Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Danielle Jeter.
A public relations and event planning expert, and founder of Women in Media Global and AOI Events and PR (Affairs of Influence).
Here are some key highlights from the conversation:
🎙️ Guest Background
- Danielle is a Spelman College graduate based in Miami, Florida.
- She began her career in event planning and transitioned into public relations after working at Radio One in Philadelphia.
- She founded Women in Media Global in 2012, impacting over 15,000 women and students globally.
📣 Strategic Communication & Branding
- Emphasizes the importance of external communication and understanding the target audience.
- Defines a brand as a company’s reputation, not just its visual identity.
- Brand activations are described as experiential marketing efforts that create emotional connections with consumers.
💡 Marketing & Sales Insights
- Advocates for niche marketing over trying to appeal to everyone.
- Encourages small businesses to allocate 10–30% of profits to marketing.
- Offers a six-week marketing and sales accelerator for startups and growth-phase businesses.
🤝 Client Onboarding Process
- Offers a free discovery call to assess fit and understand client goals and pain points.
- Works primarily on a retainer model for PR services.
🎧 Extensions of Her Brand
- Hosts the WIM Speaks podcast, available on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube.
- Uses platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn to connect and share her work.
#SHMS #STRAW #BEST
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am Rashan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
stories and.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Start planning their own.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
their companies, and speak with nonprofits who are making a
difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and listen
as we unlock the secrets to their success on Money
Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald, my host the
(00:36):
weekly Money Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information
that this show provides off for everyone. It's time to
stop reading other people's success stories and start living your
own Now. If you want to be a guest on
my show, Money Making Conversation Masterclass, please visit our website,
Moneymakingconversations dot com and click to be a guest button.
(00:57):
If you have a product, your small business, owner, entrepreneur,
on influencer, I want you on my show. So please
go to Moneymakingconversations dot com and click the B I guess,
But now let's get started. My guess is a proud
HBCU graduate. Through the platform Women and Media Global, she
has impacted the Liza over fifteen thousand women and students worldwide.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Since twenty twelve.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Women and Media has provided a platform for women in media,
entertainment and business, offering education, networking and multimedia storytelling opportunities
to foster growth and collaboration. We will discuss her journey
from HPCU grad the Visionary Entrepreneur. Please welcome to Money
Making Conversation Masterclass, Danielle Jeter.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
How you doing, Danielle, I'm doing great. Good morning. Thank
you so much for having me today.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
First of all, where are you based at?
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I'm based in Miami, Florida currently. I've been here five
years now.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Okay, now, PR public Relations. If was that a strategic move?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Actually?
Speaker 4 (02:05):
No. I first started out in the business as a
event planner and even producer, and I then went to
Radio one in Philadelphia as an intern when I graduated
from Spellman and I ended up in the promotions department.
So I was doing events with the promotions department because
(02:25):
I wanted to hold my skills in the event space,
and so I thought that would be a great opportunity
for me to get started and to meet some of
the great people who are influential in my city of Philadelphia.
When I went back to Philly, and there were people
who began to see me in the studio with journalists,
(02:47):
with media personalities and other celebrities who would come through
the city. Because when I was at the radio station,
not only was I in promotion, but I also had
the opportunity to learn how to actually produce talk radio shows.
And so we began to actually get calls for me
to do pr services and for me to offer marketing
services to clients. And I said, hey, I don't offer
(03:09):
that service, but when the call came in a few times,
I was like, Okay, we offer that service, and so
I could run. You know, I learned in the field
actually doing public relations.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yes, okay, cool, So we're going to talk about events
and we're going to talk about public relations. But let's
go back to HBCU. Spelman College and based in Atlanta, Georgia.
What makes Spelman College so special?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Spellman is a great space.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
The whole mission is to educate black women and to
create leaders and innovators out of the students who matriculate
through the university. It was just a wonderful opportunity to
be around such amazing women who are just growing, learning, doing,
but also very ambitious women, very driven, very smart, intelligent women.
(04:01):
And so that sisterhood is something that is rare, is
very unique, and what Spellman has been able to create
since eighteen eighty one has been life changing. It has
changed my life. It was a great decision for me
to go to Spelman. I was able to be challenged
a lot as well. It's not an easy place to
(04:22):
matriculate through and so you earned all your greeds. There
are no shortcuts at Spelman College. So I'm grateful for
my alma mater.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
So let's talk about AOI. What does AOI stand for
this AOI Events and why did you start it?
Speaker 4 (04:38):
AOI Events and PR stands for Affairs of Influence. So
this is a great backstory. We actually had to rebrand
our company when the company turned five years old because
the original name of the company was Affairs of Isis Events.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
That was when.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
President Barack Obama was in his first term and there
was a war on Isoul, right, but the news media
kept saying Isis and Isis is actually an Egyptian goddess.
So I actually had the opportunity to travel to Egypt
with Spelman College when I was a student. That trip
(05:16):
inspired me to launch my business the following year, and
I named my company after the Egyptian goddess Isis.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I began to get attacked.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Online in person at events when I was speaking at panels,
and even some of my clients had an issue with
the name of my business and did not want to
be associated with Affairs of Isis due to the war
or isol and so we rebranded at year five and
so we were branded to Affairs of Influence. So AOI
Events and PR stands for Affairs of Influence and we
(05:50):
do very niche marketing and PR and strategic communications campaigns
for brands who are looking to do social good. They're
looking to drive a message but also to build relationships
with their target audience, so we do communications campaigns. We
offer brand strategy, branding, marketing campaigns and event activations.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Now it took you a moment to make that name change.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
What finally pushed you over the edge to say, you
know something, Either I'm a ride design or my business.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Is gonna close.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
I changed the name when I had a client who
told me I couldn't show up at his event that
I planned with my business cards, and he said, I
don't know what you need to do. I'm gonna add
extra money to your retainer. I need you to go
find some new business cards in forty eight hours. So
when he told me that that was a gillbreaker, I
was like, no problem, We're gonna figure this out, right.
(06:47):
And so what I did was I went to some experts.
I sat down, I did a roundtable think tank with
people that I trusted, advisors that I trusted, and I
began to get feedback and information and direct action and
be able to bounce ideas off of them.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Then I went.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
To another marketing and design company and I sat with
them and I got a consultation with them, and I
went through the process.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Right.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I had to redo the logos, had to be done over,
the website, had to be done over, business cards, email addresses.
I mean, everything was brand new.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
So you did this whole rebrand, this whole rebrand.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Did you immediately notice the difference now you've made those changes.
Where were you at and how did you relaunch your
brand and let everybody know I'm the same person, just
a different name.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Yeah, it was it was a process, you know, And
when you rebrand.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
It costs money.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
You gotta pay to get all of these new marketing
assets designed and done. These things could take a couple
of weeks in order to do. But I felt like
it gave our brand an upgrade, It gave us a refresh,
and it gave us something that was a little bit
more relatable to the diverse client and tell that we
actually want to serve.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So that talks about communication, and I think in all conversations, Danielle,
I'm talking to Danielle Jeter pr extraordinaire. I like to
say that an event planner extraordinary impacted over fifteen thousand
people since twenty twelve. She did a rebrand on her name,
and that calms down to communication, strategic communication, which is
(08:23):
the core of success. Being able to listen and being
able to speak the right language to people at the
right point of communication. Talk to us, Danielle about strategic communication.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Strategic communications is so valuable.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
I typically am on the external communication side of things,
so I am externally communicating my clients messaging and their mission,
their vision to a target audience for their products or services.
That's a delicate situation because you have to think about
the India user. What is important to the end user
(09:03):
that is going to draw them to my client's mission,
that is going to draw them to create impact for
in my clients so that they can get more customers
within their business, they can get more users within their
services and things of that sort. So I'm constantly thinking
and keeping my nose to the ground of what's happening
on the ground. What are consumers interested in, what is
(09:26):
concerning them, and how do we communicate best to them
in order to capture their attention. Today, our competition is
not other businesses. Today, competition is the attention of our
buyers Instagram, TikTok, podcasts, the news. What they're taking in
(09:47):
entertainment is sports. Where they're spending their time and what
they're utilizing these their minutes and their hours. That is
the attention and that is what we are in competition with.
So we have to show it with their are and
then we have to communicate in a way that is
interesting to them. And now because we have such short
form content and such short form copy, now we have
(10:09):
to relay our message in a shorter way that it's
still attractive to the client that is going to capture
their attention.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Okay, Daniel just the key part of this conversation because
my show is about entrepreneurship, small business owners, influencers, people
have products, brand activations, so many people don't understand that.
First of all, please explain to everybody what is the
brand and then move on to brand activations and how
(10:36):
to launch successful brand activations.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
So your brand is simply your reputation.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Sometimes we think, oh, my brand is the colors in
my logo. It's my logo, it's the pretty things, it's
the website. Your brand is Your reputation is what people
say about you and your company and your services when
you are not in the room.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
It is what they say about you when.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
They are referring or not referring your business to another
potential customer.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
That is your reputation.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Your customer service, how you deliver, how you communicate, how
you follow up and follow through is the reputation of
your brand. So that is important elements that you always
want to keep at the top of your mind. But
we are about experiences. The brand activation gigs you an
opportunity to create an experience for your customers and those
(11:29):
who you want to be your customers.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
You use brand.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Activations as a way to show up in person, in
community to be able to have personal touch points with
your customers and with your audience.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
So you being able to activate a.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Concept, whether it is a in person event, a in
person experience, a kiosk type of experience, This is you
going out into the field and being able to create
touch points for your consumers what will create emotion and
emotions within them. Right, they'll be able to learn see
you and feel you, touch you, and have an emotional
(12:07):
connection to your brand and really get to know who
you are. So brand activations are a part of your
marketing strategy, and a great way to launch a brand
activation is to first plan for it into your marketing strategy,
So breaking up your marketing and breaking up your planning
in quarters and being able to say, hey, let me
(12:29):
go ahead and steat a budget aside, because I want
to activate whether you The smart way that brands activate
nowadays is activating where the people already are. So the
smart way to activate is to go to where the
audience already is and buy into that experience. I think
another great way to do this and what ways that
I started to activate my own brand was partnership and
(12:52):
I built relationships with the local elected officials in my city.
I'm from Philadelphia, so when I went back home from
the graduating from Spellman College, I began to create relationships
with local elected officials. They have a need, I have
a need, right, and so they also have community events
and various events for various audience members within their constituent.
(13:16):
So I began to partner with them on behalf of
slaw business networking events, young professional networking events, Women in
Media congresses, and so as a result, my company was
able to partner with their bigger brand and then expose
us to an audience of people in creating that trust factor.
(13:36):
So brand activations could also be something like that. So
now we're partnering on an event. I'm co branding and
marketing with this senator, with this congresswoman. Now people are
seeing that I'm a credible businesswoman in the city because
now I'm partner with the congresswoman who they are already know.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
And now my local placement is there.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
With her local placement, we're doing pop up banners. I
have an opportunity to speak and address the audience. And
now she becomes my partner, he or she becomes my partner.
It's another great way to activate, and it also doesn't
take a lot of capital in order for you to
come in and say, hey, I want to add value
to this program. This is what I can bring to
the team.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Let's talk about brand activation mistakes. Everybody wants to do
it their way. I will tell people on this show.
I say you can't show up at the door opening
the door where your customers are in line. You gotta
be there before your customer. That's an activation mistake. Let's
talk about the process of people coming to you. You
do events. You also do PR. That's the name of
(14:55):
your company, AOI Events in PR. How does support body
walk into you trying to avoid brand mistakes? How do
you welcome a new client into your business?
Speaker 3 (15:06):
That's a really great question.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
So at the point of discovery, I invite the prospect, customer, corporation, executive,
nonprofit leader. I invite them to have a discovery meeting
with me, a discovery call. Before they actually get on
this call, I have a short fan and they fill
(15:28):
out information on that form that allows me to gather
enough information that I can go ahead and start to
drive the conversation as we set up for that first
discovery meeting.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
That first discovery meeting, there's never a charge.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
I do not charge for a counsultation to see if
we are a good fit to work together.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
I welcome that one hour conversation and I take the
moment to learn as much about this potential prospect their
company with their goals are, what their mission is, but
also what are the pain points, what is not working
for you that you're looking to find a solution and
(16:09):
to find a problem about this problem. If your problem
is something that I feel confident that I can address
and help you move forward by way of communications, public relations, branding,
a special event, then I go ahead and I offer
up our types of services and provide that. So public
(16:32):
relations is traditionally something that is done on a retainer,
which means that the customer or the business owner is
signing a contract for several months to retain us for
three months, for four months, for six months, for one year,
and for us to work on your behalf. And it
is services that are done for you. So that is
(16:54):
a traditional way of how we go ahead and do
our business. If it does not seem as if it's
a good fit, there's a variety of reasons it wouldn't
be a good fit.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
One, they're looking for a service that we do not provide.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Two, they may not have the appropriate budget to go
ahead and start the services of what they're looking to do.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Three. Sometimes people don't even set up a marketing budget.
They don't have an idea of what their budget is.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
And I think it's premature to have a conversation with
a service provider before you actually know how much you
can afford to actually spend on that particular product, project
or service. And sometimes people come and say, well, hey,
well I don't have the information. I don't know how
much PR costs, I don't know how much marketing costs.
That's okay. I mean you could just go ahead and
(17:43):
start to do your research. And a lot of that
stuff is online already. You know, we have chagbt now
what makes it even easier. But ultimately you have to
look at how much money your business is profiting and
then drive ten to thirty percent of your profits into
a budget for marketing.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Let's talk about the marketing plane. Why do people don't
understand they have to market something to get people to
know what they have.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
I feel when it comes to small businesses, they get
very caught up in the product and service and producing
what it is that they have, and they fall in
love with the creative process of whatever this app is,
whatever this you know physical product is, whatever this thing
that you want to create, and then the execution, which
is the marketing and sales side, comes in on the
(18:34):
back end. So now you have launched a business, and
now you are in the red because you haven't figured
out who the audiences that's going to buy this and
then how to actually sell it to them. And so
before we even launch the idea, we have to talk
about how are we going to fund the idea, how
are we going to put together a marketing strategy in
(18:56):
a marketing system, because you have a strategy, but then
you need the system to back up the strategy and
so forth as well with the sales process.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
So it's really disheartening to see.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
And I actually started coaching startups and small businesses who
are in growth phase because of this lack of knowledge
around and marketing and sales. I have a six week
marketing and sales accelerator. And just last night I was
invited to a private event and I met the co
(19:28):
founder of Reebok, who is a billionaire. His nig Joe,
and he's European and now Joe is about eighty something
years old. And they asked him a question and he said,
one of the most, probably the most important aspect to
a product or service is the marketing. Is the This
(19:50):
is a man who scaled the business and sold it
to to Adidas for about twenty three billion dollars.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
And that's what people don't understand. And I think that
another part of the whole.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Process of the mistakes that we make is that we
try to talk to everybody. And I always tell people,
you know, like like Tesla, I've never seen the Tesla
commercial on TV, but you people buy a Tesla, Okay,
I've never It's a new brand of EV out there
called Rivan, I believe or I v An.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
That's a new EV. That truck. I love that truck.
