How The Internet Changed My Life – Japheth Omojuwa

Irrespective of prevailing circumstances, quality time investors always end up as news-makers in their chosen fields. With the instructive story of his life, multiple award-winning blogger, farmer, media strategist and public speaker Japheth Omojuwa has proven that just anyone can shape history if they care to do all that is required with the best use of time. In this refreshing chat with TopNaija’s Isaac Oladipupo, Omojuwa reveals the untold secrets behind his rise, influence and internet success. Enjoy!

In your own terms, how would you define or describe Japheth Omojuwa?

It’s difficult for me to define myself because a definition is a limitation. When you say this thing is this thing, it sort of makes it look like that thing doesn’t have the capacity to be or do something else. For instance, I’m a farmer. I have farms in Lagos and Abuja and I intend to do lots of farming in the nearest future. But if I told you I’m a farmer that might mean a pretense that I’m not a blogger, media strategist, public speaker and the likes of other things I do.

I’m just an ordinary person who has found the opportunity to use certain tools to do extraordinary things. I’m a blogger, farmer, media strategist, public speaker and many more. I’m first and foremost a Nigerian, a Christian, and I’m interested in the betterment of the society. I think it is totally possible to have a society where there are more prosperous people than poor people. I think that ultimately, every society must decide what it wants for its present and future. I believe in free market. I don’t think government should do business. Instead, I think government should focus on providing excellent leadership, security, laws etc and let enterprising and innovative people be the ones to provide goods and services. I can’t express all of my beliefs in this interview but ultimately, these basics hold every other thing together.

How did you start blogging and what were you doing before then?

I started blogging in February 2009 when a friend of mine advised that I extend the reach of the things I share online for wider audience. So I told him to go ahead and build it for me since he designs websites. That was how blogging started for me. Before then, I had always shares my thoughts through Facebook notes so I eventually combined both. Eventually, Twitter came and I also leveraged it. I just knew and envisaged that a time would come when people would have most of their needs met online. I remember telling some of my friends then who had anything to do with the internet to start early. One of them is Praiseworld who is also doing well at the moment. Growing up, I have always loved writing a lot. English was my best subject in school and I always looked forward to the exams because it was one exam that was guaranteed to shoot up my averages.

I had always wanted to give to the society and I had always felt I had enough in me that others would find useful. I’ve always been confident and I was very assured about who I was as a person. I had absolutely no doubt about my person. Everything just fitted such that the tools I needed all came to be when I needed them. It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t have achieved same thing without the opportunities internet, blogging or social media presents but they have helped to catalyze things and make life easier.

For you, was there a feeling of any fear or hesitancy when you first started out?

Definitely, I had moments of doubts when starting out. You know when you start out, you have certain expectations and sometimes your plans don’t fit into reality. Those are moments you doubt certain things. Even Jesus Christ had a moment when He felt, mehn should I really go to this cross? Then He said ‘let Your will be done.’ So I had those moments but I never lost faith in my ability.

Rémy Martinrecently unveiled Omojuwa as her brand ambassador

Omojuwa alongside other Rémy Martin brand ambassadors Arese Ugwu and Ali Baba

What parts of blogging do you find most interesting?

It’s the writing part. I write my content myself and I do a lot of writing. For me, that’s really interesting. The engagement and interaction parts are also very important for me, and the effect of the contents that also gets to pay the bills.

Beyond the popularity and money, how challenging is it to run a blog, especially in spite of the Nigerian situation?

It’s challenging in the sense that the tools that you need online can be difficult to get at times. I’ve been in a situation, this year, where all my three internet sources were not working. I’ve had times where I had to leave home to go work from somewhere because there was no power. For me, that’s the primary challenge. The other side is the rarity of quality staff. It’s so hard to get people who are really committed to working ad delivering on excellence. The other challenge is time.

How would you measure the impact of your blog since starting out? What do you think it does for people?

I think the audience would do the best job at telling on the impact of the blog. From my own end I can’t quantify it in anyway. For me, if I have to deal with a government official of any hierarchy, the person is just a phone call away. The president of Nigeria is just two phone calls away, and for me that’s impactful because if I didn’t do all of these things I don’t know how that would happen. I get testimonies from several people on how blogging and being connected to the internet has changed their lives and transformed their businesses. I can’t even put dollars to it but I definitely know that blogging has impacted my life tremendously in the past eight years.

