The Beauty Game Changer; Chidimma Umeh! Meet Our Beauty Hub Crush!

Yipee! Another one! (In DJ Khaled’s voice). Lol! Hope you guys are great! In this edition of Beauty Hub, we had another amazing guest and this lovely person was the talented Chidimma Umeh. I loved every part of the interview but before that, here is a short biography of Chidimma Umeh. If you are here for the first time, you are so much welcome! Please take a tour round the blog and sign up for beauty tips, motivation and exclusive interviews.

Short Biography Of Chidimma Umeh

Chidimma Umeh, blogger and vlogger has been blogging and sharing beauty tips since 2011. She published her first YouTube makeup tutorial in 2012 and currently has over 254, 000 subscribers. A regular feature on most Nigerian blogs, Dimma’s YouTube makeup tutorials have garnered over 12 million views. She is well known for supporting both Nigerian and international brands. Dimma has been featured in big publications such as Essence magazine.

Her blog Dimmaumeh.com won ‘Best Beauty Blog’ by popular votes and Judge’s choice in the 2013 Nigerian Blog Awards.

Phew! I don’t want to get emotional right now. There is an audio file of the interview. All you have to do is to scroll down to listen just in case you prefer that to reading the interview. You can also download as well! So let’s get straight to the interview, shall we?

Chidimma was currently filming few minutes ago before we got her on the show and i trust her to deliver another awesome YouTube tutorial video because of the vibes she has when it comes to curating quality content and my listeners are so excited as they will be expecting another dope content from you. Moving straight to the questions,  according to your bio, you started vlogging in 2012 right?

Yes…

So personally i think and feel that people were not really enthusiastic with beauty, makeup and all that then right?

Not really. I feel Nigeria has always had a very big beauty industry maybe not at the level of putting it out on social media at that time but there were a lot of beauty enthusiasts, a lot of people were into makeup, watching highlights and contour, beauty videos and so on but they weren’t really watching it from Nigerian content creators at that time. People were not into blogging at that time and used to sharing things on social media then as much as they do now.

I must say your bio is very interesting and inspiring. I came across something again in your bio because i really take out time to read and analyze people’s bio. You started blogging in 2011 and won best beauty blog by popular votes and Judges choice in the 2013 Nigerian blog awards. So if i’m not mistaken, that was a space of two years. I was wondering, what was the major secret  because just in two years, you’d already bagged two reputable awards?

It was just hard work and consistency in all honesty. People knowing that you are putting out things regularly and knowing that they could always refer back to what you have created. I think that helped a lot and then again, it was this whole thing of like i explained earlier, people were not sharing stuffs and curating content online. From personal experience, more than anything; artistry, how talented you are, something very important in my opinion is people being able to relate. It is really important people relate to what you are doing. A lot of us were watching those in US and UK doing nice things but we couldn’t relate with them on so many levels. Some people couldn’t understand the way they were talking, the products used and it is one thing to watch an amazing eyebrow tutorial someone in UK has done but you don’t even know where to get the products used in Nigeria. What made me stand out and grow rapidly as i did was the fact that people could come to my YouTube channel and watch an eyebrow tutorial and i’d say i bought this from a particular market or beauty store and its value in Naira. It made it a lot easier for people to relate. That was what pushed me out there and made people get on board when it came to the kind of videos i made.

When it comes to being relatable, i can totally relate because you really are and I’ve watched a lot of your YouTube videos. You mentioned something as your huge secret to your winning of the awards in the space of two years. You said ‘CONSISTENCY’. When people are told to be consistent, it is easier said than done but sometimes i feel as a blogger, you feel demotivated sometimes. So how did you manage to stay consistent up until now 2018 starting off in 2011?

At the beginning, it was just because of the fact people loved what i was doing. I remember the first blog pictures i took were in front of our parlour door. There was really nothing fancy about it but people loved it. You put up a work and people appreciate it and encourage you to keep on doing it and from there, your numbers start to grow. So apart from the feedback and how people were loving it is the fact you are looking at your numbers grow. That is an extra motivation for you. And then you keep pushing out content and all of a sudden, it dawns on you that this is something you can actually make a living from. Brands are offering you money to use their products and tell people about it. That is also an extra level of motivation because even on days i feel there are so many people doing what i’m doing, there are days you wake up in the morning and you don’t feel like doing anything. Then you remember you have to fuel your car, pay rent and so on, you get up and do something.

