#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 Muegbeyogho N. Courage, a digital creator and photographer.

Let’s get to know him, shall we?

Tell us about yourself

My name is Muegbeyogho N. Courage. I am a lead photographer at Ncourage Studios, a beauty and portrait wedding photographer and I run a photography academy in Benin. I also organize online training for photographers and retouchers. That’s me in a nutshell. 

How did your journey to photography begin?

I started photography in 500 level at the University of Benin, while studying Electrical Engineering. I was in a church meeting where I saw a photographer taking pictures and I just really loved how he did it. 

After the meeting, I met him and asked him how I could become a photographer. That was how my love for photography started. I had some money, so I purchased some equipment and started looking for ways to learn and improve. 

I watched YouTube videos every day and attended lots of online classes. I even attended in-person training in Lagos and Warri. I traveled to these places just so I could learn and become a better photographer. 

I graduated from school and continued photography, and that’s what I have been doing till now. No other thing, just photography and photography education. 

Why did you choose to make photography a full-time career? Others would have started it as a side hustle.

Back then in school, there was no photo studio inside the school. We only had people with photo stands that can snap you in different environments. So I saw an opportunity to start a photo studio. 

Also, all the training I did was on professional photography. The courses I took and workshops I went for were about studio photography. But the photographers we had on campus weren’t professionals. They were also not creative. I wanted something different and I went for it. 

I got the opportunity to set up a studio in school and people started coming to it. The business continued to grow until I saw that it required lots of attention and I needed to focus on it. 

I had other skills but because photography was bringing me money and recognition, I just kept investing my time and resources to become better. 

Gradually, I set up another studio outside school and the business continued booming like that. The growth of the business and the customers coming in are part of the things that inspired me to stay there and continue to grow the business.

Typically photographers focus on taking photos, how did you discover you could sell digital products even as a photographer?

It started with my love for teaching in secondary school. Anything I know, I always wanted to share. Luckily, I have parents who are educationists as well. My dad is a lecturer, my mom is a teacher, and my first degree was in Education. I studied Mathematics and Physics Education. So I have always loved teaching people. 

A month after I opened my first studio, I started admitting people to train them in photography. That was when I started teaching photography but I didn’t do online training until during the lockdown. 

Naijabrandchick was one of the creators that inspired me to take my teaching online to become a digital course or product people can buy anywhere. I took some of her courses, then started looking for opportunities to teach online. 

I started by doing Free Instagram live sessions. From there, I learned how to create an ebook. And from there to presets, then I started recording some videos and courses and started doing online classes. 

What’s been your biggest challenge as a creator and photographer?

The biggest challenge for me is that as a teacher, I feel a lot of the students do not commit a lot of time to learn online. In 2020, people had more time to learn because everyone was at home. But now there is not as much demand as there was in 2020. 

Also, there are so many things taking the attention of people and diverting it from online classes they need to take to be better. I’ve also seen a decline in the number of participants I get on my online courses. To fix this, I employ other creative methods to market and publicize my courses. 

What’s the average amount you’ve made from your digital products?

I have made up to 8 figures since 2020 till now from the Creator economy.

Tell us about your journey of photographing celebrities.

I’ll share my experience with Linda Osifo. Linda is partially from Benin. I saw a post one day that she was in Benin for an event. So I reached out to my makeup artist who then sent Linda a message and asked if we could do a collaboration. Luckily for me, at the time, my page was looking good. My followers had increased and my work was being more appreciated. She saw our page and was okay with doing a collaboration with us. 

We met her, took some shots, and posted it. She also posted it and I got more visibility through that. So it was a collaboration between myself, Linda, and the makeup artist, and it was done in Benin, not Lagos. We just tried our luck because that’s the same way we’ve written to several celebrities and not all of them responded.

Can you share a particularly challenging shoot you had and how you were able to manage it?

Every photoshoot is an experience for me and I go there with an open mind, ready to learn and improve. One of the situations that I had that was really bad was when my assistant forgot to bring a memory card.

So I had to beg the client to reschedule because we came from a very far location and there was no way to get another memory card at that point. 

Also, the shoot wasn’t an intense shoot like a birthday shoot. The client just wanted something for a portfolio, so it was okay to reschedule for a later date. This incident happened in 2018, and since then, nothing like that has happened. 

I make sure to double-check all my equipment before leaving for the shoot. Also, I have more friends now. So even if I’m in a difficult situation, I can easily call a photographer around to come to my aid. 

Another challenge with shooting is that clients can delay. So it’s difficult to work with people who do not keep to their words or time. I’ve tried to resolve this situation so it doesn’t lead to a quarrel but sometimes it’s almost inevitable because some clients want to delay but don’t want to pay for extra time (laughs). 

So I just try to inform them severally before the appointment to get ready before the shoot time so we can all finish on time. 

How do you think African photographers can take advantage of the creator economy?

From the way the world is right now, it already shows that the creator space is the next big thing. 

Between 2020 and now, there are many celebrities and influencers that have been made because of content creation. Secondly, I also believe that the creator/education space is the biggest industry.

I have tried to inspire a lot of people and to let them know how the creator economy work. For example, if you sell a digital product, you can sell it to 1000 people and make so much money without making so much effort.

Unlike when you’re taking pictures. You’ll need to take pictures of 1000 people to make that amount of money. If you take pictures with one person, to work with another person, another effort is needed. 

But with a digital product, you only need to spend money on marketing and advertising to make a lot of money from the product. Because the more people you reach, the more people are likely to purchase your product.

So for people in Africa to join the creator economy, they need to know how the technology works and stick to the aspect they are good at. 

Some people are very good at writing, podcasts, video, illustration, etc. Just look for the area you are good at and can deliver excellently, then look for opportunities to invite people to get some freebies and upsell to them. 

By educating people, more people will be able to learn and understand how it works and take advantage of creating content and selling digital products. 

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

Do not give up. Continue to create content. It will get to a point where you feel down because things may not be working the way you want but try to be consistent. I believe that if you are consistent, you will definitely breakthrough. 

Also, when you see people who are already successful in the creator space, it is because they were consistent and very creative. Don’t think that you can just come in and start making money as a creator from the first day. It requires time and consistency. 

Lastly, I want to appreciate Selar for making such opportunities available for creators to be able to monetize their content. It has been my one-stop shop in terms of anything that has to do with content. Selar has made it easy for me. So I’ll advise any creator seeking to monetize their content to use Selar. It’s an easy platform.