Chisom Felix entered Web3 the same way many outsiders do: with curiosity and no clear pathway in. She reached out, volunteered, and began documenting what she was learning as she went. Today, she leads marketing for Blockchain.com in Nigeria and has played a key role in growing Web3 communities locally. In this Level Up conversation, she shares how visibility reshaped her trajectory, what most people get wrong about crypto marketing, and the discipline behind her growth. If your career journey were a movie, what would the title be? "Consistent Above Only." The progress hasn't always been dramatic, but I've shown up every single time. That consistency took me from nine months of unpaid work to where I am now. You studied International Relations. How did you end up in Growth and Product Marketing? Honestly, it wasn’t some big realisation. Like most people here, I finished school and just started figuring things out. International Relations gave me a way of thinking, but the job market had other plans. I started where I could, which was content. From there, I paid attention to what really moved things in a business. Asides just writing, it was distribution, positioning, conversion. That curiosity pulled me deeper into marketing and growth. Over time, I found myself closer to product because that’s where messaging, user behaviour and business goals meet. It wasn’t a planned pivot. I just kept following what made sense and picking up skills along the way. How did you get into Web3? I got into Web3 towards the end of university. I was about to graduate and I knew I didn’t want a traditional path, but I also didn’t want to sit around. Around that time, crypto and blockchain conversations were getting louder. I didn’t fully understand it, but I was curious enough to dig deeper. The problem was I didn’t have a tech background or any strong connections in the space. So I did the only thing I could think of. I messaged a founder directly and offered to help with marketing. I didn’t have a polished portfolio or anything impressive to show. I just wanted a way in. It didn’t turn into a paid role. I volunteered for nine months. No salary. I was still a student, acting as a marketing manager and ambassador, mostly learning by doing. It wasn’t glamorous. Some weeks I questioned whether it made sense. But I needed to understand how Web3 actually worked from the inside before anyone would take me seriously. That experience gave me context. And once I understood the mechanics, it became easier to position myself professionally in the space. That's a long time to work for free. What kept you going? At the time, I kept seeing people in the US and parts of Europe building full careers around crypto. A few Nigerians were starting to find their footing too. It made me curious. I wanted to understand what they were seeing. The technology was new, communities were forming fast, and the pace was different from anything I’d seen before. It felt early. And when something feels early, there’s usually opportunity attached to it. Working for free wasn’t ideal, but I saw it as paying tuition in a different way. I was learning how the ecosystem worked from the inside. After those nine months, I got my first paid role. From there, I worked with Yellow Card, then Binance, and now I lead marketing for Nigeria at Blockchain.com. You’re big on building in public. When did you start seeing it pay off? At first, it didn’t “work.” I was just posting consistently. What I was learning, campaigns I was trying, things that failed. I wasn’t chasing virality. I just wanted to be visible in the space. After a while, people started recognising my name. Founders would reply. A few investors followed. Brands began reaching out instead of me always pitching myself. One post about building in public got a lot of attention, but the real impact came from a video I made for a crypto exchange, showing practical ways Africans could use crypto for everyday things like airtime and transport. That content reached the right people and led to an opportunity to work with them. By that point, my content was doing part of the talking for me. I wasn’t just another random DM. People already had context. What’s a hard truth about Web3 marketing that people don’t want to admit? It’s not as different as people think. Web3 marketing still runs on the same fundamentals as any other space. Positioning, clear messaging, distribution, understanding your audience. None of that changed. What’s different is the trust layer. In Web3, people assume you’re a scam until you prove otherwise. So you spend a lot of time building credibility before you even get to talk about growth. I’ve worked on campaigns where more effort went into answering tough questions in Discord than pushing conversions. The space is also crowded, and people have seen too many projects fail. That means you’re competing for attention and against skepticism at the same time. If you don’t earn confidence early and maintain it consistently, no amount of paid marketing can compensate for that. When did you realise Web3 Marketing was changing your earning trajectory? I noticed it when I started getting paid in roles that weren’t tied to the local market. My early marketing jobs in Nigeria paid what entry-level roles usually pay. It was fine, but there was a clear ceiling. When I moved into Web3 and started working with teams outside Nigeria, the compensation structure was different. Pay was benchmarked globally, and so were the expectations. Compared to my first salary, my earning capacity is roughly five to seven times higher now. That also didn’t happen because I entered Web3. I built skills that companies in different markets are willing to pay for and being deliberate about the roles I accepted. What does managing both a full-time role and running Felbeth at the same time look like week to week? It’s mostly calendar management. My role at Blockchain.com involves working with teams across time zones, so my day doesn’t really stop at 5 pm. Some days start early. Some evenings have calls. I plan my week around that first. Felbeth fits into the gaps. Evenings or weekends are usually for reviewing curriculum, checking in with facilitators, or planning upcoming sessions. It works because it’s structured. I’m clear about what I can and can’t take on in a given week. It’s also not a solo effort. My co-founder, Chinomso, handles a lot of the operations, and facilitators run the sessions. If it depended entirely on me, it wouldn’t be sustainable. Some weeks are heavier than others, and I do miss social plans sometimes. But I see both roles as aligned. One exposes me to global systems. The other keeps me grounded in the local ecosystem we’re building. Is there someone in crypto marketing you look up to or have learned from closely? Yes. Ebanehita Emmanuel. He was the Marketing Director for Binance Africa, and he’s been a direct mentor to me. Watching him work changed how I think about scale. He was managing large markets, but he never treated Africa like an extension of somewhere else. He always paid attention to what moved users. He also challenged me to measure real impact. Not how busy we were, not how many campaigns went out, but whether users signed up, stayed, and used the product. That level of discipline stuck with me. What do you do when you're not working? I’m a big tennis fan. I play when I can, and during Grand Slams I’m usually glued to the matches. I also spend time at the gym and the polo club. It's a good way to disconnect. If you could work on any brand's marketing for a week, which one? I’d probably choose Yuga Labs. I especially loved the early Bored Ape Yacht Club phase. The way they positioned ownership as identity was deliberate. It wasn’t just about buying an asset; it was about belonging to a network. Granting holders full commercial rights was clever. It turned the community into extensions of the brand. I’d love to see whether that level of identity-building was carefully mapped out, or if it was one of those rare moments where the internet just aligned. Last question. What's your advice for people trying to break into careers in Web3? You have to create your own opportunities. Learn constantly because this space moves fast. And post your work. Build in public. Let people see that it’s you who did the work. The visibility will bring opportunities you can't imagine yet. But you have to show up first. Want to read more career stories like this? Subscribe to the Level Up Newsletter.
