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This interview is a part of a collection referred to as Creators Unlocked that delves into the world of content material creators to uncover the tales behind their social media posts.
From Twitter to TikTok, the articles goal to supply insights and learnings for aspiring and established creators whereas additionally providing a glimpse into the lives of these behind the screens.
Immediately, we’re unlocking Pleasure Ofodu’s creator journey discussing all the pieces from channeling all the emotions from her breakup in 2020 into comedy content material to her objectives for her platform.
We discuss navigating the content material creator world as a Black girl to what it seems to be wish to have a transparent imaginative and prescient in your content material from the beginning. Pleasure additionally takes us behind the scenes of what it takes to run a profitable creator enterprise, from the instruments to the people who make all of it occur. Let’s get into it.
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This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
Q: What impressed you to begin creating content material on social media?
I had been a blogger, a photographer, and a member of on-line communities for years prior, however what made me a short-form video producer was a breakup in 2020 on the peak of the pandemic.
I needed to construct and design my very own relationship life and my new love story, so to doc and keep in mind the expertise, I began creating and sharing short-form movies.
Q: Do you contemplate your self a full-time creator?
Sure, I am a full-time creator, in addition to the CEO of my enterprise, which I exploit to help my creativity. It feels actually energizing to lastly be in a spot the place I am creating, appearing, and producing content material full-time.
Q: I really like that you just see your self as a CEO and creator. What kind of content material do you create, and who do you create it for?
Pleasure Ofodu is my firm identify, and we’re an influential media firm I wish to say that I ship laughter to world audiences, however my enterprise produces inclusive leisure and artistic companies.
I’ve labeled us as a media firm based mostly on how we have an effect on others. Once we converse, seem, shine, or present up, persons are impressed to behave and make a change, proper, which is the definition of affect – influencing motion upon others.
Q: Do you additionally provide different companies to individuals underneath your organization?
Sure, underneath Pleasure Ofodu, we provide short-form video manufacturing companies. Firms like Dove and Netflix usually ask us to supply quick, humorous movies to advertise services or products. We even have voiceover companies for animation, video video games, and audiobooks, and I’m at the moment the only voice actor.
We provide imaginative IP (mental property) writing, which I do not actually promote. However the characters and storylines that you just see in my very own comedy, a few of them have been prolonged to be their very own world. So I even have personal IP that I’ve not but launched, that I’ve constructed round sure characters and themes and concepts, and I’ve bought IP to purchasers as nicely.
Q: So, on high of making content material persistently and fascinating your 200k+ viewers throughout totally different platforms, you’re actively operating a enterprise. How do you handle all that?
I’m nonetheless very closely concerned in my content material creation, so the present that I’m at the moment engaged on, Relationship Unsettled, has been virtually 100% me, from recording to monitoring analytics as soon as it’s uploaded. However I do have a staff that helps me behind the scenes.
My govt assistant helps me monitor my schedule, e-book occasions and voiceover work, and interface with purchasers. None of my partnerships can be attainable at this scale with out her. Then on a few of my longer video initiatives, I work with a marketing consultant Isaac, on launches. I bought mentions within the New York Instances and Refinery29 that wouldn’t have occurred with out him.
Q: What recommendation would you give creators who’re moving into the identical season of increasing their content material creation? What ought to they be investing in?
It’s best to at all times be seeking to enhance your technical setup as a creator. The extra about lighting and audio and post-production enhancing, the higher. That is one thing which you can and may at all times spend money on enhancing, whether or not it’s 100 individuals following you or 200,000.
I am unable to say that there’s one objectively good fashion of video – it’s all concerning the instruments it’s essential to obtain the standard you and your viewers have come to anticipate of you. A vlogger would possibly want totally different instruments than I do. It actually simply is dependent upon your house, time, and monetary means.
While you be a part of an organization or program, they’ll normally offer you a mission assertion and inform you their imaginative and prescient for the following 5 to 10 years. So in relation to investing in a staff, be sure to have a transparent imaginative and prescient. Put money into a model strategist that will help you articulate your imaginative and prescient if you must, however don’t make the error of bringing somebody in so early that you just don’t have one but. I felt extra snug having a transparent imaginative and prescient as a creator and having just a little traction and viewers on social media.
However extra importantly than something, it was simply that I had duties that had been past my bodily functionality. That is actually it. I had duties that, if I continued shouldering all of them, I’d burn out. The second I felt like I used to be dropping the ball, I knew I wanted to usher in somebody who may deal with them at 100%.
Q: Talking of instruments, what’s in your software stack for content material creation?
I exploit a variety of in-app native enhancing, particularly on Instagram, which shocks many individuals.
I really like Adobe Inventive Cloud, notably Photoshop and Lightroom, for all my skilled images. Different instruments that I exploit embody CapCut and Joyful Scribe for closed captioning. Nevertheless, YouTube and all these platforms are beginning to bake in closed captioning natively,
Google Drive can also be fairly nice, and my web site is constructed on WordPress. Then I’d add Canva and iMovie to my record, and for locating contractors and freelancers, Upwork.
Q: How do you generate profits as a creator, and what is the largest contributor income when it comes to all the pieces you provide in your corporation now?
I generate profits because the creator by the ways in which I discussed: voiceovers, video manufacturing, and IP writing. I additionally do talking engagements the place somebody needs me to be the host or a panelist at a webinar or bodily at an occasion. These are different methods I receives a commission as a persona. Then the ultimate can be creator or grant packages, so really elevating non-equity-based funding for my enterprise.
