In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Abasiama Akpan, founder of Vivacity Global. Akpan shares a formative personal story about her father changing her name, emphasizing the transformative power of words and identity. She outlines Vivacity Global’s mission to create a conference and events ecosystem that tackles three core challenges faced by women: access to quality learning from role models, supportive networks (both online and offline), and platforms for brand awareness. Akpan offers broad business advice centered on cultivating a clear identity and focused vision, warning against distraction from abundant ideas. She advises her younger self to reject perfectionism, noting that perfection is achieved through action and learning. Akpan defines happiness as the pursuit of self‑discovery and purpose, linking identity to fulfillment. Discussing her current reading, she highlights a key lesson from The Lean Startup—validated learning as a method for building sustainable businesses, which she applies to her women‑focused network. Her favorite quote, Shakespeare’s “To thine own self be true,” reflects her obsession with authenticity. The episode concludes with a call to connect with her on LinkedIn.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Abbasi Amma Akpan with us. She's the founder of Vivacity Global, so welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me.
Of course, thanks for joining us. Uh, we'll dive in. The first question I have for you today is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
A lot has happened in my life that is amazing, but I think the best story that stands out for me is when my father changed my name from what it was to what it is now. And so I think as a child I struggled a lot with my identity, and I now believe that there's power in words. You know, your name is some sort of confession that you and other people make daily. So to now have a name that addresses the core of who I am and shapes the way my life is turning out is amazing. So the underlying message there, valuable message there, is the power of words. The power of words to change lives and societies for better or worse, and how the words we use to identify ourselves can either create an upsurge that moves us towards our best selves or a depreciation of our true self. So the valuable message in my father changing my name is how words, the power of a name, the power of words can shape our lives.
And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
All right, so we are in the process of setting up a conference events company You know, the event industry is a huge one with projections in trillions of dollars. We're positioning ourselves to be the ones that connect people to have necessary conversations. It is important for us to recognize, especially in today's world where we have such easy access to people, tools, and resources, that we're able to use that for good. We're focusing— as a company, we're focusing on fostering learning through our events, our programs, our initiatives. We're constantly looking for ways to collaborate with people from different industries and backgrounds to bring value to people that need it. And so, we're currently building an ecosystem, if you will, to bring all stakeholders together to address in a meaningful manner challenges that women face, and especially three key challenges. One will be access to quality learning, which I believe should be from role models, which we have a— we have a problem accessing role models. Women have a huge problem accessing role models, and so we're trying to address that in a meaningful way. Access to support network, which we are looking to provide on a global online and local offline basis. And of course, creating opportunities and platforms for women to create awareness of their brands, which is key to building a successful business.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
Um, I would say it's identity and focus. And I'm saying that especially to people that are starting out like myself. It's important to have a clear vision. Which is born out of the identity, whether it's a personal identity or a business identity. I don't necessarily believe that the path towards achieving your vision has to be clear. I just think you need to have a clear vision and then create a circle of focus to help you identify which path is going to lead me to achieving my focus. For achieving my mission. And especially because when you're starting out, you're going to have so many great ideas come up, which may be a distraction, rather. And if you don't have that focus, it's easy to get distracted and, you know, get off course, and you end up doing something else, which is quite different from what you set out to do.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Oh, the advice to my younger self would be: Perfect isn't, perfect becomes. And that's because we— there's this deception that being a perfectionist keeps us, you know, the deception of being a perfectionist keeps us from harnessing the opportunities that help us become perfect. So the idea that you have everything has to be perfect before you start, um, yeah, it's a deception. So just go ahead and start. Do what you have to do now, and then in the process of doing, in the process of learning, in the process of trying, you become perfect.
So the advice to be perfect isn't perfect, becomes And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
The key to happiness for me, uh, I would say happiness is discovered in the pursuit of yourself. We spend so much time pursuing other people, um, we don't spend time discovering ourselves. So it's in discovering who you are, why you are, and what you're here to do, and refining yourself and serving your value. This is happiness. Your identity is your purpose. Living a life of purpose, that brings that sense of fulfillment. That to me is happiness.
And what is the best book that you've read, and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Uh, so many books I've read, but, uh, currently reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. Uh, the key lesson for me is One of the startup methods that he listed, validated learning, that says that startups exist to learn how to build a sustainable business. And that is amazing because that is one of the things we have set out to do or to achieve with the network we are building for— the software network we are building for women, working to empower women to build sustainable businesses. The valuable lesson from that book is the idea that no matter how big you get as a business or a company, to maintain that startup way of thinking, that mindset. That's a valuable lesson.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote would be One of the works of Shakespeare, "To thy own self be true." I think I'm obsessed with the idea of identity. So, I know that that statement has a lot of implications and nuances and different interpretations, but I'm going to take out that phrase and apply it to the context of identity. You know, discovering who you are and why you are and embracing yourself as an important part of the world as opposed to trying to be someone else or do what is termed as popular. You know, understanding that we are each a small part of this global ecosystem put here to contribute our parts to moving it forward and to work at refining ourselves in our quest to achieve that purpose. That's my favorite quote: "To thine own self be true." Yes, I love it.
Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
All right, so you can find me on LinkedIn as Abasi Ama Akpan. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Of course. Thanks for joining us.
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