Today I received the physical copy of my first ever newspaper article. It was from the folks at African Bulletin who featured my press release this month and will feature a few of my articles over the coming months.

So I thought I would celebrate that with y’all, say thanks to African Bulletin and to you, tDA’s reader.

Who woulda thought I would have ended up with my own feature in a newspaper and my own show on the radio in such a short time.

If I was to derive a lesson from this then I guess it would be, whatever you want to do, put yourself out there hard because you never know what results you will achieve until you put yourself out there and take action.

Direct Marketing

I love studying direct marketers like Dan Kennedy and Jay Abraham and of course, Tim Ferriss & Yaro Starak. One of the key ideas I have gotten out of the industry is:

Test assumptions!

Whenever you want to establish whether or not something will achieve particular results, conduct a micro-test and the test will give you much more real world knowledge than hours of abtraction ever would.

Here I am 9 months later and me and my tiny little blog actually have a brand name and a reputation which can probably be translated into something else.

So now, I can honestly say to other people, the greatest use of a blog is to establish a brand, preeminence and mindshare in a particular niche.

Why? Because I have lived it.

I can actually say that putting useful information out there on a blog is a great way to get featured in the media.

Why? Because I know other bloggers who have achieved way more media than I have and I have had a bit media success too.

So in short, I will repeat a message that I have expressed over and over and will continue to express over and over because I believe in it so much:

Let’s not think about it or read about it, let’s BE about it.

Hope that helps and yet again thanks for supporting the Displaced African (tDA).

Have one of those days that will be studied in the history books,

Mwangi

Well sorta!

Last Sunday morning, I did my first regular show on SARFM radio in New York.

This show will be regular and every third Saturday of every month, me and “Pammy” will get on the show to discuss diasporian issues.

For those who want to know when to tune in, the time will be:

Third Sunday of every month at 5 a.m. (Melbourne time which GMT +10h). For those who need help converting time zones please use Time and Date’s Time Zone Converter

Before I Get into What We Covered on the Show

THE DISPLACED AFRICAN IS 200 POSTS OLD!

This is my 200th post and I may or may not do a post on this in the future. But anyway I just wanted to celebrate this milestone with y’all. Thanks to all the folks who continue to subcribe to the blog and welcome to all the new subscribers.

Thank you also to all the folks who have subscribed to the Immigrant Survivor Guide Newsletter. If you haven’t please do and if you are a subscriber to the newsletter: FEEDBACK! I want it to be as relevant and actionable as possible so please send me feedback.

You can join the newsletter by putting your first name and email address into the boxes below and clicking on: “Free Instant Access”

My Show with Pamela Stitch from SARFM Radio

To check out my African Loft page where I will be uploading this interview, please visit: Masmilele African Loft Page.

I will also upload this interview to the Displaced African media and press releases page.

Highlights from the Show

1) I spoke about why I wrote the article, the Empty Symbol that is Barrack Obama and go into more depth about that article.

2) We talked about why we as African people don’t record and share our successes as much as we could.

3) What is the tall poppy syndrome?

4) Are we as African people humble with our success?

5) Should we as African folks share success with each other or be humble with our successes while we are abroad?

6) I give a small example of the power of sharing successes with each other.

7) “I’ll do me and you just do you” vs “I am because we are”
Tips for recording and sharing your successes with others.

9) Tips for someone who has just arrived in the diaspora on how they can immediately get a job.

10) How to get a job when you finish college and you want a nice, solid career job instead of a minimum age job.

11) Would I recommend that people go into the welfare system?

Overall, I think it was a good show. I SPOKE SLOWER! And I also feel I gave a lot more useful information than in my previous interviews.

I still have a lot of growing to do in this area but let me send a lot of thanks and love to Pammy of SARFM, the folks at African Loft and everyone who has featured me in their media and will do so in future. As it would be said in Kiswahili:

Asanteni sana,

Mwangi

Benin Mwangi from the Cheetah Index asked:

I had a technical question for you.  I am going to be doing a podcast next week and wanted to ask you if you know of any simple ways to create a jingle…Otherwise, I hope all is well.  Keep up the good work!

