Speaker 1: I'm with Lucas and this is Black Teed, Green Money.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Jackson is a community man that you're at LinkedIn
Speaker 1: empowering thousands to amplify their authentic voices and strengthen their
Speaker 1: personal brands. That's just in ninety five. She's also a
Speaker 1: founder of the Blond Misfit Misfit creative media and actor
Speaker 1: award winning journalists and content creator who's transformed her a
Speaker 1: side hustle into a global powerhouse. I want to talk
Speaker 1: about black content creators. You know, you see a lot
Speaker 1: of black content creation and you are a black content creator,
Speaker 1: but a lot of us are making a lot of
Speaker 1: mistakes when we're trying to build a brand. What is
Speaker 1: one of the things that you see, like, y'all should
Speaker 1: stop doing that. We gotta stop doing this.
Speaker 2: I love that question. I love that question a lot
Speaker 2: because it's almost like when you're at the at the
Speaker 2: family cookoud of the reviews and you're hanging out with
Speaker 2: your cousins and them and they're like, how can I
Speaker 2: step up better? And you like, stop doing this? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: and for all So for all of my cousins out
Speaker 2: there listening, I would I would say, I see we
Speaker 2: make the mistake of don't we don't brag enough, don't
Speaker 2: we don't carry our receipts. I think receipts are so
Speaker 2: important in today's job economy because, if you think about it,
Speaker 2: a lot of people do what you do. Right, Let's
Speaker 2: start there. I don't pull any punches when it comes
Speaker 2: to this. A lot of people are good at what
Speaker 2: they do. A lot of people have your job title,
Speaker 2: they work at your company. They want to be where
Speaker 2: you're at. But what sets you apart is your unique
Speaker 2: story and the way in which you tell your story,
Speaker 2: your narrative, and your ability to answer the question will
Speaker 2: why me? I think society does a disservice because it's
Speaker 2: taught us, as black creators that our blackness is not
Speaker 2: a superpower, and it absolutely is. Being able to code switch,
Speaker 2: being able to speak English and African American vernacular English right,
Speaker 2: or ebonics or whatever you want to say, like being
Speaker 2: able to straddle these worlds is a superpower that other
Speaker 2: people don't have. And so when I tell people all
Speaker 2: the time, like talk your talk, I'm saying it from
Speaker 2: the sense of, like, don't be cocky, right, because we
Speaker 2: all know that one person who talk a whole lot.
Speaker 2: But they can't fight in the club. Will like they
Speaker 2: can't fight, But I mean, like, bring your receipts, show
Speaker 2: why you are a unique value add show how your
Speaker 2: experience has positioned you or your experiences have shaped you.
Speaker 2: You know a lot of black creatives. We know what
Speaker 2: it's like to juggle multiple jobs. We know what it's
Speaker 2: like to have a non linear career path. That is
Speaker 2: your superpower. And so really, when I'm talking to a
Speaker 2: lot of our creatives, when I'm talking particularly even on
Speaker 2: like LinkedIn and how you position yourself, don't get so
Speaker 2: caught up in figuring out how to brand yourself as professional.
Speaker 2: Learn how to brand yourself in the sense of if
Speaker 2: someone didn't have you on their team, what are they
Speaker 2: missing out on? And that is where your story and
Speaker 2: where that superpower lies.
Speaker 1: How do I know if my LinkedIn profile is me
Speaker 1: opportunities versus creating opportunities for me?
Speaker 2: I love that question a lot, because we always need
Speaker 2: to be asking ourselves if we're losing out on the
Speaker 2: money or if we're attracting it. I would say a
Speaker 2: couple of things that you should think about is if
Speaker 2: your LinkedIn is accurately portraying the person you want to
Speaker 2: be seen as in the rooms that you want to
Speaker 2: be in. We have a really dope episode on Let's
Speaker 2: Talk Offline around personal branding, and I say on that
Speaker 2: episode that you are a brand, whether you want to
Speaker 2: be or not, Like we all are a brand because
Speaker 2: rooms that you're not in, somebody is saying something about you.
Speaker 2: And even though you can't necessarily control where people talk
Speaker 2: about you, you can't control what is said. And so
Speaker 2: when you're looking at your LinkedIn profile, you need to
Speaker 2: be asking yourself, Am I telling the proper story here?
Speaker 2: Am I reflecting all of my experiences? Am I utilizing
Speaker 2: my creativity? I'm always perplexed when I talk to creatives
Speaker 2: and they're not being created. Like, see your LinkedIn profile
Speaker 2: as an opportunity to be creative, And there's so many
Speaker 2: ways you can do that. If you love to write,
Speaker 2: You're about me section should be fire. I'm not talking
Speaker 2: about that whole like it looks like you just spin
Speaker 2: it out in AI and it just came out. Tell
Speaker 2: a story. Who are you? Where did it start? Where
Speaker 2: did your passions start? Where do you uniquely add yourself
Speaker 2: to the conversation? If you like to write, you can
Speaker 2: explore obviously your feed in posts, you can explore your newsletters.
Speaker 2: But a really amazing format that we've seen continuously grow
Speaker 2: at LinkedIn is short form video, right I'm talking like
Speaker 2: your two minutes or less vertical videos. It doesn't have
Speaker 2: to be fancy, it can be shot on the phone.
Speaker 2: Those are so great because you can still provide professional insights,
Speaker 2: which is where LinkedIn is unique to right like, but
Speaker 2: your professional insights are still through the lens of how
Speaker 2: you see the world, and so like, I always like
Speaker 2: to tell the story that, you know, I was dealing
Speaker 2: with somebody in my life who I looked up one
Speaker 2: day and I was like, bro, you're a hater. Like
Speaker 2: you're an actual professional hater, Like you know, whenever something
Speaker 2: good happens for me professionally, like you don't know how
Speaker 2: to show up. And so I made a video about
Speaker 2: that and I posted on LinkedIn. I'm sitting on the
Speaker 2: bathroom floor, I'm doing my makeup, and I'm talking about
Speaker 2: professional haters, and I'm sharing how you need those people
Speaker 2: in your life. You need people who doubt you, you
Speaker 2: need people who don't believe in you, because that builds
Speaker 2: character and it makes you see who really has your
Speaker 2: back and the good times and the bad. I looked
Speaker 2: up and within twenty four hours I had gotten over
Speaker 2: a million impressions. To date, that's one of my best
Speaker 2: performing videos on LinkedIn with over three points some million
Speaker 2: impressions and more. And that video alone showed me people
Speaker 2: want real. People want real, people want authenticity. People can
Speaker 2: smell fake a mile away, and that's on the platform too.
Speaker 2: So I always say, find unique and creative ways to
Speaker 2: tell your story. That's not gonna cost you a back,
Speaker 2: it's going to actually attract Because the type of opportunities
Speaker 2: that came after that were great. People then really wanted
Speaker 2: to tap in more, particularly with the podcast, because they
Speaker 2: were like, Oh, like this girl just gonna keep it real.
Speaker 2: She's gonna be honest, she's silly. And so I would
Speaker 2: definitely say like taking the time to look and say like,
Speaker 2: if I were a recruiter or a hiring manager, if
Speaker 2: I was an investor, if I was a sponsor, if
Speaker 2: this is all I saw about this person and I
Speaker 2: didn't do my due diligence to look them up on
Speaker 2: any other platform, which most people don't, you got one
Speaker 2: shot is this reflecting who they are? And I say
Speaker 2: you got to You gotta know how to do that professionally,
Speaker 2: but also in a way that is true to you.
Speaker 2: Like I don't ever want anyone to see any of
Speaker 2: my content and they don't see my personality, they don't
Speaker 2: see what I uniquely bring because at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, when I'm in that room, I'm gonna bring it,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And so I think like
Speaker 2: that's where a lot of people make the mistake. They're
Speaker 2: not exploring the creative ways in which they can tell
Speaker 2: their story, and they're not seeing themselves as a brand.
Speaker 2: The minute you start carrying yourself like a McDonald's or
Speaker 2: a Coca Cola or a Chapotle or any of these
Speaker 2: other household names, is the minute that you can just
Speaker 2: control the narrative and you attract the opportunities that want
Speaker 2: to tie to that narrative as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want you to go further on that, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you this from a different perspective. Is
Speaker 1: because you talked about leaning into who you are, leaning
Speaker 1: into your creativity, leaning to your culture, leaning into your blackness,
Speaker 1: how has black representation in media evolved to allow us
Speaker 1: to be able to do that and then not be
Speaker 1: off putting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I was privileged to go to an HBCU.
Speaker 2: Shout out to Howard, shout out to all my Bison family.
Speaker 2: It's all of no matter where you went, right, But
Speaker 2: I always got to put a little extra on for
Speaker 2: the Bison. I was very blessed that growing up, I
Speaker 2: was taught a lot about my culture. Being from like
Speaker 2: the Washington d C. Northern Virginia area, I was always
Speaker 2: surrounded by that, whether it was in the church or
Speaker 2: being an actor in community theater, or then going to
Speaker 2: an HBCU and learning. And I think what I've seen
Speaker 2: in media, particularly over the years, is like it's not
Speaker 2: all just about telling a certain narrative or a story.
Speaker 2: When we talk about us not being a monolithic people,
Speaker 2: we're often talking about it from the lens of Okay,
Speaker 2: we don't all come from a major city, or we
Speaker 2: don't all come from a certain socioeconomic background. But very
Speaker 2: few times are we actually saying when we say black
Speaker 2: people are not monolithic, we're also talking about a diversity
Speaker 2: of thought. We don't all think the same. And I
Speaker 2: think nowadays in media, you can find a little bit
Speaker 2: of everybody on social right, you can pop out your
Speaker 2: phone and you go and see the celebrity gossip sites.
Speaker 2: But you can also, you know, find a podcast like
Speaker 2: yours are Mine, where we're talking about other topics. Like
Speaker 2: I like to show people I'm from round a way,
Speaker 2: as our uncle Denzel Washington says, but I'm also a
Speaker 2: black girl in tech who can show you that you
Speaker 2: don't have to become anybody else to win. You are enough.
Speaker 2: And I think, like what I would like to continue
Speaker 2: to see is more of our stories continue to take
Speaker 2: over in media to show people, and especially this next generation,
Speaker 2: you don't have to to do certain things in order
Speaker 2: to get ahead, Like you get to define your destiny.
Speaker 2: You get to define your story and who you are
Speaker 2: is enough because let me tell you something, Well, when
Speaker 2: I first started out as a journalist and then as
Speaker 2: a blogger, and I was working in fashion and beauty,
Speaker 2: I was trying to paint myself a very specific way
Speaker 2: because that's all I saw. I saw all the other
Speaker 2: black girls in fashion move in a certain type of
Speaker 2: way or act in a certain type of way. Now
Speaker 2: one of them things. I couldn't do all that because
Speaker 2: I wasn't as skinny as them. Okay, your girl had
Speaker 2: hips and I was like, I ain't gonna be able
Speaker 2: to do the no sample size is of nothing, all right,
Speaker 2: And so I was like, Okay, now I gotta find
Speaker 2: my own style. I gotta find my own flavor. And
Speaker 2: I remember just looking up one day and I was like,
Speaker 2: this isn't me. Like a couple of my friends even
Speaker 2: called that out there, like who you paint yourself to
Speaker 2: be online is cool and all, but like that's not you.
Speaker 2: And it really kind of put a battery pack in
Speaker 2: me to say I am robbing myself and more importantly,
Speaker 2: the people who are assigned to me by not being
Speaker 2: true to who I am. And I just want more
Speaker 2: people to see that. I want people to hear it.
Speaker 2: I want it to get deep down in their spirit.
Speaker 2: Who you are is enough, and that authenticity is what
Speaker 2: is going to differentiate you from anybody else, any name
Speaker 2: of any day of any day of the week. I
Speaker 2: don't have to be nobody else. Everybody else is taken.
Speaker 2: As they like to say, Jamay is not. And I'm
Speaker 2: gonna tap into Jamay because when jama is Jamay, can't
Speaker 2: nobody else do Jamay, you know. And so I think,
Speaker 2: like for for media, I just we're continuing to see
Speaker 2: more of our stories take place. And you know, when
Speaker 2: this opportunity came about for let's talk offline, I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna lie. I was just like, y'all want me, like
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, like like me, like I
Speaker 2: don't know about that, you know, because I've also been
Speaker 2: very open and honest about the idea or interpretation of
Speaker 2: what black professionalism looks like. And I was like, Okay, cool,
Speaker 2: I'll do this, but under the understanding I'm not sugarcoating things.
Speaker 2: I'ma be honest. I'm gonna be real. And in a
Speaker 2: lot of our episodes, I talk with my co host
Speaker 2: Gianna and I tell her, like, your experience is yours
Speaker 2: because you're not black, you know what, And you know
Speaker 2: you might shake up the table a little bit, but
Speaker 2: it needs to get shook, like it needs to get
Speaker 2: shook because we're doing too much of this. Let's be sweet,
Speaker 2: let's be kind, like no, let's call it for what
Speaker 2: it is, because at the end of the day, I
Speaker 2: want the next generation of young Black professionals, young Black creatives,
Speaker 2: young black entrepreneurs, change makers, thought leaders to say, Okay,
Speaker 2: I know what's ahead of me, but I also know
Speaker 2: that like me being true to me is enough and
Speaker 2: I can open those doors.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to talk about, you know, personal branding
Speaker 1: on LinkedIn, because I think there's some value you can
Speaker 1: help a lot of us with in regards to this
Speaker 1: is you know, so there was some boards I used
Speaker 1: to sit on and I remember going to those boards,
Speaker 1: and those meetings would typically be at like the end
Speaker 1: of the day, and everybody would come to the board
Speaker 1: being with suits on and etc. And I'm like, after
Speaker 1: a while, after going home to change clothes and put
Speaker 1: on a suit, because I don't wear a suit to
Speaker 1: work every day. I work for myself, and this is
Speaker 1: what I look like going to work. I'm right, I'm
Speaker 1: not going home to put on a suit anymore. Though
Speaker 1: I'm adding values to this board. So I'm going, how
Speaker 1: I not going to be appropriate, but I'm not going
Speaker 1: home to put a suit on. And so my question
Speaker 1: is this, It's so often we have this view specifically
Speaker 1: on LinkedIn, Like when you said, you know you sitting
Speaker 1: on your bathroom floor talking about professional haters, I'm like
Speaker 1: a lot like many people will be afraid to put
Speaker 1: that video on LinkedIn, and I'm like, Instagram's a place
Speaker 1: for that TikTok's place for that whatever wherever, it's a
Speaker 1: place for that, but on LinkedIn, like, oh, that's that's
Speaker 1: some guts right there. And so I want you to
Speaker 1: talk about the misconceptions people have about personal branding on LinkedIn,
Speaker 1: because in my view, it was a lot like I'm
Speaker 1: going to be who I am in this professional space
Speaker 1: because I know I'm adding value. So I'm okay coming
Speaker 1: with you know what I got on and not going
Speaker 1: home to put a suit on, which is what I
Speaker 1: felt like so long on LinkedIn. I gotta be this
Speaker 1: on LinkedIn. I can be this over here on that
Speaker 1: other app, but over here, I gotta be this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think what you felt going into those meetings
Speaker 2: and saying like, no, I'm a stand tento's down on
Speaker 2: who I am is exactly the same thing you should
Speaker 2: have when you come to LinkedIn. Now, don't get it twisted.
Speaker 2: I was sweating bullets before I posted that video because
Speaker 2: now I'm thinking to myself, my manager is connecting me
Speaker 2: on LinkedIn, like my coworkers connected, like they gonna think
Speaker 2: I'm talking about them, like and you know, at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, you know, a hit dog will
Speaker 2: holler whoever is for it's gonna pick right. But but
Speaker 2: I think I had to ask myself, is the reward
Speaker 2: worth the risk? Is the reward of who this piece
Speaker 2: of content can bless or inform or help? Is that
Speaker 2: worth the time imporary risk of feeling uncomfortable that I
Speaker 2: put it out there, or that nobody is gonna vibe
Speaker 2: with it. That's kind of the job of being a creator.
Speaker 2: You listen to what you know you need to put
Speaker 2: out there, and you put it out there with the
Speaker 2: hope that it touches people. But whether it touches one
Speaker 2: or it touches millions, you've done your job. What I
Speaker 2: would say, though, is that if you ever are feeling
Speaker 2: like nervous about that, like do with self check in.
Speaker 2: Are you nervous because it's new and it's foreign. Are
Speaker 2: you nervous because you think somebody is gonna judge you?
Speaker 2: Or are you nervous because really, if you sit with it,
Speaker 2: you're like, this is not an appropriate topic for me
Speaker 2: to talk about. And I didn't have that last one.
Speaker 2: I knew that this was just uncomfortable because I had
Speaker 2: never seen anyone talk about that particular topic on LinkedIn before. Now,
Speaker 2: the thing is LinkedIn is still a place. Yeah, you
Speaker 2: go and you find jobs, right, But like, it's so
Speaker 2: much more than that. And this is where going back
Speaker 2: to one of your questions before about where we're making
Speaker 2: a mistake. We are still approaching this platform as a
Speaker 2: job search platform. Our counterparts are not doing that. Our
Speaker 2: counterparts are showing up on this platform every day, building community,
Speaker 2: networking with people, sending people happy birthday in mails, right,
Speaker 2: like posting the video being okay with looking cringey, or
Speaker 2: like weird at first, as you learn how to hold
Speaker 2: the phone or how you learn how to you know,
Speaker 2: put b roll. People are becoming comfortable with failing in
Speaker 2: front of people, and it's actually building the community that
Speaker 2: is then going to give them the economic opportunity that
Speaker 2: they need later on. And so what I would say
Speaker 2: is still see this platform as a place where, yes,
Speaker 2: you show up a certain way, right, Like I wouldn't
Speaker 2: cut up on LinkedIn away, You're gonna see me cut
Speaker 2: up on Instagram stories, right, Like brunch is not necessary
Speaker 2: for this platform. But I have learned a lot of
Speaker 2: the topics that we're thinking about. If it applies to work,
Speaker 2: it can belong on LinkedIn. You just have to ask yourself,
Speaker 2: how do we analyze this? And this is actually something
Speaker 2: that you know as we were really thinking about our episodes,
Speaker 2: you know, because for like, for instance, like let's talk offline,
Speaker 2: we're talking to gen Z and early career professionals. But
Speaker 2: there's two things here. One, no matter where you are
Speaker 2: in your career, everybody can learn something about navigating a
Speaker 2: toxic manager, right or building workplace friendships, or finding a
Speaker 2: mentor or asking for that first promotion. Everybody can learn
Speaker 2: from those things. But you also are trying to figure out, Okay,
Speaker 2: how do I do this in a way that doesn't
Speaker 2: just feel like it's just scattered. It's so speaking to
Speaker 2: like one individual person. That's where your LinkedIn profile comes in,
Speaker 2: and that's where like you get to build this unique
Speaker 2: audience of people who may follow you on other platforms too, right,
Speaker 2: Like I've had some people who I've bought in from
Speaker 2: my LinkedIn persona and then they come to my other
Speaker 2: platforms and the like, you're the same person, it's the
Speaker 2: same thing, will as like who you are around your
Speaker 2: your parents might be different than who you are around
Speaker 2: your grandparents, different from the church folk, different around you boys,
Speaker 2: Like everybody gets a piece of you. But it's not
Speaker 2: that you're not being true and authentic. You just know
Speaker 2: how to move into each individual room. So you got
Speaker 2: to ask yourself and think of that the same way
Speaker 2: for your LinkedIn profile. But I would definitely say we
Speaker 2: are underestimating our ability to know how to tell our
Speaker 2: story and to still attract the people that we need
Speaker 2: to attract. Get that fear out of it, post it,
Speaker 2: take a walk, go get some coffee, Go do whatever
Speaker 2: you got to do, get on the game, rite whatever
Speaker 2: you gotta do, and you'll start to see a little
Speaker 2: bit by a little bit. Showing up authentically each day
Speaker 2: builds that audience and that community people who come to
Speaker 2: respect you for just being real.
Speaker 1: So social media has social med platforms, I should say,
Speaker 1: have increasingly become like portfolios, you know, for creators. So
Speaker 1: how should creators think about their body of work?
Speaker 2: Look, I always say receipts. Receipts are currency, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean? You know, going back to this idea
Speaker 2: of like why you If I'm a recruiter, I want
Speaker 2: to see, like what have you done and what do
Speaker 2: you have to offer that somebody else may not? And
Speaker 2: sometimes those are the smallest deciding factors between you and
Speaker 2: another candidate, whether you're looking for a job or you're
Speaker 2: looking for whatever else. I've posted everything from short form
Speaker 2: video clips. I obviously post the clips of the podcast
Speaker 2: right because think about it, there's always gonna be someone
Speaker 2: who that's the first time that they've ever discovered it,
Speaker 2: and I love that idea. There's some I don't remember
Speaker 2: who I was talking to the other day. I was
Speaker 2: talking to somebody and they were like, you know this creator,
Speaker 2: and they showed this creator to me on the phone
Speaker 2: on their phone. The creator has millions, like tens of
Speaker 2: millions of us will if that person had been walking
Speaker 2: down the streets from New York, I would have never known.
Speaker 2: I'm been like, I've never seen this person a day
Speaker 2: in my life. And it was such a wonderful reminder
Speaker 2: to me that we think everybody has already seen everything. No,
Speaker 2: you gotta keep putting your stuff out there, and you
Speaker 2: got to be very bullish about being your own marketing professional,
Speaker 2: like you got to get this stuff out there. So
Speaker 2: everything from internships that you've had to essays to campaigns
Speaker 2: or events. If you have a podcast, are you posting
Speaker 2: your clips online? That's creating a funnel for people to
Speaker 2: go watch the longer version, if you have it with
Speaker 2: video or if it's just audio, are you constantly driving
Speaker 2: back people to where they can find more of you?
Speaker 2: I think that like, if you really sit down and
Speaker 2: you think about all of the dope projects or the
Speaker 2: things that you've touched, nothing is ever lost, right, And
Speaker 2: this also comes down to transferable skills. Now, I'll tell
Speaker 2: you something as someone who is also an actor, one
Speaker 2: of the things I've had to learn is that how
Speaker 2: the industry was years ago is not what it is today.
Speaker 2: Years ago, you did the traditional I'm going to out
Speaker 2: keep auditioning, hopefully I get booked, I get enough projects,
Speaker 2: I get an agent, and then the agent takes over. Nowadays,
Speaker 2: there's so much more people than the work. So going
Speaker 2: back to this idea of how you're going to stand out,
Speaker 2: this is why you have actors nowadays, who are scriptwriters,
Speaker 2: who are directors, who are teaching all these other things.
Speaker 2: Because you can't be a one trick pony anymore. And
Speaker 2: so this is not just in the entertainment space. This
Speaker 2: is for everybody. So if you're not getting the opportunities,
Speaker 2: create the opportunities yourself, all right, You don't need all
Speaker 2: this fancy equipment to start recording video. You don't even
Speaker 2: need all this fancy equipment necessarily to start a podcast.
Speaker 2: Start create the minimal viable product, create a proof of concept,
Speaker 2: and show people here's what I can do with this.
Speaker 2: Because if I could do this with this, imagine what
Speaker 2: I can do with a lot more. And I think
Speaker 2: this is where the portfolio comes in. If you can
Speaker 2: show people you already are that person, right Like I
Speaker 2: always like to tell people, I was always that girl.
Speaker 2: I just got a little bit more money, but I
Speaker 2: was always that girl. But I proved myself to be
Speaker 2: that girl when I was, you know, at a lower
Speaker 2: place in my life, so that it only was natural
Speaker 2: that as more opportunities came, I could continue to elevate.
Speaker 2: You got to see the same way for yourself, in
Speaker 2: the same way for your portfolio, and particularly for LinkedIn.
Speaker 2: What I like about LinkedIn, and it's not because I
Speaker 2: work here, It's because I've just genuinely seen it, is
Speaker 2: that you can marry so many of your communities here.
Speaker 2: If you like video, there's a place for that. If
Speaker 2: you like audio, there's a place for that. If you
Speaker 2: like to write, there's a place for that. Like, I
Speaker 2: have so many different communities in my LinkedIn portfolio quote
Speaker 2: unquote that I really like, and I just think that, like,
Speaker 2: we got to just keep tapping into that. But at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, show goes, receipts, show the receipts.
Speaker 1: Like that. What advice do you give to content creators
Speaker 1: who want to advocate for themselves? They want to put
Speaker 1: themselves in the position to have deals, brand deals get
Speaker 1: picked by you know, these brands who want to engage
Speaker 1: but they're growing, but don't know how to pitch themselves.
Speaker 1: How do you do that?
Speaker 2: Man looks as an entrepreneur myself, I can tell you
Speaker 2: I've pitched myself both good and very bad. Okay, I'm
Speaker 2: very very thankful that I made a lot of mistakes privately,
Speaker 2: because now when you get a little bit more public,
Speaker 2: you kind of get a little bit more leery of
Speaker 2: making mistakes. But I'm very thankful for that time too,
Speaker 2: because I do think we all need a training ground
Speaker 2: and stuff. I always tell people like, are you perfecting
Speaker 2: yourself in the private? Because once she's public? What's the showtime?
Speaker 2: Is showtime? You know what I mean? Everybody wants something,
Speaker 2: Everybody wants this idea of what they think success to be.
Speaker 2: But I always ask myself, are you preparing yourself for that?
Speaker 2: Because you can get it? But then what happens? Right,
Speaker 2: It's like the same thing as people want the million
Speaker 2: dollar brand deal, but baby, if you can't even juggle
Speaker 2: the five hundred dollar brand deal, your deliverables are late,
Speaker 2: the product is trash. You have poor communication skills. How
Speaker 2: are you preparing yourself for that bigger blessing down the road?
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? And so when it comes
Speaker 2: to pitching, it comes down to again the proof of concept,
Speaker 2: and it shows in this idea of showing your receipts.
Speaker 2: It's also about being bold. And you know, as I've
Speaker 2: gotten older, I've come to realize, like you just got
Speaker 2: to take the risk. You got to take the risk,
Speaker 2: but calculated risks, right, Like I'm very calculative in the
Speaker 2: sense that like, I'm not just going to go into
Speaker 2: anybody's in anybody's room and ask for something. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: come knowing that I have something to bring and here's
Speaker 2: where the value is. I would definitely say like being
Speaker 2: someone who is confident in what you have to offer,
Speaker 2: but also being okay with being rejected is good too.
Speaker 2: Not all money is good money, and I know people
Speaker 2: don't want to believe that, and I know it's particularly
Speaker 2: when you're trying to pay them bills. You really don't
Speaker 2: want to believe that. But sometimes saying no to things
Speaker 2: is actually a setup for a bigger yes later down
Speaker 2: the road. And so I always say, when you think
Speaker 2: of that pitch, ask yourself, like, what are the biggest
Speaker 2: things that this person needs to know about me? How
Speaker 2: can I show how I have already done this? Right? Like,
Speaker 2: how have I already operated in the space in some way?
Speaker 2: And this is where transferable skills comes in, Like what
Speaker 2: have you done that's similar to this that you can
Speaker 2: speak to? And then lastly, how do I position myself
Speaker 2: in a way where like I'm showing you I am
Speaker 2: the person for the job? Right? We actually we actually
Speaker 2: talk about this in an episode too, where we're like, someone,
Speaker 2: you know, how do you when you when you first
Speaker 2: come out of college? And everybody is like, how do
Speaker 2: I get the job? And then we're all like, do
Speaker 2: I put the job that I had at Starbucks? Do
Speaker 2: I put that down on the resume or not? And
Speaker 2: some people might be like nah, don't put that down.
