Ebuka Obi-Uchendu is celebrating his tenth year as the host of “Rubbin’ Minds,” and he is interviewed in this special edition by media personality and content creator Enioluwa Adeoluwa.
Ebuka talks about his time on the show, how he grew into it, controversial moments, balancing this show and his many other endeavors, advice to young people, lessons he’s learned memorable interviews, and much more.
Here are some excerpts from the interview:
10 years on “Rubbin’ Minds”
On January 6, it will be ten years since my first show, and I remember how nervous I was. I looked for it on YouTube a few days ago and couldn’t find it. Thankfully! I’m hoping it was taken from the internet.
It’s been a long ten years. I started the show when I had no experience with live television, and live television is unlike anything else. You work in television, you create content, and you understand that live television is a completely different ballgame. So it was a bit of a challenge at first, but I always say it’s my favorite show to do these days. It appeals to me. Nothing teaches me more lessons and general information than this show.
On what makes it different with every new interview:
People who surprise me always make me happy. Hopefully, it will be mostly positive. I’ve had a few people come here who I expected to be a certain way, and I’m like, “Oh, wow!” With your thoughts, you are quite intense, diverse, or deep.”
Advice to young people:
It all depends on the career path you choose. These are very different times from when I first started. In 2006, I completed my first TV show from start to finish. It was a game show on NTA, and back then, you could work with 3,4,5 television channels. There was nothing comparable to podcasting, vlogging, or content creation. There’s a lot more variety and options to investigate now. The fight was then more about obtaining a platform. Nowadays, the battle is about building your brand if you can’t get on a platform and see where it takes you.
So, I think I’m learning to be honest with young people, because it was a completely different time, and it’s just how you guys go for it. Back then, I don’t know that a lot of us could have just woken up and said yeah, I want to start something. Perhaps because the platforms were not present. That is also teaching me something.
Most importantly, I would advise many people who are just starting out in their careers to understand that some of these things may not always work as quickly as they think. I have a lot of conversations with people in their early to mid-20s, and some of the things I hear are truly disheartening. The desire to own certain things before the age of 25 or to be at a certain point in my career at this age. There’s this popular belief that by the age of 30, this world will be over. Oh, I haven’t done anything. I wasn’t working at 30. At 30, I had no job. I can laugh now, but I worked from 23 to 28. I was having a great time. I was watching three TV shows at the time. At the age of 28, I relocated to the United States to pursue a master’s degree. When I returned, I was unemployed for a year and a half. I literally had no job, so I couldn’t make any money.
So, I believe there is a lot of pressure to be this person at a certain age. I’m not sure it’ll ever go away because we live in a world where everything is in your face, making it difficult to look away or fight it. But it’s just to be aware that things can take time.
