Speaker 1: What's up. I'm Laura Currency and I'm Alexa Kristen. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to ed Landia. Got a great show. Rakia Reynolds,
Speaker 1: executive officer and founder of sky Blue Media's here before
Speaker 1: we get to Rakia, Laura and I, as you guys know,
Speaker 1: talk all the time about random threads and philosophies. So
Speaker 1: this morning you sent me the IKEA catalog. Ikea did
Speaker 1: an audio catalog, all the whole catalog, like four hours,
Speaker 1: four hours, a marathon of audio. The point to me,
Speaker 1: and the thing that we were talking about is that
Speaker 1: now commerce is kind of unbound. It should have no
Speaker 1: boundaries at this point, and that's really where we're getting to.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting, like if you think about commerce not
Speaker 1: having any boundaries of format, the fact that you could
Speaker 1: buy anything anywhere and that you should have the ability
Speaker 1: to do that as a as a consumer, it's really exciting.
Speaker 1: And then what conversely does that do to advertising? Is
Speaker 1: it a podcast? Is it an audio instruction manual? It's
Speaker 1: like an audio catalog from the standpoint of it's trying
Speaker 1: to story tell and help you visualize rooms in the catalog,
Speaker 1: like what they would actually be showing in the catalog.
Speaker 1: But I think the big point is this idea that
Speaker 1: you should be able to buy from audio content. Content
Speaker 1: should be commerce period, full stop well and also new
Speaker 1: and interesting ways to literate or build on and keep
Speaker 1: a consumer engaged. Right, what's really exciting is creation. Commerce,
Speaker 1: an asset, right, or artifact or thing that's created are
Speaker 1: coming together in a way that I don't think we've
Speaker 1: ever experienced, not something that's been accessible like this. What
Speaker 1: does the world look like where campaigns become open sourced.
Speaker 1: Let's just say I Ka puts that for our catalog down,
Speaker 1: and you and I have the ability to come in
Speaker 1: and say, actually we should drop a meditation here, and
Speaker 1: then you can submit that back to a brand, not
Speaker 1: in the form of social media feedback, truly having the
Speaker 1: opportunity and open source campaign to be able as a fan, consumer, etcetera,
Speaker 1: to contribute, influence, contribute. I don't want to just be
Speaker 1: a fan of your company or your brand or your product.
Speaker 1: I want to own a part of it. In a
Speaker 1: different way. I want to own part of that. I
Speaker 1: p that fiduciary relationship means we have a completely entirely
Speaker 1: different relationship that we haven't even been able to imagine
Speaker 1: with our consumer that we trust them enough if they
Speaker 1: are fans to represent that brand, shareholders in the business, yes,
Speaker 1: and create on it. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: that all comes back to community. You're talking about trust
Speaker 1: in the consumer. Yes, how well do you know your community? Yes?
Speaker 1: And the thing Laura, totally and the thing that has
Speaker 1: been on my mind. A lot of brand owners, a
Speaker 1: lot of brand stewards not even gonna call them marketers
Speaker 1: because it's beyond the marketing organization or the marketing role,
Speaker 1: talk about having community, that they've built a community or
Speaker 1: that they're part of a community. And that may be true,
Speaker 1: but more often than not, brands and people at brands
Speaker 1: are talking about their community as buyers, as buyers transaction
Speaker 1: transaction I have, we have we have people that like us,
Speaker 1: we have people that buy us, they like this product.
Speaker 1: We have this community of buyers and that they're like
Speaker 1: community of buyers. That's a sales force breadsheet. We're going
Speaker 1: to talk to for Kia about this, but I think
Speaker 1: that it behooves us to start to really unpack, like
Speaker 1: what makes up a community. I think that right now
Speaker 1: is a really good time for marketers to be thoughtful
Speaker 1: about some of the new structure and new kind of
Speaker 1: points of power, as I would say, that are coming
Speaker 1: to life in the world. There's an army of natural
Speaker 1: born marketers who are rising, and they know how to
Speaker 1: sell and probably in some cases are better product marketers
Speaker 1: and brand marketers then marketers. You've got a major institutionalized companies,
Speaker 1: you know, big corporates, and so if you think about that,
Speaker 1: it starts to become depending on where you stand, is
Speaker 1: either really exciting or maybe a little bit scary. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back and we are back on the mic
Speaker 1: with Rikiya Reynolds, founder and executive officer of sky Blue Media.
