At 50, Tosin Adefeko has the kind of career that makes reinvention look almost effortless. Over three decades, she has moved through banking, media, and marketing communications; risen through the ranks of corporate leadership; built an award-winning agency; and, more recently, created new spaces for conversation and storytelling. Yet, rather than settling comfortably into what she already knows, she appears increasingly interested in what comes next.
As Founder and CEO of AT3 – The MUVMNT Agency, Adefeko has spent years helping brands find their voice and navigate an industry that has changed dramatically with the rise of social media, creators and increasingly discerning audiences. Now, through The Muvmnt Studio, The Uncovered Series and #ToshTalks, she has also stepped more visibly into the storyteller’s seat herself.
Then there is PodFest Naija. What began as an ambitious idea to create a dedicated gathering for Nigeria’s podcasting community has grown into a wider meeting point for creators, brands and some of the country’s most interesting voices. Its growth reflects not only the increasing influence of podcasting, but also a bigger shift in how stories are being created, consumed and monetised.
For Adefeko, all of this is happening at an interesting personal milestone. Turning 50 offers a natural moment to look back, but she seems far more interested in looking ahead. In this interview with Yinka Olatunbosun, she talks about the career pivots that shaped her, building AT3 from the ground up, what three decades in communications have taught her, the changing business of influence and storytelling, the evolution of PodFest Naija, and what ambition looks like when you have already achieved quite a lot — but are nowhere near finished.
You recently turned 50, and it comes at an interesting point in your life – 30 years of professional experience, your own agency, PodFest Naija and several new creative platforms. How does 50 actually feel, and what matters to you now that perhaps mattered far less at 30 or 40?
50 feels surprisingly good. I think because I have spent so much of my life in motion, searching, building, figuring things out and sometimes just surviving the next chapter, I arrived at 50 with a much clearer understanding of who I am and what actually matters to me.
I spent most of my 20s in a career I didn’t like, so I just kept changing jobs on a whim. By my 30s, I wanted to prove myself, so I changed course, went back to school, switched careers and started from scratch. At 40, I was ready to build a new life, so I started my own enterprise against all odds. At 50, I am much more interested in purpose, impact, peace and meaning. I want to do work that matters, build things that outlive me, raise good humans, nurture relationships that are real and have enough courage to say no to things that don’t align with who I am. There is something beautiful about getting older and realising that you don’t have to become a different person to be successful. You actually become more yourself.
Your career has been anything but linear. You worked in banking, moved into media, started again in marketing communications in your 30s, rose to become COO at QuadrantMSL and eventually founded AT3. Looking back, which of those versions of Tosin was the most important in creating the woman you are today?
Honestly, all of them. I used to look at my life and wonder why I couldn’t just conform and sit still; today I realise the detours were the education. Banking taught me discipline, structure and how organisations work. Media taught me storytelling and gave me an understanding of people and influence. My years in marketing communications gave me the technical foundation to eventually build AT3. Leadership taught me that having a title is very different from actually carrying responsibility. Even the periods that felt like mistakes were doing something to me.
I think every version of Tosh left something behind for the woman I am today. That’s why I no longer describe my career as a collection of unrelated experiences. It was one long journey towards finding my purpose.
You described the early days of AT3 quite candidly: working from your dining table, taking on unpaid opportunities, and essentially building your reputation before the big briefs arrived. Now that AT3 is established, what do you understand about entrepreneurship that nobody could have taught you when you started?
Entrepreneurship is not the glamorous thing people sometimes make it look like. Nobody really prepares you for the emotional responsibility of knowing that people depend on your decisions. Your team, your clients, your suppliers, your family sometimes. You are constantly making decisions with incomplete information.
I also learnt that being good at what you do is not enough. You have to build systems, understand money, manage people, sell, negotiate, recover from disappointment and make difficult decisions.
And perhaps most importantly, I learnt that growth doesn’t always look like expansion. Sometimes growth is knowing what not to take on. Sometimes it is walking away from money because the price is too high in other ways.
AT3 started at my dining table. It has travelled a long way since then, but the biggest thing entrepreneurship has taught me is that you have to keep becoming the person capable of carrying the thing you are building.
You have worked on both sides of reputation – advising major organisations and now building a very visible personal brand of your own. Has that made you more conscious of how Tosin Adefeko, the person, is perceived publicly, or have you learnt not to manage yourself like a client?
