When were you at the University, and what degree did you study?
I studied Business and Management between 2016-19.
How did your degree/experience at university help lead you into your current career?
Admittedly, I’ve always been entrepreneurial, and I’d likely have set up a some-kind of business whether I’d attended the University or not.
However, the strategic knowledge I’ve developed from marketing to operations has influenced my ability to plan the intricate details of launching and growing my agency. And, this brings me to my next point: skills.
If there’s one skill that I’m pleased I’ve developed, it’s definitely critical thinking from interpreting, explaining, analysing, to problem-solving. This enables me to apply this intellectually disciplined art of thinking while starting and growing my agency and working with and advising my clients. Of course, it’s not excellent yet, but this University has allowed me to develop the foundations I’m continuing to refine to mastery. It’s certainly better than if I hadn’t attended Kent at all.
What drew you to Kent?
It was a no-brainer. At the time, Kent was in the top 20 for my course, and it’s close to my family’s home. There are two campuses and a bus that makes a round trip, surprisingly frequently. Even late at night on the weekend, which saved me a fortune in taxi fares, as you can imagine.
Can you tell us about your life after Kent?
I embarked on Teach First’s Leadership and Development Programme; I trained to teach Business with the world’s number one university in education, University College of London’s Institute of Education. This was alongside commuting an average of an hour and a half to Peckham, south London, to teach in one of the country’s most challenging secondary schools. According to Teach First, we had to be “top graduates” to get on the programme. I think this University played a huge role.
Tell us a bit about what you do now?
Two incredibly challenging years later, I launched an SEO agency for local businesses called DigiVisi. As much as it sounds somewhat random, I was an apprentice at 16 and worked in digital marketing for five years, including part-time, while studying at Kent.
Like I mentioned, I’ve always been entrepreneurial. Now I’m pleased to combine it with my passion for enabling local businesses to build their presence online and get more customers. It involves enhancing their website to manipulate search engines like Google to rank it higher when their target market searches specific keywords. In other words, I’m helping local business make more revenue for their families.
What is your favourite memory from the University?
I’ve got two favourite memories; I hope you don’t mind me saying. First, my marketing lecturer once said to me, “I really like the way you write.” I always tried to structure my assignments logically while writing concisely, and I felt recognised for my effort. And, second, I spent the day writing an assignment in the well-resourced Drill Hall Library in Chatham, working with a girl who turned out to be my fiancée this year, and we’re getting married in the summer, Covid-19 permitting. I guess we’d never have met if it wasn’t for Kent.