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Description
Are you performing leadership or actually leading?
Overnight Wisdom is a podcast for leaders exhausted from shapeshifting — from becoming who they think their board wants, their team needs, who their family expects or the system rewards.
Hosted by Chisom Udeze, economist, leadership strategist, and creator of the Three Clarities Framework, each episode features honest conversations with founders, CEOs, artists, and changemakers who stopped performing and discovered who they actually are as leaders.
Each week, Chisom sits down with founders, CEOs, artists, and change-makers who stopped shapeshifting and discovered who they actually are as leaders — of their work, their lives, and themselves.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to recognise when you’re performing instead of leading
- What Identity Clarity looks like (and how to develop it)
- What becomes possible when you anchor your leadership in who you actually are — not who you think you should be.
These are conversations about the deeper work of knowing yourself — so you can stop pretending and start leading. We get honest about the work that makes leadership work — whether you’re leading a team, a company, or your own life.
Thanks for being here.
New episodes every Wednesday.
Host: Chisom Udeze
Economist | Leadership Strategist | Multi-Founder
Creator of the Three Clarities Framework (Identity, Context, Power)
Founder: Chiije, Diversify, Diversify Summit, Diversify Consult, HerSpace and HerTech
Connect: chisomudeze.com | https://www.linkedin.com/in/chisomudeze/
33 Episodes
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Kubbra Sait on Identity, Power & Writing Yourself Whole What happens when you stop contorting yourself to fit into the world—and instead begin to build a life that fits you? In this deeply honest conversation, actor and author Kubbra Sait joins Chisom to reflect on her journey toward identity clarity—from surviving childhood trauma to leaving corporate life and stepping into her power as a storyteller. Together, they unpack the cost of performance, the weight of being misunderstood, and t...
In this episode, Chisom reflects on the journey of creating Overnight Wisdom — a podcast that began as an experiment in curiosity and connection and evolved into a global platform for truth-telling, wisdom, and courageous storytelling. Since launching on May 28th 2025, Chisom has released 30 consecutive weekly episodes, interviewing an extraordinary lineup of artists, activists, entrepreneurs, educators, and leaders from across the world. From conversations about legacy, grief, decolonization...
In this conversation, Chisom speaks with Jonathan Akwue about legacy, leadership, creative capital, and the business of culture. From his serendipitous family origin story to leading one of the most culturally influential agencies in the world, Jonathan shares the personal and professional threads that shaped his journey. He opens with a serendipitous account of how his Swiss mother met his Nigerian father in London in 1963 — a story of kindness, intuition, and destiny — and reflects on how g...
In this solo episode, Chisom Udeze shares a powerful extension of her leadership framework — The Three Clarities™: Identity Clarity, Context Clarity, and Power Clarity. After over a decade of working with leaders and organizations across the world, she reveals why most goals fail — not for lack of ambition, but for lack of clarity. Using real-life scenarios, including what it means to launch a product-based company like Chiije, Chisom breaks down how these three forms of clarity shape not jus...
In this one of a kind solo episode, Chisom Udeze breaks down a decade’s worth of research and lived experience into one of the most important frameworks for modern leadership: the three clarities every leader needs — identity clarity, context clarity, and power clarity. With honesty and precision, Chisom challenges the myths of performative leadership and highlights the hidden costs of unclear leadership — eroded trust, political teams, and exhausted leaders. She explores: Why identity clar...
In this powerful, emotionally honest and matter of fact episode of Overnight Wisdom, Chisom Udeze is joined by the brilliant Dr. Poornima Luthra — educator, acclaimed author, and thought leader on inclusive leadership — for a deep and necessary conversation about what it really takes to lead with values in an uncertain world. Together, they unpack what most leadership books don’t: the fear, the resistance, the unlearning. The moments when silence feels safer. And what it costs to choos...
In this heartfelt and unfiltered conversation, Chisom Udeze sits down with Astrid Sundberg, Executive Director of Operation Smile Norway to explore the evolution of leadership, from corporate ambition to mission-driven impact. Astrid brings over 30 years of experience across scale-ups, start-ups, and global organizations. Together, they unpack what it means to lead with clarity, humility, and emotional honesty, especially in a world where leadership is often caught between perform...
In this episode of Overnight Wisdom, Chisom Udeze is joined by Danish-South African ecosystem builder and leadership strategist, Thandi Dyani, to explore the evolving nature of leadership in a world shaped by disruption, cultural complexity, and systemic change. Together, they unpack: Why great leadership isn’t a title or destination, but a practice rooted in self-awareness, agility, and relational trustThe importance of unlearning and why solving tomorrow’s challenges requires letting go of ...
In this solo episode of Overnight Wisdom, Chisom sits with 11 questions sent in by listeners — thought provoking, and personal. Questions like: — How do you know when to start or stop? — Is there a strategy or blueprint for building a business? — How do you navigate fear, failure, and the weight of doing too much? She also reflects on happiness, leadership, power, and the quiet truths that don’t always get said aloud.With clarity, humour, and emotional honesty, Chisom shares the invisible par...
