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Orlena Nwokah Blanchard Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: only financing an approved credit see website for details. Some
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Speaker 1: restrictions apply. My next guest is a first time the
1:02
Speaker 1: first time for money making conversation. UM we communicate my
1:06
Speaker 1: LinkedIn account so that's I kind of know a little
1:09
Speaker 1: thing about a little thing about my next days. Is
1:11
Speaker 1: a business leader, media executive and multicultural marketing expert with
1:16
Speaker 1: over twenty five years. I got thirty years, so I
1:19
Speaker 1: gotta beat she had twenty five years. I got thirty
1:20
Speaker 1: years of experience building value for fortune five hundred companies
1:24
Speaker 1: and startups. She is President and CEO of Joy Collective,
1:28
Speaker 1: where she leads marketing, strategy and operations for a diverse
1:31
Speaker 1: portfolio of clients. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations or
1:35
Speaker 1: Lena and Walco Blatchart. Hello, Good morning Nigeria, Miss Nigerian
1:43
Speaker 1: queen right right. Got to get that right, because you know,
1:49
Speaker 1: I can't just sell you or Lena Blanchard. We've got
1:52
Speaker 1: a little fight on our hands. No, no, no, we
1:54
Speaker 1: gotta have we gotta have the Nigeria. My people be
2:00
Speaker 1: on me. So yes, absolutely, thank you for that. We'll
2:02
Speaker 1: tell us about the background because it is it is
2:05
Speaker 1: a source of pride and UH and being able to
2:08
Speaker 1: keep that as part of your your introduction, So talk
2:10
Speaker 1: about the how's that relationship? Do well you're in your
2:13
Speaker 1: life now and how far as your parents you got
2:16
Speaker 1: over to America, you're born in America. How did it work? No,
2:20
Speaker 1: thank you for that. So, um, Yes, as far as
2:22
Speaker 1: my history and when Nigerian plays an important role, I'm
2:25
Speaker 1: Nigerian first and foremost. So I was born to a
2:28
Speaker 1: British mother in Nigerian Province. I grew up my childhood
2:31
Speaker 1: in England in Nigeria, but really my my elementary school,
2:34
Speaker 1: primary school years in Nigeria and then I moved to
2:37
Speaker 1: the United States and middle school. So as an adolescent mum,
2:42
Speaker 1: you know, it's an interesting transition as an African immigrant,
2:45
Speaker 1: a mixed African immigrant in um in America in the
2:50
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. So what's always been such an important part
2:53
Speaker 1: of my identity though a dominant part of my identity
2:56
Speaker 1: is being Nigerian. And you see that just I mean
2:59
Speaker 1: which and you're in you know, you're in the entertainment industry.
3:02
Speaker 1: So now you see more Nigerian Americans like Yvonne aug
3:05
Speaker 1: And and Cynthia Rivo and other people celebrating, you know,
3:09
Speaker 1: our culture, and so it's just really important. We're very
3:12
Speaker 1: proud people. So even though British is part of my
3:15
Speaker 1: history and I've lived in the United States for more
3:17
Speaker 1: than thirty years, I consider myself and identify with being
3:21
Speaker 1: Nigerian first and foremost. So I am absolutely have to
3:25
Speaker 1: have that in my name. I mean, the other part
3:27
Speaker 1: is I lost my father um many years ago, and
3:30
Speaker 1: so part of honoring his legacy and part of just
3:34
Speaker 1: being my father's daughter, which is so much of who
3:37
Speaker 1: I am, is making sure that I represent him and
3:39
Speaker 1: represent where I come from. So that's why my maiden
3:43
Speaker 1: name is I actually had legally changed to my middle
3:46
Speaker 1: name when I became an American citizen just a year ago.
3:50
Speaker 1: And so that's an important part of who I am,
3:52
Speaker 1: and it very much informed everything I do and my
3:55
Speaker 1: point of view on the world. So, um, you see,
3:58
Speaker 1: I'm many years you've been aware. I came to see
4:02
Speaker 1: now Rassenge's gonna age men. No, no, I don't want
4:05
Speaker 1: to age because that act in the United States, the
4:08
Speaker 1: nine four. But your action is so clean and it
4:12
Speaker 1: sounds very British. It sounds very British because I learned
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Speaker 1: to speak English in England. I learned to speak in England.
4:19
Speaker 1: So the first seven or eight years of my life. Okay,
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Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not gonna buy that. I'm like, I
4:25
Speaker 1: see too many British actors come over here speaking English
4:29
Speaker 1: like they bought over here. It's just amazing because we
4:33
Speaker 1: can imitate it. Okayn't trust me. I faced the bunk
4:37
Speaker 1: for many, many years because as a teenager you want
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Speaker 1: to fit in but in Nigerian. In my house, my
4:43
Speaker 1: father was a poem that I would use any other
4:46
Speaker 1: accent other than British or Nigerian or at least a
4:49
Speaker 1: refined Nigerian accent, and so I couldn't at home, so
4:52
Speaker 1: I had to maintain as much as I faked it
4:55
Speaker 1: my sister girl accent outside of the house, I had
4:58
Speaker 1: to maintainment inside because it wasn't sort of acceptable. So
5:03
Speaker 1: I've always had this because this is how I've spoken
5:05
Speaker 1: at home. And one day, um my brother, my older brother,
5:09
Speaker 1: just said to me. He said, okay, we have to
5:11
Speaker 1: stop pretending, um that we are American one day and
5:15
Speaker 1: we're something else the next day. Just be who you are. Really.
5:19
Speaker 1: Were struggled. I did with with somewhat of an identity
5:22
Speaker 1: crisis as a mixed African in America. So finally at
5:27
Speaker 1: some point I said, you know, this is what it is.
5:30
Speaker 1: And some days people say you sound like you're straight
5:33
Speaker 1: out of DC or something in the next minute, you
5:35
Speaker 1: sound like you're out of the Niger because I can
5:36
Speaker 1: speak pigeon English, or you're sound like you're right off
5:39
Speaker 1: the boat from England, and that's just who I am.
5:42
Speaker 1: Well you England and I'm speaking to the British role.
5:46
Speaker 1: But the time we're done, I might be sis the
5:48
Speaker 1: girl today. But you know I'm very British. Even when
5:53
Speaker 1: you say it's just the girl. You need to stop
5:55
Speaker 1: so British the girl, the girl, that stop. I'll work
6:00
Speaker 1: it on. It's not even working on your family. You
6:04
Speaker 1: get a sisterhood, the girlhood. But wish our next conversation
6:09
Speaker 1: will have will do it in an idea and accent,
6:11
Speaker 1: and then that would be that would be different. Oh,
6:13
Speaker 1: that'd be totally different. Well, thank you for coming on
6:15
Speaker 1: my show, Money Making Conversations. I followed your career, I
6:18
Speaker 1: followed your brand, and Joy Collective is something that's that's uh,
6:23
Speaker 1: that's based in the Maryland District of Columbia d C area.
6:26
Speaker 1: Correct it is, So tell us what exactly and how
6:31
Speaker 1: did the name come about? Because you're just president and
6:33
Speaker 1: CEO of Joy Collective. First of all, tell us how
6:36
Speaker 1: the name came about and what exactly does Jr. Collective do. Yeah, Well,
6:41
Speaker 1: I'm super excited to talk about Joy. First of all,
6:44
Speaker 1: I would be remiss if I didn't say the founding
6:46
Speaker 1: of Joy actually was by my business partner and co owner,
6:50
Speaker 1: Kelly Joy Richards and Lawson. We have similar stories and
6:53
Speaker 1: that she lost her father and it was such a
6:56
Speaker 1: transformative moment in her life that she decided she wanted
7:00
Speaker 1: to create a company that was really committed to celebrating
7:05
Speaker 1: joy and creating joy for for herself and just having
7:09
Speaker 1: more joy in her life, especially in her business UM work.
7:13
Speaker 1: And so I joined her. She's been a good friend
7:15
Speaker 1: for many, many years, and I joined her a few
7:18
Speaker 1: months after she created Joy, And just to give everybody
7:21
Speaker 1: a um an understanding of who we are and what
7:24
Speaker 1: we do. JOY is a cultural intelligence, marketing and creative
7:28
Speaker 1: agency UM. And yes we're headquartered in DC. And what
7:32
Speaker 1: does that mean? Well, UM, first of all, marketing and advertising,
7:36
Speaker 1: that is what we do and we do seek to nuts.
7:37
Speaker 1: We do anything from helping companies build marketing strategies to
7:41
Speaker 1: executing those UM. We do video production, we do events,
7:45
Speaker 1: all of that, but we do that from the lens
7:48
Speaker 1: of cultural intelligence. In a world that looks very different
7:51
Speaker 1: now than it did five and twenty years ago. And
7:56
Speaker 1: we see companies making so many mistakes these days, like
8:00
Speaker 1: which on you know, we all look sideways when Gucci was,
8:03
Speaker 1: you know, doing black face sweaters and product was doing
8:07
Speaker 1: all kinds of craziness, and we see all these ads
8:10
Speaker 1: by H and M and so a lot of times
8:12
Speaker 1: companies will call us after they've made mistakes, but a
8:15
Speaker 1: lot of companies are calling us now beforehand to say,
8:19
Speaker 1: help us understand a new consumer marketplace, which we call pollicultural,
8:24
Speaker 1: which is you've got so many generations and you've got
8:26
Speaker 1: so many consumers of color. We help companies really understand
8:31
Speaker 1: the lifestyle, the values of behavior of consumers, and then
8:35
Speaker 1: we help them craft business strategies that helped speak to
8:38
Speaker 1: people like us, right, people in our community. Um, so
8:42
Speaker 1: they get it because you know what, most companies realize
8:45
Speaker 1: that they were all just changed and they have to
8:46
Speaker 1: do something different, but they don't know how because they
8:48
Speaker 1: haven't had to for so many years they've spoken to
8:52
Speaker 1: a majority white audience. So that's um, that's what doing
8:57
Speaker 1: in that space. You're like a gatekeeper of time as
9:01
Speaker 1: far as making sure the brand is correctly effective. So
9:04
Speaker 1: it doesn't fall in line with because what you don't know,
9:07
Speaker 1: team can come back and bite you. That's a hundred
9:11
Speaker 1: percent correct. That's correct. And the other thing that's really
9:14
Speaker 1: really important is that we are black owned, we are
9:17
Speaker 1: women owned. When you look at our stuff, you look
9:19
Speaker 1: at all of the people who are part of the
9:21
Speaker 1: Joy team, we are so diverse. We're diverse in age,
9:25
Speaker 1: we're diverse in nationality, we're diverse in in ethnicity. And
9:30
Speaker 1: so we really believe in building a team that represents
9:33
Speaker 1: the world that we live in so that when we
9:35
Speaker 1: speak to and help companies realize how to do things differently.
9:39
Speaker 1: We're speaking from a position of professional expertise, but we're
9:42
Speaker 1: speaking from a position of personal experience as well well.
9:45
Speaker 1: Experiences everything you have to drive it drives how people,
9:49
Speaker 1: how much you can get paid, how much success. You
9:52
Speaker 1: look at the resume, your bio. Now you have a
9:54
Speaker 1: background in the relationship with TV one and the digital
9:57
Speaker 1: side of it, correct, I do do. I actually used
10:01
Speaker 1: to leave digital media for TV one. I was with
10:04
Speaker 1: TV one for seven years. I did UM. I led
10:08
Speaker 1: the digital media department the last two years that I
10:10
Speaker 1: was there, So I did a lot of work early
10:12
Speaker 1: on with TV one just trying to get a new
10:16
Speaker 1: cable network out in the marketplace. UM and so I
10:20
Speaker 1: did that, uh yeah for seven years. And you know
10:23
Speaker 1: my background. So people may think now if you see
10:26
Speaker 1: me my title as a as a marketing executive, most
10:29
Speaker 1: people would not know that I'm a former engineer. So
10:32
Speaker 1: I actually started my career twenty five years ago as
10:34
Speaker 1: a computer programmer and a consultant coming in systems integration.
10:40
Speaker 1: If some folks may remember the big Arthur Anderson company,
10:44
Speaker 1: UM and I used to work there, and so the
10:47
Speaker 1: did the world of digital that we live in now
10:49
Speaker 1: makes so much sense for me because m my technical
10:53
Speaker 1: training and background as an engineer was a perfect mix
10:57
Speaker 1: with my UM NBA and marketing and now it shows
11:01
Speaker 1: up in that all of the work that we do
11:03
Speaker 1: essentially UM sits you know, on this in this digital world.
