Do you ever read what you write? How do you like it?

 

I created my first YouTube video in 2019. I did not plan to become a content creator or, in fact, famous.

What I share in this story will be useful if you are struggling to find your audience. Besides, writing is at the base of every content creation activity.

This story refers to real-life events.

It is the truth. The WHOLE truth, and nothing but the truth.

I did it because of my friends.

They claimed they wanted to learn project management from me.

One of them had accused me of hoarding my learnings.

But you see, in those days, I worked all the time.

I had very little time to socialise. How would I make out time to teach anyone anything?

I figured that if I made a video or wrote a document, they would refer to it whenever they wanted to learn.

I made the videos.

I uploaded them online and sent out the links.

Food is ready, children. Come, Eat!

Nothing.

No one.

Silence.

I reached out to them and asked them why they weren’t watching the videos. At this time, i wnated some feedback on my work.

I also watch people on YouTube. I read through the comments. It is one of my favourite things to do.

I ask questions.

I banter.

I fight like a pig.

But back to my channel. It was dead.

My videos were asleep. Dead in their creative graves.

Every time I visited, the experience was the same.

I asked my friends why they were not watching the video.

They mostly lied. The video was fantastic. I watched it!

But the numbers say otherwise.

I was frustrated.

So I thought to myself, if my friends will not watch my videos, then there must be someone out there who would.

Besides, I learnt somewhere. Not sure where exactly. But it goes something like this.

If you are crazy enough to create that content, there’s someone who’s crazy enough to watch it.

I fell into the world of make-better-content gurus and followed as many of their recommendations as I could afford.

Nothing changed.

I now hada point to prove.

I had to prove to myself that I was not just another piece of trashy content creator.

This was my life’s work. My experience.

It was everything to me.

I did more and more until I burnt out.

And I quit.

Well, for a few months. This was a distraction. It was not worth my while.

“But you are not a quiter.” Someone said to me.

I like to see myself in those lights. So, I dusted my tripod and got creating again.

I did everything.

Promoted a dead channel.

Bought subscribers because a platform promised to get me genuine subscribers.

It worked.

I got nearly two thousand Russians and Filipinos.

It would seem that they did not know it existed, though my subscriber-coult said otherwise.

Did my views improve?

No!

I bought a camera.

Learned editing.

Scripting too. The hook has to hook.

But it never did.

I quit again and a few more times.

So why am I still creating content? Now on more platforms than the one that pulled me into this rabbit hole?

I learned something that I will be sharing with you. So walk with me for a few more moments.

I won’t keep you waiting.

Let’s just get to it.

Understand that this took nearly seven years of my life to get here.

Forgive me if it’s taking a bit to get there.

When it happened, I was at the lowest point of my content creation life.

I had blamed the racist platforms for kneeling on the neck of a brilliant creative like myself.

I blamed my friends who refused to watch my content.

I blamed all the skills I had not yet learned for keeping my content uninspiring.

I compared and compared.

There were creators who were more educated than and more talented than I was.

My presentation stills were top-notch. Besides, I do this in real life.

With the guiding hands of a true master, I learned that it was not the content I should look at.

It was the people.

Who was my content for?

If I were making content for people like me.

Those who work in the development space work long hours every day.

People who have little social lives and will not spend a minute watching YouTube videos because they are a waste of time.

Then I could be sure they wouldn’t be watching my content.

I wasn’t even watching my own content.

I hated how my videos sound.

My own voice irritated me.

Did you ever experience that?

I did not sound exciting when I listened to myself.

I knew at once.

Lightning struck three times in a row, and I had an epiphany.

I was targeting the wrong people and wondering why they refused to watch.

How do I fix this precarious situation?

I had to look back at every kind of content I was capable of creating.

Then I had to give them more of what they wanted.

The analogy was that if you spread the nets wide enough. The fish will bite.

It happened, and I found what I had been looking for.

People who would find value in my content.

I found a signal in two different areas that didn’t go together.

The first was in CV writing nd the other was in African masks.

There were already loads of platforms competing for the CV-writing sub-niche.

I could go in and compete, or I could dive into the world of Traditional African masks.

This meant slow growth and views from a few people who searched for creators who provide detailed information on masks.

I became some sort of authority in the field.

I even wrote a book.

 

 

 

No one knows better.

No one else can claim to be an authority on the Traditional African Mask.

Two more videos and we would have posted a thousand times on YouTube.

Full disclosure, most of those videos are shorts, but videos nonetheless.

Am I famous?

No, I am not.

Am I giving this thing too much attention?

Not necessarily.

What has changed?

I no longer get zero views. I get hundreds, and many times, thousands of organic views.

The engagement has been massive, with some videos receiving high-quality engagement that has led to activity beyond the platform.

I get consults every month.

Last month, it was someone not sure if he should keep the mask he received as a gift

Then there was a woman whose husband had been late recently. Now she’s downsizing and wants some recommendations about how to dispose of her mask collections.

On the side, I feel that collectors should worry about and cater to their African masks in their wills or maybe just give them back.

Sometimes it’s a student in need of relevant information for their thesis.

I happily obliged.

Value at last.

I was helping people.

For me, that was enough.

I love what I make content about.

I travel to see masquerades.

I speak to them.

I learn things that are not whispered in public spaces, and now I can share them with the world.

That was why I wrote my book, Within Carved Lines | The Secret Meanings of African Masks.

I can dare say that there’s no other book online that tells you what you really should know about African Masks.