And when I graduated , I had been working on so many major accounts . I have freelanced for a couple of PR agencies . There were two or three people that came up to me and said , “ I want you as my publicist ” and I ’ m like , “ I just graduated college two months ago ,” like , oh that pump the brakes . So before I knew it , it was August 24 , 2011 , and I was literally doing PR for my own company . So at that time , I thought the right step is to create a company at the age of 22 . I took all the wrong steps and did harm . But , I was doing PR under the Lemon Light Media name . I ’ m excited to say we ’ ll be celebrating nine years .
Yeah . That ’ s definitely an amazing journey . So how did you shift at that point when you found that it was something you wanted to do ?
Well , I realized that I could still have a career in entertainment , which you know it , again I wanted to do radio and I actually did . I was really in love with , and in tune with all things . But then I began to shift my focus . I can take some of the lessons and some of the experiences that I have from radio and apply them in PR because I had a few contacts I knew , you know the ropes of journalism and things of that nature and so it kind of helped me transition in my mind . It wasn ’ t always the most comfortable because there were times where I was like , oh , I would love to be reporting on XYZ red carpet but I ’ m actually the person who is getting a client on the red carpet . There ’ s always still a burning in me that I would love to interview such and such , or maybe I should , you know , talk about XYZ but it ’ s like I understand my place now . I was selected for somebody to trust me with their dreams and aspirations and their expectation is for me to fulfill their dreams and aspirations as a big shooter .
All of a sudden we get hit with COVID . The entertainment business has been shut down and will pretty much be shut down until 2021 . And that has been really scary for a lot of people . So I want to know when that happened , what was your first thought ? How did you handle your clients and how were you going to proceed going forward ?
My first thoughts were , I ’ m gonna need a plan in place . So the first people that I talked to were my team and I told them , I said “ hey , I don ’ t know what the next 30 days are gonna look like I don ’ t know what the next 60 days are gonna look like ,” but just know that I ’ m gonna work my butt off to make sure that you know where your at least still afloat . And the first maybe two to three weeks of COVID , actually the first two weeks was just like walking into the unknown . When you look at festivals , you look like we ’ ve worked in Essence Festivals over the past 12 years . It ’ s one of our heavy hitters . So when you start looking like , okay , this may not happen . Everything affects the budget . I had that conversation with my team , and then I started talking with my clients and seeing what direction they want to go in . Because , obviously , you know , when you have a client whether they want PR or not , they have investments that they have to take a look at . Sometimes PR is the first thing to go , even though we ’ re valuable it ’ s okay . And so that did happen with a few clients and we were understanding of course because this is a natural disaster that we cannot control . But then there were situations that occurred where , you know , we looked up and our client Slim Thug was diagnosed with COVID-19 and anybody that knows me and I have expressed this from before but he has a special place in my heart . We ’ re from the same side of town . I literally grew up listening to Slim Thug and respected his craft . So , when I got the notice that he had COVID-19 , it was still in the early stages of us not knowing what this looked like . What is this like is this a death notice ? I called him and he asked if how I was . I was like no , are you good ?
So my clients know like if I hit you with “ Are you good ?” And long story short , that became a situation that we didn ’ t see coming so whereas we lost some business . This was a project and I hate to call it a project but it was a project that was unforeseen . So with Slim you know he ’ s our client for those that are in the music industry , you understand that with your music clients a lot of clients are either on cycle or off-cycle . On-cycle is when more music is coming out and off-cycle is when there ’ s no music . So , we are off-cycle . And so this actually allowed us to be back on-cycle because he was the first person in the hip hop community to even address or acknowledge that he had COVID-19 . From there we were able to be really strategic with the messaging awareness of COVID-19 and also insurance in the hiphop community that ’ s something we really wanted to tackle . We ’ re not like SAG where you ’ re an actress or an actor , your team , your makeup artists , all of them they can apply for insurance through SAG and they ’ re good to go . In our community , it ’ s like every man for himself , so it ’ s either you have it or you don ’ t . it ’ s just a lot so we kind of spun that story and then literally midway through that being done , we get a call to work on a huge campaign for Beyonce and Tina Knowles . So , start working on that and some other projects can belong . Again , George Floyd was funeral , three memorials in one funeral that was just so unforeseen . And so you know we ’ ve had busy moments , for sure . And we ’ ve had some moments where it was a little bit more on the downside so I get it from all angles .
Did any projects come your way between COVID and George Floyd and it wasn ’ t the right time for it ? Did you ever have that happen to you ? And if you don ’ t mind talking about it a little bit , what was it about ?
Yeah , definitely . You know , I ’ m working-- even a lot of PR and you meet people that will become associated or try to be associated for their own publicity . So I ’ m the type of person where I have literally turned down potential clients . I just don ’ t think we ’ re a good fit . I don ’ t really care about the amount of money you ’ re trying to pay , whatever the case may be .