Five years ago, I was living in Bolivia. I was working as a teacher and living a fairly normal life until the pandemic hit and everything turned upside down.
Schools closed. Classes were cancelled. And in August 2020, I was fired.
I still had a few private lessons and an Upwork gig that paid $13/hour. It was just enough to get by. But the classes would stop in November, and the Upwork job wasn’t going to cover my rent or basic expenses long-term.
I needed more. And I needed it fast. Getting a local job wasn’t really an option, so I turned online. That’s when things slowly began to shift.
I started posting on Twitter every day, often multiple times per day. I didn’t know exactly what I was doing or who would see it, but soon enough I started to become part of a tiny international network.
The internet has this way of rewarding consistency.
One connection led to another. A few copywriting gigs trickled in. And in the next few years, I landed jobs like
• Editing Ben Putano’s first book: Great Founders Write
• Blog writing for Latitud and Mercury
• Being featured on Latamlist
• Ghostwriting for entrepreneurs with thousands of followers
• Writing cold e-mails for Fortune 500 companies
I tried a bit of everything but never really stumbled on the one thing I wanted to keep doing.
Still, social media kept delivering new opportunities.
Even when I moved back to Belgium in 2022, the momentum didn’t stop. I switched from Twitter to LinkedIn and began expanding my local network.
One post led me to reconnect with an old friend. Another got me in touch with a new friend, who later referred me to a client. That referral turned into more work. Slowly but surely, I rebuilt my freelance life in Belgium.
But life has a way of testing you.
In May 2023, my second child was born. I decided to take a step back. Family came first, and I stopped posting and working for a while.
That silence came at a cost.
Leads dried up. I had to dip into my savings to pay the bills. And the fear crept in again.
I was really afraid of running out of money. For the first time in a long time, I considered looking for a full-time job. I didn’t want to give up the independence I had worked so hard for. But it was getting harder to ignore the pressure.
And then once again social media came to the rescue.
My posts put me in touch with people from all over the world. I landed a few gigs like writing a landing page for nursing jobs in Tasmania, and a website for a Canadian grain marketing analyst.
But the real breakthrough came when I got an offer from willow. At first, they were only looking for a social media coach. But once we started working together, it quickly became clear that this could be more.
One and a half years later, I’m running marketing at Willow.
I handle social media ads, organic content, SEO, content writing, a bit of web design — whatever’s needed, really. And I love it.
It’s been a great experience professionally. I’ve had the chance to explore all sorts of marketing areas without being forced to pick just one. Before this, I’d never run ads. Now I can. I’ve learned a lot about web development, too.
The versatility of the role and the responsibility that comes with it have been huge for my growth.
And I’ve been closely involved with the launch of a new AI tool, called Will. Will is the 2025 edition of the social media tools that helped me grow on Twitter and LinkedIn back in the day.
It feels great to help develop and market a product that helps peolpe like me.
So obviously, I’m spending a lot of time on that now, but I still do side projects here and there, usually with people I’ve worked with before or through referrals.
And the one thing these gigs all have in common? The connections and referrals all lead back to social media.
Even now these places look like they are in shambles, they can still be meaningful.
I had around 3,000 followers on Twitter and I only have around 1,200 followers/connections on LinkedIn.
You don’t need a massive audience; you just need consistency and a couple of friends.
I’m not saying it doesn’t matter. If I had to start over again, I would have networked much more, and sent many more connection requests from the start. But it’s not impossible without a huge following.
So don’t give up on social media yet. It can change your life too.
PS: feel free to connect on LinkedIn.