Living Inside Out with Toks

I didn't discover the abundance mindset while searching for it- I'd tried chasing after wealth and failed. I was trying to figure out why my present state at the time did not align with what God had promised. In fact, it looked like my life was running away from the blessings that were supposedly chasing after me.   Abundance is first a mindset. And unless you cultivate it, you cannot live in true...

Are you too busy? How do you deal with stress? Do you even recognise when it is time to pause? Many entrepreneurs struggle to create enough room to function, this can lead to overworking. As a one who has run her own business for 15 years, I understand that there is a difference between being busy and being productive- but I sometimes struggle to recognise which is which. Having spent the last cou...

We've all heard them, cliched quotes and sayings that our friends offer us when we are going through a rough patch. "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!" But can you really say that you get encouraged by those sayings? How often has one of these sweet sayings got you up again after you had been hit with a boulder?   In my 18 years of entrepreneurial life, I cannot count how many obstacles h...

How do you usually respond to bad experiences? Do you explode in anger? Do you shrink into yourself emotionally? Do you detach yourself from the experience as much as possible? Do you ignore it?   John McDonnell once said, “Every problem introduces a person to himself." This is a quote from John Maxwell's bestselling book, 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth   The well known adage says no pain, no gain....

How do you make business decisions? Many of us rely on external factors, others on instinct. I believe our mindset plays a part in deciding what direction to head in. Our habits and tendencies will take us one way or the other.   In this episode, we explore three damaging practices to avoid when growing your business.   Striking too Late There is a time and a season for everything. Learning to rec...

Most entrepreneurs have experienced the frustration of moving three steps forwards and three or even four steps back. There are some commonly found limiting mindsets that stop us from excelling, in a way we know we can. In this episode we address four of them:   Vanity Marketing This can be mistaken for PR, the difference is the only increase you'll see will be the size of your ego. Or on the othe...

What do you do when you have a sizeable vision, but your resources do not stretch far enough for you to manifest it?   No one starts a business with the intention of it not growing- at least no one I know. For the most part, we start off with the hope that this new venture will grow into what we have imagined, but the resources don't always match the size of our dream. When I started my company 13...

If there is one trait that entrepreneurs require, it is confidence. Amongst many, of course. Without confidence, you will struggle to cultivate and exercise other strengths. As a business owner, you need the confidence to make decisions, take risks, be creative.  So what does one do when that belief in yourself is lacking? In this episode we look at the importance of using your intuition which is...

Entrepreneurship is one of the sexiest words out there- but the truth? The reality is different from its appearance. We see posts of men and women living the 'laptop lifestyle', working from some of the finest places in the world and then wonder how we will arrive there. Let's not forget those who post their seven-figure sales numbers that were achieved in a month or two. It becomes easy to see wh...

No two people were born with identical seeds in them. And by seeds, I am referring to the fulness of who you really are. Your purpose, personality, gifts and proclivities all squeezed into a seed, no two people were born with identical seeds.   And yet we find ourselves comparing ourselves with others- because we don't 'feel' like the success others see in us. Or we deliberately dumb down our achi...

Does faith play a role in future living?  Hindsight they say is 20/20. Another quote says Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.  In this episode I talk about how my Christian faith helps me to trust the unseen and live as though I have 20/20 foresight. You can shape your future through prayer and expectation- not the stoic, monk-like type of prayers, but through ope...

In this episode, we draw life lessons from the car manufacturer, Audi.   Audi's current marketing slogan is Future is an Attitude. Once you choose to draw strength and inspiration from things that are yet to happen, you must have the right outlook to be able to do so. Future-mindedness is not an occasional event that we dip into as needed, but it is a perspective from which we will now view all of...

The Future is Superior to the Present. What do you do when you are working towards a beautiful future, but the present gives you no indication that you will arrive there? We are constantly searching for evidence that our hopes or fears are legitimate.   Great if you find proof that you can achieve what you hope for although that's never enough to keep you going till the end. If, however, your fear...

