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

Hi Shelby , thanks for joining us today. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?

To be quite frank with you, If I was starting over the main thing, I would do differently is have more of a discerning heart. I have always been an open and trusting person, but business you have to be commercially astute and savvy as to who you conduct business with and why. Passion is the driving force behind creating something great.

I could have gotten to this point in my career faster by leveraging and strategizing on the various forms of funding and capitalization to build out a system that was scalable and flexible. You truly need a strong service offering along with processes that support that offering and an amazing willingness to serve others through failure.

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

My journey has been a bit unconventional. I received my start in the industry via dance and grew up in the entertainment industry. Upon obtaining my degree in mass communications and marketing, I began to work in advertising and marketing with one of the top ad companies in the U.S. Shortly after gaining my stride, I was laid off and struggled to find steady employment as I was laid off every year that I worked for a new company. I took some time off and ran across an acquaintance who worked in professional sports and helped him release a film project with his team entitled “Carter High” that became widely successful. From that experience, I began to build my network and resources to shift into public relations and development. Henceforth, PGM was created.

Phase Global Management began as a creative design firm that has grown into a full brand management agency. The brand itself builds talent and brands by partnering their mission with counterparts who can expand their reach. We specialize in brand partnerships, experiential marketing, public relations, creative design, social production, and conference creation.

The most valuable moments in my career have come from the failures of my career. Oh man, I know that sounds a bit brash, but it is the truth. I am most proud of the items that did not work as it taught me what does work. It truly showed me how to live light heartedly, work smarter and learn to build a culture that fits our demographic.

When you are building people or brands, you must be able to adapt to trends. Understanding that to be adaptable, you must understand that buyer behavior is unlocked by flexibility.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

In order to maintain high morale, you must ensure that you are hiring the right talent with the right mindsets and the right hearts. Morale comes from the character of everyone that is to merge within the culture of the company. Ensuring that you create a culture to where your team feels appreciated, understood, and valued aids in this as well.

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

Being a brand new mother in a digital world during a pandemic presented many challenges. Balancing family, business and client needs became very strenuous. As a brand-new mother, it became very difficult on how to develop a work life balance and ensure that I kept my overall health in perspective.

After my son was born, I took a step back to reassess how we did business, what was working, what was failing, the parameters I needed to place around myself to protect that balance and how to build a larger infrastructure to support the level of clientele being served.

Leveraging support of family, friends and close business associates provided me the insight on how to focus on understanding the gaps in my business and how to ensure the quality of our services.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @shelbyletrice_
• Facebook: B. Smith
• Linkedin: @shelbyletrice_
• Twitter: @shelbyletrice_

Image Credits
Image credit :Terica B Photo