IAM762- Creative Passionate About Growing Brands Into Visual Powerhouses

Known as the Aesthetic Entrepreneur, Jendayi is a multi-hyphenate trailblazer & the founder of two brands dedicated to content creation for women-owned businesses. After pursuing photography as a hobby for many years, Jendayi was inspired to use her craft in a more meaningful way by officially starting Jendayi Asha Creative in 2010. Over the past 5 years, she has fine-tuned the vision for the company by helping women entrepreneurs package their purpose into compelling brands using design and photography. Most recently Jendayi launched her boldest venture yet, Honey Social – a stock imaging and strategic resource platform for women of color. No matter what avenue it's through, Jendayi's passion lies in using her creative talents to assist brands in growing their businesses into visually appealing powerhouses.

• CEO Hack: HoneyBook to help me manage my clients, create templates and workflows
• CEO Nugget: Start with your foundation, understand your story
• CEO Defined: Being a visionary and a leader

Website: https://www.jendayiasha.com/home

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jendayiashacreative/
https://www.instagram.com/jendayiasha
https://www.instagram.com/honeysocialco

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[00:00:02.20] – Intro

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.

[00:00:29.89] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jindayee Jackson of HoneySocial. Jindayi, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:39.79] – Jendayi Jackson

Good to have, good to be here rather. Super excited to talk to you today about, you know, the things that I have going on in my life as a CEO.

[00:00:48.89] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. Super excited to have you here. You're doing so many different and awesome things that I think are of extreme value to everyone. Before I jump in, I wanted to read a little bit more about you so everybody can get a great idea of all the awesome things that I'm talking about as well. Sounds good. Known as the aesthetic entrepreneur, Jindai is a multi-hyphenate trailblazer and the founder of two brands dedicated to content creation for women-owned businesses. After pursuing photography as a hobby for many years, Jendayi was inspired to use her craft in a more meaningful way by officially starting Jendayi Asha Creative in twenty-ten.

Over the past five years, she has fine-tuned the vision for the company by helping women entrepreneurs package their purpose into compelling brands using design and photography. Most recently, Jendayi launched her boldest venture yet, Honey Social, a stock imaging and strategic resource platform for women of color. No matter what avenue is through, Jendayi's passion lies in using her creative talents to assist brands in growing their businesses into visually appealing powerhouses. Jendaya, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:52.79] – Jendayi Jackson

I am ready.

[00:01:53.90] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. I wanted to get started with all the awesome things you're working on.

[00:02:02.90] – Jendayi Jackson

Sure. Yeah. So as a little background, to give you a peek into my story, I actually was, raised as a dancer. So I began my creative journey as a dancer. I trained extensively for fifteen years, and then I eventually graduated from Columbia University, in New York with a degree in economics and dance. So I've, always had a creative bone, running through my body, but it's always been paired with the more analytical, you know, I guess, left side brain. I'm not sure if it's the left side or the right side, but I've always had sides. Both sides of the brain, yes, put together. So I, you know, was introduced to photography in high school, but, I ventured off that track and spent much of my early career focused on financial analysis, working at companies like the Washington Post Boeing Sallie Mae, and, Essence Magazine as well.

But I did feel the need. Like, when my my dance career closed, I did feel the need to replace it with something else creative, which was that photography, piece. So that's been my outlet, since, you know, corporate America days, and I, like you said in the bio, I pursued photography I officially started Jandaya Asha Creative about, I wanna say ten years ago now. So I've been primarily doing that, and then, I just recently started a new company called Honey Social, which I think we're gonna get into more when it comes to how I serve my clients. But, yeah, that's a that's a quick backdrop of my story. Been married for ten years as well. Have a little dog. And so, yeah, just over here in Washington, DC doing our thing and pushing forward with, our missions and our and our, our legacy, if you will.

[00:03:57.30] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely love that. And I love that legacy piece because I think so many times when we forget, like, all the actions that we're taking are building into that legacy aspect. But I love how you have, you know, both of the sides of the brains that we kinda talked about because I think so many times, especially in entrepreneurship and business you need to have kinda like the systems and everything in place. But Mhmm. So many times when we're trying to solve problems, which I think is at the heart of entrepreneurship, you have to have that creative mind. You have to be able to kinda think in a different way, think outside the box, so to speak. And those are a lot of times where a lot of those solutions come from.

