Networking will take you places

She is only 21, but Cynthia Nyongesa is already sure of the direction she wants her life to take. And she is working hard towards getting to her destination.

If you are an avid reader of the varied content in the digital space, then you have probably come across Cynthia Untamed, a blog that tells the inspiring stories of successful professionals in various fields – how they started their journey and how they eventually made it to the top. 

“When telling these stories, my hope is that they will inspire young people like me and challenge them to work hard and become better versions of themselves and strive to achieve much more,” she says, and adds,

“My blog basically brings mentors closer to the youth.”

Apart from this, her other goal is to show Kenya’s youth that there is a world outside lecture halls which they need to prepare for and aspire to.

Cynthia is a fourth year student of Law at the University of Nairobi. She says that to keep her blog going, she has to do some heavy networking.

She uses social media to draw the attention of the people she is interested in meeting. This can be time-consuming, bearing in mind that she still has classes to attend.

The seed to set up this blog was planted after Cynthia participated in the World Bank Blog for Development Competition, 2016.

“I saw the competition on Twitter, as I often check their updates, and decided to give it a go,” she says.

She was one of the finalists. In the competition, participants were asked to write a blog post of 500 words explaining how to create opportunities for young people in Kenya.

“My idea was founded on mentorship. I started studying, reading about and reaching out to people that I admire when I was 19 – they inspired me to dream big.

She has various mentors; they include lawyers, CEOs, media personalities and teachers.

“For example, Keziah Muthembwa, Communications Director at World Bank Kenya, helped me to learn how best to use my gift of networking, while I learnt about the concept of branding from Dr Chris Diaz, a director at Brand Kenya.”

Mrs Monica Kimei, former deputy principal of Alliance Girls, encouraged me to read about successful women, while Julie Gichuru encouraged me to go out there and not be afraid to start small – from Janet Mbugua, I learnt how to use social media to impact social change.”

 Cynthia mostly reaches out to her prospective  mentors through their social media platforms, and when they cross paths at events, she introduces herself.

For Cynthia, having good mentors is a privilege, but she appreciates that not all young people are as outgoing as she is or even as confident when they meet new people.

So far, her blog has featured Craft Silicon CEO, Kamal Budhabhatti, Wanjira Mathai, Director, Partnerships for Women’s Entrepreneurship in Renewables (wPOWER), Wangari Maathai Institute (WMI) Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Macharia Kamau, among other personalities.

Keziah Muthembwa, who she met when she participated in the World Bank Blog for Development Competition in 2016, is the one who pushed her to develop her idea further using social media, networking and branding.

“She encouraged me to go beyond Twitter conversations and start up something more sustainable. This is what made me begin to seriously think about setting up a blog.”

When she started publishing on the blog, she shared her work with everyone on her social media platforms as well as her contact list.

“I also sent journalist Zain Verjee a link to my blog and she invited me to write for her platform, akomanet.com.”

 “I wrote on this space for about five months, and even though I wasn’t getting paid for my work, it gave me a wealth of experience and opened my mind to what other young people are writing about and how else to look at my idea of mentorship and blogging,” she says.

In 2016, she was among the bloggers that were commissioned to write about various on-going government-led infrastructural projects. She was later invited to State House for the Infrastructure Summit, held in August, 8, 2016.

“I published the stories on my blog and also shared photos on social media, mostly on Twitter. I was paid for the assignment, which lasted a weekend.”

The summit, she says, gave her an opportunity to widen her networks and interact with influential people. This encounter – getting the opportunity to be on a State assignment, encouraged her to write even more.

“At the moment, I am not making money from my blog, but the opportunities that come through it, such as invitations to big corporate events are good enough for me now because I continue to build my portfolio and build my contact list,” she says.

Cynthia foresees this platform become a mega youth base that young people can use as a sounding board for their ideas.

“Hopefully, Cynthia Untamed will also grow to become a television show and this big brand in which my fellow youth can get inspired and motivated, a welcome break from politics.”

As for her education, she plans to specialise in media law and later pursue human rights issues related to social media. You go girl.