We recently connected with Nyorh Agwe and have shared our conversation below.

Nyorh, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I’ve always been an entrepreneur, ever since I was 13. My first experience of supply & demand was in that middle school cafeteria, selling a hundred dollars worth of gimp bracelets. It was amazing and I think that memory always sticks with me because it’s not something I learned in a book- it’s something I learned through connecting with people.

I continued my love for fashion and went on to get a BFA from Parsons so books eventually did come into play. Surrounded by the best professors the fashion industry had to offer, I had the environment needed to clarify my voice as an artist. That’s probably the most important benefit I’d say about learning from school/similar settings- is that the environment in which you’ll need to grow has already been curated for you. You only need to know how to navigate it.

1) Learn in community. Your learning environment is crucial to how you learn. Like any thriving habitat it must be rich with diversity. When you learn alone, you keep yourself from accessing how rich learning can be.

How I responded to feedback then was a crucial part to navigating my environment. Critique sessions in an art school environment were not new to me, but it was definitely at another level! So what impacted how I learned in that season of my life was how I navigated the feedback I received. Was I going to reject every comment, harboring it as negative and a direct attack on my character? Or was I going to free up my mind from housing my insecurities, my need to be right and to constantly defend myself, and instead make space to at least chew on the feedback? I didn’t have to always accept it, but was I at least going to consider it before dismissing it? And what I found out was that the more I practiced letting go of offense, a whole new world of things I could learn opened up. And the feedback ended up informing, empowering, and establishing my work as a young artist.

2) Consider each critique. It can be an opportunity to inform, empower, and establish your work.

Parsons was great but after graduating with no job in sight, I took a chance on myself and launched my very own clothing brand. In one year, I imagined I’d dress Solange by the next year and be on the racks of Berdorf Goodman by year 3. 2 years after and a closet full of unworn designs taught me that I was not yet done learning!

So when my parents persuaded me to go to business school I agreed (reluctantly of course lol). Although those 3 years did not go as planned, I learned something that became a powerful tool for me during my MBA- a business plan is great, in fact, any plan is great. But sometimes you just need to jump into action! Because there are things that you learn by doing you would’ve never thought to plan out. I would’ve never thought to include influencer marketing (because no one knew what that was yet in 2015) into my business strategy until I saw how much of a return it was bringing to my business. Or even renting out my samples as a way to open up my business to other market segments until I just did it and the demand increased.
In some cases, your plan can actually be the thing that slows you down. You can spend 2 years planning and then when you finally decide to execute what ends up unfolding right in front of you looks different from what you planned. If you don’t learn how to be flexible and allow experience to teach you, sticking to your plan could actually be your downfall.

3) Planning is great but application is better. Learning by doing is the most effective method to inform your decisions.

With two degrees at the end of 2019, you’d think I’d done all the learning I could do! But you never stop learning. There’s never a point where you “arrive” at knowing it all, no matter how many degrees you have. And I think accepting and embracing that is a part of learning in itself. There is always room for growth. There’s always room for more!

4) If you can accept that there is no “arrival point” in life, that the goal is not perfection but continual progression, then it will impact how you learn in such an enlightening way.

Accepting progress over perfection (especially as a recovering perfectionist) allowed me to embrace that there was more for me. Specifically, the “more” that Jesus illustrates in all of His promises to us. In the most confusing time of my life- a failed business behind me and an unclear path ahead of me- it was what I learned about God that kept me grounded, secure, and loved. With every scripture I read, my hope in Him fueled hope in myself. I learned to see my situation differently because of His word and my eyes opened up to opportunity again.

5) When all else fails and the situations of life steal your hope, the one thing that you can always depend on is Jesus and His word over your life. His word never fails, and if you can learn it and know it you’ll know that setbacks are just a setup for your victory.

