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

Jada , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learned branding by learning how to grow as an influencer through content creation. My first step into the social media space professionally began with YouTube tutorials and I showed others how to repurpose thrifted clothes. From there I began to hone in and develop my own personal brand and understanding how to present it in my content. Eventually, others took notice and I began using my talents to help build their brand’s online presence and things took off from there.

Knowing what I know now, I wish that I took more interest in investing in a mentor as an influencer specifically. I spent many years trying to figure things out myself and DIY things out of fear that I could not afford the investment in a mentor. When I finally considered coaching I focused more on business, which I believe delayed things for me because it took away from what I knew I needed to do as an influencer. Going the influencer route sooner would’ve helped my brand gain recognition sooner and with much less money spent. However, having both business and creative skills is now working in my favor with those I serve.

Skills that are most essential as a Brand Outfitter are very simple; creativity, authenticity, and courage. Creativity will help you come up with solutions and reach people in innovative ways. Authenticity will allow you to reach the people who are truly meant to be in your community because people can sense when someone is genuine. And lastly, courage because it is always some risk involved when taking a chance on your dreams. You have to be willing to try things that may or may not work, fail at some things, and make mistakes. But with courage, you are able to see the positive affects from it as well.

The biggest obstacle I have faced on this journey has been doubt. Doubt that I could accomplish the goals I set or whether I was qualified enough to do what I do. In all honest, I did not go to school to learn much of what I do now. It was all from experience and there are times where not having those “qualifications” feels intimidating in the face of those who seem to be a better fit than I am. But, with the support of mentors, family, and an amazing community I have not allowed it to stop me.

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?

I got started as a brand outfitter by becoming an influencer first. So I started with constant creation. I started doing YouTube videos, tutorials and rolling my page on Instagram. And from there, I realize that I had a skill for building engagement for recognizing people’s brand and helping creative business owners really make a living off of what they do because I could see the brand and I can see the ways to monetize what it is that they are skilled at doing. So now I have a community called for trendsetters only and in that community I help influencers, content creators, CEOs, and brands develop clarity on how to present themselves to the world.

Some of the services that I offer that have helped people do this are styling, content strategy, brand identity, and soon to be a program where we start from the beginning to help rebrand and launch a product or service with a full marketing campaign to ensure that it is a successful start for their businesses.

I am most proud of everyone who I have helped become more visible with their constant. I have clients who have started new businesses because of sessions together, I have clients who started TikTok for the first time and are more confident in creating videos on the platform in spite of past fears, or apprehensions, and I have also helped Brandice discover what type of constant resonates most with who they are as a brand, and also find their ideal people.

For this year, and for the future, I am looking forward to helping brands become their own influencers, to become visible as the face of their company, and to build multiple streams of revenue through their businesses. Using their products, services and also brand deals and collaborations it will open up a new world where brands do not have to solely rely on generating income and living off of just one thing.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Society can help best support artist and creatives by recognizing that they’re their skills. Their talents are for more than just entertainment. There are so many ways that creatives can contribute to fields that are not traditionally seen as creative, however, there has not been enough of an emphasis on continuing the arts, even in early education. For example, a client of mine is a majorette dance coach, and we figured out how to combine her creative skill of dance and her desire for fitness and turn it into a functional business model that allows her to use her skills and bring in income. Not to mention, we also incorporated the virtual space, so there is a technical component to what she learned, which helps her to monetize what it is, that she does, and contribute to the economy. This is an example of what can happen when we choose to invest in our creative and show them how to use what they are already gifted in in spaces that they may not have considered as a traditional route for an artist or creative person.

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

I learned how to build my audience on social media by being authentic, and that may sound very generic or cheesy, but it is honestly the only way to build an audience that is engaged and believes in your brand. I began by being very honest about my journey as a mother as a creative, I would discuss the things that I struggled with, and I brought people in to my life on the journey with me, which has helped me to build a community that feels like they really know me because of my willingness to be authentic and vulnerable with them. If you give people something to believe in if you give them a story to follow it makes it something for them to rally around and believe in as well. It gives them hope and it gives them an idea of what it would look like for them on their own individual journey. By doing this I have managed to build a nice audience that is engaged and really believes in what it is that I am doing.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsjadawest/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thejadawest
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@itsjadawest
• Other: TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdhJ7tvg/