If you’ve ever wondered who’s been running the operations of your favourite online magazine lately, you’re in the right place. At the core of her work is one thing: impact. Her strategy for achieving this is setting up working systems with people who prioritise efficiency.
Anita Eboigbe isn’t just running seamless operations at Zikoko. Being the Chief Operating Officer of Big Cabal Media means she’s hands-on everywhere: Zikoko, Tech Cabal and Tech Cabal Insights. Handling the operations of Big Cabal Media is no joke. Especially when a significant portion of Nigerian Twitter, the tech community and data analysts view your platform as a reliable source for information.
Today, though, the spotlight is on a project close to her heart. Our newly released three-part life production series. Anita walks us through the process of conceptualising the idea and bringing it to life, working closely with our brilliant showrunner, Blessing Uzzi, as executive producer.
From vision to execution, she shares what this project means to her and what she hopes it sparks in you.
Let’s start from the beginning. What’s it like being the COO of Big Cabal Media?
I don’t know that there’s an easy answer to that. I kind of see myself as the chief errand officer of the strategy.
If we say we want to be this kind of company, it’s my job to think, “How do we drive the company towards that?” How do we get there? It’s not the easiest thing, but I like being able to cut across an array of things. Both the mundane and monumental.
How long have you been in the role?
About 6 – 7 months now.
What’s the process like, executing the strategy of three different companies?
It’s mostly about managing different contexts and having systems that work.
The work in that for me now is in reviewing these systems that I’ve set in place. Mostly having notes and sharing them with team leads who are very collaborative.
I’ve also done this for a while, and I think it’s one of the things that’s made me realise that experience does matter. I was a shittier operations lead yesterday than I am today. I guess it’s about growth as well, not just for me but the people I work with.
With all this work, how do you conceptualise the #ShiftTheStory campaign?
So, one of the goals for this year was to tell a lot of stories about women. aW e wanted it to be a thing people noticed.
A lot of the stories we put out are socially conscious. But we wanted people to identify the ones focused on women. The objective was to highlight the norms we currently have and use our strategy to shift that story.
And what’s the strategy?
It’s basically layering stories. Saying the same thing over and over again until it sticks. Populating the media with stories and information that we want.
The idea of the #ShiftTheStory campaign is to tell better, nuanced stories to shift the very wonky stories that have led to misinformation about women. And then layering these stories so the lens through which we see women becomes clearer.
How does the life series production fit into the campaign?
The campaign has different legs. There’s the HER docuseries, the Twitter spaces we’ve been having, season 7 of the Nigerians Talk show, articles we’ve been putting out and even research.
We’ve been asking people questions and documenting their answers because we believe they’ll help others.
The Life Series production is for people to see their life experiences reflected on screen. It’s inspired by stories people have told Zikoko across our Love, Sex and Naira life verticals. Think about Mariam in What’s Left of Us. Choosing herself and saying she doesn’t want more kids. Ziora, who has everything figured out, now gets into an unconventional relationship. Now she’s thinking, is this worth it? And then there’s Omasilu, who chose purity culture but now has to relinquish it because of her marriage.
The Life Series production brings these experiences into view for people to see, like a central area.
Read Next: Caleb Richards on Playing the Toxic Husband in “What’s Left of Us”
Do you think the characters reflect real-life personalities?
I discuss this with the directors and writers a lot. I think for me, they represent real people. During the production process, we had a lot of back and forth on the reality of the characters’ responses in certain scenes. We would read tweets, imagine things and place ourselves in these situations to make sure the reactions were accurate. And that we did it well. There were many times Blessing and I would lock a script in and come back to it the next morning because it didn’t feel right.
There are some characters people might think aren’t reflective of men in today’s society, but that’s not true. Zion in My Body God’s Temple, for example. People might think this is a bit unrealistic because of how patient he was. But there are men like Zion, and I’ve seen them. Also, being patient isn’t a groundbreaking thing; it’s a trait people have when they’re in love. And he was in love.
All three stories are really strong. How did you determine the roll-out?
I wanted us to open the series with ‘What’s Left of Us’. The idea was to put out a northern story that’s different from the stereotypes familiar to us. Also, to shift the idea that northern stories can’t be strong stories. For me, it was important to put Mariam’s story out there because it’s a universal experience for women. It might have been easier to put out the lovey-dovey ones first, but it’s like a process. Let’s set the tone with Aliu’s madness, and then ease off things with Leke, then completely cleanse the palette with Zion.
Let’s go back to the process. How did you know the people you wanted to work with?
Blessing and I had met once and had a conversation about the stories Zikoko has. She mentioned how they were really good and that we could make films from them. Honestly, it was something that we’d been thinking about before, and I just told her that when we were ready to move, I’d reach out to her, which was what I did. When you have someone who’s concerned about your operations and execution process, and then you sort of share a creative brain? You don’t have much of a choice from that. So, when it came to choosing the show runner, Blessing was my only choice.