But guess what, I don't see no TV.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
So a lot of people want to go out there,
whatever they product, they want to talk to everybody where
they should do.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Niche marketing.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Like you said, find out who your audience is, focus
on that audience, and any growth outside of that audience
is called positive residual income. Talk to about that niche
marketing and focusing on I always tell people that's what
people make a big mistake. They throw why the net
trying to catch everybody when they should be standing on
(20:58):
next to the bank catching a fish that they can catch.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Talk to is Danielle.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
I think that is the huge that's the huge difference
between the business owner and entrepreneur who has been doing
the work and studying and learning their business and one
clearity is still just figuring it out. One of the
things that we first understand is that we can't communicate
to everybody and that our product or service will not
(21:24):
be you know, for everybody. So it's important to learn
and understand the demographics of your audience. Social media has
made it very awesome to understand that because if you
have your profiles set up as business profiles, you can
see the demographics.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
You can see the gender.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
The age, the location, and then you can begin to study, Okay,
well what types of things do these do these demographics
like what's important? Where they finding their news and their media.
But then also you can do the work and actually
go out and talk to your customers, create moments where
you talk to them. When I was younger in business,
(22:04):
I will always have these think tank kind of like
roundtables where I would bring in strategic people. When I'm
thinking about a product, when I'm thinking about a service,
I first want to make sure that this audience that
I'm thinking about actually needs this. So I bring them in,
I host them, I give them some hospitality, and I
get feed from them. I ask the questions and they
(22:27):
you know, they deliver the information to me and allows
me to create a product or service that makes sense
for that particular audience, because you could be thinking something
but it might not be the case right. So having
those communications, being able to survey your audience, being able
to follow up with them and build rapport with them,
have those connections in communication, being able to niche down
(22:51):
and learn about that is very important. One of the
things that I've realized in my business is a lot
of my clientele is males. A lot people hire my
PR services and those who I work a lot with
are males. And when I saw that trend, then I said, okay, well,
I'm going to continue to have conversations with businessmen who
(23:12):
are serious about marketing and building their brands and doing pr.
Now I do represent women, but I'm just saying, the
statistics show in my business that.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
More men hire me than women hire.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Me and so, and that's just because I'm following, you know,
what's happening within my business.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
And then I'm able to build those relationships with them.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Which is fantastic because you know, women and me the
Global Mission and the wim Speaks podcast is about women.
And then we just talking about earlier, were talking about
comments in your social media posts. Find out what people
are saying about you, don't ignore. If it's consistent, that
may be a brand tool you need to bring into
your business. Let's talk about the extensions that you've created
(23:54):
your podcasts and other platforms as a public speaker that
you've created outside.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Your for Matt Danielle, Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Yeah. So everything that I have created and launched is
because I found that there was a need to fill, right.
I don't I'm not that that entrepreneur who says I
think my idea is great, I'm gonna go ahead and
launch it. I understand that I need a service base.
I understand that I need customers, so I'm servicing and
providing things that matter to them. When I graduated from school,
(24:25):
I also went to a film screening. So I majored
in Theater, Arts and Dance at Spelmen College and a
double major in history. And so I was at a
film screening and it was about the Philadelphia arts scene.
And it was a group of young filmmakers who was
premiering this screening. But when I saw the screening, I
(24:46):
noticed that there was only one woman in this feature film.
And I've said, well, wow, wow, why only one woman? No, Like,
there's so many artists that come out of Philadelphia, like
you only felt one to talk to in this documentary
is So I was like, wow, this is alarming to me.
I think this signifies something bigger that's happening within the industry.
(25:09):
So I began to research what was happening in entertainment,
what was happening in the media industry as far as
those working as professionals, whether they were in front of
the camera or behind the scenes. Literally, I launched Women
in Media Global right before Me Too.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
It was like three years before Me Too.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
It was like it was simmering up and it was
like I felt it, everybody else felt it, and boom,
here comes me too. But Women in Media had launched,
and I launched this initiative as a reminder to remind
women to own their voice, because in that situation, a
number of things could have happened.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
One there could have been a woman there.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Who didn't speak up, who didn't you know, her opinion
about this absence of women being represented, or her voice
was not heard. Right was producing this film did not
take into consideration what she said if she did advocate
for the need for women. So I created this platform
(26:09):
to remind women of that, but also to empower them
to advocate, to take up more spaces and be able
to just be bigger and to grow wider and to
launch their own initiatives and to be leaders in the
space of media and entertainment in business. And that is
how Women in Media launched. And so we've done six
(26:31):
annual conferences, we've launched our podcasts as well as an
extension of that conversation, and we like to bring onto
the show those who.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Are working in the industry.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
They may be entrepreneurs in the industry, or they may
be those who are working on behalf of major media companies,
but wanting to share their stories, wanting to get their
advice on how to best successfully retriculate and navigate such
a sticky industry entertainment, and to begin to continue to
(27:02):
spread and show a spotlight on what women are doing.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
How can we get in touch with you, Danielle.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
I have Instagram which is dpjeter, so you can go
ahead and check out my Instagram. There you will find
links in my bio of everything that I have going on.
You can send me a DM and set up a
conversation with me. I'll follow the podcast as well, the
Whim Wim Speak show. We're on Spotify, Apple, We're also
(27:31):
on YouTube all the places that you get your favorite podcasts,
and I'm on LinkedIn, Danielle pagejeter too, so womenI Mediaglobal
dot org.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Thank you, my friend, Danielle. An amazing conversation.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
The fact that you're impacting so many people is something
you started in twenty twelve, and the fact that you
are in a business that's very competitive, if it planning
large event planning a small event planning, it's very competitive.
