We were lucky to catch up with Tre’elle Tolbert recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tre’elle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
I’ve never been happier as a business owner as I am now, than I was before. I started my own company in 2018 while transitioning out of the military. It was my first occupation where I had to take a risk on myself. After completing my Bachelors Degree, I took a risk to start a creative agency. For the next 5 years, I’d ask myself that question of going back to work because my family needed stability. Well, I one day, I applied to be a content strategist at a major university. Within months, I received an email seeking a phone interview. At the time, I was a little stunned to be selected, and I went through with it. I thought I bombed the interview honestly. It was short, sweet, and straight to the point. Being that this would be my first job since transitioning from the Navy, I didn’t have anything else to pull from. Needless to say, I went on to round two. A panel style interview with key stakeholders at the university that drilled me. I had such a wonderful time answering the questions and interviewing the interviewees to make sure that this would be a great fit. Fast forward, I got the job. I had a beautiful salary, faculty position, and my own office space on the top floor with the other execs. I was a part of the creative team, where I collaborated with the marketing team to build a great content strategy during the rebrand of the universities online department. For the next 6 months, I’d find that stability wasn’t what it cracked up to be. I had a dream job, perks, benefits, and a community, yet I started to feel less like myself more and more. The happy business owner that I was prior to being an employee was beginning to change hues. I went from a vibrant yellow, to pastel colors. I missed being in my office space I had downtown. I’d only go their on the weekends since my weekdays were at the university. I couldn’t manage my company and the university at the same time, so the company I fought hard to erect was stagnant. One day, I got sick. Really sick. The walls began to close in on me and a migraine from another planet came over me. I was down for 3 days going into the weekend. That following Monday, I decided to make an announcement to the creative team that would startle the entire department. “Today will be my last day, ” I stated during the teams meeting. With gasps from the Brady Bunch like cubes on the screen, I knew in my heart that I could no longer compromise my creative identity to conform the colors of the university. It was a it’s not you, it’s me situation in real time. I needed creative freedom to move freely, think freely, and create out loud. So, my approach to this is I went on the other side, and sometimes wonder did I make the right decision. Yet, I always go back to the moment I lost myself along the process. I share in my speech to other creatives often that as a creative who thrives in making impact, my creative ARC was compromised when I crossed over to being an entrepreneur to employee. ARC is Autonomy, Relativeness, and Competencies. When I’m in in my lane as a creative impact leader, I’m able to make a motivated decision with my core values in tact. I’m able to share my competencies in the right spaces with the right people. I also feel connected to others as I connect to my purpose. In conclusion, if I ever wonder about what it would be like to have a regular job again, I can stand firmly on the foundation of being a business owner and say, entrepreneurs are solutionists who solve tomorrows problem, today and that’s all I need to bring me great joy and happiness. I know it’s not just a title, but it’s a purpose and passion that allows me to be proud of the highs and the lows because I took the risk.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m Tre’elle, I’m a digital strategist and creative impact leader. I’m in the marketing industry where I serve in my company Tag It Brand It, as a chief brand strategist. My discipline comes form a variety of experiences. I served in the Navy for 8 years as an Interior Communication Electrician, where I was on the ship maintaining comms like telephones, alarms, television while out at sea, and troubleshooting if anything went down. The discipline that comes from being the military is unmatched in the civilian world. I was able to take my knowledge as an electrician to apply it to the systems I use within my organization. It’s as simple as understanding the power supply and the goal of the circuit. Whether that’s making a call off shore or changing a lightbulb in for communicating with pilots, the system remains the same. There is a goal or an output, the source that keeps the the components working and if something is off it’s time to troubleshoot. In the digital marketing realm, that’s like a goal to see an increase in sales. The source would be your distribution channel like a website. To power the website, you need visitors (current), to make it to check out, you need electrical components or content strategy to fuel bring users down the funnel to convert electrical energy into currency.
As a creative agency, our priority is holistic and organic branding and marketing solutions that focuses on community, creativity, and strategic allies. We offer omni-channel solutions that support brand growth. We offer brand strategy, web design, and content creation, helping businesses owners leave their mark using digital solutions. One of the greatest problems we solve for our clients is our ability to help business owners connect deeply to their brands and audience, through creative problem solving, divergent thinking, and artistic talent.
