Meet: Naomi
One of my current favourites, I highly recommend it!
Zambian Born Youtuber, Medical Student and Entrepreneur. I caught up with Naomi to hear some of her advice to young women trying to make it in the creative industry, Youtube’s affects on mental health and much, much more.
Interview
How do you balance being a student, a wife AND creating content so consistently?
I just turn off my phone and barely go online or do anything or reply to anyone, including my parents who absolutely are besides themselves for it(laughs).I mean I’m not sure that I do handle everything if I’m honest. I have to say I’m pretty impressed with my ability to put out a video every single day during Christmas when I had three exams but it was intense and I think what I do is I just block out my time and my life into segments. So I might spend a whole day working on YouTube and a whole day working on my university work. I’m not one to split my days into segments because I find it very hard to move from one focus to another.
So overall I think I have a really good ability of being super focused on one topic for prolonged periods of time so a day or a week, and with Youtube I just think like when I go back to some of the videos we were just talking, I’ve got more creative and I’ve started enjoying the process more but that takes a lot longer. Before we were just talking and then just cutting out all the long pauses or all the erms sometimes we didn’t even do that so the quality of the videos were not that great so we could just smash them out. What we’ve struggled with is replying back to comments and I love reading all the comments but its just tryna get back to replying back that’s hard.
So this year I was doing an intercalation that means I took a year out of medicine to do a degree which required me to be at university for less time. So during medicine I’m at university from 9–6 every single day but with this course it was two days- three days a week and then obviously reading outside so I actually had a bit more free time this year.
I think what is tricky and I think sometimes you have to really prioritise and just think you can’t do it all, I mean you can and you can have it all but you can have it all by prioritising, by asking what’s the most important, what is the most urgent thing now?
Anything that is in the quadrant that is important and urgent it has to be done, anything that is unimportant I don’t do it. With this year actually, with prioritising, i’ve decided to take a year out and I’m going to work on our business and the reason i’ve done that is because i’m prioritising what i want to achieve and i want to achieve a good business. Yes i could do that alongside university but I might then not do as well in university as I would like to. So I made the decision that finishing university one year later is not urgent.
What was growing up like for you and how do you think that influenced your work ethic now?
Oh my god growing up, so i’m actually my mother and father’s daughter to the core. My dad was very passionate about education and he raised me up whilst my mum was working, and my mum she is African but shes actually a feminist but she would never admit it but honestly she is a feminist. So she’s always told me to be empowered, to always get my own stuff, get my own money like whilst my dad is telling me ‘education.. education .. education’ my mum is like ‘business look at all these things that need to be sold, do this, do that.’ I think overall my mother is my biggest inspiration especially because one day she just gave up her nursing career and just started her own business and she was just like ‘screw the world.’
But what my mother has taught me is to always be curious and always look for ways to make someone’s life better. In the same breath she’s also told me that some people do not work the way I do and that’s fine. She’s also always told me never to be so egotistical to think that everything I do is based on my ability, like the motivation and the drive that I have, the fact that I’m willing to do all nighters and work really hard is not because I am special but because of God. So she has always instilled that within me, always trust in God.
You know, I’ve always wanted to have a job and I didn’t understand why my friends didn’t want to have jobs and stuff when I was growing up. And I didnt understand why my friends didn’t wanna do some of the stuff I was doing and my mum was like God has not given them that desire so every desire that I have, I have to give it back to God. so she taught me that but,yeah, mostly they just taught me to work hard, be empowered as a woman and dont take shit from men.
Do you think you have kept your authenticity on your YouTube channel?
I mean I would like to think so but I think what’s happened is we’ve actually become more authentic and less so at the same time. So when we first started youtube,Jack and I, we just wanted to grow so we just did videos that other people did and actually it was a good tactic because most of our subscribers come from the most popular ( like what is it like to date a black woman)
We never wanted to be the heads of interacial couples or anything but thats what was selling and we wanted to get people into us so we used what we had and then we realised that people were there because we were an interacial couple and then we were like ‘dammit this is not what we wanna do’. So we stopped. And now we kinda do whatever the hell we wanna do but that’s also a bit problematic because to grow on Youtube you really do have to niche down and we just do whatever we want so it’s not really helping us (laughs) grow but we are just doing what we want.I’ve seen slower growth recently and that is frustrating, but i just think at the end of the day we’re enjoying the process and it is exciting.