And also the fact that you understanding how to define
the need for marketing activations and public relations. Thank you
for coming on money Making Conversation Masterclass.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Thank you so much for having me. This was amazing.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
hosted by me Rushawn McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today, and thank you listening to the
audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
I want to be a guest on the show, visit
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
(28:30):
your gifts.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Keep winning.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am Rashan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
stories and.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Start planning their own.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
their companies, and speak with nonprofits who are making a
difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and listen
as we unlock the secrets to their success on Money
Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald, my host the
(00:36):
weekly Money Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information
that this show provides off for everyone. It's time to
stop reading other people's success stories and start living your
own Now. If you want to be a guest on
my show, Money Making Conversation Masterclass, please visit our website,
Moneymakingconversations dot com and click to be a guest button.
(00:57):
If you have a product, your small business, owner, entrepreneur,
on influencer, I want you on my show. So please
go to Moneymakingconversations dot com and click the B I guess,
But now let's get started. My guess is a proud
HBCU graduate. Through the platform Women and Media Global, she
has impacted the Liza over fifteen thousand women and students worldwide.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Since twenty twelve.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Women and Media has provided a platform for women in media,
entertainment and business, offering education, networking and multimedia storytelling opportunities
to foster growth and collaboration. We will discuss her journey
from HPCU grad the Visionary Entrepreneur. Please welcome to Money
Making Conversation Masterclass, Danielle Jeter.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
How you doing, Danielle, I'm doing great. Good morning. Thank
you so much for having me today.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
First of all, where are you based at?
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I'm based in Miami, Florida currently. I've been here five
years now.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Okay, now, PR public Relations. If was that a strategic move?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Actually?
Speaker 4 (02:05):
No. I first started out in the business as a
event planner and even producer, and I then went to
Radio one in Philadelphia as an intern when I graduated
from Spellman and I ended up in the promotions department.
So I was doing events with the promotions department because
(02:25):
I wanted to hold my skills in the event space,
and so I thought that would be a great opportunity
for me to get started and to meet some of
the great people who are influential in my city of Philadelphia.
When I went back to Philly, and there were people
who began to see me in the studio with journalists,
(02:47):
with media personalities and other celebrities who would come through
the city. Because when I was at the radio station,
not only was I in promotion, but I also had
the opportunity to learn how to actually produce talk radio shows.
And so we began to actually get calls for me
to do pr services and for me to offer marketing
services to clients. And I said, hey, I don't offer
(03:09):
that service, but when the call came in a few times,
I was like, Okay, we offer that service, and so
I could run. You know, I learned in the field
actually doing public relations.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yes, okay, cool, So we're going to talk about events
and we're going to talk about public relations. But let's
go back to HBCU. Spelman College and based in Atlanta, Georgia.
What makes Spelman College so special?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Spellman is a great space.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
The whole mission is to educate black women and to
create leaders and innovators out of the students who matriculate
through the university. It was just a wonderful opportunity to
be around such amazing women who are just growing, learning, doing,
but also very ambitious women, very driven, very smart, intelligent women.
(04:01):
And so that sisterhood is something that is rare, is
very unique, and what Spellman has been able to create
since eighteen eighty one has been life changing. It has
changed my life. It was a great decision for me
to go to Spelman. I was able to be challenged
a lot as well. It's not an easy place to
(04:22):
matriculate through and so you earned all your greeds. There
are no shortcuts at Spelman College. So I'm grateful for
my alma mater.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
So let's talk about AOI. What does AOI stand for
this AOI Events and why did you start it?
Speaker 4 (04:38):
AOI Events and PR stands for Affairs of Influence. So
this is a great backstory. We actually had to rebrand
our company when the company turned five years old because
the original name of the company was Affairs of Isis Events.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
That was when.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
President Barack Obama was in his first term and there
was a war on Isoul, right, but the news media
kept saying Isis and Isis is actually an Egyptian goddess.
So I actually had the opportunity to travel to Egypt
with Spelman College when I was a student. That trip
(05:16):
inspired me to launch my business the following year, and
I named my company after the Egyptian goddess Isis.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I began to get attacked.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Online in person at events when I was speaking at panels,
and even some of my clients had an issue with
the name of my business and did not want to
be associated with Affairs of Isis due to the war
or isol and so we rebranded at year five and
so we were branded to Affairs of Influence. So AOI
Events and PR stands for Affairs of Influence and we
(05:50):
do very niche marketing and PR and strategic communications campaigns
for brands who are looking to do social good. They're
looking to drive a message but also to build relationships
with their target audience, so we do communications campaigns. We
offer brand strategy, branding, marketing campaigns and event activations.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Now it took you a moment to make that name change.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
What finally pushed you over the edge to say, you
know something, Either I'm a ride design or my business.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Is gonna close.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
I changed the name when I had a client who
told me I couldn't show up at his event that
I planned with my business cards, and he said, I
don't know what you need to do. I'm gonna add
extra money to your retainer. I need you to go
find some new business cards in forty eight hours. So
when he told me that that was a gillbreaker, I
was like, no problem, We're gonna figure this out, right.
