Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Her Media Diary Episode 49: “Seen, Heard & Leading in Corporate Spaces” with Fatima Jones
3 Plays19 seconds ago
Fatima Jones is the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at the Dance Theatre of Harlem. With a career spanning over 20 years in public relations, marketing, and communications, predominantly in the nonprofit and arts sectors, her specialty lies in positioning cultural institutions in ways that not only increase visibility but also ensure they are culturally relevant, inclusive, and reflective of diverse audiences.
In this episode, Fatima speaks on age-old strategies and principles for effective corporate communication that are still relevant today despite technological advancements.
She cited times when she was asked to be seen and not heard; to just be the ‘black face’ in the room whose opinion is not needed. She also talks about some of the things that keep her going as a black female in the corporate communications sector, regardless of the many barriers that come with it.
Subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.
If you’d like to join an episode of this podcast, send an email to yemisi@africanwomeninmedia.com. Or visit our website at www.hermediadiary.com
Subscribe and follow Her Media Diary on all your favourite podcast platforms. Also, tune in to our partner radio stations from anywhere across Africa. And don’t forget to join the conversation using the hashtag #hermediadiary.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to African Women's Stories
00:00:03
Speaker
welcome to tami didari the podcast where African women share their stories, bold moves and behind the scene moments. that shaped their journeys. I am your host, Dr. Yemesi Akimobola.
00:00:14
Speaker
And with each episode, we're pulling back the curtain on what it really means to build a career in media, to break barriers, and stay true to your voice. Whether you're starting out or already making waves, this space is definitely for you.
Meet Fatima Jones
00:00:28
Speaker
Today's episode is part of our Women in Corporate Communications series, and I'm happy to be joined by a dynamic storyteller and strategic thinker, who has built an incredible legacy at the intersection of media, branding and advocacy.
00:00:42
Speaker
Fatima Jones. Fatima is a powerhouse in the world of cultural communications with a career spanning over two decades in public relations and corporate communications.
00:00:53
Speaker
She currently serves as chief marketing and communications officer at the dance theater in Harlem, one of the world's most iconic institutions. In this conversation, we'll talk about her earlier life, the role of black women in corporate communications,
00:01:08
Speaker
and how we can make these spaces more inclusive, not just in theory, but also in practice. So stay with us.
The Origin and Influence of Fatima's Name
00:01:19
Speaker
Fatima, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast. fatimma is a pleasure to have you on a podcast It is a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me Please correct me at any point if i mispronounce your name. I like the way you say it. to me I like the way you say it. You know, my my name was given to me by my my father. I was named by my father. I'm going to say his name out loud, Stephen Jones.
00:01:51
Speaker
He was ah Southern man that ended up moving to Harlem. and um and eventually joined Malcolm X's mosque and became a Muslim.
00:02:03
Speaker
And um my name is the daughter of Muhammad in the Quran. It's a very special name that is pronounced in different ways by different people from different
Inspirations from New York's Culture
00:02:14
Speaker
cultures. And so I pronounce it Fatima, but i also, you know, for many years, let people call me Fatima because in America, that's how...
00:02:22
Speaker
people use the I, they pronounce the I as an E. um But it's a special name no matter what, so I appreciate you even asking the question. Well, thank you so much, Fatima.
00:02:35
Speaker
You describe yourself, talking about names and special names, you you describe yourself as a cultural doula and chief amplifier, which are both very beautifully poetic.
00:02:46
Speaker
So can you take us back to Harlem and Brooklyn and the young Fatima? was it like growing up and how did that shape your kind of journey to becoming a communicator? Yeah, um I would say that I was probably inspired to go into the cultural arts world by first, you know, the rise of music.
00:03:13
Speaker
I feel like the 80s and 90s had the best music out of all generations, in my opinion. You got Michael Jackson, Prince, you know, all of the hip hop rising. Like I was inspired by all of the amazing creativity happening in New York in the 80s and 90s, watching, you know, the dance show Soul Train and things like that. Solid Gold, all the old school like, you know, this is when you could see music videos on television and see performances on TV.
