IAM2521 – Media Coach Passionate About Helping Women and Leaders Define Their Brands

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Rasheedah Thomas Teaser 00:00

Yeah, so most of our clients have been municipal governments. We've worked with some foreign governments, actually, in West Africa.

We've had 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.

Intro 00:26

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:53

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 01:03

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

Gresham Harkless 01:05

Me too. I'm excited to have you on and what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Rasheedah so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing.

And 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 businesses and government leaders define their brand and raise their profile.

She is also a highly sought-after commenter for U.S. and international media, where she shares her expertise and analysis of U.S. and international affairs.

She's a proud native South Carolinian and also alumni of Howard University, the real H-U, might I add.

Rasheedah, it's great to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Rasheedah Thomas 01:56

I am. Let's do it.

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Gresham Harkless 01:57

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 and what led you to start your business.

Rasheedah Thomas 02:05

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, 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, 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 in, NPR went through some financial difficulties, and they offered a buyout.

And I was still young, but I'd been there so long that the buyout was extremely attractive to me.

Gresham Harkless 03:02

Nice.

Rasheedah Thomas 03:03

I took a leap of faith, 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, maybe 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 comp clients now, I kind of went through the fire the first time.

But it was a great experience and it has really served me well working with clients now.

Gresham Harkless 04:05

Yeah, that's definitely awesome. And it's great to hear, you know, um, 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 you guys sitting at lunch and having a bunch of napkins, just like the big, huge tech companies and writing on them and all those things about things you want to do.

Rasheedah Thomas 04:28

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 04:29

Yeah, that makes sense. So I wanted to drill down. I know you touched a little bit upon some of the things that you do with RSC Communications.

Could you tell us a little bit more on how you serve and the clients you're working with?

Rasheedah Thomas 04:40

Yeah, so most of our clients have been municipal governments. We've worked with some foreign governments actually in West Africa. We've had 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 media coach our clients, we're speaking from experience, 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 05:52

Yeah, absolutely. And especially like you mentioned, I think that's one of the beautiful things, like whenever you have a business or started 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, you know, walk the walk and talk the talk so that when people do work with you, you can actually say I've done X, Y, and Z.

Rasheedah Thomas 06:23

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 06:24

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And 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 sauce is?

Rasheedah Thomas 06:35

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's 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 07:21

Yeah, that makes sense. And I was just going to ask you that like, 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 like that is something that, people value tremendously?

Rasheedah Thomas 07:41

Oh yeah, no, 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 it right away, that they're really getting their hands held.

And then they feel like they have big ROI in their investment. They feel like they're really getting their money's worth because they do get so much of our attention. So it really is a win-win.

Gresham Harkless 08:03

Yeah, that makes sense. Because a lot of times when you are going through something, obviously you 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 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.

Rasheedah Thomas 08:20

Exactly.

Gresham Harkless 08:21

Yeah, that makes sense. And now I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack.

And this might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Rasheedah Thomas 08:34

So a couple of things, on the more like kind of techie side, we just started using this app called Trello and it's a 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 ometimes for different projects, we bring on consultants.

And we're able to put them on different projects on Trello and 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, when you own your business, you eat, sleep, and breathe your 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 kind of 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 kind of off the grid, unless it's an emergency.

So self-care is extremely important because you can very easily burn out. And if you burn out, then that's your business.

You're not allowed to burn 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 10:21

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I love both of those hacks because, staying organized organizes everything, especially I find that if you have things in one place, then you, it helps take it out of your head.

Sometimes things that you might be holding on, cause everything's there, but I agree with you.

Like, it's definitely a marathon, running a business and there's always a million and one 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 10:53

It is and I've seen people who don't practice self-care and they and they burn out or they're just extremely stressed.

And stress can lead to disease, you can really get sick and being sick You are trying to run a business is a nightmare because you still have to do you can't take a sick day It doesn't work that way you can't call out sick for your own business.

And I am constantly doing things to boost my immune system and make sure that physically I'm in tip-top.

Gresham Harkless 11:27

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I tried to call out it didn't go over too well with my boss. Oh, there you go 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 hop into a time machine what would you tell your younger business self?

Rasheedah Thomas 11:45

Oh, wow. So if I could go back to that lunch when we were sitting and deciding names and starting the business.

I would have told myself to, try not to be the master of everything we kind of kind of threw everything at the wall.

We weren't exactly sure we had an idea, but we weren't exactly sure what types of clients we would be getting in exactly the type of services that we would provide.

And part of that is, part of the process, it's growing pains. 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 one to someone's day 300,031.

It 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 had been, and you're used to having a lot of systems in place, 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. That's something that you shouldn't stress about and just take it step by step.

Gresham Harkless 13:11

Yeah, I think that's absolutely, absolutely great reminder. And if you see my youngest 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 are.

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 365 hundred thousand number that you said.

Rasheedah Thomas 13:43

Yes. Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 13:45

Absolutely. Nice. And 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 does being a CEO mean to you?

Rasheedah Thomas 13:57

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 and you love it, which I do. We have clients that the work that they do, we are invested in, we care about it. We believe in it.

And so, it's good for us. So I'm, I feel very blessed that I have my own company, and I'm able to everyday do work that makes me feel good and I feel like I'm helping people and I'm helping 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 me from my business and my business from me. We really are one in the same.

 Gresham Harkless 14:44

Yeah, I love that. It's funny. I was talking with somebody and they mentioned we're always seeking 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 and 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 15:08

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

Gresham Harkless 15:15

Yes, exactly.

Rasheedah Thomas 15:16

That's really important to me.

Gresham Harkless 15:18

Makes perfect sense. And Rasheedah, I truly appreciate your time. What I wanted to do is 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 a hold of you.

Rasheedah Thomas 15:28

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 rccommsdc, that's r-c-c-o-m-m-s-d-c.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 16:13

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And we'll 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 16:20

Thank you. You do the same.

Outro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CB Nation and 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.

Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at Blue16Media.com. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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