Today we’d like to introduce you to Jada Renee.
Hi Jada, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
So I started my business The INDI Group back at Kent State University at 19 years old during my Sophomore year of college. INDI stands for “Individuality” and our platform is created for the artistic creative or entrepreneur looking to enhance their brand awareness and brand knowledge by creating connections, opportunities and events for artists. We also assist in creating marketing and social media campaigns for local Cleveland Nonprofit Organizations and for profit businesses.
Everything started back in 2012 when I was granted the opportunity to go to a business humanitarian trip to Johannesburg South Africa and Botswana where I participated in a 2-3 week youth business building workshop where we learned business education along with how to write a business plan.
During the workshop, I learned the value of creating a mission statement, business plan and overall business strategy. I learned how to understand the value of what owning a business can do for your future along with being exposed to several connections and networking opportunities I’m Africa. Once I got back home to Cleveland , Ohio after this trip I had noticed a shift in my thinking and I instantly wanted to know more about business and my efforts in it. What would INDI truly be? Am I supposed to do one thing with my business or can I do many things? All of these questions came to mind and became the driving force to how I went about building my brand. I got deeper into my interest of building brands and started to use my brand as the first example of what I initially wanted to accomplish which is being a trusted brand in marketing communications and artist relations that creates the want and need for INDI to brand other developing brands and businesses.
I took my entire time in college very seriously when it came to building INDI. I set out to create three tiers of my business, INDI Media , INDI Shop and our non profit sector called “The Destination Dream Foundation “ which is focused around teaching art to the youth. Back in college none of these things were fleshed out with full detail lol they were just a series of ideas that I knew I wanted to sharpen in order to make my business foundation very strong. Once I realized how interested in brand marketing I was and the organic creativity that marketing and branding brought to me, I became more intentional on how I marketed my brand to my peers while at Kent State.
I started to study and understand my target audience and what their interests were so I started to create my first few products from my brand which was first the classic INDI clothing brand. Kent State University is number 3 in the world for our fashion design school. So since I knew a bulk of students came to Kent State University for fashion from around the world I knew who my target audience would be to buy my products and also help to sell my products.
I became familiar with the students at the fashion school, I already had a strong interest in media doing photography and video as a hobby so I started doing photoshoot with some of the KSU Fashion students , which escalated to people seeing the merchandise online and on social media.
I would sell my clothing line on campus, during my house party’s and during off-campus events that I would throw for our artist community at Kent State. After my merchandise created a buzz at my college I began to network the merchandise to industry artists. Syd the Kid from The Internet band was the first celebrity to show love to our INDI clothing brand. She made it her business to take our classic black INDI Hoodie on tour during their “Ego Death” Album tour. This created our first “going viral” moment that put INDI in a great branding position for the rest of my college career and beyond.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would say the road to entrepreneurship is what you make it. If you can roll with the punches of not knowing if things will work out but at the same time knowing that the universe wouldn’t lead you astray, then you can take all of the perceived struggles and turn them into positive situations and learning lessons. I would say life has definitely happened to me and has taught me many things during this journey. My story involves several situations beyond my understanding, our house fire that took place back in 2018 was probably one of the biggest of those things.
Tragedy seems to be the inner woven glue that brings together the true entrepreneur story. Our house fire back in 2018 involved me losing all of my art work, media equipment and personal belongings.
My family had to move after living in the home I was raised in for over a decade and the experience indeed brought me closer to my family in such a vulnerable time. I went through a very deep depression and honestly lost the inspiration to simply speak. I became very mute and trapped inside of myself because there was so much that was gone I didn’t understand anything or anyone for a while and with that I became very unattached to my emotions. However, on the flip side this time also forced me to look deep inside of myself and pull out a certain drive that I didn’t know that I had. I became tired of being upset about what I could not change. I felt this way because I put a lot of manifestation energy into making my family a part of my lifestyle and vision for my dreams so I felt like the fire set us back when actually the house fire put us in an awesome position spiritually to have faith in ourselves and God that there was a better situation for us. That same year I booked Nipsey Hussle in collaboration with a local non profit organization here in Cleveland, did SXSW that summer with some of our local Cleveland artists, started getting into teaching art to the youth and did an art event titled “Through the Fire’ that ended up getting covered by Cleveland’s WKYC Channel 3 News.
My focus up until the fire was to make my business as solid as possible when it came to focusing on gathering as many clients as I could and educating myself on the business sector I was in. I was successful in that effort but didn’t realize it until after the fire. My brand had successfully secured several marketing clients, curated several marketing and live music events for clients and local artists and made sure that certain parts of our brand were at the forefront. After the fire, I realized that everything my brand had been through up until that moment was why I chose to be an entrepreneur, to simply enjoy the journey.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The INDI Group is a media marketing platform based in Cleveland, Ohio. We specialize in social media management and creating brand awareness for local non profit organizations and public art companies. We also assist the artist community in Cleveland and beyond by curating artist showcases and networking events for artists to build and connect with each other. What I feel the INDI Brand is most known for is our clothing brand and our unique creative planning strategies for our partners and clients. The INDI brand has four tiers , INDI Media , INDI Music Group, INDI Clothing and The Destination Dream Foundation.
