7 mins | 1,2oo words
By: Brooke Harrison

Sitting down with career coach Josephine Mensah, it’s no wonder that her professional path has led her to create her own career coaching business. Her warmth and bubbly personality would put anyone at ease when they place their career goals into her hands.  

Now, as the owner of Oneness Career Coaching, she focuses on helping job seekers unlock their career potential and find their life’s purpose.  

A career in the making 

Josephine’s career was one born out of passion and purpose.  

To her, it’s a success like none other when she pairs a client with a career position that provides synergy to their life and gives them meaning. Her passion for helping job seekers was first ignited during an internship at the YWCA Saskatoon’s Employment and Learning Centre.   

“My position was helping those in career transitions,” she said. “Some of our clients were newcomers to Canada, and some people were in crisis. I was helping them with job search strategy, and resume development.” 

While at the YWCA, Josephine grew into her own style of recruitment, and her skills were noticed by her colleagues and mentors who nudged her to dream of the possibilities her career could have in the recruitment industry.  

For her, these comments planted a seed in her mind, which would come into fruition years later in the form of Oneness Career Coaching. 

With a professional career blossoming, Josephine recalls taking the leap of faith and moving to Ottawa. The opportunity gave her the chance to work with a recruitment firm helping candidates build their careers in the private, non-profit and government sectors.  

The move also allowed her to meet and network with many young professionals and entrepreneurs – a community she said is vivacious in Ottawa.

However, it was helping her friends with their resumes and interviewing skills that ultimately pushed Josephine to open Oneness. 

“My friends would pull me aside and say, would you mind looking over my resume or LinkedIn,” she said. “I never charged them, but they all told me, ‘You need to open your own business.’” 

“I had taken business courses in university, but none were career coaching ones,” she added. “All I knew was how to write a business plan. But one day I decided to just take action and go for it.” 

With her friends’ confidence behind her, and years of career development under her belt, Josephine successfully launched Oneness Career Coaching one year later. 

What is Oneness? 

Josephine’s business offers a multitude of coaching options such as career and business coaching, LinkedIn and resume consulting, workshops, events and webinars.  

The business is built around Josephine’s philosophy of finding and achieving ‘oneness’ in one’s life, and it’s the ultimate goal she has for her clients.  

“Oneness is about the relationship people have with their skills, career, and lifestyle,” she explained. “It’s about finding alignment and connecting all aspects of an individual’s life.”  

Josephine imparts this wisdom to all her clients, helping them reconnect with their values and finding fulfillment in their career trajectory. 

Paying it forward: Helping displaced workers in COVID 19, bringing Oneness to people’s lives  

Recently Josephine has been helping displaced workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic find their version of Oneness.  

“It has been a hard time for a lot of people,” she said. “But I think COVID gave everyone a chance to reflect on their lives and the direction they are going professionally.”  

“Folks were looking for businesses like mine and I was there to help.”   

Josephine connects with displaced workers through her online platform and ensured to quickly pivot her in-person workshops to a virtual style.  

Not only does Josephine help many displaced workers find new and exciting career opportunities, but she was also contacted by the Women of Ontario Social Enterprise Network, who were looking to help women-led businesses survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Josephine quickly offered her coaching expertise to these new entrepreneurs.  

“I work with many women who said they felt now was the best time to launch their businesses because COVID had given them time to dig into the business ideas they always had,” she said.   

“It felt great being able to offer my support to ensure their businesses were a success during such a difficult time!”  

Divine timing with Invest Ottawa

Josephine says her work with Invest Ottawa (IO) was a bit of divine timing.   

First, becoming aware of the organization when looking to start her own business, she engaged in a few entrepreneurial workshops offered. Finding her footing, Josephine developed her skills further and was invited by IO to provide LinkedIn workshops of her own, later becoming a Business Advisor for the entrepreneurship program. 

Enter the Digital Main Street (DMS) program 

As she became aware of the Digital Main Street program, Josephine knew immediately this was a program she wanted to be a part of.  

“Many business owners have a wish list of all the things we would do if we had the money or time,” she said.  “When I first started, I was bootstrapping everything. I created my own website, all my social media marketing etc.”  

“But I had a wish list growing,” she added. “It again, was divine timing, because social media was at the top of the list and this was before DMS even existed.” 

According to Josephine, DMS gave her the opportunity to take her bootstrapped digital ecosystem and give it the facelift she so desperately desired. 

“Meeting with the team and seeing the knowledge they had was so exciting,” she said. “Immediately, they were digging in and helping me improve my business. They helped me revamp my website and logo and set me up with a great social media strategy,” she added. 

“They also provided me with great takeaways like using Linktree on social and setting me up with email marketing.” 

Not only was Josephine thrilled with the results, but her community immediately noticed the changes to her website.  She saw a rise in followers on Instagram and had other entrepreneurs asking what spurred on her sharp new image.  

“So many people told me how great my logo looked, and how cohesive my brand was becoming,” she said beaming. “It was really rewarding seeing everything come together for my company.” 

“DMS allowed Oneness to become more accessible and present to my online community,” she added. 

Josephine stresses that DMS is an important opportunity for small businesses to leverage during these uncertain times.  

“Social media and digital presence are always important as a business owner, but even more so at this time,” she said. “Because how else will you be seen? A big push for my business was networking events, without them, all we have are digital options.” 

What’s next on the horizon 

For Josephine and Oneness Career Coaching, the future is paved with opportunity  

“I really want to do more with consulting partnerships, and I had such a pleasure working with new female entrepreneurs,” she said. “I also hope to do more leadership coaching and help those who are looking at moving into management positions.”  

Josephine is optimistic about the opportunities that lie ahead, looking forward to public speaking and networking events once the pandemic has ended but added that in the meantime, she is confident of her business’ success and its online presence. 

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Interested in applying to the Digital Main Street Future Proof program?

To learn more about the Digital Main Street Future Proof program and how businesses can apply, visit our webpage.

This Digital Main Street (DMS) project was made possible by the generous support of the Government of Canada and FedDev Ontario through the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund.