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Monti, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Q: How did you learn to do what you do?

I used to work for a political organization in Missouri, and at the time, my position was the candidate recruiter. You would think my current job has nothing to do with recruiting people to run for office, but everything aligned so well for me to start working in marketing and graphic design.

While I was working at my 9-5 as a candidate recruiter. I learned that it was more transformational to help candidates redesign their branding based on color placement, images of the candidates, and how the messaging stood out to the community versus putting their own bias on their marketing.

Basically, seeing their marketing from the voter’s perspective. Two candidates picked up what I was doing outside my district in Tennessee. They saw what I was doing and were interested in letting me work with them as a volunteer on the campaign. I learned about the community, their social media platforms to read comments, and how the campaigns interacted with their “base” (base means community).

These moments were challenging, but these intentional moments helped me gain insight into how to develop content for the campaign.

Q:Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process?

Nothing, I’m forever learning and growing in this space. I would probably have invested more time developing a schedule to practice and learn.

My learning process is studying best practices on free platforms, like Youtube or reading books about graphic designs from a BIPOC perspective.

However, I dont think your skill should be sped up. You have to learn at your pace, and there are always personal situations where you will need to pivot or redirect your energy elsewhere.

Q: What skills do you think were most essential?

Critical thinking, time, mental clarity, and creativity

Q: What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
Myself.

Not everyone, in the beginning, was interested in working with me. People didn’t see the difference between hiring me versus using funding for a more prominent consultant agency. At the time, I was moving and advertising through “word of the month,” I’m still doing that, but my clients and I have built intentional relationships, which is why I think my clients and projects have grown over the years.

I had to learn to understand and learn from groups that focused on Community Centric Marketing, which helped me understand the best practices for communication. Understand that there’s always an issue, and I must find solutions to support the organization. I never thought I would be in a place of marketing and communications.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, I attended Prairie View A&M University, where I studied Sociology, which is entirely the opposite of graphic design, but as I grew in the community. I found that sociology is tied to most of my designs because I focus on community first.

After moving to St. Louis, Missouri, after college, my perspective changed during the Ferguson Uprising. I was a case manager at several high schools in St. Louis City but felt lost. The death of Mike Brown shifted my mentality to get involved in political organizing.

As an organizer, I worked on State and Federal elections. I worked as a candidate recruiter for State Party and moved to Congressional Campaign in Southern Illinois.

I’ve always been into creative things that make me think, but I pursued graphic design and marketing while working with political candidates. It wasn’t until I branched out and started self-creating marketing design for BIPOC candidates and developing content that put the community first. This was new for many candidates, but most are comfortable with the “structured” political logo or large headshot on their marketing plan.

While I had a full-time job recruiting candidates, I took a chance and started developing content for local candidates running smaller community races. This helped me connect with two candidates from Tennessee, who took me on as a volunteer.

The rest was history. Although I still work full time, my clients and the projects I work on have grown into the non-profit sector. Focusing designs on creating intentional graphics with real people. Incorporating features, disabilities, and images of people usually seen in the community, not images shown for “respectability” purposes.

Helping clients think about the future of marketing and sticking with realistic expressions has helped me build some lasting relationships with my clients. Helping them solve problems like DEI, transformational communications, and making positive culture through visual presentation.

I’m most proud of working with people that want to change the culture of their business, work environment, and themselves as a leader.

Not all candidates are comfortable with colors, visual expression, or context that’s added, but when I’m able to have a one-on-one with the client because of my history with case management and working with political candidates. I’ve been able to help hear the client’s needs and the project they want to pursue.

These tools and skills have helped me build some last relationships with clients and helped me understand the needs of their projects.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

To take time to rest and create on my own terms. I’m still learning how to manage my schedule as I grow, but developing boundaries with clients and intense projects is something I would have learned early on.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I’m still working and moving through this space, so there aren’t a few things I would unlearn, but I would change how I manage my time. I’m still learning the craft of design, so when I take on large projects or pick up new clients, It’s been hard for me to say “no” because I’m relatively new.