Working with people who speak the same creative language as you is very important. For example, working with Blessing, there were times when we disagreed on certain things, and I knew our disagreements weren’t about questioning value. So, when we both say no, it’s not because we’re trying to be difficult. It was also really great working with such a talented person. I’d been begging her for a long time to put something out, and I’m so glad this came out at the same time as Freedom Way.
I think it was also really important for us to have people who didn’t just love film but were also crazy about cinema. So, all of our writers and directors, Olamide Adio and Victor Daniel, Uzoamaka Power, and Dika Ofoma. These are all people who knew their craft and knew what they were doing. Another thing was ensuring that they understood the message and were big drivers of efficiency.
I like how collaborative you and Blessing are. I think it’s something I noticed when I spoke with her.
I really liked it as well. I think it’s important for showrunners and producers, to marry when working together. Also, on developing strategies to actually get the plot going. Sometimes, people just agree that things should be a certain way with no clear indication of how. Another thing that I think worked for us was respecting each other’s time and responsibilities and showing appreciation.
I like to say ‘I don’t think I can thank you enough’, because you really don’t know how much they’ve put into it. Sometimes we see and witness things, but that doesn’t mean we get the full picture.. We built a lot of trust in the process. So, trusting that when she says she’s working on something, she’s really working on it.
Did you experience any difficulties when working on the project?
First of all, everything about filmmaking is stressful.
You’ll Also Love: Uzoamaka is Making Films about Women Who Thank God for Great Sex
That’s exactly what Blessing said
Haha yeah, I told you we were basically married. But as stressful as it is, it’s also so collaborative. I think it was also a new experience for everyone, even Blessing. It was her first time being a showrunner, but I was just like, yeah, but you’ve produced before. For me, it was that I’m doing this, but work is still moving at BCM. I managed two other events while this was moving, and was still doing reviews at BCM.
The part that was probably most difficult was people. Even though we were really lucky to have great people working on the project with us, we had to make it worthwhile for them and us. There are so many parts of production to follow up with as well. Having to ensure everything was moving at the expected pace was difficult.
At the same time, I think a lot of the difficulties or issues people like to point out when executing projects are man-made. People will complain about struggling, and you look at the situation and see that they don’t really have to struggle. And then you see that people are actually really hardworking, too. Then you realise that things are really man-made.
Is there anything about the project you’re worried about?
I won’t say it’s something I’m worried about. But one thing I hope happens is that people keep talking about the stories. Everyone has different metrics for what success looks like. One of my primary ones is for people to have conversations they weren’t having before. Seeing people bear witness to the realities in these stories. I even had a gynaecologist say that they could act as reference points for their clients. From an impact perspective, it’s important to me for people to keep talking.
What it really is is helping people communicate what they can’t through words. Reinforcing their experiences and validating their feelings. It’s important for me that the production does that. I guess if I had any worries, it would be that it isn’t doing that.
Yeah, it’s important for people to feel seen. Sometimes the impact you get wasn’t even part of the plan.
Exactly. I believe that’s why we make and share art. I’ve been hooked on this song I heard from my spin class, Constellations by Jade LeMac, and I’ve been sending it to all my favourite people. Mostly because of what it makes me feel. Yesterday I was in a car with some of them, and I played it.. Everyone loved it, and I can say we had such a great time. I really enjoyed that moment.
So, when we create nuanced films like this, we’re helping people communicate things that have otherwise been so difficult. A woman who doesn’t want to have kids anymore will use ‘What’s Left of Us’ as language. Another woman who’s been rejecting love from a younger guy will watch ‘Something Sweet’ and see that it can be that. It’s one of the reasons I hate classifying entertainment media as soft news. We’re giving people life issues in film format and giving them a climate. Because we’ve done this so many times, it seems mainstream and casual, but there’s nothing casual about it.
Do you have any favourite memories from set?
I laughed a lot. Blessing and Dika are some of the funniest people ever. Even the cinematographers, Eddie and Mo, are really funny people. There was so much humanity in the room. The one thing I remember very vividly was just laughing so much. I’m glad that they agreed to do this with us.
Any expectations from the audience?
My only CTA will be to share. Share with friends, share with family, share with colleagues. Let’s keep the conversation going.
Noted and Understood. How do you feel about the campaign and everything so far?
Probably gratitude. I’m very grateful for the team that has put everything together. I’m happy for the responses they’ve been getting so far as well. Honestly, I just feel really grateful.
Read Next: Inside the Creative Partnership of Olamide Adio and Victor Daniel on What’s Left of Us
