We were lucky to catch up with Jordan Hawkins recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jordan, appreciate you joining us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?
Across my career I have been fortunate enough to create and represent trends in my own style. I would like to say the very nature of my business (Halfaday LLC) is innovative inherently, but that’s another story. An example of something I’ve done innovative actualy came to earlier this year. I started the mega fashion trend of “How to Dress Like Lil Yachty”. The trend was popularized by participation amongst the fashion community on tiktok but it then branched off to youtube and instagram. The innovative thing was my use of tiktok’s ai voice to make it seem like a robot was styling all who participated. In other words I changed how GRWM’s were conducted!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Jordan Hawkins, more popularly known online as JHalfaday. I am the owner of Halfaday LLC a Black owned media production company based in the Washington, DC metro area and the host of my own talkshow “The Halfaday Show. The persona JHalfaday has been one I’ve caried with me since I was a kid but didnt come into the name until highschool. I like to think of JHalfaday as my alter ego (like Sasha Fierce to Beyoncé) but honestly its just the most visible aspect of my personality. I started my business officially this year but I have been producing and creating content for myself and others professionally for almost 5 years now. This interest stemmed from a childhood dream of being on tv, then having an adult realization that maybe it isnt possible, to a now realization that I can just do it on my own. Halfaday LLC at scale will be THE dominant force in Black media and creativity. I want to foster a platform for creatives by creatives that pay all participants equitably, while retaining the integrity of content. There are so many stories out there that need to be shared, but often don’t because of funding and visibility. My business aims to curate, connect, and conduct. Whether that sourcing talent and connecting it to a team of producers, or being discovered and producing content for clients. Halfaday is about community. At the moment my business is a team of one, but I have the capability to record, light, and capture high quality audio and video. Outside of media production and content creation I am an author, veteran, and analyst, with a background in geography, criminology, and sociology.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
As a content creator there is no greator challenge than the algorithm. Regardless of the platform social media often feels like playing a slot machine. It is an iterative process where some tjmes you win big and other times you dont win at all. Not really a story but a reoccuring example of resilience is my experience with the tiktok algorithm. I’ve had tremendous success but as of late I’ve found my engagement to be significantly slower. I’ve seen this dishearten creatirs and ultimately force them to quit content creation, but not me. Content creation has been an outlet for me for a while so even if it doesnt produce virality or engagement I still enjoy what I do. This philosophy has allowed me to maintain a consistent presence online over the years!
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
More than anything in media I appreciate the audience that I have garnered over the years. Friends, families, strangers and all sorts of folks in between. The story of how I got this audience is one of just being true to myself. I started making videos in my bedroom during the pandemic due to a lack of connection. I am a HUGE people person, but I had no one to talk to. So I did what I feel like everyone else did in the pandemic I started a podcast (Its really a talkshow, there’s a difference). But I had no way of promoting it, so I found tiktok and started posting clips there. Early on no one watched my videos, this was very defeating early on. But I stuck with it, then I fell into fashion content. I noticed that getting dressed everyday increased my productivity at work. So I started doing those in front of the camera. Those videos were the catalyst for my growth. My advice to new creators is to find something you can do mindlessly that people enjoy and use it as a catalyst to build an audience. Most of your audience will be there for that, but even if a portion of them find interest in the rest of your content, it js a success!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/TheHalfadayShow?fbclid=PAAaZls3wnln9BkSYoDU8YusVsWb-qJaas2B7tpIWQ0USQ71i-mPcn4lte0Ng_aem_AVdMRSIN0lDDZ0gjQ4XIL9iv-ms7VwjCng7BJU1Jc3VinVZkkOu33zHCPJeR8Bidme0
- Instagram: JHalfaday
- Twitter: JHalfaday
- Youtube: The Halfaday Show
Image Credits
Halfaday LLC