As a Caribbean Content Creator, I’ve worked for free for a very long time. Since 2008 I’ve steadily created content. I wrote a book. Published two for Michael Cozier. Helped more than 25 Caribbean writers get published for the first time. In 2018 I stumbled back into video content to promote my books. Inspired by Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, I started RedwallNews. The point isn’t to boast but to show a commitment to process. To doing. I did it because I love it but… oh yeah, there’s a but.
Somewhere in 2022 I got distracted from the process and started focusing on business and money that wasn’t coming in from content creation. It happened when I started working with Mr Bat and Farmer Harry. Something inside me broke when Mr Bat died. I felt like he had contributed so much of his time, skill and energy; and although he constantly reassured me that he wasn’t doing it for the money I felt bad that he wasn’t able to benefit more than he did financially. Maybe I’m wrong to feel this way. I’m merely telling you how I feel. I said it early: as a Caribbean Content Creator I’ve worked for free for a very long time, and while that’s ok I’d love to be in a position to do more for the people I’m privileged to work with on an ongoing basis.
After Mr Bat died, everything became hard for me. I stopped focusing on the process and concentrated on outcomes and rewards that weren’t forthcoming. This goes all the way back to my early days as a self-published writer. What’s it called? Burnout? By shifting my focus to rewards and outcomes I crashed. Simple processes became hard. When you’re deflated do you know how hard it is to take a memory card out of a camera and plug it into a computer to transfer files?
As a new or experienced content creator there’s a possibility you’re going to work for free for a long time. At any point in your journey, if you prioritize the outcome or rewards over your creative process you’re going to become an unhappy creator. Then you’re going to become useless to yourself and your audience.
As I look forward to 2024 my mission is to reclaim the joy of the creative process, focus on the people I serve and build a business I’m proud of.
Recognition is nice. Powerful. Recently, while chatting with Christophe Pierre from Design By Spirit, he recognized Rendelina Reviews, and the importance of their work as Caribbean food bloggers from Trinidad and Tobago.
Rendel and Melina Robinson from Rendelina Reviews
Rendelina Reviews is a husband and wife team from Trinidad and Tobago. Rendel is the husband, Melina is the wife. Since 2017 they’ve grown their Social media presence to over 200,000 followers and subscribers.
Rendel listened to that episode. Heard Christophe’s positive comment. Rendel and I connected, chatted on the telephone trying to put things in place. It took time but in December 2024 we sat down to chat. There’s a lot more but here are 3 takeaways for content creators
It takes time to make a breakthrough. Rendel and Melina have a production company called Render Vision. Before Rendelina Reviews they were filming events like weddings. Food vlogs were a passion project, something they did because they enjoyed doing it. After 5 years, the food vlogs published through Rendelina Reviews got bigger and attracted more attention and profit than Render Vision. Through their work with Rendelina Reviews, they’d eventually connect with Mobil, their first major sponsor.
Create content because you love it. It’s not about a payday or a side hustle. Focus on what you know. Rendel expressed that he creates videos for fun. He does it because he loves it. One of his driving goals is to make a Hollywood movie. Producing content allows him to create short documentaries and flex the muscles that could one day lead him to a Hollywood movie.
How to make better food videos. Focus on your niche. Focus on what you’re good at. Be consistent. Know your strong suit. For example in Rendelina’s their emphasis is on production quality and they’ve invested on equipment that allows them to walk the talk. Make sure your audio is crisp. Be relatable, consider where your target audience is and the equipment you use, in some cases it may mean choosing a phone versus cinema camera.
If you’re a content creator, there’s a lot in the episode. For your convenience, I’ve included the YouTube video.
About an hour ago, he had bought something to ease his mind. He had put it in a brown paper bag, and walking home an irritating neighbour had stopped him and told him how her old man had finally passed away. He had placed his hand on the neighbour’s shoulder and said sorry then, walking home, he thought about the old man and felt sorry for him. The old man had lived a miserable life with a miserable woman. It was sad, the life some men lived.
At home he forgot about the old man. He showered and put the child to bed.
Now, he was sitting on the couch facing the television. He was watching a local music station, and a local boy was singing a big tune. A big-Big-BIG tune.
On the table, inside the brown paper bag, was the thing he had bought to ease his mind.
