{I see... you need ideas} The end-to-end SaaS content marketer & copywriter | Sign up to Procrastinatr, the creative thinking newsletter | Follow for more about content, copy, and creativity

I'll skip the blah and get straight to the point: you're probably here because you saw me somewhere on LinkedIn. Maybe I made you smile. Or think. Or (very likely) annoyed you.

I'm Octavia. Nice to meet you. 

I do content marketing and copywriting for SaaS. Yes, both. Yes, I do both very well. No, I'm not a Jack of All Trades -- but feel free to DM me and we can debate the semantics. 

On LinkedIn and in Procrastinatr (my main newsletter), I talk about creative thinking. Because I believe more people need to use it. Now, more than ever. For a billion reasons -- financial, social, psychological, you name it. You can DM me and debate that too. 

On Substack, I run two creative exercises: The Blue Vase (on growing up in the 90s in the post Soviet non-bloc bloc) and We're All Family Here (a TV script-like series that gets emailed episode by episode, fortnightly.)

So, to recap: 

👉 Follow here for creative thinking nuggets
👉 Subscribe to Procrastinatr for creative thinking deep dives: https://procrastinatr.ck.page/2d377ecc9a 
👉 Subscribe to The Blue Vase for sappy memories: https://thebluevase.substack.com/
👉 Subscribe to We're All Family Here for pseudo-funny fiction in your inbox:https://wereallfamilyhere.substack.com/ 
👉 DM me to debate stuff or to talk about your content and copy.

Cheers -- looking forward to your messages and feedback!

Octavia Drexler 🔮

I help Web3 founders and DeFi brands grow through full-stack marketing, thought leadership, and content that drives adoption and community growth.

→ Full-Stack Marketing: Brand positioning, messaging architecture, and product marketing that turns complex tech into clear value.

→ Ghostwriting & Thought Leadership: Deep-dive interviews turned into high-impact content that positions you as the top voice in your space.

→ Speaker & Educator: Teaching service providers how to run professional, scalable operations—not side hustles.

Book a call via my Featured section, email yomigerardofficial@gmail.com, or DM me to scale your personal brand or business.

Yomi Gerard

You're currently living in answered prayers.

It's easy to forget that where you are now is probably something you once prayed for. 

The constant pressure to outperform your peers — or your past achievements — can overwhelm us, making it easy to get caught in a rat race of warped significance.

→ Image 1 — Me at 18, right before/after leaving my parents' home.

→ Image 2 — 2021, working as a Social Media Manager at TravelTank, a travel agency in Lagos, Nigeria.

→ Image 3 — 2023, I left my newly rented apartment to follow God's instructions and move to a new city 

— Northern Nigeria — where I knew absolutely no one. (I had just one Facebook friend there, and we'd never even met in person.)

→ Image 4 — Just last week, I recorded a couple of new TikTok videos. Feel free to check them out — link in the comments! 👇


Today, I want you to pause and recount just how far you've come. 

Acknowledge that God has been good, and that you are making steady progress.


Good?


Deal wondrously 💙

Yomi  Gerard

Web3 Marketing Leader | Ghostwriter for DeFi Founders | Turning crypto founders and brands into market leaders

How do I respond without getting emotional?
I slept in a church auditorium for 2 years.

It was within that period I met Daniel Nnam — he can verify this story.

In 2019, I left my parents as a teenager, eager to see the world. But before that, I had worked many jobs:

→ Grade 9 — attempted working in a shoemaking shop
→ 2016 — taught Nursery 1 & 2 at a small school, earning ₦8,000 monthly
→ 2017 — worked as a waiter at a fast food/bakery, until I was laid off for refusing to tell a lie
→ 2018 — taught at a senior secondary school; English, Economics, and Government across JSS 1–3 and SS 1–3
→ 2020 — worked in a pure water factory, sometimes walking 2 hours to get to work

Then everything changed.

That same 2020:

→ I quit the factory and went into writing
→ My pastor gave me my first ghostwriting job — I earned about 2x my factory salary
→ I was introduced to LinkedIn and landed my first client, who paid me $1 per 1,000 words

I was writing 3,000 words a day to make $3. (But that's a story for another post.)

→ Later that year, I got my first client who paid me $100 — I was balling 😂

I haven't looked back since. 

The road hasn't been smooth, but it's definitely worth the sail.

So how do I stay locked in?

I just show up the next day. That's kinda it. 

Determine to show up the next day. Those days turn into months, and months into years. 

And then you look back and realise you've actually been consistent — with so much to show for it.

No matter what you're going through —

Remember, this is still day one.



Deal wondrously 💙

On the 30th of January, 2023, 

my life changed completely.

I had just moved to Jos. 

I left everything I had in Lagos — my newly acquired apartment, my church, my relationships — and moved to a place where I knew no one. 

No family. No close friends. I was completely alone.

But soon after, one friend became two, then three, then more than enough. 

It wasn't sudden. It was gradual.

Your experience on LinkedIn might feel similar right now.

You post and it's crickets. 

Maybe you're a social media manager, so you use your clients' accounts to like and comment (I've been there 😭) and it still amounts to 3 likes and 3 comments after 12 hours.

You're watching others celebrate new milestones and you can't relate yet.

Don't lose heart.

As long as you:

- Post good content targeted at the right people
- Engage strategically
- And do it long enough

The results will come.

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend. Rest, re-strategize and go again next week. 

Deal wondrously 💙

If you plan to close a client this March, you need to stop asking.

Contrary to popular opinion, asking is not what gets you clients. Showing you can do the job is.

It's been a while since I shared tips like this — and honestly, it's because people take advice and run with it without taking the time to understand it.

Sometime last year I shared some of my most effective pitching strategies in great detail here on LinkedIn. 