"You can't live in the past!' Some pieces of advice are easier said than practised. We all know (on paper) not to live in the past but it can be incredibly difficult to implement. Especially if as far as you can see, your past was more pleasant than your present, and your future isn't promising either.   Living in the past can be precarious because it keeps you stagnant. Stationary people are not...

Have you given up on a dream- but the dream has refused to give up on you?   In this episode, I continue the story of Sue Yellowtail, a woman who came face to face with a cougar in the wild. Her story is remarkable as we are able to see the Fear Response play out throughout her ordeal, and we look at the Fright and Fight responses.   Why the fear response? Because psychologists tell us that the br...

What role has fear played in getting to where you are today? Sure we understand fear to be a safety mechanism gifted to us by a loving God, but how do we handle it when our emotions go into overdrive? In this episode, we delve into the fear response, or The Four Fs as psychologists call it; Freeze, Flight, Fight, Fright.   Did you know the brain does not always distinguish between real and imagine...

Faith and fear are usually positioned as opposites yet they can feel the same sometimes. How can you tell the difference?   In this episode, Toks makes three comparisons between fear and faith drawing from her life and Biblical examples.   Faith draws from the future, fear feeds on past or current circumstances. Faith is more than believing in an unseen God.   Faith is the practice of converting a...

In this episode, I take you with me to Lagos, Nigeria, where the coronavirus pandemic is being experienced differently. Nigerians are known as the happiest people in the world and also happen to be unbelievably resilient. I draw lessons from my observations; I believe we can apply them and remove some restrictive beliefs.   Nigerians have a limitless mindset. I put this down to religion, and it do...

It has been an edge-of-the-seat year, to say the least. Many of us have had our strength and faith tested, no thanks to the pandemic. Yet, here we are. In the final episode of the year, I share 12 of the lessons 2020 taught me.   I believe we can use our individual lessons as a manual for navigating next year and beyond. No doubt we are going into the new year cautious, yet hopeful. We've been ale...

We all experience negative emotions, but when it cripples you and stops you from doing what you know you should, there's a problem. And that's where I found myself last week. In this episode, I invite you to go through a process with me, as I unravel my most recent spate of fear and anxiety. We look at the reasons we worry and the effect it can have on us. My hope is that by getting to the root of...

  What drives you? Where does your motivation come from? Our gifts are a force that drives us to express it, but that drive can come from one of several avenues.    Tyler Perry, the media mogul, didn't start on a firm footing. He had no training in drama, yet there was a burden so heavy that he couldn't shake off, to write and stage plays.    Sometimes our dreams and desires don't make sense to us...

The most prominent feature of a tree is that it bears after its own kind. An orange tree produces oranges- unless some intervention has occurred such as grafting or genetic engineering. The same goes for seeds. An orange seed becomes an orange tree and goes on to bear oranges.   You also have a seed inside you, and you grow from that seed and go on to bear fruit. In other words, your purpose was p...

Can you allow yourself to admit that the people you dislike have some excellent qualities, and the people close to your heart are not perfect? Can you learn from someone you dislike? Do you feel the need to vilify the opposing side just to drive home their point? These questions have surprising answers- depending on who you ask. It appears that the colour, grey, no longer exists when it comes to o...

We were created with everything needed for our journey on earth, but do you know that your environment is meant to serve and not hinder you?   In this episode we explore how we can search our environment for evidence to support healthy thoughts and ideas, in our environment.   Tips for evidence-based living:   Train your eyes to search for evidence that will align with positive thoughts and dreams...

How do you make decisions? Some people take things at face value while others have a more suspicious mind. Either way, we tend to trust things more when we can feel as well as see it at the same time.    Emotions aligned with perception carries a heavier weight than merely seeing or feeling.  Just because you experience both at the same time does not make it valid. Yet we fall for that all the tim...