IAM311- Media Coach Passionate About Helping Women and Leaders Define Their Brands

Rasheedah is Principal and Co-founder at RC Communications, a Washington, DC-based strategic communications firm. She works with clients to media coach them, create branding and marketing strategies, crisis communication plans, and fundraising campaigns. Her passion is helping women business and government leaders define their brand and raise their profile. She is also a highly sought-after commentator for US and international media where she shares her expertise and analysis of US and international affairs. She is a proud native South Carolinian and alumna of Howard University.

• CEO Hack: (1) Trello for project management (2) Self-care
• CEO Nugget: (1) Don't be the master of everything (2) Pace yourself
• CEO Defined: Your life is your business and your business is your life

Website: http://rccommsdc.com/

Twitter: @rasheedah_t
@rccommsdc

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:30

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. Rasheedah Thomas of RC Communications. Rasheedah, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Rasheedah Thomas 0:39

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to do this.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

Me too. I'm excited to have you on and what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Rashida so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Rasheedah is the Principal and Co-founder at RC Communications, a Washington, DC-based strategic communications firm. She works with clients to media coach them, and creates branding and marketing strategies, crisis communication plans, and fundraising campaigns.

Her passion is helping women business and government leaders define their brands and raise their profile. She is also a highly sought-after commentator for US and international media where she shares her expertise and analysis of US and international affairs. She is a proud native South Carolinian and alumna of Howard University. Rasheeda, it's great to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Rasheedah Thomas 1:32

I am. Let's do it.

Gresham Harkless 1:33

Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story, what led you to start your business.

Rasheedah Thomas 1:41

So I started my career pretty fresh out of college at National Public Radio. I was there for about 11 years, actually. So I learned a lot. I was behind the scenes, I was not on the radio and not on the mic. I worked in development, I started out in fundraising, on the institutional giving side. So writing foundation grants, and some government agency grants. And then later in my tenure there, I moved into donor relations, and working for the board, which I really enjoyed. And I was able to continue to work with the fundraising team, I was still in the development department. So it was actually great for me, but about 11 years and I went through some financial difficulties. And they offered a buyout and I was still young, I had been there so long that the buyout was extremely attractive to me. So I took a leap of faith and took the buyout.

And a couple of weeks later, one of my very best and oldest friends Calvin Dark, got laid off from his PR firm. We had lunch and our company was the result of brainstorming during that lunch. One of the things that has helped me in my career now at RC Communications is we had a little bit of a scandal about let's see maybes eight years into me being at NPR. And because I had so much institutional knowledge, I ended up helping NPR create its first crisis communication plan. So when I work with crisis, calm clients now, I went through the fire the first time. But it was a great experience. And it's really served me well working with clients now.

Gresham Harkless 3:41

Yeah, that's definitely awesome. And it's great to hear how sometimes things don't happen as you want them to happen. But they happen as exactly as they should, as you mentioned with Calvin, who's also been featured on the show as well, too, you guys had and I visualize saw you guys sitting at lunch and having a bunch of napkins, just like the big huge tech companies and writing on them about all those things you want to do.

Rasheedah Thomas 3:41

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 3:41

Yeah, that makes sense. So I wanted to drill down. I know you touched a little bit upon that some of the things that you do with RC communications. Could you tell us a little bit more about how you serve the client you're working with?

Rasheedah Thomas 4:16

Yeah, so most of our clients have been municipal governments. We've worked with some foreign governments actually in West Africa, we've had two heads of state, we're really proud of that as our clients. We've also worked with law enforcement here in the states, some nonprofits and associations, and also with small business owners and entrepreneurs with their marketing and branding. My personal passion is helping women business leaders and thought leaders with personal and professional branding and also if they have a business with marketing their business, so that's really near and dear to my heart.

Also, the media coaching that we do. Calvin and I both spend some time doing our own media commentating both for domestic and some foreign news outlets. So when we need to coach our clients, we're speaking from experience, and not just teaching from the book, we're actually telling them our tricks of the trade, and how we make ourselves feel comfortable on camera. So that's been really great for us.

