IAM263- Podcaster Builds a Lifestyle Brand to Empower Women and Encourage Storytelling

Quanna is an artist and rapper who describes herself as the carefree girl from Georgia. She hers build a platform that is inclusive and considers diversity.

This was a live recording at the PurpleCon event.

• CEO Hack: (1) Taking a lot of notes (2) Canva for graphics and visuals
• CEO Nugget: Don't be afraid to be multi-talented
• CEO Defined: Badass person, doer and improver

Website: https://www.carefreeblackgrl.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CFBGPod/

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 0:27

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresham from the I AM CEO Podcast. And I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Quanna of Carefree Black Grl. Quanna it's awesome to have you on the show.

Quanna 0:35

Okay, thank you. Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:37

No problem. Super excited to have you on and we talked a little bit more offline. But I wanted to hear how's the conference going for you.

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Quanna 0:43

It's going pretty well. I came out here to support my friend Wise, the founder of the indie creative network, I'm pretty sure you will hear from him soon. But yeah, it's been pretty good. I'm actually meeting a lot of people. My company does work in DC. So it was great to come out before we actually came out for my company's event actually peaking.

Gresham Harkless 1:02

Yeah. So Are you local in DC?

Quanna 1:04

No. So I am from Georgia born and raised. But I've lived in New York for the past seven years. So I started my company, Carefree Black Grl in New York. We're based in New York and Atlanta. So we say New York and Atlanta because I started in New York. But the podcast is actually based in Atlanta now. And I work in events in Atlanta and New York as well throughout the year. But we do multi cities. We do a tour everywhere. But for the most part, we have a lot of things going on in Atlanta and New York all throughout the year.

Gresham Harkless 1:37

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I guess how did you get started with everything?

Quanna 1:40

So I'm an artist first, I'm a rapper and you can find me online at Quantic MC for everything I have. But essentially about 2011 and 2012 I was describing myself as the Carefree Black Girl from Savannah, Georgia. And from there, the hashtag kind of went viral. And a lot of my background comes from the community I would look like in any university. There, I was a part of the marching band and I went through community-based events.

So as I started my career as a rapper, I was still doing my stop the violence events, back home, little gatherings for my friends, hosting parties, and things like that. And when I saw that the hashtag was going viral. I was just like, you know, this seems like it's gonna be a little bigger than just me saying, I'm a carefree black girl. And like, you know, that I decided to like to start building things.

So I started the Carefree Black Grl Picnic 2014. Me and like five other friends. It was really cute. The next summer 2015 I decided to do it again. This time I made a flyer and it went viral with over 100 Artis and things like that. And from there, I decided I want to build something that's for black women, you know, you have representation for the afro-centric girls, the this the ghetto girl that whatever I wanted to build a platform that caters to diversity in the complexity of black woman because we all have different stories.

You know, you could be a CEO now and she might have grown up in the hood or Chicago or whatever. So I wanted to be a platform that was for all black woman. So summer of 2015, everyone viral, I started to Google and research, trademarking and LLC. So by the beginning of 2016, I had my LLC and I started to process for trademark. Because the hashtag was so viral.

I had to go through a whole process of securing a trademark and it took a very, very long time, I actually did not get my trademark until last summer 2018. Like, actually, I didn't get the paperwork in hand until October of 2018. But at this point, the brand has a lot of moving parts, but essentially it's a lifestyle brand that promotes women empowerment, and entrepreneurship in the arts. And we do that by building platforms for black women to display and tell their stories.

So one thing that we have is a Carefree Black Grl Podcast, it's on iTunes and you can find a few clips online, but they pretty much discuss all things anything character anything like anything girl from politics to health and wellness, we've had trans woman come on and tell their stories. We've spoken to CEOs resorting to just our local entrepreneurs. So that's one platform that we have the carefree black girl cookout it serves as the one-stop shop for everything.

Black women so if you could think of just going in somewhere and seeing food, different dishes to eat different entrepreneurs, different haircare brands, we have women performers, and the carefree black girl cookout is actually our biggest activation. We traveled to the city including DC last year we went to Philly Savannah Atlanta wants to go so you go to DC we went to you Because Charlotte, Charlotte.

I think this year we're trying to go to more cities, but we just stop in every city and we call up the local entrepreneurs, vendors talent, and we just have that slow. And that's apart. And we also have merch and other things. But I would say the podcasts and the cookout are like, our biggest platforms right now.

Gresham Harkless 5:18

Yeah, no, that's absolutely huge. Because I love how, like, a lot of times you create something because something doesn't exist. And next thing, you know, you start talking to one or two people who are like, Oh, that's super cool. I want to come to that event, or I want to get that list, the podcast, whatever that is. Next thing, you know, you start to build, you got your trademark, and all this stuff starts to come out from there. So it kind of starts out from just trying to create something for yourself. And then all of a sudden, all these people want it.

Quanna 5:39

Right, right, exactly. So I felt like when I did start the brand, I could have just been like, Oh, this is my brand. And I own this. But it was bigger than that. I was like, this is an opportunity to create something that could outlast me. And some people ask what the brand is it is a brand, but it's more of a social thing and becoming aware of thoughts. Because people will hashtag who will write think pieces. I had XO Nicole right, thank key blabbing. Like, does it carry leg raises, and I'm like, this is something I was literally calling.

I don't realize that deep. But then when you think about it, like awakens a whole different thought process, like striving is vital, in spite of I suppose, not saying I don't have cares. But it's just saying like, none of this is going to stop me from excelling, type thing. And I think that we show that in the things we do we go to we don't choose to find the neighborhoods to go to Google right in the hood and post up and have an event. And you see all these black women coming out with talent and, and food and all these different products are selling you're like what is this?

