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

Shenise , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

Every business idea starts with a passion for the craft. Throughout my journey to becoming a business owner, I organically was affiliating myself within the creative services realm. In high school, I was the president of the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), in college I majored in marketing communications and in my professional career I stood up my organization’s digital media presence. All these accomplishments helped me to establish my business, The Munch Travelogue. The name of my business derived from a childhood nickname that was given to me by my grandmother who compared my eating habit of storing food in my cheeks to the likeness of a squirrel. As an homage to my grandmother, I took on the moniker Munch and combined it with my love for all things travel to form a name that is relatable and memorable. Once I solidified the name, I knew that I had to come up with an image that was recognizable and would evoke a sense of nostalgia. My logo leans in to my love for the whimsical, so the body is shaped similar to the packman from the well-known video game, with the addition of flowing black hair and a yellow streak which is my favorite color. A hue of brown is utilized to represent my African American skin tone. Communicating to the viewer that this is a black women owned business. “The Munch” is eating a globe, signifying that I’m tasting my way around the world and documenting every minute.
Now that my branding was set, I made it my goal to start showcasing my work and embarked on developing my website. This platform allows me to be expressive about my adventures by documenting them by using a travel guide format that is outlined in my motto of Learn, See and Do. In each travel guide you will see a heavy emphasis of black history and culture. I believe it is important to highlight the underrepresented landmarks and businesses to ensure that they are brought to the forefront as a must-see destination rather than an afterthought. The content on my website is an ever-evolving portfolio that I use to pitch to news outlets and businesses with the intention of establishing collaborations and/or writing assignments.

To take my business to the next level, I recently obtained my trademark for my logo, The Munch Travelogue. This was a two-year effort that required me to obtain the services of a lawyer to assist with the filing of the application to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Though the cost was a bit expensive, I decided to go this route to maintain my piece of mind and to not have to incur additional costs for filling out the paperwork wrong. My next phase is to protect my content by working through the process of copywriting my work. I am currently doing the research to determine what would be the best avenue to take and I believe that utilizing a lawyer again would be the ideal situation.
The entrepreneurship journey can be a roller coaster and sometimes overwhelming but once you reach that sweet spot were your intention meets your purpose it makes the whole process worth it and I would recommend it to anyone that has the drive to take on the challenge.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am the owner and creator of the LLC, The Munch Travelogue and a freelancer writer for several news outlet in the Washington, DC metro area. I am a curious global citizen that loves to learn about other cultures and food ways. My motto of learn, see and do encompasses everything I strive to achieve on my adventures and is the baseline for how I present my travel guides to my audience.

As an Army Brat, I was introduced to travel at a young age. Living in other countries offered my family the opportunity to explore and engage with different cultures. By being open to the travel experience has created everlasting memories that I treasure to this day. So, now as an adult, travel is a part of my DNA and throughout the evolution of The Munch Travelogue it allows me the platform to share, encourage and inspire people to dive into the endless possibilities of joy that food, travel and cultural customs can create.

My goal is to showcase those untapped treasures in our world that have a heavy emphasis on African American food, travel and culture. Through my curated travel guides, I provide the reader a reference point to jumpstart their wanderlust and discover an activity that may have been outside of their reference circle.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Being able to develop an idea, making it a reality and then have people resonate with your work is the ultimate compliment. Introducing people to a new destination or food and using my content as a resource brings me total joy. The more exposure of a place, space or culture reduces the fear factor and elevates the compassion component. Hopefully resulting in a world that is more aware to beauty of the nuances that exist.

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

Building your presence should start by following brands or content creators that are in the same realm as your business. Make your presence known by liking, commenting and sharing content that resonates with you from the brands or content creators that you follow. Hashtags are another essential tool to ensure your content is being seen by your target audience. It’s also a great way to find trends and/or create your own hashtag to track your contents relevance. Above all else, when it comes to social media, it is all about authenticity, boundaries and consistency. Keeping these three principles at the core of your social media strategy will keep you on the right track to success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://themunchtravelogue.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/munchtravelogue/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themunchtravelogue/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEeMM1RKJrSMBWuyAfIghBw
• Email:  [email protected]

Image Credits
Shenise Foster provided all the photos