Welcome to Knight Talks, the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications talk show produced by students for student I'm Anna Bernstein, a junior studying business and public relations.

And our guest today is Latria Graham, who conjured up brand building s and community outreach for the Orlando Magic.

She is now president and CEO for a strategic communications and promotional product consulti Hi, Latria, thank you so much fo Thank you for having me, I'm hap Of course.

Now, could you tell us a little bit about GLB and what you do fo Yes.

So GLB is a small business that We're based in Orlando, Florida.

However, we service clients all and we essentially help our clients build positive through authentic marketing services and innovativ We got started about five years We specialize in building brand strategy for our clients, and every clien So we make sure that we build those platforms custom So I always say all my clients have a problem that I need to he So a lot of it stems from PR, do marketing campaigns, the promotional produ which is actually an advertising We use those to create experienc our clients — customers hands and Of course, a lot of those items create a lot of f we help them think about that an go deep into how they create exp customers, fans, and how they create that real, true, authenti So with that engagement, have you been a really out of this world unique activations for you Oh yeah.

Where do I start?

So one of the biggest funds that we — I had a lot of fun working w So, he is one of our clients who played with t 76ers and we launched a campaign Well first, to take it back a st was really strong about helping young peopl so his first thought was, "Hey, I want so that we can, you know, build education for kids in underserved areas."

we had an opportunity to unpack with Tobias, one of the things t in our research in the area is that it kids didn't have a school to att A lot of problems stem from not having quality teachers in t So what type of education that t what professional development op they were getting to adapt to ki So, we really spent some time unpacking that a by the time a child reaches thir if they don't learn to read, they're going to be behind every And so, we created a campaign called Tob and Tobias taught teachers to help, number and retain and fund professional development for teachers in unde We also, with the Lit Labs, we created an environm his brand awareness to get kids excited ab So, he would go and participate in read alongs with children.

And we've been building a platform now where kids can ge Since the pandemic, we don't have a lo to engage with a lot of the rules that come out just stipulations within the school district, but we distributed a million dollars So it created impact from a financial standpoint in c He was investing his time in the and we were seeing things change Children's reading scores were improving — so their reading Teachers were getting the professional de that were cut from budgets withi So, it was really, really it was a lot of moving pieces to But that's where I believe one of my strong build partnerships and bring people together for th It's just so incredible that you to give back to the community wh this focus on building brand recognition an What inspired your focus on cause-driven marke When I was with the Magic, so I worked with them I started in the community relations depar the impact that we could make out in the community just for showing up and creating And to me, that was, you know, warming, for me.

But I wanted to drive a little deeper; As I g an expert in my field, I wanted to go beyo and beyond the logos and beyond How do we really drive change?

And one of the gaps that I notic within the athlete market was these guys had all of these marketing agencies, which were h out in the market now, who focuses a lot on endorsement But I felt that from a philanthr standpoint and causes, there was a lot of sophistication built around that be placed strategically in that So, you know, I would be out wit would ask, you know, okay, you've you're at the Boys You invested, you just wrote a ten thousand do But what have you actually changed in the And so I think that any investor any philanthropist needs to be able to answer that So as we look at headlines as th we can't look at it for a — well, $2 million out in the community, thank you for the financial cont But what are you changing with t And how can I help you build metrics and measurables, t So you can answer that question and you can Yeah, I think it's so hard for p understand the concept that, yea I donated all of this money, but What are we doing with it?

And it's so fantastic that you were able to do that wi Have you been able to do certain campaigns with more than just sp I know you also had some time at if you did anything with enterta Yeah!

So we service pro-athletes, spor entities, corporations, and univ So with BET specifically, I was there gather help write news briefs on their BET online and at the time, BET Nightly New was their host, I would have to go out and about what was going on in the n And it was pretty cool because i audience that for the first time I, you know, had done And on the online side, it was just a lot of fun events that we and one of them was a celebrity And it was the first time I had to really interview a celebrity, and it wa It was so much fun, and I was ab connect with her and put togethe and create some excitement online with the onlin But, that was a very fun time.

And actually, the reason why I got that opport is the vice president of content came to the University of Florida when I was here as pa there was so many people waiting to meet with her and I s And she actually — I followed up and And she said "You were the only student students that waited to talk to career that actually followed up through."

