Unleashing Business in Creativity | MMCB Episode 3 w/Feleceia Wilson

ShySpeaks: 00:00:00

Hey what's up everybody? Welcome to the mind

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my creative business podcast. I am your host shot speaks.

ShySpeaks: 00:00:14

Ronald Lee Jr.: And I am your host, Ron ironic Lee and this is

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the number one podcast for creative printers to gain

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strategy, structure and self development.

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Yeah, I should do a clap sign right there like that.

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Listen, let's clap it up for that. I'm so excited because we

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actually have a guest in the building. As you can see, we

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have the ce o of Zoe communications agency. Miss

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Felicia?

Feleceia Benton: 00:00:48

Well, if my husband was listening, and he

Feleceia Benton: 00:00:51

will be listening, he would say my name is Mrs. Felicia Wilson.

Feleceia Benton: 00:00:55

Ronald Lee Jr.: Misses Oh

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forget it. Please say to please say to Mrs. This side

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note, I've been known her for many years before she was

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married. So this is how I've mixed it up. So

Feleceia Benton: 00:01:14

you get presidential pardon? Shy? No

Feleceia Benton: 00:01:16

worries. Presidential pardon?

ShySpeaks: 00:01:18

Yes. Legacy. You know, her and her husband. I

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know them both. So sorry. Yeah.

Feleceia Benton: 00:01:24

Yeah, we got way way super back.

ShySpeaks: 00:01:26

Super back. So yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. So Miss Wilson

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misses.

Feleceia Benton: 00:01:35

Doing all right, you're gonna go with it.

ShySpeaks: 00:01:37

I said that. I'm working on it. I said that you

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were you have this agencies only communications agency. But one

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thing I do want to give them is some credentials that you have

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you have a bachelor's in PR and advertising and musical theater.

ShySpeaks: 00:01:55

Yeah. Can we talk about athletes? Can we please talk

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about that? Well,

Feleceia Benton: 00:02:00

I feel like if you didn't know my husband, and

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you know, he has like 15,000 degrees. And so I feel like my

Feleceia Benton: 00:02:07

two are kind of humble. By comparison, I did both of mine.

Feleceia Benton: 00:02:11

At the same time, I did a BS and a BFA, just simultaneously, not

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because like I'm so clever, but because I knew I wanted to go to

Feleceia Benton: 00:02:21

school to do musical theater. And my dad said, that's cool.

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But do something else as well, like you can do it. But I want

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you to do something else also. And so I learned about this

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opportunity to get two degrees at the same time if I took a

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victory lap. So that's what I did. It wasn't because I went in

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with great intent. It's not because I went in knowing

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exactly what I wanted to do. The cards just kind of fell in the

Feleceia Benton: 00:02:45

right place. And I had that little, that little noise in my

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ear from my daddy's and do use something else to go.

ShySpeaks: 00:02:54

Okay, but doing something else they had they

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have all kinds of other degrees. You could adopt biology, you

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could, Medic. So what made you pick PR and advertising?

Feleceia Benton: 00:03:05

I think I was taking a class, you know, those

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classes that you take as exploration classes, I landed

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myself in one of those exploratory classes. And then

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just shout, it sounded interesting. I have a knack for

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it. And I have professors who encouraged me in it. My mom is a

Feleceia Benton: 00:03:25

nurse. And so I grew up not loving science. So I knew that

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wasn't it. And I knew that math really wasn't it either. I had

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to get a tutor when I was like a junior or senior in college for

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a statistics class. And my tutor was like a freshman. So those

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are not my jam. Numbers in that way are not my jam science, not

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my bam, so I just kind of landed here.

Feleceia Benton: 00:03:51

Ronald Lee Jr.: No, okay with it, because those are vastly

Feleceia Benton: 00:03:56

different. Right? You said, musical theater. And that's what

Feleceia Benton: 00:04:00

you initially was like, Okay, I'm going to hear from musical

Feleceia Benton: 00:04:02

theater. Right? This is what I'm, I want my degree in this.

Feleceia Benton: 00:04:05

You said your dad was whispered in the air. Like, that's cool.

Feleceia Benton: 00:04:08

But so that but you stumbled across this PR piece, but those

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are vastly different. And I hear you saying that you okay, there.

Feleceia Benton: 00:04:17

You had you took some classes of some professors and things like

Feleceia Benton: 00:04:20

that. But I'm trying I'm trying to put that puzzle together,

Feleceia Benton: 00:04:26

like kind of put it together. Yeah. And it's

ShySpeaks: 00:04:30

kind of like, is it vastly different when you think

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about it, because technically, to be into the theater is to be

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into money into literature is to be writing. So at some point

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when you say you had a knack for it is the neck. That was a knack

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for because of the communications piece, the

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writing piece, the literature, was there some type of like what

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How did you know you had a knack for it?

Feleceia Benton: 00:04:56

I think I have a knack for words and a story.

Feleceia Benton: 00:05:00

There are those two worlds living or those two things live

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in both worlds. So I still exist in all those spaces. I'm

Feleceia Benton: 00:05:10

directing a show right now. I'm at a theater here in Dallas. And

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I just did I do briefs every week for teens to create

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commercials as well. So words and story exists in both. So,

Feleceia Benton: 00:05:28

Ronald Lee Jr.: so what I hear you saying is they're together,

Feleceia Benton: 00:05:33

right? There were some transferable skills, right?

Feleceia Benton: 00:05:36

Okay, I have this love and his passion and desire for not just

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theater, but musical theater show, right? Storytelling, or

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whatever is involved with that. But when my daddy told me, I

Feleceia Benton: 00:05:48

needed something else, I was able to find something that

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still utilize my skill set that I had based on this other

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passion that I have.

Feleceia Benton: 00:05:58

Yeah. And that's exactly what I'm saying.

Feleceia Benton: 00:06:01

It took really smart people around me to put that together.

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For me at the time, I did not have the words the access to

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words or the experience to put together what the similarities

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were. What I had were professors who said, Come and see who said,

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explore this, dig into it, I'll show you how to do these things.

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And eventually, long into my career, I realized that there

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was a collision point. There are some some incredible

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similarities between being like a stage performer and a

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storyteller as well as a comms expert or comms, whatever, not

Feleceia Benton: 00:06:39

an expert. Tom's professional. Let's call it that.

ShySpeaks: 00:06:45

Inside No, ladies and gentlemen, this is how you stay

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humble you, those of you who are calling yourself experts, yet

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she says just professional, just specialist yet she has an

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agency. The agency piece, okay. So, okay, so along the way, you

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are you you have these people that are telling you that okay,

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this is what you listen to this, you have this, your brain works

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this way. Right, the transferable skills. Okay, so at

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some point, when did you like start being paid for it for for

ShySpeaks: 00:07:19

the communication side? Let's start there. Yeah,

Feleceia Benton: 00:07:21

I love that you guys say transferable skills,

Feleceia Benton: 00:07:24

like it's a normal thing that you talked about? Like that a

Feleceia Benton: 00:07:29

lot. I didn't start a business on purpose. Like that didn't, I

Feleceia Benton: 00:07:35

became an entrepreneur. But I think a little before it was

Feleceia Benton: 00:07:39

like a cool thing to say that you were an entrepreneur. So my

Feleceia Benton: 00:07:42

company, I started it in 2012 row. Does that right? That feels

Feleceia Benton: 00:07:47

right, so like 11 years ago, and I started because I couldn't

Feleceia Benton: 00:07:51

find a job. I very clearly after four months of being unemployed,

Feleceia Benton: 00:07:57

heard the good Lord, say, Use what you have in your hands. At

Feleceia Benton: 00:08:01

the time, what I knew how to do was graphic design. So I knew

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how to, like provide a tangible product. Thankfully, I kind of

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been out here in the streets doing some other stuff for some

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people. And so I had access to friends who worked for some

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cities. So I've reached out to my friends who worked with these

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cities, I knew that their graphics were lacking. And I

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said, Hey, can I start making stuff for you? And they said,

Feleceia Benton: 00:08:26

Yes, they had budget for it. And so they could pay me I've done a

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little bit of research to figure out like, what are people

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charging for this kind of thing. And so for a little a long time,

Feleceia Benton: 00:08:36

not for a long time for a little bit. zoic comm was just

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graphics, it was just like, postcards, social media, posts,

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newsletters, things of that nature. And like, I think

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2012 2013 We're on like one or two social media platform forums

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at that time. Like we're not all over the place. It was just a

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couple. So that's how I got started. Okay,

Feleceia Benton: 00:09:00

Ronald Lee Jr.: how long so? You said you were unemployed? Yeah,

Feleceia Benton: 00:09:04

couldn't find a job. And I was a mom, I was a

Feleceia Benton: 00:09:08

single mom.

Feleceia Benton: 00:09:09

Ronald Lee Jr.: Wow. So in doing that, he was like, Okay, once

Feleceia Benton: 00:09:13

again, I'm going because I'm big on I'm big on skills, right?

Feleceia Benton: 00:09:16

Yeah, you had this skill set? Yeah, listen, I can do this. And

Feleceia Benton: 00:09:21

I'm noticing that there is a gap, but there's something

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lacking in the the cities that have you know, once again,

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cities, they always need grants for stuff, whether it's

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brochures, this kind of communications, right. So it's

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like, I can create something for you provide you a product or a

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service. And that's kind of how it started. Yeah.

Feleceia Benton: 00:09:46

100% That's how it started.

Feleceia Benton: 00:09:49

Ronald Lee Jr.: Okay, okay. How does it go from? I'm just doing

Feleceia Benton: 00:09:53

graphics to once again so we can, yeah, I there were and I

Feleceia Benton: 00:09:58

might get ahead of myself shot I know, we got to spread. But you

Feleceia Benton: 00:10:02

know, sometimes I gotta go off because I'm just trying to kind

Feleceia Benton: 00:10:05

of put the pieces together.

ShySpeaks: 00:10:07

That's true. That's true.

Feleceia Benton: 00:10:10

Okay, I'm really curious of your thought.

Feleceia Benton: 00:10:12

I'll give you a little bit of an answer. I won't stay on it long.

Feleceia Benton: 00:10:15

I'll throw it back to Shai. I asked myself a question. I was

Feleceia Benton: 00:10:19

bothered that I did not know if the graphics that I was making

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were working. So at the time, like I didn't know a whole lot

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about, like, click through rates, like, all that stuff

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wasn't a part of my thinking. I was just making stuff. But I

Feleceia Benton: 00:10:35

just started to wonder, like, are these working? If we give

Feleceia Benton: 00:10:39

this flyer if they pass this flyer out to people in the city?

Feleceia Benton: 00:10:42

Are people going to want to come? If they see the flyer? Or

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if they see it on social media? Are they going to want to come

Feleceia Benton: 00:10:48

and they see it on social media are the flyers working? And so

Feleceia Benton: 00:10:51

then I started going into this deep dive about like, what

Feleceia Benton: 00:10:54

strategy that like how to start making strategies. So our team

Feleceia Benton: 00:10:58

expanded by a little bit, there were a few folks who were like,

Feleceia Benton: 00:11:01

Yeah, I'll come alongside of you. I figured that at the time,

Feleceia Benton: 00:11:05

graphics weren't enough. So I had a guy who did photography

Feleceia Benton: 00:11:09

and videography. I brought on another graphic designer. And we

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and I had another friend who was broke with me for a while, I

Feleceia Benton: 00:11:17

will never forget her. She went in deep for a bit. It was rapid.

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But she had some background in advertising and account

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management. So we kind of just locked arms and started trying

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to answer that question, like, how do we make sure that the

Feleceia Benton: 00:11:33

stuff that we're making is working for people? So the next

Feleceia Benton: 00:11:37

evolution of it was just a question? Okay.

Feleceia Benton: 00:11:40

Ronald Lee Jr.: But I love it, though. So that because I'm very

Feleceia Benton: 00:11:43

big on intentionality. So you so you approached it with a level

Feleceia Benton: 00:11:47

of intention? Yeah, this question, whereas like, Okay,

Feleceia Benton: 00:11:51

I'm doing this. And I know, I know, I'm good at it. But just

Feleceia Benton: 00:11:55

because I know I'm good at it. Is it working? Yeah. And as a

Feleceia Benton: 00:11:58

result of you asking, is it working? Then you started to dig

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delve deeper into that? And like, Okay, I want to figure out

Feleceia Benton: 00:12:05

if it's working. So what do I need to figure that out? That's,

Feleceia Benton: 00:12:09

I love it. I love it.

ShySpeaks: 00:12:11

It sounds it sounds like you're laughing like,

ShySpeaks: 00:12:14

because it sounds real regular. But it's kind of like, people do

ShySpeaks: 00:12:18

things without ever asking themselves. Is it? Yeah, sure.

ShySpeaks: 00:12:22

Right, which is how you started doing graphics. And because they

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were just making graphics to promote whatever they're

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promoting, to make announcements about wherever they're making

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announcements about, but they may not have been, you said they

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were kind of lacking in some ways. I'm not sure if it was

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statically, or just feeling like you feel pulled into it or

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whatever, wherever you feel like there was some room for

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improvement. They were doing it that way, right. And so long as

ShySpeaks: 00:12:47

these could be improved, and they were improved. That's a

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different. That's,

Feleceia Benton: 00:12:54

I gotta say, like, you know, hindsight, 2020,

Feleceia Benton: 00:12:57

I'm looking back, Sam. And God really set that up for me,

Feleceia Benton: 00:12:59

because I was not smart enough to know what I was doing at the

Feleceia Benton: 00:13:02

time I happened to so the people that I worked for that were

Feleceia Benton: 00:13:08

paying me contractually to do this work. I had relationship

Feleceia Benton: 00:13:11

with them because I'd been a volunteer. So I've sat on like

Feleceia Benton: 00:13:15

boards and I've been a part I was like the young person in the

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community who got voluntold to be a part of the Chamber of

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Commerce to be a part of this these Commission's that I didn't

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know anything about. But I loved being a volunteer. So I've been

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volunteering my services first. So they knew that the things

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that I was that I did for them that were fruity, they knew that

Feleceia Benton: 00:13:37

they were good. So when I then started asking them to pay for

Feleceia Benton: 00:13:40

the same services, they were happy to do so because I'd

Feleceia Benton: 00:13:43

offered them for free for so long. And then my name started

Feleceia Benton: 00:13:46

getting tossed around the community for you know, you can

Feleceia Benton: 00:13:49

trust with each year to do ABCD EFG.