Gresham Harkless 5:28

Yeah, absolutely. And especially like you mentioned, I think that's one of the beautiful things whenever you have a business or start a business or whatever, you're always trying to build a great team. And you're tapping into the expertise of people, when you bring them on, or when you're working with them. So it could be like the Crisis Communication, as you talked about, where you're tapping into your expertise, during the NPR and be able to learn from you on how exactly to do that. But it's great that you guys have to walk the walk and talk to talk so that when people do work with you, you can actually say, I've done XYZ.

Rasheedah Thomas 5:59

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 6:00

Yeah, that makes perfect sense, then, now, I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this is what you feel kind of distinguishes you or your organization, but what do you feel like your secret sauces?

Rasheedah Thomas 6:11

So I think for us, we're small, but we're very nimble. And We're very cautious about the clients that we bring on and the clients that we have brought on, they get a lot of personal attention from us. And they're usually very pleasantly surprised, especially our Crisis Communications clients because they're usually going through the fire. And they want to know that somebody has their back every step of the way. So the fact that they can call us text us email us any time of the day or night and they do that is very reassuring for them. So that's the kind of personal touch and connection that we give to clients that larger firms just can't do.

Gresham Harkless 6:58

Yeah, that makes sense. And I was just going to ask you that, during those crazy times, I guess you can call them when something has hit the fan. I won't say what but things hit the fan like how you're able to, be there and be that differentiator do you find that is something that people value tremendously?

Rasheedah Thomas 7:18

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And we've had clients who have dealt with larger firms before they came to us. And they instantly see the difference. I mean, they see right away that they're really getting their hands held, and then they feel like they have a big ROI on their investment. They feel like they're really getting their money's worth because they do get so much of our attention. So it's it really is a win-win.

Gresham Harkless 7:41

Yeah, that makes sense. Because a lot of times when you are going through something, obviously want more outside of that. But a lot of times just to be able to know that somebody is there and can help you out and has the expertise to do that goes so much farther than somebody who doesn't answer the phone call or doesn't answer those texts and things like that. So exactly. Yeah, that makes sense. And now I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you about what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Rasheedah Thomas 8:12

So there is a couple of things. On the more techie side, we just started using an app called Trello. And it's good project management we went through, it's a good project management tool, we went through a lot of different types of project management tools before we landed on this one, and it's only been a couple of months. But so far, so good when we bring on sometimes for different projects, we bring on consultants, and we're able to, to put them on different projects on Trello when they can't see everything else, we are in the midst of hiring an assistant and he or she will be able to see some things on Trello and other things not it's been really great.

So there's that. But the other thing that I'm sure a lot of CEOs and people who own businesses know is self-care. I mean, I really have to, it's when you own your business, you eat, sleep, and breathe your own business.

And I have found in the five years that we've been in business that I do have to take time and step away, I do have to make time to go to the gym a few times a week, I need that time to zone out. I need to go get a massage or take a vacation. Every now and again, even if it's just a weekend away, or even just one day where I'm off the grid and unless it's an emergency. So self-care is extremely important because you can very easily burn out and if you burn out your business is not allowed burns out, burned out that way. So you really do have to take care of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, you really have to just stay on top of everything.

Gresham Harkless 9:58

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I love both of those hacks because staying organized and organizing everything, especially I find that if you have things in one place, then it helps take them out of your head, sometimes things that you might be holding on to because everything's there. But I agree with you it's definitely a marathon running a business. And there are always 1,000,001 things going on, not only do you have to run your business, but if you have clients, often you're also tied into their business as well. So it can definitely be something that's very draining. So self-care is definitely huge.

