Latest / The Breakfast Club / Are You Building a Brand or Just Posting?

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Are You Building a Brand or Just Posting? · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's get, let's get, let's get to it, time to
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: do it.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: I'm the homegirl that knows a little bit about everything
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: and everybody.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: You hear that exclusive? You know she don't lie about that, right?
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Lauren came in hot.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Hey y'all, what's up?
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: It's Lauren LaRosa, and this is another episode of The
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: Latest with Lauren LaRosa. This is your daily dig on
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: all things pop culture, entertainment news, and all of the
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: conversations that shake the room, baby. Now y'all know we
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: always start the show checking off, or checking in, behind
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: the scenes of The Grind. which is where we just
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: take a minute to really check in on ourselves and,
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  Speaker 3: you know, figure out where we are mentally, physically, like
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: what is going on behind all of the things.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: Back on the grind.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: So this week, I am really excited. I am literally
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: counting down to homecoming. I have four days until Delaware
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: State University's homecoming, my alma mater. And I don't know
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: if y'all have ever experienced it, but baby, ain't nothing
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  Speaker 3: like an HBCU homecoming. I have been back every single
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  Speaker 3: year since I graduated in 2014, except for maybe one year.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: That is how dedicated and loyal I am, okay? So
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: I have a special guest here in the building.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: We are in New York right now at the Breakfast
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Club Studios. And Raymond Smiley, I'm going to introduce him myself.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: So I went to Del State in 2010. And you
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: come on campus and you're trying to find your tribe
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: of people. And there was this one guy from Baltimore
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  Speaker 3: that would walk around smiling all day.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: We call him Smiley. Super swagged out.
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  Speaker 3: But he always was on this mission to understand branding
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: and building brands and talent and artists and creatives. And
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: life has brought us back together at work. He is
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: here today. with an artist under Roc Nation, right?
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: Under Roc Nation. So tell them, wow, you got like
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: a whole adult now, adult.
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  Speaker 2: Job now, Smiley.
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  Speaker 1: I do, I do. So director of marketing at Roc Nation.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I didn't know you was a director of marketing.
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  Speaker 6: Did you know somebody Yo.
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  Speaker 7: I'm dead.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I've been there. This is like my fourth
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  Speaker 1: year there.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Do you like it?
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: I do.
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  Speaker 2: Because you always had your own.
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  Speaker 3: You've had marketing companies, very successful ones of your own, though.
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  Speaker 2: The digital footprint was yours.
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  Speaker 1: Yep, still.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so you still do your things outside of it, too.
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: Yep, yep, yep.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: So it's a happy marriage, and there's always some fun
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: things going on, and every day is different. So today
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: we got John.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: John Legend, y'all.
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  Speaker 3: I didn't even know if I could say the name
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: of the artist because I didn't know, like, you know,
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  Speaker 3: how that works for y'all. I know Rock Nation, they
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: don't play about, you know. But he's talking about, we
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: got John, John Legend, y'all.
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: Yes, yes.
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  Speaker 1: And his album comes out on 10-23, fully produced by Pharrell.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: It's called Muse. Yes. So that's why we're here and,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: you know, doing the campaign. Yeah, so.
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  Speaker 2: That's so crazy.
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  Speaker 3: It's like literally seeing your brother or your sister just
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  Speaker 3: excel in life.
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  Speaker 2: That's how it feels to be here.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: And we both here.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: I'm at Breakfast Club.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: He's here at Breakfast Club with his artists through Roc
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  Speaker 3: Nation and Digital Footprint. I mean, we've been doing these things.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not surprised to see you doing what you're doing.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Man, I remember that. Was you a flight attendant at
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: one point? I was a flight attendant for Delta, yes. Man,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: now you're doing your thing. It's like, yo, just seeing
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: you grow, like, every day, I'm just so proud. Like,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: for real. Like, I tell you. But, like, just to see.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: And you always had the energy. Since day one. Since
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: day one, Delaware, like, you always was on it.
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  Speaker 2: Always been big Delaware.
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  Speaker 1: Trying to do something, like.
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  Speaker 3: People think that I just start repping Delaware and I
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: just start being like this because I got hair. I'm like, no,
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  Speaker 3: I've always been like this. I just got a bigger
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  Speaker 3: platform now.
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  Speaker 1: Yo, always into something, trying to start something, leading something.
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  Speaker 2: Launching businesses.
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  Speaker 1: Launching businesses.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, man.
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  Speaker 1: Everything. Always in the mix. Always in the mix since
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: day one.
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  Speaker 2: Always in the latest since day one. Oh, my God.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Literally, you should be Delaware's mayor.
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  Speaker 2: Bro, I don't want to get into politics.
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  Speaker 8: I'm good.
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  Speaker 2: I'm good.
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  Speaker 3: But I understand what you're saying, though. But, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I'm just really proud of where I come from. There's
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: a lot of people that helped me up when I
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: couldn't hold myself up. So, you know, I always make
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  Speaker 3: sure I'm returning the love and echoing it. And also, too,
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  Speaker 3: I always felt like there wasn't enough at home.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: I had to create it. So I like talking about
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: it because I want people to go to Delaware and.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Resources.
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  Speaker 2: We need it. We need all of that.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Delaware State University needs the support and the love. That's
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: crazy because there's a photo of SZA in the studio
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: as well. And I actually ran into SZA at Jay-Z's
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: after party for.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: The documentary premiere. And we were talking about the fact
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: that she went to Del State.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Yo, I always heard about that as a rumor.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: It's a real thing.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: It's a real thing.
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  Speaker 9: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I literally was like, I was talking to Charlamagne.
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  Speaker 8: I'm like.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: You know, SZA went to Del State. He's like, do
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: nobody go to Del State. She said, no, I went there. Yeah,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: she did. And I asked her, I'm like, why you
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: don't come back for homecoming? She is like, uh-uh, girl.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's so crazy though.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Cause you know, this is our segment where we check
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: in behind the scenes of the grind before we get
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: into the latest. And my conversation that you guys will
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: hear today for all my low riders, Molly, it's nine
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: plus million people listening to you right now.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 4:51
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: We are one of the leading shows on Black Effect
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Podcast Network. So one of the conversations or the conversation
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: we're going to get into today, I did an event
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: called ProCon Connect or ProConnect Live, ProCon. Shout out to
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: Keisha Brewer and, you know, her PR agency for bringing
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: me in as a host and a spokesperson. And we
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  Speaker 3: did it at Edelman, one of the world's leading public
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  Speaker 3: relations firms in America. all black people on this panel,
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: even the gentlemen that worked at Edelman and Crest's PR
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: and brand representation and reputation and management. And the conversation
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: was just about what we're talking about right now, building
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  Speaker 3: brands and working things out.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: So let's get into the conversation, y'all. I'm excited. Homecoming
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: is almost here. Y'all know I'm going to take y'all
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  Speaker 2: with me. It's the latest. Let's go.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: Welcome to ProCon, guys. Welcome to ProCon.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Alrighty, y'all ready to get into our panel for the evening? Okay,
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  Speaker 3: so this panel is called Beyond the Influence.
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  Speaker 4: It's the art of building community. So a brief description
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  Speaker 4: about this panel.
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  Speaker 3: It's a candid conversation on what it really takes to
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  Speaker 3: use your platform for community.
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  Speaker 5: Building and impact.
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  Speaker 4: How many of y'all have platforms? Raise your hand if
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  Speaker 4: you have a platform.
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  Speaker 3: How many of you guys feel like your platform is moving,
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  Speaker 3: it's doing things, but you are always thinking about your
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  Speaker 3: why and how impactful it is? All right, so tonight
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  Speaker 3: we're going to, by the time we leave here, I
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  Speaker 3: think everybody who also raised their hand for a platform
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  Speaker 3: will leave here feeling like you understand how to maneuver
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  Speaker 3: and execute that.
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  Speaker 4: So I'm going to call up our panelists.
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  Speaker 3: So what I'll do is I'll say their name and
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  Speaker 3: I'll read a brief description and they'll come up here.
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  Speaker 4: So Jeanette Reyes.
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  Speaker 3: Is an award-winning journalist and digital creator who has built
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  Speaker 3: a highly engaged audience by combining trusted journalism with an
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  Speaker 3: authentic and distinctive personal voice. Her ability to connect with
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  Speaker 3: audiences across traditional and social media provides a unique perspective
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  Speaker 3: on the difference between attracting followers and cultivating a community
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  Speaker 3: that feels personally connected to the person behind the platform.
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  Speaker 4: Let's welcome her on up here right now. Did I
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  Speaker 4: say the last name correctly? What'd you say, Reyes? Wait,
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  Speaker 4: what'd you say?
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  Speaker 1: That's what I said.
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  Speaker 4: Exactly what I said. That is exactly what I said. Hey, everybody.
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  Speaker 4: All right, and then, well, once, I guess, once we
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: get into the panel, we can talk about, you know,
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  Speaker 4: the name of your platform and the different things that
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  Speaker 4: you have. Up next, I have Mr.
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  Speaker 5: Jonathan Jordan.
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: So Jonathan, also known as JJ, he said I could
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: call him JJ, Jordan, is a communications and corporate.
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  Speaker 3: Reputation leader at Edelman whose career has centered on helping organizations...
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  Speaker 3: strengthen trust, culture, reputation, and connection with people they serve.
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  Speaker 3: His experience spans corporate communications, employee engagement, business transformation, crisis communications,
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: and integrated marketing, giving him a unique perspective on how
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  Speaker 3: organizations build communities both.
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  Speaker 4: Internally and externally. Let's welcome JJ to the stage.
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  Speaker 3: And lastly, but not least, I have my girl Renee
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  Speaker 3: Bluitt joining me.
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  Speaker 4: She is a producer, a brand strategist, a storyteller.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: And longtime champion of black women entrepreneurs. Through her work
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: with Essence and platforms including She Did That, Renee has
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: helped amplify the stories of black women in business while
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: also creating spaces and experiences designed around connection, visibility, and
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: economic opportunity. Her work demonstrates how storytelling can move beyond
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: audience building to create.
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  Speaker 4: Ecosystems of support and belonging.
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: Let's welcome Renee.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: Okay, so before we get, Renee is still on her
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: way up here. You might have to put on a
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: whole hand, help mark my girl. We should have marked
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: you before.
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: You got here.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: It's okay, I'll be quick. I'll help you if you
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: need me to. Okay, oh, my friend, he's like this one.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: So while we're doing this, let's, you know, start from
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: the end of the panel. So Jeanette, let me know,
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: or let the audience know about your platforms, you know, where.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: They can find you, kind of what your day-to-day looks like.
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  Speaker 8: Sure.
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  Speaker 4: So my name is Jeanette Reyes. I'm Miss Newslady on Instagram.
• 9:13
  Speaker 8: And I became a full-time content creator three years ago
• 9:16
  Speaker 8: after being a reporter and an anchor for about 12
• 9:19
  Speaker 8: years in Philadelphia and D.C., And it all started.
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: During the pandemic with the Anchor Voice, did a video.
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: Good evening, you're talking now. It's 5.52.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: I'm Jen Reyes. What's going on? And it took off overnight.
• 9:32
  Speaker 8: And over the next few years, I kind of nurtured
• 9:34
  Speaker 8: that on the side while doing my job day to day.
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: And I loved it.
• 9:38
  Speaker 8: So now these days consist of, obviously, shooting a lot
• 9:42
  Speaker 8: of content. But I also have a podcast called Off
• 9:44
  Speaker 8: the Record with my best friend, Mona Kosarabdi.
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: She's a former.
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: ABC News correspondent.
• 9:49
  Speaker 8: And it's basically, we just hit 150,000 subscribers in two years.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: She and Drew being so humble, y'all.
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: It's not just a podcast.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: They are a whole source of media and conversation in
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: a major way with major guests.
