Many people know of Sphokuhle Ngxenge (Spho for short) as one of the most famous YouTubers in South Africa, but how did she get there?
Her journey began back in 2014 when she uploaded her first video titled “Why I’m Afraid to Love!” Since then, she has amassed over 1 million subscribers and almost 2 billion views on all her YouTube channels.
She is also well-known for starting other successful YouTube channels such as The ReStyleChannel, BeautyHaul, and StyleOnAD which have gathered significant followings.
In this article we will be talking about some of her secrets to success that anyone can pick up and apply to their own channel. So let’s dive in!
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Secret #1: Create engaging videos that appeal to your audience
As we mentioned earlier, Spho started off filming beauty hauls and relatable life lessons. As her viewership grew though, she realized she needed to find an angle that would resonate better with her followers.
So she made her first experiment: creating fashion looks using products that were either heavily sponsored or manufactured by companies.
In May 2018, twenty-something social media personality Sphokuhle N published her first book with Pen & Sword Publishing — titled The Power of Positive Thinking.
Sphokuhle’s journey to publishing success is definitely not boring! Her story is full of dramatic twists, unexpected turns, and monumental achievements.
Her ability to build momentum and focus in pursuit of her dreams makes her seem almost superhuman at times. And she’s certainly made use of both positive thinking and self-confidence throughout her life.
But it wasn’t always so lovely. Phakatela (translated as “bad things happen for a reason”) is an old Zulu saying that seems to play heavily into Sphohkule’s worldview.
This article will discuss some important differences between negative thoughts and positive thoughts, how they work, and why letting go of the latter can help you achieve your goals more quickly.
Negative Thoughts Are Not Useful
All too often we get stuck in vicious cycles of negative thought patterns. This is when you keep replaying the same stories over and over in your mind – sometimes for hours on end.
It’s hard to remember the last time you had a pleasant thought, but you’ll know what kind of feeling I’m talking about. You may have experienced this before, especially if you've ever noticed a sudden loss of interest in something you love.
In May of 2018, South African YouTuber Sphokuhle N released her first video. It quickly went viral as she discussed how to do your makeup like A pro and then got into some very entertaining stories!
Her channel now has over 320K followers with her having almost 9 million views across all her videos! Her videos have been featured by many big beauty gurus such as Bobbi Brown, Paul Gasson, Makeupalchemist and more!
Sphokuhle is known for being witty and fun, which makes it easy to watch her videos. Even though she’s famous, she always seems in control and never feels stressed or overwhelmed. This helps her audience feel comfortable and relaxed while watching her videos.
After recording her first song, ‘Siphukisa', in early 2017, South African singer-songwriter Sphokuhle N got busy promoting it across all social media platforms.
She started by sharing the music video for the song on YouTube and Instagram, then she posted about half-time covers of the song on other popular music streaming apps such as Spotify, Apple Music, or Tidal.
Next, she designed some t-shirts featuring lyrics from the song and printed them herself to sell online via sites like Spreadshirt and RedBubble.
Many people know of Sphokuhle through her giving away products or services via giveaway contests. This is her METHOD to get famous!
Sphokuhle gives away free things to gain attention for her brand. By doing this, she gets exposure that may lead to more business for her. People can spread the word about her product/service and company by talking about it and sharing her content with them.
She has given away many items such as beauty products, health supplements, clothes, and even money. All of these gave way to additional marketing opportunities for her.
Her biggest prize was a $5,000 shopping spree at Amazon.com! Not too shabby- she spent that money online buying toys, games, and other fun gifts for kids.
She’s not the only one to do this though. There are several YouTubers who use giveaways in much the same way to promote their brands.
Shopping is a favorite pastime for most people, so it’s no surprise that many people make a living by buying things and selling them for a profit. Some are even paid to shop!
Shopping spree entrepreneurs or “shoppers” as they like to be called take advantage of the fact that we all love spending money to gain access to expensive goods. By going into a store with little to no knowledge about fashion and buying everything in sight, you can easily find what new trends are.
These new trends will probably not remain popular long, but shoppers have a chance to make some good profits while they are still hot. People who start doing this actually develop specialties – something like clothing brands or handbags.
There are several ways to get started as a shopping entrepreneur, but one of the best is to buy lots of products and sell them online at a discount. This article will talk more about this type of business model.
After leaving her position as an accountant, Sacha Pieterse decided to take time off before deciding what to do next with her career. While she was looking for new opportunities, one opportunity presented itself- traveling!
Sacha lived in Germany at the time so she traveled across Europe exploring different cultures and giving presentations in other languages. Her knack for storytelling made her very popular and she even gave some of these speeches while dressed in a sari!
She returned home to South Africa just in time for Christmas which is when she got the call that inspired this article’s title. A YouTuber named Sphokuhle N wanted to know if she could come visit their city to give a presentation and asked if Sacha would be willing to meet them.
It turns out that this meeting had major consequences because Sphokunlhe needed help promoting his talk and getting people to attend it.
Many people know her as the person who got famous by selling merchandise, but not many know how she made that transition. It was definitely not easy!
Sphokuhle is an entrepreneur at heart so she loved to create new products and marketing strategies. When she first started selling online, she used Amazon’s FBA (Fulfillment By Owner) service to fulfill and ship items.
But what most sellers don’t realize is that you are required to have your own shipping container or space where you can store all of your inventory.
This becomes very expensive if you want to run a business with lots of products because you will need to pay for this storage every month!
It gets even more expensive when you have a large order like hers where she just ordered enough merchandise to fill up her car!
She didn’t have any extra room in her house so she rented a cold storage unit which cost around $1,000 per year. This doesn’t include the monthly fee either!
To make things worse, she ran into issues trying to find a payment method that would work for her and Amazon because she only had access to credit cards with no additional funding.
Luckily, she found a way to get the money she needed through Indebet, a bank that works with Amazon and other eCommerce sites.
In May 2018, an internet user named Sphokuhle N posted her first status update online. It was for her personal Instagram account where she would share pictures of herself in different outfits and with some cool backdrops.
In that post, she displayed what appeared to be two plastic bowls with pink liquid inside and red powder mixed into the liquid. The caption read: ‘Pink drink or blood?’
Sphokuhle then proceeded to pour the pink fluid out onto the floor, leaving only the red powder behind. Her followers began speculating about whether the drink was actually meant to look like blood or not. Some even pointed out how weird it looked.
But it wasn't long before people started talking about the powdery substance. Many wondered if it was cocaine because of its texture and shape. Others speculated that it could have been MDMA (also known as ecstasy) due to its chemical makeup.
Whatever this mysterious drug is, it seems to have intrigued many people. Within hours of posting the picture, Sphokuhle had over 5 000 likes and nearly 1 500 comments. People were sharing their theories and experiences experimenting with the powder.
Some said they enjoyed drinking it while doing other things, such as dancing or studying. One person mentioned how they drank the whole bottle and felt relaxed afterwards.
And while most thought it was strange, one person wrote that it made them feel happy and confident.
