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Welcome to The People of Work, the podcast where we explore the unique journeys that bring people to their careers. Every episode is a deep dive into the twists, turns, and surprises that shape how individuals find their career paths—whether they’re engineers, artists, baristas, CEOs, or anything and everything in between.
It’s not about the destination; it’s about the story. Through honest conversations, we’ll uncover the moments that define careers, the challenges overcome, and the lessons learned along the way. These are real stories from real people, celebrating the diversity of work and the individuality of the people behind it.
Join us as we break down stereotypes, embrace the unexpected, and shine a light on the human side of work.
[00:00:00] Andrew Adeniyi: I always tell folks, if you can have a side hustle while you’re doing your nine to five, do it. That’s the best way, right? Because I think too many people, they try to leave their job to start a business. You need to start a business so you can leave your job. There’s a difference there.
[00:00:16] Ami Graves: You are listening to The People of Work, the podcast that dives into the real stories behind what people do for a living and how work shapes who we are. All right. Hey everybody. We’re back for another episode, and today I have a very special guest, my good friend Andrew Adeniyi, who is the owner of AAA Solutions, and we’re going to talk about that. But as you know, we’re here to talk about the people more than we are the work. So I’m super excited to introduce you to Andrew today and take a walk through his journey. So Andrew, thanks for joining me.
[00:00:50] Andrew Adeniyi: No problem at all. Thanks for having me.
[00:00:52] Ami Graves: Yeah, you bet. We’re talking about your journey, your story into work, and I’m excited to dig in. Let’s start from the very beginning, Andrew. So talk to me about when you were younger, what did work look like for you in your household?
[00:01:06] Andrew Adeniyi: In my household, I think the normal chores is really what I associated work with at the time. The dishes, sweep them, mop on the floor, things like that.
[00:01:17] Ami Graves: Were you getting paid for these?
[00:01:18] Andrew Adeniyi: I was not getting paid. It was an unpaid internship that never ended and Friday night was kind of our go-to night to get the house ready for the weekend and kind of concluding the week. So that’s what I recall about work in the household. But then what I heard about work from my parents was kind of a different thing. They were both entrepreneurs growing up, so just heard about the ups and the downs that come with that life and they felt empowered as well and definitely encouraged us to be entrepreneurs, I would say. But I would say what they shared was a little bit different than maybe my vantage point of work with the chores that we had.
[00:01:57] Ami Graves: So were they talking to you about entrepreneurship or owning your own company or were they talking to you about go to college, get a job? What was that conversation like?
[00:02:09] Andrew Adeniyi: It was both actually, now that I think about it, they definitely glorified the benefits of entrepreneurship. They didn’t shield us from the challenges that came with it. We heard a lot of the complaints and ups and the downs, but the overarching message was always be your own boss, create your own thing, do your own thing. But the pathway to achieving that seemed to always be wrapped under education. So going to college was never even optional. There was just, in fact, getting a master’s degree was considered that’s happening. It’s just a matter of when and what you’re going to study. So education was huge and they attributed a lot of their success to education even though they became entrepreneurs after the fact. So it was both? It was both.
[00:02:52] Ami Graves: It’s interesting. It’s kind of opposite for me. I grew up in an entrepreneur home as well, but my was saying, don’t do it. Just go get a job somewhere else. This is really hard stuff. In fact, I remember as a young adult him saying something like he felt like his work was his mistress, which I thought was interesting. I understood that as an adult, of course you don’t get that as a kid. You just know that work is intense and you’re not home a lot. But I love that they covered that in education because I think sometimes entrepreneurship is glorified and it’s made to seem like you graduate high school and immediately you are within six months you’re a millionaire because you’ve built some influencer entrepreneur game online on Instagram, and that’s not always a reality. I’m interested in hearing your journey into this. So obviously you started with lots of conversations about education. Do you have your master’s degree? Obviously you went to college. Yeah. Okay, so you went to college. Where’d you go to school?
[00:03:56] Andrew Adeniyi: So my master’s is from Michigan State. I did it online. It was in management strategy and leadership.
[00:04:02] Ami Graves: And your first job was what? Outside of your unpaid internship, doing chores that we all had to do.
[00:04:07] Andrew Adeniyi: So my first real, well, so I worked, my dad had an adult home healthcare kind of nursing home essentially through the majority of my upbringing. So my first real job was working with them and just worked a couple days a week, worked more in the summertime. I think that gave me a foundation of just serving people and being upstairs.
