Welcome to Knight Talks, the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications talk show produced by students for student I'm Alexandra Grundfast, a freshman studying media produc And our guest today is Virginia an outreach specialist with Feat who is also the executive direct of the Gainesville Black Profess and publisher of SYNERGY Magazin Hi, Virginia.

Thank you so much for being here today.

Well, hello and thank you for ha It's an honor.

As a graduate of FAMU and Nova Southeastern University what was your experience like as a first generation stude and how do you think your educat impacted your career trajectory?

Being a first generation college was interesting because whereas some of my peers knew what to expect when they came to college, me and my family, we had no idea.

We didn't know how to prepare.

We didn't know what to pack.

We didn't know what to take, what to leave home.

So everything was new to us.

Everything about it was new, but at the same time it was very because socially, I learned.

Academically, of course I learne But there was so much that going to college gave me that I would not have gotten in little town that I grew up in.

Just exposure.

I'm sure it changed everything.

After graduation, you worked as a therapist for almost 20 years before changing careers to commu What spurred that shift?

Yeah.

So what happened was I had alway very involved in the community, so any organization that I parti in, even in my church group, I ended always being the event p I don't know how I did it as the event planner, but that w ended up being my title in any volunteer role that I pla And I realized I really loved it like I truly enjoyed it.

So as that matured, I eventually founded Gainesville Professionals and Gainesville Bl Professionals was all about comm Its about marketing.

If you start a new organization or you start a new business, if you're going to be successful you better be communicating, rig Yeah.

So that's how it happened.

Was there any focus on event planning in college or was it re the volunteer work that you did Yeah, it was truly just the volunteer work that I d in the community, and I just began to love it.

I didn't even realize I loved it Like I took a psychology degree and then I majored in mental health counseling for my master's degre So, far removed from event plann What were those experiences like as a mental health therapis Did you feel like you were able to really make an impact in the and the people that you worked w Yes and no.

Sometimes I felt like I was really making a difference The drawback to mental health co especially in a community hospital environment, is that some people are coming t under duress, meaning that a judge said hey, you got to go do three months with therapists or they may be involved with DCF and the Department of Children and Families has said, hey, in order to get your children ba you got to take a parenting clas So they're not happy when they g if you're able to work through that resistance and help them to really understa there is some value in therapy, and they begin to work the proce then you see results, so then you're extremely happy.

And then I spent a little while working at a psychiatric hospital where, yes, you see the results immediately.

Like you find people that really come in in crises.

Like, they cannot imagine their world is like it is right And they just need someone to sa it's okay, tomorrow is going to and help them to work through th and talk through that.

And so then yes, you definitely see the impact.

Yeah.

What was it like working both at the psychiatric hospital and with Gainesville Black Profe Doing both of those at the same was like extreme opposites.

Because when I was at the psychi hospital, I was doing weekends, but it was beneficial to me because I was able to do Monday through Thursday with Gainesville Black Professio And it was early years.

So like everybody thought that was my full time job because I was going to meetings, I was going on lunch days, just everything.

So I really had that time to foc and really do the foundational w that was necessary.

So most people didn't even know I had another job.

Like everybody is like, Oh, that Virginia, Gainesville Black Prof And that's all they, you know, e with was Gainesville Black Profe So the time working at the psych hospital helped me to really build Gaines Black Professionals because they all of that free time, during th But it was kind of mentally drai because on Thursday, like I had to shut down and completely shift gears and l okay, now we got to go into hosp mode and rehab mode and all that And then Monday morning you're s back to Gainesville Black Profes They were complete opposite, but at the same time it really s a purpose and it really allowed to put the leg work into Gainsville Black Profession that it needed at that time.

Yeah.

Producing marketing for a national comedian must hav a unique experience and had unique challenges.

What were some of the promotions you executed for that client and how have skills gained at that time continue to serve y Yeah.

Another great question.

I really enjoyed working with So and her team and them just allowed me to learn so much from them because like I said, my background is not communications I had done a lot of events and t kind of how they brought me into the team was an event planner, event management.

But guess what?

If you want a successful event, you got to market or you'll be there by yourself.

So I quickly learned marketing i So we did everything.

Television, radio, print media, digital marketing.

So I quickly had to learn like, how do all these marketing pieces work together?

So definitely I am certain that and has helped me with some of the other roles that I p You must have had some good ment in that role.

Yes.