On the clothing side we strive to create comfortable, quality clothing that speaks to the creative individual. We design our merchandise with classic slogans, mental notes and cool color schemes. I started the clothing brand aspect of INDI first back in college and my peers at Kent State University took a liking to the brand and what it stood for. I created very strong and intentional marketing approaches for my merchandise by creating ways to get the merch scene and sold all over campus. Once campus knew all about INDI, I made sure artists and influencers outside of Ohio were introduced to the brand as well. Over the years our INDI merchandise has ended up in the hands of Syd The Kid of The Internet Band, Director of Showtime’s “The Chi” Lena Waithe, rapper Madeintyo and a few members of his independent record label, along with The Late Great Nipsey Hussle. These celebrities and influencers assisted in the INDI clothing brand getting a certain amount of internet attention.
What I feel sets me and my business apart from others is my drive in really focusing on having intention behind my brand moves and opportunities. By focusing on the four tiers of my business it becomes somewhat fun for me to create and attract the opportunities and experiences that I want to have for the business overall. With that I have learned that not all opportunities are good ones and In order to build brand trust and integrity along with profit, its all about creating and accepting the right opportunities. A recent opportunity that I am most proud of brand wise is a recent show we just had under the record label portion of our brand IND Music Group ( IMG ) where we had the opportunity of having our artists Reco Bandz and Aphiniti open up for Columbia Records Lil Tjay and Kaash Paige of Jay Z’s Roc Nation at Clevelands classic Agora Theatre & Ballroom.
This was a major opportunity for us that I am super proud of because we started our artist development and artist management sector of the brand back in 2017 where we started working with several non profit organizations in the city that gave me access to booking opportunities for local artists in the city. I began to educate myself more on how to build an independent label and management company for up and coming artists and started to look closer at the artist demographics in my city. I began to understand that the reason so many artists leave the city to do greater things in the arts and music specifically is because there is no trusted label to generate the financial results that independent artists need to survive and create their art.
I wanted to make the INDI platform and INDI Music Group that home for artists to learn about the creative hustle along with the creative strategy from being an up and coming artist to a self sufficient brand or business. Being able to book major opening events for our artists is a big deal because it creates a new avenue for artists in the city to see the true route to marketing yourself in music. For this specific show we did our first official independent press campaign where we partnered with local businesses and organizations to serve as sponsors to give away concert tickets to the youth. We also landed a few radio interviews with Cleveland’s Iheart Radio :Real 106.1 Cleveland, The Kris Styles Show with WOVU 95.9 , event features from Cleveland Scene Magazine and Destination Cleveland. We received sponsorship from Cleveland businesses such as Kafela, Studiwood Studio, Mound Elementary School and Zelma George Recreation Center and were able to get the youth and community involved with our ticket giveaways. My favorite part about this event was being able to be creative in our marketing approach.
Readers should know that we offer monthly branding and marketing packages for those looking for brand assistance. We assist in creating social media campaigns, graphic design, photography, video, ad marketing, event planning and more. Simply reach out to me via email at theindigroup@gmail.com and our website at www.theindigroup.com.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
In the next 5-10 years, I see my industry of being involved in the independent arts as being way easier to navigate through. Right now as an independent creative and business owner there is unfortunately an extreme limit to start up capital for inner city start ups and independent brands and business owners. With that in the next 5-10 years I see those opportunities opening up for more creatives to find the resources they need to be successful faster.
Currently as it relates to Cleveland , I mentioned earlier about the lack of a music industry here in the city which results in our artists leaving the city to follow their dreams elsewhere. I believe this will stop very soon as a result of more artists from the inner city understanding their power lies in what they build and create in the city and in order to create the sense of industry culture that we all want to see in the arts we have to be willing to build up this new Cleveland by being here to see the growth. I have also began my journey in real estate by becoming an investor and first time home owner which has sharpened my perspective on ownership and our education around real estate development.
After learning from some of the best in real estate and being from Cleveland, I can see what we need. Us artists and business owners need to own. We need to own the studios, own the artist executive buildings, own the artist hotels, own the artist hang out spots, own the artist districts by owning and cultivating the land that the industry sits on. This is how any industry we see becomes successful rather music, fashion, or anything honestly…its ownership. So with that I see more ownership amongst the young creatives in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, the new-age 20 to early 40 year olds of today will focus on ownership and passing the bouton to the youth to understand the importance of ownership rather big or small.
Contact Info:
- Email: Theindigroup@gmail.com
- Website: www.theindigroup.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indi.media/
Image Credits
Blue International Marketing
Jordan Lewis (@ACasualPhoto)
INDI Media