ShySpeaks: 00:13:53

Wow. So, Ron, are you over here? Oh, now

ShySpeaks: 00:14:03

Ronald Lee Jr.: it's so much in what and I think a lot of times

ShySpeaks: 00:14:08

us creatives, we miss out on that right? You said okay, I was

ShySpeaks: 00:14:14

voluntary first. Like I was in I was in these environments. I was

ShySpeaks: 00:14:18

in the rooms free of charge. Yeah. There once again, I was

ShySpeaks: 00:14:22

there just to offer you know, my my my thoughts and my ideations

ShySpeaks: 00:14:27

or whatever the case may be, I was just there, but me being in

ShySpeaks: 00:14:30

these rooms, I saw a need that they had and because not only

ShySpeaks: 00:14:34

was I in this room, but I was in these rooms with integrity. So

ShySpeaks: 00:14:38

my name carry some weight. Knowing that Felicia, she does

ShySpeaks: 00:14:44

good work, she good people. And then when you started to now

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present them with the opportunity to fund you know,

ShySpeaks: 00:14:52

saying the services that you have, they were willing to do it

ShySpeaks: 00:14:56

because of who you were prior phases.

Feleceia Benton: 00:15:00

Lower. Yeah, there is a passage of scripture

Feleceia Benton: 00:15:03

that I live by and it is a good name is better to be had and

Feleceia Benton: 00:15:07

great well, they were better than silver and gold. So there

Feleceia Benton: 00:15:11

are opportunities that I will not take or that I will, like

Feleceia Benton: 00:15:15

pull back from our even take the l like, I will take the L to

Feleceia Benton: 00:15:19

keep my name. As long as like I walk away with my name, it might

Feleceia Benton: 00:15:24

take a hit, you know, it might take some bumps and bruises.

Feleceia Benton: 00:15:27

It's not going to be unscathed. But I want to try to maintain as

Feleceia Benton: 00:15:32

much as my name and my integrity as possible. So yeah, name is

Feleceia Benton: 00:15:36

really important to

ShySpeaks: 00:15:37

me. All right, another thing that you said was

ShySpeaks: 00:15:39

important that we went by earlier, you said that you was

ShySpeaks: 00:15:43

wondering what was in your hand? So he's like, Okay, I have

ShySpeaks: 00:15:45

what's in my hand? And where's the need? Where have I been

ShySpeaks: 00:15:49

offering free samples? Where can I offer him? Right? But you said

ShySpeaks: 00:15:53

that you had done some research on the going price for like

ShySpeaks: 00:15:57

graphic designers in that space. So you went, we went straight

ShySpeaks: 00:16:03

into, you know, the people who are contracting, so you went

ShySpeaks: 00:16:05

straight into like, contracting, right? Which is different,

ShySpeaks: 00:16:08

because like, there are some people who start offering a

ShySpeaks: 00:16:11

service, and they kind of do it on the individual basis. They're

ShySpeaks: 00:16:13

working with, like, people who do, you know, like, hey, a $50

ShySpeaks: 00:16:19

flyer and a $25. Logo. And so you said you were doing

ShySpeaks: 00:16:25

graphics? But you were kind of doing like, graphic spreads or

ShySpeaks: 00:16:28

something? Because yeah, not right. So tell us about that.

Feleceia Benton: 00:16:32

Yeah, I would just try to figure out and still

Feleceia Benton: 00:16:35

to this day, I'm usually trying to figure out what the client

Feleceia Benton: 00:16:38

needs, because they normally don't know. So they I would

Feleceia Benton: 00:16:42

listen to, like, what it is they were trying to accomplish and

Feleceia Benton: 00:16:46

say, Okay, I can I think you need ABCDEFG. And that will cost

Feleceia Benton: 00:16:52

about this much. And of course, like I'm thinking like, I gotta

Feleceia Benton: 00:16:55

make as much money as possible, because I got to pay my rent.

Feleceia Benton: 00:16:59

All I have to pay my bills, and I have a child. So I'm thinking

Feleceia Benton: 00:17:04

about, like, how much can I put inside of this thing? So it

Feleceia Benton: 00:17:07

feels more like a package than it think feels like a like a one

Feleceia Benton: 00:17:10

off? You know? Package?

ShySpeaks: 00:17:12

Okay, yeah, go here. I know, you kind of thought

ShySpeaks: 00:17:16

Ronald Lee Jr.: I was gonna question. So I want to I want to

ShySpeaks: 00:17:19

kind of rewind this a little bit, right? Because I do not

ShySpeaks: 00:17:23

want to miss the fact that once again, you went to school for

ShySpeaks: 00:17:27

musical theater. Sure. So you came out with a degree in that.

ShySpeaks: 00:17:31

But you also came out with a degree and PR and advertising?

ShySpeaks: 00:17:35

Yeah. So when you decide, okay, I'm unemployed, and I am. I got

ShySpeaks: 00:17:42

I got bills to pay, I got a baby, I got bills to pay, I got

ShySpeaks: 00:17:45

bills to pay. So let me utilize the skill set. Did that other

ShySpeaks: 00:17:50

side of you that musical theater side? Was that site laying

ShySpeaks: 00:17:53

dormant? Or? No? Okay. Was it laying dormant? And if so, how

ShySpeaks: 00:17:59

did you deal with that, because I'm dealing with a lot of

ShySpeaks: 00:18:01

creatives. If we're not expressing ourselves creatively,

ShySpeaks: 00:18:05

the way that we want to create, then we feel some kind of way.

ShySpeaks: 00:18:09

And we have some challenges, some system struggles there. So

Feleceia Benton: 00:18:14

my drive was just coming from a different

Feleceia Benton: 00:18:16

place. So I didn't feel compelled to push myself into

Feleceia Benton: 00:18:22

musical theater. Thankfully, the opportunities have just

Feleceia Benton: 00:18:25

consistently come for the past. I graduated in 2006. So, you

Feleceia Benton: 00:18:31

know, 14 or so? Oh, 1717. Yeah, my oldest nephew, my youngest

Feleceia Benton: 00:18:37

nephew is 17. And I graduated the year that he that he was

Feleceia Benton: 00:18:42

born. So yeah, for like the last 17 years, the opportunities have

Feleceia Benton: 00:18:46

just they come pretty consistently. So my motivation

Feleceia Benton: 00:18:50

was not like my creativity. I gotta get out here and express

Feleceia Benton: 00:18:55

myself, because that isn't very, my motivation was my child. So

Feleceia Benton: 00:19:02

like, it was, I was, I've always been blessed to do the things

Feleceia Benton: 00:19:07

that I love to do. But I was passionate about making sure

Feleceia Benton: 00:19:13

that my child was taken care of. Yeah, so that's

Feleceia Benton: 00:19:19

Ronald Lee Jr.: why you got you had you had a very, very strong

Feleceia Benton: 00:19:22

why. Yeah.

ShySpeaks: 00:19:26

Why did you just know that? Had you pursue musical

ShySpeaks: 00:19:29

theater that it would not have paid the same as 100% Okay, or,

ShySpeaks: 00:19:36

yeah, just 100 Yeah, I get to it as quicker like because you knew

ShySpeaks: 00:19:41

you know, graphics I can get to this quick. I've already been

ShySpeaks: 00:19:44

volunteering here. Was it a matter of speed? Or was it a

ShySpeaks: 00:19:47

matter of like, it just won't pay? I probably won't make as

ShySpeaks: 00:19:50

much doing both.