(06:47):
And so what I did was I went to some experts.
I sat down, I did a roundtable think tank with
people that I trusted, advisors that I trusted, and I
began to get feedback and information and direct action and
be able to bounce ideas off of them.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Then I went.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
To another marketing and design company and I sat with
them and I got a consultation with them, and I
went through the process.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Right.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I had to redo the logos, had to be done over,
the website, had to be done over, business cards, email addresses.
I mean, everything was brand new.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
So you did this whole rebrand, this whole rebrand.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Did you immediately notice the difference now you've made those changes.
Where were you at and how did you relaunch your
brand and let everybody know I'm the same person, just
a different name.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Yeah, it was it was a process, you know, And
when you rebrand.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
It costs money.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
You gotta pay to get all of these new marketing
assets designed and done. These things could take a couple
of weeks in order to do. But I felt like
it gave our brand an upgrade, It gave us a refresh,
and it gave us something that was a little bit
more relatable to the diverse client and tell that we
actually want to serve.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So that talks about communication, and I think in all conversations, Danielle,
I'm talking to Danielle Jeter pr extraordinaire. I like to
say that an event planner extraordinary impacted over fifteen thousand
people since twenty twelve. She did a rebrand on her name,
and that calms down to communication, strategic communication, which is
(08:23):
the core of success. Being able to listen and being
able to speak the right language to people at the
right point of communication. Talk to us, Danielle about strategic communication.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Strategic communications is so valuable.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
I typically am on the external communication side of things,
so I am externally communicating my clients messaging and their mission,
their vision to a target audience for their products or services.
That's a delicate situation because you have to think about
the India user. What is important to the end user
(09:03):
that is going to draw them to my client's mission,
that is going to draw them to create impact for
in my clients so that they can get more customers
within their business, they can get more users within their
services and things of that sort. So I'm constantly thinking
and keeping my nose to the ground of what's happening
on the ground. What are consumers interested in, what is
(09:26):
concerning them, and how do we communicate best to them
in order to capture their attention. Today, our competition is
not other businesses. Today, competition is the attention of our
buyers Instagram, TikTok, podcasts, the news. What they're taking in
(09:47):
entertainment is sports. Where they're spending their time and what
they're utilizing these their minutes and their hours. That is
the attention and that is what we are in competition with.
So we have to show it with their are and
then we have to communicate in a way that is
interesting to them. And now because we have such short
form content and such short form copy, now we have
(10:09):
to relay our message in a shorter way that it's
still attractive to the client that is going to capture
their attention.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Okay, Daniel just the key part of this conversation because
my show is about entrepreneurship, small business owners, influencers, people
have products, brand activations, so many people don't understand that.
First of all, please explain to everybody what is the
brand and then move on to brand activations and how
(10:36):
to launch successful brand activations.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
So your brand is simply your reputation.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Sometimes we think, oh, my brand is the colors in
my logo. It's my logo, it's the pretty things, it's
the website. Your brand is Your reputation is what people
say about you and your company and your services when
you are not in the room.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
It is what they say about you when.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
They are referring or not referring your business to another
potential customer.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
That is your reputation.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Your customer service, how you deliver, how you communicate, how
you follow up and follow through is the reputation of
your brand. So that is important elements that you always
want to keep at the top of your mind. But
we are about experiences. The brand activation gigs you an
opportunity to create an experience for your customers and those
(11:29):
who you want to be your customers.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
You use brand.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Activations as a way to show up in person, in
community to be able to have personal touch points with
your customers and with your audience.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
So you being able to activate a.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Concept, whether it is a in person event, a in
person experience, a kiosk type of experience, This is you
going out into the field and being able to create
touch points for your consumers what will create emotion and
emotions within them. Right, they'll be able to learn see
you and feel you, touch you, and have an emotional
(12:07):
connection to your brand and really get to know who
you are. So brand activations are a part of your
marketing strategy, and a great way to launch a brand
activation is to first plan for it into your marketing strategy,
So breaking up your marketing and breaking up your planning
in quarters and being able to say, hey, let me
(12:29):
go ahead and steat a budget aside, because I want
to activate whether you The smart way that brands activate
nowadays is activating where the people already are. So the
smart way to activate is to go to where the
audience already is and buy into that experience. I think
another great way to do this and what ways that
I started to activate my own brand was partnership and
(12:52):
I built relationships with the local elected officials in my city.
I'm from Philadelphia, so when I went back home from
the graduating from Spellman College, I began to create relationships
with local elected officials. They have a need, I have
a need, right, and so they also have community events
and various events for various audience members within their constituent.
(13:16):
So I began to partner with them on behalf of
slaw business networking events, young professional networking events, Women in
Media congresses, and so as a result, my company was
able to partner with their bigger brand and then expose
us to an audience of people in creating that trust factor.
(13:36):
So brand activations could also be something like that. So
now we're partnering on an event. I'm co branding and
marketing with this senator, with this congresswoman. Now people are
seeing that I'm a credible businesswoman in the city because
now I'm partner with the congresswoman who they are already know.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
And now my local placement is there.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
With her local placement, we're doing pop up banners. I
have an opportunity to speak and address the audience. And
now she becomes my partner, he or she becomes my partner.
