Today I heard from Jodie Dublin-Dangleben, the owner of JD Naturals, tell her story of starting a business. To me, it was inspiring and full of valuable lessons. Her journey from an engineering career to creating a natural hair care brand highlights how powerful it can be to focus on what you’re passionate about. Jodie’s story began with her own struggle to find products that worked for her natural hair. Therefore, she started experimenting with her own recipes using natural ingredients like shea butter, coconut oil, and castor oil. Then when her friends and family saw how well her products worked, they became her first customers. This showed her that there was a real market for these products she was creating. This is what encouraged her and truly inspired her to launch JD Naturals.

One of the keys to her success was her early use of social media. Jodie started by promoting her products on Facebook. By sharing not just product information but also tips and advice on natural hair care. This helped her build a community around her brand and helped her connect with customers on a personal level. Later, she expanded to Instagram and YouTube, while changing her approach for each platform to help broaden her target audience and potential consumers. For example, Instagram allowed her to reach younger people through more visuals, while YouTube let her share longer videos and tutorials to help people better understand how to care for hair that her products are targeted for.

The next biggest turning point in her brand I learned was related to the COVID-19 pandemic. During lockdowns Jodie created content on easy, low maintenance hairstyles, which fit perfectly with her customers’ needs at the time. Keeping up with the change of pace her audience needed given what was going on in the world helped her brand a lot. This showed me that making sure you are in the know about what your brand or company needs based on what is going on in the world around you will truly help you grow.

Jodie also talked about how timing and awareness of social issues are also important. She did this by sharing messages in support of movements like Black Lives Matter. She was able to connect with people on a deeper level, reaching more customers in a meaningful way that also related back to her products. 

As a whole Jodie’s journey has taught me that finding a passion that you love and sticking with it will do you well because you believe in it. Furthermore, staying up with what is going on in the world around you and what relates to your products or company based on current times is key. This way you’re able to use this to bring more customers back to your products and help engage a broader target audience. Overall I really enjoyed Jodie’s presentation and I learnt lessons which I will carry with me when I go into the workplace.

Thought Bubblesss POPPED!

Today I learned about Chanele’s journey in communications. Her journey has helped teach me important lessons as someone who is considered going into a similar field being in, content creation, digital marketing, or social media. In my opinion her story shows the power of adaptability, building a personal brand, and understanding your audience. All of which are skills that are valuable in today’s fast changing communications field and that I need to understand more in order to do well in this field after school.

Through Chanele’s journey I learned that she didn’t always plan to work in communications. In university, she had aimed to become a lawyer, but a course she took about communications sparked her interest. Then she decided to change her path. Listening to this, it makes me feel slightly better that I don’t know exactly what I want to do after school and shows that exploring different fields during university can open up new opportunities. After her degree, she completed Humber College’s PR program (like I’m doing right now!) where she had hands on internships which helped her gain real world experience. As someone who will be completing this internship next year, I’m excited to see what I will learn during it.

Then, Chanele began her career just as social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook were becoming popular. She started with a social media management job, then she moved into influencer marketing, content creation, and recruitment. Overall, she got a lot of experience in different areas of the field. I believe her career path shows how important it is to adapt to new trends in digital media given the time she joined the workforce.

One of Chanele’s key strategies has been creating valuable, quality content. Through a platform she created, “Do Well Dress Well” she built a reputation as an expert on personal branding and career advice. Her focus on giving readers useful, practical information helped her grow a loyal following and opened opportunities for public speaking. To me her approach shows how powerful it can be to deliver meaningful content to an audience.

As a whole Chanele had an extraordinary journey with experience in many different areas of the industry. To me understanding that gaining all of this experience allowed her to be the best version of herself in the work for and always being adaptable to changes. Furthermore, understanding your audience when it comes to working in communications will help you go so much further and I will be taking with me from her presentation.

Thought Bubbles out!