The six months LOCK-IN that started ten years ago

Perhaps what we call lock-in is getting ready for the opportunity to come.

This is what I did in the past six months, and I did it with a lot of intentionality, discipline, and the right amount of grit.

But before I go into the details of everything I did, what I did might not necessarily work for you exactly. What it will give you is a framework you can tailor to your own realities, resources, and experience.

Because I don't assume everyone reading this has the same privileges I have.

I was 23 days from 20 and had nothing to show

There will come a time when you decide to take charge of what comes out of your life. For me that has happened at different moments. Moments that did not give me the life I wanted, but moved me closer.

I have been on this storytelling journey since 2016, when I gained admission to Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) and they refused to resume for a whole year.

So I started content creation. I made my first short video on mental health and ventured into skit-making, a career that was short-lived once LAUTECH resumed and life got serious.

Before 2019 I ventured into many things. I started a food business. I sold ewa agoyin while jumping from clubs to parties, backing up for a repertoire band.

These were short-lived too. Selling food while juggling engineering classes is not for the faint-hearted, and singing in the band wasn't exactly what I wanted.

On 1 November 2019, 23 days before my 20th birthday, I sat at the edge of my bed feeling underachieved.

I had told myself I would make my first million by 20. The deadline was three weeks away and I was nowhere near it.

So I had to be honest with myself. I needed a new direction.

Engineering isn't my passion. I went to class every day questioning my life decisions. I hated every bit of studying it.

I could not afford the course, so I found the book

So I found copywriting.

I didn't know exactly what copywriting was, but everyone mentioned it in "high-income skills" articles. I was already writing, so it caught my interest.

I couldn't afford to buy a course, so I downloaded Advertising Secrets of the Written Word by Joseph Sugarman. That was where lock-in started.

I am not exaggerating when I say I locked in on learning like crazy. I'd stay up all night reading and watching videos on YouTube.

Then I started building my portfolio. Nobody would pay me because I didn't have any work.

So I invented a company. Real Suite, a customer relationship management (CRM) software for real estate companies.

I wrote sales pages, a landing page sample, and an email sequence for it. All on Google Docs, and the portfolio itself was a Google Doc too.

I locked in so hard my blood pressure read 152/95

I did this until the 2020 lockdown, when I found content marketing.

Everybody was talking about it, so I looked online and found a free content marketing course from HubSpot Academy. A lot of my learning came from HubSpot Academy, and I'm grateful for it.

And again I locked in.

The COVID-19 lockdown was a blessing and a curse. It gave me time to learn, and it was one of my worst years health-wise.

An ulcer dealt with me. My blood pressure read 152/95.

Yes, I locked in so much it made a real impact on my health.

So if you lock in, don't do it at the expense of your health.

The projects came because I was already ready

Between 2020 and 2022 I worked on some exciting projects.

I worked on a photobook and a story on human trafficking for Edo State Task Force Against Human Trafficking (ETAHT) , with Adedotun Soyebi. He was the official photographer to Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State.

He saw a story I wrote with Kashope' photos in 2019 (he didn't hire me to, I did it anyway) and said we should work together.

I also facilitated SEO training for DigiGirls by Cybersafe Foundation, supported by UK Aid.

These were good projects, and I got all of them because I locked in on learning in 2019. Preparing for opportunities to come.

You can't afford to be unprepared when an opportunity you have worked hard for finally arrives.

I exported an eight-minute video one frame at a time

At the end of 2022, my cousin gave me my first DSLR. I started learning photography, videography, and video editing.

I got a free one-month trial on Skillshare through Korty's YouTube video, and I used that month to the fullest.

I made my first video, Talented but Uncertain. Let me tell you exactly how.

My computer had a bad graphics card. When I opened Premiere Pro it would tell me the laptop couldn't process. I didn't care. I edited anyway, with the lag.

The problem came when I needed to export.

So I screenshotted each frame of the video. It took three days.

Then I put the frames back into Premiere Pro and made a time-lapse. Voilà, an eight-minute YouTube video.

There are no constraints when it comes to achieving my goals. I always find a way around it.

Seven years of school, and then my first real shot

In 2023 I finally graduated. 2016 to 2023. Seven years.

I was posted to Plateau State for national youth service, and there I got my first real shot at working full-time for a company.

I was going to do everything possible to prove myself. It was my chance to bring every skill I had as a content creator.

They don't pay corpers, but I was given a stipend every month because of the work I did. I created videos and documented outreaches.

While I was there I got my first major documentary photography gig, documenting demand-side incentives for a project by Corona Management Systems supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

I travelled to Oyo State and Kwara State. All expenses covered.

Oh, this is how good life can get?

Four months before the end of my service, the chief operating officer of the tech hub said we should start a creative hub called Thinkhub, and he made me the creative director.

Here I locked in again. Managing a creative team of more than 10, facilitating storytelling workshops for free, and documenting outreaches. Read more here.

A month to the end of service, I got a contract as a training assistant for Digital Gateway, a programme implemented by Jos Business School and NHUB Consultium, sponsored by the World Bank and the Federal Ministry of Education.

I trained more than 80 people, aged 18 to 60, in storytelling.

By the end of that training I had an offer from Corona Management Systems to be a visual content producer, after I sent emails pitching myself to the communications manager.

Then I locked in like crazy

In my first six months I created a mini documentary for the Malaria Modelling Fellowship, a Gates Foundation project.

I facilitated workshops for field officers on the UNICEF measles and rubella (MR) and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine campaigns. I worked on Project ULE, a Sabin Vaccine Institute project.

All round, I built a content library holding more than 3,500 multimedia assets, documenting programmes in Oyo, Kwara, Bayelsa, Imo, and Akwa Ibom states.

I even learnt motion graphics, and now I can tell health stories with motion graphics.

I left the office at 19:00 and got into an accident

On 23 January 2026, I left the office around 19:00 and got into an accident. I have written the whole of it in The Journey Didn’t End.

That was the beginning of my recent six-month lock-in.

Maybe I locked in because of the saying that "if you survive an accident and you don't make it after that, you are never going to make it again". I don't know the psychology behind that.

I saw Asherkine do it. I saw Dunsin Oyekan do it after surviving their own accidents.

So I locked in.

What I built on weekends and at night

I was working 09:00 to 19:00 WAT and rebuilding Journeying Storyteller in whatever was left over.

What I have done is build this website with a developer, and create a corporate narrative deck, a business plan, and marketing assets.

I learnt everything I could while putting my all into my full-time commitment. After a year and a few months there, I got promoted.

I also focused on making video content. The Road to Gurara Falls. The Walk to Change the World. The crossing to Tarkwa Bay.

All of it I did at night, or across an entire weekend.

One email in June

One evening in June, an email arrived. An organisation established 53 years ago had gone looking for a digital communication consultant, and my name came up.

We had a conversation. I sent a proposal, using the deck I had created two months earlier. It was accepted. I would be training their communication team. I won't tell you the figures.

But I will tell you what it has enabled me to start building.

Right now I am building something I have wanted for years. An academy for storytellers.

It will let me pass on what I have learnt, systematically. Interactive courses, a feedback rubric, and room for other people in this industry to share what they know.

This lock-in moved me closer to a dream I have always had. It is more realistic than it has ever been.

This was never a six-month story

So this is not a story about how I locked in six months ago.

It is a story about how I locked in for the last ten years, with determination and grit, using every resource available to me.

And you can too.

If you are in your own version of this, I would like to hear about it. Send me an email at iyanuoluwa@journeyingstoryteller.com and tell me what you are getting ready for.