Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nakeesa Frazier-Jennings. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
NaKeesa, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
As a business consultant who is also a visual artist manager, my mission is to provide authentic, inclusive, partnership with my clients and anyone else I do business with. The reason that authenticity is important to me is because I value people who are genuine and real and I want everyone I interact with to receive that from me. Being inclusive is something that I must prioritize because I believe that most of the issues we have as humans come from excluding certain people and/or groups from various parts of society. As a Black human, I have experienced first hand how biases, belief in stereotypes, and downright racism has caused people, systems, and institutions to exclude me either partially or completely. I want to do my best not to ever make other people feel that way and beyond that, I truly believe that including people from various backgrounds, perspectives, belief systems, etc. makes my experience as a business owner and a human being more rich. I received much of my hands-on experience as a consultant in the visual arts world and I have partnered with my husband to plan exhibits and various product lines for many years. We decided from the beginning that in order to be inclusive we would not only have artwork available for people at different price points but that we would center communities of color in his portraiture work. This decision has made many people feel seen, appreciated, centered, and celebrated in a way that they have expressed to us that they hadn’t, before coming in contact with the artwork. When it comes to the part of my mission around partnership, it goes back again to community. I do not want to engage in most projects, events, experiences, etc. independently or in a vacuum. Again, diverse perspectives, thoughts, and voices are important and when I’m working with clients one-on-one, I want them to feel that we are “in this together” not that I’m the “expert”. One of the services that I offer, is a Biography Writing Package, and I tell each client that they are the expert in their lives and I want to tell their story, not my story about them. Even when I’m providing other types of services such as goal setting support or even workshops around (gentle) self-accountability, my style is not to lecture but to share my experiences and thoughts and to consistently invite in participants so that we are having a conversation more than me just telling them what I think. In my role as an artist manager, it is a must to be in partnership with the artist. Their vision, goals and dreams are what I need to work with to support them to achieve. Although I’ve worked with many artists over the years, I am currently focused on providing exclusive representation to my husband to help to expand his art career and practice. In partnering with my husband, we must be in alignment when it comes to many things such as planning for exhibits, expanding his product line, vending opportunities and everything else that comes with supporting his art practice. Inclusive, authentic, partnership are values that I prioritize in every part of my business and my life.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Nakeesa Frazier-Jennings and I am a longtime resident of Western Washington (state) and was born/raised in the Washington, D.C. area. I am an advocate for racial and social justice and often use the written word and my expertise with event planning and as a creative director to shed light on the many issues impacting the Black community and people from other marginalized groups.
My boutique consulting firm, Nakeesa Marie Enterprises, is located in Tacoma, Washington, and it is where I embrace my core values of authentic, inclusive, partnership through gentle coaching, consultation, project support, proofreading and writing services, as well as various other types of support to entrepreneurs and small business owners.
My current work was born out of my experiences in the community and professional parts of my life’s journey and is very much a result of over two decades working with and in the Greater Seattle visual, creative, and literary art spaces. I have engaged with visual artists and creatives in a variety of ways such as providing them with coaching, crafting artist bios and artist statements, serving as an artist manager, having also planned, negotiated, and executed group and solo exhibitions. Most recently, in December 2023, I created and co-delivered a workshop that detailed my family’s art journey that included practical tips, strategies, and resources that can help artists monetize their individual art practice. Currently, I provide exclusive artist representation to visual artist (and my husband), George Jennings, serving as the creative director for George’s Black family art legacy showcase and exhibit titled The Women, The Paper, and The Light. This exhibit contains over 25 large scale portraits of Black women and Black girls as our family wants to find as many ways as possible to contribute to the narrative that Black women and Black girls are valued, loved, respected, are beautiful and that it is critical to have them in every part of our society, including in the fine arts. The exhibit also has allowed us to highlight and pay tribute to my husband’s grandfather, John N. Robinson, a Black visual artist whose work is currently on view at the Smithsonian (in Washington, DC) and at the Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, Alabama). Though Mr. Robinson’s work is being exhibited in those spaces, his brilliant artistry was not given nearly the recognition that it deserved while he was alive. My husband gives much of the credit to his grandfather for his own artistic abilities as he was his first and most influential art instructor therefore, we wanted to use this opportunity to honor Mr. Robinson the person, his work, his contribution to his family and to the world. (The Women, The Paper, and The Light is on view at the ARTE NOIR gallery in Seattle, Washington through February 2, 2025).