When I say less so authentic I think I speak a lot more now or at least I try to. I’ve learnt on Youtube it doesn’t matter if you have one subscriber, a hundred or a thousand there is someone whos taking the time to watch you and there is someone who is taking the time to listen to your point of view and I want my point of view to always be something that is uplifting, something that is positive. That’s not to say I am always positive and I am always uplifting but when I create this persona of myself online I want it to be for the good.In the same breath I don’t want it to be a lie that I never go through bad stuff but its always ‘how did i overcome it? How can you overcome it?’ Sometimes I refrain from speaking about painful things until I have resolved them within myself so that there’s always something good to come out of the bad.
Has YouTube empowered you in any way?
I think Youtube has empowered me overall in a positive way, I think to be able to put yourself out there and hope and dream and be open to criticism especially about your life and your relationship and just rolling with the punches, rolling with the comments. I think that is empowering in itself in that it has given me confidence it has helped me to not care what others think but also it’s just given me a really good opportunity to be creative, to have an outlet and to be inspired. And also its empowered me to create a community of like-minded people, I think I always used to complain ‘I don’t have any friends, I Don’t have any people who want to read the same books I read’ I just don’t have anyone.So it encouraged me to create a platform where I can communicate and network with really amazing people and i’ve made some really good friends out of it so i feel very very happy
How long were you on YouTube before you started seeing promising progress? What has this taught you?
Overall it took four years for me to get to a thousand subscribers, this is not the norm but because I was inconsistent and I was not committed, the growth was slower. When I first started Youtube my only aim was to help one person get into medical school and to ensure that one person knew it was possible. I did that so I was very happy with that, I didn’t realise you could make money from it and when I did I was like ‘Jack let go back on there.’ So when Jack and I started Youtube I had already had 1K subscribers which was actually fantastic for me and then we were just consistent, three videos a week non stop and it was about three months we started seeing slow progress and then October, November, December it just started blowing up. We went from 3K to 8K in a couple of months but then it started to slow down again, I guess it’s because we don’t have a niche as I say. Overall what it’s taught me is consistency, consistency, consistency. Honestly everyone will keep telling you to ‘be consistent’ your first hundred videos just pop them out, it doesn’t matter they’re gonna be rubbish just do it do it do it. And words have never been truer you have to be consistent. Another thing I would say is niche down, get a niche because that’s how you get subscribers and we aint done that yet because we don’t know what niche to do but just niche down and be of service to someone.
What advice would you give to young black female content creators who are just starting out?
I would say oh my god do it, double down, work hard there is money to be made here, there is a community to be found, there is just so much enjoyment from it. It’s hard, it’s painful, it’s long but the rewards can be insurmountable. I think we are moving into a world where your media presence is vital. If you’re not doing Youtube then be on Linkedin, be on Instagram, be on Tiktok, do something because I realised in this world everyone is trying to sell something, sell your ideas, sell your personality, sell who you are. If you can show and amass a following then you have put yourself in a position far beyond anyone else.
I know you’re an avid reader, what books do you recommend?
- Rich dad, Poor dad helped me understand what an asset was and what a liability was, it helped me get interested in finances which then helped me to look into the fire movement.
- The Magic — transformative for my mindset it’s more of a workshop that gives you tasks to do everyday to be more grateful.
- Conversations with God — I have always been brought up Christians but then decided not to be christian and now i am christian. Conversations with God is a great read, doesn’t really matter what religion you are.
- This is Going to Hurt — Anyone who wants to study medicine should read this, its so funny.
Name your top three female inspirations and why or how they inspire you?
My first inspiration is Grace Beverley. Some people know her as Gracefituk, I am inspired by her because she is intelligent. I mean she went to Oxford; was doing a university degree whilst being on Youtube whilst starting three businesses. She is just a boss lady. The reason she inspires me is because I feel like she has been able to achieve so much and she’s been able to have everything that she wants unapologetically, and showing that you can still be beautiful and you can be highly intelligent and just get stuff done when you work hard. She is very very inspirational to me.