In 2020, I relaunched my fashion business as a branding agency. That’s right, during a flipping pandemic! But I knew enough about God and His love for me at this point, that a pandemic didn’t scare me. In all my bios, from LinkedIn to my agency website, I copied and pasted the praise I received in recommendation letters from my marketing teacher. I didn’t know what a marketer sounded like! It wasn’t even my focus during my MBA, just a class. But in it, I could combine everything I was passionate about – business, art, and people!
The funny thing about starting afresh in an information overload era where demand for content was skyrocketing, was that to dominate in some capacity you had to prove yourself as a “thought leader”. But now I was out of school environments, so I had to discover new avenues of learning.
I picked up the habit of reading more books and watching less Instagram and I invested in programs like Union College Leadership Program and conferences like Path To Prosperity.
There is a time in our life when learning is kind of forced on us. When we’re babies we have no choice but to learn. Even when we’re old enough to go to school, we have no choice but to go! But there comes a time when learning is not forced on you. At some point it becomes your choice. The level in which you pursue learning depends on how badly you need a solution. And what you’ll find in your pursuit is that some doors were closed to you simply because you didn’t know to look for them or to ask for them.

6) The solution won’t always be waiting for you. Knock on all the doors, ask all the questions, and don’t be afraid to ask again. Learning is pursued so keep chasing after it.

To be a thought leader, you’ve got to keep in mind this 1 thing- communication is key. I mean, I know that’s true in every area of life but if people are paying you for your ideas/insight, then you really have to be good at communicating them. The only way to get good at communication is to practice it. In fact, the only way you know you’ve really learned something is when you’re able to teach it to someone else and they understand.
Again, understand. They have to leave understanding what you just said. If not, then you haven’t communicated well enough.
No one asked me too nor was it a business strategy, but I’ve launched podcasts and community platforms just so I could practice communicating. What I’m most proud of is that these platforms also create opportunities for me to pour into others and help them in their personal and business life. I don’t ever want to learn and consume and learn and consume and get so full like a sponge in water and then just sit there. Eventually, that sponge starts to mold because it’s so full! You can only save it from deteriorating if you squeeze it out. We should consume so that we can create. We should learn so that we can teach. All this learning, it’s not so that we can hoard it for ourselves. We need to pour back into the pool of genius we took out of. And when we do that, we make room to be poured into again.

7) Learning is a cycle of learning and teaching, pouring out and pouring in. Don’t wait until it’s required of you to pour back into the pool of genius you took out of. Launch the podcast. Launch the blog. Launch the book. Launch the class. Even with just 10 eyes watching. Even with no eyes watching. Pour it out and teach even if it’s just so that you can make room to be poured into again. I promise you, someone will find value in what you’ve shared because your genius is unique. It is like no other. And the world needs to experience it too.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Nyorh Agwe. I’m the Creative Director and Founder of the branding agency, Nyorh Agwe Studio. Our agency serves to empower brands through marketing solutions that harness their unique stories. We offer services in brand coaching, brand identity design, website design, photo production, video production, and personal branding.

What sets us apart is how we serve our clients. We take the time to listen and connect to our clients, their needs, and the needs of their customers. For us, customer retention is more than a marketing objective, but is about crafting brand identities founded on making meaningful connections.

What we’re most proud of is that we’ve been a part of lifting clients out of financial depressions and stimulating the growth of small businesses that was once stagnant.
We don’t shy away from the complexities that make each business different. Instead, we tap into it. Because no one can do you like you.
If you’d like to schedule an exploration call and find out more about our services, visit us at https://nyorhagwestudio.com/
You can also give us a try by submitting your brand dilemmas to our podcast, The Branding Breakdown and we’ll give you practical solutions right on the podcast.
Listen to the podcast on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/@nyorhagwestudio , Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you enjoy your podcasts.

