(upbeat music) - Folks, recently on our sister program, "Lessons In Leadership," my colleague, Mary Gamba, and I spoke to a dynamic entrepreneur who is very successful and has a powerful message.

She's Rakia Reynolds, who is founder and executive officer at Skai Blue Media.

Rakia is tough, gritty, as I said, a successful entrepreneur, born and raised in Newark, New Jersey.

The message she has for all potential entrepreneurs is important.

You gotta check it out.

Welcome to "Lessons In Leadership."

Steve Adubato with my trustee colleague, trusted and trustee colleague, Mary Gamba.

"Lessons in Leadership."

Mary, how are we doing today?

- Doing really great.

I said every single time we start a new show, you ask me that question and the only attitude that you can have is positivity and greatness.

Though it's another great day.

- It is bordering around four o'clock.

We've been taping since 9:00 AM.

4:00 PM, not AM, that would be insane.

And the energy level is as high as it was when we started.

How does that happen?

- It's just, it's all about a mindset and an attitude, and I say it every time we get to this point of the day, I could probably do about two more shows.

I'm sure our director... (Mary laughs) No, but because we have a talented crew, we plan, we prepare, so it's just really great being here today.

- Well, talk about people who have busy schedules, who multitask, who juggle a lot.

We're joined by Rakia Reynolds, founder and executive officer of Skai Blue Media.

Rakia, good to see you.

- Great to see you, and I am so excited to be here.

I am now impacted by your energy, so thank you Mary, and thank you, Steve.

- That's great.

- Wait, we infected you?

- We're contagious.

- I needed it.

I needed it.

I needed it.

So, thank you.

- I'll tell you who else in a positive way affects and infects all of us, and that's our good friend and board of trustee member at the Caucus Educational Corporation, Michellene Davis, who connected us with you, and so she bats a thousand when it comes to recommendations for "Lessons In Leadership" as I'm losing my voice.

Rakia, tell folks about Skai Blue Media as we put up the website.

What is it?

- So, Skai Blue Media is a strategic communications agency.

I started the agency 11 years ago, and we focus on thought leadership, strategic narrative and story building for people, products, and places.

On the people side, celebrities and C-suite executives.

On the product side, we have Fortune 500 companies, large corporations, and pharma, technology, artificial intelligence.

And the last "P" was place branding, but during the midst of the pandemic, we changed it up a little bit.

We used to be recruited and hired by cities for them to articulate their stories, and one example of that is the Amazon HQ2 bid that all of the cities were working on.

My agency served as the creative director for the city of Philadelphia to help them to articulate their brand story and brand voice.

- I'm curious about this.

I'm fascinated by entrepreneurs, I'm fascinated by people who bet on themselves.

It's a big part of leadership, betting on yourself, having confidence.

Where does your obvious confidence in yourself come from?

- Oh my gosh, I love that question, and, you know, I think for a lot of people, confidence comes from doing.

And if you look confidence up in the dictionary, it is defined by tackling a task.

And if you are an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur, you know, intrapreneur is the person within an organization an entrepreneurial organization that keeps the spark going, you are tackling tasks every day.

So if you can tackle a task, the more tasks you tackle, the more confidence you build.

- Even while you make mistakes and learn from it?

- Of course, that's the best way to learn.

You know, you've gotta skin your knees a little bit, you've gotta fall off the bike a few times to really understand how to, you know, ride uphill and even more.

How do you really coast downhill?

- Pick it up, Mary.

Mary's an entrepreneur.

I just wanna make it clear.

She's highly entrepreneurial inside the organization.

Go ahead, Mary.

- Yeah, definitely, and I would love to talk a little bit more.

You talk about helping organizations and people to build their brands.

Talk a little bit about the connection between storytelling.

Steve and I always say people remember a story.

So talk about the connection between storytelling and building a brand.

What is the link there?

- So storytelling, and you just said it, storytelling is really the beginning, the middle, and end.

Really understanding what that middle is, and the middle is very important because that's your transitional period.

That's when you go from point A, to point B, to point C. Building a brand is a set of feelings, emotions that people are impacted by when hearing or experiencing your story.

So sometimes I think, you know, the antiquated way to look at a brand is the logo.

You know, what colors are you using?

But it's multifaceted now, it is how you're showing up.

it's the verbal, it's the nonverbal, it is the set of experiences that people have when you are no longer there.

What is your legacy?

What is your mark?

What do people remember most about your storytelling?

And in the world of marketing, we say your brand narrative, or your authoritative voice, or your positioning statement.

So it's really being able to build those things up so that you can lead people with an experience, especially today.

- Well, I gotta follow up on that, Mary.

Mary and I, I don't know, 2015 I think the book "You Are The Brand" came out that Mary and I worked on for a couple years.

So assume that you are the brand of Skai Blue Media.

Now I'm gonna put my blue glasses on.

You can't tell 'cause it's not as blue as yours.

I'm gonna try something.

I'm gonna guess, Rakia, your glasses today, do they have anything to do with the brand Blue Skai?

- Oh my goodness.

I'm glad you asked, Steve.

It has, absolutely.

- There it is.

- It has absolutely.

And my shirt, and my sweater, my nails.

I am walking billboard for my company, but even more so, blue in the world of color psychology relates to trust, authenticity, and integrity, and in the world of communications, when I started this agency, that is what we signed up to do.

So the feelings of experiences, and the set of emotions that we leave upon people are that we are the truth tellers for your brand story.

And so when we use the color blue to help to signify that, it is just a reminder.

It can't just be Rakia wears the color blue, or the people wear the color blue.

It is a reminder of our values, our set of beliefs, and what we are doing to set out the work that we do in the world of communications.

- Well said.

Mary?

- Yeah, what advice do you have, Rakia, for young women, particularly young women of color, who are looking to become entrepreneurs, who are looking to believe in themselves in order to go out there, blaze the trail, find their way in the world?

What one piece of advice can you give to any of those young women watching today?

- Oh my gosh, I can't even narrow it down to one thing, but what I will say is this is an entirely different world.

We are in a different landscape where everything is at your fingertips.

Things are more democratized.

You can create your own spaces.

You know, we're in the world of coming from Web2 and going into Web3 where you can actually control, you know, the platforms that you're on.

You don't have to stick with one or two or three platforms.

You can create your own networks, your own landscape, and so what I would tell young people now is really now is the time to dictate your own destiny.

If you understand where you want to be, or have an inkling of where you'd like to be in another year or another two years, write that down, flesh that out, and then surround yourself with a word that my vice president of brand activism and storytelling uses.

Her name is Almaz, she likes to use this word friendtors.

So it's not just friends and mentors, but it's people that possess both of those qualities.

Surround yourself with friendtors, and mentors, and sponsors that you can bounce ideas off of, and you can say, "Hey, am I doing this right?"

And they help to keep you on that North Star.

- One more question.

I read about you.

Is it true that you're born in Brick City, Newark, New Jersey?

- Yes, I was born in Newark, New Jersey.

- Are you born there?

Is that true?

- Yes, I was born there and I stayed there until all the way through kindergarten.

- So here's the question.

Mary asked you about advice for young women, particularly women of color.

Now I have this crazy theory Mary knows the book I'm about to pull up right now that those of us from Newark have a significant degree of grit.

I'm just saying Brick City, there's a reason it's called Brick City 'cause there weren't a lot of parks where we grew up.

That being said, how much of your success and how much of entrepreneurial success is tied to grit, tenacity, resilience, never, ever, as a great coach, Jim Valvano, receiving the ESPY Award as he was dying of cancer, said, "Never give up.

Never give up."

Go ahead.

- Steve, I think that is such a fantastic statement and question because my entrepreneurial journey has everything to do with grit.

The tenacity with a capital T. You have to be tenacious, and sometimes people might argue you might have to be delusional.

You have to believe your own set of ideas over and over again, because if you believe them, someone else will believe them.

And, you know, coming from the world of Newark, I talk to students all of the time, and I tell them time and time again, the odds were against me, the odds were, oh, you'll stay here, you'll do the same thing that everyone else is doing.

And if you have a vision, you can create a mission.

If you have a vision and a mission, you can execute, and that can be endless possibilities.

I love the book, "Grit", I love the ideologies and the theories behind it.

I believe that tension and tenacity makes great entrepreneurs.

- And by the way, shout out to Angela Duckworth who is the author of that book.

Awesome.

Hey Rakia, I wanna thank you for joining us, not just for "Lessons In Leadership."

We'll share this on our other sister series, "One-On-One", as well.

We wish you and your team at Blue Skai Media all the best.

Thanks so much.

- Thank you, thank you for having me.

- Well done.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by The North Ward Center.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Wells Fargo.

PSE&G, The Russell Berrie Foundation.

The Fidelco Group.

Prudential Financial.

And by Englewood Health.

Promotional support provided by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

And by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

- I'm Tim Sullivan, CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Since joining the NJEDA, I've been struck by the incredible assets and resources that New Jersey has to offer.

The NJEDA is working every day to grow New Jersey's economy in a way that maximizes the values of those assets to benefit every single New Jersey resident.

This includes more support for small businesses and a focus on reclaiming New Jersey's position as a leader in the innovation economy.

Visit njeda.com to learn more about how NJEDA is building a stronger and fairer New Jersey economy.