A Review of 2024 as a Multi Potentialite Bae in Nigeria

Here’s the thing: I’ve read quite several yearly reviews from people around me, both within my circle and outside, and I do get jealous that…

by 

Here’s the thing: I’ve read quite several yearly reviews from people around me, both within my circle and outside, and I do get jealous that they can put things in writing while I cannot.

Don’t get me wrong, even though I am a writer, it can be quite difficult for me to put things into writing, as writing a blog post takes a while for me—about a week for my writing material to be exactly what I want to put out there.

But for the yearly review, what I find difficult is that I cannot, for my life, remember what I did. Most of the time, I get flabbergasted when I complain that I didn’t achieve anything to my friends or even my parents, and then they let me know, ‘Ha, you did, and you did this.’

Then I got shocked and started going through my journal to see if I could remember achieving this. Don’t get me wrong, I do write out my plan for each year, but one thing I don’t like doing is going back to what I had written to see if I did okay or not, or even if I achieved 50%. I get scared when I don’t achieve everything I wrote down—it affects me a lot, mentally and physically—so I avoided going through them, and I still sadly am not doing anything about it.

woman holding a receipt
Photo by Photo By: Kaboompics.com on Pexels.com

Starting Out

I started the year unemployed, with my emergency fund gone and no callbacks for interviews, even after paying for a CV review and optimization. Despite all this, I didn’t give up, although my parents weren’t making it easy. I also moved back to my parents’ home. The original plan was to move out, but living with my parents in Abuja has been holding me back.

I’m a big fan of Abuja and, as someone in marketing and communication, I know that moving to Lagos would accelerate my career because most of the big players in the field are there. However, I didn’t want to move to Lagos unless the company was worth it. If I moved, I’d have to start from scratch. While I’m not afraid of starting over, my main concern is that I didn’t want to live where I’d struggle to maintain my standard of living due to circumstances beyond my control.

My parents have connections in Lagos, and if I was determined, I could have made it work. However, I’ve been working on becoming less dependent on them since 2019, so I didn’t want to lean on them for support in that way.

I know I’ve rambled a bit, but to summarize, Abuja is the location I want to live in. Sadly, with my parents here, I had no choice but to stay put at the time. However, the situation has changed, and I’ll probably write more about this in a future post

Getting A New Job

I got a job around Q2 of 2024 after submitting 345 job applications (yes, I kept count). I received some interview callbacks, which I sadly had to reject because they either didn’t understand what they wanted me to do or offered a salary that didn’t reflect my experience.

With 4 years of experience in marketing and communication, I may not have worked with a well-known company or achieved groundbreaking milestones, but I have consistently delivered results. Offering me a salary for someone with 2 years of experience felt insulting, and offering me the same salary or even lower than my previous one made it seem like I hadn’t been growing in my career.

During that month, I received 3 different job offers. OMO, I was shocked, but the salaries were not what I expected. I planned to double my income. After calculating my transportation and feeding expenses (excluding my other monthly expenses), I decided to pick a job closer to home. The work expenses—transportation to the office and back, plus feeding—made it the only practical choice, even though the working conditions were not ideal.

I had no choice, especially since my dad had been spreading talks that I had been unemployed since I left university in 2019, even though I had worked remotely before resigning. He even asked me to prepare a lecturing CV so he could give it to his connections.

Now, don’t get me wrong—I don’t hate lecturing, but just not in the Nigerian educational system. So, I had to accept the job offer. I know it might sound stupid, and it seems like I didn’t stand up for myself, but I was exhausted, and now I’m questioning whether I made the right choice.


On The Blog: How to Get Your Spark Back: 8 Steps to Do That


Skill Improvement

One of my goals as a marketing and communication professional, aside from pursuing an MBA, was to complete the Udacity Digital Marketing Nanodegree Program. However, I couldn’t afford to pay for it out of my pocket, so I kept an eye out for scholarships. I found one by Ire Aderinokun. I hesitated to fill out the application because I had tried before and didn’t get selected, but my desperation and the fear of following my parents’ plans for me pushed me to apply.

When I received the first email telling me I had passed the application process and moved on to the interview stage, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I didn’t tell anyone for fear of the “evil eye.” I know it sounds superstitious, but I believe in the possibility of bad luck. So, I prepared extensively, not knowing what to expect. Then, two things happened:

  1. On the day of the interview, I got a terrible migraine, which caused me to sleep through the interview time. Gosh, you should have seen me that day—I couldn’t eat, but I mustered the courage to send an email and request a reschedule.
  2. On the day of the rescheduled interview, there was no network. I have three service providers—MTN, 9Mobile, and Glo—but none of them were working. Fortunately, I found out the place where I started working had Wi-Fi, so I used that. Girl, I had to hide in the toilet because I was new there and didn’t want them to think I was interviewing for a new job.

