Mr Messiah Ekaette shared a powerful story of growth, starting from humble beginnings to becoming a top-earning freelancer. He began by stating a hard truth: 9 out of 10 Nigerians with digital skills have not made their first one million naira. He shared that his goal was to change that by showing exactly how he moved from picking irons to earning over 10 million naira annually as a freelancer.
His strategy, which he termed the “Overdo Strategy,” is what he credits for his success. As a copywriter, he uses multiple platforms to find work — including Upwork, LinkedIn, and cold pitching through email. He emphasized that the key to his success lies in how far he goes to stand out.In 2023, he was ranked among the top 3% of service providers on Upwork. Aware of the oversaturation in the freelance market, he stressed the importance of doing more than the average freelancer. First, he encouraged confidence believing the job is already yours. But beyond confidence, he shared practical steps.
When applying for jobs, he doesn’t stop at just submitting a pitch. He investigates the client. First, he checks the reviews on their profile for any mention of their name or company. With that information, he searches for the client on LinkedIn. Once he finds them, he views their profile and this triggers a notification to the client. He then engages with the client’s recent posts by commenting insightfully and liking at least four posts, sometimes using ChatGPT to draft thoughtful comments.
Next, he sends a personalized connection request. On LinkedIn, where you’re allowed to include a short message, he recommends using that space to briefly appraise the client or their work, making the request more personal and likely to be accepted.For emails, he mentioned Apollo as a tool that helps you find verified email addresses. Once the email is found, he sends a cold pitch. His cold emails are problem-solving focused — showing the client a clear problem and positioning himself as the solution, in a very appealing way.
Messiah concluded his session by sharing the success story of his mentee, Elohor, who applied the same strategy and landed a gig. His message was clear, the jobs are there, but to land them, you must be ready to overdo what others won’t.
