Moromoluwa Olusanjo on Career Growth and Personal Branding

📣Product-centric Business Leader for Sale (Hire) 📣 Just the latest creative approach from one of the top problem solvers I’ve met. Even if you don’t have an open position, a conversation with Meagan Danielsen is sure to give you a perspective you have not thought of.

Most careers are built on borrowed desires. No wonder they collapse. Traditional career coaching often skips over the real problem: we don’t always want what we think we want. Our choices get shaped by mimetic desire - the pull to copy what looks successful in others. And social media has supercharged it. Instead of a few role models, we now scroll through thousands of “success stories.” Each one tempts us to copy their path. ⸻ That’s what happened to Sarah. In ten years she jumped from Brand Marketing → Project Management → Product Management → Business Development. On paper, it looked like progress. But when she stopped to reflect, she realised none of it added up to a meaningful career. Why? Each move came from 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 desires - surface wants borrowed from others. She saw marketers at fairs, admired how they looked and talked, noticed their glamorous posts from industry events. So she followed that pull. Then the same thing happened with project managers. Then product managers. The reality never matched the image. ⸻ When we worked together, we traced her story back to moments when she had felt most alive. The work she loved as a child. The causes she cared about deeply. The talents that came naturally. From there, 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑐𝑘 desires emerged - wants that come from conviction, not comparison. We built Odyssey Plans for the next five years. Her new direction connected her sustainability values with her love for networking. For the first time, she felt excited about a path that was truly hers. ⸻ Here’s a simple way to start uncovering your thick desires: • Create space - no phone, no noise, just room to think. • Write down 3-5 times in your life you felt deeply engaged or fulfilled. • Look for the pattern. The clues to thick desire live in those stories. ——— 💬 Where have you caught yourself chasing those "thin" desires in the past?

One thing I’ve had to unlearn throughout my career is the idea that being “behind” disqualifies you from pursuing new opportunities. There’s always someone with more experience, more certifications, more industry knowledge, and more years in a specific space. If I focus on that too long, I can convince myself to stay still. What I’ve learned instead is that growth often happens in the gap. The gap between what I know and what I'm learning, where I am and where I want to go, my current comfort zone and my next challenge. Every major transition in my career required me to move before feeling fully ready new industries, systems, cities, problems to solve. There was always a moment where I had to decide whether I was actually unqualified — or simply uncomfortable because I was growing. Recently, stepping into a SME consulting role reinforced this again for me. My background has largely focused on revenue-driven product strategy. Now I’m shifting perspectives — thinking through internal systems. It’s different and unfamiliar in some ways, and that’s exactly why it matters. Sometimes the biggest career breakthroughs happen when you stop measuring yourself against what you haven’t done yet and start trusting your ability to learn. You do not need to know everything before taking on the next challenge. You just need to be willing to grow into it. #CareerGrowth #Leadership #ProductManagement #ProfessionalDevelopment #GrowthMindset

Here is one piece of #advice I’d give to anyone building their career 👇🏼 Don’t chase titles. Chase the actual role. Chase the exposure. Chase the learning. Chase the impact. Because titles today have become very relative. I’ve seen people refuse opportunities simply because they felt “the title is too low” for them… while completely ignoring the actual scope, influence, and growth behind the role itself. And honestly, after speaking with so many people across different companies and industries, I realized something important: A person can hold a “Director” title or one of those fancy 3-letter titles, yet their day-to-day responsibilities are basically a team lead’s job… sometimes even running a department alone or managing just one person. At the same time, someone with a simple “Senior” title can have the mindset, experience, business exposure, and influence of an executive. Why? Because every company has a different structure. Different scale. Different definition of titles. In one company, “Senior” could mean leading an entire department. In another, it could still be considered junior. So don’t build your career around labels. Build it around substance. Ask yourself: - What am I learning? - What level of ownership do I have? - What problems am I solving? - How much impact am I creating? - Who am I becoming through this experience? Because in the long run… people don’t remember titles as much as they remember capability, value, and results. Titles are decoration. Experience is the real asset. #CareerGrowth #Leadership #CareerAdvice #ProfessionalDevelopment #Mindset #WorkCulture #BusinessThinking #PersonalGrowth #LinkedInTips #SuccessMindset #MarketingCareer #Advertising #PersonalBranding

