“Black stories matter, foreign stories matter too.”

mo Abdu is forbes 100 Most Powerful Women in the World List and 2022 Winners forbes 50 Over 50: EMEA list. She earned a spot on both lists for her EbonyLife Media, the media production company she founded, and for her successful production of articles about people on the African continent.

Abdu wasn’t always an entrepreneur. She worked her way up the corporate ladder in the oil and gas sector until she finally landed a job leading human resources at ExxonMobil. But when she woke up one day when Abudu was in her mid-40s, she found herself ready to do more than work from nine to five. noticed, she says. She dabbled in entrepreneurship by starting a human resources consulting firm, but soon after, first as a talk show host and then in 2012, when she was the founder of EbonyLife, she started her career in the world of media entertainment. I jumped into

Today, EbonyLife’s founding story and diversification strategy is a Harvard Business School case study, and the company itself is Netflix’s largest partner in Africa.

Abudu recently asked ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath to reflect on the early days of EbonyLife. She “collects business cards and sends emails and nothing happens” – and how her strategy of continuing to knock on the doors of the industry’s biggest co-producers and distributors began to pay off.

“It’s about being in the right place at the right time and being able to tell the right story at the right time, when the world is ready to listen,” she says.

Abdu gave me forbes Exclusive details about our new media partnership with award-winning actor Idris Elba and how she will help us fulfill our mission to bring more African stories to our global platform. Do you want it? You can watch the full conversation here: