We caught up with the brilliant and insightful J.d. Witherspoon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

J.D., thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Along with taking care of clients, taking care of our team is one of the most important things we can do as leaders. Looking back on your journey, did you have a boss that was really great? Maybe you can tell us about that boss and what made them a wonderful person to work for?

When I started my journey at Entertainment, I used to work for an afterschool mentorship program, and my boss was very kind to me. She would let me come in late or leave early so I could go audition for projects in order to pursue my career, and she didn’t force me to stay on the clock every single day. I really appreciate her for allowing me to chase my dreams while also being kind enough to give me a job.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Getting into entertainment was very random for me, I had friends in college who told me I should try pursuing it just because I was a funny person. And then took a shot at it and over the many years. I’ve ended up where I am today, but it is a very tough industry and you need to be very comfortable with rejection because that is 95% of the game. It’s also not a fast trajectory on success so you really need to be comfortable with having long periods of time or nothing changes, it took me a very long time to get to the point where I am now and I think there is so much room for growth, so if you would like to pursue a career and entertain entertainment, just be mindful it is not for the week of heart.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media is a very interesting thing, it could be used for a lot of good or a lot of evil. When building an audience, I recommend that you go into Kong creation and Social Media as yourself, do not try to be someone that you are not. I’ve come across many people over the years who chose to play a character or be a different version of themselves to be portrayed in a better light on social media in the end it just burnt them out and made them tired And not want to pursue it anymore. I recommend always being yourself first because that’s who you’re going to want to be and you’re also going to want your followers to connect with. Try to create things that you care about and not Chase viewership and success because that will inevitably Lead to your downfall.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

My side hustle was Social Media and specifically YouTube. I remember working a regular 9 to 5 back in 2010 and creating videos just for my own enjoyment, but a certain point I sold myself well if I could turn this from a hobby to a real career, why not go for it? So that I started to create more consistently and collaborate with others who were in the space in order to grow my brand and now I’m in a place where I work with some of the biggest brands you’ve heard of and some of the biggest creators in the space. I only have to do is stay consistent in whatever your passion is, and you never know what will come out on the other side.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/jdwitherspoon