We were lucky to catch up with Chante Wiggins & Monifah Cook recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chante Wiggins & Monifah Cook, appreciate you joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Back in college, Monifah and I had a couple Public Relations classes together and one day we started talking about having our PR agencies in the future. Fast forward to 2020, Monifah reached out to me through Instagram to see if having my own agency is something I was still interested in and if I want to go into business together. I figured it was time I start fulfilling a dream I’ve always had and I couldn’t think of a better person to start this journey with.

After our initial conversation on Instagram, we started to meet up at local coffee shops to go over how we wanted our brand to look, the goal for ourselves, our clients, and we continuously researched how to successfully run a PR and Social Media Marketing agency, especially during a pandemic. We started working on what it is now Cultured Creatives each and everyday until our launch back in July 2021.

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

After graduating from Western Michigan University back in 2018, I wanted to start my career and get more experience within the PR world and take what I learned and begin applying it. I started working as an Account Coordinator planning events, managing influencers, social media, and much more for a PR agency back in Grand Rapids, MI for The McDonalds of Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky. After working there for a year and a half it was always in the back of my mind to take his experience and use it to help start my own business, and that’s exactly what Monifah and I did with Cultured Creatives.

Cultured Creatives is a PR and marketing agency focused on social media management, influencer relations, PR, and brand strategy. We’re on a mission to help people and brands bring their vision to life by elevating their strategies, amplifying their voices, breaking through the clutter, producing great work, and helping them walk in their purpose.

What I think sets us apart the most from our competitors is the relationship we build with our clients. We are a service based agency, so building those relationships creates trust between us all and we believe in over delivering for our clients. We want to provide the best service and maintain those relationships for years to come.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building a solid social media presence isn’t easy but absolutely worth it! We started off by doing the research to find out what platforms our target audience is using the most and the best way to reach them across social media. That’s something we always do and recommend for our clients. Next, we create content around our 4-5 content pillars and make sure we’re consistent with posting + engaging with those in our community! Lastly, I. know we hear this one a lot but.. BE AUTHENTIC! Nobody likes talking to robots.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

We’ve had a few wins such as securing 3-4 client projects within 6 months and building out our portfolio. We know that the opportunities of where we could go are endless and we’re looking forward to helping more small businesses and individuals bring their dreams and purpose to reality. In addition to that, nothing worth having comes easy. I would be lying if I said everything has been smooth sailing since the beginning because there’s no handbook for entrepreneurship.

After great success in the beginning, we went through a dry season that lasted about 3-4 months. Pitches weren’t being picked up, clients weren’t coming in as frequent, and it just felt like everything slowed down. Instead of giving up on ourselves, we took some time off to improve our systems and processes, professional development, and refine our skill sets. Once we got everything flowing well together, clients started rolling back in. I’m glad we didn’t let that slow season take us away.

– Monifah Cook

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.culturedcreatives.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/culturedcreativess/

Image Credits
Derron Ledbetter