When Waliyulah Olayiwola popularly known as Alfa Fineboy (AFB) started combining writing with the Engineering course he was studying as an undergraduate, many of his colleagues were quick to label him unserious.
Some even condemned him as a NFA – that is, no future ambition.
His was one of those rare success stories that have in turn impacted many lives in his home country and ultimately around the world.
How many people would understand that writing and digital marketing could bring him to limelight as it has now?
How it Began
It was in 2013, he started taking writing a little bit more seriously than many of his colleagues in the University cared to observe. He had stumbled upon writing earlier in 2011 while reading extensively through Professor Mahfouz Adedimeji, a Professor of English Language in the University of Ilorin,
In his own words, “many of my friends and colleagues could not make a single sense of what I was doing. To them, I was wasting my life by pursuing writing as an engineering student.”
Then he started out attending extracurricular activities attending meetings with the Union of Campus Journalists(UCJ), the Junior Chambers International(JCI), the Student Union(SU) politics and so forth.
Waliyulah Olayiwola speaking at an Event in the University of Ilorin Auditorium as a UCJ President (Photo credit: Grinmix Magazine)
Some of his colleagues even reported him to well-meaning lecturers who could speak some senses into his head.
Life After University
After graduation in 2016/17, he went ahead to apply for teaching positions which was seen by some as an inferior career path for him as an Engineering graduate.
Of course, this looked like an “I told you so” kinda of ending. No one ever abandons engineering for writing and makes any real difference in the world. Or do they? People who belong in that school of thoughts were soon put in their place where their mouths were shut permanently as Waliyulah Olayiwola did not just attained the success he dreamt of, he also helped many people fire their bosses with the right digital skill.
How he Made it
Waliyulah soon learnt that the internet is full of opportunities if you have the right set of skills.
At first, he started sourcing for clients he could write for through a process called cold pitching.
With more than enough clients he could cater for, he started his digital agency.
All the while, he had been compounding his digital skills, from writing to copywriting, to customer support to website design, to sales funnel building, to Facebook advertising and more.
In a bid to help many students who have started reaching out, wanting to replicate his methods, he started creating programs to train students in different Digital marketing skills like writing, customer support, copywriting, freelance writing, website design with WordPress and so on.
Over time, his writings and digital skill programs have helped and impacted thousands of students throughout Nigeria and even beyond in some neighboring African countries like Kenya, Ghana and Uganda.
He has authored several literary works and books such as: Unleashing The Books in You, Write Like a Pro, Half Past Twilight, Maktoob and many more other works that are yet to be published.
Starting from Scratch
In the earliest version of his programs, the Guide to Freelance Writing, he sat for days on end to develop his first digital marketing training manual. He was too afraid to launch it.
But with his success came demand for his methods by young and old. This made him to release this manual, albeit reluctantly.
Soon, he held further programs to train people in domain flipping, writing, customer support, copywriting and others.
When he created the customer support training program, which has created several success stories, he had no idea it would be such a huge success.
He brought together two of his online influencer buddies, one from Nigeria and the other one from Israel.
This program was launched in April 2020 and over time has sold many copies.
Waliyulah sat in his home office and recorded his screen as he showed people the basics of how to professionally respond to customers through written communication. Then he proceeded to show them how to find decision makers and what they should say in order to land gigs as customer support professionals, copywriters and freelance writers.
“I won’t lie, the first version of the program scared the shit out of me,” said Waliyulah. “I knew the value was there, but I didn’t expect people to take me up on my offer because the idea is relatively new in the digital marketing industry. What people knew as Digital skill was different from customer support. Nowhere else have I seen any influencer taken a single Digital skill such as customer support and broken it down so much alongside two other influencers like myself. Even if this existed elsewhere, it was entirely new to the Nigerian audience.
“I didn’t expect many people to be interested in the program, let alone join it,” he added.
My intention was just to take a couple dozen students. I ended up taking around a hundred. But as the program grew, it became obvious that I needed to edit the content, reshoot, add more parts and make it extraordinary.”
While in his home office one day during the Covid-19 lockdown, he recreated most parts of the program to a standard of excellence he was proud of. Soon after, the course exploded.
More than 3,000 people have paid to join the program from all around the world, and the results have been incredible. Especially when it comes to landing remote jobs as a customer support executive, AFB’s strategy for landing his first remote job has been blowing the minds of his students.
Automating the Process
Thinking like an entrepreneur, Waliyulah is already putting systems in place building sales funnel to get students the best results with the least amount of input from his part.
This means, even while he sleeps, students can see his ads on Facebook or Instagram, purchase the program, learn a digital skill and start getting results before Waliyulah even wakes up.
In Waliyulah’s words, “people no longer sell stuffs manually. With the right sales funnels in place, you can build an automatic passive income machine that will be generating sales for you anywhere you are. All you have to do is supply the right traffic to it and you’ll be waking up to alert.”