A Dose of Black Joy and Caffeine

Marc S. Strachan ( Head Coach) Coach Marc Consulting, LLCEmpowering Through Coaching "I exist to inspire others to do great things and to chase their dreams." I am a natural born coach, made better by outstanding career/life experiences and training."

Over the last fifteen years, Julius has worked relentlessly to introduce innovative, grassroots initiatives to welcome the diversity needed within advertising and media in the 21st century. His creativity and programs have helped create a workforce which more authentically represents society and equal opportunity across gender, religion, socioeconomics and race. In 2017, he founded The Adversity G...

Over the last fifteen years, Julius has worked relentlessly to introduce innovative, grassroots initiatives to welcome the diversity needed within advertising and media in the 21st century. His creativity and programs have helped create a workforce which more authentically represents society and equal opportunity across gender, religion, socioeconomics and race. In 2017, he founded The Adversity G...

Will "Yemi" Jawando was born in Montgomery County, MD to Olayinka Jawando, a Nigerian immigrant, and Kathy Jacob, a proud Kansan. In middle school, his family moved to Prince George's County. Every day after school, Will spent his afternoons in Silver Spring at his mother's work, where he met many of the mentors he now calls his seven Black fathers. Jawando’s critically acclaimed...

Ramon Davis is a father, entrepreneur, and creative industry professional. He was born and raised on the Southside of Chicago. Growing up, Ramon was considered a problematic student and attended three different grammar schools and two high schools. However, through divine intervention, he took a chance and attended an HBCU in Atlanta on a full-ride scholarship. His life changed after studying abro...

A creative thought leader in multicultural advertising, Kevin has led teams to push creative boundaries and redefine what traditional multicultural advertising can be: nationally recognized and award-winning advertising. He has applied his talents to a diverse set of clients, including American Airlines, Chrysler LLC, Domino's Pizza, Ford Motor Company, Verizon Wireless and Walmart. Kevin has...

Mathew is a highly accomplished multidisciplinary design leader with an impressive background spanning more than two decades across agency, entrepreneurial, and in-house environments. His expertise lies in developing impactful brand strategies, scaling and cultivating talented teams, and crafting visual experiences across B2C and B2B sectors.  Mathew has dedicated the past seven years to immersing...

Stephen Christoph is a bilingual global marketer and career consultant with over 13 years of experience in marketing across entertainment and consumer tech. For Stephen, the goal is always to move the culture forward. Whether it's producing branded content for brands like TikTok, Google, and Spotify, or helping struggling job seekers land their dream roles, Stephen always looks for ways to pre...

Chris Butler is one truly creative individual reining from The Bronx, New York. He has worked on projects such as The Paperboy, Lee Daniels' The Butler, Empire, 12 Years A Slave, and campaign films for global brands such as Google, Adidas, Facebook, AllState, Mountain Dew, and StubHub. He also made a cameo in David O. Russell's Oscar Nominated Film "American Hustle". He obtained...

Tajj Badil-Abish is an accomplished creative with experience both in-house and at ad agencies. Some of his notable projects include building Lyft’s brand guidelines for social and maintaining its positive, playful voice across multiple platforms as well as creating a podcast with the Golden State Warriors designed to honor Black History for longer than just 28 days of the year. For every project,...

Lindsey Gamble is the Associate Director of Influencer Innovation at Mavrck, an all-in-one influencer marketing platform. With over five years of experience working with enterprise consumer brands on creator/influencer marketing campaigns and a deep understanding of the creator economy, Lindsey helps brands experiment and enter new trends in the creator economy He also writes a weekly  newsletter...

Emery Barnes is a New York City-Based Brand Marketer. He's a first-generation Liberian-American and Chicago native, with an untiring passion to seed culture into brands—through music, sports, and art. At 28, Emery has produced campaigns for brands such as DoorDash, Michelob ULTRA, Samsung Global, Coca-Cola, P&G, Trolli, Fisher-Price, and United Airlines, and has worked at some of the large...