Feleceia Benton: 00:19:53

I have a lot of friends so I would go the

Feleceia Benton: 00:19:56

Broadway route. I'm gonna musical theater performers. So

Feleceia Benton: 00:19:59

our are high as Broadway. There are a lot of musical theater

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:03

thankfully, opportunities now in film, but the trajectory has

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:07

been for most musical theater performances Broadway, that life

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:12

is tough, brutal, fulfilling for many life. I started believing

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:23

like when I was in my early 30s, that if I stayed in Dallas, I

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:27

could probably, like, get my fix, get paid well, because of

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:33

theater performance here professionally still get paid

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:36

pretty well. I don't think it's enough for the kind of life that

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:39

I want to live to be able to do that exclusively. And by kind of

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:43

life I want to live I don't just mean financially, but like in

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:45

Dallas, we rehearse at nighttime. So it means that I

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:49

would be away from my kid and means that I would have to like,

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:52

change how my day was structured. And so it was just

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:55

like, which kind of like what I like to have. And so like you

Feleceia Benton: 00:20:59

just like you weigh it up, and you count the cost. And you

Feleceia Benton: 00:21:01

determine which one is the better buy. All right. And I

Feleceia Benton: 00:21:06

know

ShySpeaks: 00:21:06

the reason why I run why you ask that is because we

ShySpeaks: 00:21:09

always figure out when people are multi. Multinational. You

ShySpeaks: 00:21:13

Yeah, multicast. So how do you? How did you decide which one to

ShySpeaks: 00:21:19

pursue? Like, at the time you were hungry? And you had you had

ShySpeaks: 00:21:22

a strong why, but it's like, I could easily just go hard after

ShySpeaks: 00:21:25

this. Yeah, you know, or I can focus on this. So sometimes it's

ShySpeaks: 00:21:29

like a matter of, it's not that like, Hey, I'm deciding, I'm not

ShySpeaks: 00:21:33

going to focus on theater, it's, I'm deciding to focus on the one

ShySpeaks: 00:21:38

that's given me, I'm having in the vehicle that's going to give

ShySpeaks: 00:21:41

me there faster, right? One that's going to, so not

ShySpeaks: 00:21:46

necessarily that you lost focus on it, but it's like, the energy

ShySpeaks: 00:21:49

that I'm putting inside of it, like, Yeah, I'm gonna put more

ShySpeaks: 00:21:53

energy here than

Feleceia Benton: 00:21:54

some of that. I, and I've been a big believer

Feleceia Benton: 00:21:59

of two things. One, I'm, I'm a big believer in timing. So in

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:05

my, the more I've matured, the more I've kind of learned how to

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:09

just rest in timing. If I don't, I try not to like force things

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:13

to happen. If it doesn't seem like they're supposed to happen.

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:16

I don't force it to. But I will continue to, like, ask the

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:19

questions and unpack it until I land at a resolve. So I'm a big

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:24

believer in timing. And I'm also a big believer that the answers

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:28

usually exist around you somewhere. So like, if you have

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:31

to jump way over there. Now, you kind of have to, like look

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:36

around you at the time, see what's going on. And like

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:40

calculate, consider counted up and figure out what happens. Now

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:45

I say that because shy, I that's all I was doing. It wasn't that

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:50

I was like, Oh, I think this is gonna get me there faster. It's

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:53

that I've done the things that made spiritual and mental sense

Feleceia Benton: 00:22:59

at the same time. So for me to make jumps into like, going hard

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:04

in the paint in the Broadway, like, there's never been a time

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:07

that that made sense. There's never been a time that like, I

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:11

had the right deck of cards, the timing was work, it's just never

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:16

been that way. And I just have never, I've never been the kind

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:20

of person that's like, I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:23

consider everything going on around me, and I'm gonna go do

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:26

something polar. I know that. That's not my MO. So maybe I'm

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:33

calculated, I don't know, know, that

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:36

Ronald Lee Jr.: level of self awareness that I think is key in

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:41

creative partnership, right? Just I think in life in general,

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:45

but especially if you are creative, and you're going to

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:47

take on an endeavor of creating a business. So the fact that you

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:50

have that, and you were able to get to this point, I think is

Feleceia Benton: 00:23:53

phenomenal. But I know we got you know, yeah.

ShySpeaks: 00:23:57

And that was gonna say and on top of that, like you

ShySpeaks: 00:24:01

Okay, so you didn't say I'm abandoning this because you said

ShySpeaks: 00:24:06

earlier that you still do it and you understood that hey, going

ShySpeaks: 00:24:09

to New York's Broadway or going international right like that

ShySpeaks: 00:24:13

probably was out of the scope for what I have right now. But

ShySpeaks: 00:24:15

if I stay in Dallas, which is a pretty large market, I can still

ShySpeaks: 00:24:18

make some funds here but I'm going to put my energy here

ShySpeaks: 00:24:21

because this energy is going to give me this lifestyle so the

ShySpeaks: 00:24:24

fact that you just chose where to place your energy based on

ShySpeaks: 00:24:29

what you were trying to get out. I also want to bring up

ShySpeaks: 00:24:32

something you said earlier you said his word like all over the

ShySpeaks: 00:24:35

place like like it could kind of seem like for people who are

ShySpeaks: 00:24:39

multi talented that they're all over the place sure. But then I

ShySpeaks: 00:24:46

like maybe it's the rapper and me No, it is as good as literacy

ShySpeaks: 00:24:49

to me this is I like how all over the place. It's kind of

ShySpeaks: 00:24:53

seemed like a bad thing. Like you're all over the place with

ShySpeaks: 00:24:56

all these different talents. But when it comes to what You do,

ShySpeaks: 00:25:00

right, which is we're gonna get into that here in a second.

ShySpeaks: 00:25:02

After we take this quick, quick, quick, very quick break to pay

ShySpeaks: 00:25:06

the wheels. We're gonna talk about how you do PR and

ShySpeaks: 00:25:09

marketing and you help people with find a niche. But then

ShySpeaks: 00:25:12

eventually you help them to be all over the place, which is

ShySpeaks: 00:25:15

surely President marketing. Right. So we'll get into that

ShySpeaks: 00:25:19

here in a second. But for you guys, don't you want to say

ShySpeaks: 00:25:22

about that? No, I

Feleceia Benton: 00:25:23

just want to say okay, sounds like fun. Yeah.

Feleceia Benton: 00:25:25

Okay. Yeah, fun. So

ShySpeaks: 00:25:26

alright, so we get ready to pay these wheels. Give

ShySpeaks: 00:25:29

me one second.

ShySpeaks: 00:25:32

Ronald Lee Jr.: What's the irony is because

ShySpeaks: 00:25:34

it's us in different color clothing. I mean, listen,

ShySpeaks: 00:25:37

we've been doing a lot of talk. And we want to make sure that

ShySpeaks: 00:25:39

you have an opportunity to make a statement as well, because

ShySpeaks: 00:25:44

Ronald Lee Jr.: we've seen people make statements with

ShySpeaks: 00:25:46

their athletic apparel. We've even seen people make statements

ShySpeaks: 00:25:49

as entrepreneurs. But one thing I haven't seen is somebody make

ShySpeaks: 00:25:53

a statement as a creative entrepreneur. So none is we have

ShySpeaks: 00:25:58

given you an opportunity to make a statement as a creative

ShySpeaks: 00:26:02

entrepreneur.