My Answer:

Hey Benin. I will walk you through how I got the sound clips for the opening section of the Displaced African podcast and give you some additional ideas about where and how to get theme music for your upcoming podcast

1) I got the opening sound clip from a website known as Sound Rangers: You go there, choose a track, pay $20 and you own the copyright to that track forever. I then downloaded the free open sources sound editing software Audacity and combined the two to create the opening and closing section of every podcast.

Any other questions. Do not hesitate to ask.

Nakeel whose from the blog Nakeel asks:

1. Does Mwangi like Children or do children like Mwangi?
2. Whats the best thing that you have ever done in your life.
3. Given an opportunity to share a meal in your house with five guests who will they be?

My Answers:

1) Children are kinda like their adult counterparts, there are some who absolutely love me and some who find me as likeable as salt in cordial/juice (which btw, not good). So it really does depend on the child.

2) Hmmm, since I am writing on this blog, I can easily make the case that this is the best thing I have ever done for so many reasons:

a) First time I have committed myself to doing something day after day after day for so long.

b) I have built up a name and brand for myself at a very young age.

c) I have committed to something in spite of the taunting and discouragement.

d) I’ve met some cool cats, have been and will continue to be on the radio.

e) I have learnt a lot of things in a lot of areas including how to start a business in Melbourne Australia, how to start an online business, how immigrants think, positive projects like Ushahidi, met Kirk Nugent and Derrick Ashong.

Just for the Sake of Contrast

On the other side of the moral spectrum, the best thing I did was the first time I took a trip to Sydney. I was broke, had no plans but I got my cousin and his girlfriend in a car and we drove to Sydney where we spent the weekend partying. I loved it because it was a truly, spontaneous, uninhibited decision and the fact that I was in “the flow” and spontaneous the whole trip.

The first time I ever got on stage and acted.

There’s a few of them………

3) The reason I have chosen these folk is not only because of my love for them, but also because of how difficult it would be for me to actually meet with them.

Anthony Robbins: This guy is a true Renaissance man. His level of understanding of how to work within and manipulate the human psychology and achieve peak state on a continuous basis among many many many other things……YES, please, I want to learn that. He is also the best speaker I have ever seen with my own 2 eyes – he not only held my attention but had me for 8 hours a day for 2 days straight……I love his speaking ability.

ii) Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson: This guy is the best performer I have ever seen perform in front of a crowd. I have never seen anyone who has such command and control of an audience. I would love to know how he does that and copy that. Don’t believe me, tell me you have ever seen better crowd control than this

Also in that list, I would love to meet Erwin Mcmanus and Barrack Obama for their speaking ability.

iii) Whoever controls the world economy: There is probably someone or some organization somewhere in the States that pretty much “holds everything together” and is in control of the world economy, I would love to meet the head of it. If its a loose knit group of organizations that work together to hold the American Century together, I would love to meet the heads of this company. I want to move in this world with full understanding of how it runs.

iv) Jay Abraham: I want to become a marketing consultant like he does. His ability to see “money connections” where other people don’t is just simply amazing. Again, I would love to pick his brain and do what he does.

v) Jesus Christ and the Guy In charge of putting together the Bible: I know for sure we are not being told the entire truth about the man called Jesus from Nazareth. I would love to know what the reality was and what realities were shall we say…..”not included” in the official text.

v) JabbaWockeez: I am a mediocre-at-best dancer, I want to learn to move like these guys move.

vi) Malcolm X: I love and respect this man so much.

Other people I would love to meet: Timothy Ferriss, Yaro Starak, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, the president of Botswana.

Update on 13th August 2008: After watching a few videos of his interviews on Youtube, I MUST add to the list: Will Smith

Salutations. This page has been created with two purposes in mind:

1) To encourage media outlets to get in contact with the Displaced African

In a nutshell, if your media outlet is doing good work and you want to interview me or get in touch with me, I am available 24/7 as long as I receive prior notification of 24 hours or more.

So send me an email now at masmilele@thedisplacedafrican.com or check out my contact page and let’s get talking.

2) To post up all the press that the Displaced African receives and all its media appearances:

I don’t want to have to stop churning out content in the intended order or interrupt the regularly scheduled programming of the blog every time I appear in the media.

