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‘I help flustered adults, professionals gain emotional stability’

By Ijeoma Thomas-Odia
02 June 2018   |   4:23 am
Oyinkansola Alabi is the Lead Researcher, Intellectual Property Owner and Principal Coach of the Youthmax Academy and Emotions Clinic. She has developed 14 best-selling audio and video products, which have benefited thousands...

Oyinkansola Alabi

Oyinkansola Alabi is the Lead Researcher, Intellectual Property Owner and Principal Coach of the Youthmax Academy and Emotions Clinic. She has developed 14 best-selling audio and video products, which have benefited thousands of entities across the globe. She serves as the first and only female network leader in Nigeria from the Six Seconds Network U.S.A where she promotes emotional responsibility as a critical pathway to purposefulness at any level of development. The emotions doctor, licensed therapist, certified life coach, and licensed emotional intelligence practitioner, and convener of the yearly conference tagged: “The Emotional Intelligence Week” has trained in 30 states in Nigeria and in five countries. She speaks with IJEOMA THOMAS-ODIA on her forthcoming conference

What influenced you into towing the path of raising emotionally intelligent millennials and professionals?
My life influenced me. A couple of years ago, I desired more clarity, direction and emotional stability so I started auditing my personal life to understand my intrinsic capacities and extrinsic value. My internal experience revealed that I needed to embrace more emotional knowledge and insight. I googled up emotional intelligence schools that could empower me and with the help of a professional colleague, I found the Six Seconds Network in the United States. They are the largest emotional intelligence networks in the world. I flew down to Phoenix to attend the Certification Course. It lasted for about a month because, apart from the taught class, I had a project work to submit. Upon submission and my return into the country, I noticed that my level of happiness, productivity and profitability increased. I made more impact, more money and enjoyed my life. I got less angry, I got less flustered, perturbed and the quality of my relationships with people increased. With this new level of knowledge and freedom, I embarked on a journey to help others deconstruct their old beliefs and thoughts patterns and to embrace new and empowering paradigms.

You run youth max and emotions clinic, tell us about them?
I didn’t plan to run two leading Emotional Intelligence Academies but I guess purpose had a better plan for me. The first Academy, The YOUTHMAX Academy is Africa’s premier emotional intelligence academy for Millennials (born between 1984 till date). We are arguably the only academy that focuses on raising emotionally intelligent youths. The second Academy, the Emotions Clinic, is for emotional Intelligence training and solutions. The emotions clinic helps emotionally flustered adults and professionals gain emotional stability.

The emotional intelligence week is an annual programme, how long have you been running it?
The Emotional Intelligence Week is our own platform for giving back to the society. We have been organising free annual conferences since 2015. In 2015, we hosted the “Kiss like you mean it Conference” where we hosted over 700 youths and keynote speaker was the grand comedian Alibaba. In 2016, we hosted The Youthmax Conference in Lagos where we hosted brands like Frank Donga, Chude Jideonwo, Nike Oyetunde and many more. We took it a notch higher this year by organising the first Emotional Intelligence Week in Africa. It’s an intensive five days training hang-out where we will be hosting youths, professionals, school owners and teachers, leaders of religious institutions, couples and parents, spread across five days. We decided to embark on these five days intensively to discuss the increase in drug use, abuse and emotional instability ravaging the country. The goal of the conference is to create awareness for emotional intelligence, educate souls on the essence and value of emotional intelligence and teach participants how to use the tool of emotional intelligence to increase happiness, productivity and profitability.

How has the journey been and how long have you been on this cause?
It’s been a very interesting journey being the leading female voice of emotional intelligence in the country. It’s also a relatively new industry, so we are investing resources and human capital in raising awareness and helping more souls and organizations understand that emotions drive people and people drive performance. An emotionally unstable staff will definitely sabotage your organisation’s efforts and results. So we encourage you to sign up to attend the EQ week for free in the month of June. It will be one of the best decisions you will make this year.

How important is emotional intelligence to living and achieving goals.
At the Youthmax academy and the Emotions Clinic, we believe that emotional- intelligence is not a part of life, it is life itself. It has also been proven by Harvard Business School that 15 per cent of your success in life is determined by your Intelligence Quotient which is your I.Q while 85 per cent is determined by your emotional intelligence quotient which is your E.Q. Emotional Intelligence skills empowers and furnishes you with the capacity to master your self-awareness and awareness of others skills. Life is unarguably easier when you are at peace with yourself and at peace with others.

What has kept you going in your cause?
The consuming desire to see the world become a happier place is my driving force. We are determined to change the world, one mind at a time. Just imagine how peaceful and safe the world will be if one billion people practice emotional intelligence skills? Imagine how you will be able to take a walk on the streets in Lagos or anywhere in Nigeria without the fear of being raped, robbed or murdered? I can categorically say that more than 60 per cent of conflicts are stemmed from poor interpersonal and intra-personal skills. Those skills are the ingredients of Emotional Intelligence.

As an author, life-coach, trainer, adviser, and pastor. How do you manage all these caps and then blend with family life?
By practicing presence and living my life one day at a time, I am obviously not perfect but I grow and improve daily. I ensure that I am better than who I was yesterday.

If you are to advise the womenfolk, what will it be?
To learn to pause before speaking, the formula is actually called PAC. Which means before you act, Pause, Acknowledge your thoughts and feelings, Clear your mind. If we women can talk less often and listen more, we will achieve more peace and joy in our personal and business relationships.

What are your hobbies?
Life was created to be enjoyed, not to turn us into machines, so I take pleasure in speaking, swimming, singing and reading. These flavours help me unwind and enjoy my life.

And your philosophy of life?
Life is more fulfilling and beautiful when you practice emotional intelligence skills. Embrace it today.

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