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: I don't have a lot coming from you.
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: Thank you. We're trying to be better at celebrating. We
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: have yet to celebrate a milestone.
• 10:10
  Speaker 8: But I say that to say that it's been such
• 10:12
  Speaker 8: an incredible journey to still do the things I love,
• 10:14
  Speaker 8: which is storytelling and obviously connecting with my followers on
• 10:18
  Speaker 8: social while having a lot more freedom and flexibility. And
• 10:22
  Speaker 8: thank you so much for having me, especially Keisha.
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: It's an honor to be here.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: Of course, of course.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: Now, JJ, I did do a brief description of you,
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: but if you, I mean, I think my description may
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: not fully.
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: Encompass what your day-to-day, I saw Crisis PR, and I'm.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: Like, I know this description you're telling me. Because Crisis
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: PR is a heck of a job, okay?
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: But talk a bit about, you know, being here.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: At Edelman and curating these spaces in a major corporation.
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: You guys lead in the PR.
• 10:47
  Speaker 8: Space, so.
• 10:48
  Speaker 7: Is this on?
• 10:49
  Speaker 10: Can you hear me?
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: Okay, hey, what's up, y'all?
• 10:51
  Speaker 6: First of all, thank you for being here. We welcome you.
• 10:55
  Speaker 6: And by the way, like a lot of people are like,
• 10:57
  Speaker 6: this is where you work? This is your space? I'm like, yeah,
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: we get to enjoy this every day.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: It's swaggy.
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: I appreciate it.
• 11:02
  Speaker 6: I'm sorry it's raining because the rooftop is lit, like
• 11:05
  Speaker 6: most days.
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: So first of all, thank you for being here.
• 11:09
  Speaker 6: On behalf of Edelman, we really appreciate you being here,
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: and this is your space tonight.
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: So if you want to pause me.
• 11:15
  Speaker 9: Okay.
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: Yes, crisis.
• 11:20
  Speaker 6: So what do I do? I've been at Edelman for
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: nine and a half years. I never thought I'd be
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: at one place this long. But the work and the
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: people are incredible, and I love what I do. Sometimes
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: I'm like, you know, y'all pay me to do this?
• 11:32
  Speaker 6: I would do this for free.
• 11:34
  Speaker 11: But I don't tell them that because I like money.
• 11:38
  Speaker 6: I think I've had 117 clients. Some of the big
• 11:43
  Speaker 6: things that you hear in the headlines, I get to
• 11:45
  Speaker 6: work on. Luckily, when I'm doing my job right, some
• 11:48
  Speaker 6: of the stuff that you don't see in the headlines
• 11:50
  Speaker 6: is happening. And I lead our U.S. corporate reputation practice.
• 11:54
  Speaker 6: Essentially that just means that's our corporate communications practice. So
• 11:57
  Speaker 6: basically we evolve, promote, and protect brands that you love,
• 12:02
  Speaker 6: Some of the braids I work on, Taco Bell, Papa John's.
• 12:05
  Speaker 6: Anybody like pizza here?
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: No, what?
• 12:09
  Speaker 6: Oh, I saw a head shaking, no. McKenzie, Gensler, the
• 12:15
  Speaker 6: list goes on. So, you know, I love.
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: What I do.
• 12:18
  Speaker 6: And if you are looking for a gig at Edelman,
• 12:20
  Speaker 6: like come see my girl, Nikai.
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: Like holler at her. She's in recruiting.
• 12:25
  Speaker 6: And we would love to bring more black and brown
• 12:27
  Speaker 6: folks into this company.
• 12:29
  Speaker 9: Oh, wow.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: That's a refreshing thing to hear, a corporate that is
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: hiring black people while there's a lot of them that
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: are like, oh.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: We don't, we good. DEI is over. I forgot, we
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: where you work. Now, Renee, tell me a bit about,
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: you know, what your experience is and what you do.
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: On a day to day.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: So I do quite a few things.
• 12:54
  Speaker 12: I just want to say out loud that this is
• 12:57
  Speaker 12: a full-circle moment with me. I shared this with Keisha
• 12:59
  Speaker 12: and the team when they invited me.
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: I used to work at Edelman.
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  Speaker 7: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: We were down in Times Square, and it was awesome.
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: Some time ago.
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  Speaker 12: I am a PR girlie, worked in agencies for many years.
• 13:22
  Speaker 12: Edelman was my last full-time job until I dove into entrepreneurship.
• 13:28
  Speaker 12: So I have a platform for black women entrepreneurs called
• 13:31
  Speaker 12: She Did That.
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: It started as a documentary on Netflix.
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  Speaker 12: It's now on Apple TV and And more importantly, it's
• 13:38
  Speaker 12: an ecosystem.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: We host events throughout the country.
• 13:42
  Speaker 12: We actually have an event coming up this Monday in Brooklyn.
• 13:46
  Speaker 12: It's our very first She Did That Founder Forum. We
• 13:49
  Speaker 12: have 14 guest speakers throughout the day. Happy to talk
• 13:52
  Speaker 12: about it after this. But my day-to-day is really about
• 13:57
  Speaker 12: amplifying and creating opportunities for black women entrepreneurs through storytelling,
• 14:02
  Speaker 12: through brand partnerships, through brand awareness, and I also do
• 14:07
  Speaker 12: PR consulting on the side.
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  Speaker 3: So that is me in a nutshell. I'm looking forward
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: to this conversation. Wow, that's exciting. Don't we got a
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: great panel up here?
• 14:17
  Speaker 8: Yes.
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: Okay, so let's get into it.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: So we titled this conversation Beyond Influence because influence and
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: community are very different things. necessarily not the same thing.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: I would say very different things. You guys can let
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: me know how you feel about that statement. But in
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: your world, this is a question to all three of
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: you guys. In your world, what is the difference between
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: having an audience and actually having a community?
• 14:49
  Speaker 8: I love that question because I think you can have
• 14:51
  Speaker 8: hundreds of thousands, even millions of followers and not have
• 14:54
  Speaker 8: a community. I think people get caught up in the
• 14:56
  Speaker 8: vanity metrics and we see it when it comes to conversion,
• 14:58
  Speaker 8: for example, where a lot of brands are seeing that
• 15:01
  Speaker 8: a huge following doesn't necessarily mean that people are literally
• 15:04
  Speaker 8: buying into what you're selling. But to explain what to
• 15:08
  Speaker 8: me community is, is when people feel a connection to you,
• 15:10
  Speaker 8: when they feel like they can see themselves in you.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: For me, you know, and it was tough for me
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: because I went from.
• 15:16
  Speaker 8: The messenger in news to the message and having to
• 15:20
  Speaker 8: talk a little bit about myself. But, you know, when
• 15:22
  Speaker 8: I shared my IVF journey, my PCOS journey, I talk
• 15:25
  Speaker 8: a lot about being a black woman and also being
• 15:28
  Speaker 8: Latina and how the two can coexist. And even making
• 15:33
  Speaker 8: the pivot.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: From a job or a career that I really.
• 15:37
  Speaker 8: Loved to you can love something and decide I want
• 15:41
  Speaker 8: to move on.
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: To something else, and I love that just as much.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: But I say that to.
• 15:44
  Speaker 8: Say when your followers feel like they're connected to you,
• 15:49
  Speaker 8: like you're invested, that tends to foster community, and I
• 15:54
  Speaker 8: would say the next level of that is when they're
• 15:57
  Speaker 8: sharing with each other, when that conversation is circular.
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: And that's a win, regardless of the number of.
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: Followers that you have.
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: I think for me, so an audience knows you, but
• 16:09
  Speaker 6: a community knows each other. Does the conversation continue after
• 16:16
  Speaker 6: you leave the room?
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: And so for me, we talk a.
• 16:20
  Speaker 6: Lot about, with our clients, this trend around parasocial relationships.
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: You guys probably know that.
• 16:27
  Speaker 6: So on social, I have a one-way relationship with someone,
• 16:31
  Speaker 6: and they have no idea who I am. I'm gonna
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: let y'all in. I'm a big Joe Budden fan, whether
• 16:36
  Speaker 6: you like him or not. But I feel like Joe Budden,
• 16:39
  Speaker 6: that's my homie.
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: I feel like I know him. I feel like we
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: know each other.
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: I think he will wear that jacket.
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: I appreciate that. But Brown does not know me at all.
• 16:52
  Speaker 6: He doesn't know me at all, but I feel like
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: I know him so well. And so the question is,
• 16:56
  Speaker 6: is that community still there when you leave the room?
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: Are they talking to each other? Does that ecosystem still continue? And,
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: of course, can you monetize that ecosystem, right? But, you know,
• 17:07
  Speaker 6: it's not this one way.
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: It's, like, to each other. Okay.
• 17:12
  Speaker 12: So for the work I do, I always like to
• 17:15
  Speaker 12: make the distinction of being in a community or being
• 17:19
  Speaker 12: of the community. And for the day-to-day connections that I'm
• 17:23
  Speaker 12: making with black women entrepreneurs, it's just really important that
• 17:26
  Speaker 12: we look at community as a verb. And it's not
• 17:30
  Speaker 12: just us taking, but also pouring back into said community.
• 17:35
  Speaker 8: So.
• 17:36
  Speaker 12: I feel like it's a lifestyle for me. Anyone who
• 17:39
  Speaker 12: knows me knows that in any conversation, when there is
• 17:42
  Speaker 12: an opportunity for me to raise my hand and mention
• 17:46
  Speaker 12: a black.
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: Woman founder, I'm going to do it.
• 17:49
  Speaker 12: If there's a moment where I'm going to be on stage,
• 17:52
  Speaker 12: or just from day to day, I'm wearing a black
• 17:55
  Speaker 12: woman on red. We're both wearing 12 PM slacks.
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: I am wearing a.
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: Hat by Born to Roam.
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: I don't just talk about it.
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: I'm doing it. That's right.
• 18:06
  Speaker 12: Part of my day today. And so that's the distinction
• 18:08
  Speaker 12: for me.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: I know for me personally, the difference between having followers
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: and having community changed when I started talking about myself
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: more on a public platform, right? But talk about the,
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: there's like an anxiety and almost like a, there's a weird,
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: it's like a double-dutch pressure of like, do I do
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: it now?
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: Do I share this now? Like, for the creators in
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: the room who are, you know, they.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: Might have a niche topic that people come to them
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: for How do they begin inserting themselves in our own
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: real stories and then to build that real community with
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: people that have never met them before in real life?
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: That's a great question.
• 18:44
  Speaker 8: I'll say I have one rule, and that is, for
• 18:47
  Speaker 8: me personally, and my point is you should establish what
• 18:50
  Speaker 8: the rules are with you as far as what you
• 18:51
  Speaker 8: can live with. So, for example, I rarely share or, well, one,
• 18:57
  Speaker 8: I never share what I don't want to invite comment on.
• 18:59
  Speaker 8: So I don't share a lot about my marriage, right?
• 19:02
  Speaker 8: Like there are very personal things to me that I
• 19:04
  Speaker 8: don't share because I'm not inviting commentary into it. The
• 19:08
  Speaker 8: second thing is I do, for the most part, what's
• 19:10
  Speaker 8: called retrospective vulnerability. I've kind of given it that name,
• 19:14
  Speaker 8: which means that I tend to share it once I've
• 19:17
  Speaker 8: gone through it because for me personally, it's really hard
• 19:19
  Speaker 8: when I'm in the thick of it to share something.
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 19:23
  Speaker 8: Other people are fine doing that. I'm not going to
• 19:24
  Speaker 8: pick up the phone while I'm sobbing after getting some
• 19:27
  Speaker 8: bad news.
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: There is no right or wrong answer.
• 19:29
  Speaker 8: It's what you feel comfortable with and what you can
• 19:32
  Speaker 8: continue doing consistently. So you have to define what that
• 19:36
  Speaker 8: means for you.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: From the way the women that you work with have
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: had to find that balance of personally, I got to.