ShySpeaks: 00:26:05

Oh, okay. Okay. So if they want to make sure that

ShySpeaks: 00:26:08

they're rocking that creative printer gear, where can they go

ShySpeaks: 00:26:11

get that? You

ShySpeaks: 00:26:12

Ronald Lee Jr.: can go get that gear from? What's the irony.com?

ShySpeaks: 00:26:24

Oh, you love it? The shoulder? Whoa, oh, my gosh. So

ShySpeaks: 00:26:36

okay. I said that we were gonna be talking about how you are,

ShySpeaks: 00:26:42

you have a communications agency, and you have a boutique

ShySpeaks: 00:26:45

communications agency, and you actually help people to ensure

ShySpeaks: 00:26:50

find their story and then put the words to communicate what

ShySpeaks: 00:26:53

their story is. So they can sell whatever they're selling, or

ShySpeaks: 00:26:56

serve whoever they're trying to serve. Right. So I'm sure that's

ShySpeaks: 00:27:00

how they go. So this part is for people who are interested in

ShySpeaks: 00:27:04

having an agency this themselves and they're going to take their

ShySpeaks: 00:27:07

PR side their word side, their love for graphics, their love

ShySpeaks: 00:27:10

for videography. How do you turn this into an agency? So I want

ShySpeaks: 00:27:13

to talk about that? Okay, so let me let you put it in your words.

ShySpeaks: 00:27:18

That's how I said it. But how would you say what you do at

ShySpeaks: 00:27:21

your agency? What do you guys do for people?

Feleceia Benton: 00:27:24

I mean, I think you did a pretty good job. Try.

Feleceia Benton: 00:27:28

Well done. It's like you've been hanging out with me for a day or

Feleceia Benton: 00:27:32

two. So slightly

ShySpeaks: 00:27:34

been hanging out with you for some years, but the way

ShySpeaks: 00:27:40

we take we help people find their story, you fine.

ShySpeaks: 00:27:43

communicate that. Okay. Yeah. So you started off using video

ShySpeaks: 00:27:49

graphics, but then it has expanded. So tell us how could

ShySpeaks: 00:27:53

you say you feel you want to change strategy and graphics and

ShySpeaks: 00:27:58

more?

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:00

Yeah, so we call ourselves a full service

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:02

strategic communications company. And we call ourselves

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:05

strategic communications as a differentiator between like an

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:09

advertising agency or a marketing company. So both

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:14

advertising and marketing, those kinds of agencies operate very

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:19

differently. So strategic comms really does begin with, similar

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:25

to the other ones, but it begins with like, who are you? Why are

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:29

you here? Who are you serving and why. And we dive deep into

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:34

that work. And then we also serve as kind of a different

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:37

kind of client. So a lot of the like bigger advertising agencies

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:41

and marketing companies, some of the folks that we serve as can't

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:44

necessarily afford those big agencies. Those are fantastic.

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:49

If you can afford it, they're great. But if not, the idea of

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:54

trying to understand who you are, why you exist, and finding

Feleceia Benton: 00:28:59

the words to tell that story can be costly. It can be time

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:03

consuming. And like if you don't have a guy to walk you through

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:06

it, you'll end up spending a lot of money in a lot of different

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:09

places without really landing on on success. So we're a strategic

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:14

communications company. We've got all the tools in our toolkit

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:17

when you need them to help you tell your story. So that's,

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:21

that's a little bit of of who we are what we do. Our company is

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:25

named after Zoey, the little girl I was talking about

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:28

earlier, who's not so little anymore. She's, she'll be 14 in

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:32

September. It's bananas. She's 14, but our company was named

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:43

after her because so he was born with Down syndrome. Um, so if

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:46

you know anything about people with Down syndrome, and you know

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:49

that many folks with Down Syndrome have some challenges

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:53

with communication. So Zoe has helped us to learn how to be

Feleceia Benton: 00:29:56

really good listeners. And she's helped us to learn that

Feleceia Benton: 00:30:00

Everybody doesn't communicate the same way. And sometimes

Feleceia Benton: 00:30:04

people need a little help to understand what it is that

Feleceia Benton: 00:30:07

you're trying to say, even as a human or a business owner. So

Feleceia Benton: 00:30:10

she's kind of the foundation of the way that we think about an

Feleceia Benton: 00:30:14

approach strategic communications. Oh, I love it. I

Feleceia Benton: 00:30:18

Ronald Lee Jr.: love it. Because it's its purpose as well, right?

Feleceia Benton: 00:30:22

You've you've taken this, the skill set the talent that you

Feleceia Benton: 00:30:26

have, right, the formal education that you have. Now you

Feleceia Benton: 00:30:30

have this strong why, but then you were able to merge it in

Feleceia Benton: 00:30:33

purpose. And now you're just doing the same thing. Yeah.

ShySpeaks: 00:30:42

Okay, so that's so you realize that everybody won't

ShySpeaks: 00:30:45

get it with just a graphic like, just need to get it in other

ShySpeaks: 00:30:50

ways. So you talked about earlier, you want to bring

ShySpeaks: 00:30:53

somebody onto the team, right, which now you have a team. So

ShySpeaks: 00:30:59

you have you guys are trying to come up with strategies? What

ShySpeaks: 00:31:02

are some of the strategies that you're doing aside from, hey,

ShySpeaks: 00:31:05

we'll make this graphic to communicate this thing? What is

ShySpeaks: 00:31:07

that?

Feleceia Benton: 00:31:09

Yeah, so we have like, the strategy that we

Feleceia Benton: 00:31:11

have for our company. And then we have a strategy that we have

Feleceia Benton: 00:31:15

that we deploy for various clients. So at this point, we

Feleceia Benton: 00:31:19

have a little bit of a reputation for the kinds of work

Feleceia Benton: 00:31:22

that we do, thank the Lord. So folks usually come to us for one

Feleceia Benton: 00:31:27

of three things. One, they come to us because they have an event

Feleceia Benton: 00:31:32

and they needed to run well look good, be sharp, be branded well,

Feleceia Benton: 00:31:37

and then they need the visit the brand of the visit, to match the

Feleceia Benton: 00:31:42

reflection of their brand itself. Um, so people coming to

Feleceia Benton: 00:31:45

us to manage that kind of I'm glad y'all shake your head is

Feleceia Benton: 00:31:48

like, Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, so they'll

Feleceia Benton: 00:31:53

come to us for that. Some folks come to us, because they need us

Feleceia Benton: 00:31:57

to be like their marketing company, their marketing team.

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:00

So there are several folks that we work for that we manage all

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:04

of their stuff, if they need PR, if they need social graphics,

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:08

whatever the case might be, we're with them, like we're part

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:11

of their team. And they treat us as such. And then the last kind

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:15

of client is probably my favorite client client is the

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:17

one where we dive deep, and we get all up in the business.

