Influence Conference · 19–20 September 2026
What I Took From ICON 4
I went into ICON 4 — the Influence Conference, “Influence, Income & Impact” — not looking for a highlight reel, but for what would actually stay with me once the weekend was over. These are my own notes from the two days, tidied up from what I scribbled while I sat and listened, not a transcript of anyone's talk. If a line reads as a direct quote, it's because it stopped me in my seat and I wrote it down as I heard it.
Saturday: Influence, Income & Impact
Dr Shola Fola-Alade opened with a line I keep coming back to: have something to sell, because when influence grows, money follows. He pointed to Isaiah 60:11 — the gates are open now — and Ezekiel 47:1, 8–9, on influence that reaches beyond the church walls. Measure it honestly, he said: what's actually showing up in your DMs. He left us with three things from Matthew 6, on letting your light shine — visibility (you are who Google says you are), clarity, and consistency in doing what works. Study your own data. See what lands, and do more of it. And a phrase that's stuck: everybody needs to be “Me & Co.” You're allowed to make room for yourself — ministry and business in the same life, in season, each making you more fully yourself.
Pastor Mrs Ibukun Awosika spoke next on building wealth through entrepreneurship. Her core point: as long as an idea is profitable and scalable, there's potential to build wealth from it — entrepreneurship isn't antagonistic to any industry, it's about sorting through ideas for the ones with the highest probability of creating wealth over time. Drive and commitment to driving value. Don't price yourself out of the market. Innovation can be ahead of its time, and that's fine — entrepreneurship is an adventure. Learn to collaborate and read the mood of the market, stay proactive and relevant, and know your own limits well enough to work within them wisely.
The breakout session on building a platform — growing influence, income and impact in 2026 — was dense with practical framing. The 60-second sound bite question: are you a faithful steward? The 5 P's for becoming a recognised authority in your space: powerful Positioning, Publish, Production, Profile and Partnership. What's my proposition — what am I known for, how do I want to be perceived? You can curate perception, but it starts with a clear statement of what you stand for. To become an authority you have to become a thought leader: do you have something to say, and are you actually saying it? Three to five ideas, owned consistently across every platform. Prolific beats perfect — become a directionist, not a perfectionist. And a line that landed hard: my social media profile is my shop window. Even mentioning I was in the room at ICON 4 with Dr Shola, Mrs Awosika, Dr Julian Kyula, Dr Raphael Sofoluke, Hayley Mulenda and Princess Bright is itself a form of distribution partnership.
Dr Julian Kyula spoke on Kingdom finance — though he said upfront he has a problem with the phrase itself, because it connotes scarcity. Business needs to be redemptive. Don't build anything antichrist. What it means to be “the wealthiest man or woman” is changing — it's about relevance now, not just accumulation. God never gives you a dream that matches your current budget; creative solutions to hard problems are born of passion, love, time and devotion. His challenge to learn, unlearn and relearn — forgetting what's behind and pressing toward what's ahead — sat alongside a warning: investors alone don't grow a business, and not every shareholder is good for you. Sometimes the question isn't pivoting, it's whether to destroy something in order to build the right thing. Don't be like a fly stuck at a window all day, ignoring the open door beside it. If a method isn't working, change it — don't assume progress only comes one slow step at a time. Get comfortable being uncomfortable, and own your seat when you finally arrive in the room. Build relationships; they're the greatest capital there is.
Dr Raphael Sofoluke spoke more briefly on being influential both online and offline — his throughline was community. Like-minded people coming together to support and grow each other is, in his view, the single most important thing in building a business. We elevate each other, or we don't grow at all.
Hayley Mulenda Record's session stayed with me for its honesty: get out of your own head and move, and God will give you something to bless. Whatever I give Him is too small from the outset anyway — impact on a micro level is what earns impact at a larger scale. She talked about people as the real asset, once you're carrying multiple skills and roles: find good people, and raise a protégé while you're still alive to do it. Delegate to people who are better than you at the thing. Use AI, led by the Holy Spirit, to buy back your time.
Princess Bright Olaifa spoke on the importance of vision — writing it down, the way she'd watched her own mother do. She built trust and credibility by doing the work behind the scenes for years before she became Mayor, long before any platform existed to amplify it. The principle underneath it: give God something to bless. Conviction has to come first; the amplification, when it comes, is just God making visible what was already being built in private.
The Saturday closing thoughts tied the day together with a challenge: the body of Christ has to stop pretending it doesn't like money. The heaviest part of integrity is the part that's only ever between you and God. This move needs people willing to risk the norm of what others call “good,” and a backbone for favour — the kind that comes from knowing God is backing you. We rise together, or not at all. The original purpose of God's economy is stewardship: He gives resources to His people, for His people. And a call to be wise as serpents, harmless as doves — sheep among wolves, discerning enough to know when it's time to step forward rather than stay hidden.
Sunday: Following On From ICON 4
Dr Julian Kyula returned Sunday with a session on influence — growing from local to global — that opened with a line I wrote down word for word:
God is putting me in places I will have grace for.
Growth isn't for the faint-hearted, he said, pointing to Luke 2:52 and Nehemiah 2:10 — new levels bring new devils, and favour attracts stronger opposition, not less. The Kingdom of God is fundamentally about governance (Matthew 16:19); we're meant to superimpose a new way onto the earth (Isaiah 43:19), without limiting God territorially or staying stuck where we currently are. Keep learning, because what worked yesterday won't work today.
He framed this moment as a transition — Deuteronomy 34:5, the close of the Pentateuch, Moses already gone; Joshua 1:2's “by this time,” where the season itself is the reference point. There is no new thing in God, only things we haven't discovered yet, and the most dangerous move is repeating exactly what the generation before us did. Search for newness in God rather than inviting Him into plans already made — start with Him instead. Proverbs 3:5: nothing else gets to hold the place in your heart that belongs to trust in Him.
A new dimension of prosperity is coming to this generation, he said, but it comes with a question attached — Ephesians 3:2, how many widows and orphans are eating because of you? Scaling and growth have to be usable for Kingdom purposes, not just personal ones. Unplug from the matrix. Matthew 16:17–19: keys don't come without revelation first — you have to ask the owner which key opens what. The enemy's main strategy is simply keeping you too busy to receive that revelation in the first place.
He returned to it from another angle: whatever you prayed to get, pray to keep — and if you lied to get it, you'll lie to keep it too. It's possible, he said, to worship the promise and not the Promise-Keeper (John 4:12). Whatever has your time, has you. Pharaoh, in Exodus 5, considered worship itself a form of idleness; Hebrews 5 reminds us God gives us rest instead. Satan's greatest strength, he said, is being a master trader — interest itself originally traces back to venom. We're breaking away from routine, and superimposing God's way over our own instead.
He closed with something quieter: there's a version of me heaven has been waiting for — recovery by knowledge. I agree with God.
And then, near the very end of the weekend:
Can I announce, some of you are the saviour of your family.
Job 22:21–26 — peace as a system, an exemption from trouble, for those who make it their business to know God. I should never be too busy for Him. Stop chasing additions, chase God Himself; everything else is downstream. I'm a carrier of grace, and Satan's trading system carries the exact opposite of peace.
The last note I wrote all weekend came from Dr Shola, on Acts 13:2 — you're labouring to find rest in your true calling. If your job or business isn't giving you that rest, change it. May I find rest in my true calling.
These are my own notes and reflections from ICON 4 — not a transcript, and not intended to represent anyone's teaching beyond what I personally heard and wrote down in the moment. Speaker photos above are pulled from their public speaker and press profiles, not taken by me.