Navigating Careers #9 Given all my recent posts, the question I’m now getting is pretty fair: “So, Michael - what are you actually aiming for next?”🧐 In my earlier posts, I’ve been reflecting on finding a kind of personal product-market fit. Essentially trying to understand where what I bring aligns with what the “market” needs. Similar to my previous transitions, my goal has been to make that more and more concrete. Not by narrowing it down too quickly, but by focusing on a small number of directions that seem to fit. For me, that exercise has been less about inventing something new, and more about identifying patterns🌌. When I looked back across different roles and industries, a few common threads stood out for me in terms of what I’ve done well and what I’ve enjoyed: * Leading in situations with high complexity or uncertainty * Driving performance - whether in growth, turnaround, or transformation * Building alignment and followership through clarity, structure, and calm execution The question then becomes: In what contexts does this create the most value?📊 In my case, I feel that currently translates into a small handful of possible paths. These are different environments, but they each draw on the same underlying strengths: * A leadership role (e.g. COO or CEO), particularly in a growth or turnaround setting * An investment role, working closely with portfolio companies post-investment * A strategy, M&A, innovation or business development leadership role in a larger organization * Building or revitalizing a smaller advisory setup focused on strategy and transactions (Alongside this, I continue to stay involved with a number of companies in a board capacity and from being engaged on various strategy assignments.) So, part of my process right now is to test them - through conversations, small engagements, and continued exploration🪸. I believe making these paths explicit helps in a few ways: * It gives others something concrete to react to * It makes conversations more focused * It makes it easier to spot where there is real alignment At the same time, I’m trying to stay open. Because the goal is not just to pick a path - but to find the right setting where experience, motivation, and opportunity genuinely come together🍀. And perhaps that’s where I’m at right now - somewhere between clarity and exploration. Next, I’ll wrap up this series with a few thoughts on what this process has actually taught me.

I invented my entire career plan in 3 seconds during a performance review. My manager asked where I saw myself in five years. I panicked and cobbled together buzzwords from LinkedIn posts. "Leading teams, driving product strategy, building toward staff engineering." It sounded impressive. I had no idea what I actually wanted. But once you say a plan out loud, it becomes real. My manager referenced it in our next 1-on-1. She put it in a shared document during goal-setting. I started introducing myself at meetings using plan vocabulary. By month 14, I had a complete career narrative. Coherent, consistent, and completely fake. People found it impressive. I found it exhausting. The whole time, I was thinking about other things. A design role at a smaller company that looked interesting. Whether wanting something different meant I was ungrateful. I called having the plan "direction." It was actually avoidance. What career story are you performing instead of exploring?

There’s a difference between working to survive and working with purpose. In a job market that feels increasingly difficult and uncertain, it takes courage to choose who you work for just as much as it takes courage to choose what you do. Throughout every role and every client partnership I’ve taken on, my creative videos, art direction, writing and marketing campaigns have maintained a zero fail rate. That isn’t arrogance, it’s factual. The success has never come from ego. It comes from relentless creative curiosity, strategic acumen, understanding human connection and behavior, a wealth of marketing expertise, and leading the creatives around me with compassion, respect, and trust. The truth is, great work doesn’t happen in environments where people feel undervalued, silenced, disrespected or uninspired. It happens when people feel appreciated, invigorated, challenged, respected, connected and genuinely seen. Knowing who you want to work for, and equally important, who you don’t, takes confidence and courage. It takes strength to walk away from opportunities that don’t align with your values, even when the job market says “just take the job.” Never accept a position simply because it’s available. Take the position because it fuels you. Because it sharpens you. Because it values you and what you bring to the table; it pushes you to become even better. The right environments don’t just create successful campaigns; they create exceptional people. #creative #marketing #hiring #career #ROI #truth #leadership

