How’s that for an attention grabber? Now that we’re here, I’m happy to inform you that the title is NOT clickbait. As a fair warning, you may experience side effects after reading this, including: increased motivation to go on a sabbatical, desire to outsource areas of your business you do not love, or, just maybe, a sudden urge to watch Magic Mike.
Let’s get into it!
We all have past lives…When I reflect on mine I realize just how layered and unique each of them were AND, how divinely they have led me to where I am and what I’m doing now. I’m sure many if not most people can say the same and this is one of those stories (with a fun Channing Tatum-twist of course).
Background is necessary to connect all the dots here… so I’m going to try and sum up my early adult career in as few sentences as possible.
I started my corporate career at Accenture. I also studied and pursued acting for television and film professionally for 8 years while working my corporate job.
Acting led me to moving from Dallas to New Orleans where the industry was booming.
I met many incredible people during this time, one of whom became like a brother to me, “Keith.” He just so happened to be business partners with Channing Tatum.
Together, Keith and Tatum own a bar in New Orleans.
Keith and Tatum ended up doing a reality television show based on their bar (a story for another time or blog, perhaps…) and I was brought on board to be a part of it.
I ended up taking a sabbatical from my corporate gig for the show.
Once the show wrapped filming, I stayed on sabbatical and continued to live my best artist-creative-gypsy-life in New Orleans, Los Angeles, and New York.
I ended up doing contract work for Keith to help with various initiatives at their bar, one of which included local marketing.
This is when I met “Q” - a badass womanpreneur who was the powerhouse behind Tatum’s social media content (as well as a very long and quite impressive list of additional celebrities).
Q was impressive on all levels. Since I was flying by the seat of my pants with no solid plan on my next employment move, I inquired about Q’s team and whether she had needs for another social media manager. She did not have needs for a social media manager, but she did need a virtual assistant. I was up for it!
Keith connected us, I sent my resume, she and I had a great conversation and shortly after, I joined her team. I learned fast and quickly began managing social media for Keith and Tatum’s bar and then moved onto supporting additional client accounts.
I learned so much from my time spent with Q and supporting her clients. When I think of how this experience has translated into my life, my business, and into how I serve my clients today, so many incredible lessons come to mind. Read on for a few of those fun and valuable takeaways!
1. Build Your A-Team
Tatum had numerous people managing various aspects of his business. If he wasn’t skilled at it, he outsourced it. The coolest part of this was, every person that I was able to observe, deserved to be there. They were hard working, skilled at what they did, passionate about their work as well as his, and operated with high integrity. He carefully chose each of them based on their character, impressive work experience, and integrity and he created his A-team which significantly contributed to his success.
2. Have Multiple Lines in the Water when it comes to Marketing
One of the most important things I learned during my time working with Q and watching her client’s like Tatum work, was the importance of having multiple lines in the promotion pool. None of them relied on one avenue to market their business and build their awareness, rather every single one of them was in front of their ideal audience, via multiple {relevant} marketing and media channels. Some on many, others on just a few and then grew to more, but each of them knew that they needed multiple lines in the water to effectively build their awareness.
3. Protect Your Brand
One of the most fascinating aspects of the celebrity world is how many people they have on their team, watching and managing their every move to ensure they’re “on brand.” Everything was planned down to the minute for Tatum - down to his placement in line when he walked into a room. Every single person in Tatum’s business management team protected his brand as if it was their own. There were no gaps and no glitches - from what he wore to every single thing his name touched, professionalism and cohesiveness were executed at the highest level.
4. Be real, be kind, and enjoy life.
I had a BLAST in New Orleans, LA, and New York and often got to meet many really talented and interesting people - many of those being in the entertainment world like Tatum. One of the things I remember most was how real he was with every person I watched him encounter, including me. He was real, he was kind, and he LOVED to have a good time enjoying life. If you have met celebrities before you probably know that sometimes they can really disappoint you. Tatum did not. He is genuine, kind, fun, and massively loved by his friends, family, and colleagues. I believe this was also a key factor in his success.
SLW Media is an award-winning social media and content marketing agency led by Sara Wright. Sara and her talented team of word wizards partner with company owners in the design+build and luxury home services industries to completely remove the burden of social media and content marketing from their plate with quantifiable results – freeing up their time and resources to focus on other key profitable areas of the business.
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