This interview is a part of a sequence 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 intention to supply insights and learnings for aspiring and established creators whereas additionally providing a glimpse into the lives of these behind the screens.
At this time, 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 targets for her platform.
We speak about navigating the content material creator world as a Black girl to what it seems to be prefer 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 folks that 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 start out 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.
@joyofodu Each journlist with nothing to report #newsreportervoice #funnyvideos #funnyaudios #improv #comedysketch
I needed to construct and design my very own courting 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 assist 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 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 prefer to say that I ship laughter to international audiences, however my enterprise produces inclusive leisure and inventive 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 supply different companies to individuals beneath your organization?
Sure, beneath Pleasure Ofodu, we provide short-form video manufacturing companies. Corporations like Dove and Netflix typically ask us to provide quick, humorous movies to advertise services or products. We even have voiceover companies for animation, video video games, and audiobooks, and I’m presently the only real voice actor.
@joyofodu @dove #DovePartner It’s 2023 and Black girls’s hair continues to be 2.5x extra more likely to be perceived as unprofessional. Dove and LinkedIn are partnering to finish hair discrimination within the office. Head to the hyperlink in my bio to signal the CROWN Act Petition and remind your feed that #BlackHairIsProfessional
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 non-public IP that I’ve not but launched, that I’ve constructed round sure characters and themes and concepts, and I’ve bought IP to shoppers as nicely.
Q: So, on prime of making content material constantly and interesting your 200k+ viewers throughout completely 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 presently engaged on, Relationship Unsettled, has been nearly 100% me, from recording to monitoring analytics as soon as it’s uploaded. However I do have a group that helps me behind the scenes.
My government assistant helps me monitor my schedule, guide occasions and voiceover work, and interface with shoppers. None of my partnerships can be doable at this scale with out her. Then on a few of my longer video initiatives, I work with a advisor Isaac, on launches. I obtained 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 is best to all the time be trying to enhance your technical setup as a creator. The extra you understand about lighting and audio and post-production enhancing, the higher. That is one thing which you could and will all the time put money into bettering, whether or not it’s 100 individuals following you or 200,000.
I am unable to say that there’s one objectively good model of video – it’s all in regards to the instruments it’s essential to obtain the standard you and your viewers have come to count on of you. A vlogger would possibly want completely different instruments than I do. It actually simply is dependent upon your house, time, and monetary means.
While you be part of an organization or program, they will often provide you with a mission assertion and let you know their imaginative and prescient for the following 5 to 10 years. So in terms of investing in a group, ensure you have a transparent imaginative and prescient. Put money into a model strategist that can assist 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 somewhat 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 herald somebody who might deal with them at 100%.
Q: Talking of instruments, what’s in your software stack for content material creation?
I exploit a whole lot of in-app native enhancing, particularly on Instagram, which shocks many individuals.
I like Adobe Inventive Cloud, notably Photoshop and Lightroom, for all my skilled images. Different instruments that I exploit embody CapCut and Pleased Scribe for closed captioning. Nevertheless, YouTube and all these platforms are beginning to bake in closed captioning natively,
Google Drive can be fairly nice, and my web site is constructed on WordPress. Then I’d add Canva and iMovie to my listing, and for locating contractors and freelancers, Upwork.
Q: How do you generate income as a creator, and what is the largest contributor income when it comes to all the pieces you supply in what you are promoting now?
I generate income because the creator by means of the ways in which I discussed: voiceovers, video manufacturing, and IP writing. I additionally do talking engagements the place somebody desires 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 character. Then the ultimate can be creator or grant applications, so really elevating non-equity-based funding for my enterprise.
Probably the most important income driver in the intervening time that I can talk about is sponsored content material or model partnerships. These are those which you could publicly see on my Instagram or my TikTok. I even have a few sponsored partnerships that I activated this yr on LinkedIn for the primary time. I can drive, for instance, $7,000 for a sponsored submit earlier than utilization rights.
Q: How do you resolve who to work with in terms of sponsored content material? Is there ever any battle with creativity for you?
I like working with corporations 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 prefer to see these items in follow earlier than they attain out to me is essential – simply working with me does not imply that you just assist black or women-owned companies.
Having a shared ethos, and dealing with manufacturers which can be respected is essential 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 all the time be individuals who need 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 consumer or accomplice going to shine on my account? Do I’ve sufficient vitality and even actual property on my account to dedicate to this marketing campaign? Typically, 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 need to protect my means to work in youngsters’s animation, so I keep on with family-friendly, PG-13 campaigns. And politically, I’ve to bounce very fastidiously. I am not afraid to indicate public assist 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 terms of 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 like you’ve all the time had a transparent thought of your imaginative and prescient in your model on social media. What recommendation would you give somebody trying to construct their id earlier than they begin hitting large numbers?
Audit your self. I all the time suggest 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.
When you’re trying to develop, go the place your splendid viewers is. Don’t choose a platform as a result of it’s the most popular factor proper now – suppose viewers first. Think about your viewers’s media eating regimen, what they’re taken with, then contemplate your individual model id, just like the visible model your viewers will come to affiliate with you.
Additionally, create content material pillars inside your area of interest. And keep on 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 probably the most difficult half about rising as a black feminine creator up to now?
I feel it is simply navigating the identical societal constraints I expertise offline. It is the identical misogynoir, the identical strain or expectation to suit right into a sure stereotypical leisure trope or mould as a black entertainer, proper? You are both sexualized, otherwise you’re a clown, otherwise you’re aggressive, otherwise you’re tremendous radical and if you happen to don’t match into one in all these stereotypes, development could be gradual 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.
When you look throughout the board on the highest-earning creators, we don’t see ourselves represented. And it is not about our expertise or our technique or perhaps a lack of assist. Regardless of how a lot we assist 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 courting life after a breakup in 2020. Her content material has since advanced, and he or she now runs a profitable creator enterprise beneath her firm identify, Pleasure Ofodu.
- Diversifying revenue streams: Pleasure generates revenue by means of numerous 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 presently her most vital income driver, with some sponsored posts incomes her $7,000 earlier than utilization rights.
- Prioritizing model alignment: Pleasure is very selective in terms of 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 all the time 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 group. For her, the choice to rent assist got here when she realized she might 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 very conscious of the present ceiling to her success on social media platforms and is targeted on breaking by means of these limitations. She emphasizes the significance of supporting each other as creators and pushing for systemic change within the business to create equal alternatives for all.
