Meet Olamide Afolabi | Founder & Technical Project Manager

We had the good fortune of connecting with Olamide Afolabi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Olamide, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
Start Saying More is an idea that I have had since 2012. Following some life events, I found myself in a situation where the best option for myself was to visit a therapist. At the time, the only option that I had was the therapists that were bring provided by my University. While my assigned counselor was well meaning, I didn’t feel that I was able to get the most out of it because she didn’t have experience with *my* issues. At that point I decided to open a brick and mortar center specifically for women’s issues, with providers who had experience supporting individuals with those issues. Fast forward a few years and I was visiting yet another University assigned mental health provider during my graduate program. This experience did not go well at all. As a Black woman, my lived experience in America (and the world) is extremely different from that of white people. This counselor, a white woman, was extremely dismissive of my experiences and visibly uncomfortable with my constant discussions about race. I’ll be honest – I was uncomfortable too. I could tell that what I was saying was going right over her head and she constantly tried to push an anger management narrative on me that was completely unrelated. I ultimately stopped going. It took me a few years to finally open up to visiting a therapist again. This time I was out of school and it became my responsibility to find a therapist and I wanted, no needed, to connect with a Black woman. I visited Therapy For Black Girls and was lucky to find a therapist that I was able to connect and grow with for years.

My experiences with finding a therapist are not unique – especially for Black and minority individuals. I have constantly heard complaints about the difficulty of finding a therapist and the confusion regarding where to even start on the search. Many of the platforms available now are directories that offer individuals pages and pages of providers to sift through and choose from. That’s not an easy process and it is a huge deterrent for many. Additionally, people are not likely to try therapy again once they have a bad experience once. They don’t have the patience to “date” around with therapists – nor should they need to (that’s expensive and exhausting). Start Saying More is my mission to solve these issues for people and help them avoid the same experience that I had. Using a complex algorithm, we use the information provided to us by individuals to directly match them with therapists within our database that they are likely to form a connection with and ultimately have a positive therapeutic alliance with. We are trying to help our communities find therapists and stay in therapy.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
After earning my Masters of Business Administration (MBA) I began my corporate career as a User Acceptance Tester, validating front end design and functionality to ensure the best experience for the customer. Now this wasn’t something I had studied or planned to do after graduating, but I really needed a job and was able to take a 6-week course to teach me how to do the job. This was a blessing in disguise, though, because it taught me how to create with a user-first mindset and for my own company. I worked as a UAT Analyst for a few years before transitioning to a technical project manager role, which is what I am doing now. None of this was a part of my plan, but I feel they have been necessary stepping stones to get me to where I want to be.

The thing about me is I try to follow careers that will teach me skills that I need to build a platform like Start Saying More. I think that’s what I am most proud of – I created a corporate track for myself that aligns with what I need to learn for my business. I am utilizing the corporate world to teach me what I need to know to build a successful company. It definitely hasn’t been easy; I have a background in health sciences and business. I went to school with the intention of being a doctor, but after years of unnecessarily difficult science courses I knew that I simply could not be bothered with following through on the medical track. When I graduated from undergrad I didn’t know what I was doing at all. I knew I liked mental health and I knew I wanted to one day open a clinic or something, but I didn’t have an inkling of how to get to that point. I’m proud of the direction I have taken. And I am blessed to be being guided to fulfill what I believe is my life’s purpose. I know many people who want hate corporate life and refuse to engage in it because they want to be an entrepreneur, but I am a genuine believe that corporate life can be useful. That’s always my advice to people who want to do their own thing business wise – follow a career path that is teaching you how to be successful in what you want to build. Corporate world is benefitting from us, so we should also benefit from it in ways outside of a paycheck.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Honestly, I am a transplant to the Dallas area and I moved here shortly before the pandemic so I haven’t had the opportunity to really explore the city how I would like to. In my time here though, I have found some enjoyable activities, though they are very “typical” Dallas activities. First I would suggest the Dallas Aquarium, which has been open since 1992. As a lover of aquatic animals, aquariums are one of my favorite sites to visit. Walking distance from the Dallas aquarium is a nice rooftop Asian fusion restaurant called Sky Blossom that I love to go to for dinner and drinks (& they’ve got a pretty solid happy hour as well). Staying in the downtown area, I would also take visitors to the Dallas Museum of Art, which currently has a very cool Cartier exhibit. They also have a very extensive display of (stolen) African art. This would be followed by dinner at Ellen’s, a delicious Black owned southern cuisine restaurant. Before we explore outside of the downtown Dallas area, I definitely need to take a visitor to the ATT experience center. While it’s not necessarily somewhere “special,” it’s a nice area to sit, have drinks, and people watch. There is also a dining hall there with a bunch of different cuisines, desserts, and a bar! Getting out of downtown, I definitely would have to take someone to the North Dallas area, though it’s a little far from the city. North Dallas is very nice! In Frisco there is the Legacy West shopping center that has everything from luxury stores to great food. Even if you’re not buying luxury items the area itself is just very nice. It’s a good place to chill and people watch – at least when it’s not too hot outside. Legacy West also has a nice restaurant called Kai that I enjoy taking people to. The food isn’t all that, but the ambiance is great and on weekends it turns into a chill lounge. If my visitor is interested in experiencing the true Texas lifestyle, I would take them out to Lone Star Park in Forth Worth to watch some horse racing. I would end this Dallas tour by taking them to eat my favorite favorite thing – crab legs! I’m sure that with more time and experience the Dallas area, I will be less of a tourist and have some lesser known spots to share but for right now, let’s enjoy being tourists!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There have been so many people who have supported me through the process of creating Start Saying More, and they all deserve their props. So thanks to all of you! Specifically though, I would like to thank my old therapist Parker. Parker was my first Black woman therapist and the first therapist to actually create a safe space for me to be myself. She helped me to reveal so much about myself – from unhealthy coping mechanisms to my need to have control of all parts of my life (which is impossible by the way. Can you believe that?!) She guided me through forgiveness of self and others, and she fully supported me. I genuinely felt that she created the first space in my life where I felt completely safe to be and express myself. It’s a feeling I want other people to have, which was a big motivating factor when I finally began my SSM journey. From the bottom of my heart, thanks Parker!

Website: www.startsayingmore.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startsayingmore/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startsayingmore/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StartSayingMore

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StartSayingMore

Image Credits
Images created by Giselle Duran