Passion, Focus, & Success: A Conversation With Award Winning Writer & Photographer Lola Akinmade
“If you go into something just for the money, then when times get really tough, emotionally, it’s going to drain you. But if you go into something because you are passionate about it, you’re going to be a lot more resilient. So that when it does dip, you’re still going to have that passion, because this is what you want to do, it’s just life is taking you a different route right now.”
A message for our times!
In this episode of Hormonally Speaking, I talk with my old friend Lola Akinmade, who has become a famous travel writer and photographer during the decade I’ve known her.
I was so interested to hear her story and thoughts, because she juggles a successful career with being a mom, as well as being a Nigerian-born woman in a field full of white, mostly American men.
She’s always inspired me, and I know she will inspire you too. Listening to Lola, we begin to see it is our self-limitations that hinder us the most, because she’s got gender, race, and motherhood working “against” her, yet she’s still been able to go further than I think even *she* dreamed.
Particularly during this time in history, when many of us are reassessing what is important in life, and what we really want our future to look like, Lola’s points about passion and determination are truer than ever.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did:
Award-winning writer and photographer Lola (Akinmade) Åkerström has photographed and dispatched from 70+ countries for various publications. She is the 2018 Travel Photographer of the Year Bill Muster Award recipient. Her work has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Travel + Leisure, Slate, Travel Channel, Adventure.com Magazine, AFAR, Lonely Planet, Fodor’s, several in-flight magazines, amongst others.
She has collaborated with high profile commercial brands from Mercedes-Benz and Dove to Intrepid Travel and National Geographic Channel. In addition to contributing to several books, she is the author of the following books – 2018 Lowell Thomas Award winner for best travel book, DUE NORTH, & bestselling LAGOM: Swedish Secret of Living Well available in 18 foreign language editions.
She has been recognized with multiple awards and nominations for her work, including a Pushcart Prize nomination, and was honoured with a MIPAD 100 (Most Influential People of African Descent) Award within media and culture in 2018.
She was in South Africa on a photography assignment for National Geographic Channel and was featured in a vignette called “Through The Lens” which airs on Nat Geo channel across the globe. She also owns and runs Geotraveler Media – a multimedia and travel consulting agency providing a spectrum of travel media-related services. Her photography is represented by National Geographic Image Collection and Wonderful Machine.
She is editor-in-chief of Slow Travel Stockholm – an editorial site which encourages travelers to explore Stockholm deeper and slowly. She is also a founder of the NordicTB which provides digital marketing, content creation, and social media collaboration with travel brands and destinations. Connect with her at her website.
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