What Did Junae Learn Third Quarter? (One Year Later)
Deon Egenti
It has been a crazy year for everyone, but it seems that Junae Brown has her life under control. The CEO of Browned 2 Perfection Agency is always moving her own goal post no matter what climate we’re in. She is very aware of where we are presently. More importantly, she is aware of what the future may hold for major companies and society as a whole. I talk to Junae about what has changed since last year, the pandemic, self-care, the world going digital, and much more.
We talked about all the things that you had learned in the third quarter last year. A year has gone by. What has changed since then?
So much. I no longer live in New York City. I live in Atlanta now. There’s also been a pandemic. At this time last year, we haven’t put out Brownie Bites yet. I also just feel like we were working with artists in a different way back in September and we even still offered our coaching services. Now, we’ve been able to work more with a diverse realm of clients. We have music clients, politicians, TV and film on the horizon, corporate entities, and startup brands. Our online presence has grown significantly with both my personal brand and Browned 2 Perfection Agency. We’ve honed in on what people expect from us. We’re still growing, but we’ve grown a lot since September now that I think about it. Things are almost totally different now and as you grow your goals change. We still stand for the same thing which is authenticity marketing, creating experiences, and catering to our community. We’ve been doing it in fresh and new ways so it’s pretty cool. I’m actually really proud of that.
How has this pandemic affected you personally and professionally this past quarter?
Personally, I felt like I spent a lot of time coaching people in the beginning that are close to me through it. I was already used to working from home a lot and figuring it out. That’s my whole life. However, I do realize that a lot of people’s life routine and lives were disrupted. People have lost their loved ones unfortunately and you have to be here for people while they’re grieving. Being a resource just as a friend, family member, and mentor. My grandfather had come down with the coronavirus and it was scary because there were so many complications. Thank God he was able to beat it. I always say he’s such a tough cookie to be eighty-five and have a bunch of other medical things already going on. According to statistics, he shouldn’t be here so God is good. I think this pandemic has affected all of us in different ways. Some days are better than others mentally. I’m super hard on myself sometimes and I have to take a step back and say, “You are not just performing; you are over-performing in a pandemic.” I have to understand that just because I’m playing, as if this is a normal battlefield, doesn’t mean that it is one. This is definitely something we have never seen before. We have to be more kind to ourselves and show ourselves grace. I’m not saying be stagnant, but don’t beat yourself up if everything’s not going as planned. It’s not you; it’s the time that we’re in.
Professionally, on the more negative side, a lot of the experiential and large scale events that we had planned obviously were postponed. Before the pandemic started, I was telling my team and colleagues that I really wanted to focus on digital for the second quarter. Everybody said, “Why?” “You have all this opportunity for events.” “It seems like a weird time to do that.” I just had a feeling about it. I feel like there were certain things in digital that we were supposed to do and we’ve been putting it off because of all the real life stuff. As soon as I made a decision to start implementing it, here came Ms. Rona and it’s been crazy. I have pretty decent intuition, but this is by far one of my greater times where I actually listened to my gut and it paid off. Everything is digital right now. We’ve always focused on digital content and digital content strategy, but this is insane. This is the gold rush for anyone who works in digital marketing. It’s been great in that respect for the agency and for my personal brand. I’ve been getting a lot of looks from a lot of entities, companies, and platforms that I respect. I’ve been able to significantly grow my network. It’s very weird but every V.P. of every major digital company is following me on my Twitter or Instagram. I’ve just been connecting with so many people. I never thought in my wildest dreams that people from major television and film networks would be reaching out to say, “Hey, we think that you’re the perfect agency to help us figure things out.” Also, we’re in a time too where social justice is a big thing. Companies are finally trying to really make diversity and inclusion not just a cool catchphrase, but something that’s reflected in the work. Being able to help companies implement real diversity into campaigns and put actual Black and brown people in front is amazing. My goal these days is to help ensure they reinvest into the consumer, and asking directly what they’re going to do for Black and brown people. There is no way I’m producing a campaign that isn’t reflective or inclusive of us. I always say that at B2P we are the authentic bridge between culture and corporate and that shows more than ever before. I don’t have a conversation with a CEO without bringing up how their brand would be great for Black women, Black and brown people, the creative community, emerging entrepreneurs, etc. I’m really grateful to be able to do my part and I’m having a lot of fun doing so.