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: Put my business out there so you can trust me.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: But also professionally, I need to build.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: A brand, and that middle point of not violating that
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: trust once they bring them in.
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: What can corporations learn from that?
• 19:52
  Speaker 12: That's a really, really good question. I want to stick
• 19:58
  Speaker 12: with it, but for the sake of the.
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: Conversation moving forward.
• 20:02
  Speaker 12: One thing that I think is really working for black
• 20:06
  Speaker 12: women entrepreneurs that could be applied to corporate in some
• 20:09
  Speaker 12: way is I'm loving the way that small businesses ran
• 20:15
  Speaker 12: by black women. They are showing you their process. They're
• 20:19
  Speaker 12: not just showing you the results. So I think corporations,
• 20:22
  Speaker 12: for example, if they have a brand launch, you'll really
• 20:26
  Speaker 12: just hear about it when the product is ready. Small
• 20:30
  Speaker 12: businesses are often showing.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: You the process, and that builds a lot of trust.
• 20:35
  Speaker 12: It makes their audience want to root for that person,
• 20:40
  Speaker 12: because we get to see you kind of like getting
• 20:43
  Speaker 12: this out.
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: Of the dirt, as they would say.
• 20:45
  Speaker 12: We're seeing your very humble beginnings, And then they're proud
• 20:49
  Speaker 12: to say that I remember, for example, Melissa Butler of
• 20:53
  Speaker 12: the Lip Bar when she was making this lipstick.
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: In her kitchen.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: That's my girl.
• 20:56
  Speaker 10: You know?
• 20:57
  Speaker 12: And so now we see where she is. She was
• 20:59
  Speaker 12: actually a subject in my documentary. She is in Target,
• 21:03
  Speaker 12: all over the country, Walmart, CBS.
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: Like, the people who can.
• 21:06
  Speaker 12: Say that they were supporting her brand in its humble beginnings, like,
• 21:11
  Speaker 12: they're still her customers. So I don't know how corporate
• 21:14
  Speaker 12: brands can kind of, like, get into that, but there
• 21:17
  Speaker 12: is something really special about bringing your audience and your
• 21:21
  Speaker 12: community into that process with you, into that journey, even
• 21:24
  Speaker 12: the ugly parts.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: I will ask this question about, you know, piggybacking off
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: of that. You know, you mentioned some of the corporate
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: partners that even like a lip bar has, right?
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: And the things that corporates may not have done yet.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: What are some things that we feel like brands or
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: organizations consistently get wrong when they say they want.
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: To build community?
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: And I think for you, Jeanette, you can talk from
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: a person that is being hired by these brands or
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: corporations to talk for them. And you guys can kind
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: of talk on the other end of it of like,
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: you're from the corporate space, but also you're kind of
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: being the connector in that.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: What are some of the things that get wrong when
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: they say they want to build a community and you're like,
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: we're a community.
• 22:01
  Speaker 12: I'm going to jump in on that because it's a
• 22:04
  Speaker 12: personal pain point. So like I mentioned before, we produce
• 22:09
  Speaker 12: a lot of events for She Did That. Like I said,
• 22:12
  Speaker 12: we have the founder forum. We have a holiday bazaar.
• 22:14
  Speaker 12: There are so many opportunities for brands to come in
• 22:18
  Speaker 12: and just really be a part of this world, really
• 22:21
  Speaker 12: tap into all of these women. And we do get
• 22:25
  Speaker 12: brand partners, but I find that it's not like.
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: A consistent partnership.
• 22:29
  Speaker 12: And a lot of it is because of internal changes
• 22:32
  Speaker 12: on their team.
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: If a leader leaves, then their priorities change.
• 22:36
  Speaker 12: But I really do think if a brand wants to
• 22:39
  Speaker 12: be a real part of the community in a really
• 22:43
  Speaker 12: authentic and meaningful and impactful way, it has to be
• 22:46
  Speaker 12: more than a one-off. So I just think when they're
• 22:49
  Speaker 12: looking at brand partnerships, At a minimum, it needs to
• 22:52
  Speaker 12: be two or three years, just so that you can
• 22:54
  Speaker 12: really get immersed in that community, get familiar, and.
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: Gain their trust.
• 22:58
  Speaker 12: Otherwise, it does start to look like, okay, this was
• 23:02
  Speaker 12: just a check that was written. They were just checking
• 23:04
  Speaker 12: off a box. Do they really care about this community
• 23:08
  Speaker 12: in a real way?
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: And I will say to some of the creators in
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: the room, You know how you always feel like, I
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: don't know.
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: If I'm there yet where I can push the needle.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: I'm excited to be working with these brands and I'm
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: getting paid by it. One of the things that I
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: started doing early was like, all right, so if this
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: works out, what are the opportunities for equity? What are
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: the opportunities for a year or two-year plan? And if
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: they couldn't answer that for me, I would literally be like,
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: you know what, this is an amazing opportunity, but I
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: don't want to be anywhere where my audience won't believe
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: me if I only do it one time.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Like, period.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: Even if I use y'all, I would be talking about
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: y'all for free for the rest of that two years,
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: and I know that there is a budget for me,
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: but you just don't see the value. I'm good.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: Say it.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: Closed mouths don't get fed. And there's a way that
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: you can cater where it's, like, not, hey, what you
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: got for me?
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: Run them pockets.
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: Spin that.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: But more so, like, you know, I want you to
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: know I see a future here, and let's start. Like,
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: let me just put that in the air so that
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: when you guys are thinking and talking about me, you
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: know that, like, oh, she's already brought up the fact that, like,
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: A year from now, she sees.
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: This for us.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: So when I'm building out the content, I'm thinking like,
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: how can they see this? as not just a one-off,
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: and then just wait and see what they come to
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: the table with, because.
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: What you're saying is really important. People don't believe it
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: if you just post it one time. A couple of points.
• 24:23
  Speaker 8: This is a really great question, and I think it's
• 24:24
  Speaker 8: a two-part thing. I think there's a lot that creators
• 24:26
  Speaker 8: could do.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: And that brands could do.
• 24:29
  Speaker 8: But my question to you all, how many times, especially
• 24:31
  Speaker 8: lately as we're getting kind of like influencer and ad fatigue,
• 24:34
  Speaker 8: how many times have you seen an influencer do a
• 24:36
  Speaker 8: brand deal, and you're like, girl, do you really use this?
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: Or did this cut you a good check?
• 24:40
  Speaker 9: Right?
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: Oh, somebody really felt that.
• 24:41
  Speaker 9: Amen.
• 24:42
  Speaker 11: She tired of seeing people fall.
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: Off the couch.
• 24:47
  Speaker 8: So my thing is, you've got to be intentional about
• 24:52
  Speaker 8: organically talking about the products that you genuinely like and
• 24:56
  Speaker 8: more than once for two reasons.
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: One, you're showing the brands. I'm using, I do use
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: your stuff.
• 25:02
  Speaker 8: And you're also showing your followers how this brand fits
• 25:05
  Speaker 8: into your life.
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: And you're doing it even.
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: When it's not transactional, when you're not getting paid for it.
• 25:09
  Speaker 8: So that when the ad then comes, I've had people say, girl, finally,
• 25:13
  Speaker 8: they cut you a check because you've been talking about
• 25:15
  Speaker 8: this thing forever.
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: Right? Right.
• 25:16
  Speaker 8: And it makes it easier when people feel like she's
• 25:20
  Speaker 8: actually telling me about this because she really wants me
• 25:22
  Speaker 8: to know about it.
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: I was talking about the lip bar when I was
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: a news anchor.
• 25:26
  Speaker 8: And I don't know if a lot of people know,
• 25:27
  Speaker 8: as a journalist, for reasons of conflict of interest, you
• 25:30
  Speaker 8: are not allowed to take anything more than $ 50, whether
• 25:32
  Speaker 8: it's a gift or a paycheck. Because let's say you,
• 25:35
  Speaker 8: I don't know, a brand cuts you a check and
• 25:37
  Speaker 8: then they have a.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: Controversy and now I've got to report on the controversy.
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: Of the brand, but they just paid me whatever a.
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: Few months ago.
• 25:43
  Speaker 8: So for years, I would organically talk about all of
• 25:46
  Speaker 8: these brands and the lip bar was one of them.
• 25:48
  Speaker 8: And I mentioned how It was the first time I
• 25:50
  Speaker 8: felt comfortable as a black woman wearing a red lipstick.
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: And particularly as a morning anchor. I was the morning
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: anchor that would wake you up with a bright lip. Yes.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: I know which one you found the worst. It was
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: Rich Ansi and Boss Lee. Rich Ansi and Boss Lee. Girl,
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: probably not.
• 26:05
  Speaker 9: Yes.
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: Yes. And you stayed all day long and you're taking
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: so much. Yes, I was on air for five hours
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: a day and I was like, y'all, this thing does
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: not budge.
• 26:14
  Speaker 8: And so when we finally did a partnership, people were like.
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, like this was like years in the making.
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: But I say that to you all, like you don't
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: have to be big. You don't have to have a
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: large following. You don't have to be.
• 26:25
  Speaker 8: Making the brand deals yet for you to start. It's
• 26:28
  Speaker 8: almost like breadcrumbings. so that when the deals come, it's
• 26:31
  Speaker 8: mutually beneficial for the brand and for you as well.
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: I'm going to speak on behalf of our clients, the brands.
• 26:38
  Speaker 10: So I'm going to let you all in.
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: Yesterday, we had TJX here.
• 26:42
  Speaker 6: They spent a lot of money on creators. The fastest
• 26:46
  Speaker 6: growing part of Element is our creative business.
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: Full stop.
• 26:51
  Speaker 6: Influencers, creators, and then media creators. Like on the corporate side,
• 26:54
  Speaker 6: I'm talking to media creators.
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: Every single day.
• 26:57
  Speaker 10: And we had TJX here for the last two.
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: Days, right?
• 27:00
  Speaker 6: We had creators on this stage yesterday and the day before.
• 27:03
  Speaker 6: And one of the things I'll tell you is the
• 27:05
  Speaker 6: brands are actually smart. The days of transactional relationships are gone.
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: There was a day where it's like, yeah, I need you.
• 27:13
  Speaker 10: To promote this one thing on this one campaign and
• 27:15
  Speaker 10: then bye.
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: They're trying to build relationships.
• 27:18
  Speaker 6: So on your side, I think, and the key is
• 27:21
  Speaker 6: they're watching. It's not just the big, massive creators. They're
• 27:24
  Speaker 6: looking at micro-creators. They're looking at people with 2,000 followers.
• 27:28
  Speaker 6: But if your followers are engaged, They are looking for you, right?
• 27:31
  Speaker 6: So do not give up hope. Like, I promise you
• 27:34
  Speaker 6: they're looking. Like, we've got a team that all they
• 27:36
  Speaker 6: do is literally look at creators that have small, big, medium, like, you.
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: Know, followers, but they're looking for that engagement.
• 27:42
  Speaker 10: They're looking for, are you tapped in?
• 27:45
  Speaker 11: Right?
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: Are you actually in it? Do you really love this brand,
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: or are you.
• 27:47
  Speaker 6: Just trying to, you know, transactionally, you know, post whatever?
• 27:51
  Speaker 6: I promise you, they're going to knock on your door
• 27:53
  Speaker 6: if they're not already.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: One of the questions I will ask, we talk a
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: lot about, you know, impact and.
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: Community on social.
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: Whether I have 2,000 followers, 150, 20, how.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: Do you know when you're making a real impact?
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: Like, what does that look like?
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: Am I measuring it by shares of my posts, comments
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: and engagement? Like, how do I know when a brand,
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: like when you talk about, you know, corporate brand is
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: really looking at me like, I don't care about the followers,
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: this person has it.
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: Like, what does that look like?
