I Am Not All About The 9-5 Hustle: Meet Digital Influencer Joanna Kinuthia

By Lisa Osiako
When I first heard about Joanna Kinuthia I was intrigued. She had studied and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree, only to realize later that employment was not her cup of tea.
She then quit her job and became a digital influencer, something that is slowly gaining popularity in the country.
Meet Joanna
After graduating in 2017, she went on a job hunting spree, just like any other graduate.
“I applied for as many jobs as I possibly could because this was naturally the next step. It is what everyone expected of me, and I felt like it was what I had gone through school for,” she says.
She landed a job a few weeks later at Jumia Market with a starting salary of Sh25,000 per month.
“I was put on a three-month probation, after which my salary was to be increased to Sh60,000. This amount may not have seemed like much money to many, but compared to the salaries that my peers were being started off, I thought that it was a good deal,” she says.
Quitting her job
A month into her new job, her excitement was gone.
“I didn’t like being employed. I felt like I should have been on the other side of the table, running my own venture,” she says.
She immediately quit and although it was not well received, she still jumped the gun.
“I was clear in my mind that I would pursue something that made me wake up every morning with anticipation and excitement,” says Joanna. “I like to say that I’m the author of my life story, and while I was employed, I felt like my story was being written by someone else.”
Becoming a Digital Influencer
Joanna then ventured into vlogging, something she had already started while still in school. She decided to make turn it into a full time job.
“Before I started, I laid out potential income generating ventures that I could pursue. In the process, I realized that the regular woman could hardly relate to the existing content creators and digital influencers.”
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Challenges
Making it fulltime was the biggest hurdle she had to encounter.
“My growth was almost entirely out of my control. I would create content and distribute it on my social media channels, and from there, I could not control how widely it was consumed,” she says.
For the next six months, she did not make a single coin out of her venture. She watched her friends take home a salary every end month but could not do anything for herself in that regard.
“It was not easy at all. There were many times when I contemplated giving up. But then, this was a battle I had vowed not to lose,” she says.
Benefits
“What I do is quite profitable because a collaboration with a brand will pay anywhere between Sh50,000 and Sh130,000 per month,” she says.
“But to succeed, you must have the requisite numbers. You cannot get business if you don’t have good social audiences to back up your pitch.”
“Operational costs are very low. In fact, the biggest task is in developing fresh and relevant content. Becoming an influencer is easy, but remaining relevant to your audience and your clients’ needs is where the challenge is,” she says.
But for this young lady, the future can only get better. “This field is a fresh entrepreneurial concept that is rising meteorically, and I am positioning myself to tap from it as much as I can.”
Her advice…
Go for what you believe in and be good at it.
A new venture will never be easy, but you must have the will-power to nurse it until it stands on its own feet.