From ₦160k to $7.8k Monthly: A Nigerian's Journey to Remote Product Marketing Success

Her career started with a ₦160k/month executive assistant role. Seven years later, she’s managing $5 million marketing budgets, launching global products used by millions, and earning $7.8k/month — nearly $100k a year — from her apartment in Lagos.

But this leap didn’t come easily. Getting here took heartbreak, hundreds of rejections, a career pivot, and relentless learning.

The Early Hustle

In 2018, fresh out of uni at 20, she felt a heavy urgency to get her life moving. As the first of four kids, she carried the pressure to succeed.

She tried front-end development using React but hated it. It felt mechanical, like bricklaying. She needed a job that could give her creative joy, so she started showing up daily at a coffee shop on Victoria Island with her laptop, applying for any job she could find.

One day, a woman — clearly someone important — walked in for a meeting. When she finished, she introduced herself and asked to be her assistant. To her surprise, she said yes and hired her on the spot. She was the CEO of a Lagos-based company, and she became her executive assistant, earning ₦100k. She helped her manage tasks, meetings, and day-to-day operations.

At the same time, she also tutored kids. She’d signed up with a home tutoring agency and was getting ₦30k a month teaching science subjects after work. One family, a Lebanese father and his two daughters, liked her enough to cut out the agency and hire her directly, which bumped her tutoring income to ₦60k. Altogether, she was making ₦160k a month.

Eight months later, everything unravelled. The company where she worked as an executive assistant collapsed amid fraud allegations, and the founders were declared wanted. It was a wild ending, but by then, she had tasted what it meant to hustle and find her footing, and she was ready for more.

Building Skills, Earning Little

She aggressively hunted for jobs, applying to anything she felt remotely qualified for: marketing, social media, assistant roles, etc. Then, one day, she sent her CV to a recruiter she found on Twitter.

That’s how she landed her first remote role in 2019, as a content assistant at a US-based natural hair extension brand run by a Nigerian-born founder. She was open to hiring from Nigeria, and she got lucky. From her apartment in Lagos, she planned and scheduled social media content, ran competitor research, brainstormed campaigns, and helped manage the blog. It was her first taste of working internationally.

The pay was ₦150k monthly, sent via WISE. She still kept up with home tutoring after hours to make ends meet.

But eventually, the cracks started to show. They were a team of four — all Americans except her. She felt isolated —a distant cog in a system she wasn’t fully part of. With growing personal needs, she knew it was time to move on. She wanted to earn more and matter more.

Learning on the Job

By late 2019, another unexpected break came through. Because of her content assistant experience, she landed a role as a content specialist at a US-based B2B SaaS company. It felt like a fluke of luck: she wasn’t a trained writer, but the job required constant writing. Their SEO strategy demanded a stream of articles, and she had no choice but to figure it out fast.

The first few weeks were intense. She leaned heavily on Google, her teammates, and a brilliant editor who shaped her writing from scratch. It was baptism by fire, but she grew rapidly. She earned $250 monthly, not much more than her previous salary, but the real gain was skill.

Then, in early 2020, a friend sent her a job link. She wasn’t looking, but she applied anyway. It was a content coordinator role at a fashion startup in East Africa. She got the job: $450 a month, or about ₦270k at the time.

For the next year, she ran the content calendar, managed writers and editors, drafted weekly newsletters, posted on social media, and brainstormed editorial themes. It was structured but creative work. She was deep in content strategy and digital storytelling, balancing trend research, editorial deadlines, and brand messaging all at once.

She learned how to lead a team, own processes, and communicate ideas that moved people. It wasn’t glamorous, but it laid a strong foundation for everything that came next.

The Pivot That Changed Everything

In January 2021, while still at the fashion startup, a friend messaged her: “Are you open to a new job?”

She wasn’t actively searching, but she had a lead: a content specialist role for a child company under one of the largest global crypto and Web3 companies.

She figured, why not?

