Hello Thrivers,

For this week’s THRIVE Influencer Spotlight, we spoke with Rita Ushie, popularly known as Raye, whom many Nigerians first encountered through the viral conversation surrounding her experience as a Lagos-based NYSC corps member.

This time, however, we want you to meet the version of Raye that many people do not know: the woman whose work began long before the internet turned her into a trending topic, and whose journey has continued far beyond the brief period of virality that introduced her to a much wider audience.

Beyond that moment, Raye has been building a career around remote work, freelancing, digital marketing, and practical digital education. Today, she is the founder of Vsavvy Academy, a no-code digital-skills academy that helps Africans develop relevant skills and position themselves for opportunities within the global workforce. Alongside building the academy, she continues to work across multiple businesses and projects, using her knowledge of marketing and remote work to create income, impact, and opportunities for others.

In this interview, Raye speaks about the career she had already built before going viral, how she responded to the public narratives formed around her, and what it takes to use visibility to strengthen a personal brand that is rooted in genuine expertise and value.

The first thing I always want to clarify whenever I answer this question is that the viral moment introduced me to a lot of people, but it did not create me.

Before anyone knew my name online or associated me with the NYSC conversation, I had already spent years building a career around remote work, freelancing, and digital marketing. The public may have discovered me through one moment, but the person they discovered had already been working, learning, earning, and helping other people access opportunities for a long time.

Today, I am the founder of Vsavvy Academy, where we have helped thousands of Africans learn practical digital skills and position themselves for global opportunities. The academy exists because I genuinely believe that where a person comes from should not determine how much they can earn or the kinds of opportunities they are able to access.

Long before the video went viral, I was already working with international clients as a virtual assistant and digital marketer. I had built a successful freelancing career, earned millions of naira through remote work, and had already started teaching other people how they could enter the same space.

I was not starting from scratch after I went viral. The attention simply meant that more people were suddenly looking at work I had already been doing for years.

This distinction is important because, when people see someone receive visibility, they sometimes assume that the opportunities, businesses, or expertise that follow were created entirely by that moment. In my case, the viral conversation did not suddenly give me skills, experience, or an understanding of the digital economy. Those things had already been developed through years of working with clients, learning how remote businesses operate, building systems, and understanding what it takes to deliver results consistently.

I like this question very much because the experience taught me that visibility is powerful, but it is also unpredictable.

One thing I realised very quickly was that people will form opinions based on a few seconds of content without knowing the full story. They may not know what happened before the camera started recording, what happened afterwards, or anything about the person involved, but they will still speak with complete confidence about who that person is.

When you suddenly become the centre of an online conversation, you realise that you cannot control everything people say about you. Everyone approaches the story with their own assumptions, experiences and biases, and those things shape the conclusions they reach.

What I could control, however, was the way I responded and the story I continued to tell through my work.

I simply kept showing up.

I continued sharing practical content, teaching valuable skills, highlighting the success stories of my students and building businesses. Rather than allowing all my energy to be consumed by public opinion, I redirected that attention towards the work I wanted to be known for.

I understood that viral moments fade, but consistency builds credibility.

People may initially discover you because of a trending conversation, but they will only remain interested when they repeatedly find something valuable in what you share. I wanted people to stay because they were learning from me, seeing the results of my work and understanding the genuine value I brought to the digital and remote-work space.

I saw many talented young Africans who had university degrees and potential but could not access opportunities beyond their immediate local job markets. At the same time, companies around the world were becoming increasingly open to hiring people remotely.

There was a clear gap between talent and opportunity, and Vsavvy Academy was created to bridge that gap.

Many people had the ability to succeed but did not know which skills were valuable, how to develop them, how to position themselves professionally or where to find genuine opportunities. Others believed entering the technology industry required them to become software developers, even though there are many valuable digital roles that do not require coding.

Through Vsavvy Academy, we equip people with practical and job-ready digital skills while also teaching them how to present themselves, communicate their value and compete within a global market.

The biggest misconception is that remote work is a shortcut to making money. It is not. Remote work is still work, and companies will not hire someone simply because that person wants to earn in a foreign currency.

You need skills, professionalism, effective communication, consistency, and the ability to solve problems.

Many people spend more time searching for jobs than they spend becoming employable. They apply repeatedly, but they have not developed the skills, portfolio or professional conduct required to convince an employer or client that they can deliver meaningful results.

The opportunities are available, but you must become someone that a company genuinely wants to hire.

A good place to start is by identifying a specific problem you would like to solve and then learning a skill connected to that problem. You should not try to learn every digital skill at once because that can leave you with shallow knowledge across several areas without genuine competence in any of them.

Technical skills matter, but soft skills are equally important and, in many situations, they are what determine whether someone keeps a client or loses an opportunity.

Communication, reliability, time management and problem-solving can take you very far. A client needs to know that you can understand instructions, ask the right questions, provide updates and complete your work without needing to be chased constantly.

On the technical side, skills such as virtual assistance, customer support, digital marketing, project management, social media management, email management and artificial-intelligence literacy are becoming increasingly valuable.

However, the goal is not to know everything. The goal is to become very good at solving a particular problem.

Marketing changed everything for me because I learned that it is not enough to be good at what you do; you must also know how to communicate your value.

There are many talented people who remain overlooked because their audience does not understand what they offer, the problem they solve, or why their work matters. Marketing gives you the ability to present your knowledge in a way that people can understand and connect with.

It helped me build trust at scale, attract opportunities, grow a community, and turn my knowledge into businesses.

The hardest part has been dealing with assumptions.

People often believe they know your entire life because they have seen a small part of it on social media. They may make conclusions about your background, personality, intentions or success based on content that represents only a fraction of your actual experience.

There is also pressure to constantly prove yourself. When many people first discovered you through controversy or virality, it can feel as though every new achievement must be used as evidence that you are more than what they initially believed.

Over time, however, I learned that you cannot build your life around public opinion.

There will always be people who misunderstand you, and there will always be conversations you cannot control. When you try to respond to every opinion, you risk allowing strangers to determine the direction of your life and work.

Do not chase another viral moment. Build something valuable.

Attention is temporary, but trust is sustainable.

When you suddenly gain visibility, it can be tempting to focus entirely on maintaining the attention. You may begin creating content only to remain relevant, responding to every conversation or trying to repeat the exact thing that initially brought people to your page.

Use the visibility to showcase your expertise, solve real problems, and create something that will still matter long after people stop discussing the original trend.

One statement from Raye remained central throughout our conversation:

“People will form opinions based on a few seconds of content without knowing the full story.”

The internet has shown us this repeatedly. Almost every day, a new video, statement, or controversy becomes the subject of public debate, and thousands of people form confident opinions about individuals they have never met and situations they do not fully understand.

You can strengthen your narrative by continuing to show your expertise, remaining consistent and building work that proves you are more than one moment.

As Raye explained, a viral moment may open the door, but it is consistency, competence and character that determine whether that door remains open.

To connect with Raye, learn more about her work or explore the digital programmes offered through Vsavvy Academy, visit her portfolio here.

Till next time,

Team Thrive

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