welcome to the museum of failures 👇🏽
30 years in the making.
i can name every flaw i have before you notice it.
somewhere along the way,
“at least i know” became “i don’t have to fix it.”
that’s the building we’re standing in.
—
exhibit a: the five-look wardrobe.
i shop once a year, if that.
five outfits i trust, on permanent rotation.
exhibit b: the spreadsheet i never opened.
money gives me so much anxiety
i decided the answer was to stop looking.
i exist on vibes.
exhibit c: the trips i didn’t take.
i say i love to travel.
my money always finds a better use.
exhibit d: the table for one i never sat at.
i tell myself if i’d enjoy it, i should do it alone.
then the day comes
and i’m suddenly very busy doing nothing.
exhibit e: the 2–3 week streak.
intensely consistent, right up until i’m not.
then i disappear from the thing like it never mattered.
every restart is heavier than the last quitting.
exhibit f: the no’s i took personally.
i still hear “no” as a verdict on my character
instead of information about a moment.
exhibit g — centerpiece: the disappearing act.
when my energy is low, i go quiet.
weeks pass.
then i return like a tourist to a place i used to live.
“hey, sorry, life got busy.”
i don’t know how to say
“i’m overwhelmed and i don’t know how to be a person right now,”
so i say nothing.
then come back pretending the silence didn’t happen.
this is the exhibit that’s cost me the most.
—
30 isn’t the deadline i thought it was.
but it’s the year i stop pretending
that naming the problem
is the same as solving it.
the museum stays open.
I ran my freelance business like an agency for 3 months. Here’s everything it taught me.
Q1 2026 is done. 33 jobs. 29 clients. KES 830,000 charged. On paper, that looks like a thriving creative agency. In reality, I was one person carrying everything — the shoots, the edits, the client calls, the sales conversations, and somehow still trying to show up consistently on here.
And the numbers told on me.
My delivery SLA was missed more often than I’m comfortable with. My lead conversion rate sat at 5% — not because I was overpriced, but because I was replying to enquiries whenever I remembered to check my phone. I ended the quarter with KES 135,000 still uncollected, and every single outstanding invoice was tied to late or incomplete delivery.
One bottleneck. Four consequences. Late content leads to unhappy clients, which leads to late payments, which leads to fewer referrals. I was watching it happen in real time and still couldn’t fix it fast enough because I was too busy doing everything myself.
The thing nobody tells you about running a creative business solo is that being fully booked is not the same as being fully functional. I had 33 jobs and 1 retainer client — and I had never once pitched a retainer to anyone else. The ceiling on project work is your capacity. The ceiling on retainers is your value. I was capping myself without realising it.
The one thing that actually worked? Posting consistently. In January I posted 3 times and reached 18,000 accounts. In March I posted 21 times and reached 140,000. I didn’t plan that. Imagine if I did.
Q2 looks different. Fix the editing bottleneck first. Build a real response system for leads. Pitch retainers to the clients who already trust me. Post consistently — not occasionally.
Same business. Better systems.
Swipe through for the full breakdown 👉🏽
If you’re a creative freelancer trying to build something real, save this. The numbers will always tell you where to look — you just have to be willing to look.
What’s one thing your Q1 taught you? Drop it below 👇🏽
I am not who I was a year ago.
I am not yet who I am becoming.
but I am somewhere in the middle of something real.
this is that story. 🤍
drop a word in the comments that describes where you are right now 👇🏾
Editing is eating me alive and I finally have the receipts.
I tracked every minute I spent on it this month, while also shooting, running client meetings, and doing strategy sessions.
The number is not cute. I know I need to hire someone but I’m traumatized 🤧.
My Slow Intentional April. Swipe through. ✨
2. Solo date. Caught happy hour while baby Rin got a wash. Sat with myself for a bit. 🍓🥂
3. Doesn’t know what a deadline is. Shows up anyway. Respect. 🐱💻
4. Drove baby Rin with no destination in mind. No playlist agenda, no deadline waiting. Just the road and whatever was on the radio. 🚗🪟
5. Really felt myself on this day. @vc_glam_studio killed it with the makeup 💄 and @realshinski reminded me that the only concerts worth going to are the ones where you get to sit down. 🎶🪑
6. No meetings until noon. Just a cuppa I could drink without burning my tongue. ☕🌤️
7.Discovered these dumplings from @dumplings_therapy_ke this month. Slightly obsessed. Completely unashamed. 🥟✨
8. This month I was intentional about what I said yes to. Fewer projects, but every single one felt worth showing up for. Quality over volume is a slow lesson. The pockets are sad but it was needed. 📸🙏
9. Family style service at @meko_restaurant — everyone gets to try a little bit of everything. My indecisive self was genuinely grateful. 🍽️😌
10. Got this K&F concept card reader from @ea_mobitech . Not the big flashy kit upgrade. Just a small thing that made the whole process feel a little smoother. 🎥🖤
11. Baked these on a slow evening. Ate three before they cooled. Would do it again. 🍪🔥
12. Some restaurants make you want to sit and gossip forever. @mammam.ke was one of them. ☕❤️
Nobody warned me that building a business would mean slowly losing the thing that made me start it.
Being a creative founder has a specific tension nobody talks about. Scaling a business requires systems, templates, repeatable processes. But creativity demands chaos, soul, and heart. Those two things do not naturally coexist.
And when every photo, every video has a piece of you in it 🎯 expanding that without losing what makes it yours is genuinely hard.
Here is where my head is at right now:
⚙️ Systems can be built for talent, client acquisition, and production workflows
🔥 What cannot be systematised yet is how I inject soul into those systems
🧩 That is the problem I am actively trying to solve as I scale
If you are a creative founder navigating the same thing, I would genuinely love to know how you are handling it. Drop it in the comments.
#creativebusiness #foundermindset #creativedirector #businessgrowth #contentcreation
Good afternoon. Tuko katikati ya shoot 😅🎥
Today we’re at Upepo capturing their new menu launch event—and honestly, this is why I love event coverage.
It’s never just one thing.
It’s:
✨ The decor
🧑🏽🤝🧑🏾 The people
🎶 The energy
🍽️ The experience
And our job is to bring all of that together through content.
Come along 🎬
#EventCoverage
#ContentCreatorKE
#BrandEvents
#Filmmaking
#NairobiCreators
The SHOWMAN Residency by @realshinski from my view in the nosebleeds cause I was late 😅. Man this would have been mad fun to photograph officially with my big boy toys but once again it’s me and my iPhone x8 lens against the world 📸
