We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Briantria Smocks and Nakia Montgomery. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Briantria Smocks below.

Briantria and Nakia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

We are most certainly happier working toward our creative visions than at a “regular job”. Never have our previous experiences given us this much flexibility and control over our next career moves. There has been a freedom in unlocking our own potential; and when we have shared brief moments thinking about going back into traditional work, it has not been met with the joy we’ve now come to know.

For instance, such a thought brings about a depressive mood for Kia. For Bri, it is a reminder of the rigid and inflexible person she was. Neither of us would want to be pressured back into a box. And even through the trials we’ve endured in business, it is still preferred to the alternative.

So the last time we ever thought about giving up on our ideas was in 2019 when we first launched Levi&Toonk. We considered the financial, mental, and timely costs of treading into an unknown territory, but after weighing our options, we decided not to neglect our bold visions for the sake of comfort and security. Since then, we have been absolutely committed to what we’re building.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Collectively we established Levi&Toonk which targets gifted children of color through literature and enrichment activities. During Black Children’s Book Week next month, we will be adding a youth writing workshop to our offerings for future creative empowerment. Separately, we’re gaining traction on developing our artistic niche. For Kia, that looks like writing her memoir and bringing her work to life through film and TV. For Bri, that looks like managing and assisting other artists in realizing their dreams through unconventional pathways.
Such profound goals have brought forth opportunities to truly enjoy what we do. We both have a desire to give more back to the Earth than just our manual labor. We aim to leave a legacy for which we can be proud.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

We are in the process of disrupting generational patterns which were not serving us well. As a result, we’ve had to unlearn the idea that we weren’t skilled enough or connected enough to go after such massive pursuits. As Black women, society has not traditionally offered us a wealth of vertical promotion or entrepreneurial support. Such has drastically changed within the last few years which has given us the confidence to believe in our efforts. At our core, we had to shift our perspective from living in a deficit mindset to one of expecting excess and access.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

We organically pivoted when marketing Levi&Toonk. We had to revamp our target demographic within the first few months of launching. Because our work is featured in a board book format, such is usually considered reading material for toddlers and younger children. However, we realized that our writing technique and creative approach allowed us to take liberties with our presentation. Consequently, our tagline, strategy, outreach, appearances and other growth tools needed to shift as well. It required that we dismantle previous notions of what we thought we should be producing and instead tap into our ability to create a new ideology. Similarly, our personal transitions and redirections will continue to be a direct reflection of our business journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.leviandtoonk.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leviandtoonk/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leviandtoonk/
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/company/leviandtoonk
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ4SFksMvoxLqHT3Hc8UYOQ