Unsilenced

A brand-new book goes live, and a brand-new voice steps forward.

In this powerful episode of Women Like Me Stories & Business, Julie Fairhurst is joined by Zainab Akintelu, author of Unsilenced: A Journey From Silence To Voice, written under the author name Queen Zee.

Calling in from Nigeria, Zainab shares the heart behind her memoir and the three words that keep showing up for women who are ready to change their lives: healing, becoming, and rising.

Get her book on Amazon:  

UNSILENCED : A journey from silence to voice

Follow Zainab on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/zainab.akintelu

If this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins.

Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place.

I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power.

Go to my website if you would like to be a guest on the Women Like Me Stories & Business in the toolbar click Let's Podcast

Julie's Website

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Well, hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of Women Like Me Stories in Business. I am so excited because I have a brand new author with us today, and she is going to tell us about her book.

Welcome And Meet The Guest

SPEAKER_02 0:17

She's got a movement that she's starting. It's just so excited. So now, Zamba is in Nigeria. And for me, as you can see out my window, it's daytime and nice and bright for me. It's not for her. She's talking to us with a lamp from the dark. So you'll have to excuse us, but we can see your beautiful smile. And I'm just so excited that you're here. So welcome. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Thank you so much, Julie, for having me. It's Zainav, Nat Ziva. Oh, so that's fine. It's okay. Yes, I want to talk about my book and my movement. I'm so honored to be on your podcast. Julie, I really just want to acknowledge you first of all. What you're doing out there is really great. I I see how you're helping women to get their voice out. I mean, to just, you know, not keep it all to themselves. You really encouraged me big. And I have you on my acknowledgement page, you know, in my book. Oh, thank you. Totally deserve it. Totally deserve it. So my book is about healing, it's about becoming and it's about rising. It's it's more like a memo, it's a memo for us, and it talks about my my experiences and a lot of things that I've been through that could have actually held me down, make me give up on myself. But I found the topic to move on.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

What happened? Oh did they unplug?

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Oh hello, sweetie.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Hi, hi, how are you? Oh it's nighttime for you. How come you're not sleeping? Oh, oh, what a sweetheart. Oh okay. Well, let's start. So so when did your book because I I just bought your book before we came on. So when did your book when did your book become live? Like when did when did it when did it when did you publish a two nights ago?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

No, that was yesterday. Yesterday. So I emailed yesterday.

Launching Unsilenced On Amazon

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Yes, that it's been live since yesterday, but I posted the link. I started sharing the link today on my socials. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Yes. Oh, how nice. So the name of her book is Unsilenced. I love that. Unsilence. I love that. Yeah. A journey from silence to voice. Yes, from silence to voice. Yes. Wow. And and you have an author, you have a pen name, an author name. So you're writing under Queen B or Queen, I'm sorry, Queen Z. Queen Z. Queen Z. That's my home name. Yes. Yes. Nice. So tell us why why did you write the book?

SPEAKER_01 3:53

I wrote the book because I was inspired. I actually just wanted to start. After I got this old idea of who I am and what I

Why She Wrote Her Story

SPEAKER_01 4:08

want to do with my life, I knew that I had to start from somewhere. And the book was the first thing I needed to get my story out there. I needed people to know who I am and to know where I come from, to know so so that when I speak or when they read from me, they can tell what my background story is like and they can easily resonate with that. And I know a lot of women will because I I am very much aware that women are waking up right now to the fact that we do not want to be silenced anymore. And a lot of people do not know how to go about it. They feel like maybe they are in such a difficult situation and it's so hard to even start from somewhere. And I wrote this book because I wanted them to believe that nothing is impossible, like you can start from anywhere, anywhere and any age. And it doesn't matter how down or low you are, at any point you are in your life. I just want them to know that there is hope. And I had to get my life story out there to push that.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

