About Me

My entrepreneurial spirit emerged at a young age through one of my favorite classes in elementary school: economics. I always saw it as a puzzle, and I loved puzzles! These classes inspired me to want to find ways to make my own money, so I would sell snacks to my classmates, which led to me funding many of my hobbies, including thrifting. Thrifting is when I got into the world of marketing. It was my business, after all! I learned how to run social media pages, strategize ways to find new ways to sell my items or find new suppliers for more coveted clothing/shoes, and research trends and ways to stand out from others. It was a fun business to run and a hobby I hope to return to soon. My high school teachers heard about my business and suggested that I go to college to study marketing. I thought about it and decided to go to school for marketing to help small businesses and non-profit organizations with their marketing needs. In my senior year of high school, I decided to head to Virginia Commonwealth University to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Marketing: Product and Brand Management.

VCU was the perfect fit for me. I enjoyed that the campus coexisted with Downtown Richmond. Attending school in the city gave me a lot of life experience, and Richmond is a great city for entrepreneurs and small businesses, so I knew my skills would be useful here. For example, I would help promote events around the city or shows around the city. I also got to network with some small business owners to learn how they handle marketing. These conversations helped shape my interest in assisting small businesses and non-profits. Knowing what I wanted to do led me to want to share my passion with others and hopefully inspire them to take advantage of and give back to the community where they were also attending university. This inspiration led me to become the president of a marketing organization called Collegiate DECA at VCU. Here, I wanted students to see the evolution of small businesses in the Richmond area and learn how we could help with what we’ve learned in school.

At VCU, I took classes on :

• Graphic Design (Adobe Creative Cloud)

• Marketing Analytics (SEO, Social Media Analytics, Tableau, Google Analytics)

• Digital Marketing (Google Ads, Social Media Management, UX / UI Design, Search Engine Marketing, PPC)

• International Marketing

• Integrated Marketing Communications

Once I graduated from VCU, I began working at 5&1 Consulting Group. At 5&1 Consulting Group, I was the lead digital strategist. I worked directly with clients to build proposals, design websites, create content calendars, and lead brainstorming sessions for campaigns and social media. I started in sales, but after sharing some digital marketing ideas with the owner, he invited me to a few marketing meetings. From there, I was added to the team and eventually promoted to a lead role.

Our clients came from diverse industries, including internet service providers, musicians, tattoo artists, cleaning companies, and more. I had to stay flexible and creative. I also worked closely with our lead graphic designer and lead copywriter to ensure that everything we produced aligned and flowed well across all platforms.

After my time at 5&1 Consulting Group, I ended up going down the IT route at Christopher Newport University as a Web Content Assistant. At Christopher Newport University, I was a web content assistant in the Office of Communications and Public Relations. My role was to keep the public website and faculty sites updated and on-brand, working with departments all across campus. That included athletics, theater, faculty, deans, the president’s office, and student government.

I’d take the updates they submitted and edit, revise, and publish them on the site. It was a fast-paced role, and I even stepped up to cover responsibilities for a supervisor at one point. Working here helped me realize I could take the marketing knowledge I had from college and my time at 5&1 and turn it into freelance work.

Now I am back in Richmond, looking for opportunities both for a career and/or freelance. A part of this, is my freelance business where I focus on digital strategy, web design, SEO, and analytics. Two of my most consistent clients have been The Executive Barbershop and Chef Mike McPherson. I love working with small businesses because it allows them to focus on their craft while I take care of the digital side.

Looking ahead, I plan to grow the brand with bi-weekly blogs around music and entertainment. These posts will eventually become YouTube videos and other creative content. If you are in the Richmond area and require assistance in Marketing (mainly digital marketing), please reach out to me through email (deejacksondigital@gmail.com) or the form below!