00:03:41
Speaker
um all of the young Black people rising up and, you know, performing and showing how how great our culture is.
00:03:53
Speaker
So I would say that's probably my first inspiration was seeing on television these amazing performers. And I very much connected to music um and immediately started kind of singing singing in elementary school and joining the chorus in high school.
00:04:08
Speaker
At the same time, My father had been working for organization called the New York State Council on the Arts, and that's an organization that grants money through the state to arts organizations around New York State, which is one of the biggest states and in in the U.S. And I would go with him to different shows. I would, you know, i actually saw a dance at Harlem at the age of 11.
00:04:30
Speaker
eleven and was immediately captured. So it doesn't it's not lost on me um spiritually how I got here, here in this space, literally in the studios working with this company now.
00:04:45
Speaker
um And between his his influence all of the things happening in New York at the time, I just at one point in high school decided that I wanted to work in an industry that continues to source me, right? That I could be proud about, that gave me joy, that brought joy. And so I decided to stay working in the arts.
00:05:08
Speaker
I had my first internship at a museum and I'd never heard of communications. Like yeah they didn't, that back then, they didn't tell you what PR was. You didn't know the communications was a field. You you know you just didn't know, right? So I got placed in a summer youth program and you know to make a little money over the summer, and I got put in an office, in the PR office at a museum.
00:05:32
Speaker
And I said, wow, I can write, I can talk to the artists, I can um talk to the audience that's seeing things. It's a very creative, dynamic, lively field.
00:05:44
Speaker
And from there, every summer, like I would try to get an internship in the communications or PR office so to the point where senior year of college, I ended up working for this big um concert series in New York called Central Park Summer Stage.
00:05:59
Speaker
And I got to work on their first hip hop um concert with Tribe Called Quest. And was just like, listen. Oh my God. Oh my God. This is good.
00:06:11
Speaker
I don't want to do nothing else but this. And
Beginnings of a Career in Arts & Communications
00:06:15
Speaker
that's that's where it began. And, and you know and you know, I always tell it tell young people that it's easy to get a job when you have shown that you have interned, that you know how to show up on time.
00:06:25
Speaker
You know understand what it's like to work in an office or whatever the in the field. And it wasn't hard for me to get a job once I graduated from college. I want to go back to kind of those early years because clearly your father seems to be quite an influence on you. was it top Tell us about your growing up. And you mentioned Malcolm X and everyone, of those things. What was Tell me all of those.
00:06:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. i don't get a chance to talk about this much, so I appreciate being able to do that. My parents have roots in so south in the South of America, so um where a lot of enslaved Africans went, replaced, and put to work in the South.
00:07:01
Speaker
um So our roots are there. um And both my parents um moved to New York at very young ages. um My father moved to New York at 16.
00:07:12
Speaker
similarly around the same age. And they both started working very young, um very ah entrepreneurial spirits. ah My father actually ended up ah owning ah a small bodega, what they call here a small store.
00:07:29
Speaker
And he joined the mosque and he worked for ah ah museum called the Studio Museum up in Harlem. And he just, you know, just did a lot and met my mom and they both joined the mosque.
00:07:41
Speaker
And they were both very pro-Black, what what i what I would call, I'm a Black power baby. I came out of the Black is Beautiful generation where you supported Black businesses we supported Black things and we felt very strongly in supporting our culture. So yeah it's not a surprise that I ended up working in spaces that were Black-led and primarily centered Black artists.
00:08:09
Speaker
um is It's very kind of neat. It's common to to to my family and what we do. Both very creative people. um we centered art and music and dance and writing and literature very squarely in our and our family.
00:08:24
Speaker
um my My parents didn't stay together, but I ended up kind of going back and forth between his house and her house, and there was a lots of music. um lots of parties and gatherings.
00:08:35
Speaker
um You know, I lived across the street from a ah park and it wasn't until I became an adult that I realized what a blessing that was to be in the city, but also have this huge, like this nature park right across, literally across the street, our window. So I'll cross the street to Prospect Park.
