Today we’d like to introduce you to Erika Smith.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My story is a journey of passion, purpose and dream chasing. I grew up in Macon, GA, and as a kid, I spent a lot of time daydreaming, searching for inspiration, and exploring my creative side. I quickly realized that my musical talents were somewhat limited and my ability to translate my vision to art was a challenge.
At the age of eight, I saw the movie Beat Street and was captivated by hip hop culture and New York City. This movie served as the impetus of my first dream, living in NYC.
During my last year at Florida A&M University, when it was time to start interviewing for my career job, I only interviewed for companies located in NYC. I had vacationed in NYC with my family and interned in White Plains, NY which nurtured my proclivity toward the City. Upon graduation, I landed a position at JPMorgan Chase in the Leadership Development Program. I worked for the bank for two and half years and was able to utilize my ability to synthesize data quickly and translate information into strategy and program development. The leadership team quickly saw my passion and purpose, and I was able to get two promotions in two years and doubled my salary.
This job was a high demand, high return environment, but working 60 hours a week took a toll on me emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Externally, I was living my best life – establishing a career at one of the largest banks in the country, being intellectually stimulated and challenged daily, and living my dream of working in the City and residing in Brooklyn. After September 11, I began to question life decisions and eventually decided that there was more to life and I needed to explore it. In the fall of 2002, a new dream ensued – move to Brazil. I thought about this dream constantly, shared it with a few friends, and introduced it to my parents. The universe collided with my dream providing me with the passion and purpose to fulfill it. In March 2003, I courageously quit my job, packed up my things, shipped my life back to Macon, and moved to Salvador, Brazil.
Brazil was a life-changing and amazing experience. During this time, I was able to not work and focus on exploring my interests. I took Portuguese lessons for four hours a day, five days a week for four weeks; studied Afro-Brazilian dance; met incredibly interesting locals and Americans; learned how to samba; wrote poetry; and spent a considerable amount of time finding myself. This experience resulted in two things – feeding the spirit is necessary and international living is a requirement. After I left, I began to dream about living and working internationally. It took 15 years for another opportunity to manifest, but in 2008, I quit one of the best jobs of my marketing career, leading digital strategy for student products at Bank of America, to live and work in Lagos, Nigeria.
My work in Lagos was incredible. I was recruited by a locally-owned company focused on leveraging American technologies and processes to create a pre-paid debit card product. I found myself at the intersection of working with a team of highly talented Nigerians to build this ecosystem from scratch while also fulfilling my dream of living and working abroad. This experience required me to quickly learn and adapt to local customs and cultural nuances, leverage culture to develop a market adoption strategy, meet with state and federal officials to garner support and establish strategic relationships with banking intuitions and business leaders. Due to the U.S. financial crisis and other external factors, the company’s ability to rely on an American technology platform was no longer an option. Our American partner needed to shift priorities away from Nigeria and the cost of underwriting new technology infrastructure would bankrupt the company.
I returned to the States in 2009 with a deep need to ensure that my work was impactful as well as an awareness of the role that government can play in growing an industry. I knew my perspective had changed dramatically. My travels to Dubai, London, Paris, Barcelona, throughout Nigeria, and spending weekends in Accra, Ghana helped to shape my perspective of the role of people, culture, and place in growing economies and creating place-based identities. These experiences also challenged how I defined success, accessed value, and identified myself in various spaces.
One of the greatest lessons I learned is that leading with or relying on your role, job, or success to define you is a journey to unhappiness. And, there is strength in presenting your full self in every setting. For instance, while in Lagos, I befriended one of the most powerful people in West Africa or better yet, on the African continent. We met at a dinner party, and he never introduced himself as the CEO of a multi-national company or based on his wealth. As our friendship evolved and I was able to travel with him, I saw how he looked at opportunities comprehensively, was accessible, and had a deep awareness of his role and how he could transform communities by providing employment to people. Yes, his work generated a tremendous amount of wealth, but he also recognized that acquiring companies or entering into markets would allow him to grow the company and hire more people. This balance of success and impact was real.
After Nigeria, I moved back to Macon for three years. Living in Macon was good for the soul, but it didn’t speak to my interests. I knew that I wanted my work to have impact. I began to dream of what my future career would like look and it was at the intersection of people, place, and impact. In 2012, I moved to accept a job at Fulton County as an Economic Development Specialist. In 2017, I was hired by Invest Atlanta as a Senior Project Manager, Business Retention & Expansion. Since I live in the SWATS, I organically focused on meeting with businesses operating in the SWATS and created programs to provide them with access to information, resources, and funding.
