Raenest Diaries: 5 lessons on successful freelancing from Tech Baby

For most professionals, freelancing begins with an Upwork profile, a polished portfolio and a search for the first client. For Ronald Eguh, better known online as Tech Baby, it started somewhere much less expected: a dating app.

Six years ago, Ronald received a message from someone who had seen what he did and wanted to know if he could work for them. He said yes. That unexpected conversation became his first freelance client and the beginning of a career that would take him into product marketing, education, content creation and entrepreneurship.

Today, Ronald is a product marketing manager, creator, educator and the founder of the visibility company Cognix AI. Much of his work centres on helping African professionals build skills, find opportunities and compete in the global market. His journey from an unexpected first client to building an AI company offers useful lessons for anyone trying to build a career around their skills.

We sat down with Ronald for inisder tips on succesful freelancing. Watch the video here:

Lesson 1: Your first client can come from anywhere

Ronald's first client didn't come through Upwork, a freelance marketplace, or a carefully planned outreach campaign. It came from a dating app. Someone knew what he could do, saw an opportunity to work together and reached out. That experience shaped one of Ronald's biggest lessons for freelancers: people need to know what you do before they can pay you for it.

It sounds simple, but it changes how you think about finding work. Your next client might not be searching through freelance platforms. They could come across your work on social media, hear about you from someone in your network or discover something you have shared online. For Ronald, building relationships and letting people know about your skills can create opportunities in places you would never think to look.

Platforms like Upwork can certainly connect freelancers with international clients, but they are not the only route to global work. The more visible your skills are, the more opportunities you create for people to find you.

Lesson 2: Visibility can be as valuable as your skill

For Ronald, getting clients involves more than being present where jobs are posted. It starts with paying attention to the problems businesses and people are trying to solve and making it clear that you can help solve them.

This is where creators and freelancers have an advantage. The internet gives you plenty of opportunities to demonstrate what you know before a potential client ever sends you a brief. You can share your work, talk about your expertise, explain how you approach problems and show the results you can create. Over time, this gives potential clients a clearer understanding of what you offer and why they might need you.

Ronald believes freelancers should think beyond traditional freelance platforms and take visibility seriously as part of their careers. His own first client came from someone who already knew what he could do. The more consistently you put your skills in front of people, the more likely you are to be considered when an opportunity comes up.

Lesson 3: Make getting paid part of the plan

When Ronald started freelancing around 2020, receiving his first payment in dollars took far more time and effort than it does today. He remembers travelling to the bank to collect money through Western Union and spending hours there because foreign transactions were not yet as straightforward.

For a freelancer working with international clients, experiences like these can become a significant part of the work itself. You complete the project and earn the money, yet accessing those earnings can still involve extra steps.

Today, Ronald uses Raenest to receive, hold, and transact with his international earnings. The change has made managing money from his global work much simpler in his everyday life.

As more African professionals work with clients and businesses outside their home countries, the infrastructure around receiving those earnings matters. Being able to access and manage international payments easily can make it easier to build a sustainable career around global work. Join Ronald and other professionals using Raenest to get paid today.

Lesson 4: Keep evolving as the market changes

Freelancing is now only one part of Ronald's career. AI has become a major part of how he works, helping him build faster, deliver faster and explore ideas that might previously have required significantly more time and resources.

He has also used AI while building Cognix AI and is helping other African professionals understand how they can use the technology to create new opportunities. His experience reflects a broader reality for freelancers: the market keeps changing, and staying relevant requires a willingness to keep learning.

For Ronald, growth means paying attention to what is happening in the industry, learning new tools and finding ways to apply them to the work he already does. AI is one example of that evolution, but the underlying principle applies more broadly. Freelancers who continue developing their skills can create more ways to deliver value as the market changes around them.

Lesson 5: Package your skills for the global market

Having a valuable skill is only part of building a successful freelance career. Ronald also emphasises the importance of packaging that skill in a way that makes sense to the global clients you want to work with.

Potential clients should understand what you offer, the problem you solve, and the value they can expect from working with you. Your positioning, portfolio and communication should make that clear without requiring someone to figure it out themselves.

Ronald also encourages freelancers to look beyond the traditional places where clients are found. A client can discover you through your social media page, a recommendation, your content or a conversation that starts somewhere completely unexpected. His own career began with exactly that kind of conversation.

For freelancers building international careers, the work will always require effort, but the systems around it should make it easier to sustain. That includes a simple way to receive and manage payments from clients worldwide, which is part of why Raenest has become an important part of Ronald's workflow.

From a dating app message that became his first freelance client to building an AI company, Tech Baby's journey shows how an unexpected opportunity can spark something much bigger. His experience also points to a few things freelancers can actively work on: making their skills visible, building relationships, staying curious about changes in their industry and positioning their services for the global market.

Until we meet again, dear reader.