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: Is that metric important?
• 28:24
  Speaker 6: I mean, we look at all kinds of metrics. I
• 28:25
  Speaker 6: think engagement's number one. But honestly, like, our team, shout
• 28:29
  Speaker 6: out to our element team that are in the room.
• 28:33
  Speaker 11: Yeah, okay.
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: What's up?
• 28:35
  Speaker 6: We are ferocious. We know people, and we know the comments. Like,
• 28:40
  Speaker 6: we are looking at everything. And we have tons of
• 28:43
  Speaker 6: tools that, you know, look at all the KPIs and, like,
• 28:46
  Speaker 6: but sometimes when we go to our client, most of
• 28:48
  Speaker 6: the time, sometimes they don't know who this person is.
• 28:51
  Speaker 6: So we're putting them on. And when we're putting them on,
• 28:54
  Speaker 6: we're telling them a story. And the story is not
• 28:55
  Speaker 6: just KPIs. It's like this person has this unique vision
• 28:59
  Speaker 6: or this unique style that we know is going to
• 29:02
  Speaker 6: work for this brand.
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 29:03
  Speaker 6: So sometimes it's the numbers, of course, like that matters.
• 29:07
  Speaker 6: But also it's what makes you you.
• 29:09
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 29:10
  Speaker 6: And so if you have a unique point of view
• 29:12
  Speaker 6: or style, like lean into that, man, because like when we're.
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: Pitching our clients.
• 29:16
  Speaker 6: You know, sometimes we'll have a pitch deck and we
• 29:17
  Speaker 6: have like five to ten creators on there. We're usually
• 29:20
  Speaker 6: telling a story about the person and less about their KPIs.
• 29:24
  Speaker 6: We're about to launch this Shameless Plug. Next month we're
• 29:27
  Speaker 6: going to launch this list of the top 100 media creators.
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: So people that do news.
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: Amen.
• 29:33
  Speaker 8: Sorry. I think you called for me.
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: Name is Kenny. He's a good dude.
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: I'm going to check in with Kenny.
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: We got nothing to do with that.
• 29:50
  Speaker 6: I talked to one of my clients at Zillow. I
• 29:52
  Speaker 6: just had a call with them a few hours ago
• 29:53
  Speaker 6: and I was like, yeah, we got.
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: This list of top 100 media creators. They're like, when
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: can I get that?
• 29:58
  Speaker 10: They are literally like, when can I see this?
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: Listen, everything that you are doing to build you up
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: to that point where it's just solely you matters.
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: It really, really does.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: And that brings me to a question for you, JJ.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: Talk about the importance of building from the inside out.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: You said your team was here. And a lot of
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: times for a corporate, your first sense of community is
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: internally with your team. Why is that important? And what
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: can the creators here learn about building a team internally
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: that feels good from.
• 30:26
  Speaker 5: The inside out? How many creators we got in.
• 30:32
  Speaker 10: Here?
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: Someone clapped over here.
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: How many creators have a team?
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: I'll wait a second.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: How many creators will know they will build a team eventually?
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: Virtually or whatever, right? We won't get there.
• 30:50
  Speaker 6: I cannot stress the importance. You talked about inside out.
• 30:55
  Speaker 6: I can't stress to you how important it is to
• 30:57
  Speaker 6: have a team. You cannot do it all yourself. But
• 31:02
  Speaker 6: in the beginning, you got to do it all yourself.
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: Hold up.
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: All right?
• 31:06
  Speaker 6: And there's no shade. But if you can find someone
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: that believes in you... Start to delegate. I can't tell
• 31:12
  Speaker 6: you how important it is to have a posse that's
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: rolling with you. And then, you know, what are the
• 31:16
  Speaker 6: things that you're not great at? There's probably someone next
• 31:20
  Speaker 6: to you that's great at some of the things that
• 31:22
  Speaker 6: you're not great at. Like, find that team. It is so,
• 31:24
  Speaker 6: so important.
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: Now, Renee, I have a question for you based off
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: of that, right? When you were dealing with the businesses
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: and the women that you were championing, what is the
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: hardest part that you find with creators when it comes
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: to that time where Now it's time to build a team.
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: I've built the creative. I've built the numbers.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: The income is there, but I need that one person
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: who's like my end-all, end-all, or maybe two to join
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: my team.
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: But I have to trust somebody to do that.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: That is a hard transition, especially for a creator who's
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: been doing it all on their.
• 31:56
  Speaker 12: Own up until this point. I'm going to speak from
• 31:59
  Speaker 12: my personal experience. First of all, I'm a Virgo. So
• 32:03
  Speaker 12: if there are any Virgos in this room, we are...
• 32:07
  Speaker 12: We're special in so many ways.
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: We're special.
• 32:11
  Speaker 5: In a good way.
• 32:12
  Speaker 12: We like things to be done in a certain way.
• 32:16
  Speaker 12: a lot of times that results in us wanting to
• 32:18
  Speaker 12: have control.
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: Over how it's being done, how it's being executed.
• 32:22
  Speaker 12: And that's the way creators and founders are, right? Like,
• 32:25
  Speaker 12: whenever you're creating, whatever you have put out into the world,
• 32:28
  Speaker 12: it's like your baby. So in your mind, no one
• 32:31
  Speaker 12: can take care of it as.
• 32:32
  Speaker 5: Well as you can.
• 32:33
  Speaker 12: But we know, just like with motherhood, there's only so
• 32:36
  Speaker 12: much a mother can do, right? Like, she needs to
• 32:39
  Speaker 12: tap into her village, to really make sure that this
• 32:43
  Speaker 12: child is being taken care of and that she's taking
• 32:45
  Speaker 12: care of herself.
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: And so it took me.
• 32:48
  Speaker 12: A while, because a friend of mine actually just reminded
• 32:51
  Speaker 12: me of how far I've come with my events. I
• 32:53
  Speaker 12: think I was saying something about just not feeling like
• 32:59
  Speaker 12: the progress was being.
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: Made the way I thought it should.
• 33:02
  Speaker 12: And she was like, Renee, do you remember the first
• 33:04
  Speaker 12: time that I came to one of your events? you
• 33:07
  Speaker 12: were actually setting the tables up in the room. She
• 33:09
  Speaker 12: was like, that was not that long ago. And now
• 33:11
  Speaker 12: you have this whole team that is producing with you.
• 33:14
  Speaker 12: And so it takes a while to have that trust,
• 33:18
  Speaker 12: going back.
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: To what we spoke about earlier about trust.
• 33:22
  Speaker 12: When you do find those right people, know that it
• 33:25
  Speaker 12: will take so much weight off of your shoulder. I
• 33:28
  Speaker 12: have this big event on Monday that I mentioned. The
• 33:31
  Speaker 12: only reason why I'm able to sit here with you
• 33:33
  Speaker 12: right now is because I have a team.
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: That is moving things forward.
• 33:37
  Speaker 12: And so just having that freedom means a lot. As
• 33:41
  Speaker 12: you're building, you need to be out in the world
• 33:43
  Speaker 12: connecting with people. I think right now we're so focused
• 33:46
  Speaker 12: on digital connections and online connections, but being out in
• 33:52
  Speaker 12: the world like this makes a world of difference when
• 33:54
  Speaker 12: you're creating something, when you need to spread the word
• 33:58
  Speaker 12: about it, when you need to find people who can
• 34:01
  Speaker 12: really help you. That is going to happen more often
• 34:03
  Speaker 12: in person. the best opportunities do come when.
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: You're actually out in the world.
• 34:09
  Speaker 8: 100%.
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: Jennay, I don't know if you have anything to add
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: to that. I heard you earlier talking about you were
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: happy that you had a team member here today.
• 34:16
  Speaker 10: Oh my gosh.
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: And he actually had to volunteer. He's like, hey, I
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: can go with you.
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: And I'm like, I didn't even think about that.
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: I was planning on sitting here and sitting there and
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: getting video. You know, that's how it is.
• 34:25
  Speaker 8: It's your baby.
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 34:28
  Speaker 8: One of the things I've, one of the phrases I've
• 34:30
  Speaker 8: had to really hold on to is done is better
• 34:33
  Speaker 8: than perfect. And you'll, you have to understand what is...
• 34:37
  Speaker 8: Like Mona and I, my co-host for Off the Record,
• 34:41
  Speaker 8: like we will be.
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: In the weeds and still are. Like we do all
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: of our trailers.
• 34:45
  Speaker 8: We pick the visuals and the sound and we do
• 34:48
  Speaker 8: the tracks and the script.
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: And we've gotten to the point where it's like, okay, yeah.
• 34:53
  Speaker 8: We've done so much and we've achieved so much, but
• 34:56
  Speaker 8: at what cost? And you have to ask yourself, When
• 35:00
  Speaker 8: you're achieving something, because all we're looking at is the
• 35:04
  Speaker 8: milestones and the achievements, but.
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: What did you pay for it? Because you're paying for
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: it one way or the other.
• 35:10
  Speaker 8: And when you start to build out a team, you
• 35:12
  Speaker 8: start realizing, man, I can reap benefits that are healthier
• 35:18
  Speaker 8: for me, that are more fulfilling, that free me to
• 35:21
  Speaker 8: do other things that fill my cup, because you end
• 35:23
  Speaker 8: up resenting your work because you're doing it all. And
• 35:27
  Speaker 8: I think if you get to the point where you
• 35:29
  Speaker 8: accept man, you know what?
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: They do it differently, but it's pretty dang good.
• 35:33
  Speaker 8: Or they do it differently, and we hit the milestone
• 35:37
  Speaker 8: either way, and we can kind of tweak as we go.
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: And once you realize that, you'll wonder. It becomes addicting
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: once you're outsourcing and.
• 35:45
  Speaker 8: Doing all of that.
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: It's like you don't want to look back. You're just like,
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: those were the trenches.
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: Why do I.
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: Choose difficult just because?
• 35:53
  Speaker 8: So once you're able to afford that, because I know
• 35:55
  Speaker 8: it can be costly, once you're able to afford that,
• 35:58
  Speaker 8: I would do that as soon as possible.
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: But also, too, you have, if you look to your left,
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: to your right in here today, y'all can help each
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: other out.
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: Like, you know, before I could afford to pay.
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: A team, like, in all honesty, a lot of the
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: team that I'm paying, it ain't no big team, are
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: people that was with me when I couldn't afford to
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: do anything. They were just like, yo, we got you,
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: because that adds to what I'm trying to do at
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: the same time. So I'm helping you, you helping me. Like,
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: don't discount the fact that you're sitting next to future
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: icons and legends right now in this moment.
• 36:25
  Speaker 5: Utilize that.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: Your friends are that as well, too. So utilize that.
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: I could ask questions all day long.
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: Y'all know me. But I want to open it up
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: to the audience. I want you guys to be able
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: to ask questions. I will grab a mic. Is there
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: an extra mic? I don't need one. Uh-uh, okay. Girl!
• 36:47
  Speaker 10: Girl!
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Please, see!
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: Okay, you got to introduce yourself. Tell me your name,
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: where you're from, and then go on to your question.
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: Good evening, everybody. My name is Bonetta Schofield. I am
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: the founder of Funny Honeys.
• 36:57
  Speaker 8: It is a comedy brand that I started, and I
• 37:00
  Speaker 8: sit at an intersection of.
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: Arts and entrepreneurship.
• 37:03
  Speaker 8: And much like your experience, I had a business prior
• 37:06
  Speaker 8: to becoming an artist.