Speaker 1: Sky Blue is a multimedia strategic communications firm focus on people,
Speaker 1: products and places. Rikia, we have waited so long to
Speaker 1: say this. Welcome to Atlantia. Welcome Rikia. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, y'all. This is such a long
Speaker 1: time coming, Like for real, I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1: You're just celebrating your tenure anniversary, recently named to Forbes
Speaker 1: one thousand like last week. Congratulationslations to you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. Working with some of the biggest talent and
Speaker 1: brands in the industry. Tell us about the origin story
Speaker 1: of how sky Blue came to be. Oh, I love
Speaker 1: you know, I love a good origin story. I like
Speaker 1: to call it the story behind the glory. Um. I
Speaker 1: recently actually on Instagram recently recap the last decade because
Speaker 1: we're in our celebratory tenth year at sky Blue Media.
Speaker 1: So I broke it down into sort of business growth
Speaker 1: stages or the stages of business, so like zero to
Speaker 1: three and then four to six and what did that
Speaker 1: look like? Um, So, I will say the story behind
Speaker 1: this glory is that I started sky Blue Media. I
Speaker 1: was a former TV producer. I worked in magazines. I
Speaker 1: had a five year stint in working in higher education
Speaker 1: for a large university, working on I was actually pursuing
Speaker 1: my degree in counseling psychology, working with students who were
Speaker 1: suffering from you know, going to college and what it meant.
Speaker 1: So I was advising a lot of students as as
Speaker 1: a counselor. So I worked for five years in higher education,
Speaker 1: then went onto TV, then went onto magazines. And working
Speaker 1: in TV, y'all, it was more than an emotional roller
Speaker 1: coaster because in the world of TV, you're on, you're off,
Speaker 1: your you have a hiatus, you go dark and I
Speaker 1: was like, I can't keep doing this. But one day
Speaker 1: they called us into the office and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, this is so exciting. They were like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're having a special meeting and they said special, but
Speaker 1: I took it as like they're giving us like something exciting.
Speaker 1: They brought us in they had envelopes for everyone, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my gosh, bring getting a bonus
Speaker 1: right when I needed this bonus. It was like super exciting.
Speaker 1: And so we opened the bonus and it was like
Speaker 1: an additional check and I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: like we've done such a great job. I was working
Speaker 1: on all of these shows and they were like, okay,
Speaker 1: so this is the last check for everyone. We're laying
Speaker 1: everybody off. And I was like, oh, I'm sorry, this
Speaker 1: is not a work bonus that we're getting. So I
Speaker 1: was I was pregnant with our second child, my husband
Speaker 1: was just finishing greadful. I mean, when I tell you,
Speaker 1: I was like trying to figure out like are we
Speaker 1: gonna have old meal for dinner or tuna fish sandwiches
Speaker 1: for dinner? Like it was it was that like my
Speaker 1: friends are like we like to say, like a struggle sandwich.
Speaker 1: It was like a struggle sandwich. And so at that
Speaker 1: point I was like, I don't really have anything to lose.
Speaker 1: I've always been a risk taker. Why don't I sort
Speaker 1: of jump off this cliff of entrepreneurship, start my own company,
Speaker 1: take all of the things that I've learned from, you know,
Speaker 1: from TV and magazines and counseling, psychology and studying all
Speaker 1: of these amazing people, and sort of disrupt the traditional
Speaker 1: model of public relations. And then I started my own
Speaker 1: agency taking all of the things that I had learned
Speaker 1: in TV, you know, producing traditional pr psychology, and then
Speaker 1: formed my own digital communications multimedia coms agency like you
Speaker 1: just imagined it forward. And what I think is interesting
Speaker 1: what you told us off Mike, and I want to
Speaker 1: actually ask you about, is that you don't call yourself
Speaker 1: a CEO. You can call yourself a chief, which is
Speaker 1: probably aligned to your philosophy and your ethos and your values.
Speaker 1: Tell us why you don't call yourself a CEO? Right, So,
Speaker 1: I think we need to analyze words more. We need
Speaker 1: to look at the etymology of words, We need to
Speaker 1: look at the origin of words. And there are a
Speaker 1: lot of culture vultures out there, people appropriating. There's so
Speaker 1: much miseducation, and so when I get to the point
Speaker 1: where I feel like I am educated completely, fully and
Speaker 1: amazingly or acutely aware of my surroundings and the words
Speaker 1: and why we use them, then I may incorporate them
Speaker 1: back into my lexicon. But for now, with the foundation
Speaker 1: that I have been taught, with the history that I
Speaker 1: was taught as a child and then as a and
Speaker 1: as an adolescent and as an adult, I don't think
Speaker 1: that I was educated to the point where I should
Speaker 1: be using any of the language that was delivered to me.
