The Art of Influence: Mastery in Brand Expansion with Jameka S. Whitten

[00:00:03] Welcome to the Business Chop podcast where I guest speak on meeting the challenges of entrepreneurship as well as offer tips and advice on business, marketing, technology and more. Whether you are a newbie or seasoned professional, this episode is for you. I am your host, Audrey Wiggins.

[00:00:24] Let's chop it up. Hello again, Chop Squad. It's awesome to be with you. Our guest today is Jameka Whitten and she is from Charlotte, North Carolina. She runs her business there and I'm excited to learn more about her.

[00:00:40] She helps businesses expand their brand. Is that a familiar statement or not? Well, Jameka is a journalist by trade, branding consultant and publicist by choice. Jameka owns JSW Media Group. It's the boutique public relations and brand management agency based again in North Carolina with a national clientele.

[00:01:03] She is an experienced PR professional and business executive with over 20 years of experience in our new media publishing, brand management and strategic communications with strong ties to the music, entertainment, sports and fashion industries.

[00:01:19] I want to look forward to hearing more about that. Now, Jameka is also a self-proclaimed social media enthusiast who works on several philanthropic causes nationwide.

[00:01:29] More importantly, she's been vegan since birth. She writes poetry and her spirit time and loves to live life in color and to the fullest. Let's take a lesson from her.

[00:01:39] She can be found lounging at the nearest coffee shop, wine bar or vegan eatery with her phone in one hand and a book in the other. We're going to hear more from Jameka on the other side of this message.

[00:02:11] Back up with product experience and bring it on with you. Visit altogether.biz and let us help you create a knockout brand. Welcome back and Jameka, welcome again to the business shop. I'm excited to have you here today.

[00:02:28] I am so excited to be here. Thank you so much for the invitation and being so gracious and letting me just talk about myself. Good Lord.

[00:02:38] That's right. Yes, absolutely. You are so welcome. Before we get started, I know we had listed a couple of fun things about you. One, you already mentioned that you were vegan, but you were vegan since birth. How did that come about?

[00:02:54] I like to tell people that I was literally born in compassion because both of my parents were, my mom was vegetarian when she met my dad and he had already crossed over to veganism.

[00:03:09] He was exploring various ways to eat to make himself feel better. So they both did it for health initially.

[00:03:18] Then, you know, as time goes on, if you're eating certain things and you're not putting certain things in your body, it doesn't make sense to wear them or to use them for other consumption either.

[00:03:29] It's about being a little bit more compassionate about the planet, the ecosystem, and our fellow sentient beings that we sometimes forget about. But yeah, they decided I tell them that they were the big experiment. I was like, oh, this is a side to experiment.

[00:03:47] We're going to build a kid and see what happens when we don't give them meat, dairy or seafood. And yeah, it turned out okay though. Yes, you did. Your skin is beautiful. Your hair looks healthy. So that's part of it.

[00:04:03] The other parts of the insides are really happy. They are, although I will tell people all the time I'm one of those curvy vegans because I love potatoes and pot. And do not bring me gluten-free food. Do not bring me gluten-free food.

[00:04:20] For sure, definitely. And this next piece is that something that resonates with me is that you have an intense love for fantasy and sci-fi movies and books. Woo, love these books. I was that person who was watching every single Harry Potter when it came out.

[00:04:41] I read the books and I was like, oh my god, they got to watch the movies. And the same with Lord of the Rings.

[00:04:49] Literally, Lord of the Rings, that entire series, I just have it on when I'm working just as background information as long as those movies are. But just various, I like exploring new authors. I'm really horrible with names.

[00:05:04] I'm one of those people who will go and just read a bunch of stuff. Okay. And go look back and be like, okay, who did I read? Because it's just really good.

[00:05:13] And I just start consuming the book. Like I have a wonderful beginning of a nice little library here. Okay. I love all different types of books though. So I do a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, but I also love self-help.

