College Ministry Leader Starts Digital Agency

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

In today's story, a digital native and young Nigerian-American starts social media consulting with people in his church who realize he has a special skill at communicating. He resists his new calling for six months before deciding, "Hey, you know what, maybe I should just give people what they're asking for." He then starts a digital agency and in less than a year, revenues are more than $15,000 a month. This could be a good reminder that the thing that you're good at, the thing that you end up shining at may not be what you train for. There are all kinds of things you could be good at, but what's the special thing? Like, where do you really shine?

And also, when people start asking you for something, pay attention, especially if they ask you more than once and especially if it can be monetized. So glad you're here. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Every day on this program, I have the privilege and honor of bringing you a different story of somebody, just like you'll hear about today, who finds a way to make money without quitting their job. And sometimes they end up going all in, just like the guy in this story did.

Other times, they just keep doing their job and they've got this extra source of income on the side. Both are perfectly acceptable and desirable options. All right, so I want the show to help you with whatever your goal is, whatever you're trying to achieve in the roles of creating an income generating project. So it's called College Ministry Leader Turns Social Media into Full-Time Hustle. Stay tuned, that story is coming right up.

24-year-old Isu Aginwa says that hustling and entrepreneurship have been in his blood almost since birth. Infusing him with a strong work ethic and culture was so important to his parents, they moved from the United States back to their native Nigeria when he was a child. According to the US for college, Isu saw hustling opportunities everywhere. But he says that, like most Nigerian children, he was expected to focus entirely on school to get what he calls astronomically high grades. So that's what he did.

But still, during summer breaks, he was in hustle mode. One time in college, Isu traveled to Chicago for an unpaid internship at the largest public broadcasting station in America. He learned the ins and outs of social media, was also able to apply what he was learning in school, but the internship was unpaid so Isu hustled and paid his bills each month by building websites. Fast-forward to 2017, Isu was a new college graduate and moved to Southern California for his first big post-college job as a leader in the college ministry for a large church. The job was a perfect fit, at least for a while.

He dedicated himself to the work and his ministry area grew quickly. One of the ways he did that was by using the branding and social media skills that he had acquired earlier. It was the perfect way to engage the college students in his target market. Soon, the content he produced for the ministry was getting attention from entrepreneurs and artists within the church. He began coming to him to ask for help with their social media.

After several months of referring them to others so that he could focus on the ministry, Isu finally made time for a new side hustle. He called it "fresh culture." In the few spare hours he had each week, Isu began helping clients with their social media and branding needs. He did everything from writing Instagram posts to designing strategy and shooting video content. Soon, he was earning an extra $1,000 per month. He says this $1,000 each month showed him the potential of his project, and it also turned his entrepreneurial drive into high gear.

He quickly began thinking about what he really wanted to build. He envisioned a digital agency, doing the kind of work he was doing for clients now — branding, image development, social media, etc. — and his agency business model is well established, so he didn't have to reinvent the wheel. In fact, he'd already been doing it, just informally. Beginning in the months that he was referring clients to others, Isu had built a loose team of independent creative collaborators to work with — content creators, photographers, graphic designers, etc.

He would secure the clients and oversee the creative process, while his other team members would handle the day-to-day tasks. As he thought about expanding, Isu wanted to formalize these relationships. Specifically, he wanted everyone to work in their specific area of talent and do what they were best at. Oftentimes in this type of work, especially social media stuff, Isu says that one person ends up being involved in everything. He knew if he could segment the work out, everyone could focus on what they were best at — including him.

He actually shut down his cytosol for a month to focus on identifying and reaffirming what his strengths and weaknesses were, and to design the role he wanted to build for himself. He jokes that his work ethic is very Nigerian, meaning he will do whatever it takes to get the job done — he's really good at hustling — but he's seen more explosive success when he focuses on his strengths. In his case, one of his strengths is building connections and relationships, then putting together creative projects and teams and working on the big picture. He also acknowledged that he wasn't as strong with day-to-day logistics and organization, so that's where he would need help. Quickly, he had the outline for his new venture and a one-to-two-year timeline of when he wanted to launch.

He went back to the cytosol and business picked up. Before one to two years, about four months later, he partnered with another creative and rebranded the agency, now called Riches & Saints. Right away, the agency began generating $4,000 a month — again, all on the side. When the time came to transition from his ministry job, Isu jumped at the chance, and his now one-time cytosol is his primary work. Business continues to grow, and in less than a year, revenues are more than $15,000 per month.

The team focuses a lot on Instagram — the most popular social media platform among their target market. The Riches & Saint Instagram account applies the same strategies and techniques that they offer clients, which adds to their credibility. The account is constantly updated and full of rich, vibrant content. They feature steady updates and lots of behind-the-scenes photos from their work with clients. One struggle was deciding how to value the work.

He says he doesn't believe in set pricing packages. Instead, he spends time customizing packages with clients, and then he and his team figure out how much time it will take to complete that work to decide the final price. Isu also says that working with creatives and artists, who are often driven by emotions more than analytical thinking, can be challenging. But even when tempers flare around him, he tries to keep calm. In his words, "turn on your emotions when it comes to fighting for your team, and then turn off your emotions about everything else." He is excited about the future and hopes to expand to serve more celebrity clients as well as begin a new e-commerce venture.

Isu loves what he's doing, and credits it with giving him a safety net. So here's an interesting thing to consider. I was reading this quote from Isu, looking through all the research and notes we have on him. He says, "Side hustling taught me that no one will ever be able to pay me what I'm worth, so I'll have to do it myself." And I thought it's interesting because he is a millennial, or I think he's like later stage millennial, right on the cusp of being Gen Z, age 24, whatever that is at the moment. And this whole idea of like, "I believe that I'm worth more than I can get paid elsewhere." And sometimes that kind of perspective is viewed as maybe being entitled or like older people looking and saying like, "Well, millennials, what are you talking about?

Get paid what you're worth, what you deserve, etc. That's not how it works, or you have to like, you know, work for it for a long time or whatever." And I think the right perspective is, you know, okay, if you're going to work in the traditional workforce, you know, and you want it to make a certain amount of money, let's say that amount of money is higher than whatever is average or normal, whatever the median is in that industry or in your area, well, it might be a challenge, you know, to find a company that's going to pay you whatever that amount is. And so you accept that reality. But you also, and here's the key part, the second part, you also believe, "Okay, well, if nobody else is going to do it for me, then I'm going to do it myself." Those of us in Gen X or another generation might look at millennials, Gen Z or whatever and say, "Well, you know, they just have, you know, ridiculous expectations. You know, if they want to make $100,000 a year at age 24 or, you know, whatever the number is, that's just not possible." And someone who says that may very well be right when they're talking about the traditional workforce.

About what we could learn from them, perhaps, that second part of, "Okay, nobody's going to do it for them, so I'm going to find a way to make it happen for myself." All right. So if that sounds long and convoluted, I think maybe the point is, you know, just to go back to his quote, "If you think you are worth more than you're being paid, if you think you deserve more than you're being paid, you're probably going to have to find a way to make that happen." Like, nobody is going to come along and do it for you. But there is a path through microentrepreneurship, a fancy word for side hustling that I talk about every single day on the program. There is a path to make that happen for yourself. So I will leave you with that.

Just planting a little seed there for somebody. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/924. We will include links to the Riches and Saint Instagram account and website and anything else that I mentioned in the episode. And I'll be back again tomorrow with the recap coming up.

Much more is on the way next week. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.