MJ at Akron

Hello there, I’m MJ, video editor and co-anchor of the focus group initiative at Akron. And today? I’d like to tell you about the experience of working at Akron and talking to people every week during our focus groups (the focus group sessions made me consider whether or not I could be a therapist). Let’s start with what it’s like anchoring a focus group as someone who doesn’t want to talk to people. In simpler terms, I am an introvert. A very big one at that. I do not like talking to people or even want to talk to people. Matter of fact, more than half the friends I made in uni came as a result of me talking to just one person (I am not kidding at all). Like, I talked to one person in my hostel about Game of thrones (would you believe it?), and then she said I’m going to friend you (she did not in fact say this) and suddenly I had a best friend and my best friend introduced me to her other friends and then all of sudden, I had another best friend and I was hanging out with like 7 people. So, what’s MJ’s guide to making friends as an introvert? Game of thrones and 1 slightly extroverted friend. Anyways, let’s get back on track. Let me take you back to the day I got the offer. There I was on a random Monday (it wasn’t actually a Monday; I just don’t like Mondays so I’ll say it’s a Monday). I had come to my uni to ask about something, only to realise I didn’t need to come at all (Imagine my face when I realised I could have saved 2k and just sent a text instead). I was sitting in a restaurant just taking a breather when one of our founders, Jojo, said he wanted to talk to me about something. Later that day, he told me about working for Akron and what I’d be doing. I had two thoughts and they were: yay! I can’t believe I got a job just as I’m finishing uni and what do you mean I’ll be talking to strangers? Wow. see the duality of MJ, you guys!

Going into the first session, I was very nervous, and then something happened and I just wanted to just disappear. Let me gist you. So, it was the very first session and I was trying to introduce Akron to our first guest. We were supposed to talk to about 3 people that session and only one person had joined. I was in the middle of the introductions and then someone else joined. I was being professional and then I was telling the first guest a new person had joined and I would ask the person to introduce themselves soon… only for my co-anchor, Seun (our other founder) to tell me that it was Jojo… I wanted to disappear. It also did not help that the team laughed about it during the debrief. That mistake happened like 2 more times (we laughed about it in the meetings after). And throughout the course of the focus group, the few times Jojo joined in, it ended up being a laugh after. Like the one time he turned on his camera mid-session and I had to fight laughter. I literally had to fight to not laugh.

Anchoring the focus group was quite fun and interesting, because we were talking to real people about a real problem they were facing. They told us about the stress they’d had to go through finding a place to rent in Lagos and some of these stories were bizarre and just so surprising. If you’d heard them, you’d probably have one of two thoughts. You either think this is normal Lagos doings or this is not normal and people should not have to live like this. I am more of the second. It just got me thinking of just how much is wrong with our systems in this country. But, let’s not get into all the ways Nigeria is frustrating because we will be here for a while. So, even though I still don’t like or want to talk to people, I am very glad that I did during our focus group.

What is it like working at Akron? It is absolutely fun and I really like working here! From Jojo’s antics to Seun’s intriguing perspectives (he has a very interesting opinion on bridges), it’s been a blast. I’m really glad that young people are changing the work force. I used to wonder how our parents could do the same job for so many years and as an adult, I realise that if you create a good work environment, people are going to stay.

So, what’s MJ’s takeaway from this?

1: Game of thrones gets you friends

2: Don’t forget that people are people, just like you (for lack of better words, Sonder).

Bye guys, till next time!