Speaker 1: We're very intentional with what we say, Like we don't
Speaker 1: say things like oh, that's tone deaf. Instead of saying
Speaker 1: like that's tone deaf, we may say, well, it lacks
Speaker 1: the nuance needed to inform the conversation, so we won't
Speaker 1: say or it's a blind spot. Will say, hey, you
Speaker 1: know what, let's make sure that we cover all parameters.
Speaker 1: So for us, it's really about the intentionality of words.
Speaker 1: I've actually had a client that is of the deaf
Speaker 1: and heart of hearing community, So in terms of being
Speaker 1: informed and sometimes for folks, there's I think that there
Speaker 1: is like personal empathy and collective empathy, and once we
Speaker 1: get to a space of collective empathy where we can
Speaker 1: like put our thoughts aside and really be intentional. Um.
Speaker 1: I noticed that on calls I will take a little
Speaker 1: bit of time or process my thoughts, But with words,
Speaker 1: I really tried to slow it down to say, why
Speaker 1: are we using these words? What will it mean to
Speaker 1: someone else, and how will it impact someone who may
Speaker 1: hear this or experience this later on down the line.
Speaker 1: So we typically will look at all of our words,
Speaker 1: but no chief, no chief in this executive officer over here.
Speaker 1: As you were introducing sky Blue at the top of
Speaker 1: the conversation, you said you were going back through chapters
Speaker 1: right where there are points along the way that shaped
Speaker 1: or evolved the way you approached your work. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think there were two pivotal moments in my sort of
Speaker 1: sky Blue media career or history. One was sort of midpoint,
Speaker 1: maybe three or four years in. I was faced with
Speaker 1: so many different challenges where I was not hiring people,
Speaker 1: I wasn't hiring the right people, and so I had
Speaker 1: the wrong people surrounding me. I had someone steal mail,
Speaker 1: steal money, all of these things. It was like a
Speaker 1: compounded stressor for me, and what I learned was how
Speaker 1: to respond to things during a crisis because I was
Speaker 1: in a constant crisis. Constant I mean with employees, with news,
Speaker 1: with all of these things that were just happening to me.
Speaker 1: It was a compounded stress moment. So for me, it
Speaker 1: was a pivotal moment to learn how to maneuver through
Speaker 1: chaos and crisis. And then I will say sort of
Speaker 1: bad us forward when we really started at the beginning
Speaker 1: of my career, people because I'm a black woman, would say,
Speaker 1: we want you to work on all of our black marketing,
Speaker 1: or we want you to work on this, or we
Speaker 1: want you to work on that. And it became like
Speaker 1: this multicultural marketing way of bringing us into companies like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, larger corporations would be like and I would say,
Speaker 1: you don't just bring someone in because of the way
Speaker 1: they look. It's their expertise. Let me build this a
Speaker 1: little more. So it's not just you know, the black market,
Speaker 1: but it's the indigenous cultures market. It is the Latin
Speaker 1: X market, it is the l g B t q
Speaker 1: i A market, it is the Asian American and Pacific
Speaker 1: Islanders market. So I started doing a lot of research,
Speaker 1: bringing in people that had their PhD in sociology, bringing
Speaker 1: in people that were experts in their field to do
Speaker 1: think tanks, workshops, professional development to inform our teams in
Speaker 1: order to effectively communicate. And then we started bringing those
Speaker 1: folks in as consultants to have brand extensions to our
Speaker 1: work because I don't think that everyone out there should
Speaker 1: be doing the work that they're doing because they're not
Speaker 1: an expert in their field. Just because you did one
Speaker 1: project or um, you have one case study, I don't
Speaker 1: think that you should. You know, you can be doing
Speaker 1: the work. I think when people become seasoned in their fields,
Speaker 1: that's when you can put it on your website. That's
Speaker 1: when you should say this is you know what we do.
Speaker 1: So I think for me getting into the space of
Speaker 1: like research and expertise and really sort of refining what
Speaker 1: are offerings are and were we were able to go
Speaker 1: beyond the lens of marketing, public relations, social media, and
Speaker 1: digital media. I think there have been all of these
Speaker 1: pivotal learning moments in my career. UM and then the
Speaker 1: work that we get to do, and then the people
Speaker 1: that I've sort of surrounded myself with and the folks
Speaker 1: that are running the company in a way that I
Speaker 1: never thought would run. You talk about and Laura's told
Speaker 1: me about this, but I want to get into it more. People, products, places.
