#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 Toluwanimi Fagunleka popularly known as Tanum Creations online. Tanum works as a WhatsApp marketing expert, helping brands and businesses increase their leads and sales using WhatsApp marketing.  

Let’s get to know her, shall we?

Can we Meet Tanum Creations?

My name is Toluwanimi Fagunleka, mostly known as Tanum creations online. I do a lot of things. I am someone who has a lot of ideas and likes to make everything I meet better than I met it. I am a teacher. In every area of my life, you’d always find me teaching.

I teach marketing, business, and most especially WhatsApp marketing. Even in pharmacy school, (I am a pharmacy student) I am always teaching. I also have multiple interests. For example, I have an interest in media, medicine, business, creativity, and many other things. I prefer to be in a position where I can express any part of myself.

Today, you might find me shooting video content, tomorrow you might find me teaching marketing, and some other days, you might find me in class doing my pharmacy. To summarize who I am, I’d say I am an Idea strategist (I have good ideas). And I’m a teacher. I like to teach and equip people.

What was your career journey like before becoming a Whatsapp marketing expert?

I am currently a 500level Pharmacy student at the University of Lagos. Prior to 2020, when everything started, I knew nothing about content creation. I had no idea that people were getting paid on Instagram, neither did I know that you could make money from WhatsApp. Then, my WhatsApp contact list was about a hundred or two hundred. I didn’t use the app often aside from checking what was going on in my class group chat. 

When ASUU and COVID happened in 2020, my plan was to take Pharmacy courses to enable me to build my Pharmacy career. I used to sell data as a way to complement the allowance my parents gave me. One day, as I was scrolling through my WhatsApp group chat, I came across a free class on video editing and joined. The tutor taught us how to make designs on Canva. I started learning Canva, Inshot, and all of those editing and design apps. 

After the free class, the tutor launched a master class. That was the beginning of the problem. The man said the class was 3500 Naira and I sincerely did not have that amount of money. I only had about 2500 Naira from the data I was selling. 

I decided to tell my parents to pay for the class. But you know Nigerian parents and their wahala with online classes (lol). That didn’t work. So I had to sell more data to finally pay for the masterclass. In the masterclass, I was extremely serious because I had to hustle for the money that I used to pay for the class. There were lots of students in the class. I had to stay up at night so I could watch Youtube videos. I even had to borrow my friend’s phone because my phone could not do all that was taught to me in the class. 

As I was learning, I posted everything on my WhatsApp status(ps: My WhatsApp list was just my classmates and random fellowship members). Anytime I put up a video, people would compliment me. We were given assignments to do, so I used adverts from random people and turned them into a video. After I was done, I sent them a private message with the video in it. 

From there I started getting noticed and they referred me to others. Over time, I started getting DMs from people who wanted me to teach them, but I was scared because I was still learning, so I rejected these requests. 

Later on, I met this persistent lady that wanted me to teach her. I agreed and charged her 10k for the class, which she paid. I screen-recorded some tutorials with my phone and sent them to her. She would, in turn, watch the videos and create hers, and it turned out nice. I felt happy and proud of myself because it seemed like I could teach people video editing. 

Other people then came to me to teach them, I placed a demand on them to pay 10k for a private WhatsApp class. In the long run, the demands were getting high, so I decided to hold a free class. I ran a 2k ad for it on a WhatsApp TV, and it brought me, several people. At the end of my free class, I did a master class. And at the end of it, I made over 200k. I was amazed. The 2k ad gave me 200k plus on WhatsApp.

At that point, I did not know anything about lead generation, upsell, downsell, or lead magnets. I was just trying out things. I told people to pay me and all of them paid. I already had an optimized profile, “Tanum Creation” and I was using a business Whatsapp. When I got the money, I used it to pay for Shaw Academy (Digital Marketing Course and Social Media management). I started learning and implementing what I was learning on my brand, and I started getting more jobs, international jobs, from a video editing class I learned for #3500.

How did you get started with WhatsApp marketing?

In between posting my video content, I began sharing tips with people on my WhatsApp status on how to create catalogs on WhatsApp, establish trust with customers, etc. These were things I learned from selling my video editing course and Shaw Academy and I was simplifying it for my WhatsApp contact. I did that consistently from April to December 2020. Then, people started coming to me to help them set up their WhatsApp and how to sell on WhatsApp. I was surprised because I am a video editor and the requests were not related to video editing. But that was how it all started.

Do you have any digital products on sale? 

Yes, I have lots of products currently on sale on Selar. 

What made you decide to create a digital product? 

I was tired of teaching people individually. I have just 24 hours per day and I am very big on personal development. Anything that is taking away my time from developing myself makes me sad.

So, I got inspiration from the HolySpirit to convert everything that I have been doing and teaching into an ebook. That was why I created my first WhatsApp marketing product – The Whatsapp Business Secrets.

Before I launched the ebook, I did a free class. I first hosted the class and courses on Google Drive before I discovered Selar. Thank God for Selar. I just upload it on Selar and then give people access to it.

What is your sales strategy that other digital creators can employ for their digital products?

Firstly, most digital creators are sleeping on Whatsapp marketing. I am very active on Instagram and somehow on Twitter, I have hosted a number of Twitter spaces since August. During the #Selarchallenge, I participated and I had the least number of followers. However, I realized that I had a Whatsapp community that the other contestants most likely didn’t have. Most digital creators do not have a WhatsApp community, especially people who are just starting out. 