• 37:08
  Speaker 13: And my main issue and question for whoever wants to
• 37:11
  Speaker 13: answer is I have not only done the comedy, but
• 37:14
  Speaker 13: I've been a live music booker, I work with literary spaces,
• 37:17
  Speaker 13: and I see these spaces of artists, and nobody really
• 37:20
  Speaker 13: understands the you in industry and putting themselves and building
• 37:24
  Speaker 13: the brand. So if I were to take my creators
• 37:27
  Speaker 13: and everyone that I know in my community, should I
• 37:30
  Speaker 13: be positioning myself to brands and say, hey, look at
• 37:33
  Speaker 13: me and all I got, you know, and everybody comes
• 37:34
  Speaker 13: with me? Or should I be going to an agency
• 37:37
  Speaker 13: and saying, hey, I represent a community of all these people,
• 37:40
  Speaker 13: but I want to leverage where I am and the
• 37:42
  Speaker 13: community that.
• 37:43
  Speaker 8: I have to get further? If I was answering that
• 37:49
  Speaker 8: for you, I would say which one.
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: Is working for you best right now? Are you doing
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: either or?
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: Like, are you doing it where you're packaging basically yourself
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: as the agency and bringing the creators with you, or
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: are you pitching yourself to agencies?
• 38:00
  Speaker 8: I have leveraged and built community through events. So my
• 38:02
  Speaker 8: community happens there. They've been smaller events. And I really
• 38:06
  Speaker 8: would like to take my events to another level, which
• 38:08
  Speaker 8: is why I'm pitching brands now.
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: But ain't nobody really, you know. This is what I
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: will tell you.
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: Like, I would say that my opinion, and y'all can
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: share what y'all think. I would say at the space
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: that you were in, it's best for you right now
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: to be doing it directly.
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: If you have the contacts. Like, if you were able to.
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: Make contacts and you don't have to have a middle
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: person that's also going to take a percentage of what
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: you will get when those brands decide to give you
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: some dollars, I would do that because it's possible. Like,
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: a lot of things that I do on social media
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: right now, I.
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: Don't have no agent. It's literally me online talking about.
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: The stuff I want to do, and then people are like, oh,
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: you want to do that?
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: Hey, here's an email. Or I'm Like, I be outside.
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: I'm talking to everybody. No, I do. And, like, they
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: make it a joke. At, like, Breakfast Club, they always
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: joke that I'm everywhere. I'm the girl outside.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: But it's because when I'm somewhere and I'm meeting people,
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: it turns into me being able to, you know, leverage
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: that relationship for the things that I'm trying to do
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: because they also have something they want to do as well, too.
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: What I will say is, though, preparation is important.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: So you can be outside and be meeting all these
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: people and have all these ideas of these events, But
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: you got to know your number.
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: Your decks need to be right.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: Like, you can meet JJ right now and meet him
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: 20 times later.
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: If you are not prepared with what he needs to
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: take to his team, he can't help you.
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: So I think right now you should focus on who
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: am I meeting and what is my ask and when
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: you walk in that room understand what your ask is
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: because preparation and walking into a room ready can get
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: you further than any agent that can do that for
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: you as well and you can keep your.
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: Little 20% too I think that's what you should be
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: focused on if I were you.
• 39:44
  Speaker 12: That's where I'd be focused anyway right now thank you
• 39:46
  Speaker 12: And I want to actually build on that. If you
• 39:49
  Speaker 12: have an event concept that you want to bring to life,
• 39:52
  Speaker 12: please do not wait for a brand to.
• 39:55
  Speaker 4: Make it happen.
• 39:56
  Speaker 12: I started the Holiday Bazaar without brand partnerships. I literally
• 40:01
  Speaker 12: tapped into the community around me and found ways to
• 40:05
  Speaker 12: monetize the event so that I could pay for all
• 40:08
  Speaker 12: of the expenses, whether it was the venue or, you know,
• 40:12
  Speaker 12: the DJ, the catering. Find a way to do it
• 40:14
  Speaker 12: yourself so that you can have a case study to
• 40:17
  Speaker 12: share with brands when you're looking for brand partnerships. Because
• 40:20
  Speaker 12: I don't If they feel like the only way that
• 40:23
  Speaker 12: this event will happen is if they invest dollars in it,
• 40:27
  Speaker 12: to me, you're coming into it kind of giving up
• 40:29
  Speaker 12: some of your power.
• 40:30
  Speaker 6: I've never seen the movie Field of Dreams, but I
• 40:36
  Speaker 6: know the quote says, if you build it, they will come.
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: 100%.
• 40:41
  Speaker 6: So brands, they're not gonna come if you're not doing it.
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: You gotta just do it.
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: Jimmy Iovine, I think that's how you say his name,
• 40:51
  Speaker 6: he was like, I like to stand next to cool.
• 40:53
  Speaker 5: That's his strategy. That is the same for a lot
• 40:55
  Speaker 5: of brands.
• 40:56
  Speaker 6: They don't know what cool is, they're not cool, but
• 40:58
  Speaker 6: they wanna stand next to cool. So if you could
• 41:02
  Speaker 6: just build that community that we talked about, that is
• 41:05
  Speaker 6: there when you leave that community still talking to each other,
• 41:09
  Speaker 6: brands are going to be like, how do I tap
• 41:10
  Speaker 6: into that?
• 41:11
  Speaker 10: What do I got to pay to be a part
• 41:13
  Speaker 10: of that? So if you build it, they'll come.
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: In one word, FOMO. FOMO always works.
• 41:18
  Speaker 8: You're either going to hop in or not because it's
• 41:21
  Speaker 8: moving with or without you.
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: I do have proof of concepts of everything I've done.
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 41:29
  Speaker 5: I'm going to go over here.
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: And then I'll come back to you. Right here with me.
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: That's right. Let me give you this. She did a
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: really good job of projecting.
• 41:43
  Speaker 10: And I can't.
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: Hi, I'm Leslie.
• 41:45
  Speaker 12: I have a brand called Wellness on the Fly. We
• 41:48
  Speaker 12: plan this event called No Agenda. If you're in D.C.,
• 41:51
  Speaker 12: we miss you, girl. If you're in D.C., it's.
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: A plan during the week, so you do absolutely nothing,
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: because we don't be taking our PTO.
• 41:58
  Speaker 12: So my question to you all is this. Building community
• 42:03
  Speaker 12: is very tiring.
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: PR, I am also a PR girlie, is very, or man,
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: we're inclusive.
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: Is very tiring.
• 42:11
  Speaker 5: What do you do to.
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: Pretty much cultivate mindfulness in your life?
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: How do you, I see the faces already, how do
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: you just turn things off.
• 42:21
  Speaker 12: Unplug, so that we also know that balance?
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: Or is it not a balance right now? Why y'all
• 42:27
  Speaker 4: forget me?
• 42:28
  Speaker 10: I'm not near balance.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: I don't think balance is a real thing. And if
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: it is, I haven't experienced that. And I ask a
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: lot of questions to a lot of people, and they
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: haven't either. I feel like you don't have to synchronize
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: and swim.
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: I would say life is a series. There we go.
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: It's seasons, and it's trade-offs.
• 42:54
  Speaker 8: I also, for me, if it's not on the calendar,
• 42:56
  Speaker 8: so I've gotten to the point, because I'll go stretches,
• 42:59
  Speaker 8: where I'm kind of an extremist. So I'm going to
• 43:01
  Speaker 8: be working for stretches, and I won't realize, oh my gosh,
• 43:03
  Speaker 8: I haven't hooked up with a girlfriend in months. So
• 43:07
  Speaker 8: you've got to put it on the calendar and treat
• 43:09
  Speaker 8: it with the same importance and visibility and intention that
• 43:12
  Speaker 8: you do your work.
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: And don't treat it as a soft hold. You know
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: what I mean?
• 43:16
  Speaker 8: Meaning like, that was a hang up, but I can
• 43:18
  Speaker 8: just work this thing instead. You've got to treat it
• 43:21
  Speaker 8: that seriously and also let other people know, hey, this
• 43:25
  Speaker 8: is my whatever day.
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: I also book my things in advance.
• 43:28
  Speaker 8: So I have my, and this is a relatively recent
• 43:31
  Speaker 8: thing in terms of the last few months, I booked
• 43:34
  Speaker 8: my spa days or my self-care days weeks in advance.
• 43:39
  Speaker 8: So this thing has been living on my calendar for weeks.
• 43:43
  Speaker 8: If you do that and before, right when you walk
• 43:45
  Speaker 8: out of that appointment, you're booking the next one. That
• 43:48
  Speaker 8: way you hold yourself accountable and it's visible on your
• 43:51
  Speaker 8: calendar because you know how it is.
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: I'll get to it. I'll get to it.
• 43:54
  Speaker 8: Ends up being I never get to it. And now
• 43:57
  Speaker 8: you're burnt out and you're not doing anybody good and
• 44:00
  Speaker 8: you're not doing yourself any good. So I would I
• 44:02
  Speaker 8: would do that. Treat it with the same and realize
• 44:04
  Speaker 8: life is about seasons. Some seasons you're going to be
• 44:07
  Speaker 8: working a lot. Other seasons you you can rest a
• 44:11
  Speaker 8: little more.
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: We're going to go back here with the blue and
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: red hat, and then I'll come back to you.
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: With the crowns. It's not a road. Well, there was
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: a road. If you want to come.
• 44:29
  Speaker 5: Up here and get the.
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: If not, you can come up here.
• 44:33
  Speaker 6: He's ready to.
• 44:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 44:34
  Speaker 8: So, I am from Britain, Virginia, and funny enough, my
• 44:41
  Speaker 8: high school is actually called Richmond Community.
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: And the funny thing is, they.
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: Aren't community, right?
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: And what I've seen is a lot of smart black
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: people are working themselves into oblivion, working so.
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: Hard that they're not taking the time to break.
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: So I want to ask the greatest question, are we
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: really community, right?
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: And what does community look like.
• 45:03
  Speaker 5: In the future?
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: Are we doing community right, is your question? Yeah. I
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: went to Hampton at North Carolina A &.
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: T, got people from the NBA.
• 45:10
  Speaker 8: Thanks, man.
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: Alex? Mm-hmm.
• 45:12
  Speaker 5: Hold up, we got Howard. Oh, it's an artist. It's
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: my classmate, Harpiss Hall.
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: All right. The H-U people love doing that.
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: You know, it's H-U, Howard Hamden.
• 45:24
  Speaker 4: Exactly. Del State.
• 45:25
  Speaker 12: I'm all, oh, I got a horn in the building?
• 45:32
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: It's like always talk about you. I wanted to add,
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: I don't know if I'm, hopefully I'm understanding your question correctly.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: I don't think we are.
• 45:41
  Speaker 8: And I think it's because we don't understand that The
• 45:44
  Speaker 8: price of community is inconvenience, and you've got to give
• 45:47
  Speaker 8: something of yourself to cultivate community.
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: The flip side of it, too, is that you've got
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: to kind of.
• 45:54
  Speaker 5: It requires a little bit of vulnerability. You know what
• 45:56
  Speaker 5: I mean?
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: Like, put yourself in a position where you're asking someone, hey,
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: can you help me out with this?
• 46:00
  Speaker 8: A friend of mine, I was going, I was flying
• 46:02
  Speaker 8: out of Newark Airport, and I was going, I think
• 46:05
  Speaker 8: I was going to Lisbon or something, and I was
• 46:06
  Speaker 8: going to pay for parking for two weeks, and it's
• 46:09
  Speaker 8: very expensive.
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: And my friend who lives right nearby, she's like, why
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: don't you park your car in my garage?
• 46:16
  Speaker 8: And I was like, I don't want to inconvenience you
• 46:19
  Speaker 8: because it's going to.
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: Be sitting there. And she was like, girl, what are
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: we if you can't, you know what I mean? And
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: so it's allowing your.
• 46:27
  Speaker 8: What I like to say is giving people, allowing them
• 46:30
  Speaker 8: to have the joy of being of use to you
• 46:32
  Speaker 8: and of service to you. So I think once we
• 46:35
  Speaker 8: understand that concept, and not to sound extremist, but I
• 46:38
  Speaker 8: think capitalism sometimes gets in the way of community. And
• 46:42
  Speaker 8: instead of always outsourcing things, allow your friends to have
• 46:48
  Speaker 8: the joy of being of use to you.