So it just shows you that different aspects of what it means to be a woman and what it means to be black and a man comes out. Like we have about 40% Male attendants, and 60% women, so it's all of us and we celebrate and we understand the importance of strengthening our women.

Gresham Harkless 6:52

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And that makes perfect sense. And I wanted to ask you for what I call, your secret sauce. And this is something you might have already touched on. But what do you feel kind of sets you or your brand apart and makes you guys unique?

Quanna 7:03

The thing I think that makes us unique is that we're relentless in our desire to say that we are a platform for black women, because I've had a lot of people say, Oh, you want women of color. I'm like, I get it. I appreciate everyone. But right now there's a definite need for my my sisters to be empowered from all angles. I think that we look at a lot of the media, and we have representations. We have the monitors, we have the cartoons, and we are starting to get the animes.

And we're starting to get these other different types of people where we have to make that more visuals people understand that, when you're approaching the Quanah from Rebecca isn't the same, you and me we're not monolithic. And I think that that's my secret sauce, that we're relentless in saying that we want to identify the diversity of black women. If you come to my face, you might have a Black Country singer.

You know what I mean? You may have somebody who would look like Susan, but she's rapping like 50 cents, you know me on my stage. So I just tried to build platforms for those people. And social media is also a secret sauce. Like the fact that people talk so much about us, people are irrelevant, whether it's good or bad. They're asking the questions, you're talking, okay, I'm gonna talk back, I'm gonna ask them a question directly.

Like, that's what keeps me going. Twitter, Instagram, whatever they're talking about, whether it's good or bad. If you feel like somebody's missing your brand, give a funny comment. You know what I mean? Like, oh, my God, I didn't know thank you. And that actually, you might have just won a fan or created another supporter out of them critiquing you.

Gresham Harkless 8:36

Exactly, yeah. And I feel like in today's day and age, you have the opportunity, whether it be brands or people to have that direct conversation, which you never would ever have years and years ago. So it's huge that you guys are taking advantage of that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be what you touched on. But it's something it might be an app or book or habit, but something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Quanna 8:57

I will say that I take a lot of notes. So like, no matter where I go, I always have like a little notepad to write it down on whether you use your notes at Canva has saved my life when it comes to branding on social media because sometimes you'd be like need vendors and you could just write it under a post. But people are so visual.

Now I think that Canva has been like my secret weapon when I need to like to create things. You can even create decks on Canva. You can create one sheet and I feel like that's an app that helps me with different things like my notes app and a candidate like those are my CEO hacks.

Gresham Harkless 9:33

Great, good. I love those and especially Canva has saved my life as well. So let me know what you mean. And now I would 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 a time machine. What would you tell your younger business self?

Quanna 9:46

Don't be afraid to be multifaceted. I think people force people into these boxes and that's why I feel like the disparities within this country have been formed because everybody doesn't aren't we're not all educated. The same and we don't receive information the same, we're not always the same.

So I feel like as a creator, as an innovator, as a storyteller, when you go to tell your story, if your story has many layers, who allow those layers to be told, don't try to hide one part of your so to appease another so when I first started rapping, I wouldn't tell people I was a college graduate, because I felt like it was like, oh my, why are you rapping? But, you know, I'm smarter, but I also am talented as well.

So why not be someone who can display both of those things? So I feel like if you have multi-talent, just make them all make sense. And make them all drive that one dream, but do not cut them off. Because eventually though things are gonna haunt you.

Gresham Harkless 10:39

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And a lot of times, that's how you kind of separate yourself as it is because you have all those different factors that you pull together. And this makes you who you are and why you can't be duplicated or copied by anybody.

Quanna 10:50

Because you might be able to, like do graphic design, if you could say maybe your own graphic, you you already have like a different angle from somebody else. So I definitely think that even when it comes to podcasting like I produced Carefree Black Grl Podcast, I'm not on it, you rarely hear my voice, people like Why don't you listen to a rapper, I'm like, that's another skill that I want to get better at.

I want to help other people tell their stories. I feel like it'd be 10 Black girls, we could also have a different story. You might be a little overweight, I can tell the story to your community. You might have a biracial, you know, Father, you might be the first generation and you might think is and I feel like people are so hesitant because they see other people do it. And I realized that like everybody.

Gresham Harkless 11:29

Yeah, exactly. We all have our own special story. So I appreciate you for doing the part to kind of showcase. So now what asked me my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, or have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show? So Quanna. I want to ask you, what does it mean to you?

Quanna 11:43

What it means to be a CEO, I feel like a CEO's innovator, they're a badass person. This person basically saw a need for something when it was created, they walked into a grocery store and saw 100 forms of bread, but that CEO said I'm gonna make this bread better. And so I feel like that's what makes a CEO so I was like, I alright, I can do that. And if I can't do that, I will do something even better.

Gresham Harkless 12:09

I absolutely love that definition. And I think that taps into everything. So I appreciate your time Quanna for anybody that's listening, what's the best way for them to get a hold of you?

Quanna 12:17

Okay, so to get a hold of me specifically, it's @quannamc on everything. From Twitter, and Instagram, I have music out to get in touch with carefree black girls and you can simply use the #carefreeblackgrl and you'll most likely find us but it's Instagram @carefreeblackgirl_inc. Twitter, it's @cfbgpod. And we also have a website www.carefreeblackgrl.com without the I in Girl. So that is on the Instagram and stuff like that.

Gresham Harkless 12:58

Yeah, absolutely. And they'll definitely be in the show notes as well to follow up and click-throughs I appreciate your time. I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Quanna 13:05

Thank you.

Outro 13:07

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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