Probably the most vital income driver for the time being that I can talk about is sponsored content material or model partnerships. These are those which you can publicly see on my Instagram or my TikTok. I even have a few sponsored partnerships that I activated this 12 months on LinkedIn for the primary time. I can drive, for instance, $7,000 for a sponsored publish earlier than utilization rights.
Q: How do you resolve who to work with in relation to sponsored content material? Is there ever any battle with creativity for you?
I like working with firms and organizations and individuals who consider in what I consider in. So we each maintain our audiences in the identical regard and we consider in empowering underrepresented individuals. I wish to see these items in apply earlier than they attain out to me is vital – simply working with me doesn’t suggest that you just help black or women-owned companies.
Having a shared ethos, and dealing with manufacturers which are respected is vital to me, so I’ll positively work with a model if it meets all of that standards. When you attain a sure level as a creator, there’ll at all times be individuals who wish to work with you, however you’ll be able to’t settle for all the pieces – in any other case, your model turns into too dilated.
For me, I exploit a rubric of: does it really feel proper? Is that this shopper or associate going to shine on my account? Do I’ve sufficient power and even actual property on my account to dedicate to this marketing campaign? Generally, I’ve to inform a model that I don’t have the capability in a single month to work with them, or the initiatives that I’m doing on the time don’t align with what their marketing campaign is about.
I additionally don’t work with manufacturers in sure classes. I wish to protect my potential to work in youngsters’s animation, so I stick with family-friendly, PG-13 campaigns. And politically, I’ve to bounce very fastidiously. I am not afraid to indicate public help for laws or candidates that I would consider in. Nevertheless, I acknowledge the affect that I’ve and the way a lot analysis and due diligence I must do in relation to voting and folks’s livelihood. I don’t do something that’s asking my viewers to spend or make investments their cash.
Q: It looks as if you’ve at all times had a transparent thought of your imaginative and prescient in your model on social media. What recommendation would you give somebody seeking to construct their identification earlier than they begin hitting massive numbers?
Audit your self. I at all times advocate individuals start with an audit and be very considerate about the place they already seem on-line. Then contemplate the place you need to seem.
If you happen to’re seeking to develop, go the place your excellent viewers is. Don’t choose a platform as a result of it’s the most popular factor proper now – assume viewers first. Contemplate your viewers’s media eating regimen, what they’re inquisitive about, then contemplate your individual model identification, just like the visible fashion your viewers will come to affiliate with you.
Additionally, create content material pillars inside your area of interest. And stick with them. This helps your viewers know what to anticipate after they see your content material.
Q: You had been a part of this nice interview about Black Historical past Month campaigns in 2023. what has been essentially the most difficult half about rising as a black feminine creator to date?
I feel it is simply navigating the identical societal constraints I expertise offline. It is the identical misogynoir, the identical stress or expectation to suit right into a sure stereotypical leisure trope or mildew as a black entertainer, proper? You are both sexualized, otherwise you’re a clown, otherwise you’re aggressive, otherwise you’re tremendous radical and in the event you don’t match into considered one of these stereotypes, development will be sluggish and irritating.
As I mentioned in that interview, pay fairness and algorithmic visibility will proceed to be two of the most important challenges as a Black creator. I’m hyper-aware that regardless of how expertly I produce on social media platforms, there’s nonetheless a ceiling to my success.
If you happen to look throughout the board on the highest-earning creators, we don’t see ourselves represented. And it isn’t about our expertise or our technique or perhaps a lack of help. Irrespective of how a lot we help one another, the system is not designed for us to finally succeed on the highest ranges.
Takeaways
TL;DR? This is all the pieces lesson we will be taught from Pleasure’s journey to success as a creator:
- Turning private experiences into content material: Pleasure began creating short-form movies to doc and share her journey of constructing and designing her relationship life after a breakup in 2020. Her content material has since advanced, and she or he now runs a profitable creator enterprise underneath her firm identify, Pleasure Ofodu.
- Diversifying revenue streams: Pleasure generates revenue by varied avenues, together with voiceovers, video manufacturing, IP writing, talking engagements, and sponsored content material or model partnerships. She talked about that sponsored content material is at the moment her most important income driver, with some sponsored posts incomes her $7,000 earlier than utilization rights.
- Prioritizing model alignment: Pleasure is extremely selective in relation to selecting the businesses she works with for sponsored content material. She ensures that these manufacturers share her values, empowering underrepresented individuals, and are respected. Pleasure additionally avoids sure classes, reminiscent of politically charged campaigns or people who do not align together with her family-friendly model.
- Investing in development: Pleasure believes that creators ought to at all times look to enhance their technical setup, together with lighting, audio, and post-production enhancing. She additionally emphasizes the significance of getting a transparent imaginative and prescient earlier than increasing and investing in a staff. For her, the choice to rent assist got here when she realized she may not handle all duties by herself with out burning out.
- Navigating challenges as a Black feminine creator: Pleasure faces challenges reminiscent of pay fairness, algorithmic visibility, and societal constraints that restrict her development and success. She is extremely conscious of the prevailing ceiling to her success on social media platforms and is targeted on breaking by these limitations. She emphasizes the significance of supporting each other as creators and pushing for systemic change within the trade to create equal alternatives for all.
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