Her Story
About Jessica
I've been in the music and entertainment industry for 25 years, and I've been the CEO and founder of SouthPromo.com for about 20 years. My journey started when I decided I wanted to get more into the music and entertainment industry, working for a popular DJ. Through that work, it evolved from just helping with scheduling and bookings to actually creating events and running full marketing campaigns. I have a passion for entertainment and branding - basically starting with nothing and creating something wonderful from it. As a CEO and founder, you are your brand, and I've learned that a lot of times, even when you try to separate yourself or take yourself off of certain things to let others handle it, you still end up having to actually handle it. No one will care about your project or your brand as much as you do. My biggest challenge is that there's no union in this field, so everything is based on what you do and how you do it. You always have to make sure that you're focused and on point. My days vary completely - sometimes I have events and I'm running from start to finish, sometimes I'm in meetings all day with local municipalities and other partners. One of my most notable professional achievements was creating Kodak Black Day for rapper Kodak Black's birthday. We wanted to create a Rolling Loud-style event in the city of Pompano Beach, which had never done an urban or hip-hop event before. We faced so much red tape and met with the city for about four months. They waited until 24 days before the event to give us the green light. Despite their concerns about violence and incidents, we sold out the event and had it be completely incident-free. It proved that if you focus and give it the time, anything can be done, and it made a lot of people sit back and take notice of who we are and what we can do.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jessica
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say my parents, staying focused, staying prayed up, and just always having good people with good energy surrounding me. I'm a person that loyalty to me is everything, so I like to surround myself with people who are loyal, they're imperfect, but they're loyal, so as long as you have that, you'll always be good.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Pressure creates diamonds. That's really it - pressure creates diamonds, and just always living and breathing like altruism.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Stay focused. Don't mix your personal and professional life in ways that mess up your money. As a woman, we're already somehow devalued, and you have to really be better than. You have to be better than your counterparts, you have to be better than those in your same workspace. And as a minority woman, I always have to go above and beyond to make sure that I'm doing what needs to be done. It's just always being better than, being smarter than, even if you're not smarter than, being more prepared than. And just always being ready for what's gonna come in front of you. Don't be so quick to speak. If you have to speak fast, say let me get back to you. Don't just be so quick to answer what you think people want to hear, as opposed to the reality of situations. And be a problem solver. Don't be a problem creator, be a problem solver. A lot of times people come to me for advice, but my biggest thing is I'm honest and I'm very truthful. A lot of times people want advice but they really don't want to hear it, so I give them that, but then there's also times where they just want me to execute whatever the project is, so my job is just to execute it. It's not to think about it or to feel any type of way. If they want it, it's up to me to execute it and make it happen. You just have to kind of know where you fit.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Altruism keeps coming back - that's really important in my professional and personal life because it allows me to sleep well at night, it allows me to thrive and continue to be in the space, as I've seen many of my peers kind of fall off or fall in between the lines throughout the years. And it's just being consistent. Being consistent, not being afraid of change, not being afraid of growth, and knowing that you're not the smartest person in the room, so you always have to level up, you always have to continue to educate yourself. When I first started my company, it was 4Ps of marketing. I believe now there is 8. And even with AI - AI was just futuristic, like maybe Back to the Future Part 2 with the flying cars, and now it's a part of everything we do. I was around when the internet was created in high school, and you had AOL dial-up, and if you had a house phone you definitely got kicked off the internet. I'm from that era, and just to see where it comes, and even starting in the music industry, seeing where we were when you were getting in trouble for burning CDs and downloading music illegally, to where now you don't even have to own an album. Everything now streams online for one stop price. It's just paying attention to what the changes are and being able to adapt to them.
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