It's another great way to activate, and it also doesn't
take a lot of capital in order for you to
come in and say, hey, I want to add value
to this program. This is what I can bring to
the team.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Let's talk about brand activation mistakes. Everybody wants to do
it their way. I will tell people on this show.
I say you can't show up at the door opening
the door where your customers are in line. You gotta
be there before your customer. That's an activation mistake. Let's
talk about the process of people coming to you. You
do events. You also do PR. That's the name of
(14:55):
your company, AOI Events in PR. How does support body
walk into you trying to avoid brand mistakes? How do
you welcome a new client into your business?
Speaker 3 (15:06):
That's a really great question.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
So at the point of discovery, I invite the prospect, customer, corporation, executive,
nonprofit leader. I invite them to have a discovery meeting
with me, a discovery call. Before they actually get on
this call, I have a short fan and they fill
(15:28):
out information on that form that allows me to gather
enough information that I can go ahead and start to
drive the conversation as we set up for that first
discovery meeting.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
That first discovery meeting, there's never a charge.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
I do not charge for a counsultation to see if
we are a good fit to work together.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
I welcome that one hour conversation and I take the
moment to learn as much about this potential prospect their
company with their goals are, what their mission is, but
also what are the pain points, what is not working
for you that you're looking to find a solution and
(16:09):
to find a problem about this problem. If your problem
is something that I feel confident that I can address
and help you move forward by way of communications, public relations, branding,
a special event, then I go ahead and I offer
up our types of services and provide that. So public
(16:32):
relations is traditionally something that is done on a retainer,
which means that the customer or the business owner is
signing a contract for several months to retain us for
three months, for four months, for six months, for one year,
and for us to work on your behalf. And it
is services that are done for you. So that is
(16:54):
a traditional way of how we go ahead and do
our business. If it does not seem as if it's
a good fit, there's a variety of reasons it wouldn't
be a good fit.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
One, they're looking for a service that we do not provide.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Two, they may not have the appropriate budget to go
ahead and start the services of what they're looking to do.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Three. Sometimes people don't even set up a marketing budget.
They don't have an idea of what their budget is.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
And I think it's premature to have a conversation with
a service provider before you actually know how much you
can afford to actually spend on that particular product, project
or service. And sometimes people come and say, well, hey,
well I don't have the information. I don't know how
much PR costs, I don't know how much marketing costs.
That's okay. I mean you could just go ahead and
(17:43):
start to do your research. And a lot of that
stuff is online already. You know, we have chagbt now
what makes it even easier. But ultimately you have to
look at how much money your business is profiting and
then drive ten to thirty percent of your profits into
a budget for marketing.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Let's talk about the marketing plane. Why do people don't
understand they have to market something to get people to
know what they have.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
I feel when it comes to small businesses, they get
very caught up in the product and service and producing
what it is that they have, and they fall in
love with the creative process of whatever this app is,
whatever this you know physical product is, whatever this thing
that you want to create, and then the execution, which
is the marketing and sales side, comes in on the
(18:34):
back end. So now you have launched a business, and
now you are in the red because you haven't figured
out who the audiences that's going to buy this and
then how to actually sell it to them. And so
before we even launch the idea, we have to talk
about how are we going to fund the idea, how
are we going to put together a marketing strategy in
(18:56):
a marketing system, because you have a strategy, but then
you need the system to back up the strategy and
so forth as well with the sales process.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
So it's really disheartening to see.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
And I actually started coaching startups and small businesses who
are in growth phase because of this lack of knowledge
around and marketing and sales. I have a six week
marketing and sales accelerator. And just last night I was
invited to a private event and I met the co
(19:28):
founder of Reebok, who is a billionaire. His nig Joe,
and he's European and now Joe is about eighty something
years old. And they asked him a question and he said,
one of the most, probably the most important aspect to
a product or service is the marketing. Is the This
(19:50):
is a man who scaled the business and sold it
to to Adidas for about twenty three billion dollars.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
And that's what people don't understand. And I think that
another part of the whole.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Process of the mistakes that we make is that we
try to talk to everybody. And I always tell people,
you know, like like Tesla, I've never seen the Tesla
commercial on TV, but you people buy a Tesla, Okay,
I've never It's a new brand of EV out there
called Rivan, I believe or I v An.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
That's a new EV. That truck. I love that truck.
But guess what, I don't see no TV.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
So a lot of people want to go out there,
whatever they product, they want to talk to everybody where
they should do.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Niche marketing.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Like you said, find out who your audience is, focus
on that audience, and any growth outside of that audience
is called positive residual income. Talk to about that niche
marketing and focusing on I always tell people that's what
people make a big mistake. They throw why the net
trying to catch everybody when they should be standing on
(20:58):
next to the bank catching a fish that they can catch.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Talk to is Danielle.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
I think that is the huge that's the huge difference
between the business owner and entrepreneur who has been doing
the work and studying and learning their business and one
clearity is still just figuring it out. One of the
things that we first understand is that we can't communicate
to everybody and that our product or service will not
(21:24):
be you know, for everybody. So it's important to learn
and understand the demographics of your audience. Social media has
made it very awesome to understand that because if you
have your profiles set up as business profiles, you can
see the demographics.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
You can see the gender.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
The age, the location, and then you can begin to study, Okay,
well what types of things do these do these demographics
like what's important? Where they finding their news and their media.
