We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dee Powell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dee, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. The first dollar your firm earns is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.

I wouldn’t say my first client but rather my first opportunity and first business relationship was from Better Block. A placemaking and urban design group that reached out to me as my own firm. It was honestly surreal and I wasn’t really sure if I could fill the shoes of it especially since it was my first true and true paid project as my own entity. They reached out to me in October of 2020 about the project, the MLK Food Park in South Dallas, for early 2021 and at the time I said yes not truly knowing what I was doing but was grateful to be included. I initially reached out to Krista from Better Block about volunteer opportunities and it turned into being my first major project lol. It didn’t dawn on me that this was my “first client” until they asked me to create invoice and they sent me a check! I was nervous to even accept the payment at first lol but it felt real validating to be paid for my passion. The rest is history as they say..

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

So I’m an urban planner which is basically the art of creating, developing and guiding development of communities. As of late, I’ve added ‘place curator’ to bag since that’s where I’m currently moving and shaking to master the craft. That is creating spaces and places for US (Black folks and other persons of color) to exist as ourselves while developing an ecosystem of business/resources meant for permanent activation and impact. It’s a lot to say and grasp I know lol. I created my own consulting group, DRBTS (Do Right By The Streets), based on these values and what I feel are impactful elements of urban planning with communities instead of for them.

DRBTS supports and offers urban planning consulting along with community engagement/outreach services, space activation and community development services. We work with all groups/community types but focus heavily on communities of color. The biggest mission and purpose of DRBTS is to bring urban planning principles/complexities to the streets – to the hood in a way that it can be understood, facilitated and educated to persons of color. What sets us a part from others is the direct intention to make urban planning accessible to everyone regardless of their background or status. Urban planning impacts communities of color heavily so it’s only right for these communities to truly understand what it is and how it affects their quality of life. We’re different because we’re focused on being embedded in communities for long-term/permanent change – not quick fixes. We’re building family like relationships that’s bigger than a dollar amount.

I’m most proud of the lane DRBTS has created as far as breaking down urban planning and tying in with elements of Black culture like sneakers, lifestyle, music and places. Main thing to know about the work DRBTS does is we do everything out of PASSION and INTENTION. Our work is based in those two principles heavily and as a Black woman led group in a white, male dominant profession it’s important to us that we’re always a solid, true representation of being Black and proud.

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

I sat down with my best friend and basically cleared out my entire IG feed lol. When I decided I wanted to convert my page to focus on urban planning as a Black person I did just that – I intentionally posted about urban planning, introducing people to it/what it is, why it mattered, and how it looked from a Black woman’s perspective. I also wanted to keep it authentic and organic so I still post about my personal life, outside of the work I do with DRBTS, because I wanted to illustrate the balance of grinding while enjoying life, ya know?

As far as advice, I’m still learning myself lol but I’d say figure out what you’re trying to accomplish and push that envelope more and more. Doing that while keeping 100% organic allows your presence to grow because it’s relatable to people. Understand who you’re trying to reach and build from that – my intent was to reach Black urban planners, Black architects, urban planning students and the like. Staying solid with your crowd will build trust amongst them and they’ll honestly start sharing you/what you do with people in their own networks.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Honestly, the pandemic. I say that because everyone was in the house, confined to virtual interactions and meet ups. I was making a transition personally and professionally as I had just quit my job in December of 2019 so I was trying to find community in urban planning amongst Black and Brown folks. I think the vulnerability of navigating the ups and downs of urban planning as a Black person brought others out to converse about their own instances in their jobs. I hadn’t done any “real” urban planning work in this timeframe so my reputation was built solely on trust and comfort amongst other Black urban planners to find a space we could uplift one another during a time racial tension was extremely intense and coming to terms with all the destruction the urban planning profession inflicted on our families/communities. I owe a lot of that to the numerous folks that championed me via social media to talk that talk without regard for it would be received.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.drbtsurbanplanning.com
• Instagram: thedee_p
• Linkedin: DRBTS/Desiree Powell
• Twitter: drbtsplanning

Image Credits
Crys J