[00:04:31.60] – Jendayi Jackson

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it's one of the things, that makes me unique, you know, in my business is that I do have both sides and that I have spent years developing, decades developing both sides individually. So, yeah, for sure, you know, I wouldn't be where I am without being able to marry both, to give my clients and serve people the way that I do.

[00:04:55.10] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Yeah. I love that. And so I know you touched on it a little bit, and I did as well when I read your bio. Could you take us through your businesses and what exactly you do to serve your clients?

[00:05:03.89] – Jendayi Jackson

Absolutely. So Honey Social, as you mentioned, is a stock imaging and education platform catering to women of color. I actually call my ideal client, a woman with a little honey, cinnamon, and brown sugar in their soul.

[00:05:18.60] – Gresham Harkless

I like that.

[00:05:19.60] – Jendayi Jackson

The cute little tagline I throw in there. So it's a two-pronged business. So stock imaging. You know, when you're prepping your Instagram grid or you're trying to stay consistent on social media or whatever platform you are on, you oftentimes feel like you have nothing to post. So in a nutshell, that's what Honey Social serves to fill, that need of being able to have content at your fingertips that represents who we are as people of color. So that's the stock imaging portion. Then strategic resources, I think what I love most about HoneySocial are the the monthly strategic guides and templates that provide you with further information on how to grow your business.

Right? Because what's the point? And I say this all the time. Like, what's the point of beautiful images if you don't know what to do with them? Like, if you don't know how to use them purposefully? So, you know, we're discussing inside of HoneySocial, inside the membership, how to increase productivity and, like, how to make money with Facebook groups and planning for the end-of-year holiday season or everything you need to know about hashtags. So, you know, the idea is to serve the masses through Honeysocial in a meaningful way so that you can grow your business through consistent stock imaging and then strategic resources as well.

So it's kinda like like what we've been talking about and what's intrinsic to who I am, the creative with the business side as well. So, so that's Honey Social. Then I also, as you mentioned, am the owner of Jindai Asha Creative, which specializes in brand strategy, content creation, and visual design for brands and influencers. So we're passionate about social media marketing, creating clean, original content for women-centric brands, personal work, company branding work, Instagram curation, website design, and all those things from soup to nuts, that help you, create your story. And, it's for people who are committed to growing their engagement in their business.

[00:07:23.30] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I love, you know, both of those, businesses that you have. And it it just kinda reminded me, I use this equation a lot where I say visibility plus resources equals success. And it kind of hits on what exactly you were talking about is, obviously, we're trying to get our name out there and get our brand out there as accurately as possible, which is why I love, you know, everything you've been able to create. But I think, just like you said, like, when you have that traction going and you have the clients coming in, is your foundation in place? Do you have those resources that you can lean on to really scale and grow the business and serve the clients that you're able to do as well?

[00:07:56.19] – Jendayi Jackson

Yes. Absolutely agree with that.

[00:07:58.60] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce, and this could be for yourself your business, or a combination of both. What do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:08:08.89] – Jendayi Jackson

So I think I kinda touched on it. So I'll speak on it a little bit more. So it is that marrying the creative side, with the the business or the strategy side of it. So like you said, systems and processes are important. I'm not able to serve the clients that I do without those processes. I'm, really, really organized. Like, it drives me insane when things are out of order. And so I have an immaculate back end of my business that allows me to serve the clients, my clients, in the way that I do. But I would say since we already touched on that, I think, another unique selling proposition of mine is that I'm professional, but I'm also a human being. And I feel like sometimes we lose sight of that when we're serving clients. Right? We come to the table, and we wanna be professional.

We wanna be an expert. But I think that what makes us more relatable is when we're able to share the vulnerabilities and the transparent pieces of it and, you know, sometimes maybe not be so expert or share when we're not so expert in certain areas. So I like to, you know, when working with people, turn everything into a conversation. Like, I don't wanna preach. I don't wanna teach, you know, at you all the time. Like, let's just have, like, this friendly, you know, kind, giving, relatable conversation friend at you know, in the middle or beginning or at the end of our engagement together. Like, it's not all about the money. It's not all about, you know, Like, it's not all about the money. It's not all about, you know, showing up with my CEO hat on all the time so that I feel like, you know, or it seems like I know everything.