She sent her résumé to the recruiter. She didn’t think much of it. The job was for a Lagos-based team, though tied to the global company. She barely took the interview seriously. They sent her a task — a writing sample, and she remembers submitting something she immediately hated. She stayed up, rewrote it from scratch, and asked them to ignore the first draft. A few days later, they sent her an offer.

It came with a huge salary jump — $1,000 per month. That was more than double anything she’d ever earned. And the role turned out to be so much more than content.

She was hired as a content specialist but quickly found herself doing product marketing: launching features, crafting go-to-market strategies, and building narratives around new releases. Blog posts, newsletters, social campaigns; she figured out how to communicate product value. That’s when she realised: this is what she loves. Not just content writing but telling the story of a product strategically, creatively, and holistically.

At some point, she asked for a title change, from content specialist to product marketing manager. It just fit better. She didn’t want to code or be a product manager, but she wanted to be close to the product, shaping how people saw and interacted with it.

She stayed for nearly two years. It paid well; the best salary she’d ever earned. But she didn’t love the job. The work culture was tough, heavily influenced by a rigid, top-down hierarchy that didn’t suit her. It’s also the only job where she ever had a serious conflict with a colleague; the kind that led to HR intervention.

Despite the money, she wanted out. So she quietly started searching again.

From $1K to $6.5K/Month: The Leap That Paid Off

This was the turning point in her career.

By early 2022, she knew she wanted to leave her job, but didn’t know where to go. She was casually applying to a few local companies when a friend sent her a Naira Life article about a 24-year-old content marketing writer earning $93,000 a year.

She was also 24, in the same line of work, but she was earning just $12,000 a year.

That story lit something in her. She read it again and again, sometimes first thing in the morning. It became her north star. She remembers thinking, She doesn’t have two heads. So why not me?

She started deliberately and consistently applying for international roles for the first time. Until then, every remote job she’d gotten was a stroke of luck; someone had sent her a link or referred her. This time, she was hunting hard. She started in April 2022 and didn’t stop for eight months.

It was exhausting.

She’d apply, get rejected, apply again, get close, only to be turned down. Sometimes, she’d ask for feedback, then go back and tweak her résumé, read up on what they said she lacked, and keep going. She had learned how to navigate interviews, write better applications, and ask better questions.

But the rejections wore her down. She was miserable at work, but couldn’t leave without something better.

The burnout was real. She barely left the house. She’d wake up, apply to ten jobs, and return to bed. From staying inside so much, she developed a vitamin D deficiency. She was exhausted mentally, physically, and spiritually.

In June, she broke down. She took a one-month break, emptied her account, bought a car, and disappeared for a bit, like a personal rebellion against how stuck she felt. But by July, she got back on the grind.

In November 2022, after what felt like a hundred failed attempts, something finally clicked. She landed a product marketing specialist role at a Web3 startup. The pay was $2,000 a month, and they bumped it to $3,000 two months in. It was progress, but the company culture was off. She didn’t feel settled, and after three months, she left.

The real breakthrough

She applied for a new role through AngelList (now WellFound) and got the job. The offer? $6,500 per month.

$78,000 a year.

She couldn’t believe it when she saw the figure. She remembers staring at the offer letter, stunned. It was more money than she ever thought possible.

That job was everything she’d worked for in 2022. During that year, she’d been obsessively learning, taking courses, reading blogs, and sharpening her skills. It finally paid off. She had spent six months there as a product and content marketing manager. But then, out of nowhere, the company ran into funding problems. They announced they might only have a few months of runway left.

She was devastated.

After grinding for a full year to find that job, after finally feeling like she was getting somewhere, it all felt like it was slipping away. She was emotionally drained.

The thought of starting the job hunt all over again made her feel sick.

But just before she left that role, in June 2023, she got a LinkedIn message from a recruiter hiring for a role in the global tech company she currently works for. They were expanding into emerging markets and building a new product in the Web3 space, and they needed someone with her experience.

She asked if she was interested. She said yes. Then she ghosted after she asked about the salary. But she’d dropped a link to the job in her message, so she applied anyway.

A few days later, HR reached out. During their first call, they asked for her salary expectations. She said $7,000/month. She paused and said she’d have to get back to her.

