We recently connected with Evan Marshall and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Evan, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
As Black Men we feel it is our duty create a space for Black Men to build community, legacy, health and wealth.
Our Mission
We will change negative narratives, build communities through connectivity, and foster economic growth for Black creators.
Our Purpose
To champion the positive stories and actions of Black and Brown communities.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Evan Marshall believes that presentation should be at the forefront of culture, leading him to his current position as COO of Black Menswear. Through positive stories, actions, and imagery, Evan and Black Menswear champions long-term affinity and relationships for brands with BIPOC creators. As the COO, Evan leads partnerships and strategic development for Black Menswear, leveraging brand partners to focus on changing the negative media narrative by amplifying multi-platform campaigns for diverse communities and inspiring consumers into action.
Before Black Menswear, Evan was the lead influencer strategist at Weber Shandwick, where his work empowered him to win a 2021 Cannes Bronze Lion for Brand Voice & Strategic Storytelling. Throughout his career, he also served roles at Burrell Communications, Marmalade Consulting, and iCrossing, where he’s worked on accounts across various disciplines, including CPG, automotive, and retail, to help brands authentically increase their cultural capital.
A graduate of The Ohio State University. He’s achieved several commendations throughout his career, including the City of Kumasi, Ghana 2022 Citation Recipient, 2022 Google Cultural Impact Summit Emcee, and 2023 Creator To Watch By Creative Boys Unlimited.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
One of my life Motto’s is “How you pivot is how you prosper”. My business partner had launched the Black Menswear social platform as a way to combat the negative stereotypes of black men portrayed in the media. At the time I was working for one of the bigger PR firms in the world leading influencer work for the Kellogg’s portfolio and helping launch a DEI influencer vendor practice to ensure that the agency entire client portfolio was diversifying their vendors.
Within this process I realized that within the AA Media and influencer landscape all of the major platforms over indexed towards black women and rightfully so. On avg they’re more educated and higher earning then black men thus truthfully they’re decision makers in the household. We all know the saying if you want to sell to men, sell to the women in their lives, haha!
However, what about the men who are the decision-makers and leaders within their peer groups? The ones that are seeking to grow and foster connectivity for safes spaces of black men in their own right. While also being a unifying voice for content, storytelling, and multi-cultural engagements at large.
How do we Unite Across Our Differences: Despite our differences, we’ll unite to uplift our communities because we are not monolithic.
Serve The Greater Good: While we will enjoy the social components of the weekend, it’s important to give back to the communities we are a part of.
Inspirational Stories: Sharing stories of partnerships and collaborations from real life showcases the positive outcomes that result from diverse groups coming together for a common goal.
From this we started building out the BMW Digital portion of Black Menswear which today has grow into a Cultural Impact Agency that has worked with the likes of Amazon Studios, Shea Moisture , Frito-Lay, Chase , Starbucks amongst others
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
What helped build our reputation in the market is being a person that champions diversity of thought, accountability, authentic ideas, and thinking outside the box. One thing I’ve learned over the years and have had to grow into as a Chicago kid with the big city go go go mindset is that people need to believe that you care about them.
How do we “Be a simplifier for all stakeholders as Co-Creating generates buy-in” Empower our clients to feel as if they’re co-creating.”
This is an area I dont have a well developed muscle. I can bring humility to realize I care about people and I can bring humility to do so. It’s an under developed muscle to bring more effectiveness.
1. What’s the Outcome I want?
2. How do I want the other person to feel?
1. I want them to feel validated
3. How do I want the other person to feel about me?
1. Trustworthy, Authentic and fair
Contact Info:
- Website: www.blackmenswear.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its_what_ev/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebennettmarshall/
- Other: Follow Black Menswear and BMW Digital social channels https://www.instagram.com/blackmenswear/ https://www.instagram.com/bmw.digital/
Image Credits
Black Menswear (from all our shoots) 10mgmt. (The one of me in the Seersucker suit)