How I Switched as a Content Creator to a Digital Marketer

6 min readJul 31, 2020

It was a chaotic Friday!

I was contemplating how it had been a whole month at the company which felt like a whole yyyeeeaaarrr worth of work squeezed into a tiny timeline.

I had to get a storyboard approved from my boss for a new project and move on to the animation stage. But he was stuck wrapping up everything in time to catch his flight, travelling for a whole week -

He was busy as hell

Then

Realized

HE’S ALWAYS BUSY AS HELL

A few hours later, he was able to squeeze in a slot for me –

But

Before

Could

Begin

He asked me –

‘How is it going here? Are you satisfied?’

I replied –

‘I feel like I found a place where I belong.

Everything is cool except one tiny thing that bugs me everyday.

You’re stuck in a million different things, it’s incredibly difficult to get a hold of you for approvals.

I was expecting my timelines to move a bit faster, but no matter my speed, the approval stage always slows me down and it bugs me hard right down to my core.

So you need to realize, you’re only human and you desperately need to hire someone to share your work load.’

The Boss –

Whom should I hire?

Me –

‘Start interviewing people, you’ll find the right candidate, like you always do.’

The Boss –

‘No.

I’m not going to interview because I’ve already found someone standing right here in front of me.

You’re only the 2nd guy to suggest something like this to me, the 1st one left the company ages ago, so the only one left is you.

You think you have what it takes to take over the digital reigns?’

Me –

‘I don’t wanna take over anything, I just wanna learn from you.

And so down the road, if you feel like you see a shade of yourself in the way I deal with things, then I’ll be more than happy to be a digital leader here.’

The Boss –

‘It’s settled then, you will start learning the workings of a digital marketer from today only!’

He immediately gave me the social account credentials of all the platforms for one key account to begin with and handed over all the tasks in progress — — — — — for the brand.

He only had a few minutes left before leaving for the airport, so he quickly ran me through the list of people I would’ve needed to coordinate with to complete the weekend’s social media activities.

As he was explaiiiiiiiiiiining all the details to me, I could see it in his eyes –

How

Had

Planned

Analyze

Based on my management skills in the time he would be gone

This fueled up the fire already burning inside, driving me to somehow prove myself in the eyes of a proven man that would give me some sort of validation in my own skill set to lead a digital account.

Once we checked off all the pointers in our quick hand over meeting, he left before wishing me luck –

But

Didn’t

Leave

Couldn’t

I was digesting what just happened in a matter of minutes and prepared myself to execute the action plan.

A few hours passed by, I looked at the date and I realized –

THE

WHOLE

WEEK

SLIPPED

This mini time frame felt like an ultra-fast moving time-lapse with my boss just around the corner about to be back at the office.

I knew he’d be calling me in after wrapping up other priority stuff, so I sat back and continued with the day’s work.

He walked in and called me in first! to review my progress and without going into the specifics, he simply broke his review down to simply –

‘The account looks better and way more organized than I left.

Keep doing what you’re doing mate, I guess I made the right call!’

I nodded in acknowledgment –

Shook

His

Hand

And

Left

Somehow containing the six inch smile –

Desperately

Trying

Breakout!

I went back to my desk, wrapped up the rest of the day’s tasks, by then it had been hours since everybody left for the evening.

But I still felt like staying back for a while.

Made some coffee.

And reflected back upon the journey I just had which eventually led me to a decision making SPOT for a brand’s digital account that ranks amongst the Fortune 500 companies of the world –

Once you’ve scored a position at the company of your choice via the S T R A T E G Y we talked about previously, you don’t just have to work your ass off to prove the value you bring to the table being at your position, you need to T H I N K how you’re gonna leave unrealistically gigantic shoes for someone else to fill in.

And once you check that off, you gotta target how to work smarter with lesser physical activity and more brain work.

If your current position doesn’t allow you to be a decision Maker in some capacity –

Then ask the show runner of your work place, which position you can climb up to where you can potentially show off what you’re really made of.

The move might prove to be disastrous or it can put you on the MAP at your office –

Either

Way

You gotta somehow convince yourself, you’re way more capable than what you’re doing right now and absolutely a 100% up to the mark for doing bigger things than you told yourself

It was no destiny that brought me here –

It was my decision to be an Entrepreneur that led me to WORK with an incredible leader.

It was the decision to stop telling myself that as a filmmaker, I can only tell stories –

And

Nothing

It was a decision to tell myself I know nothing

And I desperately need to feed my brain.

I desperately need it grow and expand.

My unfulfilled mind had blinded me from seeing the W O N D E R S I can create –

And once you acknowledge you know nothing

You’ll begin the quest for knowing everything

And in the process –

You would have climbed the career ladder so far and above –

You won’t recognize the person you used to be because that fella was just an indecisive sucker –

And the new you

Unflinching

SOB

Who does nothing but make decisions

P.S. I’ll be going over how I was able to hand over the reigns of my key account to my first protégé and move on to run the digital platforms for a bigger account in the next chapter.

Keep following the rabbit hole to know how it happened here -

How I Switched as a Content Creator to a Digital Marketer

Written by Zeeshan Contractor