What’s unique within my company is a service I call “Brand Therapy.” It’s the combination of my BS in psychology and MS in digital strategy. It’s goes into the deeper why in branding consultations that allows business owners to brain dump, release frustration, and discover the different paths of possibilities.
One of the work we are most proud of is our work with the CREAMS program that we launched in during the summer of 2022. It is an educational and empowerment initiative designed to inspire and equip the next generation of innovators, problem-solvers, and voice leaders with skills in the creative arts and marketing. It is targeted at students, aiming to foster self-confidence, cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset, and encourage them to unlock their creative potential. The program focuses on teaching the fundamentals of branding, digital marketing, and social and emotional learning (SEL).
We partnered with United Way to reach 4 public schools in the underserved communities in Norfolk, VA to provide branding knowledge and marketing expertise to over 120 students between 4th and 7th grade. This program had a long-lasting impression on students, staff, and myself as the creator.
For an example, I had a fourth grader who was a male that created a brand called, “Awesome Figures.” Awesome figures was created because the owner wanted to see action figures that looked like him in the toy aisle. He shared that most super heroes have abs and muscles and he didn’t. I discovered during the CREAMS Program that students created brands that were the solutions to their lived experiences and I believe that the seed of innovation was planted and will continue to be planted as we continue to share that program with children in our community, with hopes to share with the world.
When potential clients come to Tag It Brand It, we want them to know that we are allies to your team and creative vision. If they view our portfolio, they’ll discover that we serve our creative community and industries that makes impact in the government, education, entertainment, professional speakers, and professionals.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
The Art of the Start 2.0 by Guy Kawasaki has been a startup bible for me. I picked this book up during grad school and I’ve read it twice. The most impactful lesson I learned was the power of the Do Vs the Mean. Guy mentioned a story that made it plain. He used the the journey of ice picking to being a refrigerator. During this analogy, he shared that once upon a time, ice harvesting was a thing. It was an industry that allowed iceman to deliver ice to iceboxes around town. While this was an industry in the late 19th century, ice factories came along and remove the iceman’s business. While ice factories continue to focus on what they do, their was an invention that focused on the mean. That was the power of the refridgerator that kept the icebox cool using electricity. This wiped out many ice factories during that era, and now we have meaning that transcends the eras. From GE to LG, Samsung and Kenmore, with every other box in between, Guy uses that analogy to remind us to be a solution vs a doing. Solutions solve problems for the ages, not just for the day.
This knowledge allowed me to shift my agency from doing websites and logos, to meaning creative impact. We aligned to the simple fact that our work touches brands that makes significant changes in the world. We mean impact, and we make impact by doing strategy and design.
Another book that has changed my life recently has been “The Creative Leader,” by Antwain Jackson. This book became a manual that felt like a consultation with another creative leader. With homework at the end of each chapter, The Creative Leader spoke to the creative in me that needed that extra push across the leader line. While operating my company as a soloprenuer for 5 years, I needed to be all things. My job at the major university revealed to me that in order to go further, I needed to build a team. In order to build a team, I needed to recognize my strengths and weaknesses. In this book, I saw myself reading a manual that mirrored my desires to be a better “boss”. It also aligned with my faith. Oftentimes, when I’m reading a book about business, you get the world’s perspective. However, reading “The Creative Leader” i was able to pull from a deeper understanding that resonated with my soul and core.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
The most effective strategy for growing clientele for me has been providing value into spaces and communities that I didn’t build. As a digital strategist, I have to admit, I’m not present on social media. I know that social media is a quick way to obtain social proof. However, I prefer to be in the real world making real connections. I found that when I share value as a strategist and designer, It leads to more exposure because I’m in the right rooms with my targeted audience. I ensure that I provide value beyond what is asked because I was always taught that if you borrow something, you return it 10xs better than how you received it. If the community leader, in this case business owners, CEO, etc, is allowing me to speak to their audience, it’s only right that I provide value in the space. This allows for me to partner with the company or be a value-add with opens up the possibilities of working with my ideal clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tagitbrandit.com (Business) Iamtreelle.com (Personal)
- Instagram: instagram.com/iamtreelle
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/treelletolbert