Level Up: How this product marketer built a career out of doing hard things

When Toluwanimi Olubanke talks about her career, one theme is recurrent: doing hard things. From her early days managing social media pages to writing her first SEO article, and later launching her first go-to-market product at Bloc, she’s made a habit of stepping into roles that forced her to learn fast and stretch her limits. Now, as Product Marketing Manager at Helium Health, she credits her progress to three things: taking on tough challenges, finding mentors, and never stopping her learning.

In this conversation, Toluwanimi opens up about the twists and turns of her career, from battling self-doubt to navigating big career shifts, and shares the lessons that shaped her into the marketer she is today.

If your career journey were a movie, what would the title be and why?

Everything Everywhere All At Once fits because my career has been about balancing multiple moving parts at the same time, different roles, responsibilities, and challenges. It sometimes feels chaotic, but in the end, each piece connects and makes the bigger picture work.

Tell us about your journey into the tech industry?

Back in university, I used to roll my eyes whenever people said they were working in tech. I thought they were just being a bit smug. Around my third year, I was running a small side business, and that was my first real brush with managing social media and creating content. Then COVID hit, my business shut down, and I found myself at a crossroads.

A mentor of mine, knowing I’d been doing social media work, suggested I apply for a junior content marketer role. At that point, my first social media job had paid me all of 5,000 naira, so it felt like a big step. I put my best foot forward, leaned on the little experience I had, and landed the role at an e-commerce beauty business. That job gave me a solid foundation; it was my first exposure to lifecycle marketing, large-scale email and SMS campaigns, social media marketing, and SEO.

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I left after a few months to finish my degree, but the company called me back once I graduated. Not long after, I moved on to a fintech, Bloc, where I started as a content marketing manager. Thanks to my manager at the time, I had the chance to do much more than content; I ended up working closely with the product and engineering teams and even led product marketing initiatives. By the time I left, I’d launched Bloc Business Banking.

After that, I joined Helium Health, where I work now. Looking back, each step built on the last in a way I couldn’t have planned.

My parents, meanwhile, had very different ideas. I was meant to study medicine, but I got in for physiology instead. After graduating, they wanted me to reapply for medicine. They even called family meetings about it. But I knew it wasn’t for me, I couldn’t picture myself doing the same thing in the same place every day. It would have bored me to tears. So I stood on business and kept building my career in marketing.

What was the transition like for you, moving from social media management into content marketing?

I wouldn’t say I handled the transition well; it was overwhelming at times. But I was determined to squeeze as much experience out of that period as possible. Balancing school and the job was tough, so I made up for it by working overtime after classes and dedicating my weekends to catching up on tasks.

What made the difference was having a very experienced manager. He gave me challenging work that pushed my boundaries, but he also shared resources that helped me grow. For example, when I had to write my first SEO-optimised article at Natural Girl Wigs (now, Regirl), he spent an hour walking me through the process and sent me articles and videos to study afterwards.

That combination—my determination and his guidance—kept me going. It was a steep learning curve, but I always had both the pressure of real work and the resources to rise to the challenge.

What prompted your transition into product marketing?

I think the moment I knew I wanted to be a product marketer was when I joined Bloc as a content marketing manager. At first, I was focused on content, but that role exposed me to what a tech product really looks like. I started reading widely about different areas of marketing, and I had a mentor who was a core growth marketer, which deepened my interest even more. By then, I’d fallen in love with marketing as a whole, and I knew product marketing was the path I wanted to take.

After about a year, I told my manager that I wanted to transition into product marketing. He just looked at me and said, ‘What do you think you’ve been doing all this time?’ Because the truth was, we didn’t have a product marketer at Bloc after our product marketing manager left, so I’d already been doing a lot of the work without realising it. 

From that point on, he deliberately gave me more product marketing responsibilities, and I eventually got to lead the go-to-market for Bloc Business Banking. Launching that product was the first big milestone for me in product marketing.

Have you ever felt unsure of yourself while taking on new roles, and how did you handle it?

