The making of an entrepreneur and CEO

The making of an entrepreneur and CEO (Photo: Hilda Wellah)

“If you are driving a Prado, focus on the Prado not the Mercedes Benz cruising past you on the highway, says Nancy Muthoni of the popular TV Property Show.

It is a candid meeting of friends, female CEOs, who are having a light-hearted day meeting. They are exchanging ideas and exploring opportunities, as they often do.

In this meeting is a self-made and self-driven entrepreneur, Hilda Wellah.

Seven years ago, Hilda was a TV producer hustling to make ends meet. Today, she is the CEO of Awakening Pictures, a film company that is threatening the status quo in the film, advertising and commercials industry. She has the awards to prove it, one of which is her win at the Foya Global Awards Mediapreneur of the Year Eastern Africa 2024 (over 30 years) category - where she beat the giants of the industry.

She is articulate, bold and determined, a character that has seen her open and close doors in almost equal measure. No wonder she describes herself as a BDC - a breed of a different calibre.

“I am an orphan. My mother died when I was very young. I think my vulnerability in that humble state helped shape my character in my formative years,” says Hilda.

“I used to go down to Riverroad (downtown Nairobi) and buy these ugly nylon socks for Sh20 and knock on people’s doors in the estates and sell them for Sh100. I would sell 10 pairs and that meant a profit of Sh800 a day.

“As the girl who sold cheap socks, I often went to war with my customers. Honesty, a virtue I cherish now, was not a priority then, I was just trying to make ends meet”.

When Hilda joined the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC), like many young girls studying media at the time, she wanted to be the next Catherine Kasavuli, the late pioneering TV presenter who ruled the airwaves for years with a commanding presence and personality.

She joined the national broadcaster, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), and quickly learned the ropes of news production, shifting through several assigned roles before joining KTN, the home of talent.

“I enjoyed working at KTN. I would be the cameraperson, director, producer and everything in between. I think I did it all until there was no more space to apply my creativity. In 2017 I got pregnant and proceeded on maternity leave never to return to the newsroom,” Hilda says.

“While I was on leave, I received a call from a company abroad. They had been referred to me by Teddy Muthusi, a media friend, after asking for a contact who was good at TV and film production and who would then help them with key production roles. This was incredible news. After asking my spiritual father for guidance, he asked me to take the job, which I gladly did,” she says.

Things came in double portions. In July of that year, Hilda gave birth to her first child and received the news of a major career opportunity.

Then came her glittering wedding and confirmation of her new plum job the following year, before the big cruise into the world of advertising and commercials began.

She was part of the team behind Safaricom’s popular Twende Tukiuke - Let’s Go Beyond ad.

“The production was epic! We had to fly the team to Lake Victoria, Indian Ocean and then Turkana. We had to hire film experts from South Africa who came in with anamorphic lenses, which had to be insured. The project took 10 days to complete,” Hilda says.

As rosy as all this was, Hilda longed for more. She wanted to break away, be independent and live to her full potential. But in 2022, five years into the job, she fell into depression after a personal family issue.

Her career hit a rough patch and for six months she locked herself away, cutting herself off from the outside world and everything she believed in.

Life was going downhill and tragically fast, she was unemployed and her only hope was the power of prayers. Her husband had also lost two of his three jobs and what was left wasn’t reliable. She confesses that she left everything to her husband, friends and believers who held her in prayer.

“After that break, I called everyone I knew, even for freelance work. No one, even those who had vacancies, came through. That was when I learned that people are not always what they seem.

“Little did I know that my husband had secretly registered a company for me, something he knew I had always wanted to do. This was my new beginning. It brought healing and life and took me out of my depression. Again, I asked my pastor to pray about it and that is how Awakening Pictures was born, with our first assignment being a sacrificial partnership with our pastor’s TV station,” she says.

As CEO of the company, she is dictating her terms, pushing her creative boundaries and creating a film empire that she believes will change the landscape of the regional film industry.

She says the first sign that her new career is on the upward trajectory is her recent win of the Foya Global Awards Mediapreneur of the Year Eastern Africa 2024 (over 30 years) category.

“My husband nominated me and urged me to go for it (the award). I refused because I always thought that awards are corrupt and if there is no money, why should I bother? When the final list came out, I realised I was the only woman. The win came a day after my birthday and I believe it is the gift God wanted to give me this year. It has elevated me because now I can negotiate easily with this title.

Hilda says making career transitions can be risky and can lead to devastation. However, young people should not be held back by the fear of the unknown to fail to ascend to where the career life journey should take them.

Your skills, hard work, passion, discipline and the right connections and relationships, she says, are the key ingredients in spicing up a good career path.

She says it is important to map out your career journey, strategise how to scale the path and get the right support from people who will help you carry the vision while avoiding ‘dream killers’.

 “I love my transition; it is hard but rewarding. It feels like a journey where you go from living in Buruburu Estate to Kilimani if I can use that analogy. I see so many talented girls graduating from film and media schools, but very few make it to the big table. If you compare the percentage of women who are top producers, let alone directors, it is like a drop in the ocean compared to their male counterparts. Women also need to be disciplined as they climb the ladder, as many get distracted by sideshows and fall along the way. Focus is what got me here,” says Hilda.

As for now, Hilda is working towards getting her company visibility in the market before growing it into an agency. She also wants to work on programs that empower women in the industry and also have all-women crews in the future.