From Starving Artist to Entrepreneur: My Journey to Financial Freedom
You are the money you're looking for →
Before we dive into today’s letter, I have a confession: It’s been HARD AF writing here and being all the things at once. When I started these letters, I wanted to be able to deliver my thoughts and music directly to my community.
Then I started writing about ALL the other things I had interest in: Spirituality, Sex, Philosophy. everything jumbled in one. And yes, while this newsletter is called ‘EVARYTHING’ with Eva, it has indeed made it hard to deliver my best work to you consistently.
In changing that, I have decided to move all the Spirituality and Sex content to a closed channel. That way I can deliver the letters and content here in a more focused and consistent way without worrying about how I’m bombarding you with variety. Please keep an eye out for more details on this shortly.
(The closed channel will be called AFTER DARK) More deets soon :)
Moving forward, I hope to write you more consistently and continue to serve you the very best of my thoughts and lessons to help you on your journey.
And now, today’s letter:
Let’s talk about Money 🤑
Every now and then, I receive a DM from someone asking for money. The message usually goes something like this:
"I can’t believe I’m doing this, but I had no other choice. I’m facing a tough time now and need financial help..."
Then the sender will go on and on about something painful but not unique happening to them. Anything from school bills, house rent, medical support, and all kinds of needs.
Messages like these always take me back to the time when I needed money myself.
A time when money was all I could think of, and the lack of it brought me to my knees in desperate shame.
The Starving Artist 😪
Most people just want to create their art and heal the world.
We don’t bother about money at first. We may think about it, plot ways to get it, but even in the absence of money, we still plunge head-first into our art. And for most of us, we are as ignorant about money as we are passionate about making art.
Being a broke, starving artist made me come face to face with my own ignorance about money and how money works.
The subject of money was not something that came up easily in conversation. It was also almost completely intentionally avoided as a subject in schools.
The best education I had about money came from the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
I read it first when I was 16 years old and again in my twenties. The biggest lesson I took away was that I needed to avoid the rat race as much as possible.
Here’s what the rat race looks like:
Go to school for all your young years → Get out with good grades → Get a job and work all your adult years → Settle on measly pension in your old age.
That never looked like a great bargain for a creative busybody like me.
So for me, this meant I was never getting a job.
No matter what happened, I was going to figure out how to generate income by being my own controller. I had to make myself the job.
This mindset marinated deep in my subconscious as I finished my final year in university. It was the reason I fled so fast from school right after my final papers and didn’t even wait to attend my own graduation party.
So no, I have no graduation photos where I’m full-faced smiling surrounded by friends and family. I never went back to school to get my certificate either.
Instead, I threw myself 10+ years deep into a music career that I was sure was my destiny.
The Music Dream vs. Reality
I had already spent a big chunk of my social life in school performing on stages, being the life of the party, and entertaining my peers. I always thought of myself as a star, and I wanted to be on TV.
In my mind, I was going to make it as a big music artist, make a lot of money, and never worry a day in my life.
And for some time, it seemed like I had made the best decision. In a few short years, I was living my dream! My music career worked out, I was on stages, traveling all over the place, and I had become a “star.”
At least, I was famous, right?
Except that fame and money don’t necessarily always go hand in hand, as I soon found out.
Being an independent female rapper in Nigeria was hard. I was barely able to stay afloat. Being a star is one thing, but being a broke star is a whole different level of struggle to take on.
I was living from check to check, barely able to afford rent. I had driven myself to work hard on my passion for rap music, but my passion wasn’t profitable enough to pay rent at the time.
I experienced firsthand how people in the music business made decisions about who to hire and who to pay more. Rap wasn’t considered the most valuable genre at the time. If most of my money came from performing shows, and all my show checks were judged based on the fact that I was a rapper and a woman, I always ended up working for peanuts.
Between studio bills, promotion costs, payments for my crew, and my personal welfare, I was hanging on by a thread. It was tough, it was lonely, and I was overwhelmed.
The unfortunate result was many years of depression that almost sent me to an early grave. At the forefront of my many worries and declining mental health was the issue of money.
Money, money, money.
More than anything else, money seemed to be an all-pervading necessity. No matter what you want to do, at some point, you’ll need money—even if it’s just for food in your belly. And at that time, food was becoming hard for me to afford.
I soon made the hard decision to take a step back from my music and work on my money-getting skills. Between my declining mental health and severe lack of self-esteem, I needed to find a way to fix my money problems.
“Problems are nothing but wake-up calls for creativity" – Gerhard Gschwandtner
The Shift to Making Money Online 📱
I couldn’t go get a job. That wasn’t an option. Rich Dad, Poor Dad, remember?