• 46:50
  Speaker 6: Do we have time for a response? So, community. How
• 46:55
  Speaker 6: many New Yorkers we got in here?
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: I'm home.
• 46:57
  Speaker 5: Central Park. Did y'all know?
• 46:59
  Speaker 10: Y'all heard of Seneca Village before?
• 47:03
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 47:08
  Speaker 6: So it's 1820s to the 1850s. Primarily was African Americans
• 47:16
  Speaker 6: in Central Park.
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: What? Yes.
• 47:19
  Speaker 5: We have a whole community of people.
• 47:22
  Speaker 10: For 30, 40 years, we were thriving.
• 47:24
  Speaker 5: Wow. And then the city, of course, said they wanted
• 47:27
  Speaker 5: Central Park, and so they.
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: You mean living in Central Park as well, too? Like
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: all those bomb-ass buildings? Yes, Central Park.
• 47:35
  Speaker 6: For 40 years, we were thriving. There was community there.
• 47:37
  Speaker 6: I'd say that's the same for brands. Brands will kick
• 47:40
  Speaker 6: us out, and then we.
• 47:41
  Speaker 10: Use this how we want.
• 47:44
  Speaker 5: And so I think my point is, I think we
• 47:46
  Speaker 5: got to stick.
• 47:46
  Speaker 6: Together, right?
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: Like, there's a lot of crabs in the barrel mentality.
• 47:50
  Speaker 6: You know, only one, you know, so zero-sum game sort
• 47:54
  Speaker 6: of mentality.
• 47:54
  Speaker 10: Like, all boats rise when we work together.
• 47:58
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 47:58
  Speaker 5: So I think we've got to figure out how do
• 48:00
  Speaker 5: we work together.
• 48:00
  Speaker 6: Like in this room, there are brand new brands that
• 48:03
  Speaker 6: could be launched tonight.
• 48:05
  Speaker 10: How do we rise together?
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: And it's not a pie.
• 48:07
  Speaker 8: It's not like if I get this, you miss out
• 48:09
  Speaker 8: on that.
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean? I love that.
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: Well, shout out to Hampton for, you know, that whole
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: little moment.
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: That thing. They did a thing. So we have time
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: for one more?
• 48:23
  Speaker 11: Hi, this is my first time at a ProCon Connect event,
• 48:27
  Speaker 11: so it feels pretty good.
• 48:28
  Speaker 4: I live in Harlem. And what brought me here is Jeanette.
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: We have a similar background.
• 48:34
  Speaker 11: I moved here, I don't know, let's see, 31 years
• 48:36
  Speaker 11: ago to work for CNN Business News, managing with Lou Dobbs.
• 48:43
  Speaker 11: And I realized I hated the news, especially when you
• 48:45
  Speaker 11: start at the network level. But for the past, I
• 48:49
  Speaker 11: would say, 21 years, I've had my own business. I'm
• 48:52
  Speaker 11: a professional speaker, so I speak all over the world
• 48:54
  Speaker 11: on technology.
• 48:57
  Speaker 5: And I'm known.
• 48:58
  Speaker 11: Now, I don't know what the word is for it,
• 49:00
  Speaker 11: but there are brand ambassadors that are popular within a
• 49:03
  Speaker 11: company or within a group.
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: So they're paid to sort of, mine was Zoom.
• 49:09
  Speaker 11: A lot of people use Zoom, but there's a whole
• 49:11
  Speaker 11: nother way of using Zoom as an entrepreneur.
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: So different organizations or groups will.
• 49:16
  Speaker 11: Bring me in to sort of push that, and then
• 49:19
  Speaker 11: I get licensed credit and.
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: All sorts of things. My question is I'm a little fashionista.
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: I just love it.
• 49:29
  Speaker 9: And Jeanette and everyone else who wants to answer this question,
• 49:35
  Speaker 9: I'm sure a lot of folks in here probably are
• 49:38
  Speaker 9: have Amazon Ambassador.
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: Type of accounts, right? But then I always say I'm
• 49:43
  Speaker 4: going to use it and I never do.
• 49:44
  Speaker 5: I never post.
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: I have all these things I want to do.
• 49:47
  Speaker 11: So I'm wondering What can you do to kind of
• 49:51
  Speaker 11: get yourself to start to post all these awesome things
• 49:55
  Speaker 11: so that you can build a new.
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: Audience, a new community, is I think my question.
• 50:00
  Speaker 11: Because right now I'm sort of stuck in the behind
• 50:04
  Speaker 11: the curtain community.
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: But I want to be more out front. So what
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: are your suggestions? That's a great question. And thanks for
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: the love, by the way. So I would say you've
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: got to remove the friction. And what I mean by
• 50:20
  Speaker 4: that is there's this great story.
• 50:22
  Speaker 8: I think the author of Atomic Habits, I want to
• 50:25
  Speaker 8: say it's James Clear, shared this story about a man
• 50:27
  Speaker 8: who's trying to go to the gym more often. And
• 50:30
  Speaker 8: so what he would do is he would just get
• 50:33
  Speaker 8: to the point where he was just outside of the gym.
• 50:35
  Speaker 4: I believe that's how it was. But he wouldn't actually
• 50:37
  Speaker 4: go in and work out. And for days he did that.
• 50:40
  Speaker 4: And it sounds a little silly.
• 50:42
  Speaker 8: But it's because to make that decision to finally lift.
• 50:45
  Speaker 4: The weight, like they say, the heaviest weight is the door,
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: you know?
• 50:48
  Speaker 8: To make that decision, there's so many other, or to
• 50:51
  Speaker 8: make that change to work out, there's so many decisions
• 50:53
  Speaker 8: you have to make beforehand. There's laying out your clothes
• 50:55
  Speaker 8: maybe the night before. There's waking up when the alarm
• 50:58
  Speaker 8: sounds off. There's putting the clothes on, getting in the car.
• 51:01
  Speaker 8: And so just getting.
• 51:02
  Speaker 4: To the door is an accomplishment.
• 51:06
  Speaker 8: So what I would do for you is, Dress all
• 51:10
  Speaker 8: of the little steps that it takes beforehand to get there.
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: Maybe have your ring light charged. Heck, buy a ring light.
• 51:16
  Speaker 8: Your phone, like, ready and charged and able to record you.
• 51:20
  Speaker 4: Have your, like, all of.
• 51:21
  Speaker 8: Those things that make it so that all it is
• 51:23
  Speaker 8: is pressing record when the moment comes. Because it sounds
• 51:26
  Speaker 8: simple in theory, but there are barriers in the way
• 51:29
  Speaker 8: that make it easier for you to say, I'll just
• 51:30
  Speaker 8: do it tomorrow.
• 51:31
  Speaker 5: You know what I mean?
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: And that will make it and just set the bar higher.
• 51:36
  Speaker 8: Really low it sounds for over ambitious people it's like
• 51:38
  Speaker 8: it's not sexy enough i want to shoot an outfit
• 51:42
  Speaker 8: every day monday through friday and then once you miss
• 51:45
  Speaker 8: you feel bad and then you tell yourself one thing
• 51:47
  Speaker 8: i'd love to live by is never miss twice right
• 51:49
  Speaker 8: like one miss is okay just don't miss twice and
• 51:51
  Speaker 8: and you know try to recover the next day when
• 51:54
  Speaker 8: you set it up in small steps like that i would.
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: Have everything set up ready to record.
• 51:58
  Speaker 8: And don't even record Just make those steps frictionless.
• 52:03
  Speaker 11: And just for clarity, doing the stuff is not the
• 52:07
  Speaker 11: harder part.
• 52:08
  Speaker 4: It's more, for example, there's a.
• 52:09
  Speaker 11: Lot of folks that have sort of become celebrities overnight.
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: But one thing that I love that you did is
• 52:16
  Speaker 4: you took.
• 52:16
  Speaker 11: That, because people just love when you say it's 9.55, blah, blah, blah.
• 52:21
  Speaker 11: And people kept watching you because you could have just
• 52:24
  Speaker 11: been a quick in and out. And I love how
• 52:26
  Speaker 11: you took that and you leveraged it And then you
• 52:29
  Speaker 11: continue to say, you know what? Let me show people
• 52:32
  Speaker 11: what mascara I love or what foundation I love or,
• 52:35
  Speaker 11: you know, and I love how your husband comes in
• 52:37
  Speaker 11: and your daughter and your mother and all those pieces.
• 52:40
  Speaker 11: So I think my bigger.
• 52:41
  Speaker 14: Question is, how are you going from, okay, I'm not
• 52:48
  Speaker 14: asking how do you get viral. I think that's a
• 52:50
  Speaker 14: crazy question, but more so stepping into it.
• 52:53
  Speaker 11: What did you do? What did you do that kind
• 52:55
  Speaker 11: of made people hang on?
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: Like once she had the moment.
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: There you go. So once she had the moment. So
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: you went viral. You went viral or you saw that
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: people liked something.
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: And then you were like, oh, you know what? And
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: maybe it wasn't even on purpose.
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: But then you started showing your family a bit and
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: all that.
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: You know what?
• 53:12
  Speaker 5: That's a good question.
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: Your comments will tell you what people want from you.
• 53:17
  Speaker 8: I think sometimes we put our blinders on and you're like, well,
• 53:20
  Speaker 8: I want to talk about blah.
• 53:21
  Speaker 4: Blah, blah.
• 53:22
  Speaker 8: And I think you've got to really pay attention to
• 53:25
  Speaker 8: the feedback and people will tell you what they want
• 53:28
  Speaker 8: from you. So they would make comments about, you know,
• 53:30
  Speaker 8: my husband being funny.
• 53:32
  Speaker 4: Or, you know, I posted a video of my mom
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: telling me off and they were like, oh my gosh,
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: she's such a Latina mom. And so I started posting her.
• 53:38
  Speaker 8: So like, you will literally find.
• 53:41
  Speaker 4: Your next act, your next opportunity, the things that you
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: can leverage and In your comments.
• 53:46
  Speaker 8: I actually even say the comments because sometimes you can forget.
• 53:49
  Speaker 8: And feedback is so, so, so critical. You will lead
• 53:55
  Speaker 8: yourself down a different road thinking, you know what I mean?
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: Thinking, no, this is the thing when it's in plain
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: sight right there. I love that. Well, y'all, we got
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: to wrap. Dang.
• 54:06
  Speaker 5: I know.
• 54:07
  Speaker 4: How many of y'all had a good time, though, enjoyed
• 54:09
  Speaker 4: the conversation? If you guys want to do this again,
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: make sure you.
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: Guys are following ProCon and everything that they are doing
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: so that you can know where they're going to be next.
• 54:19
  Speaker 4: She said D.C.
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: That is not a far drop or a train ride,
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: so you can keep up with the brand.
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: I've enjoyed the conversation. Thank you guys for joining me
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: here on the panel.
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: I'm Lauren LaRosa. Again, you can find me everywhere on social.
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: The latest with Lauren LaRosa and Love Lately with Lauren LaRosa,
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: the podcast. Everywhere you listen to podcasts. Y'all love the panel.
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: You guys will love this because I know y'all all
• 54:40
  Speaker 3: be on threads mad. Maybe not mad, but we all
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: be on threads and sharing our experiences and our conversations.
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: So I think that this is dope. So I want
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: to make sure she gets everything she needs out of this.
• 54:49
  Speaker 5: Go ahead, Keisha.
• 54:50
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: So I'm a big fan of Threads. I have so
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: many conversations on Threads. I think some of you guys
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: found out about us because of Threads.
• 54:58
  Speaker 5: You did?
• 54:59
  Speaker 6: OK.
• 54:59
  Speaker 4: You did too. So I'm a big fan of Threads.