Speaker 1: That's what you do well, and that's how you think
Speaker 1: about your business. Can you explain that a bit more? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love you know, like alliteration, and and I have
Speaker 1: to when I'm remembering things. But on the people's side, um,
Speaker 1: I think really early on and Laura knows this, really
Speaker 1: early on, we were able to work with Ashley Graham
Speaker 1: for the first five years of her business and build
Speaker 1: her brand and you know, work with her on what
Speaker 1: she or her presence in how she was entering the world.
Speaker 1: So from a people's standpoint, we worked with Serena Williams
Speaker 1: on her apparel brand for HSN and then when she
Speaker 1: went independently, we still, you know, we still have the
Speaker 1: honor to work with people such as you know, icons
Speaker 1: like Serena Williams. We work with people such as m
Speaker 1: Night Shamalan, and people such as Marley Dais who started
Speaker 1: hashtag one thousand black girl books, social activists like Alicia Garza,
Speaker 1: authors like Glenn and Doyle and love You a gi Ye.
Speaker 1: So like, you know, we look from a people standpoint,
Speaker 1: We've got some amazing people that we get to work
Speaker 1: with on and I'm honored and privileged that we get
Speaker 1: to learn from them and work with them. On the
Speaker 1: product side. That p is getting to work with larger
Speaker 1: tech companies like Dell. UM we work with soft Bank,
Speaker 1: we work with Airbnb, UM, and I'm like forgetting a
Speaker 1: couple of folks, but I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker 1: And then on the place space, I think you leave
Speaker 1: it like soft Bank Airbnb, you pretty much got it
Speaker 1: locked up. You're good. And let me be specific, the
Speaker 1: soft Bank SB Opportunity Fund, that's what we work on UM.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, on the places space. So just I
Speaker 1: worked with cities like Memphis and their storytelling. Cities like
Speaker 1: Philadelphia hired us, you know years ago on o hey,
Speaker 1: we have all of this research, how do we distill
Speaker 1: this and make it into a great story. So cities
Speaker 1: from a place ending standpoint have hired us on storytelling
Speaker 1: for them. What are the signments, projects, opportunities, challenges people
Speaker 1: are calling with right now? And then what you project
Speaker 1: over the next you know, twelve to eighteen months. What
Speaker 1: are the areas within comms um that we really need
Speaker 1: to be thinking about as an industry and just sort
Speaker 1: of trends and signals you're picking up based on your conversations. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I would say a lot of people call
Speaker 1: on us now, and I want to be clear, all
Speaker 1: of our clients have been with us for years. We
Speaker 1: we don't typically take on projects, and I always tell folks,
Speaker 1: you know, we're in it for the long term, in
Speaker 1: the long run. You know, some of our clients have
Speaker 1: been on our board for five years because we don't
Speaker 1: believe in you know, coming in for a sixty day
Speaker 1: project or a six month project. I think right now
Speaker 1: we've actually had to say no to a lot of
Speaker 1: companies because they are calling us. They see our clients
Speaker 1: perfectly position in the marketplace on what to say and
Speaker 1: how to say it. So it's one of the things
Speaker 1: that it pains me sometimes because I'm like, if we had,
Speaker 1: you know, a larger team, or if I wanted to
Speaker 1: take on more clients, that would help said corporation or
Speaker 1: help dead person. But we've closed the door, you know,
Speaker 1: sadly enough to to a lot of folks just saying hey,
Speaker 1: we are we're not taking on any more clients. And
Speaker 1: so what we did start to do was we created
Speaker 1: this monthly tool kit on effective communications. So every month
Speaker 1: we put out this tool kid, like, here's what you
Speaker 1: should be saying, here's how you should say it. Here
Speaker 1: the words that you should refrain from. And we we
Speaker 1: give it to companies that were unable to work with
Speaker 1: right now due to our capacity um so that they
Speaker 1: can use it as an internal learning tool with their
Speaker 1: comms and marketing teams. What's been the reaction to them
Speaker 1: and are there things that you know, you're you're seeing
Speaker 1: clients maybe not be aware of and saying like, this
Speaker 1: is something I'm to be implementing as a result. Oh goodness,
Speaker 1: I mean so many you know, they're you know, large
Speaker 1: corporations that have come to us and said, hey, we
Speaker 1: didn't know that we should be you know, considering or
Speaker 1: looking at Indigenous People's Day instead of Thanksgiving, or you know,
Speaker 1: not being super overt with our messages around July fourth
Speaker 1: because not all black people were free and you know,
Speaker 1: this is how we are looking at Juneteenth, or this
Speaker 1: is how we're looking at the word feminist, because typically
Speaker 1: the word feminist is assist, gendered, white woman and not
Speaker 1: inclusive of all communities, or this is how we're thinking
Speaker 1: of the world. I mean, there's there's so many. So
Speaker 1: we put one out for Women's History Month and said,
Speaker 1: this is how people are going to be acknowledging it.