I definitely understand reputation better than most people, so I am very conscious of it. But I have also learnt not to manage myself like a client because, even with my clients, I always say we are perceived better when we bring the whole of ourselves rather than a perfect construct. There is a difference between being intentional and being manufactured. I am not interested in creating a perfect Tosh for public consumption. I am interested in being an honest Tosin. I know that what I say and do has consequences because I have built a public profile over many years. But I also believe people connect with people, not perfect constructs. I have always been a sharpshooter, very comfortable with being myself. I can be ambitious and vulnerable. I can be serious and silly. I can have strong opinions and still change my mind. I don’t want to be an influencer, but if I am able to influence you with my clarity and worldview, then great.
The communications industry you entered is almost unrecognisable today. Creators can shape public opinion overnight, consumers can challenge a corporate narrative in real time, and sometimes one viral post becomes the story. Has traditional PR lost some of its power, or has the job simply become more sophisticated?
The job has become much more sophisticated. PR hasn’t lost its power. The ecosystem around it has changed. When I started, we were dealing largely with journalists, editors, broadcasters and traditional media. Today, a creator with a strong community can move a conversation faster than a traditional media outlet.
But influence without credibility is fragile. The fundamentals haven’t changed: understand people, understand culture, tell the truth well, build relationships and protect reputation. What has changed is the number of channels and the speed at which everything happens. Today, everyone is potentially a publisher, everyone has an audience, and everyone has an opinion. That makes communications more complex, but also more exciting. Every brand now wants to be part of culture, sound human and tell an “authentic story.” But audiences can also spot manufactured authenticity very quickly.
What are brands still getting wrong about communicating with people today?
They are trying too hard to sound like people instead of actually behaving like people. You cannot put slang in your campaign and suddenly become culturally relevant. You cannot say you care about people and then behave completely differently when the campaign is over. People are looking for consistency.
The best brands understand that culture isn’t a costume you wear when it is convenient. You have to listen before you speak. You have to understand the community you want to participate in. And sometimes, you have to accept that not every conversation is yours to own. Authenticity is not a communications strategy. It is what happens when your words and your behaviour agree.
You have spent years managing other people’s stories, but The Uncovered Series, #ToshTalks and The Muvmnt Studio have increasingly put you on the other side of the conversation. Was stepping forward and becoming part of the product yourself a deliberate reinvention?
I don’t think I consciously woke up and decided, “Okay, now Tosh becomes the product.” I think it was a natural evolution. For years, I helped other people articulate their stories, build brands and find their voices. At some point, I realised I had a responsibility to use my own voice too. The Uncovered Series was birthed as an 80th birthday gift to my former Boss and now my daddy, Dr Biodun Shobanjo – we called it BB-Uncovered. Over 30 marketing communications practitioners he had either trained or worked with over 5 decades were invited to our studio, where we unveiled the series to him at a special watch party. We then decided to continue the series as a special-purpose platform to inspire and impact the next generation. The series has now featured people like Tunde Onakoya, Folake Soetan, Morayo Afolabi Brown, Funke Akindele and many others whose lives speak to purpose and impact! Our creative storytelling platform called ‘The Muvmnt Agency ‘, which includes The Muvmnt Studio and Podfest Naija, has allowed me to explore the things I care about beyond traditional PR – people, culture, creativity, leadership, money, relationships, failure, purpose and the stories behind people’s public identities. ToshTalks is my social media, really – there I share insights, reflections and candid conversations mostly. It isn’t reinvention as much as expansion. I am still a communications strategist. I am simply using more of myself now.
PodFest Naija began from the idea that Nigeria’s storytelling ecosystem needed somewhere to gather. Its second edition has now grown to more than 3,000 attendees and over 50 storytellers. At what point did you realise this was becoming bigger than the event you initially imagined?
Probably the moment the idea was mooted in my team meeting. I was like no one is currently doing that? Really? Do some research, Lock the name down on Social media, call the lawyers, get the trademark. It was an instant decision for me, because it’s right where my passion points are—storytelling, building community, impacting the next generation. The first edition proved that there was an appetite. The second edition made it clear that there was an ecosystem. What moved me most was seeing podcasters, creators, brands, policymakers, young people and storytellers occupying the same space and having conversations that don’t usually happen in the same room. The event is the manifestation of the certainty I already had.
What I find interesting about PodFest is that it has moved beyond podcasting itself into conversations around money, health, culture, relationships, brands and even citizenship. Are you ultimately building a podcast festival, or are you building a much larger platform around the business and influence of storytelling?