11:08
Speaker 1: So makes a lot of sense for me. Now. I
11:12
Speaker 1: had many guests on the show. One of the recent
11:14
Speaker 1: guests I hand on the show was with a a
11:17
Speaker 1: ARP that was one of the platforms that you guys
11:19
Speaker 1: work with. As far as marketing. When a when a
11:21
Speaker 1: brand like that comes to you, what are some of
11:23
Speaker 1: the steps are the picture of the platforms and research
11:26
Speaker 1: says you have to put together so we can move
11:29
Speaker 1: forward in a positive direction. The brand is a r P.
11:32
Speaker 1: And I also was so excited about it. I ranted
11:34
Speaker 1: on my own social media platform as well, Oh I
11:37
Speaker 1: love it. Well, no, I'm so glad, you asked, because
11:40
Speaker 1: in terms of like the type of work we do,
11:42
Speaker 1: how do we even kick that off? So a RP
11:45
Speaker 1: came to us with another organization called AD Council, And
11:48
Speaker 1: for those who don't know, AD Council is one of
11:50
Speaker 1: those organizations that does a lot of work, a lot
11:53
Speaker 1: of p s as they stand for things that really
11:56
Speaker 1: have positive impact in the community. So they came to
11:58
Speaker 1: us and they said, look, black women don't invest in
12:03
Speaker 1: retirement the way other people do. And you and I
12:06
Speaker 1: know Rashan, like in our community, do you remember when
12:09
Speaker 1: Chris Rock said there's rich and then there's wealthy. We
12:13
Speaker 1: haven't had the opportunity to amass wealth in our community
12:17
Speaker 1: just given our history. So what's a RP there? They
12:20
Speaker 1: came and they said they want to help create room
12:24
Speaker 1: for more black women to invest in retirement, to invest
12:28
Speaker 1: in their future and their legacy that they leave for
12:31
Speaker 1: their families. And so they asked us to help them
12:35
Speaker 1: understand what's important to black women. What is it that's
12:39
Speaker 1: preventing black women from investing in retirement when they have
12:44
Speaker 1: they have jobs, they have income, they have four one
12:46
Speaker 1: K plans, and so that was part of the understanding. Respect.
12:50
Speaker 1: Thing that we do is we sit with them. We
12:52
Speaker 1: look at research. A lot of companies invest in data.
12:55
Speaker 1: We hear all this stuff about research, like you know
12:57
Speaker 1: what people do and how they behave, but you don't
13:00
Speaker 1: know why. And so we help them understand like the
13:03
Speaker 1: history of why black women take care of everybody else
13:07
Speaker 1: but don't necessarily take care of themselves, and why we
13:10
Speaker 1: feel it's selfish. You know, it's really interesting. It's really
13:13
Speaker 1: interesting because any advertiser, they always talk about the female controls,
13:17
Speaker 1: the purse of the household, the buying powers by the female.
13:20
Speaker 1: You know, when the advertisers want to know, Okay, women
13:23
Speaker 1: watching the show, women listening to the show, women are
13:26
Speaker 1: of the brand. Even professional football, while you think they
13:29
Speaker 1: have female sideline reporters now because they're trying to get
13:32
Speaker 1: women to watch football even though everybody's watching it. They
13:35
Speaker 1: want more women because so and so when you when
13:39
Speaker 1: you say something like women but know when they have
13:41
Speaker 1: all this power, listening power, buying power, you ain't power
13:46
Speaker 1: participation power. When it calls the retirement, the women don't
13:50
Speaker 1: take care of themselves because, like you said, they're spending
13:51
Speaker 1: money on everybody else, take care of everybody else, branding
13:54
Speaker 1: everybody else, but not branding themselves through retirement. That's pretty
13:58
Speaker 1: amazing that that's a hundred such so we were able
14:01
Speaker 1: to help create a campaign it encourages black women to
14:06
Speaker 1: invest in themselves and it's not selfish, and that's part
14:11
Speaker 1: of what we were able to do. I'm so proud
14:12
Speaker 1: of that campaign. I'm so proud of the things that
14:15
Speaker 1: we do UM that really are changing things for our community.
14:20
Speaker 1: It's not just teaching these companies how to speak to
14:23
Speaker 1: us and how to reach us, but it's really about
14:26
Speaker 1: how we're changing ourselves and our people for the banner
14:29
Speaker 1: and for the long term. And that's a lot of
14:31
Speaker 1: what we do. A RP bring up a great example,
14:33
Speaker 1: but the work we're doing with Dove next birthnight, that's
14:38
Speaker 1: my next break. Now, I say you do talk a lot.
