The Sovereign Asset: Transmuting Your Story from Digital Tenancy to Institutional Wealth
In today’s global landscape, we are witnessing a paradox of visibility. As of 2025, the number of internet users has surged to six billion, nearly 74% of the global population. Yet, within this vast ocean of data, the African Diaspora remains “digitally homeless.” We inhabit platforms we do not own, fuel algorithms we do not control, and surrender our lived experiences to databases that offer us no equity in return.
Learn How to Leverage Your Story through our Story To Asset Framework.
This is the modern face of Economic Tenancy. During a recent live event as part of our Business Storytelling Series “Your Story as an Asset”, Obehi Ewanfoh and a panel of Diaspora visionaries gathered to dismantle this framework.
The consensus was clear: the transition from a “Subject” of Western digital institutions to a “Sovereign” of your own legacy begins with the “Story-to-Asset“ methodology, a proprietary framework designed to codify lived experience into a “Fortress of Peace.”
What is the Business Storytelling Series?
The Business Storytelling Series is the tactical engine behind the “Sovereign Pivot,” a live bi-monthly laboratory where the “Story-to-Asset” methodology is put into practice.
Inspired by Obehi Ewanfoh’s Storytelling Mastery book series, these sessions serve as a communal “village square” for Diaspora visionaries to dismantle the framework of digital tenancy.
Rather than merely teaching marketing tactics, the series acts as a bridge between raw lived experience and institutional wealth. It provides entrepreneurs with the “Decoding Formulas” needed to transform their personal narratives into a “Fortress of Peace” that thrives independently of rented social media platforms.
In an era where six billion users are vying for attention in a “Soup of Sameness,” The Business Storytelling Series offers a strategic blueprint for achieving digital sovereignty.
Participants engage with industry experts to strip away the “fluff” of traditional branding, focusing instead on narrative as a form of infrastructure that solves real-world problems and builds lasting community equity.
By participating in these free live events, founders learn to move beyond being “Subjects” of global algorithms, instead codifying their unique genius into a sovereign currency that safeguards their legacy and ensures their stories never disappear.
The Historical Context: Moving Beyond the “Tenant” Mindset
To understand where we are going, we must acknowledge that the Diaspora has long faced Institutional Barriers designed to extract “Cultural Rent.” We see this when our aesthetics are mainstreamed by global corporations while the originators remain in a state of financial fragility.
Obehi Ewanfoh opened the session with a profound reflection on the weight of legacy:
“I was a baby when my father died. If you could give me an interview of my father talking, I will pay any amount of money to have it… I am doing this because somebody will stumble upon this tomorrow and say, ‘That is my grandpa.'”
This isn’t just sentiment; it is an economic warning. When your story is not codified, meaning, when it is not recorded or turned into a system, it disappears with you.
This leaves your descendants to start from zero. As Obehi noted, “To really die is to not be remembered.” Sovereignty means ensuring your “Sovereign Truth” remains a guiding light that no institution can switch off.
Decoding Narrative Infrastructure
The transition from “Story” to “Asset” is an engineering feat. Don Hough, CEO of Enterprise Transformers Inc and an innovative agribusiness leader, challenged the audience to look beyond the surface level of social media “likes.”
There are Three Levels of Narrative Maturity. The panel identified a specific “Decoding Formula” to move from noise to equity:
- Narrative as Expression (The Subject Phase): Merely sharing fragments of life on rented ground.
- Narrative as Influence (The Consultant Phase): Building a brand where people trust your voice, yet it still requires your physical presence.
- Narrative as Infrastructure (The Sovereign Phase): This is the breakthrough. Don remarked, “People confuse reach with ownership… a rented audience is not an owned asset. The goal isn’t to be seen forever; it is to build something that works without you.”
Jay Pascua, a storytelling strategist, reinforced this by emphasizing that in a sea of 6 billion people today on the internet, your unique “Story-to-Asset” blueprint is the only way to escape the “Soup of Sameness.” He observed:
“If I mentioned the name Elon Musk, what would come to mind? Tesla… if I said Ford, you would know it was Ford who ushered in the industrial age… Branding is more than just colors and a nice logo. Branding is your story.”
The Strategic Blueprint: From Lived Experience to Business Asset
How does a Diaspora founder actually turn a “lived experience” into something that protects a family’s future? The speakers highlighted three key pillars:
1. Problem-Solving as the Core Narrative
Dr. Ikechi Agbugba, a pioneer in brain re-engineering and agribusiness, pointed out that entrepreneurs are first and foremost “Thinkers” and “Problem Solvers.”
“Entrepreneurs… are supposed to be people who come in to solve a problem. The problems of society. The problems of people… They are first thinkers.” By documenting the method of the solution, the entrepreneur turns a temporary fix into a permanent Sovereign Asset.
2. The “Indigenous Scuba” Model
Jay Pascua offered a radical alternative to Western individualism. While the West teaches you to put your own oxygen mask on first, Jay spoke of the “Buddy System” found in indigenous communities:
See also Is Your Education a Trap? Reclaiming Your Intellectual Sovereignty with Professor Oluwafemi Esan
“I want to share my oxygen with you. And we are both going to rise to the surface, and we are both going to survive. And that’s how we build community by sharing this breath… and the breath I’m talking about is our story.”
3. Stripping Away the “Fluff”
Don, who is currently building Grow Mobile for African and Caribbean farmers, noted that the most valuable stories are forged in the fires of reality.
“When you work close to big messy challenges… things either work or they don’t… working on real global problems has a way of stripping away the fluff. Your story becomes simpler and simpler over time because it has to be.”
Owning the “Fortress of Peace”
The “So What?” of the live event was clear: Every story must help you own your genius today. The “Sovereign Pivot” occurs when you realize your story is a currency.
Obehi reminded the audience that this methodology is already in motion at AClasses Academy. He reflected on a conference he organized in 2012 in Verona, where he brought in high level stakeholders, including Agostino Portera of the University of Verona, students and community leaders and sat everyone in a circle, the “Village Model” for a debate on multiculturality in Verona.
“I’m not going to be teaching you about theory. I want to tell you that more than 10 years ago, we sat in this room… that small conference is now what led to AClasses Academy, the Obehi Podcast and a number of other interesting projects”
AClasses Academy is a “Sovereign Clearinghouse” where professionals transform their life’s work into blueprints. By engaging with these courses, you move from “Renter” to “Owner,” acquiring the Decoding Formulas needed to safeguard your legacy.
According to an African Proverb: “The man who says, ‘I will do it tomorrow’ is the man who never sees the fruits of the harvest.”
Conclusion: Your Implementation Blueprint
Sovereignty is a choice. As Obehi concluded, “Action is a magic word.” If you do nothing with your story, the world moves on. But if you own it, you become uncopyable.
Start today. Deconstruct your pain points. Identify where you are paying “Digital Rent.” Use the Story-to-Asset methodology to synthesize your wisdom into a “Fortress of Peace.”
Your Next Step Toward Institutional Sovereignty
The transition from “Subject” to “Sovereign” requires a specialized set of tools. We invite you to begin your formal journey of codification.