Speaker 1: Make sure you are careful around this language. Not every
Speaker 1: woman looks at, you know, sort of Women's Month in
Speaker 1: this way because not all folks were included. So when
Speaker 1: you look from a lens of historical irrelevance going back,
Speaker 1: you have to really really go back and say where
Speaker 1: did it start? What is the origin? Right we talked
Speaker 1: about origin, what is the origin story? And how did
Speaker 1: this come about? And did it include all people? And
Speaker 1: if it didn't include all people, let's sort of remix
Speaker 1: the vocabulary a little bit and say this is how
Speaker 1: we're going to be approaching it now. Not all companies
Speaker 1: have to do that. I mean not all companies serve
Speaker 1: all communities. I mean, I can't speak for everyone, but
Speaker 1: I would think that where we are in one, you know,
Speaker 1: we should be more on the gender list side because
Speaker 1: of the way that you know, folks identify. We should
Speaker 1: be thinking about every single word that we're putting on
Speaker 1: an email because you don't know how it will impact
Speaker 1: someone I think we're beyond diversity and inclusion and we're
Speaker 1: at the space of belonging and mattering. Do people feel
Speaker 1: like they belong in your space? Like, do they feel
Speaker 1: like they should be there? I think I read a
Speaker 1: great research a poor a while ago and it said
Speaker 1: that not belonging, not feeling like you belong inside of
Speaker 1: a company or space is akin to physical pain. So
Speaker 1: pay attention to the people that call out of work.
Speaker 1: It's not and it is akin to physical pain. So
Speaker 1: I think we just have to be It just goes
Speaker 1: back to that intentionality. I have a question, Rikia, like
Speaker 1: we're in this time where we're in massive social upheaval.
Speaker 1: Still millions and millions of people just in this country
Speaker 1: out of jobs, you know, health crisis like we've never
Speaker 1: seen in the history of the world, in the history
Speaker 1: of the world and the history of the I mean
Speaker 1: think about right. My daughter by the way side now
Speaker 1: asked me the other night, um what I did when
Speaker 1: I was a little kid during the virus and I said, oh, honey,
Speaker 1: we don't have the virus. And I had a moment
Speaker 1: like I was like, WHOA. So I guess the question
Speaker 1: to come back to is we're in unprecedented times like
Speaker 1: everyone has said too much and instead of brands going
Speaker 1: backwards in terms of kind of reverting into fear and
Speaker 1: non communication, not talking about things, not addressing things, not
Speaker 1: kind of driving their reputation forward and their perspective for it.
Speaker 1: How do they imagine it forward like you did in
Speaker 1: your own career. How do you both be bold and
Speaker 1: empathetic at a time like this. I do think in
Speaker 1: my field, in the world of communications, I think folks
Speaker 1: need to pause and hit the breaks. Um they're people, are,
Speaker 1: you know, scrambling and trying their best. I see it
Speaker 1: and it's like, Wow, you'all are really trying. Let's get
Speaker 1: the right people in and that's good. You know, was
Speaker 1: the year of words and beyond should be the year
Speaker 1: and years of the works? What is the work that
Speaker 1: you're doing so you set all those things in T twenty,
Speaker 1: What is the work that you're putting in, you know,
Speaker 1: in one What does it look like? What councils have
Speaker 1: you formed? What does it look like in terms of
Speaker 1: your employee hiring, your employee resource groups, the comms people
Speaker 1: that you've brought on, the marketing people. Who are the
Speaker 1: people that really do have the seat at the table.
Speaker 1: Who are the decision makers? Who is scanning your language?
Speaker 1: Who is helping you to inform your decisions. If I'm
Speaker 1: sitting here typing an email to you in Google automates
Speaker 1: and finishes it, am I really going to be intentional?
Speaker 1: Am I really gonna go and click more keys? Or
Speaker 1: am I gonna scroll that little arrow over, finish the
Speaker 1: sentence and put a period? Most of the time scroll
Speaker 1: it over and put a period. Can you tell us
Speaker 1: about some of the other projects, including the AI platform
Speaker 1: that you're working on. And I'm actually building an ethical
Speaker 1: intelligence platform as a product of all of the work
Speaker 1: that we've done in the equity and communications space with
Speaker 1: sky Blue Media UH to help marketers and communicators make
Speaker 1: more informed decisions when they're writing and marketing. So that
Speaker 1: will launch sometime later this year. Who are you building that?
