June go, girl! – Kelly Amogu

Every month at Workstation Bar Beach, in partnership with GuardianWoman, Dalberg and The 9-To-5 Chick, a successful woman making strides in her career and everyday life is selected and celebrated to share her experiences and journey. This month, we featured the marketing guru Kelly Amogu. Kelly is the brand and Marketing Manager of the make up power- house, House of Tara. Having Kelly was a digital/brand marketing Masterclass on its own. We had a fun, honest and educative talk about her journey, life decisions and challenges she faces as a young woman in the marketing industry.

Tell us briefly about your career journey
My career journey started even while I was in the university. I interned at a top advert agency TBWA\Concept while in my third year. So right after school, I went back to start my career.

I then proceeded to gain some experience in the Public Relations sector for a while. How I even landed that job was super random. I made a list of the top 10 PR agencies in the country and applied to all of them. Got a call back from about four of them and I settled on one. It’s called Media Craft Associates. I learnt quite a lot, I must say, because I got put on the busiest of accounts- Star & Gulder of Nigerian Breweries.

After a year, I moved on to the next best thing – Digital Marketing- which is where the bulk of my career and passion lies. Abasiama CEO & Agatha General Manager of Wild Fusion took a chance on me even though at the time, I had zero experience in digital marketing. They both gave me some huge shoes to fill in as FBN Quest was my very first client and the rest they say is history. I went on to handle FBN Quest for about three years, I also handled the Diamond Bank account, AUDDL to mention a few. I went on to become professionally certified by the Digital Marketing Institute, Ireland and became a Professional Digital Marketing Trainer in Nigeria (one of the very few certified at the time).

I stayed on the agency field for a while until a very good friend of mine asked what I thought about the makeup industry in Nigeria to which I responded “errrm this is such a random question.” She laughed and said, “I think you’ll be perfect for a certain role with Nigeria’s biggest makeup brand, House of Tara.” She then went on and referred me for my current role and phew here we are! To know and understand the beauty industry is to love it!

How do you strike the perfect work-life balance?
I try to always remember the things I absolutely love doing…Food is my happy place! Music, Movies, Books and family are next to that on the list. So, I always ensure that I create time especially on the weekends to do those things I love.

What did you like most about the Go, Girl! Event?
The people! Everyone was so warm, friendly and had very intelligent feedback.

What would you say has been the most challenging moment in your career?
The start of my digital marketing career. I had zero experience in digital marketing and I had to manage one of the biggest financial brands in Nigeria. Safe to say, there’s nothing you can’t achieve once you put your mind to it. I also had a very safe and enabling work environment that pushed me to thrive.

What do you do to unwind in Lagos?
I binge on food & Netflix!

Are there any quotes you live by?
This is actually something I always say to my team but I don’t know that it’s a quote by anyone…(lol): “Never say you don’t know how to perform any task. Say yes first because Google is always your best friend.”