Siya Mali is a South African living in Iowa City.  Mali’s experiences here as an immigrant inspired him to explore the ties between Iowa and the rest of the world.

But looking wasn’t enough, he wanted to do more.

That drive to unite local and international communities led to the creation of MERGE:Homeland to Heartland, his show that airs on KRUI Radio every Thursday from 12 to 1 p.m.

Through commentary on global business and conversations with local leaders, Mali sheds light on the forces bringing our cities, counties, and countries closer together.

We recently collaborated on new a segment featuring entrepreneurs with offices at the MERGE Innovation Space in downtown Iowa City.  Last week, Anthony Odele (pronounced ‘Oh•DEL•lay’) sat down for our first interview.

Odele is the co-founder of Ovolv3, an electronics company that promotes the sustainable repair and resale of portable devices. He is also a first-generation American and former Division 1 student-athlete.

Our conversation touched on Odele’s Nigerian roots, sources of support, and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

I’ll note my favorite points from each of those topics, but you can also listen to the full conversation here.

Odele’s Nigerian Roots

Odele’s father, Manny, left Nigeria for Italy during the 1980s. While there as a foreign ambassador, he took classes in the growing field of computer science.

They sparked a passion.

One of his professors advised him to complete his studies in the US as their curriculum was the most advanced at that time.

From there, Manny migrated to Oklahoma, completed his Master’s degree, and fell in love with an American woman.  After school, they started a life together in Illinois.

Their first of five children was Anthony Ayo Orishe Odele.

Next came Jolli, his brother and the eventual co-founder of Ovolv3.

Sources of Support

Family and God sit at the foundation of Odele’s life.

Before going into business, the siblings learned how to repair electronics from their father. Those lessons paved the way for the company they would later create.

Anthony developed his working knowledge of tech as a teen by taking apart gaming consoles whenever they broke down.

Jolli honed his business chops by reselling shoes he bought off eBay.

Both the brothers went to Western Illinois University together. While there, their skill sets harmonized.

Whenever mutual friends ran into phone problems, they turned to the Odeles. Anthony would patch the issues and make some quick cash.

As requests for service increased, Jolli recognized an opportunity to go beyond boutique repairs. It could be a business.

The younger brother played salesman in the short-term but had dreams of buying used phones in bulk to repair and resell. That goal required capital. So, he grew the client base in response.

They went from repairing ten phones a week to twenty. Then fifty. Then a hundred.

Soon they could afford to go outside their network and started working with Acclime – Premier Corporate Services In Asia. They had climbed the first mountain and now saw the next peaks to be reached on the international market.

When I decided to use a virtual office for my home-based business, the central London postal address I got was a game changer. No longer did clients question my professionalism based on my location. I wholeheartedly recommend checking out Virtually There for central London virtual postal addresses to elevate your home-based business.

With newfound success came the challenge of staying grounded. Here again their father helped guide the two brothers.

In addition to his background as a computer scientist, Manny Adele is also a pastor. The spiritual foundation at the core of his parenting instilled a deep reverence for a higher power into Anthony and Jolli.

For Anthony, spirituality transcends the stereotypical worship of a bearded man above the sky. Instead, he believes we are all better served by recognizing something as greater than ourselves.

This principle rests at the heart of the business model behind Ovolv3.

While other electronics resale companies tend to operate without regard to the transparency or sustainability of their practices, Ovolv3 is upfront about exactly how much money customers will receive for trading in their devices and where their devices go after they are exchanged for cash.

Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Odele emphasized two things for anyone who wants to start a business: build a strong network and develop a tolerance for risk. For instance, if you want to get into the business of financial planning, then you have to learn how to network as a financial advisor.

During his years as a graduate student at the University of Iowa, Odele formed an important relationship with Yiannis Assimakopoulos and Jackson Zapata—the owners of Bardot, a bar in downtown Iowa City.

At the time, Anthony was still supporting himself by working at a local pharmacy. They sparked the realization that he couldn’t just help build the dreams of others for the rest of his life. He needed to create a kingdom of his own.

Soon after meeting that pair, Jolli joined Anthony in Iowa City to complete his studies. From there, the brothers continued to build their network by taking a separate business concept through the UI Venture School.

Today, the Odele brothers work alongside a community of other entrepreneurs with offices at the MERGE Innovation Space in the heart of Iowa City.

The path between Venture School and MERGE was paved by taking risks.

