Who are you and what kind of content do you create?

Hi! My name is Nagina Kumari. I was previously a teacher in secondary high of the Company Sale. I am based in Bokaro Steel City, India. Currently, I am a housewife and a full-time content creator for two channels.

‍

I am a one-person army. I am used to doing everything alone. This includes editing, managing, and the whole content creation process. It took me a month or so to come up with a brand name. I love the city I live in and since I started gardening here, I came up with the name “Bokaro Garden”. 

‍

‍

Let's go down memory lane, tell us your backstory! 

When I was a child I used to see the flowers in my neighborhood and I wanted them in my garden. I thought I should also have flowers so I asked for cuttings of the flower and planted them. Every morning, I used to go and pluck out the cuttings to check for roots. So my Big brother Vivekanand Sharma, taught me it will take about 20-30 days for the roots to grow. From here, my journey began. 

‍

After that, my life got a little busier as a family woman. I did my job to the best of my potential. After a while, my daughter, Mamata, was sent to an agricultural institute. Because of that, my passion started to pick up again. I read my daughter’s books and gained insights about agriculture from my daughter as well. Finally, I retired from my job at the age of 60 and finally had a lot of time for myself. I wanted to start acting towards my passion which is Gardening. Then came YouTube for me, I got to share my findings and insights with the world. This idea fascinated me and I began my journey to content creation.

‍

‍

Initially, the idea was a fluke. We just wanted to try things on YouTube so I asked my grandchildren to create a YouTube channel for me where the first video was a chant of Durga Stotra. Next came the lucky bamboo - a plant I still think is lucky. The platforms I used were YouTube and blogger.com.

‍

The quote that inspired me was “Grow your Oxygen”. I am not from a technical background so the help I needed was provided through videos of Technical Yogi on YouTube. Viewers liked and commented on my uploads about living plants, and I got some acknowledgment of my work from others. This meant a lot.

‍

How do you brainstorm ideas for your content and what is your advice in getting the creative juices flowing?

All my ideas come from my thoughts and my plants. I also take into consideration the comments of the viewers. I don’t use any Software.

‍

My advice in getting the creative juices flowing, well, just forget about it! Don’t dwell on things you can’t control. Improve your craft by gaining more and more knowledge on your chosen subject. Close your eyes and think about it for a minute. Think about how you can get the best out of your idea.

‍

What are the tools and platforms you use to help with your brand?

I use an Application called My Movie and I learned how to use it from YouTube. Right now, I am on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I don’t use any third-party software. I like to take notes on paper and pen.

‍

What were your fears when you were starting? How did you handle it? 

As you know, I was a teacher previously. Handling a crowd wasn’t such a big deal. I usually joke about my content creation journey with my family. I never cared about the negativity in the comments and instead, took it as an inspiration. I was quite comfortable with the camera. It didn't take much time to adjust to being in the videos and taking the videos as there were minimal errors and distractions. I overcome any fears that come my way by thinking positively about everything.

‍

How did you build your brand to where it is now? Take us through your process.

I uploaded every single day for seven years. We had the funds to complete our day-to-day operations. I was not good with the tech side so it was a little hard to adjust to their functions. So I had to ask the how-tos from my grandsons, I sometimes even ask them to take some time out of their studies and help me do the tech work.

‍

It took me one to two months to get the first 100 followers but it was fast after.  Basically, I am busy 24/7 at work and doing everything else. It has been five years of me being a content creator. It took a day to make and upload the first video. My first video was about the touch-me-not plant.

‍

For someone who wants to get into content creation, what is your advice?

Concentrate on the work you are doing and forget about haters. If I can do something differently, I would work on more ads. I got a bit distracted from the main theme of the channel, there were some sponsorships I missed to take the opportunities. 

‍

I was 6 months into my channel when I had to face an accident and was asked to stay bedridden for some time. Hence, I still continued with the channel's day-to-day activities. The trick I learned was to never give up.

‍

How did you finally commit to X platform rather than your regular day job?

My regular day job was a training business that I run. Offering video training was a natural evolution. And marketing that through my YouTube content was an obvious evolution from that. When I realized my YouTube ad revenues were starting to rise towards the level of my course sales, transitioning to my current ‘YouTube first’ business strategy was a no-brainer.

‍

Now, YouTube is both a marketing platform and a revenue source.

‍

Tell us the biggest obstacles you have experienced in your content creation journey. And how did you bounce back?

As mentioned, I was six months into my channel and I had to face an accident and was asked to stay bedridden for some time but I still continued with the channel's day-to-day activities. I never gave up. My strong will got even stronger.

‍

Tell us your best milestones in being a content creator.

The first milestone was to reach 500 followers, then 1000, and then 100,000. Next came YouTube’s silver play button. That was special to me!

‍

‍

This motivated me to make it through to the next milestone and it gave a new courage and inspiration toward the new goal.

‍

What are your marketing strategies to grow your brand?

I was focused on organic marketing and content creation and not too much on the growth of the brand. Organically, it grew into a fine thing. A vast majority of people shared my posts and videos and thus the channel grew. As I’ve said, I am a one-man army. I did not hire anyone to manage or market my content.

‍

What is your monthly earning from content creation?

 I earn around USD$100 - USD$125.

‍