We were lucky to catch up with Aisha Albritton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Aisha, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.
As a public relations major at Georgia State University, I never understood how poor the public relations program was until I got into the workforce. I was completely unprepared. In school, our program focused on communication law, and the history of public relations, which in theory sounds great! But the public relations industry does not run-on laws, theories, or history. We are the fixers, narrators, and voyagers of our client’s brands…not historians. As a publicist, I need to know how to craft stories and pitches to secure placements for my clients. I have to know how to spin, revise and or fix negative narratives. As a public relations professional, it is my job to create or guide my client’s brand and the concept of brand development was not something ever taught, let alone mentioned. I think it’s vitally important to prepare students for the real-world experiences they will face in their careers so that upon entering the workforce they can be productive assets to a company.
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 background and context?
I founded Atlanta Media Partners in 2006 when I was only 23 years old. I wasn’t sure what I wanted my company to do but I had a bit of experience in marketing, public relations, and branding. Having applied for several internships I eventually landed a position as Junior Publicist with a boutique firm in Atlanta, GA. I had the opportunity to work with clients like mega-producer Jazze Pha, MTV Networks, and Ciara. Although I enjoyed working with the firm, I realized had bigger dreams of owning my own business. As luck would have it, I got an opportunity to work with one of the biggest R&B groups out at the time and from there it was nothing but an upward progression. 16 years later, Atlanta Media Partners has reached levels of success I never would have dreamed of! I’ve created public relations campaigns for artists and reality stars like Shay Johnson of Love and Hip-Hop Miami, Faith Evans, Chrisette Michele, R. Kelly, Jagged Edge, Ken Ford, Ricco Barrino, Mykko Montana, and more. I’ve also curated various brand campaigns for The NFL, The Coca-Cola Company, The Lisa Left Eye Lopes Foundation, and Children’s Health Care of Atlanta, to name a few. In 2010, I expanded my business and created an event production sector due to demand from my clients. I have produced events for the likes of Kevin Hart, Bad Boy ENT, Hip Hop Weekly, VH1, NYFW, The NFL, The Diamond Awards, The BET Sound Stage, and more! I have also managed a 5-million-dollar radio budget, created advertisements that still play over the airways to this day, I have consulted on the opening of some of the most popular clubs in Atlanta and Houston, and have even been approached by various networks to create a reality show about my life and business.
Just this year alone, My firm has produced events for rapper, actor, and business mogul 50 Cent as well as the legendary, hall of fame hooper Shaquille O’Neal!
This journey has not been easy by any means but I am so proud of myself and the continued growth of my business! I want the world to know that IF you want to do something…you 100% can. It just takes hard work, dedication, and focus!
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I literally quit my job, where I was a top earner, and decided to venture out on my own. I didn’t have any start-up capital or any money in savings, I didn’t know how to get a loan and I honestly didn’t know how I’d pay the rent! The only thing I knew was that I believed in myself and KNEW that I’d be successful if I ever had the chance. Once I secured my first client, I was living paycheck to paycheck and bouncing from client to client for a while and while most would feel uneasy about this, I was happy and excited because I knew I was onto something big! Now with a full staff, clients, and various campaigns running simultaneously, we are blessed enough that funding isn’t something we stress over. Humbly though, our beginning stays close to my heart and isn’t something I take for granted in any capacity.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
After 16 years in the business, producing 1 event this year almost destroyed my career. February 2022, MY firm was selected to be the official event production firm for Shaquille O’Neal’s 50th birthday party which was to be hosted by 50 Cent during All-Star Weekend! Exciting right?! No! It was truly a nightmare! And yes, this is a true story! When I was brought on I was told that I only had a month to produce the event, I needed to raise $15,000 in sponsorship! Of course, hearing this anyone would be like screw that, but not me. Oh no, I had to be “Ms. I Can Do anything!” And to be honest, I did! In a month I secured major beverage and product sponsors, found entertainment, invited celebrities, the press, created invitations, a website and an Eventbrite to sell tickets, etc. The problem wasn’t MY execution, it was everyone else and their ridiculousness. Let’s start with the venue, 3 days before the event was to take place they pulled out. Unbeknownst to me, the client who hired me to do this event had so many shady deals and unprofessional happenings going on that actually getting a venue rental agreement never crossed his mind. So, when the venue pulled out, I had to fly to the location and scout venues. Of course, with it being last minute and a birthday party for Shaquille O’Neal, everyone wanted to charge 3x their rental rate. My client calls me and says he has found another venue, a better venue and I was so excited! I called all of my sponsors, sent out event updates, etc. And then… that venue canceled…due to my client’s unprofessionalism and lack of transparency. Of course, I am livid but hop into fix-it mode. As I’m scrambling to find another venue, I get a call from my title beverage sponsor saying that they are pulling out as well because they didn’t like the last-minute changes. At that point, I was panicking because I had some of the biggest stars and media in the world coming to my event and now there