An Interview with Michelle Ogunniyi

The Christian Author Interview with Michelle Ogunniyi- Episode 10

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The Essence Challenge was put on hold due to the current situation in our Nation, Nigeria. We had to take some time off for our mental health and yours also. A quick word of hope to everyone reading this: In this New month, be ready for calmness and peace. It shall flow like a river in all areas of your life. Amen.

The Essence Challenge organized by Loveth Opeyemi on Daachiever Inc. is here with another exciting episode and interview with Michelle Ogunniyi. Her name sound familiar, Michelle Obama, right? (winks). I believe reading from her answers will excite and thrill you the way it did for me. P.S. (I will be reading for the first time as I am editing)

Hello Fams, Fans, or Familia; welcome on board. Welcome to episode 10 on the Christian Author Interview on this blog, but episode 3 on the Essence challenge. Hey, have you been listening to our podcast yet? Oh my!!! If you haven’t, you should do that as soon as you are done with this episode (will share the link).

Let’s set the stage, action, and we are LIVE!!!

Interview Team Lead: Hi, guys, ladies, lovelies. This is ITL here; a team of Daachiever Inc. focused on connecting with amazing Christian authors. Remember me/us? To make this Interview fun, I will chip some words, in-between. Permit me; I am the third person on the wheel today; Loveth is in charge, questions, and all. Our audience, please welcome Loveth and Michelle in ( digital claps)

An Interview with Michelle Ogunniyi

Loveth: Thank you so much for that lovely welcome. I feel among already, and I bet our readers, this is going to be an interesting one.

Interview Team Lead: We can’t wait, really we can’t.

Loveth: In this episode, we have Michelle Ogunniyi joining us, and I would love to ask her some questions about life, her walk with God, and her book. Michelle, we are glad to have you here today.

Michelle: Thank you so much Loveth, this is a great opportunity. I’m grateful for this

Loveth: You are welcome without wasting much time. Let’s proceed further. The first question;

Tell us about yourself, how your relationship with God started, and your drive for a living?

Michelle: Hello there, I’m Michelle Ogunniyi; I love to call myself “The multidimensional woman” because I have multidimensional expressions and abilities. You know, multi-dimension (chuckles). I’m a Transformational coach, counselor, and Author. I write and speak to inspire, influence, and impact people to live purposefully and intentionally. I’ve started a couple of platforms like Journey to discovering purpose, Beyond the four walls of a school, Boys 2 Men initiative, Author’s Guide, and The Job creators hub.

I’m also a digital entrepreneur and media enthusiast. I create visual content, I do voice-overs, and I’m also an OAP. Most importantly, I’m a child of God, sold out to his will, and passionate about making Jesus known in every way I can, using every platform I have. My relationship with God started when I got into university. I’d always loved God but played religion until I encountered his love in my 100 level; that was when I decided to serve him wholeheartedly.

The love of God is what drives me. My greatest desire above every other ambition is to fulfill the will of the Fother. I look forward to hearing him say to me, “Well done, my beloved servant, you’ve made me proud.” That’s what drives me.

Interview Team Lead: That was mind-blowing; I love the balance in your introduction. It is a pleasure to meet you. Onto Loveth, the next question

Loveth: What spurred you to write your first book? Were you led, or you just felt the need to become an author?

Michelle: The Holy Spirit inspired my first book. I didn’t write it because I wanted to become an author, far from it. I’d always known that someday I’d write books and so I wasn’t in a hurry, I didn’t even “feel” ready for one and I also felt I didn’t have the resources to write a book. When I was writing it, I didn’t know it would be like a significant book or anything; I thought it would be one small pdf with less than 20 pages to share with people. It’s incredible how it eventually turned out to be today, I now have it printed and in audio format, but that was never the intention from the beginning; it just happened because it was meant to, and I thank God for that.

Interview Team Lead: Dear upcoming Author, the title ‘Author’ should not be the priority when it comes to writing, please, and please; be Spirit-led. It is essential if you want to affect lives for Christ. The book ‘Spirit-led’ will always succeed.

Loveth: In one of your books, ‘Another 365 days’ you talked about sustaining the new year momentum throughout the year. Has this book helped you personally? And how?

Michelle: Yes it has helped me personally. Before I discovered some of the things I now know, this was one of my biggest struggles. I’ll start a year with excitement and zeal for better results and along the line lose the drive and momentum.

One of the things I had to learn is that becoming better in whatever way is beyond a yearly ritual or practice, but a daily and intentional walk, which is what I clearly stated in my book. I don’t have to wait till December 31st to make resolutions for the coming year. Personally, this has helped me sustain the momentum throughout every year. I set daily goals, monthly goals, I have accountability systems around me as mentors and coaches, all of these and more have helped to sustain the drive and momentum to reach my goals.

Interview Team Lead: I must agree with you; resolutions are far becoming obsolete and outdated, especially in this generation; many keep having yearly goals they don’t keep up with; yet failing at succeeding with little things. I believe it starts from the little things we do; and how conscious we are to become the better versions of ourselves each day.

Why Birthdays- A book by Michelle Ogunniyi on Daachiever Inc.

Loveth: Birthdays come once a year, it is that time when people’s hearts, at least a vast majority, are filled with merriment, and I was wowed to see you churn out a sum of 150 pages on birthday, tell us; how did you come up with something as massive as this?