You’ve talked about self care and not being so hard on yourself a lot this past quarter. Why was that important for you?
It was important because I know so many people who are super stressed out because they couldn’t perform in the middle of a pandemic. I’m so big on self-care and wellness because I am myself. As an emerging entrepreneur, as a Black woman entrepreneur who is getting out the mud as the kids would say, it’s a lot of work. It’s not an even playing field for us. I have to work ten times harder than let’s say a white male in the same space who maybe even does half the work. So I tend to overwork and get into these intense work modes where I’m not necessarily taking care of myself. In order for you to perform at your best, you do have to take care of yourself. We can be so hard on ourselves because we’re passionate about what we do and we want to see the results we know we are capable of.. However, it is a pandemic and it’s affecting everyone. The rich, poor, celebrities, middle class, politicians, pets, etc. You only get one life, one body, one mind, one heart, and it’s important to take care of it. You want to work hard, but you don’t want to stress yourself into an early grave. God forbid. There’s enough going on in the world without us beating ourselves up. One thing this pandemic showed everyone is that we are not as in control as we would like to believe. And once you accept that you aren’t in control, this whole time gets a lot easier. Enjoy life. There’s so much to gain from this crazy, and sometimes terrible, time in our lives that I’m just focusing on the good. No, every day is not sunshine, butterflies, and unicorns but I’m focused on what I can learn from this. I’m focused on what I can learn about myself, others, and what’s really important to me in this life. I don’t want to be distracted by things that don’t really matter. Also, I don’t want to hold myself to impossible standards. We don’t give ourselves enough credit for how incredible we are. We all have room for improvement, but we do need to recognize how incredible we actually are. We always aspire for more and to be at a certain place, but how about you appreciate you now?
You’ve also talked a lot this past quarter about how the world is going to be more digital/remote now than ever. Why do you believe this?
We’re looking at it happening in real time. Also, even when we get a half-decent vaccine, it’s going to take a really long time for society to trust being around large groups of people. The whole remote thing has been so controversial for whatever reason in the past decade. However, now that we’ve seen that things can happen remotely, there’s no excuse for people to make people have to be in an office every single day forty hours a week. It makes no sense why people need to have in person meetings for every meeting. Yes, there’s things to gain by being in person but I’ve been able to do so much with people that are miles and miles away. There are conferences where you have to be in person and now they can touch thousands of more people because it’s digital. The smart companies and brands are pivoting properly and using it to their advantage. The people who are waiting for things to go back to normal and not figuring out how to do what they do well in this space are going to be in for a rude awakening. That’s just my prediction. I don’t think we’re going to be out of this COVID-19 land until a moment before this time next year. I have high hopes for next summer, but there’s this running joke about everything being fine by January 2021 and that is false. There’s so much to readjust and that’s going to take us a minute. There’s so much we don’t know and that’s we learned even in the first three to six months of COVID. Every time we think we know something about her, here comes something else and we have to tread lightly. I am excited for things to come back like live shows and events, but in the meantime, there’s a lot you can do with making things intimate. I’m a person who lives in the moment, goes with the flow, and is pretty down to earth. I’m going to make it work because that’s my whole job. You got to work with what you got. That’s the only way to win at life.
What are some tangible career goals that you want for yourself this coming quarter?
I would love for us to make $100K in revenue because we’re getting ready to put out some different products and merch. I’m crazy though so I think that’s feasible. I have some books that I want to put out, but there’s one that I really want to release because it can help people with marketing going into the New Year. I definitely want to produce a campaign or two for major companies. I would love to get a plaque. I have some really fun artists that I’m working with right now and believe they have the potential to really be breakout artists, and of course run it up with streams. So I would love to start my plaque journey. Personally, I would love to run some million dollar campaigns for Beyoncé, Oprah, and Michelle Obama. I’m trying to manifest that. No nonsense, I’m actually very close for one of them. I do have some dope community & philanthropy initiatives that I would like to get done by the end of the year. Some will be international and some will be in the United States. I would love to talk to more publications. I had some really dope features in the past six months so if you’re reading this Forbes, Adweek, and Essence, let’s talk. My goals are really just to maximize my potential and the potential of our clients. I want to look up in January and beat my own high score. I’m in a new space and I’m really enjoying it because things are lining up. Thank God.
What do you expect from Browned 2 Perfection Agency this coming quarter?
Excellence.
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