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

Hi Meah , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

Thankfully, I’ve had great experiences in corporate America but I’ve had some rough ones too. There are several things corporate America gets wrong especially when the bottom line is only profit and there is no focus on company culture or leadership/management style.

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 consider myself a southern belle with a city hustle! I was raised in a small town called Raeford, NC where I dreamed about being on television as an actress, model, and television host! Unfortunately, the closest I got to that was playing saxophone in the marching band and modeling here and there in local fashion shows.

After graduating high school, I attended the University of North Carolina with hopes of becoming a sports anchor working for companies like ESPN. In college, I landed a job working on the football team’s video crew. I learned cameras and recorded the team practices and football games, traveling around the country! It was a great experience, and I soon realized I did not want to work in sports my whole life. I transitioned my studies into film where I created a few short films and my career dreams evolved into wanting to become a director. After graduation, I flew to Los Angeles to intern at a well-known camera house.

While all of this was happening (my internship), my father was in a coma. A few weeks before I graduated college he went into a diabetic coma. It changed my life forever and after my internship, I moved back to the East Coast (NYC) to be closer to my father and pursue my dreams. My transition to New York was one of the toughest years of my life. Two months after I moved my father also transitioned in life. I found myself struggling to find a job during the tail end of the recession, in 2012. I was depressed, friendless, losing a lot of weight, and the only job I could land was as a sales associate at the Gap.

While fighting my depression, I found a church home and started working three or four jobs, working to save up enough money to buy a camera and become a videographer. For several years I waitressed and worked as a videographer. In between, filming events and creating videos for small business owners I worked as a production assistant on commercials, indie projects, etc. Struggling to book consistent work, build relationships, and be recognized on set / productions was a real challenge. This led me to create a community and website to feature filmmakers like myself. I wanted there to be one central place that provided resources for filmmakers and helped them navigate the industry more easily, AND I wanted a platform to show their work as well! My company The Reel Noire Network (originally The Reel Effect) was born!

Our biggest goal is to build a community for filmmakers of color to be supported, learn, and grow professionally and holistically. On the TRNN website, you can find media events from across the country. You can search through our free production resources, learn about rising film and media professionals, attend our latest TRNN event, and join our membership!

TRNN is a unique film community that truly provides opportunities for media professionals to network across, build their skills, and find more balance and inspiration as a creative. I’m most proud that TRNN is continuing to grow by hosting more events, partnering with other women-owned and black-owned businesses, and providing more and more resources to our film community!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I did not go to business school but I had a mother that was an entrepreneur. I believe that was my first resource, watching her as a real estate broker, how professional she was, and how committed she was to getting great results for her clients.

Outside of that, the biggest change that happened last year was investing in a business coach. Sistahbiz founder Makisha Boothe, helped me re-image my business and find new revenue streams. I think, the best resource, besides doing research and learning from podcasts, books, etc, is to find people who are smarter than you. People that have skills that you don’t have and need to build. After working with my business coach I brought on a marketing professional, Anscia Terelle, who also helped me fill in the blanks around how I present my brand. It’s been a game changer and has required me to do so much learning in between the insight I am gaining from them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thereelnoirenetwork.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereelnoirenetwork/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelNoireNetwork/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meahdeneebarrington/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOqM_fFfPbCflzPslJ12MQ

Image Credits
Featured image by Dajuan Jones / In His Image Photo Photographers include Kobina De Graft Johnson / Anibok Studios