[00:05:29] I love anything that's business related. I do a lot of things. I read a lot about like the African diaspora, you know, just all sorts of things that are better meant for both your mind, your body and your spirit.

[00:05:42] Yes, absolutely. So is there a book in you anytime soon?

[00:05:46] That is the million dollar question. Actually, I'm glad you said that because it is. I am going to do a memoir, I think, about growing up black, growing up southern and growing up vegan and how that little kind of intersected together.

[00:06:05] I'm not to age myself too much, but this was before veganism was popular in the black community or anywhere. Okay. I'm walking around and people are thinking that I'm crazy in the late 70s and 80s. Oh yeah, definitely during that timeframe for sure.

[00:06:26] And then I was in high school in the 90s. So like, it was just special. I was the introduction to a lot of people.

[00:06:37] Okay. Yeah, because I know it was kind of popular. Yeah, I'm a bit pescatarian, you know, we're trying to choose sort of fit in, you know, where could we fit in? Because I still want to eat my fish or where?

[00:06:48] I hear that. I still hear that sometimes they're like, you know, I wish I could, but it's always the wish I could, but right. Exactly.

[00:06:56] And with me, you know what I do? I just live my life and I try to teach by example and if people want to know extra information, then I share it. And then, you know, I just try to live.

[00:07:09] I just want to be as open as possible and build allies and not enemies. Right, right. Yeah. Judgment free zone. Yeah, for sure. All right. And I'm sure that helps with and you serving your clients as well, healthier you for sure.

[00:07:27] I would hope so, but I still love my coffee and champagne. So I have my vices. All these roses over here. Right, right. That's okay. That's okay. I know that the coffee beans comes from the earth.

[00:07:42] That's what I said. And then, you know, the grapes are fermented, you know, like, right? I'm just saying, I'm just saying, I'm just saying. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we all will, you know, do our best but but I love that about you. So that that's awesome.

[00:07:58] All right. So let's get into this branding and you know, and helping our businesses to grow and flourish. Let's start with what is the best and worst thing about being a full time entrepreneur?

[00:08:13] So a lot of you are doing that with working jobs and, you know, some of us aren't we blessed to be able to be an entrepreneurship, you know, full time. Wow. I feel like that's a loaded question because it's yay and nay all at once, right?

[00:08:28] So like the thing I would say about entrepreneurship is freedom. The worst thing about entrepreneurship is freedom. So it's, it's literally a dichotomy.

[00:08:46] It's the best thing in the world to be able to set your own schedule to do what you need to do to figure these things out as it, you know, you can really chart your own course.

[00:08:58] Yeah, that's wonderful. But that freedom also comes with, you know, you are free to fail as well. You are you you necessary if you're not one of those people who has a strong discipline to do the things that you need to do without outside pressure or outside structure.

[00:09:21] It really has to come from within. So you have to be able to know your strengths and weaknesses and be able to surround yourself with the right people.

[00:09:32] I like to call them my board of directors of my life. So you those because no person is an island, right? Like they tell you you're doing all this stuff on your own and by yourself and you're pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

[00:09:45] But the truth of the matter is that you do need a village. You need a group of people that are support. Now at the end of the day, the responsibility does lay on your shoulders.

[00:10:00] However, you have to have the help and that's something that I had to learn through the years that I can't do everything all by myself. I need to know how to do everything. But I can't do it all alone.

[00:10:16] Yeah, absolutely. So in helping your your clients with you know that same personality or that same attitude there. How are you helping them and their branding? I mean is it a holistic approach of the self care as well as the marketing piece?

[00:10:33] Honestly, it turns into that especially when you get deep into building someone's brand and image because you have to pull away at the layers of what their true personality is.

[00:10:44] So for me my approach is always trying to find that authentic self in each client because authenticity not only is a great thing and also sells.

[00:10:56] So you have to be true to your brand. You have to be true to yourself because anything else is going to come across as phony and people are not going to buy into it.

[00:11:08] The public is not, yes they love the bright shiny things and all the bright shiny whistles and bells and whistles and all that. But at the end of the day people buy from people they trust and they buy from people that they like.

[00:11:27] And if your personality is coming through and you are authentic with your service offerings or your products, the people will come. And so part of that for me is uncovering that with each client and yes it has to be a holistic approach because people have people or people.

[00:11:47] People are humans. So they have things going on and I'm definitely not a therapist. Ooh, got to call mine after. But you have to get to know people on a human level in order to figure out what their needs are.

[00:12:06] And so I pride myself and my team prides ourselves on being that safe space for our clients to explore what their brand really needs to be and making sure that their vision and their mission aligns with that.

[00:12:23] Okay, so what would be a client come to you or what should we, let's just talk in general. What should we be concerned with first when you talk about branding because branding is not necessarily our advertising or our marketing. So what is that?

[00:12:44] It's figuring out first of all, you have to figure out your core values. So that's looking. The first thing to get out of someone or for us to come up with? It can be. It depends on the individual and it also depends on their business.

[00:13:02] It's easier when I'm working with nonprofits because your core values are pretty much front and center when you're dealing with most service based nonprofits that are serving the greater community.

[00:13:14] But when it comes to my for profit folks and the individual executives and talent, that can take a little bit more finesse.

[00:13:25] That's maybe a little bit more consultations and more conversations and filling out questionnaires and just really getting that market research out of you to figure out what's important to you. And some people are very forthcoming and others you have to help them uncover it.

[00:13:45] And again, in that safe space. So, you know, it's as simple as just saying, you know, I value integrity, I value quality, I value, you know, it can be very simple words.

[00:14:00] And then from there, after uncovering those core values, we start to build what that identity looks like from a branding and a marketing and a PR perspective. It's kind of, it's got to be separating because you're really talking about that individual.

[00:14:19] If it's an entrepreneur, you know for profit, as you stated, it is a little more complicated because they are or we are the brand. So to speak.

[00:14:31] So starting that, you know, and how do we show up at the networking event or how do we show up at the grocery store? And I don't mean this necessarily, you know, what we have on that might be that might be part of it.

[00:14:43] Oh yeah, it's it's how you walk through life with thinking about your business and what you're presenting to the public and how you are presenting your image to the world. Yeah, it is.

[00:14:56] It can be difficult because you need a strong separation sometimes so that you could have that work life balance where you're not always on. That's always easier said than done.

[00:15:11] And I'm just saying that from a very real perspective as a fellow entrepreneur that you're constantly thinking about your business. Right? You're constantly thinking about the bottom line. You're constantly thinking about how to reach more people, how to make payroll, how to do, you know, whatever.

[00:15:30] So it's really difficult to also be like, oh well I need to take a vacation. Yeah, well who's running everything while I'm gone? Right, right, right. You know, it's one of those things where I try to be aspirational but also realistic. Oh yeah.

[00:15:47] You know, so yes you should be taking some time for yourself but let's talk about how to make what you do do easier for you as you are trying to figure out what that balance is.

[00:16:04] So it's definitely like you mentioned earlier more of a holistic approach and I think what's great about it is that I'm coming from that same background. So I'm coming from an entrepreneurial background but also having worked in corporate for years as well.

[00:16:20] So like I've got the best of both worlds and I know the struggle of not having any time to get things done. And also why it's so important to outsource the things that you can and that you can afford to do so.

[00:16:37] And I wholeheartedly believe that marketing and PR are and brand management are those things that we sometimes think that we can just do ourselves because of budget and everything but it's almost like I liken it to when you're a full-time entrepreneur

[00:16:55] and maybe you're married and you've got kids and all this other stuff and you're trying to clean the house on Saturdays or top of that.

