LIONESS WEEKENDER COVER STORY

Ruthida Kajumba Consult, a Ugandan specialist coaching consultancy helping clients redefine their success

Achieving success, overcoming overwhelm, and finding happiness and fulfillment can be difficult for many people, particularly during these challenging times. Ruthida Kajumba, founder of the specialist Ugandan coaching consultancy that carries her name, is on a mission to help people live their best lives. Ruthida is a Fulfilment After Success Expert, a Keynote Speaker, Author and ICF credentialed Professional Transformation Coach. Other certifications are Success Goals, Happiness, Fulfilment, Life Purpose and Public Speaking. She focuses on helping busy individuals to redefine their success so they can overcome overwhelm and live their best everyday life with inner peace, joy, meaning, happiness and fulfillment. Backed with nearly 20 years of relevant life and entrepreneurial business experience, she founded her consulting business in 2018. Her areas of expertise are Authentic Success, Mindset, Overcoming Overwhelm, Happiness and Fulfilment.

Lioness Weekender spoke to Ruthida Kajumba this month to find out more about her personal mission and her own entrepreneurial journey to success.

What does your company do?

We help busy individuals redefine success so they can overcome overwhelm and live their best everyday life with more meaning, joy, inner peace, happiness and fulfillment. We also work with individuals know that they are successful but they do not feel as happy and fulfilled as they expected, rather they feel like something is missing and they cannot figure out what it is. We work with our clients through our virtual exclusive private coaching programs, as well as small cozy in-person masterclasses. We also offer speaking services with a focus on Authentic Success, Mindset, Overcoming Everyday Overwhelm, Happiness and Fulfillment.

What inspired you to start your company?

What inspired me was my own personal experience and what I saw happening with other high achievers in the entrepreneurial space online. And this was about always being in the chase for more success, more achievements, more stuff, and income goals based on what the world around us had designed for us. So, for myself and the other women entrepreneurs in the industry, I was seeing that this chase left us overwhelmed, burnt out, with no time for ourselves and loved ones, no social life, no time for the things that are important to us and more especially, being trapped in the comparison game and not feeling good enough. Social media made the situation worse. So, I got to a point where I asked myself, “Ruthida, what does success really mean to you?” And then I went through an intense and deliberate process to redefine my success. This process led me to transitioning from business coaching to life coaching where I now use my signature Authentic Success Blueprint and signature Creating Fulfillment After Success Model with my clients to help them redefine their own success and live according to their own terms with happier, fulfilled lives rather than living on autopilot.

Why should anyone use your service or product?

What makes my business special is that it touches the part of people’s lives that is so intimate to them, while giving them a highly confidential and safe space to open up freely so they can work on their transformation towards creating that meaningful, joyful, happy, and fulfilled life they desire to experience in their everyday life. When one is able live a life they feel is truly authentic to them, and moving from cookie-cutter success to true success that is based upon their own terms, I think that is powerful. Our coaching services and cozy in-person masterclasses are designed to create customized unforgettable experiences for our clients in a way that makes them feel special while deeply transforming their lives. In addition, our speaking services always have a transformational outcome infused in their delivery.

Tell us a little about your team

Given the online nature of the business the team too is virtual, running the administrative work as well as design. Other functions of the business are outsourced as and when needed. Our team is aware that our clients are special and so they strive to make them feel as such.

Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?

My entrepreneurial journey began in 2000 with a very successful fashion accessories business when I was at university and it lasted 4 years while I did my undergraduate degree, as well as my Masters in Business Administration. I then joined formal employment but in between there, I had a thriving cake business. Eventually I resigned from employment so I could be fully present for my kids. However, I did not want to just stay home raising babies. The ambitious and entrepreneurial spirit in me could not let me. So, I started a beauty blog and home-based business online. I later transitioned into a sales, online marketing, and business coaching. In 2018, the nagging feeling that had been tagging at me for some years that I needed to be transforming people’s lives at a deeper personal level grew even stronger. At first, I was extremely resistant because business-related coaching is what I had done for years and that’s what I was known for. I was resistant because the shift to life coaching meant that I had to lose all my years’ worth of business-related blog content and testimonials from my website. I think that was the most painful part but I eventually gave in to my calling. I did a life purpose course which I had dived into with an intense attitude of… “IT’S NOW OR NEVER!”, because I did not want to be transitioning into the wrong direction. And that’s how I ended up with my business today focusing on authentic success and creating fulfillment after success. My story featured as a cover story in The Daily Monitor’s Full Woman Magazine.

Yes, there’s 2 entrepreneurial icons in my family. My mother who has always been an ambitious entrepreneur. I grew up seeing her in a clothing and beauty business. Today, with my father they run a farm but she still runs the day-to-day activities. I believe she has unconsciously been the inspiration behind my passion for entrepreneurship. The second icon is my sister who for over 10 years has been running a successful baby, children, and maternity goods business on a large scale with 2 branches and still expanding.

What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?

To reach more people in Africa and around the world. Many people are running around chasing success and are overwhelmed in their everyday lives. They do not get to stop, feel and enjoy their present moment. There is also lots of people who are publicly successful yet privately unfulfilled and because of their status, they are suffering silently with no one to talk to or trust. I want my company to be the go-to haven for them. I also intend to continue growing the 3 arms of my business to create more impact; that is the coaching, speaking and author platforms. Apart from me being a coach and working with a few exclusive clients at a time, the speaking arm of the business will get on more stages and in front of more audiences. My current author project is a book to be released in 2022. With this book, I intend to get my message reach a much wider audience not just in Africa but beyond as well.

What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?

Being able to touch people’s lives in a special way for each one of them. Seeing the glow in my client’s eyes or hearing the excitement in the tone of their voice, when expressing how working with me has transformed their lives. It is very fulfilling to know that I have not only impacted their lives, but this also trickles down to the other people they interact with in their everyday lives. Knowing that I’m creating an impact in the world, through the ripple effect of my work. People say to me that I’m an inspirer. So, there’s even those people who are transformed through my free content or speaking engagements. When they say to me, “you inspire me”, “you changed my life”, it gives me a deep sense of satisfaction. At a deeper personal level, entrepreneurship has given me a priceless gift of tremendous personal growth and self-discovery. The satisfaction and fulfillment comes from knowing that I can fully express myself, my talents, and skills that when I look beyond, all I see is possibilities without limits or a ceiling.

What’s the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?

If they haven’t already, they should discover their life purpose. This is the one thing I wish I knew before I became an entrepreneur. Once they know their life purpose, even though they derail, they will always steer back to the foundation rather than wander off. When they know their life purpose, building their business will be more meaningful, joyful, and fulfilling. Secondly, they should define their success. This will help them keep focused and grounded, in this our world where the picture of success seems to have been painted for us by “other people”. And lastly, once they get started, they should know that even though they have to continually work on their personal and professional growth, they should always remember that they are already good enough at whatever level they are at and that is why they got started in the first place. Especially now that a lot of businesses are going online, they should not compare their beginning to other peoples’ middle or pinnacle of success because this will destroy their morale, confidence, and self-worth. However, they can look up to these people for inspiration.

If you would like to find out more about Ruthida’s work, send her an email to: clientcare@ruthidakajumba.com or visit the company’s website and social media pages:

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