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: So I pulled some trending conversations from Threads about PR, marketing, media,
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: social media.
• 55:07
  Speaker 4: And because we are here, I thought it would.
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: Be a great opportunity to have organic conversations around some
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: of the trending topics. I didn't show the likes or
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: the reposts or the people's names at all. But these
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: are trending conversations, OK? And it's going to be organic.
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: We'll pass you the mic if you have an opinion,
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: all right? So this person said that this social media
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: career is a humbling one, not going to lie. Any
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: tips to holding on strong? Is anyone in social media
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: who has tips on how you can really just grow
• 55:36
  Speaker 3: within social media, not get burnt out by social media?
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: Anyone have any thoughts on that? Okay, we're getting the right.
• 55:47
  Speaker 5: Hi, I'm Ranjana.
• 55:48
  Speaker 4: I work at VaynerMedia as an associate creative director.
• 55:51
  Speaker 15: It is a social advertising agency.
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: And my one tip.
• 55:55
  Speaker 15: For this is to think of a series, a repeatable series,
• 55:59
  Speaker 15: day one of doing this, day two of doing this.
• 56:02
  Speaker 15: I think the more you double down on a series,
• 56:04
  Speaker 15: the more people can come to your content and see
• 56:06
  Speaker 15: something that they're expecting to see. And if you have
• 56:10
  Speaker 15: a repeatable format, It makes your life so much easier
• 56:13
  Speaker 15: versus thinking of new content every single day.
• 56:15
  Speaker 4: So definitely try out a series that.
• 56:17
  Speaker 5: You feel comfortable making.
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: Keep posting. Anybody else? I would love for Dwight to
• 56:28
  Speaker 4: answer this. Okay, come on, Dwight. And then Danny, too.
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: The question is, do you have any tips on holding
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: strong in social media?
• 56:38
  Speaker 4: Because this person said his social media career is a
• 56:40
  Speaker 4: humbling one. So she's going to go, then I'll throw
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: the camera at you.
• 56:44
  Speaker 5: Hi, my name is Danielle.
• 56:45
  Speaker 4: A tip that I like to give some of my
• 56:47
  Speaker 4: subscribers when.
• 56:48
  Speaker 8: It comes to social media is always remember that when
• 56:51
  Speaker 8: you scroll across someone else's reel, you don't know when
• 56:53
  Speaker 8: it's posted.
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: So there's no starting point. There's no ending point. It
• 56:57
  Speaker 4: doesn't have to be perfect. You don't have to do
• 56:58
  Speaker 4: an introduction. You just have to post it.
• 57:01
  Speaker 8: And the people that you see that have the biggest platforms,
• 57:03
  Speaker 8: if you ask them, when.
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: Did you get started?
• 57:05
  Speaker 8: What did you do?
• 57:06
  Speaker 4: They'll tell you.
• 57:07
  Speaker 8: Everyone has the same method and everyone will give you
• 57:09
  Speaker 8: the same example.
• 57:11
  Speaker 4: Just post the content. So don't overthink it and there
• 57:14
  Speaker 4: is no starting point.
• 57:15
  Speaker 8: It doesn't have to be like, I need to do
• 57:17
  Speaker 8: it on a Monday of this week. It's literally just
• 57:19
  Speaker 8: post it when your engagement is the highest.
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: And Danny has a large problem.
• 57:32
  Speaker 5: Holding on strong.
• 57:33
  Speaker 7: One is that you should probably prepare to be canceled
• 57:36
  Speaker 7: at some point.
• 57:36
  Speaker 5: They're going to cancel you. You just have to accept that.
• 57:40
  Speaker 5: And therapy. Me and my therapist, we were a lot thin.
• 57:43
  Speaker 5: Thank God.
• 57:44
  Speaker 7: But it is an emotional rollercoaster. You get a lot
• 57:47
  Speaker 7: of feedback because people are watching all the time. And
• 57:49
  Speaker 7: sometimes you want to quit because they're a bit aggressive
• 57:52
  Speaker 7: and have a lot of parasocial relationships. But I think
• 57:55
  Speaker 7: the best way to hold on is to not give
• 57:57
  Speaker 7: in to that. And also, you don't got to read
• 57:58
  Speaker 7: every comment. You ain't got to read every DMs. You
• 58:02
  Speaker 7: ain't got to look at every stitch about you, because
• 58:04
  Speaker 7: some of them are going to be nasty. And I
• 58:06
  Speaker 7: learned that the hard way, but once I kind of
• 58:09
  Speaker 7: got used to it, people.
• 58:10
  Speaker 5: Would be making videos telling me they can't stand me
• 58:13
  Speaker 5: every day. I don't see it, so it don't exist.
• 58:15
  Speaker 7: So I would just tell people not to get into
• 58:18
  Speaker 7: feeling like you have to respond, and also therapy for everything.
• 58:23
  Speaker 5: I'm also a licensed mental health professional.
• 58:25
  Speaker 8: Yay!
• 58:29
  Speaker 7: And just making sure that you're prepared to be canceled
• 58:31
  Speaker 7: at any point because also being canceled is not a
• 58:34
  Speaker 7: real thing. It is not a real thing. They will
• 58:37
  Speaker 7: not cancel you. People will be upset tomorrow and then
• 58:39
  Speaker 7: a week when you come back later it'll be fine.
• 58:45
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: Okay, so I'm going to go to my next one.
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: We're going to breeze through these quickly because I gave
• 58:49
  Speaker 4: a little more time.
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: For network, and I know y'all wanted that.
• 58:55
  Speaker 4: Okay. My question to you all, because I have a
• 58:59
  Speaker 4: public relations agency.
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: For those who don't know, yes, I founded Procon, but
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: I have a public relations agency called the PR Alliance.
• 59:04
  Speaker 4: We've been around for 10 years, and we have some
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: really good clients. Thank you. And I still feel... like
• 59:10
  Speaker 4: even the people that hire us don't know what we
• 59:12
  Speaker 4: here do. Does anyone work in PR?
• 59:15
  Speaker 3: Have y'all... figured out how to explain what we do,
• 59:19
  Speaker 3: number one, and help people understand how we're different from
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: marketing or honestly an assistant and all kinds of things.
• 59:26
  Speaker 3: Does anyone have a comment on that? Okay, I'm standing
• 59:28
  Speaker 3: in front of my thing.
• 59:30
  Speaker 7: You want a mic or you?
• 59:32
  Speaker 4: I can project. I can project. Put your mic. All right,
• 59:35
  Speaker 4: we can get us the mic. Hi, I'm actually on
• 59:38
  Speaker 4: the other side of what she said.
• 59:39
  Speaker 3: So I have a creative marketing agency. So a lot
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: of times people say, well, are you a publicist?
• 59:44
  Speaker 10: And I'm like, no.
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: But what I think people should do is really take
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: the time to understand the craft. So Google is your
• 59:51
  Speaker 3: best friend when it comes to understanding.
• 59:53
  Speaker 4: What are the role requirements.
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: And then understanding how to leverage a PR agency, because
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: a PR agency is gonna get you those placements, it's
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 3: gonna get you to understand how to talk in front
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: of a crowd, what do you talk, you know, your positioning.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 4: And all that kind of stuff.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 3: And then on the other side of marketing, once you've
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: got that, you're done in a row with PR.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 4: Then you come over here and I have something to market.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: I can't market you if you don't have the proper training.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 3: And if you don't have the proper relationship to get
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: you in the place, you'll get in the place and
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 3: you're not ready. So really invest in PR. It's so
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: important that.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 5: You have the right.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: agency partner, and I think you.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: Should tap in with her for PR, you should tap
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: in with Ducari Creative for marketing.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 4: I'll be at CultureCon tomorrow. I love it. I'll be
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 4: at CultureCon tomorrow.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 10: Oh, it is.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 4: I'll be at CultureCon tomorrow, too, so y'all go to CultureCon.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 4: CultureCon promoted us on their app, so I'm really... Okay,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: anyone else want to comment on this one?
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 15: Okay.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 4: My girl.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 4: And then we go on. Okay. We're going to do
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 4: you first. And then my girl, we're going to come
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 4: right here.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 8: Okay.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 4: Do you want a mic or are you comfortable?
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 5: I can say it this time.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 16: I'm not in PR, but I work with a lot
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 16: of artists, like comedians, DJs. And I think a lot
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 16: of people would be surprised that they might not know.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 5: How to actually communicate that well. They have a good product.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 16: And so ever since COVID happened, now the need for
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 16: PR is coming to fruition because a lot of people
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 16: were doing, the machine was working behind them so much,
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 16: they didn't appreciate who was beside them.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 5: And I'm a finance major. So it's crazy.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 16: When I talk about finances, I have the degree and
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 16: yet everybody.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 5: Knows everything outside of me. But most of America is broken.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 5: But go ahead.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 4: I love that. Erica. So Erica's also a previous Pro
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 4: Call speaker. Our first Pro Call five years ago, my
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 4: girl said yes to us. She does social impact and
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 4: communications for BET. So thank you so much.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 7: For being here.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 4: I love my girl. OK, go ahead, girl. You want
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 4: to go? OK, should I project?
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 13: I mean, I am a speaker, so I will project.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 4: Hi, everyone.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 13: I'm Erica, and I am a publicist. I am also
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 13: a certified life coach, transformational speaker, I mean, you never
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 13: know when you'll see me. And then, I want to
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 13: say that, similar to what you said about marketing, as
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 13: a publicist, I think about myself as someone in the
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 13: kitchen partnered with a journalist. Like, someone like, Lauren, Someone
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 13: who has an appetite to tell a great story, who
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 13: has a community, who's hungry to hear. But as a publicist,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 13: we help someone develop that story while building relationships with.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 4: People like her to get the story out.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 13: And so I'm over here with my client and I
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 13: know exactly the ins and outs of when they started
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 13: the company and how the company has impacted how many lives.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 4: Part of PR is part fact and part story. So
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 4: you lead with the fact. What have they done? What
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 4: is the X, Y, Z of the numeric number that
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 4: they've impacted? And then you get into the story.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 13: Like, what's the heart behind, let's say, an agency that
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 13: has been.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 4: You know, around for 10 years?
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 13: What's the story behind, like, Keisha one day deciding that
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 13: I'm going to bet on myself and create a space
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 13: to do publicity? While also, what are the facts? How
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 13: many impressions have you delivered? How many hits have you delivered?
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 13: How many people have now heard about your client and
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 13: are now buying.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 4: As a result because of your publicity efforts? And so
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 4: that's what I think about it as.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 13: Us being in the kitchen together, I'm cooking up the
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 13: meal with the client to make sure they know how to.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 4: Tell the story, the fact and the story.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 13: And then I'm working with someone like a journalist to
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 13: actually get it out to the masses in their own way.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 4: She can decide to only focus on story.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 13: Or only backed or both, but either way my client
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 13: wins because now the world knows all about them.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 4: Their inception, their story, and then of course the facts,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 4: because we need the numbers. We need the numbers.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 13: So that's my take. So if you do need a publicist,
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 13: you should have something ready to be publicized. I think
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 13: a lot of us need marketing, because you need to
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 13: get people to back your event or back your product.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 13: But when you get to publicity, you have your story,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 13: you've been building, and that's why it's important to not
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 13: focus on the publicity before you build.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 4: Build and then publicize.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 13: You want to have more built than you have spoken about,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 13: you know, by the time you get to a publicist.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 4: So that's my take. Thank you.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: I will also say, because she made me think about it, like...
