Sometimes, our skills are more creative than professional. Sure, monetising your professional skills or expertise might feel like the obvious route. But guess what? You can do the exact thing with your creativity.
On our last X (FKA Twitter) Space, ‘Monetising Your Experience Expertise as a Creative Entrepreneur’, our speakers shared tips on how they’ve monetised their skills. Vera Njote, Operations and Strategy Associate at Big Cabal Media, moderated the session. She was joined by speakers Ene Ajogwu, founder of Passive Income Anna, and Ejura Agbenyo, Founder of Ejrepublik.
In this article, we share four important things to unlearn before monetising your creative expertise or skill. If you want to get in the game, it’s important to us that you do it with the right mindset.
1. Don’t Undermine Your Creativity
The decision to monetise your creativity might be hard. Sometimes the issue is over-familiarity with ourselves, other times, we worry that we might not sell ourselves or product well enough. Our speakers repeatedly emphasised the need to stop doing things that come easily to us, for free. If there’s something you observe people repeatedly approach you for, put a price tag on it and sell. It will be in demand with one as long as it’s in high demand without a price tag. Sometimes, these things happen when we least expect them.
‘’When I started Ejrepublik, I was just putting designs together. I wasn’t actually trying to start a business. But when I did the launch, more people than expected purchased, and I’ve just been there ever since.’’- Ejura Agbenyo.
2. You Don’t Need to Be the Face of Your Product
The issue with being a creative is that there’s often the desire to attach your identity to your product. Sometimes, it seems like this is the only way to achieve the goals we set for ourselves. Our speakers think otherwise. While personal branding might be great for pushing our products and building trust with customers and clients, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. If you can’t be yourself in front of a camera, focus on other things to build the strength of your business.
‘’Depending on what you’re building, personal branding does go a long way. It is a huge driver in the creative world, especially because it helps with storytelling. But if it’s not your thing, you can hire content creators and storytellers.’’- Ejura Agbenyo.
Also Read: 4 Things To Know Before Monetising Your Skill or Expertise
3. AI Is Not Your Competition
Everyone thinks ChatGPT and Gemini are taking over the world. Our speakers approach these tools through a different lens and from different perspectives. Familiarising ourselves with their functions and optimising them can help creativity. It’s to find the usefulness of these tools and how they can help us work smarter. Knowing how to prompt AI for bespoke responses is important. Garbage in, garbage out. Let’s be intentional with our use.
‘’I see AI as my assistant. Sometimes I use it to develop a content calendar. Knowing how to take full advantage of it is the most important thing.’’- Ene Ajogwu.
4. Don’t Undersell Yourself
Being new to the market, we might worry that our prices might be too high for potential customers, especially when we haven’t built solid brands. Our speakers beg to differ. There’s a reason your creativity was in high demand before you put a price tag on it, and there’s a reason why it sells for other people. The most important thing is how we package and deliver our product or service. Underselling isn’t going to help you build the customer base or community you desire. Sometimes, it does the opposite. Believe in your work, get testimonials, and deliver your product in a form that makes you proud.
‘’You don’t want to price too low so people don’t think you don’t know what you’re doing. When I started, I did a market survey and tried to see what my peers were doing. I try to find a sweet spot between the low and high prices.’’- Ene Ajogwu.
Click here to listen to the space recording and hear more of what our speakers advise, before monetising your creativity!
Read Next: Why More Creatives Like Dwin, The Stoic Are Leaving 9–5s to Chase Passion
