Funke Michaels’ career journey has been born out of her passion and the love from others and for others. While visiting her aunt, she was drawing in the kitchen and a bottle of Lemon Fresh was zoomed in. Her uncle thought it looked like an ad! Thus, her entrance in to the world of marketing and advertising. Nigerian-by-Birth, Kenyan-by-Marriage, Michaels has over 21 years ‘hands-on’ sales, marketing and advertising experience with multimillion budget brands like Coca-Cola, Peugeot, Rothmans, Heineken, Subaru and Samsung. She has worked globally across Sub-Saharan Africa, North and Middle East Africa, Europe and the UK, Latin-America and the Caribbean as a Creative-Communications practitioner. Lastly, Michaels is committed to fostering development and industry through collaborations between academia, entrepreneurs, and leaders of the corporate, political and humanitarian frontiers.
Funke Michaels was a fountain of wisdom for all marketers in this episode; here are some of the top lessons we learned:
Growth
Michaels had the opportunity to work in a 360-degree marketing environment. She managed to reach consumers at all possible points of contact, and with this she learned that when you’re accessible to your consumer, it humanizes you. As marketers, we not only need to be close to the consumer in trade; we need to be present on ground. It’s understanding the consumer that makes marketing to them better targeted to their needs.
Love
You never know when the good that you do will reap you harvest, so be kind to people indiscriminately. Throughout her life, Michaels has had the pleasure of working with people who she now refers to as friends and family, thanks to how they trained her with love. When working at Samsung, she gained brothers and sisters, and because of that, she commits to giving people the space and empathy they need to succeed at work or in the classroom.
Education
At a younger age, Michaels recalls having to do a Nation-wide entrance exam to university; thousands of potential freshmen lining up to take the exam in a process that was completely manual. The results worked the same way. Later, she worked with a team that revolutionized how Nigeria organizes these tests. It became more efficient…it became digital. A valuable lesson Michaels learned was that “sometimes you don’t need a hand to pull you up, you need a hand to hold your spine for support”, which she thanks all her mentors for; the support they provided on the way to where she is now.
One of the things that Michaels teaches is frugality. She worked with multimillion brands but it’s important that marketers know how to market brands with a limited budget. Her advice to young marketers is “jump! Do it! Be bold, not for the salary.”