Michelle: First and foremost, I got real inspiration from God. I know that sounds like a regular cliche, but that’s the whole truth. Secondly, I’m a very knowledgeable person, and ideas flow freely in my head. I have the unique ability to string meaningful words together to make up great content, which also helped a great deal. I’ll also not deny the place of research because I did work on that. I read books on purpose, listened to a couple of messages, read articles online, and made friends contribute to the subject matter.

Interview Team Lead: God has always been the source, it shouldn’t be a cliché for any Christian Author out there. It is GOD. Read that out loud, God.

Loveth: What was the most exciting thing you discovered from the testimonials you got from your second book; Why Birthdays?

Michelle: I got many exciting testimonials from the book that made me grateful to God for the grace bestowed to write it. The one that stood out for me among others came from a lady online; she said she was about going into depression because she felt like her life wasn’t meaningful, and there was nothing to her. According to her story, my book came in time, giving her a sense of purpose, and she decided to serve God and live purposefully. That really touched me.

Loveth: That’s lovely. I’m sure she will always remain grateful to you. Your writings center majorly on purpose and making people realize they have a reason for living. Tell us, is there a story behind this?

Michelle: Yes, there is. It all started in the place of fellowship with God, where he shares his burdens and desires with his people. So that was the case for me. This, for me, is a mandate, an assignment to bring men to the knowledge of God’s will and show them how to live purposeful lives.

Interview Team Lead: Keep doing that, lives are definitely being touched and transformed.

Loveth: The subject of purpose has been very vital in our world today. Many people do not understand its concept, and we have people who pay heavily for classes on how to discover purpose. What’s your opinion on this?

Michelle: Believers searching for purpose is like searching for what is not lost. Purpose is discovered in Christ, in the place of fellowship. Many people confuse the word purpose for many things. Purpose is your reason for Being. You can only discover that from the creator of life, and He already gave us the manual to discover it, which is his word. The primary purpose of every believer is to bring God pleasure. How can you give him pleasure? By simply doing the things that please him.

How can you know or do the things that please him? It’s clearly stated in scripture. So when I pay attention to God’s word, do what is written in them, live by them, and fellowship with God, I’m fulfilling the purpose of God, and as I grow in him, more dimensions of my life’s assignment are revealed to me. These things are not far-fetched.

Interview Team Lead: Thank you for that brilliant answer, Michelle. Really, Purpose isn’t far-fetched. It is etched deep in Christ and his word. Find Christ, and you have found purpose. Every other thing, to me, is just a side attraction. A mere privilege to say.

Loveth: As a Christian, were there days you had to struggle to keep up with your identity in Christ?

Michelle: Yes, there used to be such days when I didn’t really have much understanding. But I know better; I thank God for my church, my pastors, Rev Lanre Rex Onasanya and Pastor Bukky Onasanya, the quality of word we’re fed with, the many teachings that have shaped my understanding and are making the journey of being a believer “easier” and better.

Loveth: Which other authors do you read or look up to, and have they in any way influenced your writing?

Michelle:  One of the Authors that has greatly influenced my life even in death is Kenneth E Hagin. I started reading his books as a teenager, and they shaped my life. For me, he’s the definition of influence and impact, and I want to write books that will cause an eternal impact in the lives of people, books that will outlive me even when I’m gone. I also love John C Maxwell; he’s an excellent author with a great level of influence too. I want to write books that will meet global standards like him.

Loveth: What life experiences have shaped your writing the most?

Michelle: My discovery process. I used to be a girl with many abilities but with no sense of direction. I wanted to be everything and everywhere as long as it’s good. Getting into the university and encountering God became the beginning of a purposeful and meaningful journey for me. I know there are many young people like me out there, so my writings are used as a tool to reach out to them, teach, inspire and impact their lives and make them understand the essence of purpose.

Loveth: Any Advice for upcoming Christian authors?

Michelle:  Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. As a Christian author, you can’t successfully impact the world through your writing if you leave out the place of fellowship. It’s in your communion with God that burdens are placed in your heart, Ideas, solutions, and answers to the questions in the hearts of people. Anybody can write a book but not everybody can write a book that will make an eternal impact in the lives of people. This can only be achieved through the help of the Holy Spirit.

Interview Team Lead: I think it is time for me to showcase my singing prowess; there is a song which says; Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full to his wonderful face; and the things of earth will grow strangely dim; in the eyes of his glory and grace. I can actually sing well (don’t try me). I believe our guest speaker for today has said it all; beloved author; TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS, IN FACT, KEEP YOUR RYES FIXED ON HIM.

Loveth: Finally, Michelle; Thank you so much for honoring our invite. It means a lot; please tell the audience how they can connect with you and get your books also?

Michelle: It is a privilege also, and I am glad to have honored this invitation. Okay, to our readers far and wide; You can connect with me on my social media platforms ;

Facebook: Michelle Opeyemi Ogunniyi

Instagram: @michelle_ogunniyi

Email: [email protected]

To get my books you can find them on Amazon and Okadabooks or get them directly via email.

Interview Team Lead: Okay, there you have it. Did you enjoy this episode? You did right, I can see you smiling. I did also, and I want to appreciate everyone who stopped by today. It means a lot to us, we are grateful. Kindly listen to our podcast on Anchor or via your favorite listening platforms like Google podcasts or Spotify. On Anchor, you can get all our links. Thank you so much for joining in.

Until another time,

Stay happy.

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