So that opportunity came out of with the school and just being here as a univers Now I know while you were here, you also pa in a lot of the immersion experi Did those experiences also lead to the BET experience Were there anything that you got out of these experiences that he Yeah, so I did a lot with Gator Vision and the Gators' Own I had the opportunity to go in and create video packages, write my own sto you know, one-man band type thin Also, it taught me a lot of grit So, in this industry I know that we have seen that, or there people want success fast.

And, for me, that experience tau to do the grit and grind work be So I was in there logging women's basketb play by play for footage, tracki which continued to build up in other opportuniti to create these packages and be on air while still being in coll Also, I was part of the noon sch The noon-day.

You have to be able to communica that doesn't have to just transpire or transform a But how do you communicate and collaborate in different gro And so, getting that experience teaches you so much beyond the a It teaches you collaboration, partnership, rela because people, in the future, want to do business with So, I learned a lot here.

We currently have a five o'clock news broadcast and that is an al So I can only imagine how early you must have had to get here fo Oh yeah, oh yeah.

It was quite a production and it But we understood that in this i a lot of our professors and advi just told us that that's part of the job and that that nobody sees is what has made me the mos Definitely.

Was there anything in particular that you participated helped you kind of determine this was the c wanted to pursue or did you have a differe really made that lightbulb click I'm going to pursue this, this i And these are the immersion experiences I'm going Yeah, I was a pretty planned per I knew in high school that I wan do sports journalism, that I wanted to be So I actually was on my high sch part of our class, Media 101, at Raines High School But what I did was I created my own segment for So I was "Tria G with your Sports Report."

So some people in Jacksonville still kno But we had a very high profile sports program at Raines Matter of fact, Lito Sheppard and Jabar played football here, were in school at my high So I would always be reporting out on their games and just a lot of stuff that we were doing in t But I knew that I wanted to be i When I came to Florida and was r in the program at that time, there wasn specifically for sports, so there was just ne So I did the news track and thro and Gator Vision, I actually sought out other oppo to get exposed in sports, whereas now i sports is integrated within to t So I had it a little harder but, you know, I found my I will say, too, that I did minor in sports management in that sports management progra more of the business side of spo I, as a young girl, was not expo So in watching sports growing up the players on the court or the field or the sports reporter So I'm like, okay, sports reporter — didn't kn like 300 people managing a sports busines So, that realization and learning more about that, in a m from a minor perspective, was really fascinat showed me that I had a diverse space to work across in sports communicat Alright.

And I'm sure getting that new pe also probably helped you when yo form GLB media because you had a of a background in the business Oh, yeah.

Because out of college, I had tw So I got an offer to go to ESPN I think it was a research intern It was going to get my foot in t And then I got an offer from the Magic to work as a community rel It was, you know, obviously, if career and passion is in sports ESPN is like automatically like But I was thinking: Bristol, Connecticut o Florida — snow, sunny.

Yeah, I'm going to go try out th And you know what?

I'm going to make that experienc the experience that I would want and find my way and fit within i perfectly and parlayed to where So how did working at BET help you with the journey of deciding between ESPN and the Did that experience help you lean one way I think it helped me experience diverse pieces of com So, at BET it was a lot of writi So, online news briefs and then video production for the online And so I got a chance to see tha And then with the Magic in community relations unique sense of being able to write for Because I did start a blog, but it was t and the connection that really just sat And so to be able to go and conn people, that was just part of who I was And I was already doing a lot of community service, out It was part of who I was.

I just shifted a little bit more to this community relations Now, I will say, as we look at the clim been this integration of marketing, commun community engagement, which real be able to package together as you go in You kind of got to be a little diverse in So I feel like I, with all of those experi able to accumulate this well-rounded approach to strategy, brand stra So it's definitely been a journe How did you get your start and your foot in the door with t Were your skillsets kind of help Well, it really was a three-day I applied, interviewed, and then they called me, so — but it I think the manager at the time, Deborah was just blown away., like, with all the experience and all the work prior to, you know, as a college So I didn't waste time in the summers, I was doing In the Fall and Spring semesters, I was working, buildi So yeah, I came in with a lot of kn being able to be able to support the team that wa I started as an intern and I sor in community relations; and then transition after my int into the corporate office to wor for Pat Williams, who's the foun He's still my mentor to this day to do PR w And then transition back over to relations when the opportunity c worked my way up to oversee the departm something bigger with a lot of different p So I think working for a team equips you for anything because there's I don't think people see — like people see the "Oh, I'm here at the game, I'm courtside," you the selfies out there, right, that our sports professio But it's a lot of work behind th And I learned so much and I was able to build platforms wi as I launched to start my own business, it was You know, I could build anything So this is just a blessing.