That is so true. That is so true. And what happens quite often is people will see other women or we'll go to a networking group or something, and then we'll we'll maybe get insecure because we think, oh, look at them over there, or oh, you know, I'm not there yet. But what but what you but what you don't realize, or what a lot of people don't realize, is you don't know their backstory. You know, I was a teen mom, 15 years old. I got married at 17, and I had I I had to drop out of school and I went back to school at 24. So blah, blah, blah about my story. But sometimes people such an inspiring story you have to be. Yeah, and sometimes people think, oh, you know, you must not have had any any serious trouble because things things are better now for me. But but I did, just like so many of us. So I think that it's wonderful what you said about you want them to know that they can start anywhere, anywhere they are, they can start. I mean, I think that's just so encouraging.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Yes, and I I really wish I could say this to every woman out there going through whatever she is. And I wish, I mean, I pray actually that this book reaches her. Even if I am unable to read her, I pray she finds this book some way or another. She finds a voice, she finds our way back home to herself, to our dreams, to hope, to, to home, you know. Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

So so so when do you so what was the what did you what did you find the most difficult thing when you were writing? Did you find it hard to write your story?

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Yes, at some point almost gave up. When I was writing my story, I you I want to believe that I was not relieving the moments or my past

Writing Through Old Wounds

SPEAKER_01 7:22

experiences, but it was kind of like leaving it when I was writing because the memories came flushing back again and it became so fresh. It was like opening old wounds, and I would cry it out just to you know move forward, just to push forward and keep going. I needed to get it out of my system. So it was quite hard at some point because a lot of the stories that I wrote about are quite personal, and you know, I just remembering that this could have stopped somebody, this could have actually held someone's someone's dreams hostage because they didn't have someone or something like this to remind them that they still have a chance, they still shot. And because of that, I kept pushing like I have to push this out. I have to push this out. Somebody needs to read this and understand that there is hope for her. She shouldn't remain silenced, that our dreams are valid, that she's able to start from somewhere. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Oh, so many of us forget about the writer. You know, we get or the reader, I'm sorry, we get focused on writing, but we forget about the person who is out there who needs to hear our story. So I'm so glad that you did that. Yeah, there are I know it, I know your story. People are gonna read it and they're gonna resonate with you for sure. Absolutely, yeah. So, what was the best part about writing the book?

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Uh the best part would be my healing because I I began to heal completely in a different way. So if I moved from the

Healing Into A Victor Mindset

SPEAKER_01 9:12

victim mentality into the victor mentality, I knew that the moment who gets out there, then I can no longer play the victim. I can no longer say this is what happened to me. I can now say this is who I have become because of these things that have happened to me. So that was one of the best moments I experienced during the writing. Like it gave me that confidence. Like, I this is no longer about me. This is me, you know, bringing hope to a lot of people, and I absolutely I loved it. Loved it knowing that I was healing through the process and I was gonna bring healing to someone who is gonna read it. Yes, yes, my mom.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Yes, wow, wow. So so you said you told me that you were starting a movement.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Yes, I am. Do you want to tell us a little about movement? Yes, I have bigger.

The Movement And Voice Series

SPEAKER_01 10:20

My YouTube baby. I hope. Am I able okay?

SPEAKER_02 10:23

You're good. Yeah, you just do your thing. It's it, no, we can't. You know what? You're absolutely okay. You're absolutely okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Yes, yes, I am, yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes, no, you are.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

No, we it's a good thing we're doing this at night.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Yes, choose night because I thought he would be sleeping, but here he is, he's about to stop. Oh yeah, oh well, sometimes it takes a snap late in the afternoon, sometimes it takes it early, so it depends on what time it takes to snap, and then you can sleep early on some day.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Yeah, well, they don't care if you're in the middle in the middle. This is life for this is life for women. It's real life stuff. That's right. Oh, so I'm sorry. So let's start again.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Tell us about your movement. Okay, so from my book, I'm gonna be moving on to doing voice series where I'm going to be talking about healing and becoming and rising, where I'm gonna be putting more of my voice out there now, so so people can actually put a voice behind the the movement itself. When I say on silence and I'm still not saying something, I feel like it's not complete yet. So I want to put the audio out next. But the actual mission, the actual, I wouldn't say exact destination, is to someday have my retreat center where where I can have people come in and just feel at home. I want to have like a huge retreat center that has like a farm where you can have a restaurant, a farm. So you have like farm to table kind of restaurant. Yeah. So food comes fresh. And I want I want this to be a way of reminding people that we can make our own foods and we can train our own children, and we can absolutely live a lifestyle of freedom. So this is the this is the long-term mission, but but currently I'm starting with the book and moving on to the voice series. So that's generally what the movement is about. I don't know if that answered your question perfectly.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Oh no, it did. No, it did. I think that I think that that's a beautiful. It's beautiful, yes. And I'm gonna be wishing that for you. I think that just sounds so wonderful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what are you gonna do next? Are you do you have more books on the go? Or what's your uh what's your next plan?