Have there been moments when you felt like walking away from it all?

Not really. I mean, I had moments of doubts but I never had moments where I felt I’m not doing this anymore. Maybe because right after I graduated from university, someone said “Look I’ve been seeing your articles and I want you to come work with you..” I was looking to send my CV across. It’s a big advertising company but I don’t want to mention their name. And I do love advertising. So I was really interested in doing that, but just around that time I got a big contract for a Twitter campaign that made me feel like ‘What was I about to do?’ If you go work for a company, I won’t get this in a month. So I just decided to build my dreams instead.

When and how did you make your first million as a blogger?

I’m not going to lie to you; I really didn’t know when I made my first million as a blogger. One morning, I just did the math and realized I had crossed it. When I did those mathematics, I had N3.6million in my account. I crossed it without being conscious of the fact that I had crossed it because it really wasn’t the main thing on my mind.

What marked the turning point for you as a blogger, in terms of impact, traffic, and income?

Everything that has happened so far has only been a validation of my belief that I’m on the right track but I don’t think I have gotten to that point where I feel that I’ve reached a milestone. I have a lot of bigger things that I want to do, so I still feel like I’m just beginning.

You currently have a passionate following of over 400k on Twitter. What’s the secret behind such influence?

I think I’m very engaging. A lot of seemingly popular people get it wrong because all they do on social media is dish out information without engaging their followers. One thing I do very well is that I take time to engage; I make you feel as if you’re part of everything.  I’m not treating people as a group or crowd; I’m always treating them personally and individually such that even when I’m not replying you directly, you feel a sense of ownership. My followers are very passionate and lots of them are ready to stand their ground when it comes to my issues because it’s a personal, obsessive brand. So I think it comes to that engagement, being able to hold their interest, being able to have them speak their minds. It also comes from being interested in the things they are interested in. I never shy away from getting involved in certain sensitive issues even at the risk of being seen as controversial. I make sure to help amplify their voices at the detriment of my own life at times. When people know you truly care about them and the things that interest them, they would go any length for you.

For a personal or corporate brand, what does it really mean to be engaging online?

To be engaging is to not just put something out; you have to also listen to what they are saying before responding. Sometimes, it’s difficult to engage with everyone back and forth but when they see what you’re doing with other people it spurs a sense of belonging. The back and forth is very necessary because a lot of people just come and dump information or dump their brand and interest. They don’t really come back to say thank you for the interaction and all but that’s essential. Any platform that is engaging isn’t likely to lose steam. You can also transfer your influence from offline to online when you get this right. The day Beyonce opened her Twitter account it went ballistic because she transferred her influence. I didn’t have the influence I have before I joined Twitter but I have that influence now. When I go to any platform I can transfer that influence. I have eleven thousand followers on Instagram currently but I just joined Instagram and I’ve posted less than 500 pictures, so that’s transferred influence.

Omojuwa speaking alongside Nigeria’s statesmen Bola Tinubu, Bisi Akande, Governor Ajimobi

How has your online influence helped the achievement of your dreams?

Of course, it makes things easier for me. Influence is capital. So I was just connecting an international media organization to a top government official. That’s influence. If I need to get something done in a state or something, I don’t have to start from the bottom; I can practically start from the top. It just makes things go effortlessly for you. When I need get things done, I don’t need to go through so much stress. So it’s been massive and very helpful to the attainment of my dreams. It has also helped build other people’s businesses. I’ve pushed my friend’s clothing business, shoe business and different people’s ideas and platforms. So it’s not just me, a lot of people have been affected by it.

In blogging, there’s the creative side and there’s the business side. Which is most important to you, and how do you combine both?

If you don’t have what to sell, there’s no business. So for me, the most important is the creative side. When you get that right, you can now look for how to market and sell it. The basics are having the content because the content is the value you’re selling and without it there’s no business to sell. I’m the business, I’m the idea and so I can translate it into anything from there.

Omojuwa.com started as a political blog but I see you’ve added more categories. What do you think makes your blog uniquely different from others?

Primarily, I think the uniqueness is the political essence of it. A lot of my personality is there and that’s ultimately what makes it different. Apart from the fact that it’s an activist’s platform, it’s very structured. The reason why we have to include other things aside politics is because we needed for other people who are not interested in politics to come, and by so coming they’d eventually develop interest for the political content we’re widely known for.

Omojuwa lecturing at the Freie Universitat of Berlin in Germany

You’ve leveraged your platform to raise money for different people and different causes with different hashtags. Why do you do these?

If all of us help each other, the world would be a much better place. I don’t have the ability to help everybody at the same time but when I choose to do it, I do it with all my heart. I recently started raising money for a homeless, diseased woman with three kids and someone said started questioning it. My response was, you’ve never dropped a dime for any of these campaigns, you just talk and talk and talk. Keep your opinions to yourself, I’m not asking for opinions to be donated. If you don’t have it, it’s better for you to just shut up. But look, it’s not about those people really. It’s more about people who are genuinely interested in helping others in need.

How do you deal with the negativity that comes with these campaigns?

For me, I just focus on what counts. So if I’m raising money for a promising student who is about to drop out of school due to lack of funds, irrespective of what people say, my focus is on the end result of the act for the person being helped. I might even come back later to respond to a few people, but until the good deed and cause if fulfilled my focus remains on what counts.

What is the biggest achievement being a political blogger has afforded you?

It has made me an influencer and I don’t mean social media influencer but a bonafide influencer beyond the shores of Nigeria and Africa as a whole. It has made me a major influencer and that also counts for a lot. By God’s grace, I can get things done, I can get bills passed, we can get people rewarded for doing the right things and we can also get people punished for doing wrong. We have raised tens of pounds and dollars for different key issues and people. So it has given me that power to translate to several other things.

Your blog keeps running while you’re here talking to me. How did you build a business structure around it?

The idea is you need to bring people in and you need to give them a free hand. Maybe not 100% free hand but let them understand what this is all about and run with it. They’d make mistakes but you just need to help them grow. I don’t believe in micro-managing and I don’t have the time to micro-manage anyone. So the idea is to put the right people and structures in place. I pay people very well, much more than all these other media platforms not to mention the fact that I don’t owe anyone. I pay them on time and everyone is happy to do their job. And when they don’t do their job, I have a right to question them.

Omojuwa with Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo

What is the current staff strength of Omojuwa.com

We are about ten and we also have other people we bring on board from time to time when we have something going on. This year, we should be up to twenty if we’re able to finish what we’re starting out in Abuja. We’re currently working on an integrated media company that covers the entire space of the media spectrum, so those are in the works right now.

Does the income from your blog take care of your ‘turnover’?

It does but the thing is when you’re doing what we’re doing on Omojuwa.com, which is under one company called AlphaReach, it also gives you freedom to earn some other money. The company is able to pay everybody and also pay me, besides the many social works we do.

Tell me about the greatest lessons blogging has taught you.

There’s always room to learn and you never get to know everything. As much as I read wide, I still have to learn everyday to keep abreast of facts.

What are your top blogging secrets and reasons why you have been successful as a blogger?

You have to discover a lot more all by yourself. Top off my head right now, you have to have it in you because without that you have no business doing this. You must have enough passion to do this. You must have enough persistence to keep doing it and do it right. You must always be willing to learn new things because it’s a very dynamic platform. You must be willing to diversify because the game is changing every day. You must understand the marketing dynamics as it’s not enough to be passionate because you have to sell. You must also understand that it’s about people and engagement, so your people skill is very crucial.

Omojuwa speaking at the Success Stories Africa 2015 in Lagos Nigeria

What’s your relaxation routine?

For me, travelling is relaxing. I love travelling and, aside writing I also do a lot of speaking so my job involves travelling. Last month, I was in North America, South America and many others. I think one of the best things that can happen to any human being is to travel and see the world. For me, that’s relaxing apart from the fact that there’s really no time for deliberate relaxation. Those times would come when I get married and have my kids, I would like to separate some special time out just hanging out with my family. But at the moment, we are at that time in our lives where we need build the foundations of the future so that when that future comes we are not struggling for the things that we should have had. The time would come to play hard but right now it’s really about working hard and working smart.