The interviewer (Love Akinkunle) was so understanding (I believe this is what happens when you have someone who can relate to you), considering the rescheduling and network issues. In the end, I got the scholarship and successfully graduated from the program. Ire and her team made my year. One thing I wish I had done better is making friends with the other scholarship recipients. Maybe I’ll check them out on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Increasing my Income

Here’s the thing: I wanted to increase my income—the money coming into my account. To do this, I identified two categories to explore: firstly, getting a job with a salary that can cover my expenses, whether they are, wants, investments, savings, or needs, or secondly, having multiple sources of income that can cover the same.

I wanted the first option, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen. So, I shifted to the second option: creating multiple sources of income.

To achieve this, I started offering my community marketing through Damiel Badra. I don’t call it an agency, as I’m not always the only one working on client projects. I often have one or more team members, depending on the size of the project.

In my studio, I offer three different marketing services and two digital products (though I haven’t made any sales on those yet). Early in 2024, some international clients scammed me by not paying after I delivered, and I felt so stupid for falling into that trap, but I know I shouldn’t have.

This year, I’m adding more services, but they are not related to Damiel Badra. These will focus on Meta advertising, content marketing, content writing, and consultation. However, I’ll be the only one working on each of these projects. For this reason, I’m not tying them to Damiel Badra until I figure it out. So, send me those gigs via my mail: damielbadra@gmail.com!


person writing on white paper beside apple magic mouse as year in review
Photo by Thirdman on Pexels.com

Listing out My Wins and Fails

I wanted to share these two in the same message rather than having a different category for them.

  • Won a scholarship for the Udacity Digital Marketing Nanodegree Program by Ire Aderinokun, which strengthened my marketing knowledge and skills.
  • Formed a team to participate in the Made in Nigeria Open-Source Hackathon in partnership with SheCode Africa.
  • Got a job as a marketing and communication professional, working 9 hours daily for 6 days a week.
  • Saved 50% of my monthly salary into an emergency fund.
  • Bought a new phone after my old one got damaged. Even though it wasn’t the one I wanted, I reminded myself to be grateful.
  • One of my bosses gifted me a phone. Since I’ve always used more than one phone, I decided to dedicate this one to my business, Damiel Badra.
  • Was unable to move out this year due to inflation and uncertainty about where to relocate.
  • Joined several community platforms, although I struggled to build consistent relationships.
  • Worked on my Upwork profile, offering services like community setup, community operations, community services, and writing.
  • Did a partial wardrobe revamp, focusing on corporate wear since this is my first onsite job after working remotely for a while. However, I was disappointed with the available colour choices in the market, as I wanted more vibrant options and better length. My petite size made the search even more challenging.
  • Gave money to my sister. Despite us clashing often and her not being my biggest fan, I guess I was just in a good mood—it surprised me too!
  • Participated as a judge for the Mama Cyber Shield cohort.
  • Actively volunteered as a reviewer for Elsevier’s Computers and Security journal, enhancing my reputation in the cybersecurity space.
  • Didn’t save into my domiciliary account this year due to the hassle of currency conversion. This is why I’m now pursuing jobs that pay in dollars or pounds.
  • I launched Not So Linear, an initiative under the company I’m building called The Seeker Effect, and I was able to publish 8 articles.
  • I was recognized as the employee star of the year and also won the Outstanding Staff of the Year award. 😂 Omo, I only started working there in 2024!

Moving Forward

As I look back on the year, I realize that while I may have stumbled in some areas, I have grown immensely in others. Moving forward, I plan to:

  • Celebrate Wins More Often: A key takeaway i want to do more of this year is to acknowledge and celebrate my achievements, big or small, instead of glossing over them.
  • Prioritize Self-Care: Burnout was a recurring theme in 2024, and I need to set boundaries around my work and personal time; do not know if it possible.
  • Develop Better Systems: From content planning for Novellisteer to creating foolproof client contracts, I aim to minimize avoidable mistakes.
  • Expand My Horizons: Exploring new revenue streams like Meta advertising and consultations is a step in the right direction. I also plan to revisit connections I made during the year to explore potential collaborations.

Thank You

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. Writing this yearly review has been both cathartic and enlightening. I’d love to hear about your year: the wins, the losses, the surprises, and your plans for the future.

Let’s connect, share ideas, and inspire one another. You can drop a comment, send me an email at novellisteer@gmail.com, or find me on LinkedIn.


Let Rub Mind

  • Looking back on your year in 2024, what are some wins and fails you would categorize for yourself?
  • How do you approach the balance of celebrating successes while learning from failures?
  • With the pressure to succeed and earn more, how do you maintain a balance between pushing yourself and ensuring your well-being?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Discover more from Novellisteer

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading