We caught up with the brilliant and insightful William Tidwell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, William thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

If I’m being honest, I accidentally stumbled onto my passion. Early on I realized that college just wasn’t for me; I originally thought that I may want to be a teacher or writer, but quickly realized that I didn’t learn or think things through in traditional ways. I was often miserable because society teaches us that quitting college or not having college degrees is seen as the ultimate failure. After leaving college I was lost as to what I wanted to do, but I knew for a fact the things that I didn’t want to do. So I listed out everything that I was passionate about then I asked myself how can I help others by doing what I love and what I’m passionate about, but still make money and support my family? I knew that I loved to write, I loved to speak/motivate people, I knew that I wanted to serve my community and I knew that I wanted to impact the youth in my community. That is how SpeakUPZee, LLC was born. My company offers creative writing, media/marketing, content creation/management, community/youth outreach/development and we partner with several entities and new entrepreneurs, nationwide, to build and grow their businesses.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Sometimes when you’re going through a season of darkness you just need some sort of hope, some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. Writing was that light for me; writing was that thing that I could hold on to; the constant in my life no matter my circumstance or situation. From childhood writing stories, poems, or anything really, was my passion. At the darkest moment in my life, I found my greatest gift and that just shows you how God can take ordinary people and do extraordinary things; because at my lowest point, he chose to use me! I began to pour everything I had into writing and building a business based on my passions, goals, and aspirations.

Deciding on industry and business concepts was easy because I followed my passion. I loved writing and I loved giving back to the community that gave to me. My main two industry sectors include creative writing and community outreach and consulting. I’m able to serve my community and give back on a daily basis. Community is the foundation of everything that I do; experiencing poverty for a few years gave me a greater respect for those where that it is their daily reality. With this experience, I told myself that as soon as I got on my feet, as soon as I was in a better position I was coming back to the community to make sure that we all eat! I became even more passionate about being a resource of knowledge for my community. Everything that I learned about business and entrepreneurship I turn right around and pour it back into my community.

In order to meet every community need, we have several different companies and entities within those companies. Listing the four main; Zee’s Detailing Company, Esquire Writing Company, AR Meals partnership, and 9502 Media Company.

Zee’s detailing is a high-class car cleaning and detailing experience in the Little Rock area that provides not only a wonderful service to the community but allows us to employ people of color and mentor youth within the community.

Esquire Writing focuses on all aspects of writing both professional and writing for students; this ranges from devising business plans, resumes, marketing plans, and homework/tutoring assistance for students.

I serve as the assistant director for AR meals; the AR meals partnership allows us to give back to the community and we’re able to feed over 1,000 kids a day with free meals and free food after school and in the summer as well.

9502 Media Company focuses on consulting and coaching entrepreneurs that have ideas or need help with turning ideas into practice. The media company focuses on every aspect of business and strives to be a resource for business management.

Ultimately we are a resource for youth, students, less fortunate, professionals, and men/women of color. I believe that is what I am most proud of.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I definitely wish that I knew more about money management. A deeper understanding of the inner workings of money and how it’s used would have been a great help early on. This was one of my hardest struggles early on. I gained a much deeper understanding of what it means to pour into your business and to use the money and resources that you do have wisely and efficiently. I feel as though I needed to fail, in the beginning, so that I could gain the understanding and respect for my business and my craft that I have now.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I remember for a while; like for a long time they laughed at the content I created. When you come from where I do the topics that I discussed in my content just weren’t talked about in mainstream; let alone table conversation in the black community. It was essentially unheard of to discuss and explore love, self-esteem, life, dreams, goals, ambition, and relationships in a positive light. I have several social media platforms, but I focus a lot on my podcast Zee Speaks; I poured a lot into the content that I created, but it often received no love. It wasn’t really until the pandemic hit that things took off in a way that I would have never imagined. During the pandemic, Tik Tok really escalated into the platform that it is today and it was during that time that people began to “see” me. I remember taking some clips of content that I had recorded for my podcast that prior year, and reposting them on Tik Tok, and overnight seems they went viral and they resonated with so many people and resonated with the time and situations that so many people were enduring. The people resonated with me and it felt so good, even when it took me eight years.

My advice is: be consistent and stay the course if you’re new to social media or if you’re worried about how your content will be received. It doesn’t matter!

continue to put out content and market your business and ideas even when it feels like no one cares or no one is watching. They are! Another thing, put out content all the time, even when you don’t feel like it.

create content daily, in bulk, so that on those days that you don’t feel your best you will still have content to post. Lastly, don’t get too connected to social media; by all means, use it to elevate your message or your business, just don’t rely so heavily on social media influence that you allow it to affect your emotions!

that’s a draining emotional roller coaster …

Contact Info:

• Website: speakupzee.com
• Instagram: @willzeetidwell
• Facebook: Will Zee Tidwell
• Linkedin: Will Tidwell
• Twitter: @willzeetidwell
• Youtube: Will Zee Tidwell
• Other: Podcast – Zee Speaks Instagram writing page- @esquirewritingco Instagram- @zees.detailing Instagram- @zees.place Instagram- @speakupzeeyouthmentoring

Image Credits
SpeakUPZee, LLC