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:21

They've been like saying words, they've been doing stuff out

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:24

here in the streets, and like it's not working. They either

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:28

have confusion on their teams, or they're like putting stuff

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:31

out in the world. And like it's not working people are not

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:35

coming to their whatever, or buying their stuff. So we do a

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:38

deep dive into the words that they're using as well as their

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:41

organizational structure. And we see where the mismatches are.

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:45

And sometimes that process takes us like six weeks, sometimes it

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:48

takes us six months. So those are my favorite kinds of

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:51

clients. So for each of those kinds of clients, we have we

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:55

deployed different strategies for each. But those are really

Feleceia Benton: 00:32:58

kind of the buckets that we stay within. I don't know if I

Feleceia Benton: 00:33:01

answered your question.

ShySpeaks: 00:33:02

No, no, that's great. That's, I mean, okay, it does,

ShySpeaks: 00:33:08

it does answer the question. All right. Yes, yes. I'm gonna ask

ShySpeaks: 00:33:12

you a more specific question. So at some point, you first

ShySpeaks: 00:33:16

started, you had this, you then you had this other person that's

ShySpeaks: 00:33:20

kind of help you work on the strategy, I'm pretty sure. Three

ShySpeaks: 00:33:22

different buckets you just described, like, this person

ShySpeaks: 00:33:24

needs this, we need to make sure that they don't just have a

ShySpeaks: 00:33:27

graphic for the event. Okay, here, here's the thing that

ShySpeaks: 00:33:31

comes to the event, but they need other all in. So So you

ShySpeaks: 00:33:35

have this. Okay, so yeah, this person. So at what point do you

ShySpeaks: 00:33:39

go from making like, hundreds of dollars to 1000s of dollars?

ShySpeaks: 00:33:43

Right? What like, so you started in 2012? So but like, what did

ShySpeaks: 00:33:47

it take, like 2000, like three years before you start having

ShySpeaks: 00:33:51

other people that you're working with? Or was it like quicker?

ShySpeaks: 00:33:55

Like,

Feleceia Benton: 00:33:56

it was pretty quick? Yeah, I didn't mean for

Feleceia Benton: 00:33:58

it to be quick. I had a season where I fired everybody. So

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:01

like, I haven't always just had everybody there was a season

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:03

where I was like, I cannot do this. And everybody was gone.

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:07

And I solo produced that thing for like, two years. So I jumped

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:12

in. So entrepreneurs you can have whatever season you need.

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:17

Permission to have whatever season you need. So jumped in,

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:21

it was me for a little bit started recognizing these

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:23

different needs, had a team could afford a team and the team

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:28

was there to support the different efforts that we saw

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:32

existed at the time. So I was probably 2013 2014 like a year

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:39

or two in where I started to collect some additional folks to

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:43

work alongside. There was one other person who was full time

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:46

with me, one person who was contracted to people who were

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:49

contracted and another person who interned so we were like a

Feleceia Benton: 00:34:52

team of four

ShySpeaks: 00:34:53

or five. Okay, so, four or five. So at this point,

ShySpeaks: 00:34:57

are you in like, this is to you started it two or three years

ShySpeaks: 00:35:01

later, you got an employee contractors and some other. So

ShySpeaks: 00:35:05

are you like still in like, a five figure range in that couple

ShySpeaks: 00:35:11

of years? Or did it like explode? And it's like, oh,

ShySpeaks: 00:35:15

we're in a six figure range as a company, like, Yeah. Were you

ShySpeaks: 00:35:19

still like in like, because you know, contracts could be like

ShySpeaks: 00:35:22

5010 1000 5010 and 20,000 for, you know, different cities or,

ShySpeaks: 00:35:27

you know, so where are you figure wise and these couple of

ShySpeaks: 00:35:30

years?

Feleceia Benton: 00:35:31

Yeah, the first few years, I was tapping on six,

Feleceia Benton: 00:35:35

like, it was right there at the door. That's where you were

Feleceia Benton: 00:35:37

scrappy. We were super, super scrappy when we start it. And

Feleceia Benton: 00:35:41

then when I realized what kind of load we needed to carry, we

Feleceia Benton: 00:35:45

changed the way that we structured our contracts. I

Feleceia Benton: 00:35:50

didn't realize it at first, like, just remembering our

Feleceia Benton: 00:35:54

context here. I started on accident. I did not start, but I

Feleceia Benton: 00:35:58

shall make a business plan and know exactly what I will do

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:01

tomorrow. I didn't do that. You know, I didn't do that until

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:05

much later on. So it took a few years. But yeah, we started

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:10

tapping into six figures, like four years in. Okay,

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:14

Ronald Lee Jr.: so you just said something you said, the way we

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:18

structured our contracts, once we restructured our contract, we

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:23

were at a place where we were not going to tap in on it. But

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:26

once we restructured something as simple as restructuring your

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:29

contracts, puts you over the hump. I need you I need you to

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:35

elaborate on that just because once again, sometimes we think

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:39

we need these huge quantum leaps. And a lot of times, it's

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:43

just something simple as restructuring of a contract. So

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:48

yeah,

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:50

well, this so that it's different. For every

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:53

scenario, I'll tell you about our specific one. There were a

Feleceia Benton: 00:36:57

few things that I realized when I looked at our contracts, there

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:00

were a lot of things that I was not factoring in to the bottom

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:03

line, like I was not factoring in use of equipment, I wasn't

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:08

factoring in purchasing the photos and the videos, I wasn't

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:14

factoring that in, I would factor in the hard costs to get

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:17

it done, I wouldn't factor in licensing. So there were a lot

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:21

of things that like just these little tiny things. I was

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:25

initially structuring contracts, like I was the only person who

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:28

was working, I wasn't taking the different costs, or the

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:32

different people who were involved into account. So every,

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:36

if you're working in advertising or comms or as a graphic

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:40

designer, there are a lot of costs to take into account, if

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:44

you're going to find yourself profitable. I wasn't even really

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:47

thinking about how to factor in profit into my bottom line.

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:51

Because I was just trying to cover the costs. So every

Feleceia Benton: 00:37:56

everybody needs a formula, you got to figure out like, what is

Feleceia Benton: 00:38:00

your formula, if I want to go from being just a single

Feleceia Benton: 00:38:03

solopreneur, even a creative printer to structuring myself

Feleceia Benton: 00:38:07

more like an agency, every agency needs a formula, you got

Feleceia Benton: 00:38:11

to have a formula for your bottom, you got to have a

Feleceia Benton: 00:38:13

formula for how you're gonna make money that have a formula

Feleceia Benton: 00:38:15

for your contracts. So yeah, that's the short answer. I don't

Feleceia Benton: 00:38:20

think I was short.

Feleceia Benton: 00:38:21

Ronald Lee Jr.: No, that's perfect. That's perfect.

ShySpeaks: 00:38:24

No, that's good. Okay. So when you say, Okay,

ShySpeaks: 00:38:27

some of the expenses, because we wanted to think people need to

ShySpeaks: 00:38:30

know about that, like how to, when you say licensing, are you

ShySpeaks: 00:38:32

talking about like, you know, give us give us some specifics?

