Ruqqayah Ayoola is a Microbiologist, a Mental Health Advocate, A Fashion Designer and the CEO of Dream Wears Fashion World, who is quite known in the Modest Fashion Industry in Nigeria.I reached out to Ruqayyah on how she got her first 10 thousand followers and here is what she had to say:“A Couple of years ago when I took the bold step of becoming a stylist, I asked myself series of question like :What do I want from this? what kind of challenges would I be facing? I knew I needed a camera as it is a necessity and a number of stylists I Knew had digital cameras but It was nowhere next to stopping me as I didn’t see it as a challenge. I understood that everyone has a success story and if you ask those people who regularly use a digital camera, they will tell you they once used their phone or a whacked camera as well and it is no news that people delete their old post on social media and leave the glittering and attractive ones. A picture taken 4 years back can’t be as good as that of this year with the way technology improves on a daily basis.
I understand the phone camera isn’t just enough and those with digital cameras could seem intimidating to you, but you don’t have to hold back and wait till you have all that you need to push your start button, In my case, all I did was took my photos with my Awesome Tecno phone in the right spot, and edit them with certain apps like photo grid and pics art, oh yea, did I mention the sun is such an awesome filter, it just makes your picture look good depending on what kind of photo you want to put out.
My Instagram account is 3 years old and i still don’t have a camera, Although once in a while I involve a photographer for a photo session, But as a starter, You can’t always have a photo shoot session, that’s like wrecking your business because photographers will not have sessions for free, so I had to learn to make do with what I have.
Another thing I did was networking, can I just use this medium to thank my followers and supporters, Thank you guys. Never be shy to tag people on your post, these people will help you get the post out which for me was a push button and always got me on my feet working hard day in and out and do not be shy to collaborate with photographers and other stylists as well, people will reach out to you or even you reach out to them for a photoshoot session or a collaboration, this only means sharing/promoting each other’s ideas.
This is me basically saying do not delay what you want to do,Make your challenges secondary to what you want to achieve. Take that one step, go for it as it is the only way you can get experience. I am grateful today for the fact that I have the opportunity to compare the Ruqayyah of today and that of 3 years ago and the Ruqayyah of today, a microbiologist,the C.E.O of Dream wears fashion world and still doesn’t have a digital camera but she is not stopping at pursuing her dreams.”
I am sure you have just been inspired,You can Follow the Amazing stylist HERE.
Thank you for stopping by,Don’t forget to leave your comments below, Remember they are like scoops of Vanilla and chocolate ice-cream to me.
Keep it up sis
Here is your vanilla babieee. Weldone girl! She said it all, you don’t have to wait for a good camera before you put yourself out there . make do with what ever you have.
BarakAllah fih. Sis.
Nice one dear may God increase you
Keep it up sis. You are blessed
M really inspired sis, jazakalahu khairan. Thank God i came across this, always having sleepness nyt on how to gain followers on IG, i feel intimidated by other stylists and attimes i wonder nd ask myself the question “Am i not good enough”, now av gotten answers to my questions, Alhamdullilah. Barakallahu fihi… Pls follow on IG via Qeezy_qeez
Alhamdulilah for Allah swt mercy. Keep the flag flying
Thanks for this. I I sometimes think about pausing on instagram until I have a good camera but this is encouraging. I’d just keep going!