Career Lessons from Ama Udofa - Content Marketing Lead at Grey Finance

Very few people embody the go-getter spirit quite like Ama Udofa. From non-traditional marketing roots, Ama has built himself into one of the most sought-after content marketers in Nigeria. He has also amassed incredible growth on social media with his brand of cooking content that leaves people both interested in eating his meals and hanging out with him. 

What stands out about Ama is how he combines excellent storytelling prowess with an unmissable passion for food and enjoyment, and a constant yearning to do better work. We inferred from our conversation with him that this depth in personality is likely the product of constant evolutions and a live-in-the-moment mentality.

How does one channel their creativity into marketing without losing the essence of what makes them? Find out by reading Ama’s story.

Tell us about yourself. How did your interest in marketing materialize?

I studied biochemistry for my undergrad. Unlike most people who studied medicine-adjacent courses like microbiology and biochemistry in Nigerian universities, biochemistry was what I wanted. I was a bright student in secondary school so, of course, I had to contend with family members and teachers asking me to study medicine, but I didn’t have the patience for it. Looking back, I’m glad I stuck to my guns with that and followed what I wanted at the time.

I was especially bright in the English language. I lost my mother as a growing child and my father, being a traveling journalist, wasn’t around very much. I had to live with my grandfather in a large village farmhouse.  My grandfather was a headmaster, so my attachment to education and the English language in particular was almost a no-brainer. 

There weren’t many kids my age around so I had to find ways to create my fun. There were times when I’d overlook the main road and count how many vehicles drove past from morning to evening. Other times, I’d create soccer players from papers or bottle caps, assign them to teams, and play a whole league complete with twists and storylines. At times, I’d just create imaginary characters and create fun stories around them. 

For a long time, I wanted to be a newspaper journalist like my dad so I’d read everything I could find lying around. Eventually, I became the unofficial proofreader for his local newspaper. 

My first year in university was the peak for me in terms of academic performance. I attended all classes and made it to year two with a first-class grade. I had read Half of a Yellow Sun in my first year and Americanah in my second.  The latter quickly became my favorite book; I must have read Americanah six or seven times since then. In year three, I decided to take writing more seriously so I started skipping classes and pushed biochemistry to the back burner. It ended with me failing a few classes, but I built some of the foundations of my would-be career during that time. 

I was writing everything you could think of — fiction, non-fiction, poetry, blog posts, you name it. I started to make writer friends and join communities of like-minded writers. I won many small contests, but it was when I got longlisted for a Writivism Short Story Prize and won an Igby Prize that I realized I could do so much more with storytelling.

This background in writing led me to marketing.

Ama Udofa at the start of his career - spoken word poetry, creative writing, and first marketing job

How did you get into marketing from creative writing?

My then-girlfriend introduced me to freelance writing and I finally began receiving regular remuneration for my work writing for content mills. It was chicken change but it was proof (to myself mostly) that I could make steady money writing.

Shortly after in 2019, I moved to Lagos to start another phase of my life. One day, while trying to beat a deadline at a coffee shop, I sat next to a man who was talking about his tech non-profit organization with my friend. Somehow, I got drawn into the conversation and was offered a full-time role as a PR writer for the nonprofit in the days after. It didn’t take long for me to start feeling like I could be doing way more so I requested to run full comms for the NGO and got my first promotion.

I found myself in charge of communication, social media, branding, and all things marketing for a short time before being promoted once more—this time to head of marketing.

I took a short break to go to NYSC camp in Zamfara, then came back to work at a logistics company in Lagos for my PPA. I got physically assaulted and had to leave after the third month.

I then got recommended by the nonprofit’s CEO to work at a San Francisco-based startup. After 19 months, across time zones was took a toll on me.  So I resigned and joined Zikoko.  

After a year at Zikoko, I said my goodbyes and headed for a food tech company to lead content marketing 

I then left Vendease late in 2023 and took a short career break to travel across West Africa and launch my food and wine content channels.

You started as a writer in the literary space but since then, you’ve shuttled around content, growth, and storytelling. What’s the driver for all these pivots?

The main pivot—creative writer to content marketer—was driven by Sapa. I also endured a traumatic work experience in 2019 that ultimately made me abandon creative writing as a primary career path. While managing a blog, I came up with an idea that my then-manager approved and I oversaw it. Around the time when all in-house work was done, we disagreed on something and I got fired. My name got left out of the finished work after I had done most of the heavy lifting.

I began taking the common marketing courses on Google and Hubspot. I quickly spotted a place in marketing for my storytelling obsession, so I went looking for problems I could solve with storytelling. At this time, marketing was populated with people spamming ads and writing less-than-palatable email copy. I believed I could do something differently, so I prioritized creating a more human approach in my work. 

When I started, my secret ingredient was curiosity. I asked question after question. I would go out of my way to find problems that I could solve by applying my unique approach. People noticed my work.. 

I’m a perpetual hard worker, so I always look for ways to do more and achieve more. I constantly feel the need to improve myself, so I work extra hard and find ways to maximize my skills. It helped that I always had managers who knew how to spot ability and potential.

In your opinion, what makes a good piece of content?

I don’t want to be that guy who gives the one-all-be-all for what makes good content. There are some pointers that I like to talk about, though. If you do good work, people will notice. It’s a given. Another pointer is in uniqueness and personalization. So many people already do what you plan to do, what can you add to yours to make people prefer it? Develop a unique style of storytelling, and adapt when necessary, and you’ll stand out pretty quickly.