I’ve battled impostor syndrome countless times since I started working in marketing. It feels almost natural now; it shows up so often. I wouldn’t say I’ve ever completely figured out how to handle it, but it pushes me to work harder. Whenever that feeling creeps in, it drives me to learn twice as much. You’ll find me reading newsletters, digging into articles, or taking courses, anything to make sure I understand the area where I feel lacking. And the funny thing is, every time I do that, I end up learning far more than I thought I knew in the first place.

Another thing that’s helped is the encouragement I’ve received at just the right moments. God has been so gracious in that sense; whenever I’ve hit a low point, it’s like I get a small ray of sunshine. Out of nowhere, a manager will tell me, ‘This is great work,’ or ‘I’ve never seen anyone do it quite like you.’ That’s happened consistently throughout my career, from my time at Natural Girl Wigs, to Bloc, to Helium Health. Those affirmations remind me that I do know what I’m doing, and they’ve been such important confidence boosters.

Knowing what you know now, what skills or areas would you invest in if you were beginning your career today?

If I were to double down on anything, it would be doing hard things. That’s something I’ve always prioritised in my career, and it’s one of the reasons I’ve grown quickly. But looking back, I would have taken on even harder challenges much earlier and put myself in circles that pushed my thinking further. Surrounding myself with mentors and people who had more experience would have stretched me in ways I probably didn’t imagine at the time.

I’d also invest more deliberately in learning. Instead of piecing things together with smaller courses, I would have gone for more structured, professional programmes, something like CXL or Reforge. Those would have given me deeper expertise early on.

On the flip side, I wish I’d learnt when to walk away sooner. I sometimes stayed in roles longer than I should have, even when they weren’t serving me anymore. I also wish I’d understood workplace politics better; it would have saved me a lot of stress.

For advice, I’ll repeat myself: do hard things. Seriously, hard things will shape you in ways easy wins never will. And get a mentor. Having the right mentor is like having someone hand you a torch in a dark room; they help you see what you can’t on your own, and that can completely change the pace of your career growth.

How do you approach mentorship conversations?

I think about mentorship from a standpoint of value. You’re going to be receiving a lot from the person you want as a mentor, but you also need to show that you have value to offer in return. These are senior professionals, incredibly busy, and if they agree to guide you, it’s a sacrifice on their part. You should be willing to sacrifice something, too.

One practical way to approach it is through social media. Let’s say you find someone on LinkedIn whose work you admire. Don’t just send a cold message; start by following them, studying their trajectory, and engaging with their posts. Build a presence in their comment section so they know you’re genuinely interested in their work. From there, you can take it into the DMs, maybe something as simple as, ‘Hi, I’ve been following your work for a while. I liked your post on X, and I have a question about Y.’ Seniors are usually very open to questions, especially when they feel your curiosity is thoughtful and aligned with their expertise.

Once you’ve built that surface relationship, you can then make the bigger ask: explain where you are in your career, what you’re working on, and why you think they’d be a great fit as a mentor. If they see that you’ve been intentional, that investment in you feels worth it.

If you had the chance to live someone else’s career path, who would you pick and why?

I’d say Rukevwe Toka and Bozoma Saint John. They’ve both done hard things, and they remind me that growth always comes with sacrifice. Whenever I look at their career cards, I’m reminded that it’s not easy, but it’s worth it.

What specific technical and non-technical skills have been the most valuable in your career progression?

For technical skills, I’d say storytelling and content marketing come first. Every marketer should know how to write; being really good at it sets you apart more often than not. Second is automation: figuring out how to make things work even when your technical team can’t step in. 

Other key skills include data tracking and analysis, user/market segmentation, CRO, lifecycle marketing, budget optimization, revenue ops, and strategic thinking—being able to connect the dots, put things together, and make sense of it all. You’ll write a lot of strategic documents, so you need to be strong at brainstorming, whether alone or with others.

For soft skills, stakeholder management is huge. You have to collaborate across teams to make a launch happen, and that takes skill. And honestly, being likable. It sounds simple, but it’s underrated. People want to work with people they like, and that makes a world of difference as a product marketer.

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