This led to my role being expanded to the Southside Development Manager and then the Southside Community & Economic Development Manager. My current role and work are the confluence of passion and purpose. Every day, I wake up enthused and excited about the ability to ensure that residents in the southside can live, work, play and shop within their community. I’m incredibly humbled and appreciative that my leadership (Dr. Eloisa Klementich, former SVP of Economic Development Kevin Johnson, Dawn Luke, and Alan Ferguson) recognized my strengths, interests, passion, and purpose as exactly what’s needed to revitalize the Southside while preserving culture. Every day, I’m working in my dream role!
Has it been a smooth road?
My perspective on struggle and smooth roads may be a little different. There was a time where I struggled, and it was heavily belabored in my inability to accept my present reality. When I came back to the States from Nigeria, my original intent was to return to Lagos in three months after a much-needed decompression. Ultimately, I decided to stay in the States, despite my knowledge of the financial crisis and the negative impact on the job market, or the fact that most of my things were still in Lagos. During this time, I restarted my marketing consulting firm, Uhuru Concepts, gained a few clients and lived with my parents. After some time, a year or so, the projects dried up and I found myself reliant on my very generous parents who fully subsidized my income and life for almost a year. It was incredibly hard for me to accept that I no longer made six figures, that I lived with my parents, and I didn’t have any immediate dreams to chase.
For months I brooded over my situation but eventually saw the beauty in the “struggle”. This was the first time that I didn’t have the financial means to do whatever, and this process made me stronger. Since life was simple, I invested in my spirituality, started working out religiously, and spent time enjoying my family and lifelong friends who I grew up with. I look back on these years as one of the most beautiful times in my life.
The “struggle” was powerful because I was, once again, liberated from everything that I thought was important to be happy. My dad and this experience instilled in me two core beliefs: 1) I choose to be happy or sad and 2) In all challenges there is a lesson. My outlook on life has completely shifted, and because of this struggle, I am more congruent – mind, spirit, and actions are all aligned. And, I live life fearlessly. I’m smarter and more conscious of the value of money and spending – so, I no longer value designer clothes and couldn’t care less about the Joneses. I dedicate time to things that truly make me happy – I travel the world extensively, committing to two international trips per year knowing this is what really makes my spirit happy.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Southside Community & Economic Development Manager at Invest Atlanta – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Invest Atlanta is the economic development agency for the City of Atlanta and focuses on both economic development and community development. We do this through business attraction, business retention & expansion, small business finance, innovation & entrepreneurship programs, creative industries programs, housing initiatives, commercial corridor development, and neighborhood revitalization.
My role as Southside Community & Economic Development Manager is focused on the City of Atlanta’s Southside (areas south of I-20), and assuring that residents can live, work, play, and shop in their community. I work at the intersection of community and economic development in a hyper-local, hyper-community-centric, and hyper-focused approach to driving investment to the area while preserving culture. My specialty is where passion and purpose meet coupled with a strategic, comprehensive approach.
The uniqueness that I bring to the role comes from my corporate experience and love for all things Southside – thinking strategically, developing partnerships, intertwining marketing into my approach, constantly absorbing data and information to develop products/programs, being accessible to community and stakeholders, and allowing my love and passion for the community to lead my efforts.
I am so proud that Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Invest Atlanta saw the need for a dedicated Southside strategy and grateful that they are entrusting me with this incredible work. I am proud of the diverse, dynamic Southwest and Southeast residents and businesses who chose to live and invest south of I-20. I’m proud of the network of people who are in the background pushing me forward. I am proud to live in the SWATS and represent the Southside every day.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
There is so much to love about Atlanta and the Southside. For me, Atlanta has always been the cultural seat of the South. Growing up in Macon, Atlanta represented everything that was cool, interesting, innovative, and creative – music, fashion, and people. Today, Atlanta is still defining pop culture, is a destination where people like me can come to create a career and thrive, and it offers a community-feel within a metropolitan city. And, when I think of what has made Atlanta a destination for decades, it’s the culture, people, and community that is the Southside. In the great words of my friend, Bem, Atlanta Influences Everything.
What I don’t like? It’s the tale of two cities where communities South of I-20 have been devalued for years while the northern portion has consistently experienced economic growth. When I first moved to Atlanta in 2005, HR representatives said to me, “Don’t move south of I-20.” This perception has lasted for decades and still exists. That’s why I’m so passionate about my work on the Southside. I’m working to change that perception and help others see what the Southside has to offer while preserving culture.
Contact Info:
- Address: 133 Peachtree Street
Suite 2900 - Phone: (404-588-5462)
- Email: esmith@investatlanta.com
- Instagram: @iam.erikasmith
- Twitter: @iam_erikasmith
Image Credit:
Esthetic Collective, Matt Baer
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