Meet Deborah Bonsu: Content Creator, Brand Marketing Strategist, Founder & Owner of Let’s Talk Business

We had the good fortune of connecting with Deborah Bonsu and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Deborah, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I’m from New Jersey, born and raised, but ethnicity-wise, I’m from the beautiful country of Ghana, West Africa. One thing about my culture is that we take great pride in hard work, mainly because a lot of Ghanaians come from a background where they grew in poverty, famine and scarcity. Most of them had little to nothing and had to work extra hard in order to survive, make a living and/or provide for their families. It also took a lot of strength, determination, sacrifice, stamina and the grace of God in order for them to get to where they are at now, hence why we believe being a hard-working individual is one of the key factors in having a better life. Growing up with immigrant parents from Ghana, I learned a lot about the important of hard work, discipline, structure, responsibility, respect, perseverance and being self-sufficient mainly because my parents both grew up having little to nothing and weren’t as privileged as I am. They had to work hard and be self-sufficient in order to survive and create a better life for them and their family. These are also things that the Ghanaian culture believes in wholeheartedly. Because these qualities were instilled in me at such a young age, they have made me the person I am now because I consider myself to be someone who works hard for what I want, gained a sense of independence as I’ve gotten older where I don’t always have to rely on others. Though, of course, if I do need help, I’ll always ask because you’re only able to do so much on your own, so I won’t shy away from asking for help when I need it. Additionally, I grew up in a Christian household, so I was taught from an early age about Jesus, how to love Jesus, going to church, learning how to pray, reading your Bible and so forth. However, I didn’t realize the importance of having a personal relationship with God until I got older and was in college. Once I did, that’s when I began to take it more seriously, which ultimately, gave me a broader perspective of what it means to be a Christian and made me understand how spiritual life is. Over the years, I’ve started to build and improve on my relationship with God, instilling Biblical values and principles into my everyday life. Now, it’s more than just a religion to me. It’s become a part of me, my whole lifestyle. It has made who I am today. It hasn’t been an easy journey, but it’s been an interesting one, to say the least. I’m still learning, but I’m grateful to have had these values instilled in me growing up and teaching me more about myself and who God has created me to be.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m a content creator and I’ve been in the creative space since the spring of 2018 and it has been an interesting and amazing journey, to say the least. I can honestly say it has changed my life for the better. I originally started off as an Afrobeat dancer, where I consistently created dance videos dancing to my favorite genres of music, mainly African and Afrobeat songs and remixes. But in January 2023, I officially retired from Afrobeat dancing to focus on creating my content towards my own personal likes and interests, specifically about my faith (Christianity, Jesus, Biblical motivation), lifestyle (school, personal life), beauty (hair + skin care) and brand + social media marketing. Creating content has allowed me to tell a story about all the different moving parts about my life. In the same manner, I get to inspire and motivate others to feel confident and embrace who they are and utilize their God-given gift, ability or talent. I use it as a form of expression and showcase my creativity. I love using different effects, colors, themes, transitions and backgrounds because it makes my content more fun, engaging and and captivating for my audience, which makes them want to engage more on my platform. In the same fashion, I’m a brand marketing strategist and I have a business called “Let’s Talk Business”, or LTB for short, which I started back in February 2020. The purpose of my platform is to not only give creatives, business owners and entrepreneurs their recognition for their hard work, but to assist them in building their brand’s visibility, creating their target audience, setting the tone and voice for their platform, networking, advertising their products and/or services and making engaging content that their target audience will love. I help to create an identity and personality for themselves that reflects the mission or objective of their brand or business and aligns with the likes and/or interests of the person and their specific target audience. I want to use my platform to help others execute their vision for their brand/business and educate them with the skills, knowledge and advice that I’ve learned over the years and use it a resource to grow their brand and improve on themselves.