The Instagram algorithm is not so friendly. This means that you would have to struggle and push your way through engagements and sales. But Whatsapp is a very personal social media platform. So if you can crack the code of building a community on WhatsApp, your other social media platforms will never suffer. Any of my IG posts that have up to 300 likes are posts that I shared the link on my WhatsApp status or I posted on my WhatsApp group. I lost both my Instagram and WhatsApp accounts and in the last three months of restarting everything again, I have sold quite a number of products. 

I first launched my seven thousand Naira offer and it was bought by 67 people, then I increased the price to ten thousand Naira and 70 other people bought it from Whatsapp and I kept increasing it right now the course has been bought by over 270 people. I did WhatsApp automation and about 7 people bought it. This is three months. I have a 19,000 naira one-to-one and in the space of three months, 14 people already got it. People normally say that you cannot get a high-paying gig on WhatsApp, but I don’t believe it. I closed my first $500 offer right on my WhatsApp and I will still close more by God’s grace. 

Digital creators need to leverage WhatsApp because I have helped quite a number of digital creators like thesocialmediaprincess and thesocialmediamoh to make sales on WhatsApp. My major sales strategy is WhatsApp marketing. Every digital creator, especially people who are just starting out in their first two years should create time to build their WhatsApp. 

Would you say you leveraged the power of community to make sales as a digital creator?

Yes. I would say the power of community and personality helped me make sales. I have a very nice personality which makes me check up on people in my community. I also have a good relationship with my audience and I care about them. I hardly get no engagements on any of my posts on Whatsapp. My community is always there. The good part also is that I don’t have to run ads. If I have any upcoming event, I just share it on my WhatsApp status and they repost it on theirs voluntarily. My community is a very strong part of my growth and I am a strong part of their own growth also. 

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

That should be above 500k per month.

What have you learned from your years of experience being a Whatsapp marketer?

First, it’s not just about the number of status viewers you have, it is about your conversion rate. A lot of people are so interested in the number of status viewers they have that they end up doing crazy stuff like contact gain and at the end of the day, they make zero sales. Much more than the numbers, build conversion skills.

Secondly, be human. This means that you need to be real with your audience. If you fake it, you can’t sustain it. People would be with you for a long period of time so you cannot fake energy throughout the time, just be real. 

Thirdly, I have learned that much more than creating content, you should document content. There was a time I was struggling with what content to post, but now I don’t. Instead, it is about which content I should post. I learned documentation earlier this year, every day we step out of the house, every moment, every interaction with people is potential content. 

We see different things happening around us and if we can only take note of it, we can make a whole lot of content out of them. Most times we don’t document. Something pops up in our mind but we don’t write it down. When we now want to create content, we start cracking our brains and doing research. Instead of researching content ideas, we should document content ideas when they come. 

Also, every organization and brand that wants to build a sustainable brand should leverage WhatsApp. Bank apps and health organizations now leverage WhatsApp because it is easier to communicate. Mark Zuckerberg said that the best marketing meets their audience where they already are. Most of our audience is on WhatsApp. 

Finally, every brand should leverage WhatsApp marketing and while at it, ensure you build on other social media platforms. This is because WhatsApp is an enclosed system. You won’t see what I do on my WhatsApp but if you go through my Instagram page, you will see everything I have done.  

Most times people on WhatsApp forget to build on other social media platforms that can easily give them straight credibility. If I have focused on only WhatsApp, I probably would never have found Selar and Selar would probably never have found me and I may not be on this call. So while leveraging Whatsapp marketing, build on other social media platforms tools. 

Aside from showing us what being a badass Whatsapp marketer looks like, what else do you do? 

I am building a merch brand for business owners, kingdompreneurs, and Christain creatives called the Purple Nation.

Asides from the Tanum creations that everybody knows, there is another upcoming Tanum creation that is for Christainpreneurs – Christians in business, teaching Christians how to do business and creating products that would serve them.

I am a media person too. I want a situation where if I’m not functioning in business, I will function in the media – either shooting videos, editing videos, or speaking to people – teaching media. 

Last year, I never saw myself as creative. I just knew I was creative enough to design T-shirts. Honestly, I am still surprised at the woman I am becoming. 

What advice would you give to digital creators in Africa who are inspired by you?

I would say they should start small. One major problem creativity has with expression is excuses. When I first started video editing, I did not have a good phone. I would constantly go to my friend’s house to use his laptop. 

I know the insults that come with borrowing laptops and gadgets, it’s not easy. Fast forward to when I started my WhatsApp business. I was supposed to go live on Instagram with the processtoolbox and it was my first time. My excuse was that I didn’t have a good phone, but she encouraged me and told me to push through. I decided to go ahead and manage the tool I had. 

I’m currently using an iPhone 8+ for my content, but growth happens on the journey. I am growing and so would everything around me. So start small.

Another is building relationships. don’t try to build life alone. Having friends and collaborations will help you move faster than trying to do life alone. Start from where you are and build relationships while maintaining the relationships you currently have. 

Also, I’d encourage everyone to put in the same effort they put on Instagram on WhatsApp. The results are crazy.

Finally, most people think that they are not creative. But I don’t agree. Creativity can be learned. I learned creativity in two ways; by observing creative people, and secondly as Christians, we serve a creative God. I believe that creativity can be requested. I was never creative in 2019 and 2020, I started learning how to be creative and I asked God for creativity. Every Christian has access to creativity if only they ask. Observe creative people, ask God for creativity and watch yourself do creative things.

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Begin your creative journey and let Selar handle the rest for you. It gets easy as you go.