COVID-19 has thrown us all into wildly unfamiliar territory. Many people's regular income streams have dried up, and now, they are facing potential financial crises of staggering proportions. For Chichi Seii, a Netflix starring performing artist and businesswoman, this situation became a frightening reality in the month of March. She talks to Damaris Agweyu about how she is facing the current challenges with an open mind, a brave face and a positive attitude.Chichi, in terms of your profession, how has life changed for you?My income is derived from the entertainment industry, where I work as a performing artist, and the hospitality industry, where I run an
Airbnb business as well as host events.
2019 was a slow year for me as a performing artist. I wanted 2020 to be different. And so, towards the end of the year, I went to LA to create new networks and revive some old ones. Because in the entertainment industry, it's all about your connections; if you want to be involved in a production, you've got to know the right people. I spent the last half of 2019 asking for contacts, making calls, sending out emails, setting up meetings and following up with reminders. Going to LA was a strategic move.
Now we are in 2020, the year where it was all supposed to come together, and I'm just like,
what happened? Production budgets are non-existent, and the industry has come to a complete standstill. Inasmuch as Netflix subscriptions are shooting through the roof, right now they can't produce anything new. Maybe with the increase in subscriptions, they will have big budgets that will enable them to churn out more content in future. And that's a good thing. But for now, nothing is happening. Even networking seems pointless at this time. I no longer have the excitement that this will be the year, now I'm like, next year will be the year- that kind of thing.
When it comes to the hospitality industry, things have also ground to a halt. There is zero income from my accommodation facilities. I can no longer hold events on my grounds. No one is meeting. Not a single cent is coming in. I found myself in a very tough situation financially and needed a solution. Fast.
How did you come up with the idea of cooking being the solution?I was sitting in my living room with my daughter, who was sprawled out on the couch next to me. It was the 30th of March, and things were changing rapidly. I didn't know how I was going to afford anything- January had been a bad month, February had been a bad month, and March was the worst. I was sitting there and asking myself, God, what am I going to do? And the idea to cook just came to me. As soon as it did, I typed up this long text message saying,
let me cook dinner for you. I added a menu, pricing, found a picture of some the food I'd made for a previous event and sent it out to my networks. All this was done within the first 2 hours of this idea coming to me. I didn't think to ask my friends for their thoughts, I didn't think to sleep over it or to do any research, I just knew I had to do this.
When you're looking at no money, you don't have the luxury of overthinking things. You don't think of pros and cons. You don't have time to start making comparisons. All that comes later, when you've already got the ball rolling. I just thought, hey if I can make some money from it, then I'd better start today.
Do you enjoy cooking?I really enjoy cooking. And it's nice to have something to do. With all that's going on, it's easy to wake up and not achieve anything all day because you're feeling nervous, anxious and frustrated. So it's great when you have something to occupy you, especially if it's something you love to do.
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