[00:17:02] It is much more beneficial to budget in a housekeeper so that then you get your time back where you can use your time more effectively to build your business spend time with your loved ones have that rest and creative space to come up with brand new ideas.

[00:17:20] All for budgeting $200 a month to have somebody come in and do a deep clean where you don't have to think about that.

[00:17:29] It's the same sort of thing with auxiliary services. Yeah, it might be cheaper to do taxes on your own or go to one of the legal websites and figure out the contracts and all these things on your own.

[00:17:47] And then yes, I could put a press release together myself. But in the long run, are you doing yourself a disservice because you're spending time on things that you're not necessarily adapt at where you could be spending your time working on your business instead of in it.

[00:18:04] And that's how I justify when people are like, well, I don't have the budget. It's okay. Start where where you can and you build from there. It's almost like savings. You know, if you can't save $3,000 a month and save 25. Right. Right.

[00:18:23] You have to start somewhere. And, you know, and that's where consultations come in right so if you can't afford a retainer consult with someone for an hour or two and get everything until you can start to build up and get to where you need to be.

[00:18:39] Yeah, that's um, that's that's great advice because you do we do kind of like jump into it is almost like, you know, buying a car. It's like, I can't know. I don't have $40,000 or you know, whatever it is $20,000 for a car.

[00:18:55] But can you we can I can make a car payment or maybe you or maybe you get a different car because the thing is, you know, what you're buying is transportation. Absolutely.

[00:19:07] Yeah, so then we're we're buying, you know, from you is our, you know, as our reputation so to speak. Yeah, and helping you to because sometimes I find our reputation but to helping us put that together. I'm sorry.

[00:19:19] Yeah, it's a put it's at least putting it out there. Mm hmm. Spending it massaging it creating it being strategic about certain things. Sometimes you just need another person to bounce ideas off of. Yeah.

[00:19:34] Other than you know your mentor, your business mentor or your various colleagues because they again have other things going on.

[00:19:42] So you can't really always spend the time that you need but if you can hire someone to be like, all right, here are all of my ideas and you like just kind of throw up all your ideas. And they're just like, okay, let me pick through.

[00:19:56] Right, right, right. What works and why don't you try this? I know you've thought about this but let's go ahead and you need that person to kind of push you sometimes. That's true. To hold you accountable.

[00:20:08] Yeah, oh yeah, that's a good word accountability. Yeah, for sure. Do you have a story or you know, anecdote you can share with us for you know, a client that may have come to you and you know how you help to change that that person or the organization around.

[00:20:22] Yes. I have a client who was in the food service industry, but definitely had star power. You know, I could see where she was going. You know, I could see it and we jumped right in and just started helping with things that she didn't even think about, you know, like

[00:20:49] polished social media posts and making sure that certain things were written a certain way. SEO, you know, she was great at content creation but how do you get it out there? Okay.

[00:21:03] You know, you make sure that you're engaging with your fans and followers in a way that helps to build that brand loyalty. And so, you know, we started off with her having, you know, a handful of a good solid amount of followers, you know, on social and doing pop ups and, you

[00:21:26] know, gaining the momentum and gaining the popularity to, you know, national contracts now. You know, she's a former client but when I left she was in her position to really to soar and we're still good friends to this day but

[00:21:43] it's so nice to see the progression. And so we were really there to kind of lay the foundation and help to position her for the next level. Okay. Okay. So how can we get in touch with you then, Jamika?

[00:22:01] Sure. I am on my website which is jswmediagroup.com. I am also very active on social media. Feel free to DM me personally. My personal Instagram is jamika. And that's J-A-M-E-K-A-S-H-A-M-A-E.

[00:22:24] We also have an Instagram for the company which is at jswmedia. We are, Instagram is where we primarily live. We're also on LinkedIn where we'll, we have a newsletter that goes out with various tips and with client news on a regular basis.

[00:22:41] So if you just search for Jamika Witton on LinkedIn I will pop up and shoot me a note. We also have a professional page for jswmedia group on LinkedIn as well. So LinkedIn and Instagram are our sweet spots right now.