I am also a published author whose work has been featured in media publications, books, and creative and literary projects. I first engaged in the literary world in the early 2010s by submitting a poem to an online magazine which later led me submitting work in 2017 that was published in the South Seattle Emerald where I’ve had had several of my pieces published between 2017 and 2023. One piece from the Emerald was republished in The Real Change newspaper while another Emerald piece was included in the book Fly to the Assemblies!: Seattle and the Rise of the Resistance – a collection of pieces by journalists, writers and activists. Her written work was also included in the multi-dimensional art project Black Imagination providing written meditations for collectors of Black Joy ritual objects. I am a contributing writer in Black Powerful, a collection of pieces written by over 100 Black voices from across the globe!
I also read my written work for the public having been a featured reader/writer in the Nonfiction for No Reason series in October 2023 and in November 2023, as the featured reader/writer for the Writers Read series hosted by the African-American Writers’ Alliance becoming an official member of the Alliance in December 2023. Being part of the alliance also allowed me to have two of my pieces included in the group’s 2024 Anthology: Uncensored and Unfiltered.
In 2024, I created several versions of a guided journal titled 100 Days of Gentle Accountability. As a deep believer in the importance of self-care and self-love, I created this guided journal to allow people to prioritize themselves through accountability but, in the most gentle way possible. I’m a firm believer that being accountable to yourself is the highest form of self-love. This book allows people to focus on themselves in ways that I hadn’t seen in other resources with writing prompts that asks them to think about what they are proud about and how they took care of themselves each and every day. When creating this resource, as a Black woman, I had Black women heavily on my mind since we are not often encouraged to care for ourselves. My hope was that as many Black as possible will access the book and incorporate it in their self-love journey. I do, also hope that everyone, from every background, community, and identity, accesses this book.
What I am most proud of in all parts of my various efforts, is that I have not only received beautiful feedback from clients both publicly through online testimonials (on my website) and Google reviews, I’ve received in-person and one-on-one feedback from clients who have shared that they have never worked with someone like me who considered them and respected them in our work the way that I did. I’m also very proud that I’ve helped people achieve their goals and that now, I’m able to help other people who aren’t my clients but who are accessing my guided journal to support them in their wellness journeys.
I truly want to contribute to this world and our society in a positive way and hope to leave the world a better place than I found it. Through my literary journey, my work in the visual arts and as a consultant, I feel that I have a great chance at achieving this personal goal!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I spent years as a hands-on artist manager with several clients on my roster at once. Though I had the ability to provide support and guidance to artists, I learned through that experience that all but one of the artists I worked with were actually ready to work with a manager. During that part of my business journey, it very was arduous to receive the information I needed from my artist clients in order to best help me to broker deals for them and get their work out into the world on a broader scale. For several years, I continued to work in this space but it was far from enjoyable for me and I kept having this nagging feeling that I needed to find a different way to help artists. At the same time, I was continuing to grow my experience as a small business owner myself and then one day it hit me that I needed to discontinue working with a few artists as a hands-on manager but instead, pivot to providing consultation to artists and entrepreneurs of all types! This pivot has allowed me to work with more individuals, businesses, and workshop participants and it expanded my reach far beyond what I was able to do before. Working with individuals and groups on a project by project basis allows me to help them either build one step at a time or work with them on their current need and then sometime later (if needed), work with them on a future need or project.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been maintaining a positive, professional, reputation. Showing up and doing what I say I’m going to do consistently, day after day, year after year, has been the best strategy for growing my clientele. My professional reputation has led to people recommending me through word of mouth and that is HUGE in the world of consultation. I’ve gotten new clients simply because other clients have recommended me. Another strategy that I feel is a tie for having a strong professional reputation is to ALWAYS put yourself out there. Make sure that the public can see you and your work. Never be ashamed to share what your work, passion or experience is. You never know who is asking or who they know or who is in the audience (if you’re speaking in front of a group). One of my biggest contracts to date came about because I delivered a workshop and the person who eventually reached out to me about a project they needed help with was in the audience. In addition to that type of scenario, I’ve worked with people or spoken to people about my work at networking events, or just randomly when having a conversation with people when I’ve had a booth as a vending event or joined a webinar and was asked to introduce myself or through posts on various platforms. People will often remember me and will reach out to me to offer me paid opportunities because they remembered my work and/or our conversation about my work. Though I do post on social media, I make sure to keep my work as a consultant and in the arts at the forefront even on platforms that many people feel are just for people who aren’t entrepreneurs but I have found that people see my work in that space and they have reached out to me regarding opportunities for things that aren’t jobs for their company but rather projects that they need a consultant for. People have also reached out from seeing me in that space to hire me for one-on-one consultation. All of these ways has helped to keep me out there and in front of people which ultimately has led to opportunities I wouldn’t have necessarily known existed.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nakeesamarie.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nakeesamarie/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nakeesa-marie-enterprises/?viewAsMember=true
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nakeesamarie/featured
Image Credits
George C. Jennings, Jr.
Michael B. Maine
Elisheba Johnson
ARTE NOIR
Social B Marketing & Communications