But then also you can do the work and actually
go out and talk to your customers, create moments where
you talk to them. When I was younger in business,
(22:04):
I will always have these think tank kind of like
roundtables where I would bring in strategic people. When I'm
thinking about a product, when I'm thinking about a service,
I first want to make sure that this audience that
I'm thinking about actually needs this. So I bring them in,
I host them, I give them some hospitality, and I
get feed from them. I ask the questions and they
(22:27):
you know, they deliver the information to me and allows
me to create a product or service that makes sense
for that particular audience, because you could be thinking something
but it might not be the case right. So having
those communications, being able to survey your audience, being able
to follow up with them and build rapport with them,
have those connections in communication, being able to niche down
(22:51):
and learn about that is very important. One of the
things that I've realized in my business is a lot
of my clientele is males. A lot people hire my
PR services and those who I work a lot with
are males. And when I saw that trend, then I said, okay, well,
I'm going to continue to have conversations with businessmen who
(23:12):
are serious about marketing and building their brands and doing pr.
Now I do represent women, but I'm just saying, the
statistics show in my business that.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
More men hire me than women hire.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Me and so, and that's just because I'm following, you know,
what's happening within my business.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
And then I'm able to build those relationships with them.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Which is fantastic because you know, women and me the
Global Mission and the wim Speaks podcast is about women.
And then we just talking about earlier, were talking about
comments in your social media posts. Find out what people
are saying about you, don't ignore. If it's consistent, that
may be a brand tool you need to bring into
your business. Let's talk about the extensions that you've created
(23:54):
your podcasts and other platforms as a public speaker that
you've created outside.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Your for Matt Danielle, Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Yeah. So everything that I have created and launched is
because I found that there was a need to fill, right.
I don't I'm not that that entrepreneur who says I
think my idea is great, I'm gonna go ahead and
launch it. I understand that I need a service base.
I understand that I need customers, so I'm servicing and
providing things that matter to them. When I graduated from school,
(24:25):
I also went to a film screening. So I majored
in Theater, Arts and Dance at Spelmen College and a
double major in history. And so I was at a
film screening and it was about the Philadelphia arts scene.
And it was a group of young filmmakers who was
premiering this screening. But when I saw the screening, I
(24:46):
noticed that there was only one woman in this feature film.
And I've said, well, wow, wow, why only one woman? No, Like,
there's so many artists that come out of Philadelphia, like
you only felt one to talk to in this documentary
is So I was like, wow, this is alarming to me.
I think this signifies something bigger that's happening within the industry.
(25:09):
So I began to research what was happening in entertainment,
what was happening in the media industry as far as
those working as professionals, whether they were in front of
the camera or behind the scenes. Literally, I launched Women
in Media Global right before Me Too.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
It was like three years before Me Too.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
It was like it was simmering up and it was
like I felt it, everybody else felt it, and boom,
here comes me too. But Women in Media had launched,
and I launched this initiative as a reminder to remind
women to own their voice, because in that situation, a
number of things could have happened.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
One there could have been a woman there.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Who didn't speak up, who didn't you know, her opinion
about this absence of women being represented, or her voice
was not heard. Right was producing this film did not
take into consideration what she said if she did advocate
for the need for women. So I created this platform
(26:09):
to remind women of that, but also to empower them
to advocate, to take up more spaces and be able
to just be bigger and to grow wider and to
launch their own initiatives and to be leaders in the
space of media and entertainment in business. And that is
how Women in Media launched. And so we've done six
(26:31):
annual conferences, we've launched our podcasts as well as an
extension of that conversation, and we like to bring onto
the show those who.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Are working in the industry.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
They may be entrepreneurs in the industry, or they may
be those who are working on behalf of major media companies,
but wanting to share their stories, wanting to get their
advice on how to best successfully retriculate and navigate such
a sticky industry entertainment, and to begin to continue to
(27:02):
spread and show a spotlight on what women are doing.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
How can we get in touch with you, Danielle.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
I have Instagram which is dpjeter, so you can go
ahead and check out my Instagram. There you will find
links in my bio of everything that I have going on.
You can send me a DM and set up a
conversation with me. I'll follow the podcast as well, the
Whim Wim Speak show. We're on Spotify, Apple, We're also
(27:31):
on YouTube all the places that you get your favorite podcasts,
and I'm on LinkedIn, Danielle pagejeter too, so womenI Mediaglobal
dot org.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Thank you, my friend, Danielle. An amazing conversation.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
The fact that you're impacting so many people is something
you started in twenty twelve, and the fact that you
are in a business that's very competitive, if it planning
large event planning a small event planning, it's very competitive.
And also the fact that you understanding how to define
the need for marketing activations and public relations. Thank you
for coming on money Making Conversation Masterclass.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Thank you so much for having me. This was amazing.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
hosted by me Rushawn McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today, and thank you listening to the
audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
I want to be a guest on the show, visit
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
(28:30):
your gifts.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Keep winning.
Hosts And Creators
Steve Harvey
Shirley Strawberry
Thomas "Nephew Tommy" Miles
Carla Ferrell
Kier "Junior" Spates
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