My only plan was to figure out how to make money online by selling my knowledge.
I said to myself, “I’m smart. I’m experienced. I enjoy writing. I can write eBooks and sell them for profit. Then I can take that money and pay for my main passion—music.”
What I thought was going to be a simple case of growing a new Instagram page to sell eBooks turned out to be a whole different ball game.
Did I make money online?
Yes, yes I did!
Even more than I had earned from my years of toiling in the music business. But more than money, I gained high-value skills.
Skills > School 👀
Doing one thing—selling digital products—required me to do many things well. To effectively monetize online and make money, I realized I also needed to learn
coaching
web design
copywriting
sales closing
video editing
product design
public speaking
content creation
audience building
I didn’t set out to learn these skills. They literally opened up to me as a necessity the more I pursued my online business.
And because in the beginning, you may have to do everything yourself, you’re faced with having to learn as many skills as possible in a short time.
That’s what happened to me.
Your Problems Contain the Seed of Your Purpose and Profit
When it came time to start selling my online courses and digital products, I faced yet another challenge.
There were no online platforms that allowed me, as a Nigerian, to sell my courses easily and get paid by anyone, anywhere in the world. All the available platforms either didn’t support African regions or rejected Nigerian users entirely. I was stuck.
I had to find a way to make my dream of selling my knowledge online possible.
I called the one person I knew could solve this problem, my brother, Keno Alordiah.
I said to him on the phone, “Guy, we need to build a course-hosting platform that enables Africans to sell their knowledge online easily. There has to be a way.”
Being the web-design genius that he is, Keno invested the next two weeks into creating the first prototype for Kobocourse: an all-in-one platform helping African creators make money online.
Kobocourse has now become the most intuitive online platform for African creators to sell eBooks, Templates, Downloads, Coaching, Online Courses and even paid memberships. And even if you don’t sell any of these digital products, Kobocourse helps you earn commissions of up to N40,000 per referral as an Affiliate.
Just like that, I woke up one morning and four years had flown by.
I went from wanting to make money online to becoming part-owner of a software company that helps other people make money online.
I didn’t plan any of this.
I knew nothing about starting a company, having a business, or running a SaaS platform. It all happened so fast, and one thing led to another, seemingly out of my own design.
A Renewed Sense of Purpose
With Kobocourse now, I’ve shifted my focus from making money to helping other creators and artists make money online.
When people send me DMs today asking for a handout and describing how broke they are, I share my Instagram business page with them and say, “Follow me here to learn how to monetize yourself online.”
I can give you a piece of my fish, or I can show you how to fish.
This is what gets me out of bed today.
I want to help as many coaches, artists, and creators as I can to earn money online with digital products. The other day on Instagram I made a post that read:
“I want to help 1000 Creators earn an extra $1000 online.”
That’s not too far-fetched either.
My clients and students so far have earned over N480,000,000 ($300,000) following my methods. I’ve witnessed firsthand how easy it is to generate income from monetizing your skills and audience. Making money online by selling your knowledge isn’t as hard as you’re making it—you’re just doing it wrong.
Unfortunately, too many coaches and creators are stuck in an endless cycle of information overload. There’s so much content to sift through to get the good stuff, and you’ve probably burrowed through endless courses already.
I have found that my best results with my clients have happened one-on-one.
And I believe it’s because many people need a hand-holding experience to really get down and do the work.
That’s exactly why I’ve set up two powerful ways you can work with me now:
If you’ve already earned over N3,000,000 ($2,000) from monetizing your knowledge online, I want to work with you 1-on-1 to scale past N20,000,000 ($12,000). This is for serious coaches and creators who already have digital products or courses and want to automate how they sell and earn online. If that’s you, grab a call with me here to get started. There are only 4 calls open.
If you’ve been creating content online, teaching your audience, sharing your skills but haven’t earned $1,000 in the last 60 days, join my Free Telegram group here. I’ve just opened up a brand-new “$1,000 in 30 Days” challenge, and the first live session is tomorrow! Get in now so you don’t miss it.
If you’re a total beginner, have no clue what you’re doing yet, and haven’t started creating content, then keep up with my Free Monetization newsletter here. Every week, I share one in-depth guide plus private podcasts to help you get closer to your goal of monetizing online.
Save the High-Vibe Playlist on Spotify
Wanna see more letters like this?
Let me know below how this has served you today and share your thoughts in the comments ↓
I can relate so hard to this. This is crazy
Awe inspiring 🙇🏿♂️