Rasheedah Thomas 10:32

It is, and I've seen people who don't practice self-care, and they burn out or they're just extremely stressed. And stress can lead to disease, you can really get sick, and be sick. Or trying to run a business is a nightmare, because you still have to, you can't take a sick day. It just doesn't work that way. You can't call out sick for your own business. I am constantly doing things to boost my immune system and make sure that physically I'm tip-top.

Gresham Harkless 11:06

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I tried to call out it didn't go over too well with my boss. So yes, it's very, very true. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Rasheedah Thomas 11:24

Oh, wow. So if I could go back to that lunch, we were sitting and deciding names and starting the business, I would have told myself to try not to be the master of everything, too, we threw everything at the wall, and we weren't exactly sure, we had an idea. But we weren't exactly sure what types of clients we would be getting and exactly the type of services that we would provide. And part of that is a part of the process, it's a growing pain. But I would have told myself not to stress about it too much. I also would have told myself back then that comparison is the thief of joy. And you can't compare your day 1 to someone's day 300,031 That doesn't work that way.

So you really have to pace yourself. But when you're coming from working from a large organization, and both Calvin and I used to have a lot of systems in place, and a lot of support and a lot of things that you can take advantage of and things that you are used to. It's difficult when you go out on your own and you don't have those same safety nets. But I would have told myself, that's okay. You're just starting out? You can't do something that you shouldn't stress about. And just take it step by step.

Gresham Harkless 12:49

Yeah, I think that's absolutely great reminder, and if you see my younger business self as well tell him that as well. Because a lot of times especially if you're really ambitious, you're really driven and you're trying to build something as most entrepreneurial business owners, you have that vision of what you want to do, or you may have already experienced it, or you have that picture painted. And a lot of times you have to remember that it's just one step after another one day after another. And it's a process to get to that 360-500,000 number that you said,

Rasheedah Thomas 12:51

Yes, absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 12:52

Absolutely. That is and then now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Rasheedah, what has a CEO meant to you?

Rasheedah Thomas 13:37

Well, it means that your life is your business, and your business is your life. And that's not a bad thing. Especially if you're passionate about what you do when you love it, which I do. We have clients that the work that they do, we are invested, we care about it. We believe in it. And so it's good for us. So I feel very blessed that I have my own company, and I'm able to do work every day that makes me feel good. And I feel I'm helping people and I'm helping to make a difference in a myriad of different ways. So I think that's what being a CEO means to me. It's very all-encompassing. It's very difficult for me to separate myself from my business and my business from me. For me, we really are one and the same.

Gresham Harkless 14:26

Yeah, I love that. It's funny, I was talking with somebody and they mentioned we're always seeking work like work-life balance, but they said this phrase of work-life integration, which I think is definitely true for people that are passionate about what they do. It's not necessarily you want to separate the two, you just want to integrate it into your life. So you are taking in having that time for self-care, but at the end of the day, you're so passionate about what you do. You don't necessarily want to get away from it all the time.

Rasheedah Thomas 14:50

Exactly, exactly. I'm very happy that I don't have a job that I want to take a vacation from.

Gresham Harkless 14:56

Yes, exactly.

Rasheedah Thomas 14:58

That's what's really important to me.

Gresham Harkless 15:00

It makes perfect sense. And Rasheedah, I truly appreciate your time, what I wanted to do was pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get ahold of you.

Rasheedah Thomas 15:11

Well, if you're looking for media coaching, or if unfortunately, you find yourself in a Crisis Communication issue, and even if you want to just make sure that you have a crisis communication plan in place, so you don't end up like National Public Radio back in 2000, I can't even remember the year right now. Please reach out to us, you can find us at Rccomsdc. That's our website rccommsdc.com. That's our handle on Twitter and Instagram. You can find us on LinkedIn and you can find me personally on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. And my handle is Rasheedah_t.

Gresham Harkless 15:57

Awesome, awesome, awesome. I will make sure to have those links in the show notes as well. But thank you so much again, Rasheedah, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Rasheedah Thomas 16:05

Thank you, you do the same.

Outro 16:06

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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