What skills have you gotten on the job?
Number one is that I have learned market research. When I was doing my internship with Mdundo, I was only working in Kenya. But when I began in Uganda, I had to start from scratch. I had to look for clients without being on the ground. I had to do online communication, research, and reaching out via cold calls.
Market research was something I had never done before.
Another thing was communication – I am the voice of the company to the artists. I need to communicate in a way to entice them to give us their product without us paying a lot for it. I have to phrase it in a way to make them realize they are not doing a lot or using a lot of their resources.
For my job, I also need a lot of patience – I am dealing with people who are learned and not learned. Even annoying clients – you have to be cool the whole time and keep them happy. Patience is a good skill that I have learned. I never thought I could have so much patience.
I also have learned that if I don’t rely on others for help, I won’t be able to grow at all. I need to be able to talk to colleagues and see where I can learn things and improve myself.
Those are the major traits I have learned at Mdundo that I didn’t have before. But I am learning all the time. We are a startup at the end of the day, so it’s about building ourselves and the company at the same time.
How did you teach yourself market research?
Every country has a different entertainment industry. There are publicists that have different ways of doing things. The number one thing for me to do is learn about the entertainment industry in a new country and figure out how it works. I look at how artists record, how they are represented. If an artist wants to sign up for Mdundo but the manager won’t allow, I can’t do anything. So I need to understand that set up to figure out who to talk to and what to say to them.
Understanding the entertainment market then helps me understand who I should be approaching – should it be a promoter that signs up a bunch of artists up or the artists themselves.
Once I learn that, I send those people emails to set up a call or skype. Sometimes to get their attention, we go big on social media – do a lot of Facebooking and social media until we have caught the attention of the artist.
Once we get their attention, then we can do calls.
I find sending an email first shows formality, even if I follow it up with a big Facebook campaign. So that works best. Then, we hopefully get a contract and the artist brings their music to Mdundo!
Do you do the social media campaigns?
Yes, if it’s from yourself as an individual, you can. But we also have a social media person who takes care of Mdundo social site. But when he is busy, we have to do it ourselves.
Has moving from entry level to manager changed your way of looking at things?
In entry level, instructions are being shown to us. But now at this level, I am making decisions and giving instructions to other people. I come up with ideas that I ask other people to sign off on going ahead.
As a manager, you have to become more involved in decision making and understand or plan every aspect of every project that is going on.
The targets are yours now. You are answerable to targets not met or why a project is not working.
That really keeps you on your toes more than entry level. You are responsible not just for that single task, but the overall project.
How do you organize yourself to hit these targets?
Considering it’s a startup, we don’t have specific ways of working – every day is a new idea. So, one of the things which has made me more organized is thinking about needing a new idea at the end of each day. The way I think about it is – if this doesn’t work – we try this, and so on.
I always have to think of a backup idea, and then another backup, and another.
“If something is not working right, there needs to be another thing I can start working on. That puts me in a good place because I don’t wallow in something not going right. I always have a plan B.”
The other thing is I kind of talk. I don’t just sit down with my ideas, I am good at approaching other people to brainstorm and see what they have to say. So considering there are three of us with different countries outside of Kenya, we always share ideas. When we hit a wall, we always talk. If I’m running out of ideas, everyone can give you ideas and say – try this from this dimension, or this dimension.
That put me in a good place because I don’t run out of ideas. Talking to other people helps me prioritize what I am supposed to do and to understand what action needs to be done. I can tell my assistant – Try this, and if it works in this country, apply it to this other country. If it doesn’t work, try something else.
My biggest belief is in trial and error. If it works- amazing. If not, move on and try something else.
Do you have any advice to job seekers who are looking for internships right out of school?
Don’t be choosy about the task you want to do. Be ready to work.
I know that it is kind of hard to get a job at a position advertised because usually someone wants an experienced employee.
At school, we are not told to be humble but you really need to be. Understand that you will start at the bottom and then you will get the promotion you need. You need to be able to work no matter what the task is given. Don’t choose. Just do what you need to do.
And if you can’t do what your manager wants you to – speak out. Say it’s not attainable because of a certain thing. But if you can do it, just do it. That makes you a good employee because the company will know you are someone they can work with.
If you are ready to work, everything else falls into place.
