How Pleasure Ofodu Grew Her 200k+ Viewers

Right this moment, we’re unlocking Pleasure Ofodu’s creator journey discussing all the things from channeling all the emotions from her breakup in 2020 into comedy content material to her targets for her platform.

We discuss 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 people who make all of it occur. Let’s get into it.

Q: What impressed you to begin 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.

I needed to construct and design my very own courting life and my new love story, so to doc and bear in mind the expertise, I began creating and sharing short-form movies.

Q: Do you think about your self a full-time creator?

Sure, I am a full-time creator, in addition to the CEO of my enterprise, which I take advantage of to help my creativity. It feels actually energizing to lastly be in a spot the place I am creating, performing, and producing content material full-time.

Q: I like that you just see your self as a CEO and creator. What sort of content material do you create, and who do you create it for?

Pleasure Ofodu is my firm title, and we’re an influential media firm I prefer to say that I ship laughter to world audiences, however my enterprise produces inclusive leisure and inventive providers.

I’ve labeled us as a media firm primarily based on how we have an effect on others. After we communicate, 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 providers to individuals underneath your organization?

Sure, underneath Pleasure Ofodu, we provide short-form video manufacturing providers. Firms like Dove and Netflix typically ask us to provide quick, humorous movies to advertise services or products. We even have voiceover providers for animation, video video games, and audiobooks, and I’m at the moment the only voice actor.

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 persistently and fascinating your 200k+ viewers throughout totally different platforms, you’re actively working 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 at the moment engaged on, Relationship Unsettled, has been virtually 100% me, from recording to monitoring analytics as soon as it’s uploaded. However I do have a workforce that helps me behind the scenes.

My govt assistant helps me monitor my schedule, ebook occasions and voiceover work, and interface with shoppers. None of my partnerships can be attainable 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 getting into the identical season of increasing their content material creation? What ought to they be investing in?

You need to all the time be seeking to enhance your technical setup as a creator. The extra you recognize about lighting and audio and post-production enhancing, the higher. That is one thing that you may and may all the time spend money on enhancing, whether or not it’s 100 individuals following you or 200,000.

I can not say that there’s one objectively good model of video – it’s all concerning the instruments it’s worthwhile to obtain the standard you and your viewers have come to count on of you. A vlogger may want totally different instruments than I do. It actually simply relies on your area, time, and monetary means.

While you be part of an organization or program, they will normally offer you a mission assertion and inform you their imaginative and prescient for the following 5 to 10 years. So in terms of investing in a workforce, be sure to 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 comfy having a transparent imaginative and prescient as a creator and having a bit traction and viewers on social media.

However extra importantly than something, it was simply that I had duties that have been past my bodily functionality. That is actually it. I had duties that, if I continued shouldering all of them, I might burn out. The second I felt like I used to be dropping the ball, I knew I wanted to usher in somebody who might sort out them at 100%.

Q: Talking of instruments, what’s in your device stack for content material creation?

I take advantage of quite a lot of in-app native enhancing, particularly on Instagram, which shocks many individuals.

I like Adobe Artistic Cloud, notably Photoshop and Lightroom, for all my skilled pictures. Different instruments that I take advantage of embrace CapCut and Comfortable Scribe for closed captioning. Nevertheless, YouTube and all these platforms are beginning to bake in closed captioning natively,

Google Drive can also be fairly nice, and my web site is constructed on WordPress. Then I’d add Canva and iMovie to my checklist, and for locating contractors and freelancers, Upwork.

Q: How do you make cash as a creator, and what is the largest contributor income by way of all the things you supply in what you are promoting now?

I make cash because the creator via the ways in which I discussed: voiceovers, video manufacturing, and IP writing. I additionally do talking engagements the place somebody needs 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 for the time being that I can focus on is sponsored content material or model partnerships. These are those that you may publicly see on my Instagram or my TikTok. I even have a few sponsored partnerships that I activated this 12 months on LinkedIn for the primary time. I can drive, for instance, $7,000 for a sponsored publish 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 firms 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 this stuff in observe earlier than they attain out to me is necessary – simply working with me does not imply that you just help black or women-owned companies.

Having a shared ethos, and dealing with manufacturers which might be respected is necessary to me, so I’ll undoubtedly 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 may’t settle for all the things – in any other case, your model turns into too dilated.

For me, I take advantage of a rubric of: does it really feel proper? Is that this consumer or companion going to shine on my account? Do I’ve sufficient power 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 capacity to work in kids’s animation, so I persist with family-friendly, PG-13 campaigns. And politically, I’ve to bounce very fastidiously. I am not afraid to point out public help for laws or candidates that I’d consider in. Nevertheless, I acknowledge the affect that I’ve and the way a lot analysis and due diligence I have to do in terms of voting and other people’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 seeking to construct their identification earlier than they begin hitting massive 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 think about the place you need to seem.

When you’re seeking to develop, go the place your preferrred viewers is. Don’t decide a platform as a result of it’s the most popular factor proper now – suppose viewers first. Contemplate your viewers’s media weight-reduction plan, what they’re keen on, then think about your individual model identification, just like the visible model your viewers will come to affiliate with you.

Additionally, create content material pillars inside your area of interest. And persist with them. This helps your viewers know what to anticipate after they see your content material.

Q: You have been a part of this nice interview about Black Historical past Month campaigns in 2023. what has been essentially the most difficult half about rising as a black feminine creator to date?

I believe 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 mildew as a black entertainer, proper? You are both sexualized, otherwise you’re a clown, otherwise you’re aggressive, otherwise you’re tremendous radical and when you don’t match into one among these stereotypes, development might be gradual and irritating.

As I mentioned in that interview, pay fairness and algorithmic visibility will proceed to be two of the largest challenges as a Black creator. I’m hyper-aware that regardless of how expertly I produce on social media platforms, there may be 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 isn’t about our expertise or our technique or perhaps a lack of help. Regardless of how a lot we help one another, the system is not designed for us to finally succeed on the highest ranges.

Takeaways

TL;DR? Here is all the things 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 underneath her firm title, Pleasure Ofodu.
• Diversifying revenue streams: Pleasure generates revenue via varied 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 at the moment 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, resembling politically charged campaigns or those who do not align along 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 workforce. For her, the choice to rent assist got here when she realized she might now not handle all duties by herself with out burning out.
• Navigating challenges as a Black feminine creator: Pleasure faces challenges resembling pay fairness, algorithmic visibility, and societal constraints that restrict her development and success. She is very conscious of the prevailing ceiling to her success on social media platforms and is concentrated on breaking via these obstacles. She emphasizes the significance of supporting each other as creators and pushing for systemic change within the business to create equal alternatives for all.