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 3: So before I got to the Breakfast Club, I was
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: working at TMZ, right? And you probably didn't know my name.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 3: If you even watch TMZ, like all the people our
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 3: age didn't just sit and watch it. You might have caught.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 5: Some clips online.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: But the best thing I ever did was, as a human,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 3: when publicists would hit me up and they would be pitching, pitching, pitching,
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 3: I would be like, you're not even pitching right. for
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 3: what the newsroom I work in requires, it will never land.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 4: Let's get on the phone and let me talk you
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 4: through it. So if you're telling me your client has a.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 3: Movie coming out and you want us to just talk
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: about the movie and post a trailer, I'm like, TMZ
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 3: doesn't do that.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 4: At the time, TMZ doesn't do that.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 3: How about send me the raw footage of everything you're
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 3: able to pitch out. Let me go through and pick
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 3: the time codes and then I'll explain to you what
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 3: the story is that.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell and how it fits his brand.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 5: And I think a lot of.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 3: Publicists today Answer the phone when I call them, even
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 3: if I'm calling them at 5.30 in the morning for
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 3: the breakfast club or during a time when they really
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 3: don't want to answer the phone because... I took the
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 3: time and a lot of publicists, you guys can learn
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 3: a lot from asking questions before you start pitching.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 4: That was the biggest thing.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 3: And I felt like it happened a lot with the
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 3: publicists that like were like my homies.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 4: So a lot of them look like me and they
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 4: were young and trying to figure it out.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 3: Ask questions because a lot of times y'all have this
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 3: like standard pitch of like, here's how we're sitting now.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, you know, that will miss people whose platforms.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 4: Have a certain voice.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 3: And you gotta really cater to the voice of who
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 3: you're pitching to as a publicist. That matters a lot,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 3: a whole lot. So if you're PR in the room
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 3: and you got a journalist on me, Sit down and
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 3: be like, yo, I'm thinking about pitching to TMZ or
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 3: People or Us or Page Six or Dwight or whoever.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 3: What do you think about this pitching? Let them be
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 3: honest about, hey, I don't care about that. He don't
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 3: even talk about that type of stuff. Here's what he
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 3: will care about within all of this nugget. Please do
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 3: that because if you can't place a client, you ain't
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 3: got the client. And a lot of it is not
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 3: that you're not doing the work. It's like you're not, you.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 4: In the wrong kitchen. You're in the wrong one.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 5: I love that.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 4: Okay, we're going to move on because we only have
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 4: a couple of minutes.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 3: But someone said black women in journalism, when does it
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 3: get easier? The pay, the hours, the treatment? Because I'm
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 3: ready to get a comms job. I'm going to pass
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 3: this to you, though.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 4: Listen.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 3: This is the first time ever in my life where
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 3: I feel like the work that I'm putting in, I'm
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 3: seeing it pay off. And I can see it.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 4: Ever.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 3: And even now, there are some, no, it's not even
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 3: vulgar because there are some days now where I'm like, ooh, Lord,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 3: I am tired of being a distraught soldier. Like, I
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 3: would love to just, like, get cute and show up and, like, whoo,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 3: glam is here. It's not that at all. I don't
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 3: know if it ever gets easier or if you learn
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 3: how to make it fit with your idea of easy.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 4: Or comfortable feels like.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 3: Like waking up at three o'clock in the morning four
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 3: o'clock in the morning after you've been to bed by
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 3: like 12 because you are your team and.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 4: I have two people that three people.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 3: That help me on my team now but in the
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 3: beginning it was rough for me because i wasn't delegating
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 3: i was trying to do everything myself i was literally
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 3: like barely sleeping i was and then this is at
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 3: the height of breakfast club like you know y'all are
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 3: like yes girl go girl and i'm like Lord, I
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 3: don't know how much longer I can hold on. I'm
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 3: barely sleeping. I literally can't even think past my next thought.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 3: I'm stumbling through my words because I can't even read because.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 4: I'm so freaking tired. The Diddy trial, like.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 3: I'm there and I'm, and I wanted to be a
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 3: lawyer and I'm sitting in the courtroom and I'm like,
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 3: how the heck are the attorneys holding on for nine
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 3: hours a day and then back here the next morning?
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 4: And on top of being back there the next.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 3: Morning and locked in and giving y'all the update, I'm
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 3: also up at 4 a.m. because I'm going to the
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 3: breakfast club before I'm going to the Disney trial.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 4: None of that was easy. It's not easy as a thing.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 3: But what I did was I figured out what my
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 3: pockets were of like, I need this little bit of
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 3: peace and joy and comfort. And I steal those for
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 3: myself very often. And I've gotten better at doing that.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 3: So it becomes like I kind of create my own
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 3: world of comfort. But I don't think nothing worth having
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 3: is easy. I do, though, strongly believe after working other
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 3: places and working in the space that I am now
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 3: that you do have to be able to say what
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 3: you are okay with and what you're not. And you
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: can't be afraid of that changing what the room is
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 3: going to feel like or look like for you. And
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 3: I had to learn that a lot in this space
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 3: because now I'm not only a producer or a journalist,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 3: but I'm also talented. So there are certain times where
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 3: I'm like, well, as a producer... That's cool, but as talent, no,
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 3: that's not all right for me.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 4: Like, I need more.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 3: In order for me to show up the way I
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 3: need to show up, so you kind of put this, like,
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 3: you put your big girl, big guy pants on and
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 3: really just, like, ask for what you need or get
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 3: somebody who.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 5: Can do that for you.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 3: And then you start figuring out the better pay. You
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 3: start figuring out, you know, you get in a space
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 3: where if you're doing the work and people see.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 4: The asset, they need you as much as you need them.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 3: You can leverage certain things. Like, I mean, for me,
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 3: it's different. My hours are set.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 5: I'm on a platform.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 3: I've agreed to show up at these hours. But with
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: my podcast, I'm an entrepreneur. Like, I've been low. If
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 3: I don't I have a daily show that is very
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 3: tough as a podcast.
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 5: It ain't no joke.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 3: If I choose not to film my podcast, you guys
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 3: don't hear it. Right now, you guys may not even
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 3: have seen a lot of my video because I haven't
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 3: chosen to sit down and dedicate myself to video. And
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 3: that is something that I have been very hard on
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 3: myself about, Lauren, you need to do that.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 4: What happens when I decide to do it is you
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 4: guys will see it.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 3: You get to the point where you can leverage your
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 3: space of I can make my decisions to do this
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 3: now and here's what it looks like. But you have
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 3: to show up at the table prepared in order to
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 3: leverage these things for yourself.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 4: And you've got to do the work. Doing the work
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 4: will always put you in a position.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 3: Where you can figure out and protect and set your
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: boundaries for your place of comfort.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 4: Because people then realize if you're doing.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 3: The work and it's benefiting this person, they want you
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 3: to show up at your best. What, you don't like
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 3: the color purple? Hold up, everything purple in here has
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 3: to go because we need her so bad that if
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 3: purple distracts her, that cannot work.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 4: And that's like something just.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 3: As an example.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 4: I don't have an issue with purple.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 3: But my point is that a lot of it is
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 3: like doing the work and putting that time in. If
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 3: you're doing that and then you still feel like that
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 3: is not happening for you, you might gotta go somewhere else.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 4: I had to leave. I had to tell myself, Lauren,
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 4: you're gonna be.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 3: Okay once you leave TMZ. Your world is not gonna end.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 3: I didn't know that for sure, but... I felt like
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 3: I was doing everything I was supposed to be doing,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 3: and the things that I knew I wanted weren't happening
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 3: in that space, and they had the resources to do it.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 4: They just didn't want to. I had to be okay
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 4: with that and be like.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 8: You know what?
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 10: I got to go.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 3: And when I did that, it wasn't easy, but I
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 3: ended up somewhere that, like, you know, once they realized
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 3: me as an asset, they were like, wait, so what
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 3: do you want to do? How can we help you
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 3: do that? It gets greater later, but it is not
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 3: ever easy.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 4: Yes. Period.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 3: That's the part that as you were talking, I was
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 3: thinking about because as Lauren said, I've known her since college,
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 3: so I've seen the grind to get here.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 4: And the question when it says, when does it get easier?
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 4: I feel like you're the.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 3: Poster child for like the work really works. like you
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 3: have to put in the work and not think about
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 3: when it gets easier because like you said before you
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 3: were hustling and now you're talent.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 4: And you're still hustling just in a different.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 3: Way so it's not about when it gets easier it's
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 3: just about the transition to get to the goals that
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 3: you're trying to achieve 100 and just knowing how to set.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 4: Like i'm learning how to take care.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 3: Of myself in real time Like everything I'm experiencing is
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 3: happening in front of you guys. Like not even on purpose.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 3: It's just like, this is just, God was like, boom,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 3: poster child, here you go.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, okay, guess I'm, you know, strongest soldier
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 4: 2026 again.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 3: But I've learned how to take care of myself. Like
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 3: when I leave here, I'm going home to be with family.
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 4: And I could choose to.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 3: Like, I said, know the things after this because I'm like,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 3: I know I want to go.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 4: Home and be with my family.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 3: And I can do that because I know tomorrow I'll
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 3: be at something else.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 4: Next weekend I'll be at something else.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 3: You get to the point where you can begin to
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 3: kind of leverage those pockets and make it make sense
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 3: for you.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 4: But you've got to, you've got to show up and
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 4: go to work.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 5: You do.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 4: And if you're, again, I say this and I'm going
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 4: to end with this because I can.
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 10: Talk a lot.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 3: If you are showing up and you are doing the
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 3: work and you are like nailing the Like, you're doing
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 3: everything you're supposed to be doing, and it's just not
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 3: moving the way you need it to, have a conversation.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 3: If that conversation doesn't get that wheel turning the way
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 3: it needs to so that you can feel what you
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 3: need to feel, you might have outgrown that space, or
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 3: they might not.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 5: Even be growing with you.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 3: Period. And it is okay to recognize that. And when
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 3: you recognize that, make a plan and get out, or
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 3: you will waste your life, your gift, and your talent.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 5: I love that.
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 4: And on that note, we're going to end it.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 3: I had a couple of other questions in here, but
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 3: we got 30 minutes, so we're going to have to leave.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 5: I can talk for about 30.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 3: No, I love that, because while we have you here,
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 3: while the people have you here, I love that you're
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 3: able to express kind of your journey, because I know
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 3: your journey, but a lot of people just.
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 4: Kind of see you pop up.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 5: They think I fell off the sky.
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 3: And I'm okay with that, too, because I feel like
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 3: it's been beautiful having people rediscover me and me having
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 3: to figure out how to reintroduce myself to people Um,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 3: but yeah, we've.
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 5: Been figuring this out for a long time.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 4: Like the annoying.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 3: Question asking, I got a, I got a knack for this.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 3: I think we should be doing this girl that I am.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 4: I've been this way.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 3: Keisha and all of the PR that strategize us, figure
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 3: this out, girl, that she is woman that she is
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 3: right now.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 4: She has always been that way. And it's just so
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 4: beautiful to be here with you and see what's, You birthed. Girl,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 4: it's beautiful to be here with you. You a celebrity now. Okay, period.
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 3: We only have two minutes, so we're going to land
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 3: this plane. I just want to thank y'all for being here,
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 3: for being involved in the conversation, for saying yes to
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 3: showing up on a busy weekend. I know a lot
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 3: of us are going to CultureCon tomorrow. I know a
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 3: lot of us outside of that have other events to
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 3: even go to this evening. So I just want y'all
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 3: to give a round of applause for yourself for showing up.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 7: Thank you.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 4: I hope that y'all met someone that you.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 3: Can then build a relationship with outside of this room.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 3: Our biggest thing is continuing the conversation. So upstairs, there
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 3: were some QR codes. I hope that y'all scanned those
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 3: because there's a digital community that we have. If you
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 3: did not, just follow us on Experience Procon and we'll
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 3: be talking about more of how we can.
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 4: Build this community, okay? I think that's all I have. Love,
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 4: we got anything else to share? Oh, no, I'm good.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 5: Won't you do it?
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 3: Amen.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 8: Okay.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 7: Well, you're so pretty.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 4: That's all.