Making the best of every step

Making the best of every step Reliance Biwa is an account manager at Weathermen & Co Having an innate need to effect positive change wherever she goes allows for good progression. Wetumwene Shikage

Biwa has found a way to flourish in the field of marketing and advertising. She was born at Mariental and raised at Vaalgras. She left the nest to study marketing in South Africa and upon returning to her home country, first put her marketing skills to use in the engineering and banking sectors. Thereafter, she joined her first advertising agency, Adforce, in 2014 as account executive and later, senior account executive, before taking up her current position at Weathermen & Co in 2018.

In the Weathermen team, Biwa is responsible for managing clients’ portfolios and all things brand-related. A typical day for her – if such a thing exists – may include receiving a brief, getting to the heart of it and brainstorming with the studio creatives who go off to execute the resulting concept. Thereafter, Biwa presents the work to clients and ensures everything is in order at the costing and billings end.

Biwa’s greatest motivator is the knowledge that her team is always working towards providing solution-driven campaigns.

“We want to deliver meaningful solutions to our clients, audiences and other end-users. The most gratifying part of my job is seeing a client reach or exceed their key performance indicators (KPIs), because it means the agency understood the client’s brand and the market need, and successfully tailored the message to suit the right channels. Being behind a successful final product fills me with pride and makes me feel like I am contributing to something that will, in turn, contribute to the betterment of our communities.”

In addition to the opportunities her job affords her to make meaningful differences in society, Biwa has found the opportunities for personal growth to be equally as astounding. Biwa: “It is unbelievable how much and how quickly you develop and grow on the job. I’ve found that I can sometimes be a completely different person to who I was, say, just two weeks earlier.”

However, for Biwa, the growth does not stop at work. She is on her way to completing her master’s degree this year and hopes to put every bit of it into practice and share her knowledge with the industry. For anyone looking to advance in their chosen field, Biwa cannot overstate the importance of continuously investing in oneself.

“There are many ways to hone your skills and feed your passions which need not be limited to higher education. A good mentor, for example, is one of the best things to have on your side. There is also an abundance of online resources which can give you an edge in the market. Your first steps, though, should be investing the time to discover what your passion truly is, and then finding the right tribe to support you on your path to chasing it.”