Creators are the heart and soul of Tealfeed. As they continuously work towards feeding us more information every day, it's only fitting to bring out their journey for the world to know.

In this series “Creators Spotlight”, we are asking our creators about their journey. Watch out for them sharing their journey and getting candid with us. Today we have with us Samuel Martins.

Samuel Martins, a developer who will be starting his own software development company, talks about spending his childhood in Nakuru and shares what drives him to create content regularly!

Continue reading to find out more!

Who has been the biggest influence in your life? What lessons did that person or those people teach you?

I can’t really place a finger on just one person. My life has been but a combination of impacts from different individuals. From Elon Musk, I have learned that failure is just a stepping stone to success and that if you spend every waking hour working on your dreams, success is inevitable. 

From the person who mentored me in my journey to become a coder, I learned that you have to be patient with everything. You can’t just try coding once and expect it to work immediately. I can’t mention everyone from whom I draw inspiration, but I can say that I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am now if it were not for them. 

Tell us about your childhood, what was the best part? Is there any specific incident that has largely influenced the kind of person you are today?

My childhood was pretty normal. I was a trouble maker especially because I used to break almost every electronic we had in the house. For some reason, I thought I could fix everything I broke.

I broke our computer, all my dad’s torches, our radio, etc. Basically, if current was flowing through it, there was no escape from me.

Where is your hometown, and what was it like when you were young?

I am from Kenya. The town in question is Nakuru. I wasn’t born there but I pretty much spent most of my growing years in that town.

Life in Nakuru was pretty simple. Wake up, do the morning routine, go to school, come back in the evening, play with friends, then go back to the house waiting for the next day. Just a typical day. Nothing special really.

How important a role does content play in your life? Are you a full-time content creator? Why did you start creating content?

Content is a huge part of my life! Given that I am a self-taught full-stack developer and a blogger, I have lived most of my life online. I spent most of the evenings after school in a cyber cafe during my high school years. That is when I started learning about computers.

I am not a full-time content creator. I am a full-time developer. I create content on the side because I love sharing my knowledge about programming and the field that I am in. 

I started creating content because I remembered how lost I was when I was starting out as a developer. I had to dig through a lot of information online just to get to what I wanted to learn.

There’s a lot of information out there, and whether they are good or bad, is totally on the reader’s perspective. I figured I can help beginners out there who don’t know where to start or how to filter the information bombarding them from all directions. I just want to help the best I can. 

What’s that one aspect of being a content creator no one talks about?

Impostor syndrome combined with the weight of research. Yes, content creators also experience impostor syndrome. What if my content is not good enough? Do I have what it takes to write about this topic? How will readers view me? All these are things I have to struggle with before I release content.

The research is another mountain on its own. You have to comb through a lot of information on google and make sure you get the right information that will best suit your readers and provide some sort of value for them.

What’s the most satisfying part of being a content creator?

The gratitude from the readers. Believe it or not, I read all the feedback from my readers.

I read every response and respond back should they require a response from me. This serves as some sort of analytic on the kind of content I need to be putting out there as a creator. 

What are you up to currently and what are your long-term career goals?

As a developer, I am increasing my skill level for higher gigs and better opportunities. As a content creator, I am working towards hosting my own content on my own site. On my site, I would like to have some mini-courses as well. This is not an easy task but as a developer, it is doable.

Long-term goals involve me starting a software development company that cuts across different fields.

What drives you to create content regularly?

As a developer, I go through a lot of issues with code when I am working. When I encounter such issues, I stick to them until I solve them.

After solving the problem, I might decide to push something in the public domain about what I encountered and how I solved it. I use different platforms to research my issues and I assume another developer may encounter a similar issue. 

What’s the most challenging part of being a content creator?

Being consistent. Given that this is not a full-time job for me, there are days when work becomes too much that I have to focus on the other side and slow down on the writing side.

It is not something that I choose to do, it’s just that juggling becomes a bit harder sometimes. If it were my full-time gig, I would wake up everyday ready to push something for my readers.

How do you make sure that you aren’t affected by nasty comments and negative things said about you?

You will never be able to make everyone everywhere happy at the same time. The negative comments don’t bother me because I know people are human out there.

I know that I am also not perfect and that sometimes I may not have as much experience on something new for example and that is usually when I receive the backlash. I don’t mind because as long as I have managed to help just one person, I am satisfied.  

How would you want people to remember you?

I am a simple techie trying to help other techies out there with issues they may be facing.

That is how I would like to be remembered. I am that person who gives the helping hand.

What's success for you and when you would consider yourself to be successful?

Success for me looks like this:

• A software development company that servers different clients with different needs all over the world.
• A blog that shares the most recent tech news and programming information for users all over the world.
• A platform that provides programming courses

Who’s your favorite creator? Why?

My favorite video creator is Linus Tech Tips because I have been there throughout his journey and he is a credible source for such information

Tech with Tim is a YouTube content creator that has content about programming, mostly python. I like him because I learned machine learning through his channel while creating a deep learning virtual assistant like Siri. I can say his content is really on point.

These are not the only ones I have as favorites. I actually wouldn’t say I have favorites because there are a lot of creators out there whose work I follow and inspire me. 

To every individual who’s planning to start out as a content creator, what would you like to advise them?

Content creation is a journey on its own.

You are not going to make it overnight. A river cuts through rock because of its persistence, not because of its power.