We were lucky to catch up with Jaylyn Brown recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jaylyn, appreciate you joining us today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

As a business owner and entrepreneur, you learn that support can come in many forms. It can be most natural to want support from friends and family but asking them can be challenging at times. I’ve been fortunate that during my decade-long entrepreneurial journey my friends and family have been my biggest supporters, despite if they even fully understand what I do as Founder & CEO of The JB Agency.

I feel it’s perfectly fine to ask friends and family to support your business because that’s often times who we trust most, who we feel reassured from and who we know will be honest with us. There’s not been a time in my experience, where it wasn’t appropriate to ask friends and family for support. However, depending upon what your business entails such as offering a product versus services, it may not always make sense to ask them to purchase something they’ll never use or ask them to participate in something they have no familiarity with. But again, in those cases, support can look like being a listening ear after a challenging day, making a phone call on your behalf to connect you to an ideal client or someone who is in your target audience, or simply resharing a social media post to increase your engagement numbers and brand awareness.

There’s one quote that always comes to mind when sharing advice and encouragement with other entrepreneurs and that is “God planted that dream in your heart for a reason. No one else can dream it for you. No one else will accomplish it for you.” I love that perspective because it’s true and no matter how much you try to explain your idea, your passion or your vision to someone else; it won’t ever translate the way that you desire it most. You have to adapt this unwavering faith, confidence and discipline to keep going whether you have support from your friends and family or not. Do things for your target audience, get creative and stay consistent. If your friends and family do not fall into the category of your target audience, that is okay, they will still be there once you reach the level of whatever success looks like to you.

Jaylyn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hi Canvas Rebel Readers! I’m Jaylyn Brown, an established and accomplished strategic communicator, author and Founder and CEO of The JB Agency. With over a decade of experience focused on sports and non-profit ventures, my work and projects have been highlighted and featured nationally and internationally in publications and programming such as Forbes, ESPN, USA Today, Peacock and Ebony to name a few.

My introduction and integration into the sports industry has been as organic and full circle as can be. I’m from Havre de Grace, Maryland and I grew up very immersed in the world of baseball, and I credit that to Cal Ripken Jr.’s brand and presence in my younger years. I never shied away from an opportunity to lead or participate in sports from a logistics or personnel standpoint. From being an ambassador for teams participating in the Cal Ripken Jr. Little League World Series to being a college student hosting the in-game entertainment during basketball season, I was never far from the action and always admired the way sports fueled competitiveness and passion while changing someone’s life the further they progressed.

Favor and hard work placed me in position to gain mentors who invested in me and trusted me to elevate their own sports centric non-profits which attracted some of the most legendary NFL, NBA and MLB talent across the world. Relationships and referrals then prepared me for the opportunity to launch my own business, The JB Agency, a sports management firm specializing in public relations, brand management, events and community development for collegiate, professional and retired athletes. What sets me apart from others is my ability to make the impossible attainable, and even better than what we first envisioned. I’m most proud of our legacy list of clientele and how each individual has made history in some way, shape or form, that cannot be erased from their stories of success. For any potential client, it’s important that they understand some of my values and expectations; one of which is to be the best. Our brand has a reputation for high quality experiences, high quality production and high-quality talent, which is maintained by being authentic, being true to what we believe is right and advocating for those who we represent.

Being a woman in a male dominated industry and forging my own path has been incredibly rewarding and despite the trials and challenges I’ve faced, the cliche rings true that hard work does pay off. I’m looking most forward to the future and some of the projects we’re preparing to announce, and I can’t wait to have you on that journey with me.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Referrals from relationships have been the best source of new clients for us. Not only for the potential client but for us as well, there’s a level of vetting that’s already been done when there’s someone you likely trust or engage with enough who wants to make that introduction.

In addition to referrals, we often obtain clients who have watched our work from afar with another client, and whether they knew that individual personally, they were able to see the work, see the difference and growth in their brand and from there they reach out with their own interest and ideas to hopefully bring forth a new opportunity.

Both of these sources make it even more important to always treat others kindly, and with respect, because impressions last a long time, and you never know who you’re leaving feeling inspired, intrigued or wanting more information.

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

Social media when utilized correctly can be so beneficial for your business. Our company’s social media started as more of a blog page called Fields and Fashion, showcasing how I brought my sense of style to the many fields (or courts) I was often standing on during the respective seasons. But as an entrepreneur with no staff at the time, playing multiple roles, it became a bit much to maintain on top of all of the other very important tasks and deliverables. Managing social media, creating strategies, studying trends and implementing them is a full-time job.

I had a few loyal friends, family and acquaintances who followed Fields and Fashion just out of pure interest, but as my clientele and project base grew, I turned the Fields and Fashion page into The JB Agency’s official page, so I wasn’t starting from scratch. From there, I purely experimented to see what type of posts resonated most with followers and non-followers and recognized that I had no reason to be afraid of posting something “wrong” because I had nothing to lose.

My advice to those building their social media presence would be:

1. Remain true to you and your brand. People can identify something, or someone’s inauthenticity faster than you think.
2. Be consistent, especially if you’re not reaching your audience in other ways like email campaigns.
3. Quality over quantity. Make it count every single time.
4. Plan out a schedule if you can. It saves you time, gives you the space to be creative and produce content in advance and helps relieve the stress and pressure that comes with social media expectations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thejbagency.com
• Instagram: @thejbagency
• Linkedin: The JB Agency
• Other: My personal Instagram is @thereal_jb
  You can find me on LinkedIn as Jaylyn Brown

Image Credits

The BAL/NBA Africa
Everlasting Photography
Hampton Roads Youth Foundation
The JB Agency