Tomorrow, I want more meat
In a year that began slowly, I feel lucky to have had the best of times.
As humans, we have beliefs and dreams but never know what direction they’d take. I have always thought school could be a secondary means to being successful, but it’s difficult to explain to many, especially in this part of the world. Of course, this isn’t to say “school is a scam”, I just believe the connections and experiences can supersede the certificate.
At the start of 2020, I was primarily a motivation letter writer and since I wasn’t the type to eagerly ask for money from home, I knew I had to upscale my income. This isn’t because of being poor or lacking, but out of personal zeal/standards. Special shout-out to Maryam for the referrals.
Luckily, I happened to be on Twitter after Eid. As is the culture, you see beautiful pictures of people in their Salah clothes but what struck many nerves were the Bentley, Maserati, Ferrari and Maybach. They really were a sight to behold. Subconsciously, I woke up the following day with a renewed sense of hustle, so I picked my redundant Upwork profile, polished it and began applying for jobs.
I got one the afternoon of the same day. I was to be a Copywriter for an Australian brand that dealt in Shopify store development. That appointment kickstarted the best year of my life.
Resuming the next day, I got my test task. My responsibilities were to write product descriptions, edit store policies, write meta descriptions and titles, and edit all the copy in the store. Here’s a secret that Ladd Agency didn’t know; prior to this position, I’d never worked on a similar project. But I was determined to be successful at it, so I watched YouTube videos to understand Shopify as a whole. The result? Four months later, I was promoted to a QA position.
At this level, I was to oversee store creation. This meant supervising the design, product and copywriting projects of stores assigned to me. It also meant working with more people as I had to communicate directly with clients, listen and reply to their complaints or requests regarding respective stores. It was a new experience, one I remain grateful for because it changed my perspective and taught me a lot.
If you didn’t know golf to be cherished by whites, you’re welcome. Because I’m bad at Mathematics, I can’t calculate how many of the stores I handled that were golf related but at some stage, I could recognize whether a club was a wood, wedge, putter, iron or hybrid. They also love fishing and climbing mountains.
From January to May, I didn’t know what G Suite was, and I definitely didn’t know how to work around a Shopify store’s backend. If you had spoken to me about Klaviyo, Dropified, and Asana, you’d have gotten a blank stare because what are those and how were they my business?
The biggest shocker, however, was dealing with clients who wanted refunds. I mean, you really want me to tell the CEO (who was also on the Slack channel) that they should refund $3,000+? Times like that were tough because nobody prepared me for it. Regardless though, in the end, no money was refunded and each client left delighted, which makes me think Nigeria might just be the only tough time that lasts.
During this period, I learnt office communication since supervising a project that involved 30+ people required giving directives and following up. Often, it involved developers arguing with you rather than making necessary changes, developing a blog site instead of a store, product specialists adding wrong or bad products, and having to literally beg to be replied. And there was the copywriter who just wanted to be paid.
This period ushered in wisdom and a lot of patience because waking up to 20+ messages will teach you how to prioritize and delegate.
I also realized customers just want to feel good and confident in their choice. They want trust, and the best way to do this is to carry them along. This doesn’t mean the entire process, a little info on status quo will do. Ask for their preferences specifically, ask for options they’re open to and when confused, offer solutions. A client who was really adamant on getting a refund later was in thanks, even when I said the store wasn’t ready.
It was simply a matter of answering what I believe to be the most important question in the world; “why?”.
All good things must come to an end?
September came, and I had to quit the job to focus on taking care of my mum after her surgery so there were a few losses in this memorable year too. Asides her being bedridden, I lost editing jobs at Investopedia and U.S. Philips due to being in Nigeria. Though, they’re losses, my father’s principle of asking what an experience has come to teach overrides the sadness. For me, the experience meant hope in better opportunities. After all, if a bird doesn’t take flight, it’d see those doing so as magicians.
I passed my interviews and got both jobs the days that followed. It was a good experience.
If I’ve learnt something “too much”, it’s how to deal with rejections because they’re part of the journey. My November and December were spent taking SEO, Email and Inbound Marketing, Copywriting, and Content Management Systems courses from Udemy, LinkedIn, Domestika and HubSpot. For me, I have to be prepared for the next opportunity by getting better, while also expanding my range to offer more value to current clients.
Overall, 2020 impacted my life by ushering fresh possibilities and especially, affirming my belief that a university certificate can be my secondary source of income. This won’t apply to everybody but for me, that’s my aim. Having worked with proprofs.com, europa-worldwide.com, myaromastudio.com, Ladd Agency (now Ecom Capital), and ghostwriting an eBook, tomorrow can only be bright.
In 2021, asides making more money, increasing my savings, and investing, I hope I get to be more present with my friends. Most importantly, I hope coronavirus chooses kindness so that I can eat more suya, shawarma and have more cinema appearances.
And if somebody can make piña colada to be non-alcoholic, is a Birkin too small?
Skol! 🥂