry someone else. She dies of a broken heart, dissolving into sea foam upon the waves. Read more…

5 Mistakes to Avoid After a Breakup

You meet someone, you’re sure he or she is the one, and you’re just so good together it’s magic. Not only are they amazing, they think you’re amazing too. They get you, want the best for you, and you just know this is it. You’re walking on sunshine, flying without wings, and then it’s over. It starts dying and one day it’s dead, or you run into irreconcilable differences along the way, or you have a fight and they just leave and don’t want to make things right again- or you are done. Read more…

10 Money Lessons for Friends and Lovers

“Money separates friends” is a phrase I heard quite often growing up, and along with the quote, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be” it formed my money philosophy as a teen. I witnessed enough “friendships” go sour because someone borrowed and didn’t pay back, to know that there was truth to the saying. So unless I was gifting cash, I avoided the topic as much as possible when it came to friends and lovers.

As I grew older however, it became more and more difficult to keep the subject of money out of relationships. Read more…

Career of the Week – Abisoye Balogun, Film Makeup and SFX Artist

Abisoye Balogun, who goes by the name Abisoye Circe, graduated from the Theatre Arts department of the University of Ibadan, where she majored in Makeup, with a minor in children theatre. She started Special Effects Makeup in her second year, working on stage play productions, and is now looking forward to building a career in Nollywood. We chatted about her unique career path in this interview.

#COTW

What We Should Know About Children and Play

Play isn’t just something children do to have fun. It is vital to their development and helps them develop essential life skills.

Growing up, even though we had school and after-school lessons, we still had a tremendous amount of time to choose fun activities by ourselves and also play with other children. We created games to play with udala/agbalumo/“cherry” seeds, made up the rules as we went along, resolved conflict between players, learnt how to compete fairly and handle losing graciously, and discovered the kinds of things that really interested us. Read more…

5 Tips for Keeping Your Long Distance Friendship Alive

A lot has been said and written about coping with distance in romantic relationships, but lovers are not the only ones affected. When bosom friends you’re used to having nearby move far away, it can be painful, and also challenging.

How can you keep your friendship alive when you’re not in the same place, doing the same things? Read more…

5 Reasons to Read Your Bible With The LA Family in 2017

Reading the Bible with The LA Family (LA- Learn & Apply) has been one of the most rewarding, life-changing experiences for me. Here are just 5 reasons I recommend it:

One: Food is better enjoyed with family, and this applies to spiritual food as well. You’d be hard pressed to find a more vibrant, loving, awesome family to read God’s Word with than The LA Family.

Two: The LA Family devotional rocks! As short as the devotional pieces are, they are rich, well-written, and applicable to real life. Then there’s the good ol’ memory verse we thought we left behind in Children’s Sunday School; seriously underrated, I tell you!

Three: Wonderful new friends! As a person whose real wealth is in people, I have The LA Family to thank for a couple of the dearest I now have in my life. Reading God’s Word with grounded, authentic, real and caring brethren has led to more blessings than I could have imagined.

Four: You read the Bible more when you read with The LA Family. When we were children we read one or two verses daily and that was okay, but as we grow in the Lord we need to build our muscles, and that requires taking in more. Are you grown enough to read one or two chapters of the Bible every day? You can’t know unless you try. Join us.

Five: You’ll grow by sharing. Yes, everyone in The LA Family gets to share what they learn from God’s Word, and that not only gives you a chance to be a blessing to others, the very process of preparing the “meal” (or small chops as the case may be) blesses you and causes you to grow, too.

You can join The LA Family on Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, or BBM; wherever it is that you feel most at home. Do visit the website and share your thoughts with me. Be blessed!

5 Success Seeds You Can Sow Daily for Your Relationship

Relationship success, like success in other areas of life, is an aggregate of great choices and actions every day. Not many people fall in love and grow in love because of one big thing or the other that their partner did. It’s usually the little things done consistently over time, both sentimental and practical.

What can you do in your relationship or in your marriage today to make it better, even if only a teeny weeny little bit better than it was yesterday? See tips here.