ShySpeaks: 00:38:38

What are some of the expenses that someone needs to consider

ShySpeaks: 00:38:41

when they're having when they have a communications agency

ShySpeaks: 00:38:44

that, yeah, you may not realize, hey, this person asked me to do

ShySpeaks: 00:38:48

this. I think that it's gonna take me this much time, and I'm

ShySpeaks: 00:38:51

just gonna charge them this. There are some other thing, what

ShySpeaks: 00:38:54

are the some of those things that they may be missing? Yeah,

Feleceia Benton: 00:38:56

the first thing to take into account are all the

Feleceia Benton: 00:38:58

platforms you're using to make it happen. So are you using

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:02

Illustrator or using like the Adobe Creative Suite? Are you

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:05

using Canva? Are you using HoneyBook? Like, what are all of

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:08

these things that you're using in order to make this thing

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:10

happen? Are you paying rent somewhere? Like, are you paying

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:16

using an oil corner of your home as an office and you're using

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:20

that for X amount of time? Well, that's use of your space that's

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:23

using your electricity that's use of like your resources. So

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:26

you have all of these other costs that are factored into

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:30

ultimately getting this thing done. But when I say like,

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:34

agencies ask people to help them figure out the formula for their

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:37

agency, because it can start to get really complicated. So if if

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:42

I were you, I would at least start by factoring in cost that

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:45

you understand. So look at all of these places that you might

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:49

be utilizing to make the graphic happen, or make the photo happen

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:53

or make the video happen and figure out how much you pay it

Feleceia Benton: 00:39:56

on that every single month. You can add it as a service Speed,

Feleceia Benton: 00:40:00

you can integrate, you can slightly notch up the amount

Feleceia Benton: 00:40:03

that you're using in your hourly fee. There are a lot of ways

Feleceia Benton: 00:40:07

that you can structure that inside of your contract. So

Feleceia Benton: 00:40:09

that's one thing to think about. And if you are making a graphic

Feleceia Benton: 00:40:14

or if you're making, if you're shooting a photo or a video,

Feleceia Benton: 00:40:18

does the client own that outright? Or is that going to be

Feleceia Benton: 00:40:22

licensed out to them? Are you going to be the owner of it, and

Feleceia Benton: 00:40:25

then they're able to use it for X amount of time or a certain

Feleceia Benton: 00:40:28

fee? So lots of lots of things to explore when you're thinking

Feleceia Benton: 00:40:34

about how much to charge?

ShySpeaks: 00:40:36

Got you. Got you go Yeah, right. You got

ShySpeaks: 00:40:40

Ronald Lee Jr.: me because I think that's I think that's key

ShySpeaks: 00:40:42

when when it comes to photographers and videographers

ShySpeaks: 00:40:46

specifically, like, I don't know if they know it. I know the

ShySpeaks: 00:40:50

clients don't know that whoever clicks that shutter. Is the

ShySpeaks: 00:40:57

owner footage? That's yeah. Yeah. So to be able, I can say

ShySpeaks: 00:41:02

to have that in the contract to where they know. And once again,

ShySpeaks: 00:41:06

that might be something to where, okay, are you leasing it?

ShySpeaks: 00:41:08

If you're leasing it, then this, this, this, this, this fee, if

ShySpeaks: 00:41:11

you're if I'm giving you ownership of it, then it's this

ShySpeaks: 00:41:14

fee, but that comes with a cost as opposed to just okay, you

ShySpeaks: 00:41:18

hired me to come in? I charge $250 an hour? And then I'm

ShySpeaks: 00:41:21

giving you everything on my SD card. Yeah, nah, you missing out

ShySpeaks: 00:41:25

on a lot

Feleceia Benton: 00:41:27

of internet. Yeah, you can also agree to a

Feleceia Benton: 00:41:30

certain number of photos. So whenever whenever we ask

Feleceia Benton: 00:41:33

photographers to come to us, if we want to own it outright,

Feleceia Benton: 00:41:36

we'll say, sometimes we work for photographers, when they don't

Feleceia Benton: 00:41:40

know how to work for themselves. So we'll say we only want 25

Feleceia Benton: 00:41:44

photos, even if you shoot for, you know, eight hours will pay

Feleceia Benton: 00:41:49

you hourly. And then we only expect X amount of photos, we

Feleceia Benton: 00:41:53

want to own them outright. And this is what will pay for that.

Feleceia Benton: 00:41:57

So if you don't if you don't have a plan for your work, your

Feleceia Benton: 00:42:02

client will have a plan or your work. And they don't know what

Feleceia Benton: 00:42:06

they don't know, or they do. And they'll negotiate without, with

Feleceia Benton: 00:42:10

more knowledge than you. Yeah. Wow.

ShySpeaks: 00:42:13

So when it comes to communication, there are so many

ShySpeaks: 00:42:16

different variables, like, you know, there's visuals, so

ShySpeaks: 00:42:20

there's photography, that's videography, and both of those

ShySpeaks: 00:42:23

have their own world. And then there is the graphic and like

ShySpeaks: 00:42:27

the design aesthetic, and then there is the copywriting, right.

ShySpeaks: 00:42:31

And so who's writing the copy that goes on, say graphic, or

ShySpeaks: 00:42:34

says website or on the bottom of the video, or et cetera, et

ShySpeaks: 00:42:39

cetera. So there are so many different pieces. And I know

ShySpeaks: 00:42:42

that you are a boutique, so to speak, is strategic agency. So

ShySpeaks: 00:42:46

you kind of work with people, you have these two clients that

ShySpeaks: 00:42:49

are like the same. And then this third piece where it's like,

ShySpeaks: 00:42:52

you're really tailoring everything for them. So how do

ShySpeaks: 00:42:54

you come up with a process? Like what's your process of coming up

ShySpeaks: 00:43:00

with a process? To like, make it where you have a so it's not

ShySpeaks: 00:43:05

like so all over the place? Like, I'm working with a client?

ShySpeaks: 00:43:09

Where do I start? I have where, and I have to get them

ShySpeaks: 00:43:12

somewhere? So how do you come? What's your process of coming up

ShySpeaks: 00:43:14

with a process when working with people on a custom level? Well,

ShySpeaks: 00:43:19

I've

Feleceia Benton: 00:43:19

been doing this for a couple of days. A lot of

Feleceia Benton: 00:43:24

the process has come with experience. It comes with a

Feleceia Benton: 00:43:28

heavy listening air. So I know what our team can provide. I

Feleceia Benton: 00:43:34

know what our services are, I know what we do well. So my

Feleceia Benton: 00:43:38

intention while I'm listening to a client is to figure out how do

Feleceia Benton: 00:43:42

they fit well within our structure? Like how do they fit

Feleceia Benton: 00:43:45

well within the things that we are existing process? If I throw

Feleceia Benton: 00:43:49

our team a curveball, and say we got this client that is left of

Feleceia Benton: 00:43:53

center, but what we traditionally do after factor

Feleceia Benton: 00:43:55

that factor that into our costs, because it's going to affect how

Feleceia Benton: 00:43:58

I paid them or if we're going to have to bring somebody else on

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:01

for it. So I'm trying to figure out the simplest way to answer

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:05

your question. I guess, ultimately, when I've done it

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:08

long enough to know how to listen to I listen, really, I

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:11

try to listen really well to what their needs are. And three,

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:16

I am not going to create a process that is going that is

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:19

against the way that our team operates. So it's not going to

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:24

be something totally different. If it is completely different

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:27

than I asked him to go somewhere else. Or I will say we can do

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:31

these things for you. But this isn't this we cannot do. So we

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:36

we avoid doing the things that are outside of our realm of

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:41

knowledge.

