Building A Brand

Everyone knows of someone who owns their own brand but have you ever thought about how they formed it? We just started our fifth week of mentorship that all about branding. Our board President Deon Bonaparte of Agency Evolve, led his 4th workshop with TFD on “How To Build A Brand".” Deon went over the steps on how to build your brand with three steps: build the foundation, brand strategy, and a business plan. The most important information that our mentees learned was to clearly articulate what they want their brand to be, look like, and feel. Deon left the mentees with a quote from Walt Disney. “Walt Disney was asked, “How do you feel on your deathbed knowing that you will not be able to see Disney world come to life?” Walt Disney replied “I already have”. You need to understand your brand before you start it.” We are so appreciative of our Board president and cannot wait to welcome him back during our Summer mentorship!

Photo Credit: Mariah

Making Big Moves

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Our mentees are nearly to the end of their brand creation! We have a few mentees creating clothing brands and some have received their products! They turned out great and everyone is so excited to photograph their products over the weekend! This is a major development for the mentees and TFD is so proud to help them reach their goals. Most websites are completed other than the photos that will be completed Saturday morning. Big moves and hard work has been put into these great ideas and are now becoming a reality. The mentees can’t wait to share what they have created!

Working Towards Goals

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Our mentees are getting closer each day to completing their brands. Today, they worked on their website design through Squarespace. They planned how it will be laid out, as well as incorporating colors that represent their brand. The Mentees have made so much great progress and we are very proud! Some have even completed orders for samples of their products. We also helped guide them in how to print stickers and cut them out. Brand creation is a long process with a lot of hard work but they have been pushing through! The next steps would be taking photos of their products and headshots to use on their websites and throughout social media, then completing their websites!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Learning About Youtube

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

For a portion of last Saturday’s mentorship, our mentees were visited by Kevyn, or KevoNobody, to learn about YouTube. Kevyn was in our summer mentorship and is the second past mentee to lead a workshop here at TFD. He has a YouTube channel where he creates content about self-discovery in an entertaining way.

Kevyn came out to teach our mentees about the creative process behind making YouTube content, as well as a bit of what editing looks like for something like this. The creative process he referred to is: An idea that calls, initiation (creating a plan and a script), the structure (the intro, good pacing, and flair!), and the execution. Once the video is completed, the next steps are creating an eye catching thumbnail and a title that works well with what the topic of the video is. It is also very important to add tags to your video with things that are relevant to the topic and including your channel name. When it comes to a cover photo for your YouTube page, you want to make sure the colors are on brand and represents you and your content well.

Kevyn then showed our mentees a video of his own as an example and ended with telling us anyone can do it! In the end, everyone learned so much and we are grateful to have the chance to support our past mentees and for them to come back and teach!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Next Steps, New Development

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

In mentorship this past Wednesday, our mentees have taken additional steps towards completing their brands. They have awakened their creative senses and are working towards their visions. The mentees have learned all of the necessary skills in order to complete their brand’s tasks. They are highly motivated and show new determination and persistence. We are so excited for our young adults and the growth they have shown, as well as the wonderful ideas they have come up with. These last few weeks have been filled with excitement and imagination. We are loving every second of it and are having a blast guiding our mentees through a thrilling experience like this! Our mentees can’t wait to share what they are doing and show everything they have learned! Their next steps will be shared soon!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose