Hey Sisturr!
Happy New Month to you and yours! Welcome to April 🥰🥰
The unique thing about the month of April isn't just that it begins a new month, but the fact that it marks the beginning of the second quarter of the year.
Dear sister, How did March treat you?
Mine was all shades of good, bad, and ugly.
There were days of tears, laughter, and even both.
In all, I'm so glad we've said goodbye to March, and April is unfolding.
So, what exactly was I up to in the month of March?
I discovered the goldmine called Podcasts
I don't know if I mentioned it in the previous edition, but in the middle of February, I started working with this client.
She landed a job with a US-based food supplement brand as an Influencer Marketing Manager.
Her job involved discovering micro, medium, and macro influencers, and reaching out to them about possible collaborations with the brand.
This lady unfortunately has lots and lots of jobs up her sleeves and decided to outsource this job to me and another guy.
While the guy's primary purpose was to discover these influencers that match the company's criteria, mine was to send them an Instagram message and an email.
Part of her job also involved following up with these influencers in case they responded or asked questions, and sending her a daily report.
I was expected to reach out to around 25 to 30 influencers every day. And this took around 3–4 hours of my time daily.
A day or two into my job, I found out how boring it was. I just had to copy and paste already-created templates, and I wasn't doing anything else.
If you're someone who knows me, you'll find out I love using my brain A LOT. And if I'm not using it, I feel so dumb.
I didn't want to quit my new job simply because it was boring, so I decided to spice it up!
I decided to start listening to podcasts while working, and it was INCREDIBLE 🎉🎉🎉🎉
At first, I was listening to just Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal, but I later discovered Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett and My First Million.
Normally, I watch Founders Connect with Peace Itimi and The Freelance Friday Podcast (with Latasha James) on YouTube; instead of burning my data watching the videos, I decided to add them to my list of podcasts to listen to them while working.
Although my obsession with Ali Abdaal won't let me listen so much to other podcasts, it's been all shades of beautiful 🥰
Simply hearing how entrepreneurs and creators began their businesses, and how they overcame their challenges and became successful is all I need!
May God bless whoever thought of creating podcasts!
In case you have a job as boring as mine, or you drive/commute/walk long hours to work every day, podcasts might just be the spice you need!
I missed Ali Abdaal’s PTYA scholarship application
I don't know if I mentioned it in the previous newsletter, but I was interested in Ali Abdaal’s Part-time YouTuber Academy (PTYA).
PTYA is a 4-week live cohort, where Ali hops on a Zoom call every week, to teach newbie YouTubers the tools and strategies he has used to reach 4 million subscribers in 6 years, and how you too can.
PTYA's lowest package cost is $1,500 (over 1.1 million Naira).
Because I'm not earning in dollars, and I don't have that kind of money, I focused all my energy on making sure I got in through the scholarship.
The eligibility criteria for the scholarship application included the following:
Having at least 3 already published videos on your channel (not shorts, but full-length videos)
Make a video of not more than 2 minutes explaining why you need the scholarship and your goal for the YouTube channel.
Before this time, I just knew I wanted to start my channel, but I hadn't edited or published any videos yet.
And because I seriously wanted to get into PTYA via the scholarship, I did everything within my power to meet the criteria.
Unfortunately, I had just 2 videos published, and just as I was about to work on the 3rd, I found out the scholarship application was the day before.
I was so sad and heartbroken.
As sad as I was, I was glad that PTYA became my motivation for starting the channel.
I kept on waiting for the perfect time when I had a new apartment, a microphone, good lighting and so on and so forth.
If you ever think of starting anything, the best time to start is now!
Start from where you are, start from what you have… There's never going to be a perfect time!
I made a very big mistake
Since I bought my Airtel MiFi in November 2021, most of the time I'm online, I'm using it.
I barely buy mobile data, because I found out the MiFi package is far better and more economical.
I'm usually able to buy 40 gigabytes of data for just 5,000 NGN.
Two Sundays ago, while using my last 5K to buy data, I mistakenly recharged my MTN sim card instead of Airtel.
I was so sad!
What was even sadder was that 5K could only give me 20GB on MTN.
And the most annoying thing was that MTN didn't let me do my jobs swiftly.
Certain websites were opening, and others weren't. I couldn't connect to my laptop except with a cord.
It was just all shades of annoying 😪😥
Bad Internet connectivity is one of the things we suffer as Nigerian digital entrepreneurs.
I have learned my lesson! And I'm never recharging MTN again.
I'm sticking to my Airtel.
As they say, the devil you know is better than the Angel you don't know.
I'm experiencing an existential crisis
When you read about it or listen to podcasts where successful people talk about dropping out of college, it sounds so easy.
Since March began, I've been at that crossroad in my life where I've been wondering, Where exactly do I go from here?
I've been out of school for roughly 18 months, but I've never felt more pressured than how I did in March.
Mostly because my one academic year of temporary withdrawal was over, and I was expected to have made a decision.
I have to choose from one of these three decisions:
Go back to Pharmacy School and repeat year 2.
Transfer to another department and start from the second year.
Drop out of college completely.
I eventually decided to go with the second option, and boom, I get hit with the news on Wednesday that transfers have ended since February.
For a second, I couldn't breathe.
So since option 2 is out, I have options 1 and 3 to decide from.
The big deal about Option 1 is that being a pharmacy student was going to limit me 70% of the time and keep me in a forever fear phase.
Over the last 18 months, there's been a lot I started working on which I can't abandon right now.
These projects are still like infants, and abandonment is almost equivalent to their death.
Even while things were still perfect in Pharmacy School, I never for once dreamt I would practice after graduation.
Or, what if I just focused completely on the things I'm doing and grow?
I want to be an entrepreneur, a successful entrepreneur.
And most successful entrepreneurs had times in their lives when they ditched college to focus on their passion projects.
And today, we applaud them.
I've never felt so unsure and so scared as I do right now.
If you have a piece of advice, feel very free to send me an email HERE, or drop a comment under this newsletter.
I've been researching visa-free countries to travel to as a Nigerian
While I believed in Peter Obi, and did everything I could to vote for him as our incoming president, Nigeria happened again.
Prof. Mahmood, Wike, Buhari and other allied forces of wickedness in Nigeria selected Tinubu, and made a mess of millions of Nigerians that voted.
I know Peter Obi is in court at the moment and trying to regain his power, but I don't think I want to live in a Nigeria where Tinubu and Shettima are leaders.
It would be a Nigerian characterized by tribalism, thuggery and religious violence.
I want to be in a place that would sane enough to help me maximize my goals and dreams. And that place can't be Nigeria.
So, I've been researching visa-free countries to travel to as Nigerian, and over the last few weeks, I've settled on extensively researching these top 6 countries:
Barbados
Dominica
Vanuatu
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Fiji
Cape Verde
Unfortunately, unlike other first-world countries like the USA, UK and Canada which have loads of job opportunities for locals and foreigners, these countries I've been researching have little or nothing for foreigners.
To live happily in this country, you'll need to have a remote job from another country that pays you in USD or maybe a business.
I've been too lazy of about landing a full-time remote role, so this April, I'm setting myself up for a 30-day job-hunting challenge.
Wish me luck 😔
Why all this gibberish?
It was Michelle Obama who wrote, “Your story is what you have, what you'll always have. It is something to own.”
I'm on my journey to becoming, just as most of you are too.
There are tons of challenges I face every day, and so do you!
All we'd ever have is our stories!
And because I know this, I'm owning my story.
These are stories of uncertainties, frustrations, pain, and wins…. As I journey through life.
And I'm sure you do have these stories too! I want to read your stories too. I want to see you own them.
Feel free to shoot me an email here at bookieeyes19@gmail.com, and I'll share it with all the other sisters in this newsletter.
The last month wasn't easy at all for me. There are many times I almost slipped into comparison.
“My mates are entering 400L/final year”
“My mates are out of University”
“Some of my mates are married with babies”
But I'm out of school, not in a relationship, and don't have money 😂
If you ever slip into comparison, always remember “Comparison is a thief of time.”
You're bigger than you think you are!
You're amazing, you're smart, you're talented…
Those people you're comparing yourself are envious of what you've got!
If you feel tired, it's okay.
If you feel frustrated, it's okay.
It's okay to cry, to scream, to rant…
I tell you my sister, you've got this!
Your younger self wants to be proud of you, make her proud!
There's no competition in life. The only person you're competing with is who you were yesterday.
I love you, and I can't wait to read your success story 🥰🥰🥰
You've got this!!
You've always wanted to major in psychiatry, maybe this is a sign saying you can still do this. It may not be easy combining school and business but I suggest you give it another shot and smash it too!
All the best,Bookie.
Hugs 🤗