Ten years ago today, I sat down and wrote a post called “Kahill@30.” I talked about retirement plans that never happened, about being “called at 30” the way Joseph and David were, and about giving God the glory for keeping me alive to see that milestone. I signed off with a line I still smile at: “Let me go find my cake.”
I genuinely thought that was the plan. Find wealth. Find rest. Retire.
Ten years later, I haven’t retired once. I’ve just found more reasons to keep building.
What My 30s Actually Looked Like
If you’d told 30-year-old me that a decade later I’d be running seven companies instead of coasting into early retirement, I’m not sure I would have believed you. But here’s the honest, verifiable-online version of what happened between Kahill@30 and Kahill@40:
Kahill Insights grew from a one-woman blog and a sole proprietorship into a seven-company ecosystem sitting at the intersection of technology, human behavior, and purpose.
10,000+ people have now been trained across Africa. Not a typo — a decade’s worth of workshops, coaching sessions, and “aha” moments, one room and one Zoom call at a time.
75,000+ people now make up the multi-platform community that shows up for the newsletters, the blog, and the general noise I make online.
The Kahill Digital Marketing School exists today because “make social media work for you” needed to become something people could actually be taught, not just something they read about once and forgot.
And then there are the books. Three of them, soon to be counted differently after today. The girl who used to write long letters to a pen pal at fourteen never once dreamed she’d write books; she just loved reading them. So when it happened, it felt less like ambition and more like fulfilled prophecy. My late friend Joel Benjamin Ntwatwa once told me, “You will write books, and you will even be good at it.” Today, I’m adding a third book to that shelf, and I still think about him every time I do.
The Gift Goes Both Ways This Year
For my 30th, the gift was cake and gratitude. For my 40th, I wanted the gift to go outward instead—to the people who’ve read along, argued with me in the comments, and shared my posts when they didn’t have to.
So for one week only, two books are discounted as my way of saying thank you.
“Name Your Wages” is brand new. It launched today as my main birthday gift to all of you. It carries a foreword by Alfred Brian Agaba, a man who, in a single sitting, changed how I manage my own finances. When I finished writing this book and realized it needed a foreword, I felt the Lord say plainly: “Find Alfred.” With over twenty years in leadership, strategy, and finance across dozens of countries, he was exactly the right person to sit with my penned thoughts and tell me whether they made sense. They did, because he’s the one who wrote that confirmation into the foreword himself. If you want to know what he actually said, you’ll have to get the book.
Thank you, Alfred, for lending your voice to this one.
“Make Social Media Work For You—The Art of Social Selling” is the one that started it all. The first digital marketing book of its kind on the Ugandan market. And still an all-time favorite among readers navigating the digital space.
Birthday pricing, today through 7th July:
- Name Your Wages — UGX 15,000 (down from UGX 30,000)
- Make Social Media Work For You — UGX 20,000 (down from UGX 30,000)
To order either or both, WhatsApp +256706757523.
Over to You
If you’ve read “Make Social Media Work For You,” I’d love to know what’s the one line or idea that stuck with you? And if your own birthday is coming up or just passed, here’s a question worth sitting with: What did you think your life would look like at this age versus what it actually looks like?
I like the years I’ve accumulated and the lessons they’ve taught me. What my 30s taught me is that the further along you get, the more perspective you gain. And the clearer sense you have of what actually matters and what’s worth your focus. That’s still the greatest gift of age, ten years on.
To me at 40: still building, still curious, still grateful. Cake’s optional this time. The work is the celebration.
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