A little about me

HI, I'M ONA, nice to meet you

I'm a builder at heart. Businesses, brands, communities, content. I've had my hands in a little bit of everything, and every chapter has taught me something about the next one.

See what I'm building

MY STORY, so far

The beginning: before the cameras and content

I spent more than a decade working in healthcare operations. Patient registration. Billing. Revenue cycle. Systems implementation. The kind of work that makes a real difference in whether an organization runs well, even when most people never see it.

That experience shaped how I think. I learned to look past the surface, understand what is actually happening, and build systems people can use.

Then I started building

Entrepreneurship gave me a different kind of classroom. I founded businesses, built a media and marketing company, produced content, and created spaces for people to connect.

I founded Adode Media in 2020 and built a career working across strategy, storytelling, production, and operations. I also created Blk Pod Collective, a community of more than 500 audio creators, and Blk Pod Festival.

It hasn't been a straight line. I wouldn't know what to do with one.

Ona smiling, leaning on a camera tripod in the studio

Ona on a production set in front of the camera while a crew member takes notes

Ona at the editing desk in headphones with two Adode Media teammates looking on

WHAT I'VE BUILT, so far

4Companies founded since 2019
2,500+Blk Pod Festival attendees over four years
500+Members in Blk Pod Collective, worldwide
500+Videos a year produced at Adode Media
3Internal systems built: Atrium, our CRM, an LMS for training, and an outreach and research engine
10+Years in healthcare operations before any of it

THROUGH THE YEARS, the long way

2019
Blk Pod Collective
A digital community for Black audio creators. 500+ members across the globe.
2020
Blk Pod Festival
A podcast festival for Black audio creatives. 820 virtual attendees in year one.
DEC 2020
Adode Media
Founded as a podcast production agency.
2021
Adode Studios
Our own podcast studio. Blk Pod Festival grows to 1,023 virtual attendees.
2022
Blk Pod Festival, in person
505 people in the room for our first in-person festival.
2023
The final festival
Four years, more than 2,500 attendees in all.
2024
Beyond podcasting, and what truly matters
Adode Media goes full-service performance marketing. Then a brain tumor makes me rethink what I'm building and why.
2026
Rebuilt on purpose
I closed the studio, rebuilt around what matters, and started building in public with Built to Scale.

THE PIVOT, what matters

The experience that changed my perspective

I knew healthcare from the inside. Then I experienced it as a patient.

I'm a two-time cancer survivor. Most recently, I faced a brain tumor diagnosis. Even with years of experience in healthcare, finding the right specialists, seeking second opinions, and figuring out who could help was harder than I expected.

I could find other patients telling their stories online. What I struggled to find was the right provider.

“I wasn't struggling to find a doctor. I was struggling to find the right doctor.”

That experience changed how I thought about visibility and trust. It also changed what I wanted to build next.

Where the worlds meet

Today, Adode Media is focused on helping independent healthcare providers become easier to find and understand. That focus comes from both my professional background and my personal experience.

But my work as a strategist and creative leader reaches beyond healthcare. I still care deeply about helping founders, creators, and businesses find their voice, build content that connects, and put the right systems behind their ideas.