Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Traci S. Campbell . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Traci , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

The idea of BeSpire TV is actually inspired by the work we’ve done for the last 8 years with our BIBO Foundation and awards program. BIBO is a 501c3 non-profit organization which we started back in 2013. We started as an award show going from city to city to honor amazing women who give back to their communities but don’t get the recognition that they deserve. We did that for 5 years in a row between Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. We then developed programs to serve disadvantaged young women to give them a better starting foundation in their lives and careers.

During the Journey of BIBO, I was afforded numerous opportunities to participate in media related projects. We launched our AM/FM radio show, The B Zone with Traci S. Campbell, in 2017. Prior to that, I started out as a podcaster. And then in 2018, we launched BIBO Weekly, which is now called BIBO Today, as a talk show that celebrated the excellence of female entrepreneurship. That has now grown into a much broader platform celebrating people who are entrepreneurs and/or have incredible journey stories to share.

In the midst of all of this, I was asked several times about starting a network that stemmed from all the work we’ve done in radio and with BIBO. At first, I was very reluctant because I thought it was an absolutely daunting task! However, given that we started an award show from an idea in my head to taking it to various cities over the course of 5 years, I finally started thinking that we could tackle this as well. So in November of 2022, BeSpire TV was launched on Roku. It will soon be on Amazon Fire as well. And on this streaming network, we not only bring Classic TV and movie content, but we are also developing original shows that can only be seen on BeSpire TV. And, beyond all of that, we are bringing a larger presence of inspirational people, stories and programming that will hopefully Inspire those who watch our Network to go after their dream despite the craziness in the world we live in right now.

Traci , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am originally from Baltimore, Maryland. I grew up between Baltimore and in the suburbs right outside of Washington, DC. I come from a single parent home primarily. and it was definitely a challenge for me and my mother, financially, up until I entered high school and then later college. I have always been a driven person in terms of education and career goals. And I was very blessed to have graduated from college with the education that afforded me a very successful IT consulting career and at the same time, be a caregiver for my mother until she passed away in August of 2007.

My background is in information technology. I majored in computer science at the University of Maryland and went on to have a successful career in IT consulting. IT is really all about developing systems and procedures to solve various technical problems for clients. That background and foundation, I believe, very much prepared me to launch and manage two non-profit organizations as well as a radio show, TV show, and now a streaming network.

Through BeSpire TV, in addition to providing great entertainment and inspirational and motivational content, we serve as a platform for affordable exposure and advertising for content creators and businesses. It is very expensive to afford the average advertising costs and promotional costs of other platforms. The average small business cannot afford exposure on a media platform. and content creators are always struggling to get their message and mission out there to the public. So, we want to be a place where people with great content or great businesses and nonprofits can begin to get the exposure that they deserve for their brand.

At this point in my career and in my personal journey, I am very very proud of the BIBO brand that was literally an idea in my head in 2012 and came to life, with the help of some amazing people who saw my vision, in 2013. Many of them are still with me today and are a part, I’m very glad to say, of this new chapter in our journey story and that is BeSpire TV. I am also a wife to a very supportive husband and I’m very grateful for that. And I am a pet mom! I absolutely love our fur babies!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

As a woman of color, it is very very important to me to be an example or inspiration to other women and especially other women of color. While I chose to go into a technical career path, and I’m very very glad that I did because people of color especially women are very much the minority there as well, I have always had a love for media. And my lifetime, and because of how we create and digest media today, I was given the opportunity to pursue that love of media as a second career. However, just like technology and science, women are still very much the minority and women of color are even more of a minority. So to be able to help disadvantaged young women, like I was many years ago, to have a strong foundation and have role models to look up to, is extremely important. And, at the same time, I strive to do my small part to be an example of what women, and especially minority women, can do in the very male dominated space of media is almost equally as important to me. Both of these are passions of mine and challenges that I gladly take on because it will not only be a source of inspiration, but also, I pray, leave a very strong and positive legacy for someone to take up and move forward in the future.

Any advice for managing a team?

For me, it comes down to two words: Inclusion and Communication. By inclusion, I mean that the people on your team need to feel and know that they take some ownership and responsibility in this endeavor. It’s not just about completing tasks and saying “thank you” to them. It’s about including them in the conversations and listening to their suggestions and actually giving them responsibilities and ownership if you will.

And by communication, I mean sharing as much as you can with them in regards to the good and the bad of developing the project or running the project. being available, as much as you can, to hear their concerns or some of the challenges that they’re facing. In order to have a cohesive and long-lasting team, there has to be a real relationship developed. I cannot be just a transactional existence where tasks are completed and you say “thank you” and pay them and that’s it. It’s got to be much more than that In order to sustain a dedicated and engaged team.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bespiretv.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bespiretv/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086546214465
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bespiretv