Outside of my branding studio, I’m the founder and writer of ThngsHopedFor- a platform shared through a collection of thoughts and life experiences that explore and exercise the vehicle of faith to reach promises we could only imagine, but are ours to hold nonetheless. The platform is shared through a blog with writings from me and guest contributors on topics from faith, fashion, fitness, finances, and lifestyle. ThngsHopedFor is also shared through a podcast featuring a variety of special guests.
Something I’m super proud of is the accountability program we launched this year called Resolve. It’s an exclusive virtual community of creatives meeting bi-weekly for support, brainstorming, and accountability of their new year career and lifestyle resolutions. It’s our first ever time doing something like this and I’m elated by how many members have already seen so much transformation in themselves and in all they hope to achieve this year.
Resolve is always open year round to new members. If you’d like to find out more information and join, visit https://thngshopedfor.com/membership
Read the blog at https://thngshopedfor.com
And Listen to the podcast on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/@thngshopedfor , Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you enjoy your podcasts.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Growing up in as first generation immigrant in an African household, you hear careers like “doctor, lawyer, engineer.” Those were the life paths that compelled your parents to boast in the streets, not “fashion designer”. Thankfully, I had the support of my mom but the support from my father was far from me once I alerted him of the path I wanted to choose for the rest of my life. Most of my family actually, was not that supportive. They had no idea what would become of me. And as the first child of the family, I had no one older than me to turn to for advice on how to walk this path. My siblings will tell me now how resilient I was- to be the first one to embark on such uncharted grounds. I didn’t even see it like that at the time. All I saw was that I had big dreams and the only one I needed to believe for them to come true was myself. I couldn’t give up on me.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

There’s two major lessons that come to mind actually, 1) That making millions of dollars takes a lot of hard work
2) That I’m fully responsible for fixing myself and my struggles.

The first one came to me when I attended a 2-day conference called Path To Prosperity. One multimillionaire speaker after another, they shared their paths to prosperity with instruction and counsel on how we could create our own. When you have a bunch of multi-millionaires telling you that making millions of dollars is actually easier than we think, what’s your first thought? It probably was like mine- “Pssh, yea right.” And what influences that thought? Your environment, right? I.e what you’ve seen. All my life, I’ve seen hard work around me. I’ve seen my mother during the days of her residency, hardly catching 8hrs of sleep while still managing her role as a mother of 4 kids. I’ve seen my father sacrifice being with his family to work jobs overseas that would pay our school loans and secure our freedom from debt. I’ve seen that making lots of money was anything but easy. And in that conference hall, I could’ve continued to sit there with the mindset of “extreme labor=more money” or I could’ve allowed what God was showing me and sharing with me to change my mindset.
I did the ladder, and although I’m not a billionaire yet, I’ve seen first hand what changing your view point about how easy it is to make money can do. It’s absolutely possible.

The second one I’ve been unlearning quiet recently. If I ever sounded like an over achiever at any point in this interview it’s because I am😅. And there’s nothing wrong with that! Except for when you start believing that everything is your full responsibility to fix, including yourself. I pride myself in my ability to be self-aware, but the more you increase your awareness of self the more you discover that there are just some tendencies and weaknesses you have that you just can’t seem to fix by yourself. And you’ve done all you can to fix them too but they just don’t go away! I’ve been learning that God didn’t put the responsiblity of fixing myself, my weaknesses, my brokenness, my imperfections in my hands. He asks me to give it all to Him. In exchange, He’ll make things happen that I wouldn’t have been able to imagine in spite of my weakness. Because my weaknesses is an opportunity for God to show me that He will come through for me because He is my strength. As a recovering perfectionist, and as the oldest sibling of 4, nothing has freed me more than this. I don’t have to have it all together and all figured out. And what’s most interesting is people relate more to that than they relate to perfection. So I can step out into any opportunity knowing that I will be more than ok, because God covers my shortcomings. And it’s pretty awesome to have The Creator of The Universe on your side.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nyorhagwestudio.com and www.thngshopedfor.com
• Instagram: @nyorhagwestudio and @thngshopedfor
• Facebook: @thngshopedfor
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nyorh-agwe/
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@nyorhagwestudio and www.youtube.com/thngshopedfor

Image Credits
Nyorh Agwe Studio