In last month’s episodes, we talked about planning and strategy with Melissa Peak. If you haven’t had a chance to listen in on that conversation, you can go back and listen here!
As you learn how to be unstoppable this year, you will see that planning and strategy are only effective if you put them to use. How do you take that first step of your plan for the year? What does it take to turn that dream or belief you’re carrying close to your heart into a tangible destiny?
This month, you’ll hear more about this journey of turning a belief into a destiny from someone very near and dear to the 4word community and someone very familiar with following after a desire: Liz Forkin Bohannon, founder of Sseko Designs, an accomplished speaker, and best-selling author of Beginner’s Pluck: Build your life of purpose and impact now. Liz was also named by Forbes Magazine as one of the top 20 public speakers, and Bloomberg Magazine named Liz as one of the top social entrepreneurs to watch.
Let’s begin our chat with Liz!
Liz Forkin Bohannon is the founder of Sseko Designs and the author of the book Beginner’s Pluck: Build your life of purpose, passion and impact now.
Sseko Designs is an ethical fashion brand that works to educate and empower women. By providing employment and educational opportunities, Sseko enables women to continue their education and become leaders in their country.
Liz graduated from the University of Missouri with a Master’s degree in Journalism. In 2008, she moved to Uganda where she met an incredible group of talented young women who were struggling to finance their higher education.
After traveling the country by motorcycle to find raw materials and learn how to produce footwear by hand, Liz hired three young women and started Sseko Designs. Since then, Sseko Designs has grown from three women making sandals together under a mango tree, to an international fashion brand that provides employment, educational opportunities and entrepreneurial training to hundreds of women in East Africa and across the globe.
Using her unlikely story of a journalist-gone-shoe-maker, Liz shares her passion for social enterprise, conscious consumerism, social justice, creative leadership and gender-equality.
Liz and the Sseko story has been featured in dozens of publications including: Vogue Magazine, Redbook Magazine, O Magazine, Inc, Fortune and others. Sseko has appeared on national broadcasts including ABC’s Shark Tank and Good Morning America.
Among other notable honors, Liz was recently named a top three Transformation Leader by John Maxwell and Bloomberg Businessweek named Sseko as a top social enterprise. Forbes named Liz one of the top 20 public speakers in the U.S. Liz’s powerful, disarmingly authentic and witty voice captivates and inspires her audience.
She now splits her time between Uganda and Portland, Oregon, where she and her husband Ben run Sseko Designs and raise their two young sons.