How Tochy Emereole moved from mid-level to leadership positions in her career

Tochy Emereole didn’t wake up one morning and find herself leading teams. Her rise came from studying how businesses grow, building systems that held up under pressure, and treating visibility as part of the job, not an afterthought. In a market where many mid-level professionals feel stuck, her journey shows what progression in African tech looks like when skill, intent, and proof of work come together.

In this conversation, she breaks down how she moved from mid-level to leadership, why she negotiates every offer, and why understanding buyer psychology matters more in marketing.

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

“The Long Game.”

Because everything meaningful I’ve built, whether it’s a campaign, a brand, or my own career, has come from playing strategically, not desperately. There were seasons where the results weren’t visible yet, where I was learning, failing,and  iterating. But I never optimised for looking impressive in the moment; I optimised for compounding growth. That’s what I teach now, too: build marketing systems. Build careers, not job titles. The long game always wins.

Tell us about your journey into the tech industry. What initially sparked your interest?

My journey into tech wasn’t a straight line; it was more of a curious detour that became the main road. I started out fascinated by storytelling and how brands make people feel something. But I quickly realised that in today’s world, the most powerful stories are told through technology. I studied biochemistry in the university and went on to work for a bit, and during the tech rave, I decided to pivot into product management, but somehow, I kept getting drawn to marketing.

What really sparked my interest was seeing how fintech and e-commerce were reshaping how Africans interact with money, shopping, and opportunity. I wanted to be part of building that bridge. Marketing in tech gave me the perfect intersection: I could use creativity and data together, and actually measure whether what I built moved the needle. Once I experienced that feedback loop of strategy, execution, and measurable impact, I was hooked. 

How did you move from mid-level to leadership, and what support helped you make that transition?

The shift from mid-level to leadership entailed a complete change in what I focused on. I stopped thinking in terms of campaigns and started thinking in terms of systems. I stopped asking “what should we post?” and started asking “what business problem are we solving, and how does marketing fit into that?”

What helped me most was having leaders who trusted me with ownership and outcomes. They let me fail, learn, and iterate. I also invested in myself outside of work: I pursued my MBA in International Business, obtained my CIM certification, studied buyer psychology obsessively, and built my own projects, such as Tochy’s POV and Growth Nest. These entrepreneurial experiences taught me how to think like a founder, which is exactly the mindset you need in leadership. 

Have you noticed any significant changes in salary offers over the years? If so, what do you attribute these changes to?

Honestly, I try not to engage too publicly in salary conversations because my experience isn’t necessarily reflective of the broader market reality for most marketing professionals. What I can speak to is what has worked for me.

First, I’ve made upskilling non-negotiable. Every single year, I invest in learning certifications, books, and courses. But I don’t stop at theory. I make sure to get my hands dirty by implementing what I learn, whether through volunteering, personal side projects, or applying new strategies directly in my workplace. This means that when I enter salary conversations, I’m negotiating from a place of demonstrated value, not just potential.

Second, I negotiate every offer. I go in understanding that most organisations will start with a range lower than market value; that’s just the game. So I come prepared with clear value propositions: here’s what I bring, here’s how it translates to revenue, and here’s why that justifies what I’m asking for.

Third, and this has been a more recent shift, I’ve become intentional about building digital agency. I talk about my work publicly now. I share proof of results, engage in marketing and business strategy conversations, and showcase my expertise across my social media platforms and my Substack newsletter.

This visibility has put me in front of more brands actively seeking the services I offer. And basic economics applies here: when demand increases, and supply stays limited, price goes up. The more I build my digital presence and stack irrefutable evidence of expertise, the more valuable I become in the market.

Related Article: How 10 tech professionals approach money conversations in their careers

What’s the most unhinged thing you’ve done in your career to get ahead?

I once spent an entire weekend reverse-engineering a competitor’s entire marketing funnel; every ad, every landing page, every email sequence, every retargeting touchpoint. I signed up with burner emails, tracked everything in a spreadsheet, and mapped out their whole customer journey like I was investigating a crime.

Then I presented my findings to leadership with a full breakdown of where we could outmaneuver them. It was a lot. But it worked, and it taught me that competitive intelligence isn’t about copying; it’s about understanding the game everyone else is playing so you can play a different, better one. 

What’s a marketing/career wild take you currently have?

You will get better at marketing by studying psychology than studying marketing.

Most marketers are out here obsessing over the latest algorithm change or chasing new platforms, when the thing that actually moves people hasn’t changed in thousands of years: human psychology. Why do people trust? Why do they hesitate? What makes someone finally click “buy” after visiting your page four times? The answers aren’t in a Google Ads dashboard; they’re in understanding how the human mind works.

I’ve learned more about conversion from studying cognitive biases, decision fatigue, and emotional triggers than from any marketing course. Frameworks change. Platforms die. But the psychology of why people say yes has remained consistent through centuries. Master that, and you can sell anything, anywhere, on any platform, because you’re not marketing to algorithms. You’re marketing to humans.

What’s one marketing task you would happily never do again if someone paid you enough?

Manually pulling together reports from fifteen different platforms that don’t talk to each other, formatting them into slides, just to tell someone what I could have told them in a two-minute voice note.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in data. I live for data. But the administrative theater of reporting? The endless reformatting for stakeholders who just want to know “is it working or not”? Someone please automate this permanently. I got into marketing to build things, not to become a professional screenshot collector.