[00:04:30] Ami Graves: What kinds of things were you doing?
[00:04:31] Andrew Adeniyi: So preparing snacks, delivering the meals to the residents, cleaning tasks, sweeping, mopping, those types of things. Organizational things as well, errands that needed, ran for the home, some administrative stuff, but a lot of that is mainly he needed to take care of. So that was my first kind of exposure into work. But I’d say my first legitimate job was probably as an intern when I was at college at Indiana University, I was an intern for an international retailer, district manager for them, district manager internship, and that was my first real taste of work, I would say.
[00:05:10] Ami Graves: And how long was your internship and was this your senior year?
[00:05:14] Andrew Adeniyi: So it was a 10-week internship and I joined the internship going into my sophomore year, which was unheard of at the time. Most only recruited juniors and seniors. That was one of the reasons why this internship stood out to me, and I was fortunate enough to do that for the following two summers as well before I graduated.
[00:05:32] Ami Graves: Yeah, lucky. Did you intern every summer through college? I mean since you started it so young.
[00:05:39] Andrew Adeniyi: Yeah, the first summer was summer classes. The other three were the internship.
[00:05:47] Ami Graves: Did you have while you were in college, mentors or teachers that were mentors to you or people that were either maybe in business talking to you about next steps in your career path?
[00:06:00] Andrew Adeniyi: Not really outside of just the academic advising support that we got through the school or some guest teachers or lecturers that would come to the classroom. There’s a couple of folks that were influential, but I didn’t have one person that I was connecting with regularly who was kind of serving in that mentor capacity. And I think I was fortunate because I knew what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to study business and work my way to get into the business program. Then from there, it’s just a matter of doing well in school and trying to figure out my next opportunity outside of college. But I was fortunate to get that internship so early, so that almost created kind of a pathway for me right out of undergrad and before I graduated senior year, I already had a job offer from the same company I’d interned with. So I was lucky and fortunate to be in a situation where I kind of knew what I needed to do pretty early on in college, which I know is not super common for both.
[00:06:55] Ami Graves: Right. Yeah. You’re fortunate to have that conviction so early. Most people, I don’t know that they have that. Right. So what was your major, your undergraduate major?
[00:07:05] Andrew Adeniyi: Entrepreneurship and corporate innovation,
[00:07:08] Ami Graves: And how did you select that? I mean, as a young person, I think back when I was very young, you feel like you know it all right? The world truly is your oyster, but making a selection, particularly if you’re focusing on business or something in the arts, I think can be a little challenging. How did you narrow it down? I mean direction from your parents or something else?
[00:07:33] Andrew Adeniyi: So my dad wanted us to go into the healthcare field. That was kind of the sector that he was in. He was a previous nurse and had done a lot of work there, but I realized I didn’t like healthcare. I wasn’t a super empathetic type of person. I didn’t really have that heart and passion to serve in that way.
[00:07:50] Ami Graves: I beg to differ. You’re extremely empathetic, Andrew, but I hear what you’re saying.
[00:07:56] Andrew Adeniyi: I have to work at it. I have to work at it. It doesn’t come natural and I notice in that field it almost needs to be at the forefront. So I gravitate towards business early on. I remember in high school my parents giving me lunch money and I’m thinking, what’s the least amount of money I could spend on lunch to save this money and how can I use this money to make more money? That’s how my mind was always thinking. So I knew business is what I was gravitating towards. So I initially thought management, it’s broad. I like leadership. And I was in a course my sophomore year, I think it was first semester of my sophomore year, and we had a guest lecturer come in and it was the former dean of the MBA program for the Kelley School of Business. He had left that role to start his own business. So he’s speaking to us about entrepreneurship and he mentioned that the entrepreneurship program at the time was the number one in the country for public university management was good too. It was like top 20 and he was like, how often can you say you graduated from the number one program? So I went to my counselor the next week and I changed my major to entrepreneurship and never looked back and I knew I was in the right major because I didn’t want to return any of my books.
[00:09:04] Andrew Adeniyi: Every book was fascinating. So it felt right, I was interested in it. It wasn’t just getting the work done. It’s like, no, I really want to know about this stuff.
