#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 Grace, popularly known as Velvety foodies online.

Let’s get to know her, shall we?

Can we meet Grace?

My name is Adepoju Grace and I’m the content creator, content manager, and community manager for Velvety foods. I started taking my brand seriously in 2020 because of COVID. At first, I wanted to sell food. But I figured out that I might not have all the things that are required for me to sell food, so I just decided to create content by teaching people how to cook. 

What was your career journey before becoming a food creator/influencer?

When I completed NYSC, I knew that anything I would do would be food-related but at that time, I wasn’t ready. So I started working a 9-5 as a skincare therapist while running Velvety foods as a side hustle. 

How did your love for food and cooking begin?

Growing up, we never bought food outside. My grandma never bought food outside because she believed it to be more expensive and unhygienic. Every meal we ate, we cooked by ourselves. And most of the time I did the cooking. 

From there, I developed a flair for cooking and since I liked food, it was just natural to love how to cook it. I decided then that I will turn it into a career.

Tell us about your best cooking memories.

I won’t say I have one best cooking memory, but there was a time when I was serving and the people in my room knew that I loved to cook. They hadn’t tasted my food but I was able to communicate my passion to them so strongly that they even started going outside and telling people that Grace can cook.

Then people believed them and were like, “if Grace can cook let her cook Jollof rice. So they gave me all the ingredients and left everything for me to cook. Prior to that, I had never made jollof rice before. When I eventually did, it didn’t turn out as nice as it was supposed to, as someone that was just hyped. 

Till today, I don’t know what happened (laughs) but they still had faith in me because they gave me another opportunity to cook ogbono soup. This time, I outdid myself and they kept asking “who cooked this food?”

So with that soup, I was able to redeem myself. That time was memorable for me. 

Do you always try to replicate new dishes when you see them? 

Of course. If I go out to eat in a place and I like the food, I first check the ingredients, for restaurants that show you the ingredients then I try to recreate the food. Also based on my experience, I can tell some of the ingredients used in cooking the food. If it’s something that I like and I feel it’s something people should like, I would definitely do it. 

What’s a food hack we all should try out?

If you want your cooking to be faster and neater, prepare your ingredients ahead. You can refrigerate them or find other ways to preserve them. But once your ingredient is prepped, all you have to do is mix and cook. I believe that cooking is not time-wasting. It is a very simple and straightforward process if your ingredients are prepped beforehand. That’s one of my biggest takeaways or lessons from cooking.

How do you leverage the internet to sell your skills? 

I create content online about food and various recipes. I have also hosted cooking classes in the past but I don’t want to have one now because I’m still trying to put structures in place. I also influence for brands by either using their products to cook or presiding as a judge on cooking shows. I also have other classes where I teach how to grow on Instagram. If you don’t understand the dynamics of growing on Instagram, you’re going to be frustrated and burnt out. This year I’ve had a series of classes where I teach people how they can leverage the platform to thrive. 

What have been your challenges being a food creator?

Sometimes your best work might not be the one that gets noticed by millions of people as you’d wish. You could put a lot of work, effort, and time into the recipe and it doesn’t do well on Instagram as you’d have hoped, probably because of the way you presented it or, or the way people perceived it. 

The one that eventually gets noticed by lots of people might just be something you’re playing around with or just decided to test. 

Another one is that right now, I’m just doing pots and pans. I’m not showing my face. And some people may want to see the face behind the brand. That’s also a bit challenging.

To manage this, when I put out content, I don’t have so many expectations because when you have expectations and you don’t get them, you can feel disappointed. And if disappointments pile up, you can get discouraged and quit. 

So when I put out content, I have the mindset that I’m just showing a part of myself and a part of how I view food to the world. So I leave it open to everybody’s perception and ideas about the food, and I don’t expect much from that. 

How do you manage the requirements of being a food content creator? 

First of all, I feel like if I was not a food content creator, like maybe I was in another niche and I’d given up a long time ago. But cooking is something I am passionate about and I really love to do. 

It’s not easy, I can agree with that. But even on days when I don’t feel motivated, I still want to cook something. So I’ll just take the camera and record what I’m doing. It can even be a very simple recipe.  

Also, one of the things that have helped me is that I batch create at times. For instance, in a day, I can create two to three recipes that I would conveniently edit over the next couple of days, and move on to other things. 

But sometimes even after batch creation, when I check the video, I see that there are some things I don’t like about it. Even though the recipe is good, I feel like it does not resonate with who I am.  It does not align with the kind of way I’m trying to make people perceive me.

Because of that, I’d still not post it. Even though I have spent time, money, and energy in doing so. It’s not been a rocky ride but I love cooking and recently I have also started to enjoy filming too. So that’s okay. 

Aside from being a food content creator, what else do you do?

I’m a full-time housewife and I sell kitchen items. I also sell condiments that you can use in cooking. For instance, I sell bleached palm oil, pepper soup spice, and lots more at velvety condiments. And I also sell kitchen items, like little things that make your kitchen experience easier. That’s what I do.

What’s your advice to people who are inspired by you?

I’d say be consistent. But consistency is easier when you’re doing something that you like. So just find your passion, stick to it, and be consistent. Put yourself in people’s faces until they can no longer ignore you – like literally choke them (laughs).

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What can you do better than anyone? Create a digital product from it and sell it on Selar. It’s as easy as it sounds.