In a world obsessed with youth and innovation, Nigerian media veteran Azu Ishiekwene is making a case for those who have lived long enough to tell real stories. His new book, A Midlifer’s Guide to Content Creation and Profit, urges older adults to reclaim their space in the digital conversation — not as spectators, but as creators.
The publication, released under Premium Times Books, blends practical guidance, reflection, and a rallying cry for midlifers to embrace AI-driven creativity and new media tools.
For decades, the tech and creative economy have largely been designed around the energy of youth. Ishiekwene’s message flips that script. He argues that midlifers — often between 40 and 60 — hold an underappreciated advantage: experience and depth of insight.
According to him, the challenge isn’t creativity, but confidence. Many midlifers, he writes, are constrained by the fear of obsolescence in a fast-moving digital landscape. His book offers a bridge — practical steps to monetise artistic, literary, or acoustic skills through social platforms, podcasts, and AI tools.
Historian Professor Toyin Falola, who wrote the foreword, describes the book as “a refreshing guide that redefines midlife productivity.” That endorsement situates Ishiekwene’s work not just as a how-to manual, but as a cultural intervention.
The Business of Reinvention
This isn’t Ishiekwene’s first foray into helping people navigate media transitions. His previous book, Writing for Media and Monetising It, explored the financial side of digital storytelling. The new work extends that ambition, targeting a demographic often missing from discussions on tech inclusion.
Publisher Dapo Olorunyomi commended Ishiekwene’s continued curiosity and adaptability, describing him as someone who “has mastered the art of remaining relevant across media shifts.” The book, divided into ten chapters, lays out strategies for turning hobbies into income streams and creative legacy projects into digital assets.
Beyond individual empowerment, Ishiekwene’s message subtly challenges ageism in the digital economy — a bias that sidelines older professionals in tech spaces dominated by 20-somethings.
Why This Matters
In an era when generative AI is reshaping how stories are told, the idea that only the young can adapt is increasingly misleading. Ishiekwene’s book invites reflection on who gets to shape the digital narrative. If midlifers bring lived wisdom and ethical grounding to content creation, their participation could diversify global digital culture.
The book’s availability on azu.media and other global platforms signals a widening conversation about inclusivity — not just in gender or geography, but in age and perspective.
The deeper question Ishiekwene raises is whether African societies, still grappling with tech accessibility and intergenerational divides, can create spaces for midlifers to thrive digitally.
If adopted seriously, A Midlifer’s Guide to Content Creation and Profit could become a touchstone for digital reinvention — a statement that creativity doesn’t retire, it simply evolves.
Talking Points
Africa’s digital economy is youth-obsessed. Every startup pitch, policy discussion, or innovation lab centers on the “youth bulge” as the continent’s competitive advantage. But in that narrative, midlifers and older professionals are invisible — as if turning 45 automatically disqualifies you from being digitally creative.
Azu Ishiekwene’s book challenges that unspoken bias. It insists that age isn’t a barrier to innovation but a different kind of asset — one grounded in lived experience, ethics, and storytelling depth. Yet, until tech ecosystems begin designing for inclusion across age, this exclusion will continue to cost Africa valuable insight and creativity.
Africa’s creator economy is booming, but it’s also chaotic. Too many young creators are chasing trends, not building intellectual capital. Ishiekwene’s message to midlifers is quietly radical: your stories and experience are content gold. The problem is that platforms rarely highlight those voices because they don’t “fit” the algorithmic idea of virality.
If the continent’s digital culture continues to privilege aesthetics over authenticity, we’ll keep amplifying noise — not wisdom.