00:08:54
Speaker
So I think all of those things kind of kind of i seeped into who I am now. i still enjoy all of those things and they still are part of what I think is part of a well-lived life, which is something outside of yourself, right? You have your own personal pursuits, but then what are you doing for other people and how are you contributing to society? How are you trying to bring joy and calm and peace to people.
00:09:19
Speaker
um And also how, when sometimes do you have to agitate a little bit, right? To get change. When is, when is it time for us to come together? when is it time for you to be alone? When is it time for you to have allies so that we can make change in whatever situation that
Challenges as a Young Black Woman in the Workforce
00:09:35
Speaker
we're in?
00:09:35
Speaker
All of that stuff came from my upbringing and all of those pockets of experience. And you described your role as I'm defined by the culture, as you just said. So I would love to hear your journey in that. Like that comes with challenges. Oh, yeah. That comes with your successes. That comes with speaking up when perhaps you don't feel able to or you can't for some reason. Yes.
00:09:59
Speaker
What does that mean in practice for you? Yeah, well, you know, it's funny. I was talking to my daughter about this yesterday. i want to say that I'm lucky. I'm not sure if I'm lucky, but both of my parents were people who spoke their minds.
00:10:14
Speaker
um And so, you know, when you see something, it allows you to understand it, right? So it's hard to do what you can't see, right? So I saw them speaking up in their places of work. I saw them speaking up in their community. I saw them speaking up in interpersonal communications.
00:10:31
Speaker
So when I got into the workplace, I kind assumed that I should do the same. but Like it didn't occur to me that maybe I was either young or Black Or maybe not a certain income level. And maybe that people didn't want to hear what I had to say. It didn't occur to me.
00:10:50
Speaker
Like that's the kind of confidence I had going in. Right. And I sure enough did get into the work world and found out that, yeah, people don't, some people don't want to hear what I have to say. I found that out the hard way.
00:11:03
Speaker
Like a lot us. Like a lot of us, right. And over time I realized one, either those places might not be for me. Or perhaps I need to take another approach or maybe I need an ally or maybe it shouldn't come from me and maybe I can, you know, have somebody do something in my and in my proxy. Right. It took some time to realize what spaces require which approach.
00:11:31
Speaker
And, um, through the years, you know, my, I would say two jobs ago, i ended up getting, i ended up getting recruited for probably one of the most famous music theaters in the world. And it's called the Apollo. They call it the world famous Apollo.
00:11:47
Speaker
It's where James Brown and the Supremes and all of the tremendous American celebrities, the Temptations, all of the Motown artists, they got their start.
00:12:00
Speaker
It's a black-led organization. It centers black art. um It's right in the center of the blackest part of Harlem. And ah got there, and the first week, I had a ah meeting with the senior team. I was on the senior team.
00:12:15
Speaker
And all of the black women there had braids. And we were meeting, and we were discussing kind of the strategic plan. And I just looked, and I just said, oh, my God, look at this. what I was like, I can never leave this. I can't leave this.
00:12:30
Speaker
yeah I can't ever, ever leave this. Where we just did the work. We didn't, no one questioned how you looked or how you spoke or you know, any of the barriers that I had in jobs previously.
00:12:46
Speaker
It felt so, you know, obviously we had, our you know, it's a job, right? we And in in in any time you gather with people work, there's always going to be some friction. things like that. And that's normal. But some of the other stuff wasn't happening.
00:13:01
Speaker
And to be honest with you, I just got really spoiled. So when I decided to leave the Apollo and came to dance there in Harlem, same thing, black-led organization with roots in Harlem,
00:13:12
Speaker
You know, it just made sense. And it felt it feels very good to be here. It feels great to see the students, the young students. And, you know, we have dancers of all nationalities here. But, you know, I like to say that the organization organizations that I like to work for are places where I can speak my mind.
00:13:31
Speaker
that I can tell the truth and um that mirror the community that we we are in. And there's some authentic authenticity to that that feels very good to me in my spirit. And i feel like I've earned the right to be able to stay in those spaces and speak truth to power where where when I'm there.