I think people don’t think about unique angles enough. With my cooking content, for example, I’m mixing my cooking with storytelling. I don't teach people how to cook, I just have fun in the kitchen mixing ingredients and telling stories in English and my native language; Annang. 

Think about value, unique angles, and emotional pull. Ask yourself what you’re trying to do and how you’re trying to make your audience feel. Then work towards that with whatever you create. 

Repetition is also key. It’s the main ingredient in any success story. The actor who wins an Oscar has spent an uncomfortable amount of time repeating lines. The musician who releases a perfect song has spent uncountable hours practicing notes and sounds. 

The more you repeat things to yourself, the better you become at spotting flaws early and fixing them. 

A great way to achieve good work is by continuously iterating and changing things based on what works and what your audience wants. It’s how I landed on the sweet spot in terms of language and storytelling elements that I use in my videos. I randomly included a phrase in a video one day, and I liked the reactions it had so I stuck to it.

My ultimate pointer is to look for the best content that’s out there and try to find out what makes it the better. At Zikoko, I pitched an idea to make a series that combined elements from two of our most successful series at the time. It was a smash hit.

Ama Udofa working at Vendease and Grey Finance as Tech Content Marketer

You are in a managerial role right now. What’s your approach to managing your team?

One thing about me: I always demand excellence. I think being a manager is about helping your team members become the best versions of themselves professionally. It’s what I try to do with every person that I manage. I have a really good manager at the moment, so I try to pick from some of what she does. I ensure that the people who do the work have all the things that they need to make work easy for them. I create pipelines and documentation that can help them where necessary. 

Being a manager is about more than just assessing people’s work. You’re the creative director, the idea validator, and the one who ensures that everyone on the team is sticking to the vision.

How do you spot the right talent when you’re hiring?

The main thing that helps me in finding the right talent is that I can detect bullshit from a mile away. I look for a mix of traits like honesty, carefulness, and attention to detail. I give priority to self-starters who can take initiative. 

Track record is very important to me especially because of the kinds of steps I took in my journey. Nobody will trust you with big projects if you’ve not done the small ones.

I also look out for unique ideas and tastes. When I put out vacancies, I ensure that my job description details exactly what I need thoughtfully, and I ask questions that can help me identify people with unique tastes and ideas. People who can match their story to the application requirement will always have my attention from the jump.

Finally, I like applicants who take the time to read out the job description and their applications. Mistakes will get you an automatic zero, and unfortunately, an uncomfortable amount of people send out their applications full of errors.

What would you do differently if given the chance to restart your career?

I wouldn’t do much differently. Maybe I’ll take a more structured learning approach/program like a highly rated boot camp or nanodegree. When I started, I took the common courses but I had no direction. I just did things as they came. 

I’d also build a lot more theoretical knowledge before jumping into things. I’ve worked roles with different responsibilities in diverse industries, and sometimes, I impulsively jumped into certain things before I had enough theoretical knowledge. 

But, I’d advise anyone reading this to not fall into the endless loop of taking courses. It’s easy to feel like you need to take course after course after course to beef up your knowledge, however, you will not truly get better if you don’t start something that enables you to put all that knowledge into action. 

I also wish I had asked for help a lot more.

So, how would you advise new starters to go about learning?

Structure and balance are the most important things. I’d advise people to take courses with structured curriculums and learning roadmaps. It’s equally important to balance learning and working. Maybe take that big course simultaneously as you work…

How have you been able to build yourself and your confidence to step into managerial roles and just own them?

I wasn’t always managing staff. In a lot of my early jobs, I worked on one-person marketing teams, so they were technically not junior roles, but I didn’t manage any team members. People don’t realize that a lot of relatively successful people are simply winging it. The only difference is that they have done work in the past that gives them context that others don’t have. They can make decisions and steps that are informed to a large extent. It involves a lot of intentional learning and some luck.

I have always worked at a high intensity and this made me hungry for more. I was always proactive with work and as a result, I can sense some things before they happen. This is an outcome that comes from lots of repeated work and studying patterns. 

I have learned to leave room for making errors and to always be prepared in case the worst happens. I think anyone scared of embarrassment has no business doing great work because you will be embarrassed at some point. Every great idea involves an element of risk. 

To build confidence, you simply have to start. Do something impactful; start something on TikTok. Start that newsletter. Not all of your ideas and ventures will be successful but if one is, you have something to show. 

Do a lot of targeted research and take calculated risks. If you fail, you have more information for the next time you try. Curiosity should always be first. You can’t do great work if you’re not curious. 

“Mess around and find out.”

What part of your work do you find most challenging?

Everybody thinks they can do your job. Tune out the white noise and do your best. You’re going to meet all sorts of people— founders, engineers— who think they know your job better than you do. There’s nothing more annoying than people with no marketing background, pedigree, or data thinking they know your job better than you.

Have you discovered any life hacks that have been instrumental in your professional journey?

Curiosity is the most important life hack. Be curious about life, work, founders, audiences, and people in general. Be open to learning but learn to sift out unhelpful advice and criticism from helpful ones. Focus on the critiques that make the most sense and tune out the rest. Do your best work every time.

What’s next for Ama?

What’s next for Ama Udofa?

I’m a carpe diem kind of person, so I live one day at a time. The future will figure itself out. I plan to take my cooking content channels even more seriously this year and explore more genres like lifestyle and travel. I want to work with people and brands that I care about. Hopefully, I can go to an Asian or Southern African country later this year to see the world and experience food and culture. 

At my 9-5, I want to continue to grow I just want to enjoy life while doing great work.

Enjoyed Ama Udofa’s story? Connect with him on LinkedIn, X(formerly Twitter), and Instagram.

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