IKANA DANIEL AKPATA'S INTERVIEW ON LAVOMINE.COM

Special Feature: Meet Ikana Daniel Akpata: Beauty, Brains, Skills... ON LAVOMINE.COM

Ok I decided to share this interview here, so you guys can know a little more about the strong woman behind, beside and with Daniel Akpata (The Love Doctor). By the way this interview was done last year by Bunmi Babalola owner of www.lavomine.com. Let me add, she very good with what she does.

Ikana, Daniel Akpata

Mentoring

In an unusual PhotoSpeak/talk talk session, I feature Mrs Daniel Akpata, an amazingly sweet lady (I've thought of her as 'sweet' ever since I met her, she just comes across as nothing less than).


I dare say she's every man's dream of a home-maker, but sorry *mounts 'no road' sign* and she's got plenty certificates too! She's a happy mother and wife who has given her life to helping others attain the same happiness she's known in their own relationships/marriage. She's married to radio's only crazy blunt love Doctor, Daniel Akpata (if you have a radio and you haven't heard of him, oh well, you might need to check if it's a radio you actually do have. Hehe!) and together they run their own relationship gig, holding regular relationship summits in different parts of town, doing what they can to help build a healthy nation through building emotionally sound individuals in healthy relationships - and by extension happy homes.

Amigos mia, fasten your seatbelts as we take a (rather long) ride with Ikana Daniel Akpata, the one girl I'm sure made many others pull their hair/eyelashes out when she made the love Doctor say 'I do' *evil grin*

...remind me to tell you my version of their love story sometime...hehe...oh yes! I was there. Alright! Let's go!

Who is Ikana?
I am a married woman from Calabar in Cross River state, based in Lagos. Studied at University of Calabar. I am beautiful (in and out), very disciplined, outstanding and married to a God fearing, loving and most good looking young man. Blessed with a beautiful daughter. Three words describe me: Disciplined, Determined, Driven.

I have the young people at heart, always teaching and sharing with them the essence of being in a relationship and how to handle pressures from the opposite sex. I'm God fearing and loving, always smiling and making others happy. I also do a lot of reality/motivational speaking.

Your CV in a few sentences...? lol
I'm a certified relationship expert, Marriage Mentor/Coach. I'm the vice president of Black Diamond Consult and one of its Consulting Partners. Trained with Twogether Forever Ministry, Stafford Texas, USA and I have been counseling for over 8 years. A certified Event planner, a blogger and also manage people.

How did you get into relationship/marriage mentoring?
It’s always been there. I always had married/single people talking to me about their challenges in their homes/relationships and one way or the other the tips I provide them with always worked out. Then I met my husband and he happens to do the same thing, so it wasn’t difficult getting to do it fully.

So what's it been like? What makes it worth it?
It’s been great, I mean awesome! Especially when I see young people who are determined to do their relationship/marriage the right way. In every of my sessions there is always an experience to share. The joy and fulfillment I derive from it makes it worth it.

And the most inconvenient part of being a relationship coach would be...?

Saying the same time over and over again to different people. You keep going back, you know, always having to repeat myself. I spend a whole lot of time doing that.

How long have you been married, Ikana?
Four years.

Daniel has used this same profile pic since 2011 #BusStopThingz

Could you give us a very short version of your love story?
Hmmm! Well all I can say is I married my friend, the most romantic part in our love story is he didn’t do the usual proposal thing. You know, like will you marry me or be my wife etc. He just said, "I wanna get married on my birthday", believe me I had no idea he was talking about marrying me because I was very comfortable being his friend and I was like hmmm, who? Because I don’t know her and he said, "you!".... Wow! My heart was... well I can’t really describe that feeling because you feel it and not say it. And then he gave me a white gold necklace. Now that necklace is a part of me. I only removed it when I was having our daughter and immediately wore it right after. And the sweetest thing is, we met August and were married by December.

(Hmmn, nice move, Love Doctor)

As an expert, who do you say tends to have more work to do in keeping a relationship afloat? And why?
Both parties have work to do. But extra work can come from the guy or babe, depending on their temperaments and Love languages.

How's that?
For temperaments, if a babe happens to date a Sanguine guy she will have more work to do and vice-versa. If a guy happens to be with a choleric babe and he’s a melancholy, the guy would have more work to do and vice-versa.

Audience @ the last Relationship Summit

Now our love languages are different, so a guy whose babe’s love language is Act of Service has lot of work to do if he’s naturally the lazy type and vice-versa. A babe who's rarely-to-never around but has a guy whose love language is Quality Time has a whole lot of work to do to keep their relationship afloat. So you understand now when I said both parties have work to do depending on who they are.

Interesting. Who do you learn from/listen to?
My first mentor is Shola Odutola. He guided me well in most of my decisions as a young person back then, and then I met Pastor Ojo Emmanuel, a man who helped me through thick times in my relationship. And then came one man who overtook the others; my sweet husband, and the list keeps increasing.

Now you would expect my parents to be my mentors, right? Well, they are my parents and not my mentors.

You must understand that by virtue of marriage, all my husband’s mentors automatically become mine too + we found new mentors too. So I have Patrick Adenusi, Bridget Elesin, Pamela Evbota, Vic & May Victor, and Praise Fowowe.

Do you do anything outside relationship/marriage coaching?
Yes. I'm a certified event planner and CEO of Hungry Bellies. I'm also a professional stage/screen actor with knowledge in Radio/TV presentation, been on screen for a couple of soap operas/comedy like Super Story and Papa Ajasco. I also co-anchored Youth Mag on Radio Continental for some months. Presently, asides Coaching/Mentoring people on relationship/marriage, I manage people.

So how do you manage being married to a 'popular' husband who's always dealing with matters of the heart?
I'm sure you know that’s one difficult management job, but it’s easy because we do it together, and I'm in the picture of every counseling he does.

The biggest lesson life has taught you?
Never give up on your set goals.

Three quick tips to staying in love?
Friendship, openness and communication.

Celebrating One year of impacting Relationships

Alright! There you heard it from the pro. Babe nearly turned my twInterview into a relationship class, ei? Yeah, all her responses are spot on, couldn't just edit much out. Well, that's how you know the experts; it's not a job, it's a calling, and it shows. For more relationship guidance, you can hook up with Ikana on twitter @ikasoe1, or send an email to ikanadaniel@gmail.com to find out when the Black Diamond relationship summit train is stopping in your hood.

Credited to: Bunmi Babalola (www.lavomine.com)

Mail: lavomine@gmail.com 
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