Our Founder - Stella Olivia Kikoyo is a Chartered Marketer and Fellow of Higher Education UK. A Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Chartered Marketing professional tutor and Strategic Intervention life and business coach and Business Trainer and a director and consultant at 360Stellar Coaching, Training & Consultancy.

IWAW Inspiring Women for Aspiring Women was founded at the beginning of 2019. As women we need to ASPIRE and INSPIRE others.

My inspiration to found IWAW arose from an insatiable need within me to be more and 

feel more. I felt that I was not living to my full potential and that there was 

so much more to explore and tap into, to achieve self-fulfilment. I felt something was still missing notwithstanding fulfilling my roles as a wife, mum, lecturer, daughter, sister, among others.  I felt my sole purpose was to survive within these roles and was yearning for more and the time to act was NOW. 

Over time, it became clear to me that I wanted to be a life coach and started to take the necessary steps to achieve this. I enrolled for a life-coaching programme with Robbins Madanes Training but also took on swimming and dancing. I started talking to other women and listening to personal development podcasts and audible books. I loved what I was discovering about myself and what was out there. I started sharing what I was learning and encouraged others to do the same. In the process I found out that a couple of women had the same feeling – a gap. Some had started the process of self-fulfilment, others did not know where to start, and others did not feel ready to face change. We started sharing our knowledge and experiences. I discovered that the gaps we identified within us – whether personal, career, or business – could be addressed through sharing experiences and knowledge. There was a need to connect with fellow women and share other life issues with people who cared. I liked to connect with women on the same path.  I also became aware that within my network of women lay the solutions to challenges of the other women.

The seeds for founding IWAW were laid, 

an ecosystem where likeminded women connect, listen, and support each other.  

During a visit to Botswana in 2019, I bumped into a group of progressive young ladies in the hotel lobby who were brainstorming their life experiences. I joined in and I now mentor one of them! This reaffirmed the value of a platform like IWAW

The books I read further sparked the fire within me and helped me to progress this endeavour of bringing women together. When I read Work, Love and Pray by Diane Paddison and Michelle Obama’s Becoming, I was set in motion. I wanted women to feel what I felt and to see how the opportunity I was proposing would benefit them. I knew I needed the network of women who wanted the same for themselves as me. Women who wanted to experience, hear, see, feel, touch and reach more than they had. Women who wanted to glow and grow from within. 

IWAW was created for the purpose of encouraging women to aspire and inspire. The move to start a networking platform was not straightforward. I had fear as my worst enemy, especially of rejection. This has dissipated overtime overcome by the desire to see women grow and connect.

As women, we need to dream, to believe in ourselves, to aspire and to take actions that drive us towards growth and the fulfilment. We also need to inspire others. In sowing our seeds, we grow and expand. Growth comes not from what you learn but from what you do with the knowledge and experience acquired. A coaching group and a mastermind group have been added for more ambitions women who want to achieve more.

The future is bright. No matter where you are in life, it is not over yet! It is time to rewrite that story or a new story. It is time for a new role. Let us rise. Let us share what we know. Let us aspire. Let’s inspire. Let us use our voices.  Let us make the world a better place.