We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Danza Huey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Danza, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
As I have moved through my corporate marketing career at Mercedes-Benz USA, UPS, Elevance Health and now at Amazon, I realized that many of us are still “trying to figure it all out”. Now as an entrepreneur building Party Card Mash Up – a new party for old card games, I have been humbled to connect with so many early-stage brands and multi-million dollar companies’ CEOs, we all have one thing in common – we all have imposter syndrome. It is oddly comforting to move about the world knowing that you are not alone dealing with “the syndrome”. It has opened me up to be able to ask those crazy questions, ask for help, and seek advice without feeling like a failure.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a corporate marketer aiming to disrupt the party card game market with Party Card Mash Up – a new party for old card games!
I grew up in Baton Rouge, LA and am a proud first-generation college graduate from Louisiana State University – Baton Rouge. After four years in New York City, most notably participating in the inaugural class of NYC Civic Corps, an AmeriCorps VISTA new program, I graduated with MBA from the Scheller College of Business at the Georgia Institute of Technology. After securing my MBA, I grew my marketing career in Atlanta, GA working in product management at Mercedes-Benz USA, International Marketing and Digital Marketing at UPS, CRM and Omnichannel Marketing at Elevance Health and is now a Program Manager in Automated Brand Protection at Amazon. I was selected to be on the Board of Directors for 2022 as the Director of Marketing Content for the National Black MBA Association, Atlanta Chapter.
I created Party Card Mash Up in October 2021. Three months into business, I was selected to participate in Cohort 2 of Target Accelerators’ new program, Target Forward Founders in Spring 2022. Target Accelerators picked 30 early-stage, industry disrupting brands out of 1,300+ applicants to learn the ins and outs of mass retail. A month later, I created two more games, Soiree and House Party and started the journey to build the Party Card Mash Up brand with pop-ups at breweries, shops, and even at Ponce City Market. In 2023, Party Card Mash Up has been featured in my hometown magazine 225 Magazine in addition to having events at Mardi Gras/New Orleans, featured at SXSW 2023 – Creative Industries Expo, speaking at Baton Rouge Entrepreneurship Week 2023, featured during Essence Festival / aKrewe NOLA, and will be speaking at our first national conference Black Tech Week 2023 in Cincinnati! To grow the brand even further, I participated in Cohort 3 of Visa’s Bridge for Billions Entrepreneurship Program in Spring 2023 and am a member of ForbesBLK looking to expand the Party Card Mash Up network.
Why Party Card Mash Up? As a lifetime artist, I wanted to combine his creative and business experience into a game brand. I love party card games and grew up playing classic games from Old Maid, Spades, and UNO. After experiencing today’s party games, mostly read and respond games, and overconsumption drinking games, I created Party Card Mash Up – which is here to bring classic card games like Old Maid, Go Fish, and Slapjack to the 21st century for the 21 and up crowd as sipping games. Not your average read and respond drinking game! Our games welcome to the table non-drinkers, sober curious, and spirit-lovers alike to actually play a card game with a bit of nostalgia “mashed up” with new and fun party cards to give and get cards and pick players to take a sip. No shots or finishing your drink involved! Fun fact, I designed everything you see – from the product design, package design, website, social media content and more. A proud “solopreneur” with an amazing support system of friends and family.
NEW GAME ALERT! Party Card Mash Up – Parade is now on pre-order! Parade is taking the nostalgia of Slapjack and Egyptian Rat Screw and bringing in a new Mardi Gras themed party with fun cards, fun ways to slap back into the game, and new way to experience sipping games with you and your friends. ORDER TODAY!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that have been the most impactful in my journey has been people skills/networking, creativity, and a “shoot your shot” mentality. Shooting my shot has been paramount in my entrepreneurial journey. Not being scared to email that potential partner or reach out to that CEO of a company to learn and gain mentorship has helped me and my business grow exponentially.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
As a game creator, funding is extremely limited. Funding and investments for tabletop games is almost non-existent which leaves crowdfunding as a main source – a source that is inundated with a multitude of games all seeking funding. I am looking to raise funds to be able to expand my retail presence across the US in small and midsized retail stores to then gain enough traction to enter mass retail in Q3 2024 (which is the current plan!). Any connections for funding are welcome!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.partycardmashup.com
- Instagram: @partycardmashup
- Facebook: facebook.com/partycardmashup
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/danzahuey
- linkedin.com/company/
mashupgames
Image Credits
Mhandy Gerard Photography
