Today we’d like to introduce you to Shakeema Bouyer.
Hi Shakeema, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Thank you for the opportunity to be featured. My journey to now is a little “untraditional” in a sense. I graduated with a degree in Communications from The College of Charleston (Charleston, SC) – a long time ago. My original plan was to be an investigative reporter but I did an internship at an integrated public relations/marketing firm and my view changed. I loved being behind the camera and still being able to create news. My first campaign was Christmas in July – an organization that provided home renovations for the elderly in the more rural parts of the South Carolina Lowcountry. This was my introduction to public relations and the nonprofit world. After graduation, I relocated to Charlotte, NC and although I loved public relations, I still tried to enter the industry as a journalist, and as they say ‘”it just wasn’t in the cards for me”.
About 10 years after graduation, I had my reintroduction to public relations and community relations. My pastor, at the time, asked me to write a press release for an outreach that had been completed. He had absolutely NO clue that I had formal training in press release writing and media outreach. After that I “kind of” served as the PR contact for our church’s community outreach. Additionally, I gained some experience in entertainment as he is also a well-known gospel artist. I thought that is where I would begin my official PR journey but it wasn’t my passion. Beauty has always been my place of comfort so when I decided to launch my own agency in 2012, beauty is where I begin to place my focus.
I just celebrated 9 years as an agency owner in. September. When I launched in 2012, my agency was The Queen’s English PR and later rebranded to Mattie Clay Branding & Public Relations in 2017. Along the way, I have supported nonprofit organizations, cause-based events, authors, and I back to where it all began – “Beauty is her name”.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Whew! Where do I start? When I got back into the industry over 10 years ago, so much had changed. Technology, social media, media – it was like starting all over again. I love to learn so I have taken several webinars, courses and certifications to help me continue to evolve in our ever-growing and changing industry. My mentor will tease me because I take the same webinars over and over again. But, because the industry is always changing, so I always sign off with a new takeaway.
One of my biggest challenges has been the back-end side of the business. The part that no one sees but you, and those that are provided access. If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely focus on my business setup and structure before doing anything. What I realized is that when my back end was chaotic so was my progress. Once I got the business set up the way it should be things really begin to fall in place. There is no order in chaos even if the chaos is not visible to others.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Mattie Clay Branding & Public Relations, LLC?
Mattie Clay Branding & Public Relations is a strategic communications firm providing support for branding and marketing strategies as well as implementing digital public relations campaigns. With a focus on digital media outreach, we are able to provide more tangible results for the client as we work to increase their digital footprint. Although we primarily focus on beauty, we are able to help brands and businesses across multiple industries. We have been successful in working with clients in the Carolinas and Georgia; as well as as far away as Texas and California. That is the good thing about being a publicist – your home base doesn’t limit where and how you can provide services for clients. We offer the ability to create customizable strategy plans that clients can implement. Areas that are addressed during the strategy sessions include content development, social media aesthetics, community engagement, and social media growth. We look at where they are, where they want to be, and what actions are needed to get them there. After each session, clients receive a formal strategy outline with recommended tools and resources to help them implement the strategy.
I think something else that is different is that we have created a project-based PR option that provides growing brands and businesses the ability to develop their media assets and learn how to pitch themselves to the media. With this offering, we work with them to curate a small media list to get started. Get Your Assets Together is geared towards brands and businesses that cannot yet commit to a monthly retainer but want to increase their brand visibility.
In May, I also launched RedHead Creative Media Group (www.redheadcmg.com). RedHead is a project-based digital PR agency that focuses on Beauty, Grooming, and Health & Wellness brands created by persons of color. Projects range from 90 days to 6 months and if the brand wants to continue with a PR retainer, we seamlessly transfer them to Mattie Clay BPR.
What am I most proud of brand-wise? I am proud of my ability to be innovative in a way that doesn’t constantly have to reinvent who I am as a person or agency owner. I like being able to create programs that meet potential clients where they are without devaluing who I am as a service provider or the industry that I am a part of. Pricing was a struggle for me for a while because I always considered my other income without truly understanding how I was impacting the perception of my business. It took me a while to get here and that is a shining moment for me.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love the way Atlanta shows up to support in multiple ways. I’ve worked with clients in Atlanta for about 5 years and I have been able to create a wonderful network of people across industries that I can reach out to and vice versa. What do I like least? Traffic. That’s it. That’s the response 🙂
Contact Info:
- Email: info@mattieclaybpr.com
- Website: www.mattieclaybpr.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/mattieclaybpr
- Facebook: facebook.com/mattieclaybpr
- Twitter: twitter.com/mattieclaybpr
- Other: www.redheadcmg.com
Image Credits
Amber Thompson
Golden Jewel Media
Ace Photos & Design
