- What are, like, the most frustrating things
for you when you tell your story,
in the way that your story is communicated?
- People equate my success to luck.
Like, I was lucky, or that my client was lucky,
and we just, like, stumbled upon this success,
and the way that it worked
out for us was just like this fairytale.
It's so much more to becoming a symbol of success.
It is very little about what you look like.
It is very much about who you are.
I just want to make sure
that people understand that there is a method
and that there is a process.
There's so much behind what you look at,
what you like, what you love,
whether it's music or fashion.
The only way to be successful at the level
in which you want to be successful
is understanding the inner workings
of what you're doing so that you can dominate.
You can't dominate something if you don't understand
what the first level looks like,
what the second level looks like.
- That's why I'm so excited to talk to you, man.
We want to get the strategy behind the method.
Like, what was the method
of creating a star? And you're a star yourself.
So, let's go all the way back to the beginning.
- OK.
- Where are you from?
- I am from Wilmington, Delaware,
by way of Charlotte, North Carolina.
I can't leave out where I was born and semi-raised,
but I moved to Wilmington, Delaware
when I was 8 years old
with my mom and my sister, my younger sister.
All of the lessons I've learned - good, bad,
and ugly - have been right here in Wilmington.
I really take pride in where I'm from.
I still make sure to think
about Wilmington and how I can help.
You just never know who's watching,
who just needs that inspiration in the morning to know
that someone that came from this very place elevated
out and, you know, that is super possible for them, too.
- Were you one of those people who always knew exactly
what you wanted to do when you graduated?
Walk us through how you got into your career path.
- I always knew I was gonna be rich.
I've always had personality.
I've always been very ambitious, very focused.
In my head, I was in 'High School Musical.'
I was starring in my own version of 'High School Musical.'
Like, I really enjoyed high school.
I didn't know exactly what I was gonna do,
but I know I'm gonna do something
that's gonna make me a lot of money.
- Period. [Laughs]
Where did that confidence come from?
You seem to have always had this idea
that you could achieve anything.
- My mom didn't say a lot as far as, like,
"You gotta be confident," or "You gotta walk with
your head high," or "You can be whatever you want to be."
She didn't use cliches.
It was how she treated me as a child,
allowing me to always be myself,
always dress the way I wanted.
And I think those actions is really what planted
that confidence.
I think, also, she knew that there was something
inside of me that even if she said no,
I was going to make it happen.
- Your first endeavor, at least the first one that I know
about that you made happen, is significant
to the place that you're sitting in right now.
Where are you
and how did you end up building this beautiful place
that you're in, in this moment?
- I am in my very first brick-and-mortar business location,
which is a hair salon. But my first business ever,
I started a newspaper when I was
in the sixth grade, and it was called 'Teen Peeps.'
I sold them in homeroom for $1.50.
- Oh, you were hustling since day one?
- Every day.
- What's the name of the salon,
and what was the process
of starting this first licensed business?
- I named the salon Vixated.
It was a hybrid between the word "fixated" and "vixen."
So, I felt like fixated, you know,
you can't take your eyes off of it.
You can't stop thinking about it.
It's like borderline obsession.
And then a vixen is just a woman who walks in her purpose,
walks in her confidence, loves how she looks.
She just exudes beauty and positivity.
I'm probably adding on to the actual definition,
but it's OK 'cause it worked for me.
And then I just put them together.
So, it became Vixated.
A client of mine, whose hair that
I had consistently been doing for years,
she tagged me in a post on Instagram
and this location was up for lease.
I think it was like $600 a month.
Half of my mind is saying: I can start the salon.
I can make it work.
If I can't make $600 a month, then what am I really doing?
I should go back to work.
And then the other half of me was saying:
This could be a perfect, like, guinea-pig project
for me to begin incorporating this vision
of mine for being a publicist.
I felt like I could use my hairstylists as my clients,
find them opportunities, and then find visibility
for those opportunities,
and help them to grow their clientele outside
of the booth.
Because it was my junior year in college
that I knew that that's what I wanted to be,
was a publicist.