14:40
Speaker 1: Did you say that? Early on? People say I talk,
14:43
Speaker 1: I'm about to take over my interview. I just reached
14:45
Speaker 1: out McDonald. I'm not a great interview with the guest
14:47
Speaker 1: is on the show for the first time. She's the
14:49
Speaker 1: president and CEO of Joy collected that's uh Lena and
14:53
Speaker 1: woke up Lanchard. Uh Lena. Now, at the early start
14:58
Speaker 1: of our interview, you know you will British. You know,
15:01
Speaker 1: the British Royalty was screaming, and as I've talked to you,
15:05
Speaker 1: it seems to be drifting away. You know, are you
15:09
Speaker 1: relaxing around me? What's going on? Why? Why am I
15:12
Speaker 1: losing my British Royalty? In my inna, Baby, I'm getting
15:15
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm getting so much more comfortable. I'm getting you know,
15:18
Speaker 1: we're having conversations about about uplifting black people. Then I
15:26
Speaker 1: get excited and then my my American experience comes down. Well,
15:31
Speaker 1: I'm good with that. Before we went to before I
15:33
Speaker 1: want to come up with there's a couple of things
15:34
Speaker 1: that I wanted to bring up about. The initiative that
15:37
Speaker 1: your agency was tied to was doll and I wanted
15:40
Speaker 1: to also talking about the Crown Coalition. But let's first
15:42
Speaker 1: talk about Dove. What was what was important about that
15:45
Speaker 1: campaign for your agency and how did they come about?
15:49
Speaker 1: And you're talking about Dove and and and everything that
15:52
Speaker 1: we're doing with respect to hair discrimination. Yes, let's let's
15:57
Speaker 1: talk about dog Okay. So, so I love that you
16:01
Speaker 1: bring that up because it's it's one of the most important,
16:04
Speaker 1: I think, pieces of work that I've ever done in
16:06
Speaker 1: my career. And so about two years ago, UH, a
16:12
Speaker 1: young lady named A C. Eggleston Bracy, who is a
16:16
Speaker 1: legend in the beauty industry. She is the woman who
16:20
Speaker 1: UM made Queen Latifa a cover girl back in the day.
16:24
Speaker 1: She actually moved over to run UM the Dove brand.
16:28
Speaker 1: And most people think about Dove it's soaps and lotion,
16:30
Speaker 1: but she moved over to run This is a black
16:32
Speaker 1: woman running up five billion dollar portfolio of beauty and
16:37
Speaker 1: personal care products at Union Leiva. And when she got
16:40
Speaker 1: in there, she wanted to continue her legacy of beauty
16:43
Speaker 1: inclusion and she was looking for UM, an agency that
16:48
Speaker 1: really understood African American community. But okay, we really understood
16:52
Speaker 1: black women. And so she gave Joy collective and opportunity
16:56
Speaker 1: to bid on the work, and we won that work.
16:59
Speaker 1: And since then we have created, in partnership with Doves,
17:04
Speaker 1: this initiative to eradicate hair discriminations across this country. Um,
17:09
Speaker 1: and that's not what's with Dove. I mean, we've been,
17:12
Speaker 1: you know, head down trying to make sure that black
17:14
Speaker 1: people are not sent home from school or you know,
17:18
Speaker 1: deny the job opportunity because they wear hairstyles that are
17:21
Speaker 1: traditional to our race, which is really really in the
17:27
Speaker 1: news a lot lately. You know, we've had the young
17:29
Speaker 1: man who was wrestling and a wrestling match and he
17:32
Speaker 1: had to cut his dreads or they cut his dreads
17:34
Speaker 1: ago they were called disqualify him. We've had kids sent
17:37
Speaker 1: home because of the hairstyles and it was not deemed appropriate.
17:42
Speaker 1: So how did when you start a campaign like that,
17:44
Speaker 1: because you could almost use the word niche because of
17:47
Speaker 1: the fact that you're communicating with people who don't get it.