[00:09:11] Ami Graves: I feel like you’re really lucky to have had that experience in undergrad because I only felt that way in my master’s program when I was in undergrad. I’m like, give these books back, get me through this program. But for me, it felt different when I got into that master’s program. It was a subject I was so interested in and I remember feeling the exact same way. Did you have the same internship with the same company all three years and then in turn offered you a full-time position upon graduation?
[00:09:41] Andrew Adeniyi: Yeah.
[00:09:42] Ami Graves: So tell me about that. Tell me about your first corporate full-time paid role.
[00:09:48] Andrew Adeniyi: It’s a very unique internship because the internship basically has you working as a district manager. You’re not just filing papers or working on some random project that’s not super related to the day-to-day. Like no, you’re shadowing someone, you’re actually getting to role play. You’re doing it with supervision. You’re also working in the cash register, so you’re learning what it’s like to be on the ground level and interacting with customers. You’re shadowing shift managers. There’s part of the training where you’re shadowing a store manager and then you’re running a store for a short period of time, at least once you get hired on full time. But they created a miniature version of that in the internship as well. So I just felt like I got the real world exposure on retail people leading in a corporate environment, but also in a grocery store, and it was such invaluable of an experience.
[00:10:41] Andrew Adeniyi: I would say the other thing that really stood out to me was the age. The store managers that I was essentially learning from and leading had been working at the company longer than I’d been alive. So here I am as an intern coming in and I’m supposed to be giving instruction and delegating things and they know way more than me. So that helped me a lot with self-awareness and being mindful of how I’m coming across. That made me very intentional with how I communicate with folks to ensure that I’m not ruffling feathers or challenging their incompetence or character and really approaching things in a collaborative way. So that experience was huge for me on just leadership—leading without authority—and even if you do have the title, you still got to earn that respect, and I got the practice on how to get just that.
[00:11:30] Ami Graves: Now, did every district manager at Aldi start as an internship? I mean, it’s a really strong way actually to do a pipeline or do they? So it was a mixture of college graduates, but also people who have kind of rose through the ranks at Aldi.
[00:11:46] Andrew Adeniyi: So their recruitment strategy was hiring district managers out of college out of undergrad. So it was actually pretty uncommon for a store manager to have made that leap to district manager. That was a cultural thing that I noticed. It just wasn’t common. Maybe one out of 10 was like a previous store manager. Internships were also rare. They didn’t do a ton of ‘em. They were very highly sought after and they had limited spots. I’ll say maybe another one out of 10 on average maybe was an intern. Outside of that, it was direct recruitment from college. So that was part of the strategy, and I would say it was a good strategy because to this day, they have one of the best training programs that I’ve ever heard of. We literally got trained for an entire year, and in that year you’re shadowing multiple district managers, you’re in multiple stores, you’re doing multiple projects, you’re doing cashier, shift manager, store manager, like I mentioned. Then they actually let you run a store for two months—hands-on experience. So even though you’re young, you may be 23 by the time you get your district to stores and you got the store manager who’s been there for a decade, it’s like, well…
[00:12:56] Andrew Adeniyi: I’ve been in your shoes though. I ran a store. It might not have been successful, might have been for a short period of time, but I know what it’s like to have to juggle that, and I think that helps with building trust in just a lot of things. So that was their strategy—hiring directly out of undergrad, and then they had a lot of good things in place. They had automatic pay raises the first four years, so you’re automatically going to get to six figures by year four. So that’s part of the recruitment strategy and that helped with retention as well. It was a very difficult job.
[00:13:25] Ami Graves: Yeah, absolutely. I would imagine. And last point on Aldi, but I would imagine that that approach has probably shifted since that time because to only hire one out of 10 district managers from—you’ve got tons of store managers. To me there’s like a really clear career path for store managers there if they are invested in and developed and of course committed to their own growth. So my guess is the landscape has changed so much in recruitment that there’s such a big push and focus on upskilling now and career development and career pathing. I imagine Aldi has maybe taken a more balanced approach now with promotion from within, but also kind of bringing in external talent. You need both, right?
[00:14:12] Andrew Adeniyi: Yeah, and I’d hope so.
[00:14:14] Ami Graves: I hope so too. Well, it worked out great for you, which is wonderful. Let’s talk about your next gig. So was it from there that you went to Starbucks?
[00:14:21] Andrew Adeniyi: So it was Kroger, then Starbucks, then…
[00:14:23] Ami Graves: Kroger and then Starbucks. Okay. Talk to me about that journey, and I’m particularly interested about your experience at Starbucks because I know with the book that you wrote, which I’m sure we’ll talk about, you talk about your experience at Starbucks.
