Behind the scenes but never behind

I wanted to have a rant….a whole crush out but sitting on it has made it sound less intense than it felt a little over two hours ago.

Then I picked up my pen and asked myself, “Val! What exactly did you want to write about?”

While working, I’ve been listening to this brilliant lady for about three hours. Okay, no….her videos aren’t that long, but I’ve watched around five of them back to back. In one where she talks about storytelling and how impactful it is, she says, “This country has always dehumanized sociology, philosophy, art, creativity… and that’s why we have so much but are doing nothing with it.”

I nodded so vigorously, I wish she’d seen me.

The background to this was her insistence on how marketing is downplayed. She’s lived in France and was musing about how someone can own a simple bakery at a street corner there, close for two weeks to go on vacation, and still live comfortably. She was really trying to understand where we’re going wrong as a country. And I know it’s many things,.. but that’s a subject for another day. I mean, it’s Monday and we don’t want pressure, right?

Still, what she said about the power of storytelling and how much we’ve downplayed it really stuck with me.

Back in campus, I started feeling misplaced. I realized I didn’t like publicity, yet I was already too deep in to turn back. Studying Communications was my childhood dream, so I had to run with it. I chose to narrow down to Public Relations and Advertising.

But even then, the confusion stayed. I still felt misaligned until recently when I noticed that I actually do really well behind the scenes.

One day, while I was still working corporate, a man from church (he’s a teacher) asked, “So what do you do?”

I answered enthusiastically, “I work in marketing.”
I saw his face drop. I could instantly read the condescension in his eyes.

It stung.

All through school, people would say things like, “You know comms is easy,” making it sound like studying communications was for dummies. It really messed with my esteem and so did that teacher’s reaction.

For the longest time, I hated being asked what I do.

Then the other day, Kwame asked me about the nature of one of the gigs I do and I stuttered. Inside, I was yelling at myself for downplaying my work. That moment made me realize I still wasn’t fully embracing or owning what actually keeps me afloat.

So I sat with myself the next day. I remembered. I felt the shame of being made to think my career was “lesser than.” And I released it because, honestly, my career is dope, man.

I talked to Carl that same day. I’d posted a WhatsApp status that said, “Working in marketing means your friends and relatives will never understand what you do for a living.”
His response to that was  “There is a lot in marketing than what meets the eye… Alafu watu hukuona kama dunderhead all the time.”  I told him, “I promise , one time I told this man from church I work in marketing he gave me  this awful condescending look. I just stood there like wah!”

He laughed and said, “Mimi bora it pays me, sina shida 😅😅😅.”

We ended the convo with me saying I want to be him in my next life.

But by evening, I decided I already am him.

I see the value in what we do in marketing and communications.

My favorite lady on TikTok, Julian Rozz, always says, “I help businesses scale visibility.”
And I promise, you’d be blown away by how much value visibility brings to a business. Not random attention, not some sort of a digital applause  but earned attention that actually builds something lasting.

So this random day, I get a call. The person is super specific about what they want. I try to explain, from my expertise, what’s realistic,  but they brush it off like nonsense. Fine. I go quiet. Then they ask me to quote my price. We go back and forth about their “budget,” and when I tell them my minimum charge, they gasp. Not the good kind.
At that point, I was livid.
We ended the call,  but I made a mental note never to work with people who look down on what I do.

You can have a team of brilliant software engineers, but brilliance alone doesn’t give you an edge in this digital space. So much psychology goes into this shit.

I’m a patient person, but one thing I can’t stand is people who look down on other people’s careers.

That said, I value storytelling deeply.

The last few days have really made me stop and respect my craft, and what I do for a living, even more.

Coming from someone who’s always been vocal about self validation, I see now where I was still falling short on my part.

Anyway, I was talking to Trizah the other day, and in between our conversation, she randomly said, “Sure, btw, have you ever thought of doing psychology ama counseling?”
My response was a little private, but she followed it with, “You should rethink it. You’d make a good therapist 🤭.”
I smiled. Thought about it for a second.

Besides comms, psychology was actually my second choice. I just went with comms,  but maybe someday, when the money’s right, I might study psychology and counseling. Just to tick off another box.

I know this was all over the place and a little heavy for a Monday but well….,

Cheers