She did. The company approved the amount, even though it was above their initial budget, because she had the experience the team needed. They made an offer, and she accepted.

That’s how she landed her current role.

At the Top: Launching Products for Millions

In July 2023, she stepped into the role of Product Marketing Manager for a new product launch. She worked remotely from her studio apartment in Lagos, earning $7,100/month. That product now has over 7 million users, and counting.

Nearly two years later, she’s earning $7,800/month. It’s been a steady, satisfying climb, and it feels especially significant because she still lives where she started: Lagos. But now, she lives comfortably.

She sends her mother between ₦500k and ₦1 million every month without blinking. She used to dream about that, but it’s been a long time since she needed something she couldn’t afford.

She was recently promoted to Senior Product Marketing Manager, and her contract now runs for the next three years. That kind of security is rare in tech, and she doesn’t take it for granted.

She works with teams worldwide, managing people, leading strategy, and running marketing budgets of over $5 million annually.

More than that, she feels respected, valued and trusted. Her colleagues support her, and they see her for who she is, not just for her skills. That’s not common, and it’s not lost on her.

Stability and What It Means to Her

Recruiters have tried to poach her. Some have dangled offers twice, even three times what she currently earns. One role came with a $22,000/month salary and relocation to the UAE. It was very tempting.

But she turned it down.

She’s come to understand the value of stability. She likes what she’s doing right now. She believes in the product they are building. She believes in the mission and the company’s ethos at the moment. And sometimes, that matters more than the highest bidder.

This company has existed for almost 30 years, longer than she’s been alive. That kind of track record means something to her. It’s a different kind of security. And she’s not willing to trade that for the uncertainty of a startup barely five years old, no matter how flashy the salary is.

Sure, she knows there’ll always be higher-paying jobs whenever she decides to move on. But right now, she has enough. Life is good, and her family is living comfortably, and that’s more than she could say a few years ago.

The Future: What’s Next

Lately, she’s been thinking more intentionally about what comes next. She’s realised she wants to move into venture capital.

She loves product marketing: the strategy, the storytelling, the process of turning ideas into launches that land. But now, she wants to do it at scale, not just for one product but for many simultaneously. VC feels like the next step. It’s a chance to help multiple startups grow, using everything she’s learned so far.

To get there, she knows she’ll need more than technical expertise. She needs a stronger foundation in business, the kind that comes with an MBA. In a few years, she’s planning to go back to school for an MBA focused on startups, finance, or growth strategy.

An MBA will give her the business acumen and credibility that VCs demand. It’ll also help her stay relevant globally, which matters to her. She doesn’t plan to stop working with international companies anytime soon. She wants to stay remote and global and continue playing on a bigger stage.

VC is the goal. When the time is right, school is part of the path to getting there.

Her One Cent for Anyone Starting Out

If there’s one thing she’s learned, it’s this: never stop learning, and don’t stop showing up.

It’ll be hard. You’ll feel stuck. You’ll doubt yourself. But you can’t let that stop you. Keep pushing, keep learning. That’s the only way to grow.

She also thinks that too many people are chasing quick wins. They jump from job to job for a slightly higher salary, without pausing to build anything deep. But real growth comes from staying long enough to learn something real. From watching how people with 10, 15 years of experience move, think, and work. From putting your head down and mastering your craft.

She’s seen it too many times: teams where everyone has five years of experience or less, and no one’s really learning from anyone. Everyone’s good at a little bit of everything, but no one is excellent at any one thing. That’s not how you build depth.

So here’s her advice: pick something, and do it really well. Don’t let shiny new job titles or inflated salaries distract you. There’ll always be a new hot role. A new industry. A new trend. But the people who win are the ones who stay focused and put in the reps.

Whatever path you choose: design, writing, engineering, product marketing, own it. Go deep, and get so good at it that when you walk into an interview room, there’s no question who the best candidate is.

That’s the only real way to stand out in a crowded job market. It’s not by knowing a little about everything, but by being undeniably great at something.