[00:14:36] Andrew Adeniyi: Yeah, so Kroger was fascinating to me mainly because I was working for a subsidiary of Kroger called Ruler Foods, and Ruler Foods was almost like a startup, a discount startup. It had been around for a while, but they rebranded, were changing some things, wanted to be a lot more competitive to places like Aldi. So they really valued me. I had that experience at a high level. So I went there almost with this notion of, hey, kind of going to have the keys to be very influential in this essentially startup underneath the Kroger umbrella—so Kroger resources and all that kind of stuff—but we’re really redoing everything we’re doing as a brand. So that was really cool to be in such an established company, but such a new company at the same time. It was very fascinating. But that allowed me to work on a lot of high-level projects and staffing restructuring projects and just a lot of HR infrastructure that they needed, leadership development, just pouring into the culture and being able to cast some vision on what type of culture is needed to run this effectively. I got to work on a lot of high-level projects like that, which was very valuable and also made me appreciate Aldi too, because that vantage point—it was like, man, they’re really doing some great things, knowing that some other folks are out there trying to replicate that to a certain extent.
[00:15:56] Andrew Adeniyi: So that was what my Kroger experience was like, was with them for a couple of years. Then I went to Starbucks after that, and the Starbucks journey was just a breath of fresh air for me. It was high-performing culture, but not high demand, not super high challenge where you’re getting burnt out. It’s very empathy-driven, very “we want you to feel like you belong.” It was the first place where I realized that I had corporate baggage I had been carrying with me. That was kind of playing a role in how I showed up that wasn’t necessarily how I would choose to show up if I wasn’t influenced by some of that corporate baggage. And it was the first place where I got to kind of evaluate that and start to take off that armor, take off kind of the shield and kind of that work mask, if you will. And “who am I outside of the knowledge I have or the work I’ve done?” Who am I truly? And I feel like at Starbucks is when I was able to start to figure that out.
[00:16:58] Ami Graves: I’d like to hear an example of that. So I think what I hear you saying is leadership habits that we learn along the way that we think are the way we should be or the way we should show up as a leader versus your authentic self as a leader. Is that what you’re really referring to?
[00:17:15] Andrew Adeniyi: Yeah, and I think for me coming out of undergrad, I’m still figuring that out in real time. So some of the habits that may get picked up that are cultural norms in that environment may not actually be a cultural norm that I would have had I not been in that environment. But a couple of examples that come to mind: I remember when I was at Starbucks, I had a leader named Lavonne, and it was one of our first Monday morning meetings after I joined, and we’re going around the horn just “how are you doing?” Everyone’s kind of sharing that, and they asked Lavonne, how are you doing? And she was like, “I’m not really feeling it today. I had a tough weekend and almost thought about canceling the meeting, to be honest. So I’m kind of on the struggle bus today.” I remember thinking, I had never in my corporate experience been on a team meeting where the leader didn’t share anything other than something positive, and you got a pep in their step and just optimistic. And it dawned on me, I was like, there’s no way that every single Monday, every leader across the country is in a good mood…
[00:18:18] Andrew Adeniyi: …and everything is great, but we put on that face and say, no, we’re going to carry on. And what I realized is she was giving people a license to be real. She was allowing you to be human. And the fact that that was a rarity was like, man, it made me just question everything. So that’s just one moment, and that led to us being able to show up in the same way. Another one is just simple stuff. I think about psychological safety. In my prior life, prior to Starbucks, it was kind of a culture of “you don’t really bring problems up unless you already have a pretty good solution in place.”
[00:18:55] Andrew Adeniyi: So you’re really not even brainstorming things in the early phases because you almost need to have it nailed down to not come across as complaining or not coming across as you haven’t done the work to solve the problem. So that’s what I just assumed you needed to have. But then I got to Starbucks and it’s like, well, no, we want you to feel comfortable sharing half-baked ideas and not to create an environment where everyone’s just complaining, but we recognize that somebody may have a great solution to what you’re talking about. But unless you share that when it’s half-baked, you miss out on that opportunity for collaboration. You miss out on that opportunity for innovation. And I feel like Starbucks created an environment where I can share how I’m feeling and I don’t have to have thought this through 75 times and have a completed plan to present to you by the time we’re ready to share it.
[00:19:43] Ami Graves: That’s great. They’re known for their culture. You share some great examples of that in real time in real life, so I love that. So grew up in an entrepreneurial home, went to college to study entrepreneurship, landed in corporate,
[00:20:00] Andrew Adeniyi: Spent…
[00:20:00] Ami Graves: …some years in corporate. Talk to me about the transition or at the time where you really started feeling that tug or that pull. Was it at Starbucks? Was it before that? And talk to me about that transition that you made into entrepreneurship.
[00:20:14] Andrew Adeniyi: The tug has always been there. It was just a matter of what would I be doing and what could I do that could actually sustain me financially? And I was struggling to kind of pinpoint that. I had started a business a few years after graduation called Handy Brand where the idea was to take people who had ideas to start a business and kind of get them set up with business plan and logo and website and that type of thing. I had a business partner. That ultimately failed because what we learned is many aspiring entrepreneurs don’t have the budget needed for us to be able to sustain the business off of. So learned a lot from that, and then it just became, hey, I really love leadership. I really love culture. My master’s degree is in that. So let me start helping small businesses. And that’s what really prompted it, and I was doing that work. But I would say the true catalyst for realizing I need to do consulting and speaking work was realizing that most cultures suck and were substandard, and it was controllable to be able to turn it around. It just came down to being intentional with the intangibles. So through that journey in my professional career, learning that, a master’s program, and then the writing of my first book, The Circle of Leadership, that’s what gave me the clarity to know, okay, this is what I want to spend my professional career doing forever if I could choose.
[00:21:39] Ami Graves: So did you write the book Circle of Leadership while you were at Kroger and Target, or was it after that and you started your own business?
[00:21:48] Andrew Adeniyi: So I wrote the book in the summer of 2020. So at that point I was transitioning from Kroger to Starbucks when the book finally came out, and it took me about a year to write the book. So I think I started writing the book towards the tail end of my time with Aldi or maybe towards the beginning of my time with Kroger, but it finally came out when I was actually with Starbucks.
[00:22:09] Ami Graves: So tell me about the actual steps of leaving corporate, leaving Starbucks. Great career, great culture. You decided to make the leap. Tell me about that.
[00:22:22] Andrew Adeniyi: Yeah, so I was fortunate to have a couple clients on a recurring basis while I was working my corporate jobs. I always tell folks, if you can have a side hustle while you’re doing your nine to five, do it. That’s the best way. I think too many people, they try to leave their job to start a business. You need to start a business so you can leave your job. There’s a difference there. So that was helpful. I had that. I could kind of see, okay, if I had more time, I might be able to get some more business, et cetera. Then there’s a series of events that happened personally, and I’m a person of faith, so I felt like God was just speaking directly to me and was giving me confirmation of when I needed to take the leap. So one of the first things I noticed was I was getting ready to go on paternity leave with my second child, my daughter, and I was getting burnt out as I was heading towards that paternity leave. My career at Starbucks was growing. I was on path for promotion there, and my business was growing. I was starting to see more interest in my services. And I was like, man, I’m going to have to choose one or the other. I can’t keep doing both. So I was fortunate to have that paternity leave. During that leave, I got to kind of disconnect to a certain extent, and I realized, I think the final thing that confirmed it for me was my brother-in-law’s girlfriend was tragically murdered in Chicago—randomly.
[00:23:45] Ami Graves: Wow.
[00:23:46] Andrew Adeniyi: An hour before her 26th birthday or something from a movie, honestly. And I remember thinking, when someone passes away, a lot of folks will say, “life is short,” and you have that moment of kind of reflection. They used to go back to how you lived normally. And that didn’t feel right in that moment. So I remember asking God, “Life is short, so what should I be doing differently because of that?” And clear as day, it was just like, you need to chase your dreams.
[00:24:12] Andrew Adeniyi: Can’t keep pushing this off. So I literally devised the plan to say, you know what? When I come back, I’m going to give two months’ notice. I think I gave, yeah, six to eight week notice just to make sure I don’t burn any bridges. I want to go full speed ahead with marketing and getting the business going. I had to ask myself, if I’m able to get this recurring revenue while I’m working, if I woke up every day and dedicated myself to it, could I exceed what I’m making from Starbucks? And very clearly it was yes. So that was kind of my journey. I started to interview a lot of people who had taken that leap to get advice. People said things like, pick a date, make sure you have certain boundaries or else you’re going to miss a lot of your kids’ activities and things like that. Even little tidbits—“you need business insurance.” I’m like, business insurance didn’t even cross my mind. So I was able to use that time to start preparing and planning my true exit, and it was August of 2022 when I officially took the leap and started doing the work.