Speaker 1: So girl, listen, I'm actually building my advisory board now.
Speaker 1: So are brought on two advisors who are advising me.
Speaker 1: And I just secured my first angel investment, so I
Speaker 1: know I'm not supposed to thank you, But he is
Speaker 1: the vs knees okay, Like he's invested in a lot
Speaker 1: of companies. When I pitched him over the phone without
Speaker 1: a deck. He was like, Rakia, the world needs this.
Speaker 1: I don't make investments like this. I've not done this
Speaker 1: in three years, but this is what the world needs.
Speaker 1: And then with a media company, a big media entity, um,
Speaker 1: I am building a community of women who are not
Speaker 1: quite forty yet but not they can't be on the
Speaker 1: under thirty list. I noticed in the market space, we
Speaker 1: have all of these like milestones lists right like it's
Speaker 1: I'm on the under thirty lists, I'm on the over
Speaker 1: fifty list, But what about the people that are right
Speaker 1: in between, like I'm i might not be forty, I'm
Speaker 1: thirty seven, I'm getting there, or I might be a
Speaker 1: little over forty. And so I found that that there
Speaker 1: was a good market space and place for people that
Speaker 1: were in this forty issue. There they you know, they
Speaker 1: figured it out. However, they still have questions. They still
Speaker 1: need a community. There's someone's mentor, but they need a mentor.
Speaker 1: They've sponsored people, they've done all the things, but they
Speaker 1: still need someone to do all the things for them.
Speaker 1: So I think in the world of micro communities and
Speaker 1: the trend of micro communities, where it's the kitchen table
Speaker 1: is where we need to be focusing. What do you
Speaker 1: think the future of talent is when you start to
Speaker 1: actually invest in micro communities. I think in terms of
Speaker 1: talent as it relates to community, there are folks that
Speaker 1: will crumble because they've not built the community before they
Speaker 1: needed the community. And so people are scrambling now to
Speaker 1: make sure that they've built some sort of community and
Speaker 1: they built it when they needed the community. So build
Speaker 1: communities before you need the community. Built community because you
Speaker 1: want community, because you value community, because you want to
Speaker 1: foster community. Don't build the community as you need it.
Speaker 1: What would be your advice to just get started in
Speaker 1: that capacity? So if there are creators listening or brands
Speaker 1: who want to build community, how do you get started?
Speaker 1: So I think there are a couple of ways to
Speaker 1: answer that, but I would start with folks that are
Speaker 1: in the nano influencer space. A SOS very early on
Speaker 1: started working with nano influencers, and they were working with
Speaker 1: like really nano influencers, folks that had like five hundred
Speaker 1: and six hundred followers on Instagram. And they did that
Speaker 1: because they saw the spike in the engagement, because their
Speaker 1: communities really trusted them. So I tend to look at
Speaker 1: folks is lower followings because I do know that it's
Speaker 1: in organic following, So looking at their messages, how they're posting,
Speaker 1: how their people are commenting. You could have someone that
Speaker 1: has a thousand followers and they get three hundred likes
Speaker 1: or engagements, and I know we don't measure it on that,
Speaker 1: but just sort of for an optics standpoint, I sort
Speaker 1: of like will go in just to just kind of look,
Speaker 1: and then you could have someone with like ten thousand
Speaker 1: followers with three hundred likes, and you can easily sort
Speaker 1: of deduce that these folks don't have a really engaged audience,
Speaker 1: or they have fake followers, or their people don't really
Speaker 1: care what they're posting. And you have to understand because
Speaker 1: of algorithmic changes frequently and the rug can be pulled
Speaker 1: out of under your foot at any given time. Build
Speaker 1: a trusted community that and that's really that's really just it.
Speaker 1: Build a trusted community. Asked the people, like, if you're in,
Speaker 1: if you're into you know, sort of influencer and you
Speaker 1: want to build a community, ask your people why they
Speaker 1: are following you? Post a photo? Why are you following me?
