Rasheed Ogunlaru

Biography

Ogunlaru was born in London in the early 1970s to Nigerian parents. He was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School. Ogunlaru spent the first 10 years of his career from the age of 18 working for Which?. It was here that he first got a taste of coaching when he trained key members of staff to appear on TV, radio and in the press.

In the late 1990s redundancy led Ogunlaru to pursue his passion as a singer-songwriter but his own career was without commercial success. However he helping others promote their careers utilizing his media skills. At this time he also became a volunteer for the Samaritans in central London with whom he served as Co-Director 2003-2005. He continued working part time in media and PR, including a spell as Communications Manager for the UK College of Family Mediators.

From 2001-2004 Ogunlaru ran the The Mind, Body & Spirit of Singing which he founded with Marcus Fellowes. It focused on helping artists find deeper levels of awareness in their selves, singing and careers. During this time Ogunlaru trained and later qualified as a Professional Life Coach with the Coaching Academy — with whom he later returned as an external trainer.

Today Rasheed Ogunlaru is among the UK's most popular and renowned life coaches and motivational speakers. His clients have included Top 10 pop stars, Chief Executives, politicians, entrepreneurs, teachers, healers, organisations and others. He is author of Soul Trader - Putting the Heart Back into Your Business, The Gift of Inner Success and A Zest for Business.

He has been involved in coaching programmes with Mayor's London Development Agency and has spoken at major shows, conferences and exhibitions across the UK. He is also the life & business coach partner to the British Library where he runs Your Life, Your Business, a monthly workshop for new and established business owners, and Business Link events for fledgling entrepreneurs.

Ogunlaru has appeared on TV and radio including appearances on ITV News and BBC Breakfast. He has spent time as a regular life coach guest on BBC London and well as for Psychologies Magazine where he can often be found as an Online 'agony uncle' style coach. He enjoys great popularity across public, business and spiritual development circles—and can often be seen at events inspiring new and established entrepreneurs. Ogunlaru also produced his own TV pilot The Rasheed Show...Be the Change, See the Change which features an interviews with [Dame Tanni Grey-Thomson]. In 2009 he also became an expert panel member for [Leadsure], The University of London Computer Centre's online resource for small business.