[00:25:11] Ami Graves: So we’re coming up on your three years of anniversary for AAA Solutions. Talk to me about your business, how it’s doing today, and what’s the most exciting thing you’re working on?
[00:25:22] Andrew Adeniyi: Yeah, business is going well. So started in February 2020 right before the pandemic. So did a lot of virtual training, a lot of virtual consulting at that time, obviously was still working with Starbucks at that time. And then once I took the leap, it was really just full out helping leaders primarily with their diversity, equity, and inclusion work. I started it with workplace culture and leadership. With the aftermath of the George Floyd murder, DEI was kind of the huge priority. So that was great—got very connected with a lot of different organizations, got a lot of speaking engagements, and that helped the business thrive and get my word out there. And then now, with the anti-DEI movement, what I’m finding is a need to go back to my roots of—well, this all started from workplace culture. DEI was always a subset of that, one chapter within the first book I wrote, The Circle of Leadership. So now I’m kind of going back to how I started, with DEI being a little less prevalent of the work that I do. But I still have many clients that are specific with DEI focus as well. So trying to balance that, I would say, is one of the challenges and opportunities that I’m faced with right now.
[00:26:14] Andrew Adeniyi: I would say the most exciting part of the business—there’s a couple of things. One, it’s seeing some companies continue to push forward. I have some clients where it’s like, “we’re not changing any verbiage. We’re not taking anything off the website. We’re not doing anything. We weren’t doing anything illegal before. We’re not doing anything illegal now. We’re going to continue business as usual.” That has been encouraging to see. I have a lot of clients that have had to pivot as well. So I’ve seen kind of the full spectrum. But seeing folks still passionate about the work—even if they do need to change what it’s called—and finding creative ways to push forward, that’s been encouraging to me. Because that lets me know that, okay, people weren’t just doing it because it was the hot thing to do. They truly want to make a difference.
[00:27:14] Ami Graves: Well, and your point is such a good one that you really can’t have culture building without DEI. I mean, there’s a piece of belonging that is the fabric of DEI and it’s the fabric of culture, right?
[00:27:30] Andrew Adeniyi: Yeah.
[00:27:31] Ami Graves: So I don’t know how you have one without having a focus on both or either, right?
[00:27:36] Andrew Adeniyi: Yeah. We start talking about culture building and making sure people feel seen—we all need different things for that. And that’s where the diversity and inclusion comes in. And we all want a fair work environment, and that’s really what equity is. So that’s where it’s just—sometimes it’s just we’re getting into politics rather than true definitions and true meanings, and that’s a whole different ball game that I’m not always interested in playing.
[00:28:00] Ami Graves: That’s right. I asked you earlier if you had mentors in college, and we talked a little bit about maybe academic advisors and that sort of thing. What about in your professional life today? Do you have people around you that you consider mentors, coaches, teachers?
[00:28:15] Andrew Adeniyi: Yes, I do. I would say one that I’ve been probably the closest to as of late has been Bri Grisha. So he does amazing HR and DEI-related work across the city. Currently the Chief People Officer for IndyGo. And he’s been great too because, for me, he’s been kind of that HR mentor who has seen it at a lot of different levels, has in-depth knowledge of the different functions throughout HR, and has done it in so many different industries as well to where he’s just a breadth of knowledge, calls it as he sees it, and very willing to help. But he’s been super helpful on that front.
[00:28:52] Andrew Adeniyi: On the consulting front, I’m looking to get some additional mentors there. It’s kind of on my to-do list, honestly—folks who have kind of built up their business to a point that I aspire to be. I would say in the earlier stages of my business, I was able to get some really good feedback from Brian Kre who had a marketing company that he started. Also Travis Brown, who had launched Mojo Marketing and Media. So they provided some early guidance for sure as well.
[00:29:20] Ami Graves: So what’s next? What’s coming up that’s exciting that you’re working on or you’re hoping to work on? Any new books in the works?
[00:29:27] Andrew Adeniyi: Well, there’s actually—I need to get a new copy—but my son and I just created the book called Eli the Entrepreneur.
[00:29:35] Ami Graves: Eli the Entrepreneur? Okay, tell me about it.