And guess what? 

People still came to my DMs to ask questions I had already answered in the post.

So before you read any further — if you won't take the time to study this, iterate, and implement, stop reading here. 📍

I only share what has worked for me, so you can trust that everything here has been tested and proven.


Here's how to move from asking to showing:

1. Come prepared.

Do your homework. Identify a gap in their business or personal brand that you can fill without being handheld. 

→ You are coming to solve a problem — talk like it.

2. Demonstrate expertise.

Not a 1,000-word pitch deck — something simple like:

"I helped XYZ achieve ABC in X months through THIS and THAT, and I'd love to do the same for you. I've already put my thoughts together in a document — can I send it over?"
 
Simple and effective.

3. Let your profile do the talking.

The biggest disconnect happens when someone is impressed by your outreach, checks your profile, and finds inconsistency. 

→ Optimize your profile for whatever you're pitching.

3. Respect boundaries. 

If they don't reply, give it a few days or weeks before following up. 

→ If they say no, let it be — and focus on nurturing the relationship instead.


TL;DR: 

Stop asking for the job. Come prepared, show proof of your work, clean up your profile, and respect boundaries. That's what closes clients.


Stop begging clients to take a chance with you, and start showing them how you solve their problems. 


If you found this helpful, repost so others can learn too. 💙


What has worked for you? Share below so others can learn as well.


Deal wondrously. 💙

You're ignoring the most expensive feedback you'll ever get 

— and it's free.

This was me for the longest time — what you call vanity metrics are real, living people reacting and responding to your content. 

That's pure feedback worth thousands of dollars.

But you're not paying attention. That's why you're not growing.

Here's what that meant for me:

- It carried credibility, especially posts with specific advice (I only share what has worked for me — and this right here, works)

- The right people couldn't find me because I wasn't speaking to them or engaging them strategically through content and comments

- It sparked conversations (because I had been sharing opinions that challenged the norm)

- My content was valuable, but my hook didn't reflect that

- It was doable — it contained practical, actionable advice

- It closed with a TL;DR for skimmers

- It had bite-sized bullet points

- It was natural and human


After I started listening, here's what changed:

- CEOs, ecosystem leaders, and more people in my space connected with me

- My engagement increased significantly

- Clients understood my positioning

- My follower growth spiked


Go back and conduct a thorough assessment of your content and comments. When you do, pay close attention to:

→ Which posts had the most engagement
→ Which posts had the most shares
→ Which posts had the most saves — and why
→ Which posts sparked the most conversations
→ Which posts got you the most followers

The answer to your growth lies there.


Deal wondrously 💙

No one talks about how painful it is to really 'lock in'

You have to put your body and mind through an insane amount of pressure.

It reminds me of my JAMB days. (For those outside Nigeria, JAMB is the entrance examination we write to gain admission into university.)

While I was preparing, electricity was as inconsistent and uncertain as a rainbow. 

So I had to read under the street lamp right in front of our building — sometimes till past 11pm, sitting by the gutter concrete slab, directly under the light.

I was eaten by mosquitoes 😅

But I had no other choice.

It was during those nights that a few friends and I finished whole textbooks long before the exams. 

Did it pay off? 

Well, I ended up being the highest scoring student in my set for JAMB. If I remember correctly 😅

So if you're reading this and you're putting in the work, staying locked in — well done. 

I pray God blesses your effort with success. That your hard work pays off and becomes visible to the world.

In the meantime, I need to get back to work.


Gotta stay locked in 😄


Deal wondrously 💙

It's builder/job szn right now.

There is opportunity in every market cycle. 

This is not the time to burn liquidity buying rugs and feeding devs — find something tangible to build.

- Build your personal brand
- Learn a skill and get good at it
- Get a job, contribute to a vision and mission
- Build a product, sell something, and help change people's lives

This isn't the time to hunt for the next big airdrop.

Don't get left out.

Something has changed about my LinkedIn.

In the last 3 months, 3 major types of people have been connecting with me:

1. Founders (in crypto, AI and Web3)
2. Ecosystem leaders
3. Senior marketing professionals

So how did I get here?

It's simple:

- I create content to attract my ideal clients.

→ I talk about their problems, the solutions, my experience solving them, and how the industry is responding.

- I join and contribute to conversations.

→ I comment strategically — sharing thoughtful responses under posts where a high number of my prospects are already engaged.

- I actively connect with people I'd like to work with.

→I send 3–5 connection requests per day, sometimes more, all targeted at my ideal audience.

One thing to note: none of this works if your positioning is unclear or your profile doesn't reflect it.

LinkedIn is a game. The algorithm may change, but the rules stay the same.


Deal wondrously 💙

My follower count increase by over a hundred. I already drafted my 7k milestone speech before I realised what was happening crying 😭

I was so pumped 😂

Award-winning personal branding & business coach | Founder of Link Up Community (67 countries) | Teaching you how to build a trusted brand & profitable business

Looks like LinkedIn offices had a weekend party!

Everyone's LinkedIn got translated to German!

Or was it Portuguese? No, wait... Japanese?

Oh, random follower growth? 1K overnight?

The people you've blocked? Forget it, yo.

Seems like bugs have taken over Linky.

Luckily, I haven't posted in five days.

I was in Slovakia... Giving keynotes.

Then hosted 6 hours of workshop.

Came back, and I laughed HARD!

Anything else I missed? Tell me.

What other bug happened? 😂

Were you lucky with 0 bugs?

P.S. Happy Monday, friends.

taplio

The Battle

Octavia Drexler 🔮

Yomi Gerard

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreYomi Gerard's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Octavia Drexler 🔮

Yomi Gerard

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Yomi Gerard's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreYomi Gerard's LinkedIn Performance