00:13:52
Speaker
um So I feel really lucky to be able to do that.
00:14:02
Speaker
voices and perspectives from all genders in our story and sometimes getting those voices finding the right people can be challenging so that is why at african women in media we have created source her which is a platform designed by us to connect journalists and editors and content producers with female experts from across the continent of africa Whether you need a data scientist, health professional, engineer, aircraft expert, or someone who can bring fresh, innovative ideas to your story, SourceHer absolutely has you covered.
00:14:39
Speaker
The platform boasts an extensive database of talented African women. making it easier than ever to find the right fit for your story. And it's not just about filling positions, it's about promoting diversity and inclusion in and through the media.
00:14:58
Speaker
Sign up now at sourceher.com to discover and interview female experts from across Africa. Together, let's promote adequate representation and inclusion.
00:15:16
Speaker
And when we go back to those early years, and I definitely want to talk about a tribe called Quest. So what was those early years, right? Finding your feet, determining what industry you want to go into, discovering how start,
00:15:33
Speaker
you know, get your voices heard your voice heard. Talk us through those early years of your career and how you navigated it all. Yeah, I mean, early years was lots of entry-level communications jobs, working at a PR agency right out of college and learning what that meant.
00:15:51
Speaker
You know, really paying attention to how my superiors were working, having a really good work ethic. I because I had all those internships in high school and college and because I had two parents that worked really hard, I understood what it was.
00:16:06
Speaker
to say, like, if you're on time, you're late, right? I knew what it was to say, like, even if you're not in charge, listen so that you can learn so that when you are in charge, you know what to do, right? I know what it's like to ask questions if you don't know, to not be afraid to...
00:16:22
Speaker
take your boss out to lunch, to not to feel confident enough to ask for a promotion or to ask, why didn't I get it? Right. Or what could I do to, to be better? Right.
00:16:34
Speaker
What are the things that I need to read, learn, see, you know, um, to be a lifelong learner, all of those things help me to keep moving forward.
00:16:45
Speaker
And I would say the other thing that I learned very, very young, and I learned this from my father, most of all, There isn't a job that I've had through the years where I can't call my former boss or former coworkers.
00:17:00
Speaker
The networking aspect was something that was very important, especially for a young black woman to have um people who you can call on, right? And say, you know, um I'm thinking about this opportunity. Do you know anyone there? Or, you know, do you have any advice for me as I take this next step?
00:17:19
Speaker
So those early years looked like me really trying to just get, just take hold of any opportunity that i could, you know, um but also enjoying life. Like I had a time.
Seizing Opportunities in Corporate Communications
00:17:30
Speaker
This is when New York like had all the clubs. I was out going out at night and then waking up and going to work in the morning. And had a small business as well. um So, you know, I'm 52 now and I can look back at my time as a young person and say, I didn't miss a thing.
00:17:49
Speaker
I didn't miss a thing. I even, you know, in um that PR agency, I mentioned that first job out of college, I actually got an opportunity to work in London for a couple of years. And that was because the boss, at my boss at the time saw my work ethic and she said, you know what, we're starting a London branch.
00:18:05
Speaker
I like the way you work. Would you like to come with me? And I was like, hell yeah. but This little girl from Brooklyn, I had never been to London before and had always dreamed of working abroad.
00:18:18
Speaker
And here, i didn't even ask for it. And here it is, right? And I believe that came from my work ethic. You know, I don't know. You know, sometimes I speak to my daughter about this, but I think technology and the phones and all of that. I hate to sound old, but I think that I think that that has.
00:18:40
Speaker
stunted our work ethic. Yeah. It's a, it's a very thin theory, but
00:18:49
Speaker
but I understand there's a lot of things that we we had to do to go out and actually face people. were that's right you know and And there was a lot of extra work you had to do for stuff like in PR back in the days, like now for your clients, right? You can just send them a link. You can say, Oh, you were in the New York times. Here's the link. Right.