“The worst thing you can do to someone stuck in a maze is enter the maze with them.” A few years ago, when I was an employee, I used to think my reporting manager did nothing. He(Ishant) came late. Took a few calls. Delegated work. Left on time. Meanwhile, I was the one constantly executing. I genuinely used to think: “This guy has the easiest job in the office.” Today, after becoming a manager myself and training interns, I finally understand what I couldn’t see back then. Managers are not supposed to execute everything. They are supposed to: guide, simplify, observe patterns, remove blockers, and help people grow (literally). Because when someone is stuck inside a maze, the solution is not to enter the maze with them. The solution is to see the maze from above. And honestly? That’s much harder than I expected. Doing what you know is easy. Teaching someone else to do what you know is difficult. You have to slow down. Match their pace. Repeat yourself patiently. Explain things that now feel obvious to you. Execution requires skill. Delegation requires maturity. And perspective changes completely once responsibility changes. Pro Tip: Eat pani puri with three people. Not one more, not one less. #manager #metaads #blaknbludigital #blaknblu #performancemarketing #perspective  

▌ Experience doesn’t automatically translate into impact anymore. That shift is exactly why I’m approaching my next role differently. Not from what I’ve done in the past, but from how I think about stepping into something new and creating momentum quickly. It’s not about proving experience. It’s about how quickly you can understand what actually matters, then act on it. That’s been a big focus for me lately. Not as a finished framework, but as a way of thinking about how I would ramp quickly in my next opportunity. It keeps coming back to three things: ◆ 1. Get to how the business actually runs, and make it a priority early Not the job description. Not assumptions from past roles, but how I would approach learning the reality quickly: → how work flows across teams → where friction or delays show up → where customer experience and internal perception don’t fully align Clarity early is usually what determines impact later. ◆ 2. Listen before trying to change anything There’s always pressure in new roles to move fast, but early clarity doesn’t usually come from action alone. It comes from listening: → customers → frontline teams → leadership Paying attention to where the stories don’t line up. That’s often where the most meaningful opportunities exist. ◆ 3. Focus on one meaningful win early Not a transformation. Not a roadmap. Not a big initiative. Just one improvement that actually changes how something works: → removes friction in a key process → fixes a broken step in the customer or employee journey → improves how work gets done in a visible way Small enough to execute quickly. Real enough that people feel it. ▌ I’m still actively in search, and this is how I’m thinking about what comes next. Not just what I’ve done in the past, but how I would approach the first 90 days in a way that creates clarity, trust, and momentum quickly. That's how I'm approaching what's next.

Hello everyone, This may be my first post with a very serious intent 😊 Over the past few days, I’ve been seeing many promotion announcements on LinkedIn, along with well-deserved congratulations pouring in. While feeling happy for them, I also started thinking about another group of people — those who did not get promoted this cycle, despite aspiring for it. In every organization, only a small percentage of employees get promoted each year. A large number of capable and hardworking professionals continue in the same role, waiting for their opportunity. This post is for them. If you were expecting a promotion and did not get it, it is natural to feel disappointed. But getting demotivated cannot be the option. Instead of seeing it as a setback, use it as feedback. If you truly aspire to grow, try to understand how the corporate ecosystem operates rather than only blaming the system. Organizations reward value creation, visibility, consistency, business impact, leadership readiness, and timing — sometimes all together. And if you genuinely believe you contributed strongly but still did not achieve the outcome you expected, pause and reflect: ·      Were you solving the right business problems? ·      Was your impact visible enough? ·      Did stakeholders recognize your contribution? ·      Did you clearly understand what was expected for the next role? Have an open conversation with your manager. Seek honest feedback. Ask what gaps need to be closed. Growth is rarely linear. Sometimes, delays prepare us better for bigger responsibilities ahead. Keep learning. Keep building. Keep improving. Your time will come. What has helped you stay motivated during phases when growth felt delayed?