Definitely the latter. PodFest is not just about microphones and podcasts. Storytelling is the thread that connects all of those conversations. Podcasts are the medium.
Behind every platform is a person, and behind every person is a story.
We talk about money because people have financial stories. We talk about health because people have lived experiences. We talk about love, culture, citizenship, business and brands because stories shape how we understand all of these things.
PodFest is a creative convergence – a place where storytellers, creators, brands, policymakers and audiences can meet. The ultimate opportunity is to build an ecosystem around storytelling, not simply celebrate the content that comes out of it.
Nigeria has no shortage of creators with large audiences, but turning influence into sustainable businesses remains difficult.
Where do you think the biggest disconnect currently exists between creators, brands and money?
I think we have spent too much time celebrating visibility and not enough time teaching ownership. Having 500,000 followers is not the same as having a sustainable business. Creators need to understand their numbers, their intellectual property, contracts, pricing, partnerships, audience data and business models. Brands also need to understand that creators are not simply media inventory. They are building communities and intellectual property. And creators need to stop being afraid of the business side of creativity. Talent is important. But talent without structure can remain a hobby. The next phase of the creator economy has to be about turning influence into ownership.
PodFest also brings corporate brands, creators and policymakers into the same room. What needs to change for Nigeria to stop treating the creator economy as informal or peripheral and start building the structures that let intellectual property and creative businesses scale?
We need to take creative businesses seriously. That means better policies, access to finance, intellectual property protection, education, infrastructure and more sophisticated commercial relationships between brands and creators.
We also need to stop seeing creativity as something people do “on the side.” There are serious businesses being built in this ecosystem.
Nigeria has an extraordinary amount of talent. The question is whether we can build the structures that let that talent become wealth, jobs, businesses, and intellectual property that can travel globally. The creative economy is not the future. It is already here. We just need to build around it.
You have spent much of your career helping other brands grow. At this stage, with AT3, The Muvmnt Studio, PodFest Naija and your own voice becoming increasingly visible, what are you building towards now? What does the next version of Tosin Adefeko look like?
The next version of Tosin is less interested in proving and more interested in building. I want to build platforms that outlive me. I want to create opportunities for other people. I want to keep growing AT3, build The Muvmnt Studio into something meaningful and see PodFest become an institution within the storytelling and creative ecosystem. But beyond the businesses, I am thinking about legacy.
What did my existence make possible for somebody else? That question is becoming increasingly important to me. At 50, I don’t just want to be remembered for the companies I built. I want to be remembered for the people I helped, the doors I opened, the conversations I started and the courage I gave somebody else to use their own voice.
Success at 50 can also mean having enough experience to know what you no longer want. What have you become less willing to tolerate – professionally or personally as you have grown older?
My pet peeve has always been disrespect; I will call you out regardless of who you are, but I have become even less willing to tolerate disrespect, dishonesty, two-faced people with unnecessary drama! So basically, anything that consistently steals my peace. I have also become less interested in explaining myself to people who have already decided what they want to believe about me.
Professionally, I don’t want relationships that are purely transactional. I want to work with people who respect expertise, value relationships and understand that good work is built on trust. Personally, I have learnt that boundaries are not punishment. They are protection. And perhaps my biggest lesson is that saying no doesn’t make you difficult. Sometimes it simply means you fully understand your value.
If you could sit across from the 25-year-old Tosin, still figuring out where she belonged and with no idea that banking, media, PR, entrepreneurship, and storytelling would eventually become one journey, what would you tell her about ambition, failure, and timing?
I would tell her, relax. You are not behind.
You are going to take some wrong turns. Some things will not work. Some people will disappoint you. You will make decisions you later question. You will sometimes wonder whether everybody else has figured it out except you. They haven’t.
Your journey will not make sense while you are living it. One day you will look backwards and realise that even the detours were preparing you for the destination.
I would tell her not to confuse timing with failure. Something not happening when you want it to doesn’t mean it isn’t going to happen. And I would tell her to keep her voice. There will be moments when being agreeable feels easier. Don’t lose yourself trying to fit into rooms you were never meant to shrink yourself for. Be ambitious. Work hard. Learn. Be kind. Be brave. Build relationships. Take risks. And when life redirects you, don’t spend too much time mourning the road you thought you were supposed to take. Because sometimes the road you didn’t plan becomes the one that takes you exactly where you were meant to go.