[00:29:38] Andrew Adeniyi: So when I wrote my second book, The Blocks of Belonging, my son came to my office one time and was blown away that I wrote a book. He couldn’t believe I wrote all of that. He was like, “I want to write a book.” I was like, “Sure, you can write a book too.” And he’s like, “Can we write one together?” And I was just like, “Yeah, sure, son. We can do that. No problem.” I didn’t think too much of it. And then he followed up a week later. He’s like, “Dad, you said we’re going to write a book.” I’m like, “Oh, he really wants to write a book.” So I was like, “What do you want to write about?” And he was like, “I want to write about what you do.” I was like, “What do you mean?” He was like, “You’re entrepreneur.” He butchered the word the first time he said it. And I was like, “Okay.”
[00:30:14] Ami Graves: How old is Eli?
[00:30:16] Andrew Adeniyi: He’s seven now.
[00:30:17] Ami Graves: He’s seven? Okay.
[00:30:17] Andrew Adeniyi: He’s seven now. But we were having this conversation as he’s getting ready to turn six. So yeah, that just led to—we’ll call it Eli the Entrepreneur: The Journey to Learning Entrepreneurship. So he learns about—we’re trying to incorporate things he’s actually doing. So he goes to the barber shop, and I was like, “You know your barber’s an entrepreneur?” “Really?” He’s blown away. I was like, “Yeah, this is how it works.” So it’s just a short book that we wrote it—hoping to be the first book a kid would be able to read and understand about entrepreneurship.
[00:30:48] Ami Graves: That’s amazing. So Eli the Entrepreneur, is it on Amazon?
[00:30:52] Andrew Adeniyi: Yeah, it’s on Amazon.
[00:30:53] Ami Graves: There’s your plug. Okay, I can’t wait to get it. I love this. That’s exciting.
[00:30:59] Andrew Adeniyi: It’s my first time mentioning it too on the podcast. It’s just like a project, but I didn’t even think about starting to get the word out. So I’m excited about that. That’s done.
[00:31:07] Ami Graves: That’s great.
[00:31:08] Andrew Adeniyi: Another thing I’m excited about is a partnership with an organization called Act Out. And Act Out is a social drama theater organization. And they act out various scenarios. They have primarily been in schools and police departments, fire stations working on things like bullying or domestic violence or whatever that may be. And they wanted to bring it into corporate, and that’s where I spend my time. So we created a Courageous Conversation series. It’s a four-part series where basically there’s three scenes for each of the topics, and they’ll act out a scene. And as we get to the climax of the scene, I will pause the scene and draw the audience in to start really dissecting what took place, what went well, what could have been done differently, how does this show up in your workplace? And then the actors can resume the scene and do it the right way. So it’s very interactive, very engaging. These are excellent actors—mind-blowing to see the skill level of these individuals—and we’re able to kind of balance entertainment with truly learning some principles that you can easily apply. So the Courageous Conversation series, that’s something I’m excited about as well as Eli the Entrepreneur.
[00:32:21] Ami Graves: I love that. Those are both so exciting. Is Act Out a nonprofit, and how are you connected?
[00:32:27] Andrew Adeniyi: Yeah, so I think the larger organization is—I think it’s called MCC Claude. They do plays and they do, they host a ton of events and things like that. So I think that’s their larger umbrella. I think they are considered a nonprofit, if I’m not mistaken. And then Act Out is kind of a subsidiary of the organization, of the production company where they’re specifically going into these different organizations and acting these things out. So I had a friend who was on a board that I also served on who connected me with them, and we co-created this content. So we’re talking about how do you value diverse perspectives, we talk about psychological safety, we talk about holding people accountable while still being empathetic and really just having courageous conversations—being willing to roll up the sleeves and embrace the discomfort that can come with it.
[00:33:19] Ami Graves: Absolutely. That’s so cool. I love that. I love what you have coming up. That’s great. I do want to ask a question about the work you’re doing today, and I guess I’m really thinking about this from the angle—if somebody thinks that entrepreneurship is super sexy, which it is, right? There is an element of that that feels sexy for whatever reason. But let’s talk about the real hard work, the stuff that’s not on the Instagram reel about entrepreneurship. If you were going to tell somebody that’s looking into heading down that path, what advice would you give them?
