Omotayo Omolade
This week on Dear Creator, meet The OT Love Train, a content creation duo. They share their experiences, handling negativity, balancing personal lives, and how relocating to a new country has positively impacted their content creation process.
Q: How did you come up with the name, “THE OT LOVE TRAIN?
Toyosi: It was pretty much a wedding hashtag for us, and we were just trying to see how we could merge our names and, you know, sound cool. So we kind of put our names together to form “Oluwatoseyi” because I am Toyosi, and he is Oluwaseyi. So we just merged and we just knew that okay, maybe OT will sound cool, and we were like okay, this is supposed to be a forever thing, so we’re on the train to forever. So we just came up with the “The OT Love Train.” I guess that was like the best analogy for our relationship, and we actually had a wedding theme that infused a little train station and a train track.
Q: That’s actually cool. What inspired you both to start content creation?
Oluwaseyi: We’ve always been creatives, and at the time we were both working in the advertising and marketing industry. We both had that challenge where you don’t have control over everything you create at work. Just because, I mean, we’re doing strategies and campaign concepts for brands, but sometimes they don’t want to go all the way, or they don’t have enough budget to execute your ideas. So we kind of started our thing just as a creative outlet. We both had cameras at the time, and I mean she was good with the cameras, I had all these quirky ideas then, and an opportunity came when there was this challenge that was going on. It was like this Michael Dapper thing where he did like “the thing go skrrr” and all of that, and some of our friends were like we are fun, and we could try the challenge. So we kind of kept on doing it and it and it just became like a bonding activity for us.
Q: You guys make me want to get married. So Toyosi seems like the most serious one and the more composed one, While Olus seems like the playful one. Who suggested trying content creation first?
Toyosi: I can’t remember, but I feel like we arrived at this decision collectively.
Oluwaseyi: I really can’t remember; this was like 2017, so I mean a lot has happened since then, but I don’t know, I probably suggested it. But one person suggested it, and the other person was like yeah, it would be cool, and I don’t think there was any resistance.
Q: When you both fight, how do you manage to get over it and still create content?
Toyosi: I’ll say because of the level of consistency that we are trying to maintain, we still have to shoot the content. But we realize a lot of the time whenever we start, we end up reconciling to do the content because it’s pretty much a bonding moment for us, and we make each other laugh, and we can’t really be angry with one another. But then, generally, when we have issues, we always try to resolve them almost immediately, like, you know, before we even shoot because a lot of the times those things translate into the content, and people watching can easily tell if we are fighting with each other. So many times we just try to resolve everything before we shoot, and we also try to be patient with one another before we shoot because shooting is also a lot of pressure. But then, even if we are not feeling the best way, we still go ahead and once we start shooting and we start making fun of each other, we just stop being angry with each other.
Q: God when! Can you share a funny or memorable moment from your content creation journey?
Oluwaseyi: This was a very awkward situation, and this was probably like 2020, so we were still growing then. I mean, we didn’t have the largest number of followers or anything, but the quality was always there, and people knew we were doing this for the passion. So when we wanted to start exploring collaborations, I remember there was this guy I spoke to; he was running a wellness center in Surulere then. We used to stay in Surulere, and they had, like, a spa, where you could get your manicure, pedicure, you get a drink while you’re doing that, it was all self-care, you get your hair done, all of that. So I spoke to this guy, and he was like let’s do a barter deal that we’ll create a video, we’ll post across our channels, and they’ll give us that self-care session right. So we went there that day, we were all dressed up, we even started, immediately we got there they put us in the chair, we got our manicure and pedicure done, they asked us “what do you want to drink?” We ordered nice cocktails, it was a good experience, all in all, the place was really nice, they had an aquarium with fish swimming. Apparently, the person that we reached out to, said his family or something owned the place, and he introduced me to the manager.
Toyosi: We recorded everything.
Oluwaseyi: We recorded everything, oh guys like, this was a full working session. I mean, there were times we’d say, “Oh sorry, I want to get that shot again, put my feet again.” Like, we got all the angles, the work was a hundred percent, only for us to finish, the next thing they brought the bill of 15,000 to us. I can never forget that day, I had to ask him if he wasn’t told it was a barter deal.
Toyosi: Was it 15k or 25k?
Oluwaseyi: I can’t remember; I just know there was a fine there.
Toyosi: Yeah.
Oluwaseyi: I’m sure we would find that receipt, or maybe not, but like, ah ah! I even spoke to the manager, and asked if he didn’t know it was a barter deal, didn’t he see me filming? And the manager was like, “Yeah, that he thought we were just coming to film, that we would still pay,” that he didn’t have that discussion. Then it was getting a bit embarrassing, I told him to call the guy, then he called and we could hear them shouting on the phone, saying, “Why you go tell them say na free?” The guy’s mum too got involved on the phone, speaking in Yoruba and shading us. I was like, “Common!” at that time, I think I was even a brand manager, I wasn’t even working in an agency again, so I’m like, we have money to pay for this thing, but I would normally not pay 25 or 15k for a manicure, pedicure, so I just asked for the receipt, we paid in full and we went to treat ourselves at a restaurant.
Toyosi: Since we already made footage, we created a vlog, which we ended up posting. People were now asking us, “Oh where did you guys do this?” We just did not answer.