Speaker 1: Someone might say to me, I might think that people
Speaker 1: are following me because of business. Hey, rich kid, we're
Speaker 1: following you because you give business advice. And they don't
Speaker 1: give two shakes a ship about my business advice. They
Speaker 1: might just say we follow you because we like your
Speaker 1: blue glasses. And when you post yourself wearing different color sneakers,
Speaker 1: so then it's like, oh, they like what I'm wearing,
Speaker 1: So I need to serve the audience. Can we talk
Speaker 1: about story creation? How do you think about building from
Speaker 1: ground zero? The story and the story are like the
Speaker 1: strategic story of a brand, a person, a place, a product.
Speaker 1: How does your team do that differently? I think it
Speaker 1: for us starting the stories, it depends on the person.
Speaker 1: There's no cut, copy and paste answer to that. But
Speaker 1: I think what we like to do is start from
Speaker 1: the beginning. We're huge fans of like historically, what does
Speaker 1: this mean? I like to break things down. I also
Speaker 1: like to understand the way that our brains work. Our
Speaker 1: brains work in stories. Everything is the beginning, middle, and end.
Speaker 1: There's a one to three, there's an ABC. So how
Speaker 1: do you do that with the storytelling? What is the beginning?
Speaker 1: What do you want to say? How do you want
Speaker 1: to attract people? Why do they care um. We used
Speaker 1: to say in the office all of the time. You know,
Speaker 1: there's no new news. If you don't have any new news,
Speaker 1: you don't need to tell a story. Or you know,
Speaker 1: all marketers will say, what is that they're there. We
Speaker 1: firmly believe in that. Like, if you want to go
Speaker 1: out to market with the story and you want to,
Speaker 1: you know, proclaim it to the world, make sure you
Speaker 1: have it. They're there. Make sure you know your why
Speaker 1: before you start to tell other folks. Make sure make
Speaker 1: sure you understand the importance of the impact that you're
Speaker 1: going to sort of extend out to the world. I
Speaker 1: think all of us are rushing to tell a story
Speaker 1: because we're like, we want to get a message out.
Speaker 1: We or for people that are influencers, we want to
Speaker 1: get followers, we want we want to attract people. But
Speaker 1: do you believe your own story? Do you believe it? Like,
Speaker 1: do you believe it? Can you nurture that one story?
Speaker 1: You don't have to talk just to talk, you know,
Speaker 1: save it for you know, save it for something else,
Speaker 1: for the group chat, and save it for the group chat.
Speaker 1: Hype your girls up in your group Chad, do it?
Speaker 1: Don't know WhatsApp that's why, that's why I am. I
Speaker 1: love the idea of people in micro communities because the
Speaker 1: conversations are a little more closed off in their slag channels,
Speaker 1: you know, their slag groups. You know, I have a
Speaker 1: list of what'sapp groups that I'm involved in, or telegram
Speaker 1: groups or um now you know people are taking it
Speaker 1: off of What's happen and starting their own apps. What
Speaker 1: is the most effective channel for creators or talent today?
Speaker 1: But I think you work with what works best for you,
Speaker 1: and it goes back to meeting your audience where they
Speaker 1: are and how they're consuming media. It's not how you
Speaker 1: want to tell your story, it's how are people receiving
Speaker 1: your story, consuming your story and relating to your story. Okay, Rikia,
Speaker 1: before you go, we need to do our game. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be really intentional about our words. What would you
Speaker 1: get rid of in the world could be anything. What
Speaker 1: would you buy, what would you acquire? And what would
Speaker 1: you do yourself? What I would get rid of is clutter.
Speaker 1: I keep a lot of stuff, y'all. So that's my
Speaker 1: first thing. My husband would be so proud. Um. I
Speaker 1: would get rid of a lot of stuff in my closet,
Speaker 1: things that this girl cannot fit in anymore. I fit
Speaker 1: into anymore and still dreams to fit into. Let girl,
Speaker 1: you are not a six. Throw the clothes out. Forty
Speaker 1: ish was for ish and four ish is about seven
Speaker 1: sizes away. Yeah, I'm girl, you are not going to
Speaker 1: be a six again. And stop dreaming. Get in that
Speaker 1: good tin and you're gonna be Okay, what would you buy?
Speaker 1: I would love to acquire other companies. They're right at
Speaker 1: the cusp of doing the things that they're supposed to
Speaker 1: do in the right way, so that we could work
Speaker 1: with him on doing the right things in the way
Speaker 1: that they should do them for the future. Give us
Speaker 1: an example. I can't do that because I am trying to.
Speaker 1: I'm actually trying to acquire a few companies. Okay, but
Speaker 1: you'll you'll come back and tell us once acquire Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: And what would you do yourself that you're not already doing.
