We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Calynn Lawrence. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Calynn below.
Hi Calynn, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I believe that everyone has a life purpose that is unique to them based at the intersection of their passions, talents, life circumstances and resources. For me, I’ve always known that I had a passion for making a difference in the community.
Since I was a young teen, I’ve been an active volunteer at my schools as a youth leader, mentor and general school aid that helped with anything from office work to coordinating events like a Special Education Fashion Show my senior year of high school. So, being able to make an impact in the lives of others has always been top tier for me. My talents, while the way I use them has evolved as I’ve matured, have always been my creativity, public performance, communication, strategic planning and my people skills. I’ve also been blessed to have had my life circumstances and resources tremendously increase over the years so I have been able to amplify my charitable giving by quite a large margin from the point when I started my nonprofit initiative, The Fresh Faces Project, at 18.
Thus, the intersection of all of those things led me originally to build a successful career in marketing & media management, for which I’ve won 18 awards, worked with numerous large brands and organizations and held 2 national and international pageant titles. I was able to land well paying 9-5 jobs to pay my bills so that I could afford to take freelance contracts that spoke to my spirit and be relatively generous in my humanitarian work, mainly, The Fresh Faces Project, which has benefited over 800 businesses, creatives, talents and do-gooders. This is done through free or heavily discounted promotion, recognition and networking opportunities that are backed by my firm, the Calynn Communications & Creative corporation. Now, I’m in school wrapping up a doctorate next year in pastoral counseling in hopes to get board certified as a trauma specialist and shift much of my career focus from marketing & media to community programming and directly concentrating on bettering the disenfranchised, low income BIPOC population. I honestly couldn’t be happier that I had this revelation and wholeheartedly feel that both industries are aligned with my overall life’s mission and goals.
If someone else was seeking to find their purpose, I would suggest they do some soul searching and industry research to find their intersection and figure out a practical way to apply it to a career.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a seasoned marketer, media personality and humanitarian who has a knack for the art of communication through social media and online publications. I get very excited at the opportunity to tell stories that matter through my platform. Whether that’s bringing people together to be interviewed on my video podcast and blog or assigning and curating content from my contributing writers for the publications I own (The World Times, What’s Good Weekly, Millionaires in the Making, and Icons in the Now). Over the years through my time as a blogger, former live cable TV host and contributing writer and editor for tens of publications, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of BIPOC representation in media to bring light to important issues that face marginalized society in a way that’s authentic and generate awareness for those causes. That is the most fulfilling for me and why I do the work that I do with The Fresh Faces Project and the Calynn Communications & Creative corporation in general. While I am looking to shift my focus to mainly community programming in the near future, my background as a professional storyteller will definitely help me in the outreach, relationship building and advocacy involved with that role.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
In general, I feel that any person of a marginalized society (racial minority, woman, LGBTQ+, disabled etc) should exercise the following 3 things in building their career:
1. Evidence backed strategic planning. DO YOUR RESEARCH! For whatever field you are thinking of entering, do a thorough search for any credible information you can find from trustworthy sources that could make your process more efficient and optimized. From this research, TYPE OUT a detailed official business plan with actual benchmarks that are reasonable within your current means and based on the current market. Hold yourself accountable to your goals and be prepared to pivot if needed.
2. A life long learner mentality. Always keep educating yourself on your field and stay abreast of new trends, resources, best practices and opportunities for whatever industry you’re in. Subscribe to/follow relevant news outlets or podcasts that publish content on your field, and make an effort to consume new educational content regularly whether that’s a course, an event, a web series, a book etc. ALWAYS KEEP LEARNING!
3. Have strong financial management. I don’t care if you make $50,000 a year of $5,000,000 a year. Money management is equally important to income in terms of financial stability. CREATE A GOOD BUDGET AND STICK TO IT! This should include paying mandatory living/business expenses, a monthly savings contribution, paying down debt and a set discretionary spending allowance.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
The most important thing that my parents did for me was instilling good work ethic and encouraging/enforcing that I do good in school and complete some form of post-secondary education that could open the door for me to find a career that enabled me to live a comfortable life. I, as well as my 2 sisters, followed this admonition and are all college graduates with clearly defined career goals that we are actively working towards despite the many obstacles that life has thrown at us health wise, financially, socially and systemically being 3 black women from a low income neighborhood in Chicago .
Contact Info:
- Website: www.caycomcreate.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/calynnmlawrence
- Facebook: ” Calynn M. Lawrence “
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/calynnmlawrence
- Other: BLOG: www.calynnmlawrence.com