At the level i’m at now, the key motivation for consistency is just how much i stand to earn and growth because the thing about growth is there isn’t any feeling and the more you grow, the more opportunities you get and come your way. It is ridiculous the kind of people I’ve worked with just because of my numbers here in my little corner in Nigeria and not even including those outside of Lagos. Outside Nigeria, you are reaching people in Africa and outside Africa, you are reaching people that look like you because most people who watch my videos are black Americans, in the West Indies, Caribbeans, Jamaicans and there are brands that would also want to work with you to reach those people for them so it keeps me motivated.

Chidimma thumbs up! I mean, i’m inspired. Really inspired. You asserted earlier the importance of dishing out relatable contents as a blogger. Was that also what inspired your popular YouTube channel name ‘ThatIgboChick’ because i love the Igbo vibes?

Honestly, it wasn’t. I decided to go with that name after i read ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I love her a lot. A lot of people do and some have controversial opinions about her and i don’t really care but i remember after reading that book, about the Igbos, the things they went through and how resilient we were, i was really ‘Igbo’ as at that time and i saw a couple of bloggers who had names like ‘ThatNewYork Chick’, ‘ThatLondonChick’,  and i was like if they could be that, i can also be ‘ThatIgboChick’. That was how i gave myself that name.

I love that name so much and most times, i just browse through YouTube looking for new people to discover but when i came across your profile and saw ‘ThatIgboChick’, i watched some of your videos and i exclaimed, ‘Yeah! she is indeed an Igbo chick. This is the final question and like an advice i’d love you to dish out to my listeners. Many people do chat me up or write to me and ask how they can start a beauty blog because they feel the market right now is over saturated. There are lots of bloggers and vloggers and everybody is struggling for their voice to be heard but just like they’d always say ‘You have a unique voice because there are a group of people you can reach and will understand you’. So what advice will you give anyone that wants to start a beauty blog or vlog? What should the person look out for?

First of all, i’d just say, ‘start’. People get carried away on all the logistics, what you have to do and the things you need to get ready before they do something. I’d just say ‘start’. You don’t need a fancy or big camera to start but get anything within your budget. These days, smart phone cameras are amazing and you can start making videos with yours. The thing about over saturation is true but the truth is, when i was starting my channel and blog in 2012, a lot of people and critics told me at that point, it was saturated. I remember thinking at a time that people wouldn’t want to listen to me with my non-American accent and you see, it is all about being relatable and people finding someone they can relate to. It dawns on you after doing it for a short period of time that there are so many people consuming content in this industry that they never had someone representing them. For instance, there are lots of black YouTubers at so many layers and levels. I thought of all these things then and told myself i was just going to do my thing and people started eating it up. You don’t have to be like anybody.

You don’t have to mimic or copy anybody. People will love what you are putting out. If you want to start on a platform like YouTube, i highly recommend you pay close attention to what is going on there. Look closely at the analytics and keep thinking of all the ways the platform is growing and evolve with it. If you’re not evolving with the platform, you become redundant. I’ve been on YouTube for up to four or five years and i know a lot of people in my niche that started their channel last year and they have about one million subscribers now. I don’t know if this makes any sense. It’s you just constantly thinking of what you can do. I know everybody is doing it but what can i add to make mine extra? Don’t keep thinking everybody  is doing it and if it were like that, nobody will be doing business in this country because there is no business idea of yours that somebody hasn’t started somewhere. It might not be in your area, but someone is already doing it. For instance, you can ask how you can go against ShopRite. Ask yourself what it is not doing right or what it should be doing that it’s not. Do it on your own end. There are so many instances. Just think. Don’t let the amount of people doing this already to discourage you. You can do it if you want to.

Wow! I was really touched. You made me feel like i was listening to one of these TED Talks. This is so beautiful. Thank you so much for being on the show.

It was really a pleasure. Thanks to your audience as well!

Now, tell me you didn’t learn a bunch of lessons from that interview! You sure did! Lol. So tell me who else you want me to interview regardless of location and i’ll start working on it immediately. Don’t forget to share with your friends as well.

Always remember his word ‘Show me that man that is diligent in what he does, he will sit and dine with Kings’. Just like Chidimma said ‘JUST START!’

Here is an audio file of the interview for your listening pleasure which you can also download if you want to listen later and don’t forget to subscribe! Subscribe to her YouTube Channel @Dimma Umeh and follow her on Instagram @dimmaumeh

PS: This interview was done last year but yipee! Now fully transcribed and edited just for you!

BE THE BEST VERSION OF YOURSELF. Love y’all!