My second inspiration is Patricia Bright, again I love the fact that she is beautiful and she loves fashion but she is also super intelligent. Even more inspired by her with her new platform The Break. I think it’s so important for women, black women and just everyone in general to understand investing, to understand the difference between a liability and an asset, to understand how to invest in the stock market and that when you start early you can see great investments. I think it’s really good that she brings a topic that traditionally people associate with white middle class men and just in the mereness of her presenting as a black woman she makes it relatable, she shows that it is something that is attainable, she shows that it is something that is not exclusive to a certain demographic but it is for everyone and i am so passionate that everyone needs to get their finances in order and needs to learn.She’s teaching us that and so she’s really inspirational.
Big cliche I know! But the last inspiration really is my mother, she has come from a ridiculous background. I mean her parents died when she was young, she lived in the village and it’s only by the grace of God that she is here and even when shes here, she’s always hustling, when I was growing up she had three businesses on the go, she was a nurse, she’s now in the midst of trying to start up another business, she’s just always on the go. And she’s still back home to cook for her husband which I don’t do but I can appreciate that that is some skill. That is a lot of skill, just love the fact that she teaches me you can have it all you know? She shows me you can still be smart, you can get your own and you can still look after your husband if that’s what you want to do.
How has YouTube affected your mental health? And do you ever feel like you don’t have privacy?
I don’t feel like I don’t have any privacy I choose what to put out and it’s funny what we put on YouTube it’s quite a lot but it’s just such a minute aspect of our lives there’s just so much more that goes on so I don’t feel like I don’t have any privacy it’s just if I don’t want to speak about it and you guys will never know. Has it affected my mental health? There was a period of time ,again, when we were doing videos to get us the views but mostly even now sometimes where it really does affect me and I don’t like replying back to comments. And I think when I went to an interview with the BBC and it was about race and I think I was a bit blindsighted cause I thought we were all talking about interracial relationships and then I found out we were with people who were like ‘no I would never date outside my race.’ I was just like traumatised by that situation and I basically didn’t want to read comments from that day on because I hate the rhetoric that you can’t be pro black and date white and so I was just like I don’t like to engage in that kind of behaviour that kind of stuff makes me angry and so I just decided I’m just gonna leave I wasn’t really interested in what the comments had to say and ever since then I think I always kind of go into the comments with a but of a ‘God I don’t want to read it’ but most of the time we get really good comments and overall has it affected my mental health? I had that one period of being blue and being a bit scared but of reading comments but now I don’t really care
In your Instagram bio it says “risking looking stupid everyday to make my dream work.” Do you live by this motto?
Yes I live by this motto because honestly being on YouTube when you only have 100 subscribers or when you only have 1000 and even now when I only have 9,000 it just does look a bit silly it does look a bit like ‘Oh my God look at her she wants to be an influencer.’ You just have to risk being stupid like to get you what you want done in life you will always be practising at one point until you’re not practising and people will be like ‘Oh my God how did she do that’ but it’s because you’ve been practising this whole time you’ve been looking stupid this whole time and you just have to do that sometimes but as long as you understand that you know you’re looking stupid you know people are talking you know people are chatting but you’ve gotta do it because you can’t live in fear you can’t live for other people
Who’s your style inspiration? How do you keep a bougie closet while being economical?
I love this question because this year I was like I’m gonna be bad and boujee but economical so How do I keep a closet Luckily it’s been COVID so I haven’t had to go anywhere but normally my go tos thrift stores car boot sales and then I’ve actually really liked Shein. I know it’s really bad for the environment and everything but Shein actually kind of brings some high quality clothes very cheaply priced. Style inspiration I wish I was more stylish. If I’m honest I used to be definitely more stylish. I think I’ve kind of stopped that now which is a bit of a shame honestly. I don’t think I have a style inspiration. I just wear whatever the hell I want. What I would love to have in my life is for someone to create sexy loungewear because it’s just sometimes difficult when you just look frumpy and you’re choosing between being frumpy and being cold so that would be nice but other than that I do just wear what the hell I want and to be fair I haven’t been going out much so I have just been in frumpy loungewear sorry Jack!
End.
Womanhood takes many forms in the 21st century. In this series I will try to capture different perspectives of young women who I find inspirational. Thanks to Naomi for answering each question so vulnerably and so honestly. For more of Naomi be sure to visit her social media and Youtube channel!
Originally published at http://culturetalkswithkim.wordpress.com on July 3, 2020.
