 In the studio she goes by the name Joann Ahano And she is a talent coach, she is an educator And most of all she is the founder of Little Big Talents They are little but big talents And she will be telling us more about her organisation What they do and they have an upcoming event We'll be talking about that as well Joann Yes, welcome to the studio Thank you so much How are you? Good, good, how are you? I am good as well I am happy to be here We are happy to have you as well So, kindly introduce yourself as much as I have introduced yourself just to do it a little further. Okay, so hello everyone. My name is John Ahonum Sumba. I also go by the name John Talent. That's my stage name. I'm a talent coach. I'm a dancer. And I'm a... sorry, you know what? Alright, let me just start again. My name is John Ahonum Sumba. I'm a talent coach. I have a degree, a bachelor's degree in economics and statistics from Kenyatta University and currently taking my master's in pure statistics. I'm the director, a little big talent. Also the franchise hold that little Mr. and Miss environment. My hobby is dancing. And also, so a little big talent, we train talent, children's talent, from the age of three to seventeen. Different talents from modeling, dance and martial arts. Okay. So, what does it mean to be a talent coach? Basically, you just need to... what does it need or what? What does it mean? Being a talent coach just means being able to guide different talents to prosperity. Yes, just walking with them hand in hand, guiding them how to, educating the talent and also just guiding them on how to go about their talents. Being a person who has several talents for that matter, did you have someone, did you have a talent coach when you were pursuing your talents? Yes, just to take you back, I was Miss Kenyatta University 2013 and again in 2014 I became Miss Universities, all universities in Kenya. Yes. And after that my manager who was also my talent coach, Mr. Liki Odera, thank you so much. It's because of you that I'm here right now. So, he was able to walk with me through my dream and my talent and he helped me to just grow it to where I am today. Okay. Yes, and even right now he still mentors me. All right. So, you still need mentoring even after you've made it. Yeah, I do. So, talk to us about the talents that you are mentoring or tutoring. Okay. So, let's say we have two centers. Our headquarter is in Nakuru at Koonstown Fast Flow and our other center is in Odaia Road, Lavington, at Haven Cottage and we train different talents from modelling to dance and dance we specifically deal with contemporary dance in ballet and also martial arts in public speaking. Yes. Is there a specific age of people that you mentor? Yes, as I mentioned we mentor three to seventeen years but you know like in this talents let's say like ballet you have different kids, you have pre-primary ballet, you have primary, you have grade one intermediate up to advanced. So according to age sometimes when someone comes and let's say they are six years we don't have to take them to pre-primary ballet rather they just join us grade one ballet and they continue. So according to age we classify you in a class and also from that you're able to grow and graduate from one level to another level. Public speaking is quite easy. We just have a six month course and once you're done that's it. Why did you feel a need to be a talent coach? Let me take you back. Our company started in 2018. So in 2018 I was so passionate about the pagans and beauty contest so I went down to Nakuru and I went down to Nakuru and they did a pagans called Little Miss Environment and after that I noticed that these people the parents had wanted the kids talents to be developed more and not just us doing the pagans and they noticed there's a market gap and that gap need to be filled and that's what prompted us to start the school Little Miss Talent. So it made us go out there and source for trainers and mentors and coaches to be able to set up the academy. You said that parents felt they need that but their children need to be mentored more. Do you think that parents these days are more accepting of this creative talent such as modelling, dancing and such? Back in the days if you tell a parent that I want to be a singer, I want to be a model I mean what are you doing? You need something bigger in your life. What's that take on that? I think they are slowly accepting but we are not yet there. We are not yet up to international standards we are not yet up to a fast world like a talent group in a fast world country you can do everything you can pay your best let's give an example of Beyoncé the music career pays her everything and it's because they put a lot of weight in that industry there than here. We've not fully accepted as parents and as teachers because I think we don't have the full support of the government but once that is done then I think this industry will really move swiftly and will grow quite robust. So let's get to Little Big Talent is a big organization and there are other budgets that you do under that umbrella, talk to us about that. Okay so we are a franchise holder of a pageant called Little Mesa and Mesa Environment and we felt the urge to franchise it because we saw those are need for us to raise children who are environmental savvy environmental aware that's what I mean so we decided to start the pageant Little Mesa and Mesa Environment so our main objective is to raise kids who are aware of the environment and they should know that hey we need to take care of this environment because you know the the effects of the adverse climatic change is already being felt in so many countries in Africa and the world and if we do not address that thing right now then we notice there is a big problem and we thought it is a team that the best way to do that is to do it through our children because there is someone who say that she cannot imagine her children having to walk miles to go see a tree to go see a river and if we don't take action to get the changing climatic then we are going to have a problem so this children the main purpose of the pageant is to help the kids be aware of the environment and teach them how