And so I have created this page which I will update every time I make a media appearance that I can publicly share. Check on this place regularly as I intend on media and media appearances becoming a big part of the Displaced African blog.

Media and Press Appearances

My cash flow muse, got a front page chance to display its merit when it was featured on the 4th biggest Internet marketing blog on Earth ( 50,000 daily RSS readers+), Entrepreneur’s Journey. Check out the article below:

The 7 Secrets To A Successful Podcast

On 21st December 2008, after a period where I had tried for months, without any effort, one of my articles got featured on Global Voices Online. It was:

Why I Blog About Africa?

Featured on the Homepage of the African Bulletin on September 2008

Thanks to Caroline Atieno, a writer from the African Bulletin and a comrade in arms for not only putting my press release on the homepage of the African Bulletin in September 2008 but also getting me a monthly spot on their newspaper. Asante sana!

ii) I was then featured again on November 2008:

Relocating to Africa from African Bulletin Nov 2008

iii) December 2008:

7 Reasons Why Men Reject Women

Featured in the Pilot Episode of Real Talk (Interviewed 30th August 2008)

Susan Kariuki featured me in the first episode of her show Real Talk

Interviewed by Capital FM on July 9th 2008

A great 30 minute interview with Linda that was featured on Urban Nites on Capital FM. I recorded this myself by recording the live stream of Capital FM and then cutting it up in an amateur fashion: the content is still 100% intact and hearable:

My Interview with SARFM Radio in New York

As a result of my press release being featured on African Loft, I got a call from the lovely Pamela Stitch all the way in New York and we managed to record this fun interview where we cover aspects of my immigrant life, interracial relationships, Heidi Klum and Seal:

This lead to my having:

A Regular Show on SARFM Radio

Every third Sunday at 5 a.m. (GMT+10h) as of 17th August 2008, I have my own segment, with Pamela Stich, on SARFM Radio where I would share insights and we will discuss diasporian issues:

17th August 2008 show:

Pamela Stich Moved to zim NET radio…….and so I followed

Listen to our first show. Very open, very free flowing discussion about things which I am far from an expert:

11th November 2008(To be honest I am not sure of the exact date it went up but it went up during this week):

Metro Zimbabwe Writeup

Pammy did a write-up after our show on Metro Zimbabwe:

Could Your Man Be Cheating?

My first ever appearance on Capital FM

Linda and the Urban Nites team talk about and send some love to the Displaced African.

I talked about it in the article below:

Listen Now to the Displaced African’s Appearance on Capital FM in Kenya

Enough Rope with Andrew Denton on ABC TV

In November of 2008, I applied and I was accepted onto the Guestbook of the ABC Show, Enough Rope with Andrew Denton ( which is part of my maniacal plan to get featured on the show before it ends forever, mwah ha ha ha ha ha)

The ABC Australia Logo

My First Appearance as a Guest Columnist on Afrik, the English version.

Find the first article I submitted here:

Barrack Obama: A role model or simply an empty symbol

This article was adapted and based on my earlier article:

The Empty Symbol That is Barrack Obama

My Guest Post to One of the Largest Websites in Nigeria according to Alexa.com, Naija Ecash:

3 Blogging Secrets Learned from My First 5 Months of Blogging

My Appearance on the Website, Kenyan Jewels:

They featured the press release I sent them:

Kenyan Jewel: Tony Njanja (Australia)

My Press Release Featured on African Loft:

Displaced African Press Release

My media and podcast page on African Loft:

Masmilele Page on Africanloft

My press release was featured on the site African Path

The Displaced African Press Release

One of the writers of African Path, Benin Mwangi was gracious enough to say some kind things about Mwangi, the Displaced African and the Displaced African podcast.

My appearance on the Nairobi Star Newspaper:

It all started with the interview below:

Nairobi Star’s Grace Kerogo Interviews Mwangi

And ended with this article (please ensure that you have Adobe Reader to read the article), where unfortunately the name of my site was mispelled. First media appearance for me and so I was thankful and didn’t really care.

Nairobi Star Article featuring the Displaced African

The Weird Way In Which I Ended Up Mentioned on the East African Standard

Follow the trail beginning here:

M Does Not Stand for Mwangi: Mwangi Stands for Mwangi » The Displaced African

My First Guest Post on Kenya Imagine

It all started when I got contacted by Kenya Imagine:

A Cause for Celebration: Have a Great Day!

And Julia from Kenya Imagine asked me to bring my debate to Kenyan Imagine:

Why Stereotypes Can Be Good and What we are Taught about Formalized Education Sucks?

And I have since had quite an interesting, controversy, debate filled time over there:

The Case For a Formal Education

Stereotypes and Formalized Education: Good Thing or Bad Thing

So, Do African Men Only End Up with Obese Western Women?

My Feature on Kabissa

The website Kabissa featured a link to my post where I described RSS and talked about the benefits of using it.

My Interview with Yaro Starak

Here,Yaro Starak, who has more than 30,000 readers of his own on the blog Entrepreneur’s Journey, interviews me regarding my participation in his Blog Mastermind program.

As a result of this interview I got featured on my first ever sales page, the Blog Mastermind sales page

George Ukomadu from the Afropolitan Experience interviewed me and featured this blog on his site. Much thanks and love.

To stay a part of the Displaced African (tDA) community as it continues to grow, subscribe to the site via RSS or email.

Professional Images of the blog’s head writer,Mwangi

]]> http://www.thedisplacedafrican.com/2008/07/the-displaced-africans-media-and-press-appearances/feed/ 0 http://www.thedisplacedafrican.com/2008/07/listen-now-to-the-displaced-africans-appearance-on-capital-fm-in-kenya/ http://www.thedisplacedafrican.com/2008/07/listen-now-to-the-displaced-africans-appearance-on-capital-fm-in-kenya/#comments Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:03:07 +0000 Mwangi http://www.thedisplacedafrican.com/?p=440

Before I Get to the Main Attraction

1) For some reason, the sidebar of the website isn’t working as it should, i.e. on the homepage, it isn’t there, it drops all the way to the bottom of the article. I am aware of the problem and am on it and thanks for patience dealing with that.

2) I am going to be interviewed on Capital FM next week and for any of you who are fans of SARFMRADIO in New York, they called me and asked for an interview too, so look out for me on that too. Yay! Too too blessed.

Back to the Script

As I spoke about a few days ago, the Displaced African (tDA) was talked about on one of the largest radio station’s in Kenya, Capital FM, during their show, Urban Nites. Thanks to everyone who showed much love and to those of you who asked for a recording here it is:

The Displaced African on Urban Nites

There are some areas where there is brief silence and brief music, that’s just to give the track some breathing room before the talking starts, once you press play there is no need to forward for the entire duration of the track.

Some Thoughts

The folks at Capital did me a huge service not only because they put me on the air, but because they:

a) Made the website sound much bigger than even I thought it was, which now gives me super morale to keep moving and growing to expand and beat these expectations.

b) They gave me a lot of ideas for articles that need to be written.

c) They reminded me what this blog is all about, which I sometimes forget.

To stay a part of the tDA as it continues to grow, make sure you stay up to date via either free email or RSS updates. To learn just what RSS is, click here.

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwas

Hey,

Just received the email about 15 minutes ago. In about three hours- on Tuesday 1st July 2008 at 3 a.m. (GMT +3h)- I am going to be on the show Urban Nites on Capital FM in Nairobi, Kenya.

Capital FM, for those who don’t know, is one of the largest radio stations in Kenya.

So please:

1) Listen in

2) Show your support

3) Say a silent “Yay!” with me and

4) Say wassup and thanks to Linda of Capital FM for showing the website some love: Cheers for that

To listen to Capital FM live on the Internet click here

Gaaddzoooks! I am the fastest talking person I have ever listened to. Thank God I know this early, now I can learn-how-to-speak-slow, and I don’t have to learn this one day when I have a radio interview organized with the largest radio show in some country.

Anyway this is the guy who is teaching me how I can make a living writing the Displaced African (I can’t recommend Yaro highly enough.To learn more about Yaro check out his free book, Blog Profits Blueprint). Give me feedback on how I can improve my interview technique, I am currently in the process of trying to get into the media and I want to make sure I am the best interview subject EVER.

