Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to KeAndre’ Jordan . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi KeAndre’ , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

After being laid off 6 times from my engineering career, I realized that I needed to own my own business and needed to give back to the black community.

Created from pain and career embarrassment, My SOUTHERN Brand was born. In the midst of it all, I felt that there was few black representation in the food industry, as far as black food marketing.

Creating a niche and combing food and my love for the black community, I knew that My SOUTHERN Brand was going to revolutionary in how it would show Houston’s black food scene in a positive light. Consequently, it’s become bigger than what I’d ever imagine; it’s become a gateway to Houston’s black community, for residents and visitors alike.

My SOUTHERN Brand started to give black restaurants and other food entities a voice and time to shine. The aforementioned traits get me excited because I know that my gifts and talents are important pieces that positively impact the community via group economics, marketing strategies, and communal approaches.

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?

My name is KeAndre’, and I’m from Eutaw, Alabama. In 2014, I graduated from Alabama A&M University with a civil engineering degree, which resulted in a move to Houston.

After 5 years in the engineering and career disappointments and layoffs, I created My SOUTHERN Brand to highlight Houston’s black food scene. I realized that there wasn’t enough representation in the black food community and any full insight into and depth of Houston’s black food scene.

Since 2019, I’ve been marketing and promoting black restaurants and other food entities to influence my growing audience of 101K Instagram followers and 142K TikTok followers to patronize black owned businesses. Of course, for every member of this group economy, there has been benefits: the restaurants get more revenue and exposure, the followers are happily fed, and I get financial gains.

On the other hand, the black community, as a whole, has challenges with resources, which affect the restaurants. As a result, with my skills, I’m able to consult restaurants to better themselves, aside from marketing. Other consulting practices include plate presentation coaching, basic social media training, and basic customer service training.

The love and passion I have for my community is second to none; these emotions allow me to work diligently to ensure that my restaurant clients are well taken care of and to ensure that my audience has great experiences at restaurants that they’ve never patronized. Thus, I’m proud to make a difference in the community, by giving a voice to the voiceless.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

No matter how large my platform gets, I must remember my mission, which is to be a beacon in the black community. In staying the course, I have to remain authentic and trustworthy; doing so allows my audience and restaurant clients alike to trust my advice, feedback, and services.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The struggles of Corporate America definitely eased themselves into my creative and business ownership spaces. Due a insufficient funds, there were times when I couldn’t pay my mortgage and other bills, but I stayed on task to market Houston’s black food scene in a positive light. Even though times were hard, I could always see the light at the end of the tunnel. Too, I knew that my brand and business were much bigger than me and that I would actually capitalize on my passion.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mysouthernbrand.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/mysouthernbrand?utm_medium=copy_link
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/mysouthernbrand/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mysouthernbrand?s=21

Image Credits
My Photos