Oluwaseyi: So that’s how we did it, we edited the video and cut everything that had to do with their brand out, we just focused on ourselves.
Q: Wait, and the guy didn’t reach out, he didn’t apologize?
Oluwaseyi: I don’t even know, but at that point, he was apologizing. It was a situation of “I’m so sorry there was a miscommunication but this is your bill.” Then I remember the guy slid into our DMs later, like when we now got some mad numbers, he was now trying to talk to us. I was just like, “Abeg.”
Q: When people send negative messages or you see negative comments on your content, how do you take it, and how do you handle it?
Toyosi: I’d say that most of the time, we just ignore because the reality is that the positives are usually more than the negatives. So we focus on the positives, but then there are some people that we have to put in their place. So there are some people that would come and say nonsense to us on our pages, and we definitely put them in their place. But most of the time, we just ignore it, and maybe because we’ve already been doing this for a while now, so we already know that, first of all, not everyone can like your content, and not everyone can like you. People still say that we’re cringe, people say that we’re not funny, but the truth is that those that say that are way less than those who like and enjoy our content. Another angle is that there are many people who are projecting their insecurities on you. When some people out there want to be you, they wish they had what you have, they wish they had your talent, they wish they had your numbers, they wish they had your relationship, and many of the things they’re saying are coming from hate. So we’ve also learned over the years how to differentiate constructive criticism from haters and people who are just fully negative, so yeah.
Q: How do you both balance your personal lives with your content creation lives over time?
Oluwaseyi: So, from my point of view, I’ll say it’s better now because it’s kind of been a lot, and we added structure to it. Like when we first started, it was strictly just a hobby, we were not even looking at numbers or anything, we were not making money off it or making it a business. So it was like anytime we felt like we had an idea, we just bring out our cameras to shoot, to edit, take our time. But when we saw that it started growing, and we were like, “Hey, this could be a stream of income, it could be a business,” we started putting more structure to it. I mean, for the longest time, this has felt like the second job just because you do your 9-5, and when you’re done at 5, you have to open up your laptop, respond to emails, respond to comments, shoot videos, edit videos, strategize, and you’re doing that, it’s probably like 10 or 11 pm. Sometimes there were times in the past like last year when we had to set an alarm to wake up because we were creating for mostly a Nigerian audience, then we were creating for a global audience. So I mean, there were times we were aligned with time zones and posted when people in the two different time zones were our major audiences are awake. So sometimes we would need to wake up. Most social media scheduling apps don’t work the way they should work, so we had to do it manually, there are different seasons in our journey. I think it’s just finding the balance; which I think we’ve found. It doesn’t mean the work is less, but it just means there’s more structure to it, and yeah, we enjoy doing it so it doesn’t feel like work most of the time for us.
Q: How did your change in location affect content creation?
Toyosi: I’ll say that definitely living here made content creation go way easier than back home in Surulere, Nigeria, because they were so many factors considered, first off, 24-hour light here. Apart from that, the internet is also faster here so there was a time when we wanted to upload videos on YouTube or Instagram and it took us like 3 hours just to get a one-minute video out because of the terrible internet. But here the internet is fast.
The third thing I’ll say is also in terms of security as well because we just came back from Nigeria, it just reminded me how it was, because you can be holding on to your phone and your camera, you can’t really vlog in public because somebody can snatch it from you. But here, anywhere I am, I can just bring out my camera, and no one is looking at me like sometimes even in Nigeria. Nobody’s trying to steal your phone from you, and I think also the environment as well, everything kind of looks cleaner and everything’s better when you’re abroad, people are even more willing to watch your content.
Q: If you could go back in time and give yourselves a piece of advice when you first started, what would it be?
Toyosi: Stay consistent.
Oluwaseyi: Like be more consistent, like I would have told myself earlier like do this thing and be more consistent and like have structure earlier, and the second thing I would have probably told myself to either travel more or to have relocated earlier.
Q: What advice would you give aspiring content creators?
Toyosi: I’ll tell aspiring content creators that they should just be themselves. They should not try to imitate anyone because you can get lost in that, and I feel like if everyone is just genuine with themselves, there would be a lot of varieties to watch. Imagine if everyone was the same, everything would be boring. Nobody would be able to stand out, you know? So first of all, just take what you want from other people. Yes, you can be inspired by them, but don’t lose yourself trying to copy them, just be yourself. And even, we realize that when we were strictly ourselves, our videos started to gain numbers, and people started falling in love with us. I’ll also say you have to be consistent. It may sound cliché, everybody says that, but if you post once in a year, if you post, let’s say once a week, that’s like 70-something chances for you to go viral. But if you post twice a week, that’s 100 and something chances for it to go viral. If you post every day, that’s 365 chances for you to go viral. So it’s up to you to decide how many chances you want to give yourself for your content to kick off, and yeah, that’s pretty much it.
Oluwaseyi: For me, I would say specifically for content creator couples, if anybody wants to be a couple content creator, I would just tell them to put themselves first, put their relationship first, prioritize their relationship, don’t go and be creating content at the expense of your relationship, right? Do what’s best for both you and your partner because that’s the main thing. It’s not about looking happy; it’s about actually being happy.
Thank you for joining us, it was an amazing interview, very, very interesting.
Oluwaseyi: Thank you for having us.
Toyosi: Thank you for having us.