When he picked up the bag, she appeared as if by magic, and she started. Started talking. And talking. And he could see her lips moving and he could hear her, but couldn’t hear her at the same time. It was almost as if she was talking underwater.
She was still talking, pointing at the bag and saying something about whether or not he really needed to do that every single Friday. And he looked at her with the blank expression that he knew she hated, and she did what she always did. She went inside. Slammed the toilet door. And turned on the shower.
He listened to see if she was crying. Then he suddenly scowled. And sitting on the sofa facing the television he did what he did every Friday. He eased his mind. It didn’t take long for him to reach where he wanted to be, and the best part was it didn’t cost much.
He sat down for another hour then stood and smiled thinly and wobbled into the bathroom to brush his teeth. She was sitting on the toilet, sipping wine.
He scoffed and said something about the running water, and when she glanced up he thought that she looked like she was ready to fight another round, and he wondered how many rounds they’d fight tonight.
He picked up his toothbrush and when he glanced at her again, she said a bad word then suddenly barked, “Every Friday?”
Normally he said nothing but for some reason tonight was different. Maybe the old man’s death had something to do with it. He pointed his toothbrush, paused then smiled.
“Do you think they complain?” he said.
“Who?”
Waving his toothbrush like a magic wand he calmly said:
“The women who live with the type of men who go out every night and run whores?”
Her eyelids fluttered and she stammered briefly. She shrugged, as if it was the dumbest thing she had ever heard in her whole life, and said, “Who cares?”
He was squeezing toothpaste on his toothbrush. He looked at her for a long time then went to their bedroom.
She was still talking.
When his head touched the pillow he remembered that tomorrow was Saturday. He sighed and as he drifted off to sleep he wished it was Friday. He wished every day was Friday.
Thanks for reading. My books are available on Amazon.com
On November 1st 2022, I launched a podcast for Caribbean Content Creators. I’m writing this article on April 25th 2023. It’s Anna’s birthday, and I just finished recording the 26th podcast episode where I reflect on my development, repurposing content, monetizing your podcast and planning interviews. In a future episode I’ll talk about a framework for interviews I’m working on; it’s called STEAM. (Anna is my daughter. She’s four). I want to share a couple lessons I’ve learned since launching a podcast. I’ll stop typing when I run out of steam. If I run out of steam you can listen to the episode by clicking play in the player below.
Let’s start with my own performance and development. Editing the first episodes I recognized annoying speaking habits I weren’t aware of; the usual stuff. Filler words. Unnecessarily long pauses in the middle of sentences. At the end of sentences. They’re still there. But I’m conscious of them. And working on them.
Podcasting is hard. For me. Especially solo episodes. There’s something about talking to myself in a room, facing an acoustic sound panel that drives me bonkers. But I’m learning that if I pretend I’m talking to a good friend who’s equally passionate about creators and content creation that it becomes easier.
I’m also learning new skills and technologies. How to edit a podcast using Audacity and Adobe Audition. Then there are video podcasts. They aren’t difficult to pull off even multicamera podcasts but! they make the process of recording a podcast tedious. I’m considering using OBS to record podcast episodes, especially since YouTube recently introduced the ability to turn a YouTube playlist into a podcast. The brilliant thing though is the ability to repurpose content into vertical videos for vertical videos: shorts, stories. From one 60-minute interview with one camera, I created over 30 vertical videos with multiple camera angles. Amazing!
I’ve learned that it’s a pain in the butt, to record one episode at a time. Batch record!
Lance and Louise from TrinidadIshmael Baigpointboy12Trinbago Vibes
25 episodes in and over 15 interviews later, I have even greater respect for content creators who put in the hours and freely share their knowledge. Trinbago Vibes, pointboy12, Fix or Fling; and Robert Gibson, a writer from Barbados come to mind. As much as I love interviews (I much rather interviews than solo episodes), as a one-man show, preparing for interviews is hard. Hours of background research gow into the content creator’s social media platforms, and I quickly need a framework for faster better interviews: I’m working on something; more later. During the interview process, I find myself talking too much and struggling to frame questions. I’m learning to listen more, pause a second before responding, and, always, consider the listener.