Now that you have seen my face, you are free to stalk me as long as you stalk me bearing gifts

Back to Business: Brain Drain vs Brain Circulation

Check out this article from Out of Africa about Africa’s brain drain. I think the quote below definitely takes top prize as sobering thought of the day:

DESPITE a general upward trend in economic and social growth in Africa, massive brain drain continues to its take toll on the continent, with analysts claiming that it has the same effects as the slave trade and is worse than colonialism.

From the same article, I got this BBC news report: check out the ideas on brain circulation: yet another model worth emulating me thinks.

To stay connected to the thoughts of someone who talks so fast, subscribe by RSS or join the free email list to get daily updates.

Mwangi

As a member of the blogging community I got introduced to the technology of Real Simple Syndication (RSS). Below, I thought I would explain to you the benefits of RSS and why YOU should use RSS in your day to day life.It’s (just a little) over 7 minutes and has a surprising twist at the end…….

For those of you who don’t know How RSS works, I have created a video that shows you how you can quickly and easily begin using the free RSS technology. You can find the video in two parts below.

And of course, at the end of watching these videos, don’t forget to subscribe to the Displaced African’s RSS feed.

I interrupt the scheduled festivities to say two things:

1) Thanks to Majonzi for sharing my contact details with Kenya Imagine ( www.kenyaimagine.com ) .

2) After speaking to “Kenya Imagine”, we are now at a stage where I may very well end up becoming a regular contributor to that site.

What makes this so school is that this so far is a phenomenal week:

a) Displaced African readership has grown this week.

b)I am getting that feeling that the Displaced African is becoming its own mini-web community

c) I am going to see the Soweto Gospel Choir this Friday (click on the link and listen to them croon) and;

d) One of my favourite thinkers is in town, Erwin Mcmanus.

In short, I’m in a helluva good mood right now, so make sure you have a fantastic day, week and lifetime. OK!!!

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwangi

Update: Please make sure you check out an experiment very near and dear to my heart, Seinlife’s 30 day attempt at clean eating (and she has colourful pictures too )

Hello hello hello,

I got to thinking recently and said to myself:

It would be really cool if one of my readers wrote a guest post.

So, in short, that is what I need help with. Now as I write this, I have already contacted a few of you and asked if you are ready, willing and able to contribute a guest post to tDA. Now I see some of you asking,

But Mwangi, whatever shall I write about?

I Am Glad You Asked

Seeing as this is the blog dedicated to happiness and peace of mind of Africans in the diaspora AND a lot of y’all, actually most of you reading, are in the diaspora, I would love to know about your experiences and especially the things you have learned along the way. Some of the formats that this article can take are:

a) Top 7 Things I Have Learned Living in Sydney/ Boston/ Coppanhagen etc etc

b) The Story of the Day You Knew You Were an African Immigrant

c) Story of a Day You Triumphed Over Adversity

d) Whatever you feel about writing about, as long as it teaches other people something.

But What If I Am Shy About Talking About Myself

If that is the case, then allow me to recommend that you write a rebuttal post to one of my more controversial posts. Feel free to call me a naive, badly chopped, lemon-head if you please, as long as your rebuttal helps other people. The more controversial posts in the history of the Displaced African are:

a) Jungle Fever: The Relationship Between African Men and White Women

b) Promiscuity Making a Man a Stud and a Woman a Whore IS NOT a Double Standard. Here’s Why?

c) The Empty Symbol That is Barrack Obama

d) For the Ladies: Stop Complaining

Anyway, I am really looking forward to seeing what people can come up with. My first ever guest post, 7 Barriers to an Immigrant’s Success, did very well and is one of the most read articles in the history of this blog.

Let me sign off here by saying:

If you are tempted by the idea and not quite sure whether or not you should. DO IT! I had no idea what I was doing when I first started writing this blog, but in retrospect it’s turned out pretty OK. Plus, I do not bite

To finish off: You see, people aren’t only ignorant about the complexity of Africa. Watch below and be amazed! Thanks Caustic Blonde for bringing this brilliant piece of television to my attention.

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwangi