Here is the full transcript of Shaz Mohammed’s talk titled “Yes, I Make Content Online For a Living” at TEDxStTeresasCollege conference.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, everyone. First of all, a disclaimer: this is the very first time I’m speaking to a public audience. So, I might have—there’s gonna be—a lot of grammatical errors, awkward pauses, and stuff. So, please bear with me.
Beginning of the Journey
Anyway, let’s begin. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Chaiwetek. Sorry, wrong. Welcome to my TEDx. So, this is actually really great. So, let me introduce myself. I know that a few of you guys don’t know who I am. So, just want to introduce myself. And, I’m going to talk about my journey as well.
So, I am Shaz Mohammed. And I ask people to call me Shazam. That is my Insta, YouTube, Twitter—literally all the handles. So, it would be great if you guys can just subscribe and follow me right now. Anyway, so what I do for a living is this. I mean, I’m a content creator.
The Life of a Content Creator
That’s what I do. And, yeah, I mean, like everyone comes to me and they’re like, “Oh, you do awesome. And I love your videos.” So, what is your real job? I’m like, “This is my real job. This is what I do for a living.” And they’re like, “Really?” And I’m like, “Yeah, yeah, it is.”
So, I don’t know why, because it’s very hard for people to understand that this is what we do. And we are making a living out of it. So, let me start like how I came to be a content creator. I was an assistant director before COVID.
And what that particular profession has given me is confidence.
You know, the confidence to make my own content rather than lip-syncing because I was very prominent on TikTok by that time. I know, I know, I know. I used to do this and you know, do this and all.
Turning Point
But yeah, it was very funny. One fine day, what happened was, I thought like I should do something original. So, I did a video, which was Android versus iOS. And, luckily, that video got so much views. I got like 50k, 1 lakh views on TikTok. And I was like, “Oh my God, I’m not, I’m going to be the next big thing.” And then after two days, TikTok got banned. And I was like, “Wow, that’s, that’s great.”
Then, the next best thing is Instagram. I think during that, I was only 50 seconds of real and that’s pretty much it. So, there was IGTV, which was a long format. And I started doing, you know, opinion. I used to have a different opinion. When I see something like, I mean, there’s this one ad, which I remember, got banned for doing something good. And I kind of reacted to it. And I got, I was there in the picture, okay, and on social media, but not that, you know, viral.
So, what happened was that one fine day, I woke up and I sat and I was like, “Okay, I really need to find my niche. All right.” And my niche is, I love tech and I want to, you know, share that with the public. So, what is the best thing to do that?
And I was following a lot of, you know, TikTokers and Instagram creators at that time. And I have a huge inspiration. There’s this one person who’s sitting right here. He performed earlier and he’s also one of my, my inspiration.
So, I thought I’ll do something, something like that. You know, I would give something, a point of view of a cell phone and that happened and I sat and I gave different personalities to each character. And it was, there was this very introverted person. There is this, “I’m the best,” you know, God complex guy.
I mean, you guys know who that is. And there is this one guy who is like literally all confident. So, I, I felt like this might work. And with, like I said, it was a mobile cinematic universe.
The Rise of a Content Creator
That’s what I call it. But not that, you know, you guys know, it’s not like the real MCU because we don’t have the budget for it. I really wish I had, but that’s not the case. But again, that happened.
And one of the, one favorite, one famous celebrity shared my video on her status and I got viral. I got my first five lakh views and I was like, “Oh wow, this is it. I’m going to see whatever I wished for.” And my achievement, my dream was to have 10K followers and a swipe-up feature, which I don’t know if you guys are familiar with it.
When, if you, if you reach 10K, you’ll get that feature. That was my ultimate aim. And I, I finally got that. I was like so happy.
I was like, “Oh yes. I put up a thank you video saying, you know, this is great. God is great.” Things like that.
Then I was like, “I love the process, whatever I was doing.” I was like consistently putting up content after content, let it be relatable sketches or let it be, you know, a mobile kind of a thing. I keep, I love what I was doing and that pushed me further. And I like so instantly people were accepting my content and they loved what I was doing. Then one of my, my partners, she was like, “You know, you need to, you need to make something from it.”
And I was like, “Can we do that?” “Yeah. You should put a collab tag on your bio and let’s see if some promoter comes to you.” So, I did that.
And we got promoters and this is one, this was one day she came to me and said, “You need to make a reel and they’re going to pay you this much.” I’m like, “They’re going to pay? Oh wow. That’s great.”
I never knew that there was like a way like that, you know, you can promote stuff and you can gain that money from it. After that, I was like, “I want to become a YouTuber.” So, I started YouTube saying that, you know, I thought the first videos were, whatever I put on Instagram, I just used to reshare it on my YouTube. I thought I was so lazy because I thought like that’s gonna bring me fame, easy fame and all.
Challenges and Growth
But YouTube was like, “You really think you’re going to put the same thing and you’re going to gain subscribers? Yeah, good luck with that.” Then again, I went back to, you know, Instagram was very consistent when it comes to putting up videos. And I was gaining followers more and more.
And I kind of figured out that, you know, whenever you’re gaining more followers, you can
actually ask more. So, that is the case. And what happened was, I was like, “Okay, and moreover, when you are selecting promoters, you should be careful. There are scammers out there.
There are people who are there to get your money. There are apps which are going to draw money from you. So, you have to be very responsible when it comes to, you know, which, what to promote. That’s the question you need to ask yourself when you are doing that.
You have to do proper research. You have to do literally a good scan about what, what are you going to put on your feed? Because that is very important as a content creator. Again, I was doing pretty much okay with the promotion stuff.
Reaching Milestones
Then again, I went back to YouTube. Then I was like, “This is one thing which you guys need to know about myself. I’m very much into tech news.” So, every day I wake up, I have a cup of tea in my hand and I go through tech news.
And I was like going through it and one day I was like, “This is content, isn’t it? Like I can put a video, I can put a camera in front of me and I can make like say tech news to the world.” And that happened. And with a little bit of Poocham, which is what I’m famous for, I guess, with sarcasm and Poocham, I made a tech news and Chai with X will be always special for me.
That is the one series which bought all these, my initial subscribers to my YouTube channel. As I stand before you today, I am a 1 million family and I never thought that I would achieve that. Always thought I’ll get 100K and I’ll get the silver play button. Now the gold play button is on the way.
I’m like, “This is so nice.” So, all I want to say is there is an opportunity out there. We all used to rely on auditions or else reality shows to showcase our talent. Now, we have a free platform where you can showcase yourself.
Concluding Thoughts
It can be if you’re a singer or if you’re an actor, if you’re an artist, like there are a lot of opportunities right in front of you. And like I said, a very famous influencer has acted in a movie and social media helped him to reach that particular position. Or if you’re a singer, that’s what we can actually showcase our talent and let people, you know, if you’re good at it, people will accept you. That is for sure.
And I get this question, very, very weird question, which I hate listening to that is, “What if YouTube and Instagram are banned? What will you do?” Always have a plan B. This is not the only thing which you can do.
Make sure that you have a plan B. You don’t stick to one thing. You jumble around. If you are gaining something from whatever you’re doing right now with social media, make an investment out of it.
Or you can make a business out of it or do whatever you please. If a failure happens, make sure that you have a plan B because that’s what it is. And thank you so much for the time, guys. It was great.
I am so grateful today that I get to speak or get to share whatever I have been through. This has been great. And once again, thank you so much.