Creating A Brand | Part 6

As the mentees continue to work through their businesses, it is also the last week of mentorship. Today, the mentees started off with a fun bell ringer of “Guess Who”. Each mentee wrote a person down and stuck it to their forehead for the rest of the mentees to give them hints on who they were. Some celebrity guesses were Kanye West, Beyonce, and Bill Murray.

After the game, the mentees were focused and went right into continuing to build their businesses. Jasmine and Jocelyn continued a design job TFD was hired to do. On this day, they worked on putting photos into the client’s website design. Tracy continued to work on his denim design by finding new inspiration. Jordynne, Jamia, Cameron, and Kendall all worked more on their website designs. Lastly, Julian finished his website design and plans on starting to record his podcasts! As we wrap up the last week of our spring mentorship program, everyone is starting to feel the bittersweet moments. Nonetheless, we are so proud and grateful our mentees have found a business they want to continue with.

Mental Health Stories | Jamia Perteet

Video Credit: Kevyn Tapia

What is your story?

My mental health story is just beginning. For a longtime, I was lost, very depressed, unhappy. I tried therapy and it temporarily helped, but I still felt lost and did not know why or where to begin finding myself mentally. I think getting started is the hardest thing to do for anything, but once you figure out what and how you need to change, that’s where the journey begins.

How has your story impacted who you are today?

My story with mental health has impacted who I am today because it’s given me a chance to change and figure out who I really am. It started me on a real journey of self and self fulfillment and making sure I am mentally happy and okay. We spend a lot of our lives trying to please others when really we just need to please ourselves and everything else will come with it.

What has your mental health journey looked like?

Therapy helped for a little with my mental health journey, but I feel like really taking the time to understand yourself, knowing who you want to be, and accepting yourself is the only thing that can truly help.

What encouragement would you give to someone who shares a similar story?

I would encourage anyone that is going through a similar story to keep trying and don’t give up. It will be really hard, it will be an emotional roller coaster, but don’t give up and don’t rush yourself. One day you’ll be exactly where you need to be mentally, just give yourself a chance and be kind to yourself always.

Photo Credit: Mariah, Jasmine, & Saffron

Creating A Brand | Part 5

During our second to last Saturday of mentorship, each group gathered together to add last-minute details to their websites. All of our mentees have been working so hard to get their websites completed before mentorship wraps up. Jordynne and Cameron took a trip outside to get some needed headshots of Jordynne for her website, as well as adding some photos to Cameron's portfolio. They’re both in the process of creating their own photography businesses.

Inside, our other Mentees got feedback from their partners on how their websites looked and if they were missing anything. Jasmine and Jocelyn, a current mentee, took time to work on a branding project that TFD was hired to complete. They used canva to create graphics, brand boards, and used Squarespace to add to their designs. It was amazing to see Jocelyn put her new skills into practice and to help complete this project.

Photo Credit: Mariah

Creating A Brand | Part 4

Mentorship on Wednesday began with Sandra, our Mentorship Coordinator, in leading the mentees with an icebreaker. This icebreaker supported our mentees in acknowledging the good and bad parts of their days. Since not everyone has the opportunity to discuss how their days went, we value having conversations like these during our cohort.

Have you ever created your own brand? If you have, you know it is quite a process. We are happy to see all that our mentees have discovered throughout their journey in creating their brands. Amazingly, we can document the whole process through photos. Each group was able to continue working on their websites with finishing touches. Remember when we had a mini photoshoot? Well, the photos came out amazing and are currently being added into each mentees webstie.

It is bitter sweet to be approaching the end of this season’s mentorship. We are so proud of each and every mentee. So far we have 5 mentees in the process of creating their brands consisting of video games, podcasting, custom clothing with paints, and two photography brands! Stay tuned to see the finished products and all the websites created 100% by our mentees.

Photo Credit: Mariah

What Brings You Joy?

Can you believe we’re already on week 11 of mentorship!? It has gone by so fast. We are so grateful for everything our mentees have achieved and learned so far! To start off week 11 Jasmine, our co-founder & ED, led a discussion around the question, ‘What brings you joy?”. The Mentees discussed if they valued experiences over materialistic items. As well as if they preferred eating out or eating in? Jasmine shared the importance of adding experiences and activities that bring joy to your budget. Whatever brings you joy is always in the budget.

To resume our photoshoot from Saturday, our mentees brought in props and equipment to get the rest of the photos that were needed for their websites. Each group had different tasks to complete. Jocelyn and Tracy’s group staged Tracy’s clothes with his paints to get the best photo needed for his website, while Kendall and Jamia got some cool shots of Kendall playing his Nintendo Switch for his brand. It is always great to see our mentees work together as a team while building their businesses.

Photo Credit: Mariah