Hello everyone. I had a fabulous time sitting at the feet of Lady Aba Cato Andah on Mind Your Business. May it give you as much inspiration as it did to me.
Here is a summary, definitely watch the video though…
Ama Duncan (AD): Hello Lady Aba. I’m so excited to have you here today talking to us. To start with, kindly tell us something we don’t know about you yet.
Aba Cato Andah (ACA): Alright. Let me start with what you do know and then talk about what you don’t know. My name is Aba Cato Andah. What you do know is, a lead I took from your book (Yarns of inspiration I) which I’ve adopted is that I’m a fabulous child of God. I’m a wife, I’m a mother, I’m a mother in-law. In terms of what I do to serve and impact the world, I’m a therapist, author and a podcast host. What is one thing people don’t know about me? I can be very silly and fun-loving. I also laugh a lot and love to see the humour in situations because I believe laughter is good medicine.
AD: Confession; I first fell in love with you when you shared the story about how your family survived a hurricane. And I was so excited when you talked about it again in your book, Reflections of a Hope Monger. At the time when this was happening, was there ever a point where you doubted if God would come through?
ACA: For those who haven’t read the book yet, I live in Florida where hurricanes happen often. This particular one was called Hurricane Irma. The news was forecasting doom; they were forecasting lives to be lost and so we began taking precautions. I invited my university roommate to come lodge with us as our city was originally forecasted to be safe. We invited my brother and his family as well. Unfortunately, when they arrived, the forecast changed and the hurricane was coming to strike us instead! Everyone was agitated. The rains were coming, the winds were coming and I was worried as well. But that moment, God miraculously came in. God put in my heart a worship song ‘We bow down and worship Yaweh’. And we all began to just worship and worship. It was a situation where we just put our lives in God’s hands because we had no choice. And God performed a miracle; He saved us. I’m just an ordinary woman of God who spoke by faith and the Lord made it happen.
AD: Beautiful story. Now, we’re in an era where COVID-19 has changed the world a lot. Almost everything is in mayhem. So in your own personal business, how are you able to mster hope?
ACA: Firstly, I don’t hope in myself. I hope in my God. Secondly, about mastering hope, one pitfall we may experience is putting ourselves in an area of perfectionism which puts pressure on us. Hope is a changing entity, and so the point is to always have it rising; doing things to get it to rise. Another thing I also do is to take life in at a time for God’s mercy and faithfulness are renewed every morning. The best thing that ever happened to me was disabusing myself of the notion of having to be perfect. The point is, know where you are, know where you want to be and ask God for courage.
AD: In The Fabulous Woman Network, majority of us are women in business. Tell us, what has hope got to with business especially in this COVID-19 day and age?
ACA: The definition of hope is the belief and desire that your future will be better than your past and that you have a part to play in it. I can hope for someone to have a good day. But only they can decide whether they want to have a good day. So hope shows that there’s a part you have to play. Every thought affects how you feel and then it affects your behaviour. So understanding hope, it is going to get you optimistic.
Hope is what is going to help you have a better relationship with your clients and employees. And understanding that hope means there’s a role you have to play is going to help you make plans and get up each day to implement those plans towards what you want to achieve in your workplace and business. Hope can make you invest to make your business better. So yes, hope is the foundation of everything we do.
AD: In your book, Reflections of a Hope Monger, on page 84, you talked about being a “Superwomanoholic”.
ACA: My word “Superwomanoholic” is an amalgamation of two words; superwoman and alcoholic. There are certain behaviours of an alcoholic, that if you’re addicted to the notion of being a superwoman, you may find that you display. They put their life in a mess because they can’t resist alcohol and their lives just become unmanageable. And that is what a Superwomanoholic does. They strive for a certain level of perfectionism, trying to put it out to the world that they can “do it” but the truth is, deep within, their self-esteem may not be so great. Deep within, they don’t feel that they are enough. So they always have the tendency to outdo themselves. They don’t understand that you will not always win or sometimes you have to let go to make certain sacrifices. As much as we have to-do lists, we should also have to-don’t lists.
AD: Amen to that! In your book, you make English feel like an art. How did you learn to write this well?
ACA: I was actually a science student and had my first degree in Biochemistry. I guess I had a very eloquent father who hails from the Fante land. That should explain it. Another reason may also be because I was an avid reader as a child.
AD: Ah that explains it! Before we wrap up, tell us about your podcast and book and how to find it.
ACA: Reflections of a Hopemonger is available worldwide. In Ghana, it’s available on booknook.store, Booktique Ghana and Challenge Bookstore. And for the Hopemongers podcast, anywhere you get podcasts, you’ll find it there. It’s on Audible, Spotify, Apple, Podcast Addict, Google Podcast and many others.
AD: To wrap up, please fill in the blanks to the following…
If I could advice my younger self in one sentence, I would say “don’t give up on yourself, keep going, love yourself and hope”.
I am fabulous because I am a child of God. I was created for a purpose. And though I fall down and make mistakes, God picks me up and sets me back on the path. And I believe I will make it. That’s why I’m fabulous!”
One book that has greatly helped me in business is “Everything is Figuroutable! Which I read because of you!!!”
AD: Thank you so much Lady Aba. This has been so amazing. Talking with you gave me so many goosebumps which I get when powerful things are happening to me. Thank you so much for the opportunity to listen to you, thank you for being in my community and being a blessing to us! We look forward to more of your amazing books.
ACA: I also want to thank you for how much your group coaching helped me to amplify my voice and get the message out there. Thank you for showing me how to do so many things I didn’t know how to do on social media as well.
AD: Welcome
About Aba Cato Andah
Aba Cato Andah, MBA, MA, LMHC is a Christian psychotherapist, Mindset Coach and sought-after Speaker. She is the founder of Chrysalis Counseling & Coaching, a private counseling practice. The constant theme in Aba’s life and career has been her concern for the well-being of others and her love for imparting information and new insights to encourage people to live more authentic and rewarding lives. Aba is a passionate Mental Health Advocate and is a Director of Health and Wellbeing International, an NGO aimed at mental health education and promotion. Aba is the author of the book “Reflections of a Hopemonger”, which is available worldwide on Amazon. And she is the Host of the “Hopemongers” Podcast”, on all major podcast streaming platforms. Aba lives in Florida with her husband Edmund, an OB/Gyn. They are blessed with an adult son, a daughter and a daughter-in-law.
Get her book “Reflections of a Hopemonger” here https://amzn.to/3e6tnhl
Ama xx