Speaker 2: But like the pushback is, but if there were transferable
Speaker 2: skills of you working, you know, I've had a lot
Speaker 2: of jobs in retail, a lot of jobs in hospitality,
Speaker 2: and let me tell you something that built me for
Speaker 2: good customer service. That now as a community manager here,
Speaker 2: I got to know how to talk to people because
Speaker 2: sometimes people be trying you and you can't just say
Speaker 2: whatever you want to say, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: So I just say, like, use every opportunity and experience
Speaker 2: have had and craft the narrative as to how that
Speaker 2: built you, but also how you added to it. Numbers
Speaker 2: are always going to win. So quantifying your successes, quantifying
Speaker 2: anything you can helps tell a brand a story. But
Speaker 2: then also being a good person also goes so far.
Speaker 2: People like to work with good people, people like to
Speaker 2: work with kind people. So if you can present yourself
Speaker 2: to be someone who is collaborative and fun and engaging,
Speaker 2: who comes with creative ideas, but then also you have
Speaker 2: those receipts to back it up, I think you're good.
Speaker 1: You know, you manage a community of more than seventeen
Speaker 1: thousand on LinkedIn, You run your own side business also
Speaker 1: more than ninety thousand people you serve there, How are
Speaker 1: you how are you distributing your content making sure that
Speaker 1: you're serving these folks? Well? Are you cross pollinating your content?
Speaker 1: Is the same content across places?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: How are you doing that in two different directions?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I always say, like, we all only have a
Speaker 2: certain amount of hours in the day. So if if
Speaker 2: I create a piece of content, everybody about to get
Speaker 2: this content. Everybody's about to see this, and we gonna
Speaker 2: see it a couple of times. I definitely believe in
Speaker 2: boundary setting, particularly when it comes to work. So for me,
Speaker 2: like even though my you know, teammates and the company
Speaker 2: and everybody knows like the things that I work on
Speaker 2: on the side, like, I do believe it is very
Speaker 2: important for me to distinguish the jama Jackson brand from
Speaker 2: the Jamaic Community Manager brand. And a lot of people
Speaker 2: sometimes be like, no, merge, merge, merge, But I'm like,
Speaker 2: that's where I think we have to also say, like
Speaker 2: I have to have some type of ownership on something
Speaker 2: too right, And so for me, I think, like creating content,
Speaker 2: I'm always looking for what is the thorough line between
Speaker 2: my audiences, my audiences for the JAMAI Jackson Brand are
Speaker 2: a lot more black and brown creatives. It's people who
Speaker 2: have watched me grow up through the ranks, people who
Speaker 2: saw me move from DC to New York, people who
Speaker 2: saw me try to go from fashion and beauty to
Speaker 2: then journalism to now acting and then also working in tech,
Speaker 2: and my LinkedIn audience is a lot more expanded, right,
Speaker 2: But particularly it's like, okay, but you also have to
Speaker 2: figure out, well, what is the thorough line here? Everybody
Speaker 2: is always trying to figure out how can I be better?
Speaker 2: Everybody is always trying to figure out what are the
Speaker 2: new trends we're seeing, what are the new things we're
Speaker 2: seeing in the job market? How do I stand out?
Speaker 2: It's a tough job market, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: And so I always like to speak to what the
Speaker 2: commonality the differences are, Okay, right, Like if you want
Speaker 2: to see me do like the super blackly black combos,
Speaker 2: because that is what I'm going to do. There's a
Speaker 2: platform and a space for that. But when I also
Speaker 2: think about how can I service my audience, I'm also
Speaker 2: thinking like where can I get the most bang for
Speaker 2: my buck? And for me, I find like the commonalities
Speaker 2: of helping people show up authentically figuring out how do
Speaker 2: you build your personal brand, how do you build your
Speaker 2: own personal mission statement? How do you build the confidence
Speaker 2: to take up space that allows me to cast everybody?
Speaker 2: And sometimes that's what you me. You need people, You
Speaker 2: need the messaging that is going to touch more people,
Speaker 2: because then that draws back people are like, Okay, cool,
Speaker 2: I like it. Let me check out what other content
Speaker 2: she creates, So let me see what other things that
Speaker 2: she does. So yeah, I think boundary setting is so
Speaker 2: important a particularly as a creative ownership is important. But
Speaker 2: I also think that when you just show up and
Speaker 2: you share the content that you know is going to
Speaker 2: really matter to people, then that kind of you make
Speaker 2: the cell there right. This is why I also taught
Speaker 2: because I work with a lot of sales and marketing
Speaker 2: professionals and I'm always like, stop telling people you got
Speaker 2: the best product on the market. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Stop stop because that doesn't do anything for me. If
Speaker 2: you tell me you know, I have the best coffee
Speaker 2: in all of New York. That's different than you telling me, like,
Speaker 2: half a cup of my coffee will keep you up
Speaker 2: to finish that job proposal you've been working on for
Speaker 2: three weeks or something like that. Right, your show don't
Speaker 2: tell And I think as creatives we have to show
Speaker 2: show your impact. You don't tell us your impactful. Anybody
Speaker 2: can say that, but I show me like.