PR is really just helping someone to capitalize
on whatever their opportunity is and get them visibility,
maintain their relevancy, help to grow their brand,
and then find somebody who's willing to write
about it or talk about it, which will, in turn,
increase their clientele even more.
Then I've mastered the fundamentals of being a publicist
and I ain't even go to school for that.
I was an English major.
- So, when did this work
as a startup publicist at the hair salon evolve
into becoming a publicist for artists like Cardi B?
- One of my stylists called me and said,
"Hey, there's this girl coming to town,
"her name is Cardi B."
This was before she had even dropped any music,
even before 'Love & Hip Hop' had actually aired.
I didn't know who she was at the time
and I didn't follow her on Instagram.
So, they let me know, like, "Oh, you know,
somebody's bringing her to the Gold Club,"
which was the only strip club in Wilmington.
Well, you got Hak's, but you know
it be that strip club that you don't even -
Yeah.
So, they brought her to the Gold Club,
which happens to be my business partner today.
We had already had a pre-existing relationship.
So, I reached out to him and I'm just like, "Hey, you know,
"would you mind sending her to the salon?
"We'll do her hair and makeup at no charge."
So, summer of 2015, you know, she pulls up to the salon.
She's in this PT Cruiser with her manager at the time,
and she comes in with this, like, orange wig on.
So, when she came in, she was super reserved,
very petite, very polite, very, you know, soft-spoken.
She really didn't say much
while she was getting her hair and her makeup done.
But once she was finished,
she invited us to come to the club with her.
So we went, you know, we helped her pick her money
up at the end of the night, had a few chicken wings,
and then we went our separate ways.
It was maybe about a week after I met her,
I decided to apply for an internship
for New York Fashion Week.
Everybody told me I was crazy.
Like, "You have a successful business.
"You're gonna go to New York and work for free?
"Like, an internship is free."
And it's like, I know what an internship is.
An intern and being an intern is so important
to any professional's journey and career
just because of the type of experience that it lends you.
So, I was willing to start from scratch at 26.
I was willing to work for free.
Working for free to me has never been for free
because I've always positioned myself to be compensated,
whether that be in experience, whether that be in knowledge,
whether that be in relationships.
My Rolodex -
OK?
- How did this fashion PR internship evolve
into you bumping into Cardi again?
- So, my job was to identify who's who, right?
As soon as they come through the door.
I was escorting people to the lounge that I had ran
into her again.
And at this point, you know, it was pretty much like,
"Oh, you know, what are you doing here?
"Are you doing hair?"
And I'm like, "No, you know, I'm a publicist.
"Like, girl I do PR." You know?
Ad she was just like, "Oh, I need one of those."
And I'm like, "OK."
And her manager at the time invited me to dinner that night.
When I arrived at dinner,
they introduced me as their publicist,
so...
[Laughs]
- Wait a minute, wait a minute.
So, at this point you're an intern, always had this dream
of being a publicist, but you had the wherewithal to say
with confidence, look her in the face and say,
"Nah, I'm a publicist.
"That's who I am, like - " - Yeah.
- A hundred percent.
I knew I wouldn't always be an intern,
so I'm just gonna introduce you to who I will become.
- A publicist. - Amen, amen.
So, you don't seem like you deal with this,
but a lot of people talk about imposter syndrome.
You're familiar with it?
- Yeah, no, I don't have that.
[Laughs]
OK, so when did Cream Agency become a reality?
So, once I solidified her as a client,
I just, you know, was working.
I'm cold-calling,
I'm pulling emails off of LinkedIn, off of Instagram.
And then I realized that when I'm sending
out these emails or I'm making these calls,
I'm not communicating any representation,
and I really wanted to be represented by an entity.
I felt like this was a perfect opportunity
to build a business outside
of the salon that really represented my overall ambition.
So, I evolved, maybe a year later, into The Cream Agency,
which became a boutique agency for public relations
and creative marketing.
- Is there, like, a moment or a time period or a placement
that you were like, The Cream Agency was validated?
What really, like, solidified that for you personally?
- It was kind of like two moments.
