I decided to continue my education in grad school and enrolled at Kent State University to earn my Master of Art in Journalism and Mass Communication with a concentration in Public Relations. Since the coursework would all be online, as well as accelerated, I would earn this degree in two years. Despite what would seem like an insane schedule, I still continued to pile up hobbies with a recreational sports league, a film society/ review website, and a golf blog to name a few. I also established a public relations company just before I started grad school so that I could apply what I was learning in school to the real world and begin taking on clients. So I'm sure you are thinking, what does this have to do with my existing company Southernerds?
Well the fact is Southernerds was born from a typing mistake I made while doing research for one of my grad school assignments. I was looking online for class and I accidentally spelled the word Southerners wrong. As soon as I typed Southernerds and realized my mistake, a light went off. Somehow I knew I was on to something, so I made sure that I secured the domain name, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram account names, as well as beginning to work on logos and branding that day. We spent a lot of time on our packaging and brand design so that our image matched our mission. I started to think about how I could use the name and then realized I could combine my lifelong love of learning new things with my other hobbies and interests and focus this new company on promoting education in the South, as well as trying to dispel any misconceptions about the region. While I was in the military, I lived up North and was (kind of) surprised to hear what people thought of the South.
Unfortunately, living in the South for most of my life didn't give me much of an opportunity to step back and view the region from an outsider's perspective. Which brings me to present day - Southernerds is now my main occupational concern, other than the full time day job at my in-laws business. The business is very new, but we are already selling, among other things, our own label and blend of whole bean coffee we call 'Brainiac Blend' - which is roasted by the same company who sold us the coffee for the store. We are working on partnerships with Mississippi Public Broadcasting, Miss Mississippi Paromita Mitra, and a few other education centered companies as well as trying to get our merchandise in local retailers throughout the South. We also hope to eventually be able to offer scholarships so we can pay it forward and help others who want to continue their educational pursuits.
It's a very big venture to take on and we have set our goals extremely high, but we don't know how to do things any differently. The company is slowly starting to gain momentum and the interest in what we are doing is starting to pick up. Southernerds is something I am very passionate about and we can't wait to see what happens next for us. We are fortunate to have met so many people who "get it." Next on the agenda is to get more merchandise available for sale, speak with more companies about partnering up with us to promote education, and increasing our influence. On a personal note, I graduate in October and earn my Master's but I plan on continuing my pursuit of higher education by earning a PhD in Communications.
That should keep me busy enough for a while right?