Wayne Baxley, Man, I owe so much of my career Like, he really took the time to and let me sit in on meetings, sit out all the guys that have b or should have been in and would just take me to the si Like, Virginia, this is what's happening right n I know you said this, but I want you to understand this is really what's taking pla So he taught me so much.

He taught me how to negotiate de how to approach people when I wa to make certain things happen.

What the value in the event was.

Man, I had an awesome mentor.

What role has faith played in yo and in your career?

Everybody, most people know my story and I had had a really horrible marriage and I got a divorce.

And then me getting a divorce, I knew God wasn't pleased with t because, you know, God honors ma and he wants marriage to exist.

But I needed to ask him permissi to leave this marriage.

And I did.

And I said, But if you allow me to leave this ma I promise I will work every day to be in your perfect will.

Just give me anything you say, Do it, I'll do it.

Over the next couple of years, different ideas came to me.

Different thoughts came to me.

I would actually start websites, incorporate businesses.

Like, it was the craziest thing, All these thoughts came to me.

And then one day Gainesville Black Professionals just fell into my spirit.

And when I look back, it was a c of all of those ideas that I had had over the last cou So my faith and my wanting to be obedient to and to serve him is what started this organizatio And the organization has not onl fruitful for me as an individual and allowed me to grow so much, it has also impacted the communi So Faith, you just had ability to listen and hear f and then execute what he ushers It's amazing.

Speaking of Gainesville Black Professionals, what is the mission of the organ And as executive director, what does your role entail?

The mission of Gainesville Black Professionals is to showcase the contributions and accomplish of black professionals to our co And the reason we want to do tha is because we think that that le naturally to diversity.

Our community is diverse but in some spaces it doesn't feel really diverse.

So we want to kind of infiltrate those additional spaces that need a little bit more dive So my role as the executive dire is to maintain and create platforms that will lend itself naturally Like we just did the Black Profe Expo a couple weeks ago, and in that one of our days was a community connector where we actually brought out co nonprofits, startup groups, so that they could speak to blac professionals as potential candidates for hiri or just to network and connect.

So we just really want to, like showcase black professionals, because som the black professional gets overlooked in the community and not overlooked in the sense that we don't recognize that the here, but overlooked in the fact that we don't always appreciate and knowledge the contributions they have made to our community.

And I think it's important that With so much networking going on at your event, have you to see increases in the audience for different professional organ that you've had at your expo?

Yeah.

So what's amazing to me is that every time I host an eve someone comes to me and tells me magic has happened at a previous People have gotten hired.

We have one young lady that came to an event and two gentlemen that were at t sponsored a trip for her to go t There's a conference there every for women of color that are in engineering and tech And so she was having the hardes finding a job.

And she went to this conference.

She came back with three amazing job offers.

And literally just packed up and moved to Texa So, yeah, we have amazing events We partnered with the Community Foundation.

And we have helped them to help boards of nonprofits in Gainesvi And we actually see numbers like we see results.

And that's what's most amazing t is that as we're doing the work, we're also seeing the outcome of Yes, that's probably incredible to keep going and keep helping other professionals in the commu It is, I feel so like humbled to be able to be a part of it.

Because everybody attributes it but it's not me.

All I did was just host an event that brought a lot of people tog and then they was like, Hey, let's do something great wi Keeps on giving.

Yeah, yeah.

Keeps on giving.

I l When you began this organization what impact did you foresee it h Did it meet your expectations or exceed them?

So when I started Gainesville Black Professionals, I just needed a place where I co together with other black profes So that truly wasn't my expectat My expectation was, Hey, let me have a whole bunch of bla professionals in one room togeth for this black positive energy.

You know, we all need our spaces sometimes So I would say yes, it has far exceeded my expectati I had no idea that we would produce a magazine.

I had no idea that we would have day Black Professionals conferen I had no idea that people would actually get jobs from coming to events, like six salaries from events that we hav I had no idea that we could make a difference How do you promote events such a and do you have a team behind you helping you run all of these Yes, absolutely.

We have a team behind me.

I could not do this all by mysel So we have a team of some great professionals.

We call them our ambassadors and they help behind the scenes to put all this together.

As far as promoting the expo, we use every channel possible.

We have a database, so our email marketing is really But I think that we approach our and promotion with the philosophy that even though a lot of people about us, there's always more pe that we can reach.

So we try to just blast it every Radio, television, print, so we just had to be all over.

Yeah.

And how did you find those ambas How do they all come together?

