About me
I began my journey in tech working in the Adtech space where I built and managed programmatic advertising campaigns for large clients, including Expedia and JetBlue. As a passionate creator, I then transitioned to marketing, building my skills and experience as a content marketer. My strengths include content strategy, information architecture and website structure (particularly for WordPress), SEO copywriting, technical SEO, and email marketing.
I am currently in charge of content and marketing coordination at GravityKit. During my time here I have planned and executed a full content and SEO strategy, creating and adding hundreds of new website pages, ranking our website for thousands of important industry keywords, more than doubling organic traffic, and measurably increasing conversions.
My personal journey…
I am originally from Cape Town, South Africa. However, I have lived and worked in the UK, China and the Philippines! Travel has been a consistent and important part of my life. When I was young, my family immigrated from South Africa to England where I spent a significant portion of my childhood.
After finishing high school, I was dying to visit Asia, so I set off for China to become an English teacher. I ended up spending 2.5 years in Beijing teaching kindergarten children and studying Chinese. Feeling pressure to get a “real” job, I applied to study in Japan—It didn’t work out (it sucked at the time, but I now have a kick-ass story to tell!).
After dealing with the disappointment of being rejected, I settled for plan B and returned to my hometown (Cape Town) where I enrolled in the University of Cape Town to study biochemistry (with the intention of transferring to medical school and becoming a doctor).
Though my achievements at university landed me a medal and a coveted spot on the Dean’s merit list, I had a strong intuition that I had gone down the wrong path, and ultimately decided to leave. With the extra time I had available, I began teaching myself about data science, machine learning, programming and website design. This landed me a job in London working for a startup in the AdTech industry.
I suddenly found myself managing programmatic advertising campaigns for international clients worth hundreds of thousands of pounds! I was thrown into the deep end and forced to learn how to swim. During this time I was privileged enough to work with some incredibly smart people who taught me an awful lot about what’s possible in the tech industry and the potential that I knew I had—I will forever be grateful to them for taking a chance on me.
Personal reasons compelled me to leave London and once again return home to Cape Town. Here I took time for myself, focusing on my health, spending time in nature, and being with my family and friends. I decided to stop doing what I thought I should do, and instead allow life to happen to me, without forcing anything.
This turned out to be the right decision, and within a few years I had accomplished some of my most important goals—I landed a remote job working for an American tech company that gave me the opportunity to broaden my professional skill set, I improved my Chinese and passed the infamous HSK6 advanced proficiency exam, I began working out and getting in shape, I met an amazing Filipino girl, and I visited 4 new countries!
I am currently still working remotely, splitting my time between Cape Town, Manila, and Bali. I’m also planning to spend some time in Taiwan (I can’t wait!). As far as what I do outside of work: I love languages and am now learning Filipino and ASL (American Sign Language); I’m also fascinated by finance, economics, and bitcoin, so I spend a lot of time reading about these topics and listening to relevant podcasts.
Finally, and most importantly, I am continuing to submit to the flow of life, without trying to control or force anything. This has been the most profound change I have made in my life, and one that has resulted in less struggle, more happiness, and many, many blessings.