was no event! As to make matters worse, the NBA gets involved and bans Shaq from participating in his own birthday event citing that with COVID-19 still on the rise, they couldn’t risk a super spreader event during All-Star weekend. Naturally, I’m distraught. And did I mention 50Cent is still booked to host Shaq event! With only 2 days left before the event, my client and I had some decisions to make. We could cancel 50’s contract or scramble and figure out how to make things work. We had no venue, no title sponsor and no Shaq yet our original event made the news and was the talk of town. We knew by canceling altogether, we might lose more than we bargained for so we got to work and just turned it into an All-Star party hosted by 50 Cent! Shaq’s team knew of a private event we could transfer our other title sponsor to to supplement the missed exposure they would have gotten originally. Now mind you, this isn’t my event, this is a private event hosted by the NBA. Shaq’s team ensured us that not only could my title sponsor join this event, but all of my media and guest could also attend! With my title sponsor happy and my client finding another venue, I managed to calm down and keep my other sponsors and resent out event updates to the guest and media. Whew, we fixed it right? Nothing more can happen I thought. Well, I was wrong! On the evening of the events, I get a call from a reporter at ESPN telling me they weren’t letting him in the event because they didn’t have him on the list. I then get a call from a very famous persons publicist telling me that they kicked her client out of the event citing that he wasn’t on the list! It’s 3 degrees, there is snow on the ground and my guest are either outside waiting in the cold or being kicked out! So, of course, I rush up there to find that not only were NONE of my guests, media or sponsors on the list, none of the title sponsor products were permitted in the venue and the event planner wouldn’t even come outside and speak with me. With at least 15 major media outlets waiting outside, I had to apologize to them, to the celebs I invited as well as well the title sponsor who drove over 12 hours to attend the event. As all this is going on, I have several missed calls from my assistant and my staff who is at the other venue attempting to set up for 50 Cents party. I call back and am told that I needed to get to the other venue asap. Hurriedly I rush to the other location assuring the misplaced guest and sponsors that they would be 100%taken care of at 50 Cents party. Upon arrival, I see hundreds of people inside a venue that was supposed to empty. Come to find out the venue double booked! I lose it! I couldn’t believe this was happening! Our event was to start at 9 and set up was to begin at 6, well it was 7:30 and the venue was full of people. Their contract stated they had till 8 and they 100% refused to end early. So, we had to sit and wait and finally at 8:30 my crew and staff could turn over the venue. Obviously, that posed a problem for the party-goers who arrived at 9 pm to party. We didn’t open our doors until 10:30 and with a line around the block, guests were angry! Then all hell breaks loose. Our Eventbrite system stopped working so we were struggling to see who purchased a ticket, the venue changed the bottle prices in the middle of the event because they felt they should make more money and then I find out that my client’s “sales team” hadn’t sold any sections or tables. I was overwhelmed beyond explanation. Unfortunately, not all of my sponsors were happy and they let me know it!
When 50 Cent arrived, he greeted a few fans by the door and went to his section. Although he wasn’t contracted to perform, he agreed to hop on the stage, greet the guest and do a song or two, sadly that didn’t happen either. The venue withheld 50 Cents bottles for 1 hour so he sat in his section upset and thirsty. Contractually he was only obligated to stay 1 hour and after 1 hour, on the dot, he left! The problem with that is very few guests saw him enter the building so when he leaves, and there is no performance, people started going crazy. And since I was the face and name they saw, I got all that anger! By the end of the night, I had several threatening messages from guests who found my number on my website, by the morning there were 4 fraud reports to the Better Business Bureau, and by that evening GOOGLE shut my business page down due to all the complaints they received. Within 2 days, we had over 200 event refund requests, the title sponsor threatened to sue and everyone was pointing the finger at me! My client however was sitting back and enjoying life. Oh, did I mention I hadn’t gotten paid to that point?! I literally thought I was going to have a breakdown. How am I the bad guy when ALL of the things that went wrong weren’t even my doing? I contemplated quitting altogether! I was at the lowest point in my career and felt defeated. The thing about resiliency though is that it comes when you least expect it! There is a certain fight in you that doesn’t allow you to give up when you’re destined for greatness! I took some time to get my thoughts together and decided I wasn’t done! I put my publicist hat on and went into damage control mode. Not only was I able to get the BBB reports deleted, I was also able to refund the unhappy guest, get the reviews on my Facebook page removed and smoothen out any friction with my media contacts and guest. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get my google page reinstated and the sponsor is still threatening to sue but at least I won’t be a part of the lawsuit as they understand the wrongdoing isn’t on my part! Additionally, my client managed to make it right with me financially and I was able to do Shaq’s 50th party without any hiccups or drama! Oddly enough, this party was star-studded and amazing. It felt like redemption for me and my firm and business are booming more than ever.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.AtlantaMediaPartners.com
- Instagram: @KindaABigDeal
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aishaalbritton/
Image Credits
The professional pics from Shaq’s bday party are by Freddy O.