We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brandi Hunter. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brandi below.

Brandi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My mission is to help people tell the stories that matter to the people they serve. When I started freelancing just as a creative outlet a decade ago, I learned that helping visionaries execute their vision is where I thrive. Leaders have great ideas and big hearts. They just need help with communicating it all in ways that will resonate, and that’s where I come in.

Brandi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started my career in journalism. I worked in broadcast news for several years as a reporter, then transitioned into nonprofit marketing. For most of my post-college career, I freelanced as much as my schedule would allow while working full-time for companies. Recently, I decided to invest in myself full-time and start my business, bhmedia, using the skills I learned in journalism and marketing.

The creative works I provide are writing, videography, website design and podcast production. I work with media companies, nonprofits, small businesses and entrepreneurs on stand-alone or retainer projects. My goal is to help them with strategic storytelling – we’re collaborating to work towards their business goals and meet the needs of their target audiences.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

The essence of working for myself full-time always lived in me, but how, when and what that would even look like took more than a decade to materialize.

As a college student, I thought, “I’ll be a reporter in one or two small cities, then report in Memphis (my hometown) for a little while, then figure out what I want to do next.” During that time, I also started freelancing for different companies. Doing a variety of creative work immediately felt right. But I believed I still needed to get the experience and credibility from going the traditional route, so that’s what I pursued. It was good decision that I don’t regret because everything I do now in my business stems from what I learned when I was working in journalism full-time.

However, after I did my stint in just one small city, I knew that reporting full-time, even in my hometown or a city larger than Memphis wasn’t what I wanted. The skills I Iearned – shooting and editing video, writing scripts, interviewing people – I wanted to do that forever, just not in that way. So, I made the move to nonprofit marketing, working for one of the best nonprofits in the U.S. That experience was everything I needed it to be at that time in my life. Learning about the deep well that is marketing was exciting, and it opened the door to new opportunities in freelancing that I didn’t know existed.

About a year into my time at the nonprofit, the pandemic hit. For the next few years, I was working from home and reflecting on my life up to that point. I was successful in a lot of ways, but that desire to fully step out on my own had resurfaced. After getting a return-to-office mandate, and then getting COVID a few weeks after going back into the office building, I started planning my exit to launch my business full-time.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

What drives me is having this opportunity to do work I enjoy and that helps people, and being able to choose projects that align with my personal interests and ethics. The journalism and marketing skills I learned – I really do love doing them. Health and wellness, entrepreneurship and faith are broad topics that I’m interested in, and they’re what I look for when I pursue and pitch projects. I’m thankful to be able to do that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bybrandihunter.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bybrandihunter/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bybrandihunter
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandi-hunter/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@bybrandihunter