How Moving in My 20s Shaped Me Into the Marketer I Am Today
At 20, I boarded a flight with two suitcases, an open heart, and no idea how deeply moving to Canada would shape me, not just as a person, but as a marketer, a thinker, and someone who leads with a growth mindset.
When you leave home at a young age, especially to a new country, you learn quickly that the world doesn’t wait for you to catch up. You either adapt, or you fall behind. That mindset of constant learning, adjusting, and pushing forwar became the foundation of how I work today.
The Fast-Track to Emotional Intelligence
Living alone in a new place teaches you how to listen to yourself, to others, to cultural cues. I became more observant, more curious, and more empathetic. I had to read between the lines, understand people with completely different perspectives, and communicate in ways that felt human and authentic. That emotional intelligence is at the heart of everything I do as a marketer.
Understanding people - what they want, what they fear, what moves them, is marketing in its purest form. Canada gave me a crash course in that.
Getting Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable
There’s a kind of resilience that comes from figuring things out alone, whether it’s navigating a new city or building a career from scratch. I learned how to fail fast, how to ask questions, and how to reinvent myself when things didn’t go to plan.
That’s also how I approach strategy and growth. I’m not afraid to test, learn, pivot. Because moving at 20 taught me: progress beats perfection, always.
From Survival to Strategy
What started as survival - finding my footing, figuring out how to belong, slowly turned into strategy. I began to notice how brands communicated, how people responded, how ideas spread. I wasn’t just consuming marketing, I was dissecting it.
That’s when I realized: this isn’t just what I want to do. It’s how I think. Marketing is about connecting dots others don’t see and living abroad gave me a wider map to draw from.
The Growth Mindset That Keeps Evolving
I don’t claim to know it all. But I do believe I can learn anything. That belief came from those early years in Canada, where every day was a challenge, and every challenge was a chance to grow.
Today, whether I’m leading a campaign or collaborating with a team, I bring that same mindset: curious, open, driven. I’ve built a career on asking better questions, listening more than I speak, and always looking for the next opportunity to grow, just like I did at 20, with nothing but potential ahead of me.
Closing Thought:
Moving to Canada didn’t just give me an education - it gave me an edge. It taught me how to adapt, empathize, communicate, and lead with curiosity. And that, more than any textbook or degree, is what made me the marketer I am today.