Speaker 1: I'm a good vacation lady, Like I mean tears y'all
Speaker 1: because I don't get to go on vacation. Um, but
Speaker 1: is that like a thing like you're all saying, like
Speaker 1: what would I do? I would go on at vacation.
Speaker 1: I would go on some sort of sort of vacation
Speaker 1: to recharge and center myself at least every other month.
Speaker 1: What's the first place we're going somewhere? Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I would love to go to mad I do want
Speaker 1: to do I'm in I like my families from the Islands,
Speaker 1: so I'd love to just do something like I'd love
Speaker 1: to go to St. Thomas. Um. I need the sand
Speaker 1: and the water, like that's who I am. But then
Speaker 1: I want to do I want to do a camping trip.
Speaker 1: I'm afraid of the woods, Like I don't like snakes,
Speaker 1: I don't like any of that kind of stuff. But
Speaker 1: I want to like get myself to do like a
Speaker 1: camping trip, just to say, Rickia, you did the camping trip. Um.
Speaker 1: I want to go to the desert. I want to
Speaker 1: tree in a lake. Yes, I want to go to
Speaker 1: Joshua Tree. We have so many things to do. We'll
Speaker 1: do that. I'm like, I just want to go to
Speaker 1: dinner with the both of you, but I'll do it
Speaker 1: any of those places. I love that. We were like
Speaker 1: what would you do yourself? And it became what are
Speaker 1: we gonna do? You just tell us where we go?
Speaker 1: Where are we going? Rickia? Because we'll be there, Rickia Reynolds.
Speaker 1: If people want to get in touch with you, learn
Speaker 1: more about sky Blue, do business with you. How do
Speaker 1: they get in touch with you? Um, you can just
Speaker 1: follow me on Instagram, Rickia Reynolds, because that's the easiest
Speaker 1: place to find me at Rikia Reynolds are a k
Speaker 1: I A Reynolds like the rep love it Rickia. Rickia,
Speaker 1: you are like a breath of fresh air. And uh wow,
Speaker 1: I hope the industry gets a lot more of you.
Speaker 1: And I'm so excited about your ethical language AI technology.
Speaker 1: Just one last parting thought, what about an eyewear line, Rickia.
Speaker 1: You know what someone said that before, I would love
Speaker 1: I've been wearing glasses since the kindergarten, so it's a
Speaker 1: no brain to be continued, Rickia Reynold, Sky Media. Okay,
Speaker 1: so big, thank you Rickia Reynolds for coming by Atlandia.
Speaker 1: So many important things for us to consider and think
Speaker 1: about as marketers and communicators. I love what she said
Speaker 1: that before was the year of words, not works, and
Speaker 1: now we are moving into works, which is really the
Speaker 1: call to action to the industry. More of out what
Speaker 1: are you gonna what are you gonna do? Not just
Speaker 1: say I think that it is more important not just
Speaker 1: as people, but as people who are building companies, building agencies,
Speaker 1: building brands, building products that we are intentional in the
Speaker 1: language that we use. And what I love that she
Speaker 1: said that I think can be easily passed by it was, UM,
Speaker 1: the trend that I'm all in for is micro or
Speaker 1: nano influencers at the kitchen table. And the point there
Speaker 1: was these are intimate conversations. The more brands and marketers
Speaker 1: take some time and maybe even take some budget to
Speaker 1: really invest in the works into communities and doing it
Speaker 1: in a meaningful, truly meaningful way to those communities. UM,
Speaker 1: there's some exciting things that will come out of that.
Speaker 1: And I think real long term partnership can come out
Speaker 1: of that, UM where potentially these are co collaborators in
Speaker 1: your product, in your brand. Well. And as I think
Speaker 1: about coming back to the top of this episode and
Speaker 1: talking about shareholder, really thinking about sitting around a table
Speaker 1: having influence because you have expertise, you have understanding, your
Speaker 1: your thought leader in what it is that you're bringing
Speaker 1: to the table that is what shape's decisions. This is
Speaker 1: a really interesting provocation to think about as marketers is
Speaker 1: it really about one to a million, or is about
Speaker 1: one to four? And I think we'll find that it's
Speaker 1: one to four over and over and over and over
Speaker 1: and over again. Laura hit it with the list of
Speaker 1: all of our friends and family I heart who have
Speaker 1: been so good to us and helped us get back
Speaker 1: on air. Big thank you to Bob Connal, Carter, Andy,
Speaker 1: Eric Gayle Val, Michael Jen. We appreciate you. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for this opportunity. We'll see in two weeks.
Speaker 1: M