We were lucky to catch up with Dre Brown recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Dre, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Before starting my business in August of 2021, I wanted to start my own Marketing and Public Relations Agency right after undergrad studies back in 2015. However, I knew I wasn’t ready due to my lack of experience and ultimately, I was scared to fail. Therefore, I opt to maintain a full-time role in marketing and communications where I could build my skillset and climb the corporate ladder. My first job was at Deloitte right after undergrad and I was geeked; however, little did I know, 10 months down the line I would be facing unemployment. This was devastating and killed all remaining motivation to be an entrepreneur.
After being forced to take a job to continue putting food on the table and paying bills, I decided to take a job back in healthcare after I swore I wouldn’t return to the field after spending 10 years in the profession prior to finishing undergrad. I got in the role and thrived doing data analytics and healing the department understand how it was wasting money and improvements that could be made to save the hospital thousands. This was a job I wasn’t hired for; however, I knew I needed to continue getting experience in marketing and communications if I wanted to work my way back to a full-time role. After leaving that role I worked for the University of Maryland Capital Region Health as a Marketing and Communications Specialist where again I made it my own and turned it from being a catch-all position to one that solely focused on digital marketing.
I loved my role at the organization and thrived in the role. However, with so much scrutiny and the lack of room to grow, I knew it was time for me to find work elsewhere. I was then recruited by LMD Agency to come in as the only Black employee and spearhead the Beautification Initiative for the County Executive Office as one of the campaign promises from the County Executive. This was fabulous because I had always wanted to work for an agency to get the experience. Once working for the agency I thrived within the first week and by the second week I was running the show for the accounts, I managed. Throughout my tenure at the agency, I earned the agency 3 advertising awards on behalf of the Beautification Initiative and was promoted to Senior Account Manager. However, while I made the agency tons of money, I kept feeling like something was missing.
More and more I would hear about small businesses that needed help; however, there weren’t many companies willing to work with their budget. One day, I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great to tap into that revenue and use my skill set to help small businesses thrive. I quickly threw the idea away because I was content at the agency. The idea of being a business owner kept coming back as a thought and one day I gave in to actually considering the idea. I told myself, alright, I’m finally going to do it. I knew I couldn’t do it operating under the agency I worked for due to non-compete agreements so I had to make a plan. The plan was to find another full-time role where I would still be able to support myself, but that would offer the flexibility for me to become an entrepreneur.
One day while searching the internet, I came across a position for a Social Media Manager for the University of Maryland Medical System. I recognized the roles because I had talked with a former colleague and explained that before I left the organization originally if the role ever became available I would be interested. Well, the role was available so I reached out to see if there was an interest in having me interview for the role. Long story short, I interviewed for the role with several interviewers and got the job. From that day forward, my plan was set in motion.
Because I knew I was leaving the agency, I immediately secured my business name and all other legal documents necessary to start the organization. Before leaving the agency, I had become a business owner and once I left I announced it to the world. I had finally accomplished something that was six years in the making. What I’m most excited about is the opportunity to help business owners tell their brand stories and impact the future of marketing and communications.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Dre, and I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, with three other siblings. I was always looked at as the one who is book smart because of my thirst for knowledge and willingness to go above and beyond to understand a specific subject. After high school, I attended Wayne State University, where I went through many majors because I was unsure about what I wanted to do with my life. Eventually, I fell in love, got sidetracked, and due to my failing grades, I voluntarily left the University. This was the opportunity for me to find out what I wanted to do with my life; therefore, I began researching various professions and reflected on some of the courses I had already taken, and communications stuck out to me. In addition, I knew that I was a good writer and speaker; therefore, I decided I would attend classes at the local community college and get an associate’s degree. Through my studies, I discovered the field of Public Relations and fell in love with the subject, and wanted to know how I could get a degree in that field.
Therefore, I researched reputable schools with a program, and Eastern Michigan University was first on the list and had one of the best programs in the state. I reached out to one of the professors to learn more about the program to ensure it was something I wanted to do. After several visits with my mentor Gina Luttrell and campus staff, I decided to transfer. Once I got to EMU, I thrived, unlike my experience at Wayne State. I was within the top 10 percent of my class and loved the program. One of the program’s highlights was the opportunity to participate in an Independent Study where I got to study how organizations manage and respond to crisis events. What’s most interesting is during the study, companies were experiencing data breaches, which provided a front-row seat to how large organizations handled a crisis and an opportunity for me to note my observances in my senior thesis. From that day forward, I knew that I wanted to be a crisis manager; however, no further education for that profession existed. Nobody has a role where they are solely responsible for managing crisis events.
Therefore, I decided that because there was no graduate degree in crisis management, I would do the next best thing; get a graduate degree in Homeland Security at Pennsylvania State University. This program taught me what it’s like to look at both natural and manufactured crises. My education is solely responsible for why I’m considered by many to be a thought leader in the field.
Segwaying to my business, I am the Brown-Smith Agency president and CEO, where I help make clients’ dreams come true. While being in business, I’ve noticed that many business owners have been defrauded by people who claim to be marketing experts. This ultimately makes life harder for many true professionals; however, when clients take the risk of allowing me to work for them, I give them a different perspective of what it’s like to work with a Black-owned business. Therefore, my superpower is the ability to delight people with expertise, professionalism, and follow-through.
I’m most proud of taking a leap of faith to become an entrepreneur. This ultimately is something I was scared to do because of my lack of experience and the risk of failing. However, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made, and the joy I see from clients helps me know it was worth it. The tagline for my business is “BOLD, not basic.” Simply put, when clients work with me, they can expect to be challenged in a way that will make them better and help them accomplish their goals. I don’t believe in mediocracy and refuse to use the words “I cannot.”
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been exceeding my clients’ expectations and going above and beyond the call of duty. Of course, we all have scopes of work that we have to adhere to remain profitable; however, there are times when I’m able to add value by alerting them of a trend that will help them increase their bottom line, advising them on decisions, and being present and aware of what’s happening around me. By always taking the opportunity to be in the moment and hear my clients and what they want to accomplish, I can help bring that vision to life, and when that happens, my clients don’t mind referring business to me and returning for future projects.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When I started my business, I started on a high because I got my first client just by announcing my startup on social media. I completed the project over a couple of months, and the client was thrilled with the results. My next client found me on social media, which meant I had more work coming in and didn’t have to do much business development. After a while, I brought in more clients and prospects; however, what I noticed was that I was spending much of my time developing quotes and proposals for prospects who never signed or the budget was too little for me to operate. This started happening more often, and as projects were completed and money ran out, I found myself in a position where I didn’t know what to do because I wasn’t securing any new clients. At this point, I felt like giving up because I thought I was the issue considering contracts were not being signed.
Although I was ready to give up, I decided to brainstorm and even talked with a prospect to understand what I could do better and what I was missing. One of the first things I learned while working under my previous employer is the ability to show your value and how your solution will help the client accomplish their goals – I was missing this critical piece in my proposals. This became frustrating because my proposals were detailed. I decided to revisit some of my older proposals and learned that while I provided all the nuts and bolts, I never connected the dots to how my solution would help solve their problem. Therefore, I began revamping my proposals and my website to show the value of my work and how it will help the client minimize their pain points.
Contact Info:
- Website: thebrownsmithagency.com
- Instagram: @thebrownsmithagency
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deandrebrown1/
Image Credits
Brooke Reid