[00:33:51] Andrew Adeniyi: Start with why is the first thing. You may have heard of Simon Sinek’s book Start with Why, for the folks listening. I think having clarity in why you’re doing what you’re doing is so important because you’re going to have tough days. And that why is going to remind you—okay, we’ve got work to do. Okay, I’m making a difference. For me, two-thirds of people in the workplace are not engaged at work. And knowing that it’s controllable for people to feel seen, heard, and valued—it’s just a crime to me that so many people on Sunday night are upset. So I’ve got work to do, and I have to help leaders create better workplaces. So knowing that why on those tough days is literally the difference between firing the laptop back up or disengaging. So start with why.
[00:34:38] Andrew Adeniyi: I would say cash flow is another one. That was a huge struggle for me. Finding that rhythm of sending invoices, getting payments hopefully on time. And if you don’t have it on time, how are you managing that? Getting a business line of credit to be able to fall back on but not over-leveraging that—or credit cards—so you’re not accumulating too much debt. That was a struggle. I’m not a numbers person. That’s not my expertise. That’s not where I like to play. And I realized that if you don’t have your eye on that enough, that’ll literally be the end of your business.
[00:35:25] Andrew Adeniyi: So I would say start with why. I would say understanding cash flow is important. The other thing is going to be strategic partnerships. Like, you can get burnt out so quickly being the Chief Everything Officer—that’s really what entrepreneurship ends up being. And what can lighten the load is having partners. You may not have the funds to be able to hire people, but you can leverage freelancers, you can leverage systems that help you automate. And I feel like over the years I’ve been fortunate to bump my head a lot to get to the point I’m like, all right, I need to figure out what to do about these taxes or this business insurance or this or that. And I’ve been able to find partners that help me with that. So that would be my advice to entrepreneurs. I got a lot more than that, but the first three that come up—cash flow, start with why, and really who you partner with is critical.
[00:35:55] Ami Graves: Yeah, that’s really, really good advice, I think. And that’s the reality of entrepreneurship. I mean, you have to have some sort of a sales bend or focus because you are selling yourself. You are the product. You are the service, right? So that has to be an element of your focus really every day as an entrepreneur. Fill in this blank for me: At this point in my life, I define freedom as…
[00:36:21] Andrew Adeniyi: Peace.
[00:36:22] Ami Graves: Tell me more about that.
[00:36:24] Andrew Adeniyi: I got seven, five, three-year-old at home. Married. Mother who’s getting ready to move nearby. Entrepreneur. I mean, the roles, the responsibilities, the titles that I have are a lot. So when I talk about freedom and autonomy, I most likely have that if I’m experiencing a sense of peace—which for me means self-care, the ability to make decisions, opportunity for solitude, while also an opportunity for community, doing fulfilling work. All of that to me is wrapped up in that sense of peace. So if I feel freedom, then I’m probably feeling at peace.
[00:37:04] Ami Graves: I love that. Last question for you today, Andrew—what is your switch off? What do you do to decompress? Music? Favorite books? Guilty pleasure? Talk to me about that.
[00:37:17] Andrew Adeniyi: Oh man. So working out. That’s definitely a big part of it for me. Try to work out at least three times a week. Going in the sauna in particular—I think that’s some of the most… that’s—talk about peace—that’s some peaceful time for me. Also little things like just sitting on the rocking chair in front of my house, watching the sprinklers go off. The smallest things for me, I’m learning, bring me peace. I think because my household is usually so loud with the kids. So anytime I can just get outside or get somewhere where it’s just quiet—or listening to music—all those things are super peaceful for me. And then writing. As an entrepreneur, just thoughts are constantly going through my head. And I’ve realized that the way I could switch off is just doing brain dumps—getting it all out of my head. So those are a couple of things that I go to pretty regularly.
[00:38:04] Ami Graves: That’s great. Andrew, thank you so much for your time today. Just so much great advice, and I love to hear about your journey. It’s very insightful. You’ve got such a great calm approach and demeanor. I can totally see why your clients love working with you. And I don’t know that this work will ever be done around trying to improve culture—particularly as workplaces change, as we’re in more hybrid environments, and how we collaborate is just different. It’s shifted so much over the last five years. I think this work is so important. It’ll always be there. And I really look forward to watching and being a part of your journey. So thank you again for your time today.
[00:38:41] Andrew Adeniyi: I appreciate that. Thanks for having me on the podcast. It was great.
[00:38:44] Ami Graves: All right, you take care. Thanks Andrew.
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