Colin Daniels is a digital editor at Adweek. Daniels' career spans the fields of marketing, public relations and journalism. As a journalist, Colin’s areas of focus were previously entertainment, lifestyle and real estate news.

A seasoned veteran in both Fashion and Tech industries, Xavier is a Creative Producer operating at the intersection of Film, Theatre, and Fine Art. His productions focus on the transformative powers of storytelling creating a throughline between artistic mediums. Bringing art to life that informs perspective and shifts how we see the world is a core element in his work. A multi-film festival award...

Bashel is a self-proclaimed “Zillennial” who uses his keen eye for creativity and data to empower diverse consumer stories and grow brand affinity. Originally from Atlanta, Bashel cultivated a niche audience of young professionals, risk-takers, and pop-culture enthusiasts around the world through his love for social media. He recently launched a six-episode web series called Bashel The Zillennial,...

Macaihah is an Artist and Art director living in Brooklyn, New York. 

He grew up in Portland, Oregon and has been an artist since the age of 3 (so his mom says). Ever since he could remember he’s loved using creativity and his own two hands to solve problems. Back then it was through homemade board games, DIY action figures, and sketches of his heroes. Today, it’s storytelling through different m...

Wadnes J. Castelly is a certified marketing professional with 7+ years of experience within the media, entertainment, and technology industry.  He has held marketing, business development, and sales positions at notable organizations such as HYPEBEAST, Spotify, and TikTok, where he works in product marketing within Global Marketing Solutions, helping to drive awareness and education of TikTok'...

Nate Nichols is the Founder and Creative Director of creative agency Palette Group. Leading strategy and execution for brands including Foot Locker, PUMA, Netflix, Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation, Xbox, Billboard, Aperol Spritz, Nate is committed to being a champion for diversity and inclusion in the advertising and creative industries. Using his experience to drive change, Nate co-founded Allysh...

Mandela Barnes is the 45th Lt. Governor Wisconsin – the state’s second-ever Black statewide elected official and first-ever Black Lt. Governor. He started his career as an organizer, served in the Wisconsin legislature, and ran a record-breaking U.S. Senate campaign, where he came one point away from unseating a two-term incumbent in Wisconsin’s closest Senate election in 100 years. As Lt. Governo...

Founder, CEO of Commonwell, a dynamic communications consultancy based in Los Angeles and Miami. The company focuses on: Social Responsibility, Marketing Communications, and Content.  With expertise across industries spanning more than a decade, he has been at the helm of some exciting and transformative projects from the world's most iconic of brands. From returning the Rams to Los Angeles, t...

Jordan has worked in the marketing industry for 12+ years, spanning across various disciplines from experiential, brand strategy to creative and more. He has a passion for personal development and mindset growth, and co-host a podcast with his wife called "Live Alive" on living life with intention and purpose. For the better part of his career Jordan has worked in agency within some of t...

Thomas currently serves as the Head of Diversity Recruiting for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for Google. He has served in a variety of Diversity & Recruiting roles at Google over the past five years, but his current team focuses on Google's representation of women in technical roles, black and brown or other underrepresented communities, and persons with disabilities across the 30+...

As a creative leader, I follow 3Cs: context, content, and conversations. That means translating data into action. Whether it's a :90 spot, social campaign or UX; words inspire behavior. For the past decade, I've worked alongside creatives, devs, c-suite execs, and customers. Together, we've built impactful experiences from the ground up. From advertising to digital to mobile, I’ve run...

Kenji Summers is a Brooklyn based contemplative artist and certified mindfulness instructor that learned from the teacher that mentored Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. While working at Nike Basketball he became convinced that meditation could help ease his anxiety and depression, after learning about how the practice shaped the Mamba Mentality. Kenji was right, building on five consecutive years o...

Troy Harris II is an award-winning copywriter, and short story advocate. Through his dynamic storytelling style, he enjoys giving his readers intriguing, insightful, and hilarious peeks into shared life experiences. His writings span the genres of Culture, Poetry, Humor, Music, and History, and live in several cool places around the internet, including his digital domain, Grits & Gospel. He cu...