Right? I don't wanna I don't wanna look like that. I want to be someone that someone sees as a person in their corner who can help them and share when, you know, when I've also been down or when things didn't work out for me or, you know, the things in my company that aren't working out so well, that I can share so that someone else doesn't go through the same thing. So I think that's probably my most unique selling proposition is that I am just down to earth with it. Like, I'm not I'm not gonna sell you something that I don't know. You know? I'm not I'm not gonna be sitting in front of you with, you know, glasses on and heels and, you know, not let you know exactly who I am from from the heart. I think that's what's important.

[00:10:51.79] – Gresham Harkless

Definitely. I appreciate that. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:11:04.29] – Jendayi Jackson

HoneyBook. It is a platform. it's a customer relationship management platform, that I use to, like you said, free my mind for the more creative stuff that I really wanna do. So HoneyBook helps me manage, my clients, proposals, contracts, invoicing, brochures, and all that good stuff. All of it is inside that one tool, and it literally has saved me so much time because there's the ability to save email templates so you're not writing the same email over and over and over again. It has a workflow process set up inside of it so you can create workflows for your business so that when someone inquires about your services, the workflow immediately kicks in and shoots off emails and brochures and contracts and all the kinds of things that you need to do to secure a client.

[00:11:58.89] – Gresham Harkless

So, now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client, or if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

[00:12:09.20] – Jendayi Jackson

Start with your foundation. So what that means is to build your blueprint for your business first. And I'm not necessarily talking about a business plan because I know a lot of us, you know, think that that's the first thing that you should do, and that's great. But what I'm talking about when I say, like, brand blueprints are understanding your story, understanding your story, understanding what you sell versus what your offerings are, and sometimes people confuse the two or think that they're similar, but they're not. Your offerings are, you know, what, rather, what you sell is what are the pain points that you're trying to solve for someone, and then your offerings are what packages or services or products are gonna help you to solve those pain points. So your story, what you sell, your offerings, what makes you unique. I mean, you even ask that in in in in the questions that you've given me so far, who your offerings are for. Like, all these things need to be laid out and crystal clear before you do anything visually for your business.

[00:13:13.39] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanna ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. Enrolled down different quotes, and unquote CEOs on the show. So, Sanjay Jindayi, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:24.20] – Jendayi Jackson

Because I think it's it's pretty it's pretty clear that you have to be a visionary. Right? I think you have to have, some insight or some outlook into what you want for your company and how it's going to impact others. I think we talked about impact and legacy earlier on. I think that's important so that you can know the direction of where you're trying to go. So being a visionary, I think that's one thing. Of course, being a leader, you know, being a leader, setting setting the example amongst the masses, so that you can, show them by action.

[00:14:03.39] – Gresham Harkless

So, Jendayi, I truly appreciate that, definition and in that perspective, and I appreciate your time even more. 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, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

[00:14:18.50] – Jendayi Jackson

Yeah. Sure. So I am an open book. I love, going into my email in the morning and seeing an email from someone who met me through training or who saw my work somewhere and just wanted to say hello or just wanted to have a conversation about what they're doing and what their hopes and dreams are. So I welcome that to anyone who's listening. Like, I just wanna be there. You know, like I said earlier, it's not about it's not always about money. I think I saw that on someone's Instagram post when they were asked, like, how do you, you know, get that effect on your photos, or how do you have them so crystal clear? And she just, you know, spilt her guts and spilt all the secrets, and she said it's not all about money.

It's just about sharing, and I feel the same way. Ever since seeing that, I just feel like, I want to lead my life in a way that I can be a resource to anyone who needs me. Of course, you know, I wanna be there's a line. There's always a line where, you know, time does equal money. So, there's that. But if anyone hearing wants to just reach out to me, feel free to do so at hello at jandayiasha dot com. My, business email for Honey Social specifically is info at honeysocial.co. And then on social media, you will be able to find me at Jindai Asha. That's my account. And then at Jindai Asha Creative for business, and then honey at Honey Social Co for Honey Social.

[00:15:53.79] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And then to make it even easier, we will have the links and information in the show notes just so that everybody can follow up with you. But I truly appreciate, you know, everything you're doing, all the awesome work that you've done, the time that you provided today. I think, as you talked about, you know, in the definition is being of influence. And I think being and having those conversations, having those connections, sharing, and giving, your best self to every aspect and every interaction that you can is definitely a great way to do that. So I appreciate you for doing this today, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:22.29] – Outro

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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