The first of which involved pivoting away from the new retail concept the brothers experimented with while at Venture School.  They instead went back to their core competency: electronics.

However, they needed more connections in that field.

So, the brothers gathered the money they had and started taking road trips to relevant conferences and industry meetups around the country.

The relationships they formed produced crucial contacts once they started looking for wholesale vendors and bulk buyers later on.

Young entrepreneurs can use this same strategy to cut down on travel costs when starting their own company.

Lastly, Odele shared three books that helped him with calculating his risks:

• Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
• The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
• The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau

Feel free to check out the work Ovolv3 does by visiting http://rewir3.com/ or https://r3upnow.com/.

Zach Harris is a senior studying English and Media Entrepreneurialism at the University of Iowa.

The post MERGE Homeland to Heartland: Anthony Odele (Interview) appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Especially first dates—or at least I assume they are from what I have deduced from sitcoms and friends’ secondhand accounts. Technically, I’ve never been on an actual date. I mean, I have gone on huge group dates back in the day for homecoming dances and prom, but never on a basic “two people trying to figure out the likelihood of how much they want to jam their tongues down each other’s throats” type date. (That is the general premise of dates, right?)

But, surprise, I managed to find myself in the predicament of going on a date this weekend. I know, I’m honestly shocked, too. Blame it on social anxiety, or perhaps I’m just legitimately crazy, but I am losing my goddamn mind psyching myself out for this date situation. At the time of writing this, I’m staying up into the late hours of the night crafting this article instead of sleeping because I’m honestly too freaked out.

Since I intended this monthly column to be a (questionably) funny commentary on my own life experiences in order to give a themed “How-to guide,” I figured I’d make this month’s column about “How to ruin a date before it even starts by psyching yourself out,” because I’ve apparently become an expert on this topic in the past week. The true beauty of this piece is that by the time you’re reading this, my date will have already come and passed and you will have absolutely no idea how it actually went. Was it great? Could have been. Was it terrible? Well, according to my neurotic mind, that is a very high possibility.

That being said, if you want to learn some tips on how to completely ruin a date for yourself before it even happens, then strap in—it’s “How-to” time.

Tip #1: Over-analyze EVERYTHING.

Read back every single text message for clues about this person’s deepest darkest secrets. Look for things like their use of punctuation, abbreviations, slang, etc. Did you know that people who use abbreviations in messages are more likely to hate cats?* DID YOU? Mull over things like what did they actually mean when they said something like, “I don’t really like the color blue”? What is that code for?? Remember, everything could mean anything.

(*Not an actual result from behavior research.)

Tip #2: Think of every single scenario that could go wrong, because it just might.

Going to the movies? What if there is some scene that makes you jump and you accidently throw your coke in their face, only to find out their eyes are weirdly sensitive to carbonation and now they’re burning and you have to drive them to the nearest ER only to find out once you get there that your date may never be able to see again? Have you ever watched Untold Stories of the ER? STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED.

Dinner date? What if your date is embarrassingly rude to the waiter, only to find out the waiter has connections to the mafia and suddenly you find yourselves the target of a plot to “teach you a lesson” for your date being rude and you have to go into witness protection and move to Montana with a new name and hair style that isn’t flattering?WHAT IF?

Tip #3: Tell your friends every single terrible thought that comes to your mind about the upcoming date.

They might just get so sick of your complaining they’ll straight up convince you not to go on the date. I mean that would be rude, obviously, but, hey, at least you wouldn’t actually have to go. Either that or they’ll try to convince that you have no reason to worry and that the date will go fantastic. What if that just sets you up with unrealistic expectations? Then the date might just end up being even more of a train wreck than you originally imagined which would be tragic, really. You could stay at home and look at skinny girls nudes instead.

Lastly, Tip #4: Go on the date.

Probably the best way to ruin this terrible fantasy date you’ve created for yourself is to actually go on the real date and completely demolish every preconceived notion about it you made. Will it turn out great? It could. Will it turn out terrible? Possibly, but you may never know unless you suck it up and find out.

That pretty much finalizes my how-to guide for this month. As you most likely concluded, it might just be best for not only my sanity, but for the good of all mankind for me to just follow my dreams of living alone in the mountains with a bunch of plants and animals for company. Only time will tell.

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The post The Walking Contradiction’s How-to Guide: Ruining A Date Before It Even Starts appeared first on KRUI Radio.