How 35-Year-Old Nurse Made N48.5 Million From Cooking on YouTube, e-Cookbooks

How 35-Year-Old Nurse Made N48.5 Million From Cooking on YouTube, e-Cookbooks

  • A nurse who turned to cooking as a side business said she has made over N48 million from blogging about food alone
  • Helena Faustina, who works in intensive care for newborns said she followed her Jaimaican family recipes
  • She has raked in money from both her YouTube Channel, e-Cookbooks running That Nurse Can Cook blog

Helena Faustin almost made double her annual income due to a side business.

During the day, Faustina is an intensive care neonatal nurse who lives in New York, earning N43.5 million yearly in salary.

During her free time, she has been managing That Nurse Can Cook blog where she describes and post-cooking videos.

At first, it cost her about N290,000 in groceries, ring lights and other production fabrics to establish That Nurse Can Cook. In 2021, the side business brought in about N46.5 million from YouTube, brand collaborations and e-cookbook sales, says reports from CNBC.

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Food blog, Jamaica, Food, Faustina
Helena Fautina, the nurse who loves cooking Credit: Helena Faustina
Source: UGC

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Faustin does all the editing and promotes all her content herself and has brought in more than N10.3 million from That Nurse Can Cook in June of last year alone.

She said she felt like she was going to work out of necessity, saying there are bills to pay and needed a flexible job that gives her more control of her time.

Following a family tradition

Her passion for cooking spans over 20 years.

At first, Faustin got the love for cooking from her mother who is a Jamaican immigrant and taught her how to make meals in their family kitchen in Brooklyn.

At the age of nine, her mother sent her to a neighbourhood market where she was able to learn to differentiate and bring home all sorts of condiments. By the age of 15, she said she started to observe her mother more closely in the kitchen and asked if could join in.

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She said her mother did not have the patience to teach as Jamaicans always cooked from instincts, saying the cook has to use a lot of their judgements.

It never occurred to her that one day her family formulae would become money-spinners, but instead of pursuing a career in cooking, she went to school to become a nurse.

Planning and researching

As time went by, her annual salary rose to as high as N52 million. The food blog came from a personal experience. She began in 2018 by posting her photos of Jamaican-style dishes on Instagram and the response from everyone was automatic.

She spent hours researching trends, gears and formulae that may connect her with the right audience.

She said she had to learn how to create content that reverberates with people, saying that in the beginning, she had so many teething problems, so many trial and error.

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Benefits of COVID-19 to her blog

She looked up to other content creators and influencers to learn how they made money. She bought tripods, ring lights and got the latest version of the iPhone and started marketing other brands, reaching out to television stations to collaborate.

When her nursing job changed due to COVID-19, she found herself spending more time with her family. She wanted to make money without being away from her family.

At that time, another food blogger asked her to write her own e-cookbook which earned her two e-cookbooks that focuses on 3o minutes formulae and lavish meals with sides.

In 2o21, she made N29.6 million from e-book downloads in comparison with N161.1 million from partnerships and N3.1 million from brand partnerships and advert revenue.

According to Faustina, her side business helped her to be more present in the life of her family as she improved her mental health. She said maintaining a full-time takes a lot of her free time.

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‘Crypto mum’ who left paid employment to focus on crypto now makes N33m every month

Legit.ng has reported that quitting full-time employment to take up trading in a volatile system like cryptocurrency is something that takes a lot of nerves to do.

But one mother did not think so much about the volatility and the risks associated with crypto and non-fungible token (NFTs) before diving head-on and is making a success of the risk.

Brenda Gentry has worked for more than 10 years as a mortgage underwriter in an insurance company in USAA before she resigned in October 2021 to run a crypto consulting firm after leaving her job.

Source: Legit.ng

Authors:
Pascal Oparada avatar

Pascal Oparada (Business editor) For over a decade, Pascal Oparada has reported on tech, energy, stocks, investment, and the economy. He has worked in many media organizations such as Daily Independent, TheNiche newspaper, and the Nigerian Xpress. He is a 2018 PwC Media Excellence Award winner. Email:pascal.oparada@corp.legit.ng