2021: My Year in Review

2021 has been an interesting year indeed. A wild ride that somehow managed to top the events of the year prior. But with that, I think it’s time for me to reflect on the trials and tribulations, I’ve experienced this past year, and to hint at what’s to come in 2022.

1. Was 🔥’d in January for speaking up 🌶

Alongside 6-10 other senior marketing and sales pros over the course of about ~4 weeks. Despite my initial disappointment, this was the best thing that happened to me in 2021 as so many doors blew right open.

Lessons Learned:

• Listen to your gut, very rarely will it lead you astray
• Don’t work for a CEO who doesn’t get your function
• Never throw your principles or values away to keep a job
• Sometimes the grass really is greener 💚

2. Played Batman & Robin in the workplace 🦸🏾

After leaving a previous job (different company), I worked closely with a best friend to protect and safeguard other members of the team who were still suffering from abuse in the workplace. Leaving a 100% truthful exit-interview was the first step in a string of cases over six months for this company to part ways with a senior leader.

Lessons Learned:

• Always leave an exit-interview 😈
• Speak up when you see injustice 📣
• Have a work-spouse or best friend at work. Your confidence and self-esteem will thank-you for it

3. 2021 was fraught with sickness 🤒

My son started nursery this year! (yay).

However, every time he went - within 10 working days, he’d fall ill along with the rest of the house. Rinse and repeat. Getting sick is pretty normal for kids, but it had a disastrous effect on me; each time worse than the last by a magnitude or more.

I’d just started a new role and was recovering from arguably the worst chest infection ever, it lasted almost 3 weeks - even with medical intervention. We were on the fence of pulling him out, till we realised the nursery weren’t taking covid precautions seriously. That’s what broke the camel’s back.

In addition to this, my mum had multiple, risky operations - up until 2 weeks ago I was worried she might not make it.

Lessons Learned:

• Covid needs to GTFOTW! 😩
• My health matters to me more than ever
• Never hesitate to tell those close to you that you love them - often!

4. Started a talent network + diversity hiring plea on Linkedin 💪🏾

After writing a few Linkedin posts about the abysmal levels of diversity in tech, it led me to start a talent network and make a hiring plea to begin a torrent of change.

Since then, I had many conversations with talented people, some of whom I’ve hired personally on my team.

Lessons Learned:

• BIPOC are severely underpaid in tech 😞
• There is no talent shortage ❌
• It’s a candidate’s market - long may it continue 🙌🏾

5. Joined a company called Oyster 🌍

Working with 30+ companies as an agency owner, contractor, consultant and employee helped me realise what kind of work I truly wanted to do.

Actually, I pledged to only work with mission-driven companies with a real, genuine mandate to improve the lives of people on a global scale.

Oyster helps companies everywhere hire people anywhere, by giving them the tools, infrastructure, knowledge and insights to create opportunities for talent - no matter where they live.

Extra thanks to Alex Lane, Maggie Sheehan & Jack Mardack for starting the conversation, bringing me into the fold and helping me navigate my next career move, respectively. 💜

6. Get to work with Kevan Lee every day 😎

Working with a people-first leader like Kevan who shares a similar philosophy on marketing, the future of work and people management is a dream come true. Years ago, I watched Buffer’s marketing team from the sidelines as they built a brand like no other under Kevan’s leadership.

I remember when Jack, our Co-founder announced that Kevan would be leading our marketing org in a meeting unbeknownst to me; I screamed with excitement inside! 🙀🤩 It felt similar to when your favourite football team signs a world-class player for a club-record fee! 🤣

Some say, “never meet your heroes, because they're sure to disappoint you.” - well, the opposite couldn’t be more true with Kevan.

For the last 7 months, I’ve grown enormously thanks-in-part to Kevan’s parenting-based people management philosophy, marketing talent, business acumen and people-first leadership skills as we navigate hyper-growth.

Lessons Learned:

• The leader you choose to work with matters more than the company
• Subscribe to Kevan’s newsletter - you won’t regret it 😎
• Now’s the time to join our marketing team! 🚀

7. Gained new work-spouses

I’ve been blessed to have made so many new colleagues, friends and partners in 2021. Having worked remotely in some form since 2011, I never get bored of connecting with new people from different countries and cultures.

Last year, these folk had a profound impact on my life & career in ways I’d least expect:

• AnnaLea Crowe
• Aubyn Casady
• Gabriel Kesseler
• Jennifer Chin

Thank-you all for your support, courage and friendship. 🥰

8. Became Chief Growth Officer at Orbital 🪐

Near the end of my spell at Chili Piper, we introduced professional development plans for employees, called Piper Plans. It was designed to help improve internal mobility and provide opportunities for team members to work in other departments of interest, potentially even starting a new career.