And I'm very grateful to be here That's one of the fastest processes I've heard, on Three days is incredible.

It was three days, literally.

Those three days shaped your next ten years Yeah.

So you were with the Orlando Magic for Yes, I was.

What kind of projects were you able to coordinate whil We were able to work on quite a projects, but our focus areas were really education, the arts, health, and And one of the things that I rea as we grew as a team, we had jus A lot of the programs and initiatives tha were the same since the creation So you know me, you know, I'm a innovative, so I had to switch i But one of our big projects was creating the Ma So, we were getting a lot of statistics out there on obesity in childhoo the fact that children, as video games em continue to emerge — Roblox, ask my twelve ye Yeah, yeah.

She can't stay off o We needed to find a way to get kids active and get them excited And so as we thought about the b recognition and how people would get excited about t around as well as our players who are the produ how do we leverage their brand t excited to do the right thing to take ca So we created the Magic Fit Program, which we for the first time, I worked with our Basketball Operations d At the time, the strength and conditioning coach And so, we built this program where the through these exercises and they were ab points in minutes for their fitn And then we would have fit parti And then we created our first ever Magic So it was putting the kids in the place of when a player is getting ready to be drafted, they have t these strenuous tests to be draf So it was so much fun to — and I think for a lot of kids, they look at the being on the court and like they're playing, this is fun, th But what they do on the back end and strength and conditioning, t Once they get a taste of it, they're like, "Oh see that, I don't want to be a p this."

So, we were able to build Of course, it was kid-friendly a league's best practices in a sense, where I had to go in and talk to during our league meetings to talk about how we we That's like such a great way to I can't — I could never have thought of so Yes, oh yeah.

They were excited.

And, you know, I think the integ of players — I always tell my ath you know, I may say something th And I have facts and evidence to but no one's going to listen to me beca I'm not that superstar out there But if my client says it, it's l you're right."

And then they — I've had some parents like, "You said that to them, he's, you know, doing e He's changed habits."

And so it's amazing when they us well, it really does make impact So, it's been fun.

And you've been able to help them create th Now with that, you also received the NBA Best in Class R How validating was that for you?

It was very validating because I at times when you get in certain and organizations, you really wa understand the culture within those organiz But you also want to stay innova And so that was one of the things that my team at the t creating innovative platforms th was going to turn some, you know, heads an And so we created the Magic of Mentorin was a program that specialized i black male students in professional development.

The other part of that was as a kid, as I communicated earlier, I was not exposed to the busines I had no idea that it existed an the Magic of Mentoring Program t have this opportunity where we would have a summit, where they come and learn differ professional development and tal males about the challenges that on in their lives, but also learn about care So, at the time, there was this — want to do when you grow up?"

"Oh, I want to be I want to be an NFL player.

I want to-" and you know, I real opportunity to create something that was going "Hey, at a sports franchise, there is an entire fi you do want to be a sports agent you know, you can go in and work Or if you do want to go into legal, we do hav or a legal team that specializes We do have a business strategy team, a full PR; like all of that stuff I did existed because I wasn't exposed to it a And although I grew up in Jacksonville, Flori the Jacksonville Jaguars, I'm a fan, of course, they always sa be from Jacksonville, but yes, I am from I represent them well; but I remember the ma to our school and we were just s But I never had an opportunity to go behind closed doors in tho and be exposed to the different careers within So we didn't get a chance to go And so with this summit, the Mag of Mentoring Program, we brought black males to come in to learn about what we were d to a different environment, as well as let them leaders in the field.

So it was really, really validat Do you have any suggestions, tips, recommendatio for students like myself who might be entering the Well, I'm going to go back to that quo gave me, learn everything about and be flexible.

Be flexible because, and adaptab where everything is changing.

And I've never seen the innovati every industry move as fast as i So I think, you know, as you have a plan together, jus you're going to take detours on it's okay to take those detours, in those detours you discover yourself and you discover what y have not been privy to that you So I would just say learn more about everything, work extremely hard, in your thinking as well as your Wow, thank you so much for that advice and I really enjoyed getting to hear all about your j college with BET and to your own It's just been such a great time Well, thank you to our viewers f And until next time, goodnight.