Speaker 1: That like that, I cannot get out of here without
Speaker 1: asking you about AI. You knew it was coming and
Speaker 1: is here, so I think about you know, well, actually
Speaker 1: I'm just asked what kind of tools are you using
Speaker 1: to help streamline your workflow? Like are you using AI?
Speaker 1: What kind of aire you using?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: What do you suggest, based on the kind of content
Speaker 1: you deliver, people should be using to get you know,
Speaker 1: to make more impact and do it efficiently.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean it's really cool because I'm seeing like
Speaker 2: so much excitement for AI, especially around like gen Z
Speaker 2: and millennials, you know, who are really thinking that AI
Speaker 2: is going to help them progress in their careers. And
Speaker 2: I believe it. You know, I had the honor and
Speaker 2: privilege of attending Afrotech for the second or third time
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago, and AI and Innovation with
Speaker 2: something we talked about a lot. And it's interesting because
Speaker 2: I think that as much as we're talking about it,
Speaker 2: so many people are still being left behind because they're scared.
Speaker 2: I think we should embrace it, and I think that
Speaker 2: we should explore how can we start leveraging things like
Speaker 2: AI skills and AI learning. I mean, one of the
Speaker 2: things I always tell people is, first of all, LinkedIn
Speaker 2: has LinkedIn learning courses right what you can sign up
Speaker 2: for and you can actually learn a lot about AI.
Speaker 2: You can at least start to learn the immediate jargon
Speaker 2: right of things that like you might not know or
Speaker 2: like you might have questions about, to just at least
Speaker 2: familiarize yourself with it. For me personally, I like to
Speaker 2: use AI for a lot of things, and so like,
Speaker 2: for instance, like when I'm mapping out my week, I
Speaker 2: will use like a claud or a chat GPT to
Speaker 2: say like, Okay, here are my biggest priorities of the week.
Speaker 2: Help me prioritize based on X, Y and Z variable
Speaker 2: yeah yah yeah yeah. As a writer or as a creator,
Speaker 2: sometimes I'll even think of like, okay, here's the topic
Speaker 2: that I want to touch on, and here are some
Speaker 2: key talking points, like help me at least create an outline.
Speaker 2: Now Here's where I think people make the mistake. Will
Speaker 2: people are using this AI and then they just spit
Speaker 2: it out and then they just and you can tell
Speaker 2: I'm like, now you have never been able to formulate
Speaker 2: a sentence of Daniel life now all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: right right exactly. So I definitely say like the AI
Speaker 2: as a partner, don't see it as as something that,
Speaker 2: like you know, is going to take away from your creativity.
Speaker 2: It can enhance your creativity if used properly. And I'm
Speaker 2: just kind of continuing. I'm just I think that this
Speaker 2: is just a skill that we're going to continue to see.
Speaker 2: The great thing about AI, I think is that it
Speaker 2: doesn't just touch the tech market, right, which I think
Speaker 2: is a lot of people's mistake they think AI is
Speaker 2: only touching tech. If you can start to familiar familiarize
Speaker 2: yourself with AI large language models, what these what machine learning,
Speaker 2: what all of these terms mean, and how you can
Speaker 2: get a piece of it, you won't be behind the
Speaker 2: wave when we see because we've already seen the first
Speaker 2: wave of AI happen. But I think we haven't even
Speaker 2: seen yet all of the possibilities of what's going to
Speaker 2: happen over the next few years. This is where we
Speaker 2: start to build when we talk about building that generational wealth,
Speaker 2: when we talk about getting into these roles that are
Speaker 2: going to set us up when we talk about how
Speaker 2: we can be the pushers of culture, because we already
Speaker 2: are as black people, we already push the culture, we
Speaker 2: create the culture, but then we allow the culture to
Speaker 2: then dictate what we do. No, if you know how
Speaker 2: to move and if you know how to put yourself
Speaker 2: in the rooms, you can dictate the culture, and you
Speaker 2: can dictate the culture because at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: it's not just about what you can do for you.
Speaker 2: At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself,
Speaker 2: how can I use these gifts, talents and skills to
Speaker 2: further my community and further other people who may not
Speaker 2: have access to the things that I have access to.
Speaker 1: Black Tech Green Money is a production to Blavity Afro
Speaker 1: Tech on the Black Effect podcast network in night Hire
Speaker 1: Media and it's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas,
Speaker 1: with the additional production support by Kate McDonald, Sayah and
Speaker 1: Jaden McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and Love Beach.
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