We were lucky to catch up with Itiayo Ogunsanwo recently and have shared our conversation below.
Itiayo, so happy to have you with us today. You are such a creative person, but have you ever head any sort of creativity block along the way? If so, can you talk to us about how you overcame or beat it?
I just go back to basics. Every time I’ve experienced creative block, it has been because I was putting pressure on myself/trying to re-invent the wheel for external validation.
Whenever you have a successful project that gets really good reception, you automatically feel that the next one has to top it. So you start putting unnecessary pressure on yourself because you’re more focused on the reception/opinion of your audience as opposed to focusing on and enjoying the process of creating.
It’s only normal to want to get better and I believe as long as you keep learning, practicing, you will get better.
So I just go back to the basics and along the way, new ideas start flowing.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I started learning photography in 2016 and focused mainly on portraits and events. One of my favourite things to shoot is concerts, but that’s more of a hobby.
In 2021, I posted my first reel on my personal instagram page, mainly because I kept hearing about the importance of building a personal brand.
Up until then, I hardly ever posted pictures of myself (I had just 3 pictures on my personal instagram), so I was really stepping out of my comfort zone.
But I found out it was easier for me to make videos of myself than to take pictures, because with videos I didn’t have to pose, I didn’t have to look at the camera & smile. I could just set up my camera/tripod and go about my business.
I started enjoying the process…coming up with ideas, scripting, filming…all of that, so I kept going even when it seemed like my audience was barely growing.
In June 2023, I did a 30-day challenge. I actually didn’t start off with any number of days in mind, I just wanted to post consistently for as long as I could & I went from less than 1,000 to 8,000+ followers within a month.
Since then, it has been more growth, more learning & just me trying to stay consistent.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1. Willingness to look silly in the beginning.
One of the major things that holds people back is the fear of looking silly. It’s impossible to start something new and be good at it immediately. Everything takes time. Your first few attempts would probably be terrible but that’s the only way to get better. So just start, don’t worry about being cringe, don’t worry about what people will say.
2. Doing the work.
A lot of us use learning as an excuse for procrastination. I’m still guilty of this to be honest. You enroll in a course or start watching tutorial videos online & end up spending so much time “gathering knowledge” without actually doing the work.
It’s important to gather knowledge but the truth is you don’t fully understand until you start practicing. You need to do the work to actually learn & get better.
3. Staying consistent
As a content creator, it’s easy to get discouraged by the constantly changing algorithms and decline in reach, but enjoying the process of creating has helped me stay consistent.
My advice will be to find what works for you when it comes to consistency. For some people, it’s batch creating, for some like me, it’s filming regularly even when I don’t have a fully formed idea/story in mind.
Also define what consistency is for you. It doesn’t have to be every day, it could be 3 or 4 times a week. Just stick to what works for you and a schedule you can keep up with.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
My mum got me my first camera in December 2016.
Might not sound like much, but for Nigerian parents to send you to a private university & then you decide you want to do something completely unrelated to what you studied (like going into photography full time) it’s not something most parents would get behind.
Plus she’s constantly praying for/with me. She’s been very supportive of my content creation journey as well. She watches & likes all my videos even though she says the edits are too fast for her. Lol
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itiayo?igsh=MThnbDJ4ZHBobjFxbQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@itiayo?si=MP9s5f2trovdIJNI
