Meet Damia Miller-shanklin

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Damia Miller-shanklin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Damia, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I found my purpose by accident. I admired two Austin community newspapers, The Villager owned by Mr. Tommy Wyatt and the Nokoa news paper owned Mr. Akwasi Evans, who has since passed on. I knew I wanted to do more than just be a caseworker. I loved writing and I have journal since I was a young girl. But I did not know how to make writing my true passion.
I reached out to Mr. Evans and interviewed with him about writing for his newspaper. He took me on and taught me how to be a writer and tell the stories of people in the community. When I saw my article on the front page,..my purpose became clear to me and I went for it. I wrote for Nokoa and learned a great deal until I decided I wanted to create a community magazine featuring the black community. Ujima Magazine became the way I would tell stories of our “everyday heroes”.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

As the Founder and Editor-in-Chief, of Ujima Magazine, I work with my team to create each issue with ideas that lead to creativity of each page, editing and producing the final product that we share with our community.
The Ujima brand is created and written for the Black community. Not just Austin’s community but being a digital magazine, we are seen by many communities. We want to highlight people who are making a difference in their communities by inspiring others to be their best and work to improve our community. The people we highlight provide the light for others to look within themselves to see how they can create change or be the hope for someone else.
Ujima is looking to collaborate more with other black-owned businesses. We are working on how we can do that in the future.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The qualities I use is compassion, empathy, the love of storytelling and my background in Social Work. As a Caseworker, I had to work with people who had a story and they were not easy stories. They had experience loss, abandonment, sickness and more. But I listened to them and through listening I would tell their story to someone who helped them grow and live a better life. There were people who I could call on and they would open their heart to help. This stories stuck with me and that is why I love to highlight who I call the “everyday heroes” in our community. These are people who make a difference but no one sees what they do and I wanted them to be acknowledged. Ujima is the tool I use for storytelling and sharing different people in our community doing great things.

My advice for anyone who is looking to follow their passion is to review your skills and what you need to make your dream happen, I suggest reading about your industry of interest, find a mentor and do it. Don’t allow barriers that may exist stop you from moving forward. Depending on what skill you are looking to improve, their are seminars, webinars and information online. Early on, I participated in different groups that taught me about other entrepreneur businesses and what other people were doing to build their businesses.

How would you describe your ideal client?

The ideal client for Ujima Magazine is :
-Small and Black-Owned Businesses because they seek targeted marketing opportunities to reach their communities
-Cultural Organizations because they align with my target audience
-Nonprofits because they may want to recruit members, or promote events and health initiatives
-Educational Institutions because they may want to reach prospective students
-Healthcare Providers may want to address health disparities

These type of businesses are all ideal because Ujima has the platform to help promote and engage prospects for their individual needs.

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