chronicles of a content creator - praise asalu

Fashion model and male lifestyle blogger, Praise Asalu sits down with me in a discussion on his journey from modeling to content creating and what he’s learned while being in this space.

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Hi guys! Today, I had the opportunity to sit down with one of my closest friends, Praise Asalu, who is a lifestyle blogger and fashion model. I’ve witnessed Praise grow over the years as a friend, and watched him break into this industry and dominate in such little time. He's always sharing insightful information with me as a friend in regards to his creator journey, and this time around, I made sure to take notes. I hope that this interview encourages you all and gives you some motivation to branch out and try something new as influential digital creators. With that, let’s get into this interview.

Image Courtesy: Praise Asalu via Instagram

Introduce yourself, who you are, what you do, and how you entered this space?

My name is Praise Asalu, I’m 20 years old, I'm a junior in college, and I’m a communications major. I model, I’m a quote-on-quote influencer, and I’m a content creator. I got into this field starting with modeling, I always wanted to model so I got into that and those that I met through modeling introduced me to a new part of Instagram that I didn't know. It started with unboxing videos of sneakers, and cool transitions, that’s when I decided “Oh I could do this too” and that turned into me making videos out of fashion or just my life in general.

What's your primary platform of use and why?

I’d say Instagram is my primary platform. Mainly because that’s just all I knew first. So like in high school and stuff I was the first one that would actually like to be posting all the time, and actually care for. It’s like formal but like not formal. I just like the platform. They’re ruining it though and I hate it.

What advice do you have for aspiring creators who don’t know how to navigate this space yet, or think that they can just hop on a trend and be successful in that space?

I was just talking to my friend about this and told him to break it down in three ways. One, find something that you’re passionate about, like do it all no matter what, you still love it and you can still do it everyday. Two, find a way to make videos on it. So if you like basketball, you can do tutorial videos of funny basketball videos or mixes and stuff like that. Three, just be consistent. Consistency in all of these algorithms and apps are all the same. If you’re consistent and constantly putting out content you’re going to gain traction as long as it's good, or even the bad ones can still get good traction.

Do you ever experience burnout or writer’s block, if so how do you get out of that mood and what steps do you take to pace yourself in this industry?

I always get burnt out, well prior to my recent break, I’ve always been known as like a workaholic because I try to be the best that I can be in whatever I do, and I don’t like to waste time or spend time doing other things when I know I can be productive. So that turns into me, losing out on a lot of energy and feeling like trash. But when I do, I usually try to finish what I’m doing in the moment and give myself a little bit of time and hop on the game with friends, watch some anime, or hang out with friends, because that will give me my little recharge for me to get into the next work session.

How has content creation affected how you use social media now, is it still enjoyable or strictly a place for work?

Content creation now has definitely taken the fun out of it kind of, because before everything, like back when I was in high school, Instagram was just like a social app, you go on there and do to be honest posts with your friends, and it would literally be an app for friends to talk and hang out on. You also get to post your pictures as well. With all the new features and stuff, and me monetizing it it’s like, I hop on there strictly to post what I got to post, answer to the people that are supporting me, and I head off.

It for sure affected my mental health, it plummeted because of it. I got to the point where I thought I was obligated to be posting my life instead of wanting to post my life. And now I’m back to where I’m supposed to be, but it kind of messes you up because you get lost in the whole algorithm thing and trying to fulfill other's needs than your own.

What’s one bit of analytical or technical advice you could give to an aspiring creator whether in regard to equipment, or what strategies to use on a specific social platform?

Your iPhone, the same thing in your pocket is probably the most valuable thing you could be using if you’re just starting out. The camera on there, from the 11 Pros to the current 13 Pro. If you use your camera make sure you wipe your camera, and make sure you use your back camera not the front one. Whatever video you’re trying to make it’ll probably come out great on there, and you can edit it all on the same phone as well. But that’s only if you actually look into it. The same thing, like Google is on your phone, you can search up "How to do this?" or "What to use to help ensure a better editing process or create nice videos?"

In terms of analytical and algorithm stuff, me personally, I have an algorithm for everything that I do on Instagram. So, if I post a story in the morning, I know I’m not going to post another one for another two hours, just so it gives time to breathe and doesn’t look like I’m flooding my page. Like if I make a story post there’s a structure behind it, when I make my regular posts, my reels, I always post around a certain time because I know this is when my followers are most active. I try to post between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. I don’t look at analytics because I know I get in my head about it. But when you see when your followers are most active, because Instagram tells you, that’s when you should be aiming to post. And you should aim to be more reel heavy, like try to make three reels for every one photo post.

Are you following industry best practices or doing your own research when it comes to social media content creation and posting, or do you just post whenever you want ?

I do my own research and post whenever I want, I know what works for me, so I just go with that.

Why is it essential to do research on best practices, when working as a creator, and what is something you would change or do differently now that you are at the stage you’re currently in?

You want to know what’s going on, if you see there’s a certain trend going around or a certain sound that you can use you want to capitalize on it. Me personally, I don’t like going with trends and stuff, the most I do is hop on certain trending sounds and even then, I use music I personally like or think will match a video nicely. Some trends on TikTok though, I probably won’t mind doing. There’s some trends where you show how life’s been or match pictures to music, and that’s pretty calm to me but I wouldn’t do that on Instagram, it’s a TikTok thing.

Do you find that you limit yourself to a specific niche, or are you free to post whatever you want?

Honestly, I’m free to post whatever I want, because I started off with fashion and stuff and now that I’ve went into a whole lifestyle bag, I can literally post whatever. Like I posted a waxing video, like I'm a man and that’s not a regular thing for us to do, and I got a lot of support off of it, it’s crazy. Literally anything I do would come off as good.

What is something you would change or do differently now that you’re in the stage you’re currently in?

Nothing, I feel like everything happened for a reason, and I’m right where I’m supposed to be.

I hope that you guys were able to learn a lot from this interview, I sure did. Comment below what you enjoyed from this discussion and if you’ll take any of this advice into consideration when content creating in the future. Catch you in the next one!