#CreatorStories showcases the honest personal experiences of digital creators who monetize their knowledge of a skill and sell it on Selar.

We share these stories every week to inspire you to create and sell a product out of your wealth of knowledge and be a part of the digital creator economy.

This week, we turn the lights on Eniola, popularly known as thiseniola online.

Let’s get to know him, shall we?

Can we meet Eniola?

My name is Eniola, you will find me online with my brand name “thiseniola”. I am a creative and I’m very passionate about anything that concerns creativity. 

I started out in graphics design between 2014 and 2015. Since then I have pivoted into UI design, content creation, and now into video creation and cinematography. I always want to learn new things, that’s why you see me doing so many things. 

I am a husband to one wife (laughs). I love music and video games. I have a very toxic relationship with going out and staying indoors. I could stay indoors all by myself but if I go out I really love it. That’s me in a nutshell. 

What was your career journey before getting into visual storytelling and personal branding?

I studied Economics and was doing Accounting as a professional course (ICAN). However, since I left school, I haven’t worked as an accountant. Not because I don’t want to, but because I had applied for jobs but didn’t get any. Before I went for service, I already started graphic design. 

During my service year in Bayelsa, I worked two graphics design jobs. But I couldn’t stay in Bayelsa. I came back to Lagos and went back to job hunting. But it didn’t work. So I decided to go back to design. I made up my mind to be serious with it and see where it takes me. That’s how it started. I have never worked a 9-5. 

How did you get into video editing, production, and graphics design?

I was self-taught. I was the social director in school. Then, we had events and I had to randomly create designs for the event. I played with PixArt on my phone, trying to use it to create some designs, and from there it piqued my interest. 

Next, I became the PRO of my fellowship during my final year in school and I also had to create designs for fellowship events. The difference in this position was that we had an external graphics designer we paid to do designs for us. But I couldn’t afford it. So I decided to learn graphics design and create lots of designs. 

During the holiday, I visited my aunt whose husband was a graphic designer, and saw some photoshop files on his laptop. I copied them to my drive with the aim to watch more tutorials later. 

I got back to school and used that time to learn graphics design. That was how I started.

Then for UI/UX Design, I won a scholarship with an academy where I learned UI/UX combined with the teachings I got from YouTube. I just learned and practiced.

For video creation, I just woke up one day and wanted to learn video editing and shooting, so I started learning how to shoot a video. 

I went to YouTube to learn more about video production and then I got a gig to record the CEO of a bakery. I used my iPhone, rented lighting, and shot the video. I also edited the video based on what I had learned so far and it came out nice. 

As I continued, I pivoted to using the camera because I wasn’t satisfied with the production level of my iPhone. That was how I started using the Canon camera to shoot my videos. 

Overall, YouTube helped me a lot. And you can also say time and chance played a part. 

What’s an Instagram hack that many creators trying to build their personal brand should take advantage of?

I was absent online for a long time after my wedding. When I came back, I was looking for hacks to help me do better on Instagram. At the end of the day, I didn’t see any “hacks” and I just decided to create content. So I created content in collaboration with Kagantech and the content itself told its tale. 

The point of this is that if you are looking for hacks, you are still behind. Remember when it was hashtag season on Instagram and you had to use hashtags to grow your account? Now, it’s no longer a criterion. 

We also have reels but it’s no longer a criterion for growth too. Everything now comes down to your content. The people really doing well on social media are those with content. Everybody needs to go back to storytelling. You need to find a way to make your content relatable to people. 

We’ve moved from hashtags to IGTV to reels and now to quality content. 

Everyone should go back to the drawing board and put effort into creating a relatable story. As long as your content is relatable, people will engage with it and share it with other people. 

Also, it depends on your goal. If you want to grow followers you can go and find hacks. But if you want to build a core community, you need to share quality content. 

Does personality affect content creation? 

It is not so straightforward. Your personality at times detects the kind of person you’ll be on camera when you are shooting your videos. 

For example, I’ve shot for Salem King, and I shoot and edit for Akproko Doctor. I see these people off-camera and know what their personalities are like. However, on camera, their unique personalities set them apart. 

Someone may be shooting a video like Salem King and you think the person is copying Salem because Salem has consistently shown you that kind of personality in his videos. But that may not be the case.

If you’re not in these creators’ close circle, you can’t know their true personalities. 

Also, this question is tied to their authenticity. But here’s the deal. 

You need to shoot a video and you have a character in your head that’ll best explain the video. For you to successfully pass your message across, you have to switch characters. But off camera, you’re not the same person. 

Is that character in me? Yes. But when I am off camera, it is not. Am I faking it? No, I’m not. I’m just bringing them out to do what is required of me. It’s the same way you’ll go to church and you’re a different person. Or you go to your family gathering and you’re the vibe of the house. That’s just how it is. 

