We recently connected with Sheba CreativeAF and have shared our conversation below.

Sheba, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My most meaningful project happens to be the most recent project I worked on. I had the pleasure of supporting my client Blake’s BBQ & Burgers close their doors after 42 years in business. Most people wouldn’t think of marketing or seeking media coverage for the closing of a business, but it was important to Mr. Blake and I wanted him to have the closing he was hoping for.

Initially, we created short interviews with customers in the restaurant to let the public know that the restaurant was closing, then we worked on publicity in order to garner local news coverage for the closing to bring more people out on the last day. We ended up with a huge turnout and closed the restaurant with more customers in one day than they had ever seen.

It really happened by divine chance that I went to the restaurant the day we started working on the project and I know that if I had ignored my intuition it wouldn’t have happened that way. It was an opportunity for me to use a wide array of skills to achieve something and I’m really proud of the work that came out of it thus far. We’re not quite finished as we have an event coming up on June 30th, 2023 where there will be an official closing by the city.

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 have been in the field of podcasting and media for about 8 years and I had learned so much about brand building, marketing, and garnering media attention that I decided to create the subsidiary MUZE do the same thing for others as I had done for my own brands.

My primary focus is on building brands from the inside out through strategy, management, and developing the right tools in order to help my clients increase their revenue and visibility.

I offer services in packages or a la carte like single strategy sessions, monthly brand management, social media strategy/management, creative content sessions (content days), and content marketing strategies for larger endeavors like podcasts and courses. You could book a commercial or advertisement shoot through MUZE, as well as brand photography. I also coordinate and manage online and in-person events, and provide media relations strategies.

A lot of my clients are interested in presenting themselves as an authority and subject matter expert in their industries, the most important thing everyone should know is that people will believe you only as much as you believe yourself.

I also teach the importance of personal development and self-awareness, so any client who works with me to grow their brand really gets more than they bargained for. If you don’t want to be better, make more money, and live a happier life don’t come over here.

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

I like this question because specifically, the Instagram page that’s associated with this part of my business doesn’t have a large following, yet I still make money. I think that sometimes we get wrapped up in numbers and followers and we miss that there are still things happening offline and in real life that can propel your business forward.

If you’re just starting to build a presence, all I can tell you is that having consistently good content is equally important as followers, if not more. Brands have asked me to work with them when I had less than 200 followers simply because I was present and had an engaged community.

Make sure you’re looking at the right numbers, which are your insights and analytics. You could have 25K followers and not know what to do with them, imagine having a lot of people following you and not knowing how to leverage that as an influencer.

Aesthetics do matter, so when it comes to posting on social media depending upon the platform you will want to create strategies that appeal to the audience there. Instagram is really about looks and it’s kind of like a magazine, so if you look at the pages that do have a lot of followers and growing in most cases they look like they care. If you’re a restaurant or selling food, please invest in a brand shoot or learn how to take pictures of your food – it really could make the difference between selling a meal and someone losing the contents of their stomach.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My creative journey definitely is powered by the divine flow, I follow my spirit and I go where I’m led to go. I hope to be able to help as many Black business owners make money and build sustainable brands as possible. It’s really important to me because financial freedom is something that has often escaped my community and there’s a way to do it and it’s not stepping on each other and refusing to collaborate.

We have a tendency to look at those around us like they’re beneath us when we don’t think they can help us, based on things like followers and notoriety but you never know who you’re standing next to.

I spoke about this in the last article, but I would really like to create advertising campaigns for large corporations and I know on projects of that size I would need a lot of additional creative support. For the Blake’s BBQ & Burgers project, we’re working on a short documentary and it was really nice to be able to bring in another creative to help me do that.    

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mscreativeafmuze.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/muzebrandmgmt
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAJgTOsaJ4vbOtkPbChgDvg
• Other: www.freedomlifestyletelevision.com

Image Credits
Owen Stephens Photography Destiny Polk Blip Photography