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:43

Ronald Lee Jr.: I love it. I love it. Listen, I can I can go

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:47

on and we're glad to have you back because there's so much

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:51

more I want to know. But this has been a phenomenal interview.

Feleceia Benton: 00:44:57

I'm hoping that our Our audience has gained some value from

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:03

listening to you speak about just your journey starting off

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:06

once again, like, Okay, I started off here, right, I was

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:10

going to school for musical theater, my dad was spinning my

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:12

head, you're gonna need some a little more than that. We did, I

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:16

listened. But then there were other people in my ear. That way

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:19

I kind of helped guide me because once again, I only knew

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:22

what I knew. And they could see some other things in me that I

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:25

couldn't see. So just the importance of having that

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:27

coaching and mentorship and things like that, and then just

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:31

having a I had a necessity. So I had a certain skill set that I

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:35

that I had, and I needed to, you know, be able to provide for

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:39

myself for my child. So I put that I put that skill to work,

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:44

but even started off as a volunteer. So just this whole,

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:47

this whole journey. Right. And so now you are, you have this

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:52

phenomenal communications company. Yeah, I have more I

Feleceia Benton: 00:45:58

have a man that is that the time has gotten away from I have more

Feleceia Benton: 00:46:05

questions.

ShySpeaks: 00:46:07

We're getting ready to wrap it up. But let's give

ShySpeaks: 00:46:09

them some bonus. Even my own real quick. Okay. So basically,

ShySpeaks: 00:46:15

you said earlier, you came up with this whole idea of

ShySpeaks: 00:46:18

strategy? How do you like like being like, how do I know if

ShySpeaks: 00:46:22

what I'm doing is working? Right? Why are you trying to do

ShySpeaks: 00:46:25

a communications agency in any type of marketing, whatever,

ShySpeaks: 00:46:29

rattle off a list of tools, or sites or wherever they can go to

ShySpeaks: 00:46:33

actually track the effectiveness of what you're doing? Yeah,

Feleceia Benton: 00:46:37

if you are a well, any kind of brand, can ask

Feleceia Benton: 00:46:45

their people, they can ask their customers. So if you are an

Feleceia Benton: 00:46:49

artist, if you are a photographer, if you are,

Feleceia Benton: 00:46:52

whatever, ask the people around you, as the people who are

Feleceia Benton: 00:46:55

buying the services, is the stuff that I'm doing doesn't

Feleceia Benton: 00:46:59

benefit you. So get feedback from your customers. That'll be

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:02

thing number one. If you are in comps, you need to look at your

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:07

analytics, you need to look at the backside of your website,

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:10

you need to look at metal platforms, yes, and see what the

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:14

numbers say. And then the final thing I would do is look at your

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:18

bank account, evaluate the numbers, what are they doing,

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:24

and I would track I would literally write down the things

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:27

that I'm doing month over month, I keep a million notes inside of

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:31

my notes on my phone. As I'm like thinking of ideas in the

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:36

middle of the night, my bank account will reflect whether the

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:42

things that I'm putting out here in the streets are actually

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:45

making me money or not. So like it's all of it is actually quite

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:48

simple. It's a matter of evaluation, paying attention to

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:51

the things are going on around you and not being afraid to

Feleceia Benton: 00:47:55

look.

ShySpeaks: 00:47:57

Okay, I'm gonna let you off the hook with that. I'm

ShySpeaks: 00:47:59

gonna let you go. That was a good answer for how to know your

ShySpeaks: 00:48:02

business is working. I was saying how they can know if what

ShySpeaks: 00:48:06

they're doing the work they're doing is working like yeah,

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:10

that's relative. Like, it depends on

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:11

what kind of work they're doing.

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:15

Ronald Lee Jr.: I like the fact that she said definitely serving

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:17

and asking your client to they know so yeah, definitely survey

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:21

and you got to pull your clients and see. So I like that.

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:27

Y'all, I'm you. I'm assuming y'all are both

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:29

musicians. Yeah. I mean, I know about Sharon, I don't know. I

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:33

see the records back there on the wall. I'm assuming I'd

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:37

Ronald Lee Jr.: be able to dabble in music production a

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:39

little bit. You know?

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:41

What you guys, y'all look at them Spotify

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:44

numbers right now when you like post something, and you can

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:49

click on insights to see if people are engaging or not.

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:53

Sometimes we have like a fear of looking like we're just afraid

Feleceia Benton: 00:48:56

to look at the places that we already know. So I know it feels

Feleceia Benton: 00:49:01

like an easy answer. But it's true.

ShySpeaks: 00:49:04

No, it is true. No, you said that what you say what

ShySpeaks: 00:49:06

you ask for feedback. And also check those analytics and meta.

ShySpeaks: 00:49:10

You know, that's Google, Facebook, Instagram, all those

ShySpeaks: 00:49:13

things. And once you start checking analytics, you'll just

ShySpeaks: 00:49:15

start checking the analytics. Yeah, most important one was the

ShySpeaks: 00:49:19

numbers don't lie check the check the bank account check the

ShySpeaks: 00:49:22

revenue. Okay, I just wanted to give people a little some extra

ShySpeaks: 00:49:27

before we get out of here. I want to say thank you so much

ShySpeaks: 00:49:31

for hopping on with us. unpacking your story and sharing

ShySpeaks: 00:49:35

your tips and tools for other people who are looking to have

ShySpeaks: 00:49:39

agencies and how to like navigate the multitalented world

ShySpeaks: 00:49:44

Ronald Lee Jr.: Yeah, you got it right you guys don't know this.

ShySpeaks: 00:49:49

This was great. I said we're gonna have to have you back

ShySpeaks: 00:49:51

again cannot cannot cannot please actually, I'm getting you

ShySpeaks: 00:49:54

here as it's recorded. So, you know said kick. Can we can we

ShySpeaks: 00:49:58

can we trust that you're going to come come back in and have

ShySpeaks: 00:50:01

another episode with the future.

Feleceia Benton: 00:50:04

In the words of my daddy, Lord willing and the

Feleceia Benton: 00:50:06

creek don't rise.

ShySpeaks: 00:50:09

All right, and then I actually want to thank those of

ShySpeaks: 00:50:13

you who are tuning into this watching who stayed around all

ShySpeaks: 00:50:17

the way to this point, thank you so much for tuning in to the

ShySpeaks: 00:50:19

mind and my creative business podcast. We really, really truly

ShySpeaks: 00:50:23

appreciate it. One of the things I like to say before we get out

ShySpeaks: 00:50:25

of the podcast is a mantra for us to quote and so here's what I

ShySpeaks: 00:50:29

want you to do. I want you to repeat after me I want you to

ShySpeaks: 00:50:31

say this out loud. All it takes on it takes all it takes is

ShySpeaks: 00:50:37

intention, intention, consistency, consistency, and

ShySpeaks: 00:50:43

laser focus and focus. So my my creative business alrighty then

ShySpeaks: 00:50:53

thank you guys so much for, you know, for saying that with us

ShySpeaks: 00:50:57

and we look forward to seeing you in the next episode.