A Post-Summit Reflection with Chisom Udeze & Sayantani Saha In this raw and deeply honest episode of Overnight Wisdom, Chisom Udeze and Sayantani Saha sit down together—post-Diversify Summit—to unpack the emotional, financial, and logistical weight of pulling off the largest equity-focused gathering in the Nordics in a year defined by scarcity and uncertainty. With warmth, exhaustion, and truth-telling, they reflect on the paradox of doing something extraordinary while feeling under-suppo...
Shruti Ganguly is a filmmaker, writer, and creative entrepreneur whose work spans continents, cultures, and causes. In this episode of Overnight Wisdom, Shruti opens up about the life-altering loss that led her from banking to film, the complexities of navigating identity across geographies, and the discipline of building a purpose-driven creative career. We explore what it means to speak truth in an industry not built for you, how to lead with both clarity and empathy, and the quiet power of...
In this deeply reflective and expansive conversation, Dr. Yaba Blay — cultural critic, scholar, and author — joins Chisom Udeze to explore identity, race, and beauty through the lens of lived experience, history, and consciousness. Born in New Orleans to Ghanaian parents, Dr. Blay shares how growing up between cultures shaped her worldview — never fully “of” one place but belonging to both. She reflects on what it means to be first-generation, living between Ghanaian heritage and American cul...
In this solo episode, Overnight Wisdom host Chisom Udeze steps away from her usual seat as interviewer to share her own story — the lessons, losses, and wisdom behind about two decades of building. From founding a school in Nigeria, to leading global consulting work, to creating one of her companies, HerSpace — a women’s community born during the pandemic — Chisom reflects on what it means to build with purpose and to start over after things fall apart. She opens up about what didn’t work: ...
Wanjira Mathai is a formidable force in environmental advocacy, dedicated to advancing sustainable and equitable development across Africa and beyond. With over two decades of leadership experience, she has become a global voice for climate resilience, restoration, and social justice. She is the Managing Director for Africa and Global Partnerships at the World Resources Institute (WRI), where she drives strategies that center Africa’s role in shaping global solutions. In this role, she direct...
What does it really mean to lead Nigeria into the future? In this candid and fiery conversation, I sit down with my childhood friend, Prince (or Ifeanyi “Ify”, as I’ve always known him), to unpack the complex realities of Nigerian politics, religion, and identity. We explore the deep fault lines that shape leadership in Africa’s most populous nation: Why do religion and ethnicity still dominate political choices?Why has Nigeria recycled the same leaders for decades, despite little track recor...
Dayo Okusami is a partner at TEMPLARS, and one of Nigeria’s most respected transactional lawyers — a negotiator who lives where international practice meets local complexity. Born in Lagos and raised between Nigeria and the United States, Dayo returned to Nigeria early in his career with a conviction: that Nigerian institutions and markets could be shaped from within. He made partner in just four years, advising multinational investors and energy companies on multimillion-dollar deals, infras...
Courage in Action: Leadership in a Fractured World In this episode, recorded live at the Nobel Peace Center, Chisom Udeze and Sayantani Saha sit with the messy, urgent questions of our time: What does it mean to lead with courage in a world unraveling? How do we hold hope when governance is fragile, apathy is rising, and wars claim lives with impunity? From the future of work to the disruptions of AI, from global capital flows to the realities of geopolitical climate and conflict, they interr...
DJ Bwakali is a Kenyan writer, journalist, and pan-African organizer whose work spans climate advocacy, governance reform, and citizen media. He co-founded the Africa Youth Initiative on Climate Change and the Africa Youth Trust, and now hosts African Awakening, a platform dedicated to decolonizing education and mobilizing people power across the continent. His thesis is disarmingly practical: sovereignty is built, not begged for - through food systems that heal, visa-free movement that knits...
Babatunde Akinboboye is a Nigerian-American baritone and the creator of Hip Hopera — a groundbreaking fusion of classical opera and hip hop that has redefined how audiences experience both art forms. Born in the United States and raised partly in Lagos, Babatunde’s dual heritage has deeply shaped his identity and artistry. He embodies the richness of cultural intersection, bringing opera down from gilded stages and into spaces where rhythm, storytelling, and authenticity thrive. His viral per...
Lujang De’Nyangos is a South Sudanese artist whose journey through grief, displacement, and cultural fusion has shaped his sound and purpose. He discovered the healing power of music after the death of his father, realizing it was therapy not just for himself but for others. Having lived in South Sudan, Uganda, Egypt, and Kenya, his music carries influences of Arabic, Swahili, English, and African rhythms, blended into soulful melodies inspired by artists like Jonathan Butler. For Lujang, mus...
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