00:19:07
Speaker
Back then, you had to get the paper, you had to cut it up and paste it on a piece of paper. Then you had to photocopy it. Then you had to fax it to them. You know what I mean? There were multiple steps to things. Like, you know, everything took 12 steps.
00:19:20
Speaker
But um that attention to detail is something that I'm very grateful for. And when you think, because you spoke earlier on about your parents' background and where you grew up, ex except how how would you say all of those things shaped both your work ethic but then also your approach to corporate communication, your storytelling.
00:19:40
Speaker
um I would say huge, right? So first is to be clear and concise, right? I learned that from growing up with that the but not the most means and and and somewhat of a tough neighborhood in Brooklyn, right?
00:19:57
Speaker
No one's got time to hear your sob story or hear you go on and on, right? So being clear and concise about who you are and what you have to say. And then I think, like, again, the strong work ethic, you know, we come from people who work hard, um who ah work for what they have.
00:20:13
Speaker
And, you know, in the corporate communications world, I mean, that's it's all about, like, being able to talk about your story, right? Who are you? Who cares? Why should they care? You know, and always, you know, um thinking about in every situation, who is your audience, right? Like, who am I speaking to? What are they interested in?
00:20:32
Speaker
um I speaking just for just, just to hear myself talk? Or am I, what what's what's the connection I'm trying to make here? a lot of that stuff, being confident enough to speak in front of a room and talk to strangers. I mean, so much of our work is cold calling and trying to win and convince people, right?
00:20:49
Speaker
People that maybe you don't know. All of that stuff came from my upggrade upbringing and the things that I've learned over the years. and And, you know, when I think about corporate communications, you know, I always say it's really not that difficult We sometimes make it difficult, but um but there are, you know, a number of strategies that I still employ from even back in the day, you know, that still work about, about being authentic and having a main message, um knowing who your audience is All of that stuff is the same stuff I learned, you know, 30 years ago.
00:21:31
Speaker
I'm still using today. Yeah, so there's some basic principles irrespective of what they're using. What technology is just on paper. That's right. That's right. Yeah. so So a tribe called Quest. Tell us about that period. yeah I'm so eager to hear that. I mean, it was a it was a blip, but it was one of those...
00:21:49
Speaker
change moments, right? Being able to work on the first hip hop concert at one of the largest outdoor festivals here in New York at the time. And just, you know, from, you know what, one of the things that really brings me, it helps remind me why I'm here is when I look out at the crowd, whether I worked at the Apollo or when I was at BAM or when I was at the museum and I would just walk through the galleries or when I'm with Dan Cedill Harlem and I'm on tour and I go into the theater and I just see the faces light up.
00:22:21
Speaker
And like to see all these young Black kids watching this hip-hop concert and seeing the energy go back and forth between the artists and the audience, that electricity is where I live.
00:22:34
Speaker
I'm right in the middle of that. that's was That's what's bringing me the the the extra energy to like you know do that you know press release, the post wrap-up press release, because you're everybody else asleep, but you're you're doing the post-event recap, right? When everyone's asleep, you're out there sending it to the wires, right?
00:22:54
Speaker
That's what keeps me going. That's what keeps me going. But it was so, i mean, listen, the 90s in New York, I don't know what was better. I don't know what was better.
00:23:05
Speaker
You could just be on the street and run into Most Def or Erykah Badu or Common and just like... we would you know it was just like you know It was amazing. I'm not going I feel very, very lucky to be alive and young at the time and see literally see a genre bubble up and grow right in front of your eyes. you know Super exciting times.
00:23:33
Speaker
So corporate communication often has, like many industries, gatekeepers rights and access for women, especially black women, has not always been easy.
Overcoming Racial and Gender Stereotypes
00:23:42
Speaker
What barriers did you face personally and how did you overcome them?
00:23:47
Speaker
You know, when I think about barriers, the first thing that comes to mind is my own personal barrier, like the barrier I put in front of my own myself, which um sometimes looked like not reading the room and not being as strategic as I could be in the moment.
00:24:08
Speaker
um Maybe sometimes not taking advantage of a situation. um But there were there were definitely a few times when I was asked to be seen and not heard, right?
00:24:19
Speaker
ah When I was asked to be the black face in the room, just for show, but didn't want to hear my ideas. Or when I was told that I was too angry or the angry black woman, or, you know, um oh I've been too many stories to count of people misinterpreting things I've said or reading my resting bitch face, as they would call it, um being told that I was mean or people are scared of me, you know, all that stuff. I've experienced all of it.
00:24:50
Speaker
And I'm not even sure how I got through it, to be honest with you. Someone said, like, how did you get through it? i i think that I just had to believe in myself. I think that having other black women leaders, black women in your circle to talk to, to know that you're not crazy,
00:25:06
Speaker
That is not you. That is to call the thing a thing. It's racism and it's stereotypes that people try, tropes that people try to lean into and put you in a box. Right.
00:25:18
Speaker
It's oftentimes people's their own lack of self-confidence. When they see a ah self-confident black woman, it makes them feel a way. Right. And it's your decision whether you want to play small or if you want to approach it from a different perspective.
00:25:36
Speaker
For me, how I approach it is I just got even more bodacious. um Absolutely. I was like, oh, you think I'm bad now? Okay, you went tomorrow.
00:25:49
Speaker
And to be honest with you, because I work in the arts, anytime I met the artists, they always connected to me. And so at the end of the day, my work spoke for itself. You may not like who I am, or you may not like how I look or whatever it is, but my work i would shun whatever you had to say.
00:26:09
Speaker
And I think that that's what got me through my my sisters and my work ethic. Yeah. And thinking about institutions and their branding and their own kind of how they portray themselves and your experience, both as an expert in the field, but and also as the experiences you shared.
00:26:29
Speaker
For own organizations listening or people behind organizations listening right now, what advice would you give them in terms of really centering women's voices, right?
00:26:41
Speaker
In their branding, in their strategies, not just in a tokenistic, like you said, that blackface in the room kind of sit situation, right? But meaningfully in a way that actually truly empowers women's voices. Yeah.
00:26:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, first I'll say that I have been working, my my last 10 years of employment have been under the great leadership of women.
00:27:08
Speaker
And for that matter, women who are also mothers, who understand what it means to carry the load of family and work and your own personal pursuits all at the same time.
00:27:24
Speaker
Um, so I think in order to understand women, you have to talk to women, right? And I think anytime you want to talk about brand marketing or brand positioning, you have to, again, understand your audience, right? And if women are important in their, in your audience, you have to understand what they're looking for, what they want.
00:27:45
Speaker
Um, and it's hard to do that without one, talking to them to having leadership that reflects that audience, um, So it doesn't mean that every leader has to be a woman, but it does mean that you have to reflect your community. You have to reflect the audience that you're trying to serve.
00:28:00
Speaker
And that looks like in most cases, having a diverse audience, you know, having a diverse leadership and being honest about what they're looking for. Right. um
00:28:11
Speaker
I'm, you know, it even goes down to like when I'm working on creative, right. When I'm choosing the main image for a project, right. who is going to gravitate towards towards it. I can't speak to everyone. Like, I hope that we can, but that's not a realistic goal, right?
00:28:29
Speaker
yeah Who is the most viable audience? um And oftentimes it's women. I mean, first of all, in the field, in in in the U.S. at least, women make up the a majority of the people in the communications field, or women leaders, you know, probably because maybe we're the most verbal. I don't know. Maybe because or typically we can manage a lot of things at once. I'm not quite sure if that's even a real thing, but we know statistically women lead in this field.
00:28:59
Speaker
And for most of the organizations I've worked for, women have been the ticket buyers. They have been the ones purchasing and direct, if you know, either they're bringing their girlfriends or their kids or they're bringing their partners. They're the ones buying the tickets.