17:50
Speaker 1: This is our calls, like because everybody doesn't everybody within
17:53
Speaker 1: the African American community have different hairstyles, like I don't
17:57
Speaker 1: have any hair on baldhead. Then you have the natural hairstyle,
17:59
Speaker 1: then you have to then you have the process all
18:01
Speaker 1: the perm hairstyle, so curls and so so, then you
18:05
Speaker 1: natural can lead itself to the to the extensions and
18:08
Speaker 1: all this stuff. So how did you so that that
18:10
Speaker 1: whole that's a that's a very complicated world that you're
18:12
Speaker 1: trying to navigate through. How did you narrow down in
18:16
Speaker 1: your campaign? No, it's a really good question. And and
18:20
Speaker 1: you know you mentioned them to Andrew Johnson in New Jersey.
18:24
Speaker 1: But look just even last week, there's you know, DeAndre
18:29
Speaker 1: Arnold in Texas who's been told because he wear his dreadlocks,
18:32
Speaker 1: which are part of his you know, tradition and his family,
18:35
Speaker 1: because his data from Trinidad, that he's not going to
18:38
Speaker 1: be able to want with his classic graduation. Like we're
18:41
Speaker 1: living this every day. And when you say, how did
18:43
Speaker 1: you narrow it down? It's a great question because we
18:46
Speaker 1: had people ask us, you know, well, if I want
18:49
Speaker 1: to spray paint my head blue, how come that doesn't count? Right? Well,
18:53
Speaker 1: I have the history in our hair as a people,
18:56
Speaker 1: and so what we had to consider and we had
18:58
Speaker 1: to include, um, you know, legal experts. There's a wonderful firm,
19:04
Speaker 1: um you know that's based on is uh, well, it's
19:06
Speaker 1: actually a global firm. But we had legal experts that
19:09
Speaker 1: are based here out of Washington, d C. Who could
19:11
Speaker 1: inform us how do we look at this from a
19:13
Speaker 1: legal perspective, and what we could see is that there
19:16
Speaker 1: are certain hairstyles that traditionally are associated with race. It
19:22
Speaker 1: has everything to do with the type of the texture
19:25
Speaker 1: of our hair and how we manage the texture of
19:28
Speaker 1: our hair. So things like braids and locks, um, those
19:32
Speaker 1: are things that are very much associated with black not
19:37
Speaker 1: just culture, but black race and black hair texture. And
19:41
Speaker 1: so that really was so important for us to identify
19:44
Speaker 1: what are those things that are characteristic of race that
19:47
Speaker 1: have been used against us historically, and how do we
19:52
Speaker 1: begin to identify those things legally um as being part
19:57
Speaker 1: of race. So you know, there are are anti discrimination
20:01
Speaker 1: laws all over the country. They're at federal levels, thereat
20:05
Speaker 1: you know, state levels. But what's really really important is
20:08
Speaker 1: when you look at the definition of race and you
20:10
Speaker 1: say you can't discriminate against somebody because they're black, Well,
20:14
Speaker 1: you may discriminate against somebody because there are certain characteristics
20:17
Speaker 1: of them that represents their blackness. So it was up
20:21
Speaker 1: to us to make sure that we had the right
20:22
Speaker 1: language and we could help inform our lawmakers UM and
20:27
Speaker 1: legislators that it was really important to reconsider how they
20:31
Speaker 1: define race so that hair discrimination would be protected against. Yeah, well,
20:38
Speaker 1: that's a lot. That's a lot. That's what marketing and
20:40
Speaker 1: the old strategy part of marketing comes in with an
20:42
Speaker 1: agency like Joy Collective. I'm speaking to Orleana and walk
20:46
Speaker 1: up Blanchett. She is the president and CEO of Joy Collective.
20:50
Speaker 1: Let's going to another a portion that really excited because
20:54
Speaker 1: I happen to be driving into work this morning and
20:57
Speaker 1: I've read about Tamlaman had lost fifty pounds, and the
21:02
Speaker 1: person on the air just said the reason she lost
21:05
Speaker 1: fifty pounds because she's was a part of the weight
21:08
Speaker 1: Watchers program. And then when I started putting your deck
21:11
Speaker 1: together and reading everything, Walt Lloyd Collective Joy help weight
21:15
Speaker 1: Watchers African American strategy, including negotiating town La Man as
21:19
Speaker 1: an ambassador. So walk us through that whole relationship. Because
21:22
Speaker 1: tam La Man I love her to death. She did
21:24
Speaker 1: the Neighborhood Awards many times for me as a favor
21:27
Speaker 1: a wonderful husband, David Man. So tell us how that
21:30
Speaker 1: relationship came about that Now that tam La Man has
21:32
Speaker 1: lost fifty pounds, well, isn't she phenomenal? Festival? I agree
21:37
Speaker 1: with you. I am a super fan of her as
21:40
Speaker 1: a human being. She and her family are phenomenal, and
21:43
Speaker 1: how we became acquainted was and you'd be surprised because yes,
21:47
Speaker 1: Joy Collective pops up in all kinds of places that
21:50
Speaker 1: people don't know where we're working uh w W which
21:53
Speaker 1: is Weight Watchers Reimagine, which is currently on tour with Oprah.