Yeah, so the original group of a were really just kind of led tog like they were some of the people that were rea to most of our events.

Some of them was like, Hey, I just want to get involved.

So it was a combination of thing and now we just have kind of lik an application form on our websi So anyone is interested in helping volunteer, they can become a part of it tha That's amazing.

Such a great way to get involved And we're currently looking for more ambassadors so if theres any one thats int in volunteering, let us.

In 2018 you launched the magazine SYNERG Collaborative Guide to Economic What was your inspiration behind starting SYNERGY and how broad is your target aud Yeah, so SYNERGY started out as wanting to do a professional dir You know how you have like a business directo But I wanted to have like a prof directory, so that professionals could showcase their selves basi like how the heads are kind of l that type of thing.

I was like, But I don't know how you would f Because they're not gonna necess pay for that.

Will we be able to get people to advertise that?

So I started talking to some different people and gradually realized, okay, instead of a directory, what if we just actually wrote a about professionals?

So then it becomes a magazine about professionals in our community and the contributions that they' And now you can find that because you can solicit advertis and people will really buy into that way.

So that is how SYNERGY came abou What has been your favorite part of working with this magazine?

Oh, just the fact that like this is so outside of my training, my expertise, my academics.

I knew nothing about journalism, but this is another example of h comes into play because we set o we said we were going to do a ma and somebody must have got wind of the fact that we were doing a magazine, a friend of mine or a colleague he introduced me to, actually a at the University of Florida, right, who was getting ready to And I went and I met with him and we had lunch and I was telling him about the to start the magazine.

And he was like, Man, I would love to do that and be a part of that and help o And I said, Well, we're having our first planning And so he came to the first plan meeting, right?

This kid is so amazing.

He just sat down and he took ove He literally took over the meeti He was like, I need this, this, this, this.

Gave us all our walking orders a us produce the most fabulous mag That's incredible.

It was amazin So then, you know, working with I was able to gradually learn li okay, you need this, you need th This is how you get that.

So like, oh, I guess he became a mentor, too.

Yeah.

Because he taught me a lot of th So he was another awesome mentor So it's just people falling into and taking over and playing their role and just making amazing things h What is it like producing a publ What some of the legwork that go and the specifics that are neede I think building your content is a big portion of publishing a So when we put it together, even we're featuring black profession we have to still be mindful of having some diversity in ther So we want people from different industries.

We want people from different ag groups, people from different levels of managem in their careers.

We want people that are business So I think is first identifying what you want to cover in the ma and then also having your staff, having your writers, your editor your designer, and being able to coordinate between those enti to make sure that all comes toge And then we only publish SYNERGY So to really, like, immerse it into the community and make a big deal out of it, we always have a live unveiling.

So at the same time we're putting the magazine toget we're also planning a live unvei So that's always a lot of fun be making sure you have everybody t that your marketing it and promo So it's a lot of fun.

So its putting the magazine tog making sure that content is ther that is laid out properly, that your advertisers have their ads in at the right t And we even design some of the a So we have a huge design team that really works really well with our advertiser to make sure that we produce what they want.

Our writers are awesome with int the features, just really making that we capture their story.

And I think that's another part that's really important is just making sure that we capture the story.

You've said that SYNERGY serves as an inspiration for our youth, the next level of professionals in our communit What is the main takeaway that y they get from this magazine?

Yeah, I want them to know that t greatness that exists in their c As a young person, I didn't see a lot of great prof even though in hindsight I look and I see that they were there.

I just did not value them because they were like just, you know, regular people to me.

But I didn't understand how great they really were and how much they impacted the c So I hope that like these people that they see in SYNERGY and then they bump into them in they're like, Oh my God, heres like a real important person thats right here that I can have an actual conver with, that I can ask them, Well, how did you get this job?

What did you do to get here?

And they began building these pr relationships, even as a young p That is so important, growing up, being able to networ and know that there are people in your community that you can t And that you don't have to leave your community to find a g or to have a great career.

Or to start a business, like a lot of people feel like they got to go to California, they got to go to New York, they get to go to the happening But our own city is happening.

What do you wish you knew as a y and future professional and how are you reflecting this and thes in the content that you publish?

I wish I knew how to connect bet how to network.

Like you just said, young people beginning to network early and not so much in the sense that you're looking to achieve anything from the net or you're trying to get something out of the networking, but just the understanding of how much value comes with net socially, emotionally.

And like you said also professio you always get a job out of it or start an organization out of Like there's so many things that can come out of networking.

