I've always viewed influencer/creative marketing as this "golden goose" career that only a handful of people can break into. But over the years, influencer/creative marketing has grown exponentially from something that was once seen as a joke, into the new age of marketing.

Marketing has always been an industry painted as volatile and unreliable compared to other areas of business. Yet marketing has always been so fascinating to me. The combination of creative work with data analysis is what made me so interested in this industry. Despite the red flags I've heard about marketing, my coffee chat with Michelle Clark, Senior Director at G3 Enterprises, has completely changed the way I view this field in the best way possible. 2

Ok, ok, I admit the title is a little misleading, but don't let that fool you. Recently I got the amazing opportunity to sit down and chat with Oha Yejekwe, a UIUC real estate finance graduate with an extremely impressive resume! From his student housing startup Abode to his legit private equity program through Project Destined, I got to learn so much wisdom from his experiences in college, his move into real estate, and just from having a genuine conversation about life and our similar goals.

When you're 18 going into college, eventually you'll scroll upon a TikTok telling you to start doing coffee chats. It's very important that you not only listen to that TikTok, but that you sit down and have a coffee chat with the influencer who told you to do it. Recently I got the amazing opportunity to sit down with Lathanial Wells, a UIUC graduate who got a return offer to work at Accenture!

Recently I had my very first official coffee chat, and it was an amazing debut. I sat down with Michael Ash, Vice President of G3 Enterprises, to talk real estate, career strategy, and life advice. Today, I want to share the most valuable lessons I took away from someone with such a successful background in the industry.

If you’re a college or high school student you probably relate to the burden of juggling multiple different responsibilities at once. School, sports, jobs, scholarships, extracurriculars, social life, are just a few things that many students have to balance all at the same time. This can get overwhelming fast and it can easily lead to burnout. 

Turning 18 opens a whole new world of possibilities. Finally, I didn’t need to fake my age when signing up for a website… Oh, and I can manage my own finances I guess.