The first moment was when we found out that Atlantic Records
wanted to sign her.
And one thing that they wanted to see when they were
preparing to sign her was, like, just a cumulative review
of her press.
When the label got the information,
they were very impressed, which for me felt like,
"Wow, like, I really helped to contribute
"to this super dope moment in her life of,
"you know, securing this record label deal."
And the second moment was
when "Bodak Yellow" went No. 1.
It was just a moment in time that
I could never forget, that I realized, like, she's here,
but it's gonna be up to us to stay here.
I knew that she was talented.
I thought she was a super dope person and entertainer.
You know, in my head, I wasn't like, "Oh yeah, we going
to the Grammys." Like, we're just worried about
executing what's in front of us,
and then hoping that those, you know, successful executions
lead to bigger moments.
♪ "WAP" by Cardi B ft. Megan Thee Stallion ♪
- What went through your mind when you first heard "WAP?"
- I heard the dirty version first.
And I was just like "Oh!"
I didn't clutch my pearls
because I was shocked that she was saying these things,
because she says whatever she feels,
however she feels, super unapologetic and uncensored.
You know, 'IOP,' 'Invasion of Privacy'
had its own life and its own moment.
But this was her stepping into this new era,
into her second season.
♪ "WAP" by Cardi B ft. Megan Thee Stallion ♪
- When you hear a record like that,
are you thinking about what a creative rollout might look
like or what the visuals might look like?
At what point do you begin that part of the process,
when you start to visualize how this is gonna be packaged
to the world?
- Cardi is very organized when it comes to plans.
If you have an idea, don't just come with the idea.
She wants to know, "How is this going to work?
"How are we going to execute it?
"What does the timing look like?
"What else is going to support this moment
"to make it more of an event?"
So, we had already curated a plan where the rollout
included fashion partnerships, a magazine cover.
We knew that we wanted these other events to take place
and play a part in the overall rollout
of her next single.
Cardi knew what type of video she wanted to create.
She knew that the song has to come out with the visuals.
She knew she wanted colors.
She told us she wanted animals.
She wanted prints, patterns.
She wanted multiple sets.
She really wanted to dig deep in her bag
and remind the world of why she is, in fact, a phenomenon.
You know, she birthed the vision
and then we helped to just grow the vision
and execute the vision.
So, myself and Kollin Carter, who is her wardrobe stylist,
that's like my creative baby dad
and I'm his creative baby mom,
and we make a lot of good creative babies together.
We knew that we had a lot of work to do
and I don't think we calculated how to execute
in the middle of a pandemic, but with great label partners
at Atlantic, with an amazing team that we had internally,
and then the music-video director, Colin Tilley,
we were able to really pull together an insane project.
The one thing that she was just so focused
on was bringing in women.
This is the era of the woman.
You know, we sat down, we developed this list
of individuals, and I literally woke up every morning going
after every person on that list.
I think I might've texted Kris Jenner,
"Good morning, beautiful," for like 14 days.
You know, pride to the side, ego to the side,
you know, I have a job to do,
and I like to deliver and I like to over-deliver.
So, we were able to confirm Mulatto and [Sukihana]
and Rubi [Rose] and Normani and Rosalía.
We were able to really pull together a cast
of diverse, successful women.
- What did you learn about yourself
as you were working on "WAP?"
- I learned that I am just as capable
as I am experienced because
my experience has not necessarily
been titled "creative direction."
This was actually my first Creative Director credit
that I've received.
And I thank her for that, you know, for crediting her team
and allowing us to level up in our position.
- So, what's next for you, The Cream Agency, and Cardi B?
- I'm super fortunate to work with a client who shows
her team the utmost gratitude and respect and appreciation,
because this is a thankless industry
and a lot of people go their whole industries
without hearing a "thank you," or "I appreciate you."
So, I'm very lucky in that aspect,
but I also found it important to make sure
that I'm investing in things that I have ownership in.
I'm really just trying to build an empire
that'll outlast myself, that'll outlast my kids' kids'
kids' kids, you know. I want to be remembered
for a lifetime, even when I'm gone.