How can visual storytellers maintain their prices during client negotiation?

As a creative, I know that it is very hard to negotiate prices. You don’t even want to have anything to do with sales. It’s like you are being thrown into a space that is very uncomfortable for you. 

That was how I took lots of bad jobs that I wasn’t happy with because I didn’t want to negotiate prices. 

It got to a point when my brother had to buy me the book “How to Sell to Nigerians” by Akin Alabi because the pressure was getting wesser (laughs).

Over time, it got better. Every time I almost ran away from pricing, I reminded myself that I wasn’t just collecting money but helping this person. 

Also, when you’re pricing, it’s easy to be caught in the time game. That is, you think what you are doing will only take a few minutes. But in an actual sense, it’s your creativity you’re putting in and that’s what they are paying for. 

So we need to have a mindset for sales. Look at sales like you are providing valuable service and not just collecting money. 

When I started charging for logo services, I searched online and saw that foreigners charge about $500 to $700 for that and I was charging ₦5k, ₦2k, ₦4k,(laughs). 

I immediately changed my price and started with ₦20k. From there I went to ₦50k and when I did, lots of people weren’t having it. So to strengthen my decision, I decided to not work with Nigerian clients anymore. I worked with foreign clients, people who I could charge $1000 for logo and branding. I targeted the foreign market and got gigs from there. 

How can creators position themselves on Instagram to attract clients?

Positioning is in two ways. It’s either you want to get clients as a business person or you’re building a personal brand to attract clients. 

The first thing to know is the people you’re reaching out to. For example, if you sell thrift clothes in Lagos and you want Lagos people to patronize you, you need to figure out their challenges like getting decent clothes, the stress of getting the clothes, and all.

So when you create content, you need to not just sell clothes but add extra benefits that cater to their challenges.  

What can they learn from you? More than seeing clothes on your page to buy? You can tell them how to take care of thrift clothing, how to iron certain clothes, etc. You could create content like that. 

Recently, I was even researching how to get something deleted from my MacBook. Then I saw a software developer blog, that gave me all the options that I could use, including the option of his software inside those options. That’s something that you can explore too. 

When you do that, you are giving people more reason to visit your page, to visit your brand. You tell them that you know what they need so it’s not just about the clothes anymore. You are building a following of people that are interested in clothing and how to keep them for a long time. 

You can even be dropping style inspiration on how to pair various types of clothes. With this content strategy, you’re not just selling clothes, you are also creating helpful content. 

If you are building a personal brand, you need to show your work. This means, show what you do and let people see it. That’s the easiest route to attract clients. 

Another way is to create more educational content. And when I say educational content, don’t just copy and paste, you know, find a way to make the educational content more relatable. Add some storytelling. Show that you know the person you’re trying to talk to. 

Just give educational content. Show the knowledge. Teach. You’ll find out that people will come to your DM and ask questions about how to do stuff. 

So it’s just you doubling down on content and showing them how you can help them. 

How do you keep up with creating content for your personal brand and working with clients?

The answer is there is no balance. Something will definitely suffer. But I try to reduce it by batch creation. Before my wedding, I batch-created lots of content so I could just post even when I’m doing my other jobs. 

That’s the only way that I see that you can manage it. Especially if you have different things you do, you need to batch create. Get ideas and put them in notes. During the week I flesh out the content direction and shoot on Saturday. So I’m not developing anything. 

That’s how to manage all your stuff together and be consistent at it. 

How did you get into the creator economy?

I’m still learning, all those ones were just a bunch of tests. Trying to test which one is more appropriate for my kind of person and I’ve really got to know something. 

I’ve learned a lot about monetizing your knowledge from Chris Doe and Eva Alordiah, Creatorialz. Triciabiz also talks about it and all this knowledge combined together, I just wanted to get into the creator economy.  

Another motivation was sapa because I also wanted to build a passive income stream. 

That’s when I started experimenting. I wanted to see how people react to the offers I put out, the pricing, etc, and now my test is over. I’ve gotten the one I want and you all should look out for it. 

What’s the average amount you make from digital products?

I have products I sell at various prices. My consultation starts at ₦25k for my Nigerian audience and $100 for a foreign audience. I have other entry-level products that range from $20 to $50, and a coaching program that’s ₦50k. That’s why I said I’m still testing. 

What advice would you give to creators inspired by you?

Keep trying to do what you can do at the moment and use what you have at the moment.

We can look at our favorite creators and wish to create content like theirs without knowing that they are also trying to figure things out too. 

So, continue at your pace and trust the process. I didn’t just start creating content of this quality. I have people I look up to, who I want to create videos like too. It’s all part of the process. 

So keep creating and following the process. 

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Explore other forms of creativity, there’s no limit to what you can do. You just have to be willing to try.

Afterward, turn your knowledge into income by creating and selling digital products. It’s as easy as it sounds.