I wish I had positive news about monetizing my podcast as a Caribbean Content Creator. Not yet. When I do I’ll let you know. God willing. Long story short, I use Anchor.fm. Because it’s free. I’ve heard both mixed and negative reviews about Anchor.fm but I’m using it. Because it’s free. And on a shoestring budget, it’s working fine for me. Something worth noting is the video podcast (Caribbean Content Creators) doesn’t perform as well as my other videos on YouTube. They enjoy low views and limited revenue. I’m sticking with podcasting though. In the podcast, I also talk about networking, Instagram and how I use ChatGPT to plan my interviews.
To listen to the episode click play in the player below. If you have a moment to spare I’d really appreciate you leaving an honest review.
Property tax is coming. When I told my wife the news, she said, “At least someone’s coming.”
Let’s talk about how property tax is calculated and what you can do if you object to the government’s valuation.
Firstly, the property tax you pay is based on a percentage of the annual rental value of your property. We’ll get to the calculations for residential and commercial properties in a bit. Let’s talk about how the annual rental value is established.
All properties in Trinidad and Tobago have a rental value. That value is a calculation of the rent the property will attract if you decided to rent out the property.
Who calculates this rental value?
According to the OPM’s website, “The qualified professionals at the Valuation Division of the Ministry of Finance”. Hopefully, these qualified professionals are not Customs Officers. If that’s the case, we ass dark.
On a serious note, I really hope these qualified professionals aren’t Customs Officers.
The rental value is calculated on the location of your property, classification, dimensions, modifications and the category of the property, whether it’s agricultural, commercial, residential or industrial.
Let’s talk about how to calculate your property tax.
Earlier we established that the tax on your residential property is a percentage of your property’s Annual Rental Value.
So let’s say you receive a valuation that says your monthly rental value is estimated at $3,000. That means your annual rental value is $36,000.
To calculate your property tax here’s a formula straight from the horse’s mouth.
“the Property Tax Act makes it clear property tax is only three per cent of the annual rental value for residential properties, after first deducting ten per cent from the annual rental value.
So if you receive a rental valuation of $36,000, relax; that isn’t the amount of property tax you have to pay. To calculate your property tax, multiply $36,000 * 90% * 30% and you’ll get $972. I failed maths twice but my wife assured me that 90 percent on a calculator can be written as .90 and 3 percent can be written as .03. The formula looks like this:
36,000 * .90 * .03 which is equal to $972.
Please note that this $972 is the amount you will pay for the year. This is not a monthly figure. I repeat this is not a monthly figure.
Let’s talk about commercial property tax. The one the big boys in Trinidad don’t have to worry about just yet. Talk about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, eh? Commercial Property Tax is 5%. So let’s assume you rent property to the government for $575,000 a month here’s how you’ll calculate your rent. To get the annual rental valuation you’d multiply 575,000 by 12. The total is $6,900,000. Remember, you can deduct 10 percent from that figure; so your formula for property tax is
6,900,000 * .90 * .05 which is equal to $310,500.
At the time of writing it isn’t exactly clear if government will collect commercial property tax. If they aren’t collecting tax on commercial properties, that’s a stroke of luck for the big boys.
You’re probably wondering what happens if the valuation is too high or too low. Let’s say you live in West Moorings, Lange Park or Palmiste and your annual rental valuation comes in at $36,000. If the value is too high or too low, you can object. In accordance with other grounds outlined in section 19 of the Valuation of Land Act, you can object.
A couple of things to note about objections.
You must object within 30 days of receiving your valuation. The office of the commissioner of valuations within 12 months. So if you submit your objection the same day you get pregnant your child should be 3 months old by the time you get a response.
You can submit your objections online at valuationdivision.gov.tt. Given the government’s track record with software, my guess is the online process would be just as frustrating as the salary relief program. remember the salary relief program during COVID-19?
Oh. One last thing. Objection doesn’t exclude you from paying property tax. It’s kind of how being a member of parliament doesn’t exclude you from renting buildings to the government.
Maybe that’s a bad example.
It’s kind of like when you say the child is not yours but you have to pay child support until the test results come back.
It’s kind of like how a song could be the anthem but that doesn’t exclude you from singing it over.
We’re all just singing along, whether we like the tune or not.
What’s your take on property tax? Let us know in the comments
