How Kajumba discovered her passion for life coaching

The attribute you first notice about Ruthida Kajumba is her beauty. Hers is the face that belongs in beauty contests and magazine covers. Which is why it is surprising that the very next thing you will observe about her is the humble shy-girl aura.
Her voice, which initially seems to be projecting inhibition and coyness, instantly proves to be strong, steadfast and masterful. She talks with the sort of gentleness and thoughtfulness that captures your attention and strings you along effortlessly. It is this dexterity that she infuses in her work as a life coach; to help women discover their authentic success blueprint.

Defining success
“I help self-driven, ambitious women to get their lives back on track. I help them define their success so that they can design and live a balanced, happy, meaningful, productive, more relaxed and fulfilled life that is authentic to them,” Kajumba says.
It all started in early 2011 with a question from her three-year-old daughter. She was driving her to school when suddenly, with a sullen face, the little child asked, “Mummy, will you pick me from school today?” Upon that utterance from the little babe, Kajumba broke down and cried. Not wanting to lie, Kajumba told her she wouldn’t be able. She told her that she could pray and ask Jesus to give mummy a job that would allow her to pick her up from school.

Unfulfilled and guilty
Kajumba had on several occasions heard from the school that her daughter was very sad. Reports were that she would cry all the way home on the school shuttle, saying she wanted mummy. This would turn out to be a constant source of heartbreak for Kajumba. Though she held an MBA and was very successful at her job, she was unhappy, unfulfilled and guilty that she didn’t have enough time for her child.
By the time the question came that chilly April morning, Kajumba knew exactly where it was coming from. And right there and then, Kajumba decided she would quit her job soon. There was another child on the way and she needed the freedom to be there for them. She decided she would to do something else that would give her freedom to look after her children. While still working her hectic marketing job in Kampala, she started testing the waters.
“I started a blog in May 2011. It was a beauty blog. I had heard that if you work really hard at a blog, you can earn decent money from it. I also knew that a blog would be the kind of business you can run from home while you look after the children,” Kajumba says.

Venturing into online business
In August 2011, Kajumba left her formal job to grow her online business of blogging and network marketing. Alongside a beauty blog, she started a marketing success blog.
“At the peak of my hustle, I worked an average of 18 hours a day, seven days a week. Twice I did 24 hours straight. I slept four hours a night and felt guilty if I slept more. I had heard it from somewhere that rich people only sleep for four hours. I told myself that if I was to be rich, I had better start behaving like rich people. To me, being rich meant being successful. I worked so hard at network marketing that at some point I became the country supplier for the international company,” Kajumba says.

Prioritising work
As a result, Kajumba was not spending quality time with her family. Which was ironic because that was the reason she quit the 8-to-5 job. She had got into a vicious cycle of work that she had no time for herself. She was always locked up in her bedroom, working. Family and friends were complaining. On top of lacking the all-important social life, she was stressed by the fact that she was not making nearly as much money as she initially thought she would. Yet she was working extremely hard and sacrificing everything. The result was a feeling of complete lack of fulfilment. Again.
Consequently, in 2014 Kajumba fell sick. Her body was buckling under the accumulating exhaustion. While she was literally at the cusp of mortality, doctors were telling her she had no major sickness. But they kept mentioning stress.

Insane schedule
Her overwhelming work life had taken a toll on her health. Yet there were no remedies in the hospital. Technically, this meant she was going to die; at least in her mind.
“That sickness made me realise I lived an empty and unfulfilled life. I fought for my life through prayer and God’s Word,” Kajumba says.
She got hold of those the words from the Bible and made a decision to live a fulfilling, abundant life. Though she had no clear picture of what that was at the time, she consciously started a journey of setting intentions to improve her life.

Starting a boutique
In 2015, the network marketing company she had worked so hard for collapsed. She had been the country supplier. Suddenly, this nice shop in a lucrative business centre had no merchandise. The fighter in her did not want to give up such a great opportunity for business. So she started a fashion-accessories boutique in the same space.
“While operating the shop, it broke my heart to see women fail to buy a pair of shoes they fancied because they could not afford it. One particular lady wanted a bag so badly that she came on two several occasions, but she could not afford the bag. I felt sorry for her,” she says.
Many such instances kept happening. And with every successive one, a voice kept telling Kajumba to do something to help. “Ruthida you have been online for a long time. Why don’t you go back online and help women make money so they can have the financial freedom to afford what they want?” she thought.

Supporting women in business
The budding idea kept growing. Kajumba felt a strong urge to help women in business to grow online so they could turn in more profit. She knew so much about marketing, having done it all her working life. She knew a lot about online marketing having done affiliate marketing for international brands in her four years of workaholic craze.
Kajumba soon resumed her online passion in 2016. Kajumba enrolled for an online coaching course and used her new found skills to coach her online followers in sales and online marketing.
“I realised I was getting good at this when people started writing back, telling me how my ideas had worked for them. For the first time, I was beginning to feel fulfilled. I felt I was being pulled into a different direction. I was a business coach and felt strongly being pulled into life transformation coaching. Which was such a big challenge because I had invested a lot of time and money in business coaching,” she says.
By making little steps daily, to improve her own life, Kajumba finally discovered her own life-purpose. Helping other people transform their lives was bringing her more fulfilment than anything else in life. The next natural step was to enrol for a course to become a certified life coach.

Success is subjective
In her quest for self-actualisation, she had come to the conclusion that success is subjective. Many otherwise successful people feel very unsuccessful because of comparing themselves to those they deem successful. The deception is that the grass always seems greener on the other side. “I wanted my followers to live purposeful and fulfilled lives while on their journey to achieving the success they desire,” she says.
Having found the ever-elusive key to happiness, Kajumba now wants to show her fellow women how they can successful lives, live according to their own terms and boldly pursue their truest desires without fear, self-doubt or seeking external validation.

Meaningful life
“You can live a balanced successful, happy, meaningful and more relaxed life that is authentic to you. I believe the worst thing that can happen to anyone is to go to the grave feeling unfulfilled. I got to that point and I know how miserable it feels. I want every woman to be the queen of their life,” she says.
The 42-year-old is married and a mother of three. She is content, as a mother, that she sacrificed her time to be available for her children during their formative years.
Today, even though she still works for long hours, Kajumba says she is no longer an overwhelmed wreck because she lives a much more organised and well-planned life. She runs a coaching and consulting firm from home.
“Fulfillment comes from finding your own life-purpose, defining what success means to you and striking a balance between work, family and other aspects of life that are important to you,” Kajumba says.

Success
“I got to a point where I meditated on the true meaning of success. And that is how I got my breakthrough. There is an illusion of success that has been projected. You must be at a certain financial level, living in a certain kind of house, driving a certain car, travelling to Dubai for holidays. The list is endless. And I realised that a lot of people get so depressed when they find that they cannot catch up. “People work so hard to achieve this elusive image of success. Financial success at the expense of other aspects of your life is imaginery. What is the point of a fat bank account when you feel empty, overwhelmed, unfulfilled and exhausted?” she wonders.