21:57
Speaker 1: So Tamla Man is all around the country right now,
22:00
Speaker 1: which is fantastic. But um WW actually approached us. It
22:04
Speaker 1: was more than a year ago, and they asked us
22:07
Speaker 1: given our expertise in again African American marketing, which is
22:11
Speaker 1: our sweet spots. Not all we do, but it's our
22:13
Speaker 1: sweet spot. They said, you really know black women, and
22:16
Speaker 1: WW is you know, really expanding. We really are a
22:22
Speaker 1: company to encourage wellness for all people, and you know,
22:26
Speaker 1: in our community we need all we can get to
22:28
Speaker 1: get past all of the challenges and the health disparities
22:31
Speaker 1: that we have as black women. So they hired us
22:34
Speaker 1: who helped them understand how to reach black women. And
22:38
Speaker 1: one of the part of our strategy was to use
22:41
Speaker 1: somebody that we thought was really relatable. It was just
22:45
Speaker 1: honest and that you trust. And she's so sincere about
22:49
Speaker 1: her commitment to doing well for herself and her family
22:52
Speaker 1: and her community that Tamila Man was actually somebody that
22:55
Speaker 1: we negotiated to. We help WW negotiate how there's a
22:59
Speaker 1: brand new ambassador. It's it's the first person that they've
23:01
Speaker 1: had really as a gospel artist and somebody like Tamla
23:06
Speaker 1: and Tamela is that. I mean, she is the ultimate
23:10
Speaker 1: role model for this journey. And there's so many women
23:13
Speaker 1: and men that have followed her and watched and I
23:17
Speaker 1: think WW and Oprah as you can see. I don't
23:19
Speaker 1: know if you guys have seen or you're following her
23:21
Speaker 1: on social media or if you're following Joy Collective on
23:24
Speaker 1: social media, you'll see how we celebrate Tama Tamela's lost
23:28
Speaker 1: weight loss. But part of it too is just her
23:30
Speaker 1: getting healthy and encouraging other Black women and men in
23:33
Speaker 1: our community to get healthy. And so we were part
23:36
Speaker 1: of that entire campaign. So um I was super proud
23:40
Speaker 1: to be in Fort Rouderdale for lancha Oprah tour and
23:43
Speaker 1: be with Tamline, David and Tama being able to share
23:46
Speaker 1: with fifteen thousand people in the stadium, you know what
23:49
Speaker 1: her journey has seen. She's super and just a great
23:51
Speaker 1: example of how we can do well and take care
23:54
Speaker 1: of each other in our community. Were you really amazing that?
23:57
Speaker 1: First of all, Tamila Man incredible gospel singer. One of
24:01
Speaker 1: the great hits is take Me to the King. It's
24:03
Speaker 1: one of her a great probably number one song and
24:06
Speaker 1: her music libraries take Me to the King, that she
24:09
Speaker 1: did several years ago. But she has other hits. Um,
24:12
Speaker 1: she's a she's a comedian, she's a wife, she's a mom,
24:17
Speaker 1: she was on tour, actresses, all those all those things,
24:21
Speaker 1: and so so you're getting the person that's not afraid
24:23
Speaker 1: of a big crowd. You're getting the person who's not
24:26
Speaker 1: afraid to have testimonial. But we all know that when
24:29
Speaker 1: you live a life and you started sharing part of that,
24:32
Speaker 1: and the weight loss is a very personal journey. That's
24:34
Speaker 1: a very powerful message too, because a lot of people,
24:37
Speaker 1: you know, especially at the beginning of the year, everybody
24:39
Speaker 1: has their resolution. I'm gonna lose weight, I won't look good,
24:41
Speaker 1: I wanna be I want to fit in my globe
24:43
Speaker 1: for the I gotta bikini, I want to fit in
24:44
Speaker 1: for the for the summer, you know, and things like that.