For me to get to where I’m at was not an easy thing. I’ve hit some bumps in the road and had to face some challenges along the way. I’ve also experienced a lot of self-doubt, imposter syndrome and criticized myself heavily when I didn’t see the results that I wanted to right away. I would set high expectations for myself as when I first became a creative and entrepreneur and when I didn’t see the results I wanted, I talked down on myself and thought I wasn’t going to be happy or content with what I was doing. I didn’t always feel I got the love and support I wanted and that affected me a lot because when you first start a new journey, you would want for people to support you and be there for you, but for me, it didn’t always feel that way and it broke me a lot. But what has helped me thus far is the grace of God because I’ve had many moments where I felt angry, disappointed and mentally exhausted, which of course is normal to feel that way. At the end of the day, we’re humans and sometimes, life gets the best of us. But one of the things that has helped me was remind myself was that delay does not equal denial. Though I don’t see the results I want right now, in due time, I will. Just because you see someone else doing well doesn’t mean that you won’t, it will happen, but at a different time. Because I’ve learned that everyone and their journey runs at a different pace. The same way all the plants, trees and flowers all grow and bloom at a different pace, so do us humans. I had to be careful not to compare myself to anyone else and focus on my Over time, I had to restructure my mind to learn to be more patient, ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and clarity in areas where I needed it the most, focus on my goals and plans for my business, embrace the journey I’m on, giving myself more grace, continuing to be diligent in my work and so forth. I want for people to see not only me, but the light of Jesus. I want for people to feel empowered and inspired by my platform and use that as a way to push them to continue to strive to do better. I want people to know that they should never limit themselves on what they can do. Life’s challenges and hardships will come and it will get tough at times, but they should keep pursuing because you never know what the future holds. The reason I say this is because for a long time, I used to feel that I didn’t deserve the good things in life or had what it takes, but clearly I do. I want everyone to see that you do deserve the good things in life. You are more than capable. You have what it takes to make an impact. You just have to be willing to take the first step and be intentional with it. You have to be ready, not just physically, but emotionally, mentally and even spiritually, because yes, it will get hard, but as long you are intentional, have set goals, willing to put in the work, break off any limitation you may have and have a “winner’s” mindset, then in due time, you will reap the fruit of your labor, aka, be rewarded for your hard work.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Where I live, there isn’t much to do or is around because it’s a small town, so I would recommend for us to go out of town for the time-being to expand our options and possibilities as far as food, activities and leisure. To make sure we’re as comfortable and relaxed as possible, I would recommend for us to spend the week at an AirBnb, choose one that’s within the city where’s it close to everything or even a nice hotel would be okay. I’m a person that loves to expand their taste palette, which means that I love to try out new foods at restaurants, whether it’s Italian, Thai, Caribbean, Mediterranean, African or even American foods, I love them all, so I don’t necessarily have a preference on where we would go to eat. But if I had to choose one, one of my favorite restaurants, located in Iselin, New Jersey, is called Kona Grill, an upscale causal restaurant that serves a blend of American and Asian foods. I’ve been there a few times and I love the atmosphere there, the staff are very friendly and professional, the quality of their food is very good and I love that they have a variety of options that you can choose from. As far as activities, there’s TopGolf, paint and sip, candle-making, art museum, karaoke night, laser tag, indoor rock climbing, amusement park, spa day and so many more. I’m a person that loves to go out and go to different places, so for me, whether we do one or do all of them, it doesn’t matter to me, I’ll love it either way.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Well, first and foremost, I want to give a HUGE shoutout to God Almighty because He is truly the reason of who I am today and where I’m at. He has kept, preserved, protected and guided me throughout my whole life. His grace has kept me grounded, even in moments when I wanted to give up. If it wasn’t for His abundant grace and mercy, I don’t think I would have been able to make it this far. My journey was far from easy, I’ve hit a lot of bumps in the road, encountered some challenges, dealt with personal struggles and wanted to give up so many times because it became too much for me. But what kept me going was knowing that there was more ahead of me than there is behind me and God has better in store for me. As vague as it may sound, I believe that 100% because if He has brought me this far, then I can only imagine what the future will look like. He has truly changed my life for the better and has rewritten my story in such a beautiful way. I also want to give a shoutout to my family, my parents specifically, for instilling the right values in me, teaching me the ways of the Lord and always pushing me to strive for the best. I want to give a shoutout to my church family, I thank them for always praying for me and encouraging me in the Lord. It is a constant reminder me to trust and rely on God no matter what situation I may go through. It gives me the strength I need to push and I don’t take it for granted. Lastly, I want to give a shoutout to my support system, my amazing friends. I’m beyond grateful for all that they’ve done for me. I’m grateful for their support, encouragement, prayers and advice. They’ve always pushed me to do better, cheer me up and never allowed me to give up. They’ve never thought less of me and love me for who I am and have stuck by me during my toughest moments. I’m so thankful to have each of them in my life and I hope they know how much I love and appreciate them.

Website: https://wewilltalkbusiness.wordpress.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/itsdeborahbonsu

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-bonsu-12a332216/

Other: https://instagram.com/letstalkbusiness.co