00:29:12
Speaker
Right? So those are the women, those are the people I need to speak to, right? They're the ones, you know, pressing, you know, buy. but well what are they going to be interested in? And for me, that looks like I often use myself as ah as a potential buyer because I actually am a person who buys a lot of tickets and goes to a lot of things. But then I also talk to people in my community surveying, advisory councils, all of that stuff, getting feedback from the outside, because it's hard to make change when you're only talking to people within your organization. And you've mentored a lot of people. You've you've mentored people. What advice would you give to young Black women dreaming of leading communications at that global institution m level as well?
Advice for Young Black Women and Future Aspirations
00:30:01
Speaker
And perhaps thinking what advice would I give young Fatima Jones as well? um The advice I would give would be to never stop learning, never stop reading.
00:30:15
Speaker
I have a number of podcasts that I listen to every week. I'm always reading. I've got a stack of magazines. I still read magazines in print, the ones that do still publish.
00:30:27
Speaker
I like to talk to people. I like to ask questions. I'm very, be curious. Ask people about their backgrounds. Ask them how they got there. Like ask them what they're listening to. What you listening to?
00:30:38
Speaker
Like in communications field, you have to have your finger on the pulse of what's going on. How you going to do that if you're not actually out there, right? So I think I would say um just get out there and and live a full life that includes continuing to learn.
00:30:57
Speaker
that's That's what I would say. And what are you excited about right now? What's happening with you right now? What are you looking forward to in the future? Personally, I'm excited about getting my daughter into a great college. She's a amazing senior.
00:31:10
Speaker
So a great college with a great scholarship. yeah yeah And then professionally, i have this idea of writing a book. oh Yeah. So I'm thinking about, not thinking, I'm making a plan right now.
00:31:25
Speaker
always say big plans require bite-sized steps, right? So right now I'm building out a plan to get there. So that's what I'm excited about. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself, but I feel like between all of the things I've done in my career and some of my my unique insights, I think it could be really helpful for people in the field. So that's that's what I'm excited about. That's really important, I think.
00:31:48
Speaker
documenting that experience and sharing it through a book is really important thing for all of us be doing. Yeah. Yeah. There, there aren't enough, there still aren't enough, um, black women of voices out there.
00:31:59
Speaker
Um, and our stories deserve to be told there's room for all of us. We all have a unique position, you know? And finally, thinking about all we've discussed today, and what's one thing that you want our listeners to take away from this conversation?
Finding Joy and Fulfillment in Work
00:32:15
Speaker
That's a delicious kind question. I love that question. um One takeaway would be to, even if you can't find a job that taps that electricity I talked about earlier,
00:32:29
Speaker
fine an extracurricular activity or find a hobby, find something that gives you that, that electric feeling, because at the end of the day, your work ethic is going to feed off of how you feel inside.
00:32:45
Speaker
And if you can find the joy, like even if it's just music or dance or whatever it is, whether it's reading, you know, using your hands to create something, find something that will be a grounding place for you that could bring you that, ah that, that, um, that electricity.
00:33:02
Speaker
And, and I feel that that will make, make you have a better, fuller life. Thank you so much Fatima for joining me today. It's been a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you so much Dr. Yamaseef.
00:33:13
Speaker
So that was the remarkable Fatima Jones and reminding us that representation in corporate communication isn't just about ticking boxes. It's about shifting culture, taking fuller stories and making room for authenticity at every level of leadership.
00:33:29
Speaker
Fatima's career and vision shows us that women, especially Black women, are not only occupying high-level communications roles, but they are redefining what leadership looks like and sounds like from the inside out.
00:33:42
Speaker
Thank you for listening to Her Media Diary podcast. If you found today's conversation inspiring, don't forget to subscribe, but leave a review, and share this episode of somebody who needs to hear it. And if you'd like to join me on an episode of the podcast, drop me an email at yemiseyadafricanwomeninmedia.com and visit our website, hermediodiary.com, to listen to other episodes on the podcast.
00:34:04
Speaker
Subscribe on your favorite platforms and tune in via our radio partners across Africa. And don't forget to join the conversation. using the hashtag HairMediaDiary. Until next time, stay safe, stay curious, and keep amplifying the stories that matter.