But at the core and the basis of is just building healthy relatio building a base around you that that there's always someone ther that, even if you don't know it, someone knows it.

Or someone can help you get to where you want to be.

So I think as a youth, if I look I wish I understood the value of networking a little earlier.

And how to navigate that.

Do you think your degree in psyc helped this aspect in your life I do, because I think that my de in psychology really helped me and trained me how to interact with people.

How to listen to people.

And I think especially with the organization and our push for diversity, sometimes we don't hear each oth And I think that I have that abi to listen and really hear and then communicate.

And I think that when youre com with people who feel heard, you get a better response In 2019, you began working for F as an outreach specialist.

Tell us about Feathr and the ser you offer clients.

Cool.

So Feathr is a digital marketing but technically, we're not reall a digital marketing company.

What we are is a tech company because we offer an app that helps organizations, nonpro associations market their events See how event planning... Yeah.

We help companies, like I said, associations, nonpr to promote their events through digital marketing.

You'll see, if you go on Google and you search for a black shirt you will begin to see all these black shirts from all these different compani trying to sell you a black shirt So Macy's understands the value of retargeting you.

Dillards understand the value of retargeting you, but a lot of associations did not understand that.

And still dont understand that.

So we help associations understa that if someone comes to your we interested in your conference but they don't register for the you have a second opportunity to reach them and you can use digital marketin to do that.

So we've taught them how to, if someone visits your w you can send them an ad later li Hey, don't forget the conference Hey, you forgot to register.

And continue to retarget them because the more that they see, the more that you see the black eventually you're going to fall And youre going to buy the blac whether you really needed it or If we keep marketing to them, th eventually register for the conf And a lot of associations were n advantage of that mode of market How did this idea come about?

So two kids from the University of Florida, Aiden and Alec, were in their dorm room one day and w I think we can make this work.

So like they're two college kids University of Florida, believe i I met Aiden because we were both serving on with the Chamber of Commerce, and we didn't sit next to each o during one of the board meetings and just struck up a conversatio And he told me about Feathr.

I told him about Gainesville Black Professionals.

And I immediately fell in love with Aiden and Feathr.

I just really did.

Like he talked about the company He talked about how they started the company, the culture of the I was like, That's where I want to be, right But I wasn't ready to make a cha So a couple of months later, believe it or not, I ended up leaving the psychiatric hospital and I just took a few months off I don't know what made me do tha was like, Hey, its just time fo So I left the psychiatric hospital, spent a few months at just kind of like relaxing, doin I wanted to do.

Then I was like, you know, you got to go back to So I was like, okay, it's time to go back to wo So I actually, um, text Aiden li Aiden.

Wanted to learn more about oppor at Feathr, and he was like, Well, are you inquiring for your or for someone else.

I said, yeah, myself.

So, ring r He called me and we started talk and I went through the whole app process and everything and I was for one of the positions at Feat So that's how I ended up being t But they have an amazing culture I just love working there.

It truly for me has been healthi environment, work environment, than even some of my jobs as a mental health therapist.

Wo With so much of the world now connected, how is digital marketing evolvin Yeah, digital marketing is like the next wave of marketing because everybody can tap into i It's not very expensive and it is becoming so niche that you can like really z to the market that you want and once you capture them, they' So it's not like running a telev ad where like all these millions see the television ad, but you d who that million people are.

With digital marketing, you can actually reach those sam 1 million people or more, but you have access to them now.

So then you can send them an ema you can send them another type of marketing later So I think is revolutionary.

Definitely the way we're going.

What advice would you share with those just entering the workforc and trying to find their niche?

Be open, be open to opportunitie Realize that opportunities are everywhere.

Diversify your network.

And what I mean by that is go to different networking event visit different areas of the state, of the world.

Talk to people that look like the opposite of y And I suggest that because I don we always understand and value what differences can offer us as an individual.

So what's different about someone else from you?

If you were able to gain that sk or embrace that somehow that makes you a more well-round And you don't know where that ca you later, so I would just say just be open to the possibilitie look for opportunities and place that you may not think that they And realize that every encounter is potentially an opportunity.

Thank you so much for taking the to speak with us today.

It was so interesting hearing ab the role that faith has played w and how your journey has gone from going to school and then no starting Gainesville Black Profe and SYNERGY and working with Fea Thank you so much again for your And to our viewers, thank you so much for joining us Until next time, goodnight.