Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chihu Ikechi-uko. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Chihu, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
I want to make space fun, that’s it. I want to be remembered as the guy who made space fun. Right now, you go to space and you’re in awe for like 15 minutes, maybe an hour, and then there is nothing to do. There is absolutely no incentive for the average person to really want to go to space. People plan their entire year and save up just to take their family to Disney or go to a music festival. Well I want people to plan their years and vacation days around going to space, and I want to give them an experience so incredible that it was worth every penny. I want my stamp on humanity to be, the guy who made space fun!
Chihu, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I think I should start off what I do. I have gotten very good at helping companies grow their revenue very rapidly using Social Media. I got into this because I have 1 singular goal in life and that is to make space fun (in a profitable fashion). In order to do this, I had to get good at 2 things; generating revenue for businesses and having interesting fun. So i started 2 businesses that specifically address this, GWC Marketing Agency and What It’s Like To Party.
Funnily enough figuring out ways to have fun that most people have never seen, was actually the more difficult aspect.
I have always had a knack for digital ads from working with multiple agencies, so starting my own marketing agency was mostly about putting in the time and work to perfect my craft. At the end of our 3rd year (2021), GWC Marketing Agency generated $105 million in revenue for our clients.
So i like to think we have that portion down, and what sets us apart from our competitors is our hyper focus on generating revenue. I like to say ” Likes are great, Comments are amazing, shares are phenomenal but revenue is what keeps your lights on.” I came into the space to get good at helping businesses generate revenue, not to get likes and comments.
But as an introvert figuring out ways to have so much fun that other people want to pay attention, and not just pay attention but attention you can monetize? I am still in my infancy of figuring that portion out.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
GWC Marketing Agency was bootstrapped, bootstrapped all the way! I used my severance package from an agency I was let go from a week before Christmas. Paid my rent for January and used every last dollar to set up the website, domain, business registration etc and on January 3rd, 2019 I hit the streets. I had a rule that I couldn’t go home until I walked into at least 100 businesses. How I saw it, if I walked into 100 businesses, 25 receptionists will actually speak to me, 5 would actually need my service and 1 will actually give me a meeting with a decision maker. Back then I used work 100+ hours a week between networking meetings, door knocking and actual client work. It was a rough time, people joke about eating ramen but I actually had to.
I started What Its Like to Party after I had some success with GWC Marketing Agency so I could use profits from GWc to fund What its Like to Party. Which is how it works till now, I aggressively reinvest in WILTP because i don’t yet need it to be profitable.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
This still hurts every time I think about it. An error by an employee caused our internal systems to be compromised and hackers to gain access to not only our banking information but banking information of some of our clients through their FB ad account. I woke up to almost $200,000 stolen, just gone. I had to make payroll, make my clients whole for the money they lost and also pay my personal bills. Almost all the clients affected dropped our agency, so there was not any new money coming in.
I ended up laying off every staff whose task I could perform myself, cutting my workforce by about 80%. I used all my personal funds to repay clients, I asked a friend for a loan for a months worth of payroll and well I was late on my bills.
If I didnt have friends who could financially bail me out, I don’t know and rather not think about what could have been.
Contact Info:
- Website: whatitsliketoparty.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growwithchihu/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chihu-ikechi-uko-730694b3/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6-HNIJFsdymssD0GMCtWlA
- Other: growwithchihu.com https://www.instagram.com/gwcmarketingagency/ https://www.instagram.com/whatitsliketoparty/