In my Piper plan, I mentioned that my goal was to become a Chief Growth Officer (CGO) in 12-24 months. I achieved it in 6 months, as I joined Orbital as their (at the time) Fractional CGO. 🚀

Building tools which improve workplace culture and influence the future of work is where I intend to spend the next decade of my career.

Orbital is one of those tools, it’s a virtual team communication platform for remote teams to collaborate, avoid video call fatigue and reduce workplace loneliness.

Since joining we have:

• Launched on Product Hunt 😻 (#2 POTD + nominated for a Golden Kitty)
• Raised pre-seed funding 🥳
• Enabled paid plans 💸

9. Side-project generated six-figures for the 3rd year in a row! 📈

I’ve been building side projects for as long as I remember. Having built my first website at 19, back in 2011, I’m very grateful and proud to be in a position where my side projects generate just as much as my main work without needing to spend more than 5 extra hours per week.

In 2021 we achieved the following:

• Created a marketing talent network
• Built a buyer enablement platform
• Started a podcast; Grow That SaaS
• Record revenue month in June: $30k 💰

Special thanks to my smart, nimble growth team - Chris Parbey 🇬🇭, Waceke Wainaina 🇰🇪 and Kenneth Owusu Manu 🇬🇭

This year, our goal is to focus on these three projects whilst tripling ARR via subscriptions & affiliate marketing.

10. Started the Mission Squad

At Oyster, we run a friendly little competition during our All-hands meeting. The premise is simple: Thee who asks the best question for leadership wins 60 Juno Points.

On September 8th, I popped this question:

Should there be a team dedicated purely towards impact work? Everyone is in the weeds of doing their “day-to-day” work that there isn’t enough time/resources to dedicate towards true, uninterrupted, impact-led work. (from my perspective anyway)

How do you feel about having representation from each team or an “Impact Squad” who’s responsible for running MVP’s of our impact sessions with real metrics attached to show how we’re actually delivering impact on a global, national and local level?

Our CEO, Tony responded in-kind:

I thought that overtime we’d create an Impact Squad or team, but I really like your suggestion of having 1 representative in each team that embeds the mission in everything we do. I’d really like to take that suggestion to the leadership team and have a discussion around that.

A few short days later, Jack (co-Founder), Kim (Head of Employee Experience) and myself put pen to paper to build Oyster’s Mission Delegates Program.

Upon launching the initiative internally, we amassed a cross-functional team of 10 passionate Oystees, with an unquenchable thirst for ensuring we impart positive impact by socalising our mission internally and externally.

We have a lot planned in this area for 2022, and I can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on 😁

11. Added 8 new faces to our team in 3 months

Building a global product marketing team in record time has been one of the most challenging, yet rewarding periods of my career to date.

Going through the full hiring pipeline multiple times (no shortcuts), not only gave me newfound respect for HR and People Ops professionals, but also helped me identify gaps in our current product and hiring workflows.

Hiring globally is hard! I can understand why many companies and hiring managers continue to hire exclusively from their own backyard, but by doing so, you lose excellent, talented folk with highly sought-after skills and a burning desire to do great work. 🔥

Sooraj Chandran 🇩🇪 / 🇳🇱, Samyuktha Dega 🇮🇳, Jennifer Chin 🇨🇦, Chelsea Boice 🇪🇸, Tasia Pejkovic 🇨🇦, Hyun Cho 🇬🇧 / 🇰🇷, Lisa Paredes 🇬🇹 / 🇩🇰, Mohannad Aljawamis 🇯🇴, Shruti Khaitan 🇮🇳

I’m incredibly lucky to work with you all and look forward to all that we’ll accomplish this year.

What’s on the horizon for 2022?

Looking back at the points above, and given how I’ve just turned 30, it’s clear to see I’ve invested a lot of time on my career these past few years. Too much if you ask me 😅. So in 2022, I’ll be focusing more on my health, relationships and just enjoying the present.

Some goals for 2022 include:

• Complete 200 Peloton workouts 💪🏾 (20 so far)
• Attending therapy for the 1st time 🧠
• Obtain 20 Platinum trophies 🏆 (IYKYK)
• Make a few investments in people-first tech 🌍
• Travel somewhere I haven’t been before ✈️

Hope you’re all having a great start to 2022!

Thanks for reading! 👋🏾