to take care of the environment and when you say environment is not only the environment involves even the animals the plants and the water bodies and all that so in the pageant our main focus is that and we tell these kids to all the children must have an environmental project like for example the current one there is one of the kids who is doing plastic free packs and doing partnership with KWS and the national pack so the child is advocating for zero plastic in the packs and even right now when you go to the pack they won't allow you to get into the pack with the soda, the plastic bottle or anything plastic so why because when you go there the animals feed on that and kills them or even pollutes the river and the pack which is so bad another boy is doing a project he is called Ragnar for Rhinos and he is trying to advocate for Rhinos safety he is speaking again as poaching and he is trying to say the Rhinos are selling them so we are trying just to raise kids who are aware of that and we are having the pageants on this weekend 7th Saturday at the Nairobi National Park so in this pageant that is coming up over the weekend which ages are competing our youngest is 4 years and the eldest is 15 years and then we have classified these children according to age because we realize 4 years old cannot compete with 15 years old so we have different categories we have tiny, little, mista and misenvironment we have mini and then we have pretend and we have tin so this competition is going to take place in the span of what time we are going to start at 10 am and if it ends as planned we will finish by 5 pm because in the morning we have a tree planting session at the park then they are going to have a nature walk and then a photo session and then we will move in and go into the pageant so what if our parents maybe they missed their children participating in the pageant what are the qualifications that a child needs to participate in the pageant maybe they can participate next time for children it's never really strict a kid's pageant is not like an adult's pageant and we don't really say here you have to be slim and tall and whatever for kids we don't have a minimum body requirement all we just need is the kids should be willing to do it we also don't want to force children into things that they don't want and we also encourage parents not to force the kids to do what they want so if the child is willing to do it then that's the minimum requirement any other things like the public speaking the walk, the projects we just teach at school but we also usually charge a small fee to be able to facilitate our trainers to equip these kids with such skills other than being environmental savvy and participating in projects and gaining confidence what else do the children gain from the pageant and being or working with little big talents also we are the frontage holder for two international pageants Little Miss and Miss Universe and Little Miss Earth World so last year just before covid we were in Dubai with two of our children and they went to participate in one of the pageants in Dubai and they did so well we got the Little Miss Universe Africa and the Supermodel title so we also exposed these children to international platforms and they are able to interact with those children and also just do a next change program so I'd like you to speak to the parents out there for the children who are showing interest in talent such as modelling, acting and singing and dancing just encourage them to support their children to build because these are careers that can actually pay your bills if we supported them fully ok so to the parents I would ask us, my parents to stop being one truck minded and think that life is a straight line there's just like a vector that we need to get where we want to go because sometimes we limit our kids we try to suppress them to do something that they're not so good they're not so good in it the way they say you cannot judge a fish by its inability to climb a tree, you put it in water then it will show you how to swim so encourage the parents to give your child a chance to develop their talents because you really never know you never know I'm an ardent believer of the Bible and the Bible tells us clearly that the gifts will make room for you didn't say my degree didn't say your education didn't say nothing but what you're good at your talents and your gifts will make room for you so give your kids a chance and let them flourish ok as we wind up I'd like you to tell us where the event will be and if anyone wanted to come and see the pageant or support how can they do that and social media as well ok so the pageant will be this coming saturday next saturday at the Nairobi National Park from 10am at the clubhouse and you can get us on our social media pages at Little Big talents everywhere and our website is www.littlebigtalents.co.ke we also have our pages for Little Miss and Miss Environment throughout Twitter, Instagram and Facebook same handle you can get us there or you can call us through our work number 0768 147 344 ok thank you so much for coming through we appreciate your time and what you're doing keep doing it and let us teach our children they are the next generation we need to have a good environment for the future thank you so much and that was Joe Wan as you've heard please don't let your children sit on their talents if someone is showing interest push them towards that and we have little big talents to start with and let them grow neshke setganina to the next what are we about to listen to neske rege kido go neske rege ok I have one last question for Joe Wan so as you've heard our topic of the day is dating a mast dating that leads to marriage say me I read really wide and I'm aware that we have organized marriages and some of them are really successful and you know this organized marriages they don't have time for dating you just told he I got this nesh I don't know from Ureba Nakuru then you come from another town and you meet and you married automatically and most of the time they're really successful I don't know why so for me dating is not a mast ok thank you so much for your opinion as well so rege rege asa skiza kenya rege ati