We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jordan Welch. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jordan below.

Jordan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Every risk you take may not end with a reward. However, a lesson learned is just as valuable. At the beginning of COVID, I was working as a sales consultant at Shane Company. It was a decent job with decent pay and everyone had side hustles and investments and was a very inspiring environment at the beginning. I met 2 ladies who recently came into some money and wanted to find something to invest in for a quick turnaround profit. About 6-7 months of working there, they came to me with a business venture idea to start a cotton candy business in the mall. Everybody knew I was pretty good at branding & graphic design so my role was to run social media, design the marking material and the ads and in return would receive a % of revenue. I thought it was a great idea because of my prior knowledge in running a mall kiosk and having prior relationships with the mall Directors. After deliberating on the small details of the business, we were ready to bring it to the mall!
It was the Simon Mall in Dunwoody, GA and very shortly after presenting our idea, they loved it and wanted us in ASAP. It was my first time getting a business ready for a storefront! Now, to put a twist on this story, around the same time of receiving this good news, I had just been laid off from my job due to being shut down during the pandemic. I knew this business idea would almost triple my income and put me back in a better place. I wasn’t even worried about being laid off because of the positive reassurance of the situation. 3 months pass by of preparing for the storefront Grand Opening and we were nearing close. Me and my Co-owners talked on a non-stop basis regarding the expansion of the brand and the store had FINALLY opened. We were celebrating and everyone was elated!
Shortly after the grand opening I would hear less and less from my Co-owners. The only times I spoke to them was to figure out what days I had to work the storefront. I was starting to feel isolated from the business even tho I felt like I was doing most of the leg work. I couldn’t take it anymore and I confronted my co-owners on the issue I was having with the communication. They began to say that they didn’t feel I should be paid for the work I had been doing for months in preparation for their store. At that moment I realized that even tho the business idea itself was fine, I was in it with the wrong people. I was completely out of months worth of pay with bills stacking up. I had to do something quick so that’s where I brainstormed and created my Branding & Marketing business. Realizing the skill it took to get into a Simon mall, legitimize a business for a public market and manage the pressure of a store grand opening, I knew I had what it took to continue to do it for others as well as myself.

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

I am a Digital Marketing & Branding Specialist geared towards helping entrepreneurs and small business owners with improving their brand presence, business model and marketing material. My company is ‘Golden Phoenix Branding, LLC.’ and the most popular service we offer is Website Design. We specialize in keeping your web interface clean and crisp with a corporate-professional appearance to attract your audience to your brand, while also improving your store’s conversion rate. We offer a wide range of services from designing marketing material (i.e. business cards, posters, banners, etc.), organizing your brand guide or typing out your business plan to present to a bank for a loan. We’ll even offer a full package for digital business owners as well as brick-and-mortar store owners (whether it’s brand new or well-established).
We ALSO offer a payment plan where you can pay your balance in 4 installments to help you get started faster AND 15% of all my service costs is donated towards Mental Health America.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I started my “social media journey” in high school when people would post random memes of themselves on social sites in hopes they would go viral. I, in-turn, ended up going viral a couple times with senseless photo memes that many people could recognize me from and many other accounts would try to take credit for. I then started to grow a local following within the LGBTQ+ community along with some of my favorite influencers. I began doing natural hair tutorials for small hair care brands that wanted to work with me. After my FIRST pin-up hair tutorial went viral and a few more videos went up, more brands wanted to work with me. I was working for these brands for free in exchange for them promoting my social media and that’s how I gained the bulk of my following. And before you ask, no I don’t make hair care tutorials anymore. It was fun for the meanwhile!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think it’s safe to say that COVID really shaped a lot of people in many ways. The very beginning of the pandemic was rough because I had just left home for the first time to live with my significant other. Saving for my first apartment, I was bartending, serving, and driving for Uber, DoorDash & Instacart. I scheduled my routine to work every job, EVERY day until I saved enough for my apartment. Waking up to start Instacart from 6:00 am to Ubering until 3:00 pm and then bartending til midnight, I was exhausted but new I had a goal to hit and had to do it. I managed to get my apartment within 3 months of hustling the way I was. We picked a beautiful 2 bedroom, fully-renovated apartment in North Atlanta and instantly fell in love with the new life I begun for myself. Of course, my partner came along to assist me with rent but it hadn’t been long living in the apartment before my partner started to slip on his half of the rent. I obviously had to cover the rent which was chipping away my savings. It then started to get a bit toxic and our arguments were turning into fights. Fights were turning into brawls and I had just gotten my new job. An argument sparked while at my new job via text and escalated very quickly, to where, I didn’t feel safe going back to live in my own home. I spent the night at a friend’s and went back to my apartment the next day. When I got back to my apartment that afternoon, I found it completely destroyed and in disarray. Glass candle jars were shattered. Canvas paintings were sliced. All my alcohol was drunk completely. All my TV’s were punched through and some of my belongings were stolen. In avoidance to get too deep, we separated. Keeping the apartment myself with everything I had going on at the time, along with me suffering from social anxiety and mild depression, it was a bit of a roller coaster. I made it work because I had a dog and used her well-being as my main reason to keep going and just maintain. Everything works out for the better because now I’m about to be getting ready to purchase my own home!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.GoldenPhoenixBranding.com
• Instagram: @goldenphoenixbm
• Facebook: Golden Phoenix Branding
• Other: Catch us at Local Network Events & centers for in-person Q&A and Consultations!