[00:22:58] We're on Facebook, we're on X, we're on threads but we're really trying to focus right now.

[00:23:04] And that makes sense because that's always a question too. Well what account, you know, what social channels should I be on? You know, you end up too many but you have to, you know, what can we manage? Absolutely. Now I will say grab all of your names.

[00:23:19] Oh great. Yes. Yes. Grab your names even if you're not using them. Grab them because guaranteed especially if you blow up somebody else will grab that name and try to sell it to you.

[00:23:29] Exactly. Because always, because I do domain names and I'm an always, you know, tell clients that you're not ready to put a website up yet. I reserve your name is the cheapest thing you can do.

[00:23:40] Absolutely. Unless you're like me who has, when that yearly bill from GoDaddy comes back around I'm just like why? Okay. Okay. Oh my goodness. Why is this somebody's car payment? Why is this someone's car payment?

[00:23:58] I know you have all of these domain names. It's crazy but oh my goodness. You know, I'm going to put a little quick little commercial in here. Altogetherdomains.com. Okay. That's what y'all get your domain names from. I love it. I love it.

[00:24:17] You know, we're resellers so you know we still buy from the same company but you just, you know, help with a small business out. Listen, I am all for it. Please. I will be on there because I am a domain junkie. It's ridiculous.

[00:24:30] Something comes to my mind and I'm like, what am I going to do? Like you said, you think oh it's just $10 or maybe $20 or maybe even more that depending on what the dot, you know, was behind that.

[00:24:40] You know that dot because they've gotten so sophisticated over the years with what you can put back there. I know. I know. Oh my goodness. It's too much. It's too much. It's wonderful but it's all too much at one time also.

[00:24:55] But that comes back to that we go full circle back to branding though. Yes, it's important. It is definitely important. So I mean I hope that anything that I said was at least a little bit helpful. That's always my goal.

[00:25:11] At least if there's a tidbit that someone can walk away with then I've done my job. Yes, absolutely. You've done your job today, Jamaica Whitten.

[00:25:20] And so Chop Squad is up to us now to do our jobs and start to follow Jamaica again, touch with her email or through a website or LinkedIn. So we can get a look at our brands and listen. Let's get elevated. Absolutely. We'll do a brand audit.

[00:25:39] Yes, that's important. Go ahead, Don, to expand on the brand audit and we can close out. Oh yeah. So I love doing brand audits because what we'll do is we'll look at your digital presence. We'll look at your marketing collateral, what you have so far.

[00:25:58] We'll look at your logo. We'll look at just like your mission and vision statement if you have it. And just kind of look and see what it looks like and what it's saying to us. And give some recommendations. That's usually a good first step.

[00:26:14] Okay, well that's good. So brace yourselves. Don't be scared. Let's... It's all love. It's all empathy. Yeah, good. I want everybody to be great. I want people to operate in excellence and that's part of our core of our values at JSW Media.

[00:26:31] It's working in excellence, working in integrity and being as authentic as possible. Jamaica, in addition to what you have going on as a branding expert, what else are you working on? Well I know that I mentioned it before about veganism being my thing. Clearly. Yes, yes.

[00:26:50] But I do want to reiterate that I do have that as a separate brand. It's called the Stylish Vegan and I am working on the book. So in the interim if y'all want to follow me on the Stylish Vegan on all platforms, that would be great as well.

[00:27:05] I also sell candles. I make candles in my spare time if I know. Candles, room sprays, diffusers, everything's vegan, everything's beautiful and it is all in honor of my late mom.

[00:27:22] And you know just to kind of honor her memory and her legacy because she was such a light to the world that I wanted to make a product that lit up people's lives. Awesome, that's beautiful. And then the Stylish Vegan. Thank you so much for sharing that, Jamaica.

[00:27:39] Thank you. You expand your brand.