SPEAKER_01 13:22

I'm going to be writing more books. I'm going to be writing more books. It's just that right now I really want to push my movement forward that is to have this retreat. So I'm working on I'm working currently on having investors because I have I have access to a land that I can use for this retreat, but I do not have investors yet. Yes, I want this dream to come to life already. I want to like because a lot of my story surrounds family and how important it is to have a society, a community, a family that is united and that actually gets it, gets it like I mean, why we are here, what we need to be doing exactly. Yeah, how much we need to remember why we are here.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

Yeah, and so in so in Nigeria, I've never I've been to Kenya, but I've never been to Nigeria, and so what you should come. I should come. Yes, I should. Yes. So, but tell me what it what do you think women need? Are they or do they because women, I'm in Canada. Women in Canada also have a hard time voicing and and being strong in that way. I think we're getting better, but it's been hard. So

What Women Need In Nigeria

SPEAKER_02 14:57

tell me what it's

Retreat Dream And Finding Investors

SPEAKER_02 14:58

like for for women in Nigeria.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

I think that's why that's why my mission is going towards the retreats because I see a lot of women around me who need access to basic needs such as food. And I feel like these things should be so they shouldn't be hard. They shouldn't be something they have, they have to they have to work so hard to get, but the the the mentality, the system has pushed a lot of people into the idea and belief that you must work hard before you can be successful. But the the the definition of success by the system is not the the same definition of success that I understand. I don't know if it makes sense to you right now, but yes, I think it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

No, you're making no you're making you're making sense. No, keep going, keep going.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Yeah, right. So the way that I see success is is you being happy. That's a successful person, you being at the point where you can impact your joy from within you to others. I think that is success, and that is not happening so much around me because we have, of course, it's all over the world. We have bad politicians and all these systems, and you know, all these societal norms that have become normal. And I look at, for example, I would say my mom, I look at how how far she has come. She's a very, very hardworking woman, one of the kindest souls I've ever met. And how hard she has worked all alive, all the time that I've known her. And when I was much younger, I used to see her like my role model, right? I know Oprah Winfrey is my role model, but yes, mine too.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Yes, yes, yeah, I love her, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Yeah, so you know, when I was when I was a little child, I would look up to my mom and be like, oh, I want to be like my mom because she's so strong, so hardworking and stuff. But then when I when I began to grow up and understand that people are still tied in the system, and I started to understand the difference between living in the system and actually having a real life, a real life where you can actually communicate with your with your children, where you can actually participate and be present with them. And you know, all of that, she didn't get the chance to have that because she had to be, she had to become the sole provider for the family. And up until now, I feel like a lot of that luggage still rests on her on her shoulders because my my dad is late right now, and it's just so terrible to look at her, you know, like to still feel our pain, like after all these years, I expect you not to have to work so hard anymore, but you're still doing this, even above 60, and it just makes me it made me sit down and think properly. Like, what do we really want? Is this success? Is this what success means to work so hard and not have and miss out on that family life? You know, I don't want that for myself, and I don't want it to continue for my children and their children. And I I decided that I was going to make a change. I decided I was gonna start from somewhere to make a change. And I believe if women have good access to food, steady access to food, they would they pay more attention to their home life, they'll pay more attention to their children, they would have more time to spend with family, presence, and heal and then rise, you know. So it's it's really a big dream for me. I mean, it's all just starting now, but I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful to God for how far He has brought me. I mean, me not being me not giving up all this wealth, I feel like this is the reason why, because this has to be buried, this has to happen. That's why I'm here now, and I want to change that. I want to change that. I know if we start to grow our foods, our own foods, we start to teach our children how to do this. I believe we're changing the entire trajectory of our lives of the next generation. That's how we leave the legacy behind, and that's what I want to do.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Oh well, I feel like you're gonna get there. I do. You got gumption in you, you're like, you know, you yeah, yeah. And I get the that, you know, when I was listening to you talk about your mom, and I I could visualize her about how tired she must must be of just yeah, work, work, work. Yeah, it's it's a it's a beautiful vision that you have for yourself and your family and and also your community. Yeah, but you know, it just takes one person. Sometimes it just takes one person to make to make that little change. And yes, and to dream, and then it trickles out. So you never know what's what's gonna happen. You just don't, you just we just don't know. So as long as we don't give up, that's the big thing, because we don't know, it could be just around the corner.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Exactly, and that's what my book is about. Not giving up, not giving up, knowing that your dreams are valid, whatever vision you have, you are able to achieve. It doesn't matter how much the system has tried to bury you, to bury you, excuse me. It doesn't matter how deeply you think you've gone low or how high you see a lot of other people, you your voice has a place in this world, and people need it. And we're going to preserve it for you. We're going to help you to you know become and rise and you know impact lives as well. Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Well, I just I'm I'm very I'm very encouraged by you and I'm inspired by you. And I I I appreciate you being willing to come on this podcast and and talk about your new books.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