24:47
Speaker 1: But then that commitment and so so when I see
24:51
Speaker 1: listen to your tone there's such passion and there's such
24:54
Speaker 1: a detail and what you're trying to do a JR collective.
24:57
Speaker 1: So you said follow you on social media? You want
24:59
Speaker 1: to give us some social media handles for us? Yes,
25:02
Speaker 1: so here's the thing you can. You can definitely follow
25:05
Speaker 1: me and I actually this is where you see walk
25:07
Speaker 1: it in my name so on Instagram, which is where
25:09
Speaker 1: I'm most active in public is at or Lena walka
25:13
Speaker 1: O R l E n A n w okay eight.
25:16
Speaker 1: But I would love for people to follow Joy because
25:19
Speaker 1: there's so much people don't know that we do enjoy.
25:22
Speaker 1: Is that we are Joy Collective on Instagram. That's the
25:26
Speaker 1: best place to see us and follow us and understand
25:29
Speaker 1: there are things we're touching in the community you don't
25:31
Speaker 1: even know that we're behind and and what's so important
25:34
Speaker 1: for your audience to know? Rashan and I think for me,
25:37
Speaker 1: just Kelly and I are so committed to inspiring black
25:41
Speaker 1: women to partner with each other, to be entrepreneurs, to
25:45
Speaker 1: do good for our community. Um, we have a lot
25:49
Speaker 1: of fun together. We have a lot of mutual respects
25:51
Speaker 1: to each other, and I think that's where we make
25:52
Speaker 1: magic and that's why we have a team that's committed,
25:56
Speaker 1: and so I encourage so many, um, especially black female entrepreneurs,
26:02
Speaker 1: shake that step, do it, and if you follow us,
26:05
Speaker 1: hopefully we're a little bit of inspiration for you to
26:09
Speaker 1: step out because entrepreneurship is scary, you know, it's it's um,
26:13
Speaker 1: it's exhausting. But wow, when you do something you really
26:17
Speaker 1: believe in and you get to choose the people that
26:19
Speaker 1: you do it with and they're all committed to the
26:21
Speaker 1: same goal and you see stuff changing, um, you see impacts,
26:26
Speaker 1: it's really something to behold. And then I feel like
26:29
Speaker 1: I'm really living God's purpose for my life. And so, um,
26:33
Speaker 1: please follow Joy we Are. It's at we Are Joy
26:36
Speaker 1: Collective on Instagram, a great way to find out what
26:39
Speaker 1: we're up to. And so many of the things that
26:41
Speaker 1: you've asked me about. Rashaan, I appreciated a r p
26:44
Speaker 1: R Shiroes campaign, the work on hair discriminations, the works
26:48
Speaker 1: you know Tamla Man with w W. Black women are behind,
26:53
Speaker 1: Black businesswomen are behind so much of this work that's
26:57
Speaker 1: being done and people don't know. So that's what I
27:01
Speaker 1: really appreciate about this conversation is that people get to
27:03
Speaker 1: learn there are some really impressive and talented and powerful
27:07
Speaker 1: black women making big changes for us and for our community. Awesome.
27:12
Speaker 1: I want to just want to one last request, Please
27:15
Speaker 1: send me something I can post about the Tamelaman campaign
27:19
Speaker 1: because she's a wonderful person. Again, the She Heroes campaign
27:24
Speaker 1: I supported. I have six sisters. I supported it on
27:26
Speaker 1: my my, my personal as well as my money making
27:29
Speaker 1: conversation platform. Again, Kelly, long term friend, way back to
27:33
Speaker 1: the BT days. So I will always support any of
27:35
Speaker 1: her brands. But more important to get to know you
27:38
Speaker 1: and your British journey and your Nigerian journey journey and
27:43
Speaker 1: and your and just being you or Lena and Wo
27:48
Speaker 1: can't help this see me, but rich Ton, you make
27:50
Speaker 1: it easy. Thank you for everything that you do. I
27:53
Speaker 1: love money making conversations about She really enjoyed listening um
27:58
Speaker 1: to so many of your podcasts of fantastic interviews and
28:01
Speaker 1: you really are inspiring us. So thank you for being used.
28:04
Speaker 1: Appreciate you, but get that get that temoment to me
28:07
Speaker 1: we talk soon. Appreciate you. I will do. I'll make
28:09
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