My Pivot Journal is a Ventures Africa weekly series documenting people’s career transitions from one industry to another, especially to tech.
Everyone talks about living the dream life. In most cases, they measure how close they are to it by what they can afford. But for Alma Asinobi — one of Nigeria’s leading travel content creators — it doesn’t work that way. For her, the dream life is not a destination but a state of mind where passions and purpose align. And after getting three degrees in architecture, she had to build that life, line by line. Here is Alma Asinobi’s pivot journal.
How it started
When I was 15, I decided that I was going to study architecture. Initially, I wanted to do Mechanical Engineering because I was in my “what a man can do, a woman can do better” era (I still am, though). But I went back on that when I saw that Chemistry was one of the required subjects to pass. I didn’t like Chemistry and wanted to be as far away from it as possible after my SSCE. Till today, I don’t know the first ten elements. So I picked architecture since I liked technical drawing and was the best in my class. More so, my uncle is an architect.
I resumed at Covenant University at 16. But I figured in my second year that I wouldn’t practice architecture. I think 15 is too early for most people to decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives. And I know it sounds ironic because I still went for a second and third degree in the same field. The truth is, I needed time to discover what I wanted to do without losing structure in my life. I had always been adventurous and spontaneous. But no matter what other things I had going on, one thing was certain: I was a student. And having that gave me some form of stability and freedom to explore other aspects of my life.
During my time in school, I got my hands on a lot of things, including photography, modelling, video editing, and writing. I started a blog in 2015, my second year in school. For some reason, I shut down the blog the day it started and didn’t write anything. Then in 2018, I picked it back up and started writing again. I also started creating content and got more invested in it. In 2019, I started doing social media full-time. I tried photo editing on Lightroom and learnt how to use a couple of apps too. That was the year my Instagram account grew to about 2000 followers.
Epiphany
In 2020, when the pandemic hit and the lockdown started, I had just returned from my first trip outside the country. It was one of my new year’s resolutions to visit one country every quarter. But two days after I got back from the Benin Republic, we went on full lockdowns. By that time, I had about 2400 followers.
I couldn’t go out, take pictures and make videos the way I wanted to during the lockdowns. So I had to improvise. I read a lot of books during the lockdowns, so I decided to create content from what I was reading and learning. For some reason, that worked so well. Many people found it relatable. At first, a ton of people unfollowed me. But I think that was a blessing in disguise. It just helped me sieve through my content and understand my audience better. After the lockdowns (still in 2020), my account grew to about 6000 followers. It was this same year I decided to be consistent with content creation.
Transition
After the pandemic, I went back to school for my Msc graduation ceremony. But I wanted to stay back in Lagos because I figured it was a lot closer to where opportunities were as a content creator at the time. So I needed a job. By getting a job in Lagos, my parents wouldn’t fight me about leaving my home city, Port Harcourt.
I had two degrees in architecture, but I was suddenly interested in digital marketing. That was a problem: there was a disconnect. And even though I had the transferable skills for this role, recruiters couldn’t see it. Many people prefer to play it safe and hire someone experienced or with an academic background in marketing.
I applied for a job at a fintech startup, and even though I was one of the finalists, I got a rejection letter. And so, late in December, I returned to Port Harcourt, hoping to try again. But I later got a mail from their HR saying they saw a post I made (a write-up). It turned out they wanted to build their content strategy and zero in on content marketing. I agreed to their offer, and we didn’t need further interviews. Within a few days, I got my letter, and by January, I moved to Lagos.
That was my first role, and I was with the company for a year. Then I took a short break and spent most of my time working on content. But what amazed me was how transferable my skills were. I have been writing since when I was little. My Dad made us (my siblings and I) very big fans of dictionaries. I hated reading, except it was a dictionary. But I wrote a lot: whether it was poems, rhymes or anything else. All that translated to starting a blog and writing on social media. Even the photography and editing skills I gained helped me transition to my first role in tech.
At the end of 2021, I took a solo trip to Senegal and Gambia before returning to Nigeria. A few days later, I went to Ghana. Making content on those trips created a lot of traction and my followers became more interested in travel content. Then more people who were interested in travel content started to follow me. At the end of 2020, I had about 7-8k followers. By the end of 2021, I had 11k followers and by the end of 2022, I had about 40k followers. My content made me start to work with more brands, travel-focused communities and companies. I moved to Canada in 2022.
How it’s going
Working in tech has really opened my life. Between 2021 and this year, I have worked with several tech startups in content and marketing. I have worked with one in Berlin and one in Canada. I also started a travel company, Kaijego, to help people with weak passports travel more and travel easier. Travel and content creation have been my passions for long, so it feels good to do them for a living.
My plan is to go back to fully creating content and running Kaijego. But that’s not an easy feat. I’m still settling into a new country, and I have to combine that with making career changes. Doing these while being intentional about building Kaijego from scratch is challenging. But I believe strongly in my ability to figure things out — I always end up doing so.
Career hack
Being able to tell stories and communicate has been one of the major game changers for me. There are probably many people who can do what I do, but only a few people can tell the stories like I do. And I believe that anyone who wants to move from working a 9-5 to building on their own needs to be able to tell compelling stories. In fact, everyone needs to learn to communicate and tell their stories.