You inspire me all the time. Yeah, that's the two again.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

You always remind me of something. You always like, don't forget to open an author page when you write when you post your book on Amazon. And I'm like, what? If if Julie had not said that, I would never I would never so you give a lot of tips, you're really helping a lot of women out there. I can say for sure that you're the first, you're one of the people who actually gave me a platform to express my writing, like all along over the years, over the decades. In fact, I've only been writing in my in my own notebooks. You notebooks, laptops, phones. I just you know pieces here and there, right? And then you're one of those people who says, Who told who told me you were going to be publishing me on Amazon, and I'm like, whoop, I'm an author, come on, you know, it's like light bulbs and look at the way out, and then look at it. Look, if I can if I can write just a little part of uh Julie's book, and she's gonna be posting it on Amazon, then I can write a full book. And the journey just started, and you know, opportunities just kept coming for me, and I just learning and growing. And yes, I really, really appreciate you. I love what you're doing out there. I really, really do appreciate you. Oh thank you, Julie, for all that you do for all the week.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

Well, I well, it's very kind of you, and and I'll be watching this over and over. Every time I start to feel down, I'm turning you on to inspire me. Yeah. So I want to just let everybody know who's watching that the book is, of course, on Amazon, but we're gonna have the link to the book in the show notes. So you will be able to, because you've got a community group that you're doing on Facebook as well, right? Yeah. So we'll have the link to your Facebook group, and we'll also have the link to the book and her author page as well. So you can, you know, give her a follow. There's no no cost to do that, just uh help her to get more visible and and then yeah, grab the book. I've grabbed it. I'm gonna I'm gonna sit down tonight and I'm gonna read a little bit of it. And who knows, I might even read the whole thing. I don't know. But I'm just so excited. I'm so excited for you. So we're gonna close now. Is there anything that you would like to tell anybody that's listening or watching? Is there any anything you want them to know before we close?

Links, Signature Line, And Support

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Oh my god, I I do, and that I wrote that.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Yes, it's one of the one of my audio series, one of the episodes I am working on currently. I I yes, I drafted this out of that. And it says every voice has a story, every story deserves healing. This is on silence where healing becomes freedom. Welcome home. Oh, you froze a bit there.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Just my can you can you say that again?

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Because you froze a little bit there. Okay, I was I just read out my signature line. You were asking me one. Can you read it again? Yeah, can you read it again? Absolutely. Every voice, every voice has a story, every story deserves healing. This is on silenced where healing becomes freedom. Welcome home.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Oh, beautiful, beautiful. Thank you so much for that. Oh well, everyone, you could just do so much good by by making a book purchase. So we're gonna have that link for you. So please go there and you know, if you feel it, just click it and grab her book and then have a read and leave her a review and and do an author follow for her. She's she's really, really working hard at getting this all together. And every little bit that we can do to encourage you and to help financially, even by doing that little book purchase, is gonna help. So we'll have all that in the show notes for everybody there. So, well, I just want to thank you again for being our guest. It was um you did a great job, and I appreciate that. And for all of you who are watching. Oh, thank you. And for all of you watching, thank you for being here. And we will see you again at the next Women Like Me Stories and Business episode. Take care, everyone.