How did the idea for Urban South come about?
The idea for Urban South came about around 00’. I always felt like the SOUTH was being neglected online as a whole. Of course there are a lot of informative and urban professional local portals for each city but my vision was to create a hub to bridge those portals, cities and missing pieces together online for the entire SOUTH region. Becoming a statistic in the unemployment numbers gave me the will and most creative ideas to lay the blue print for this project. With that, Urban South was born!
What is your position within the Urban South project?
I'm the CEO/Owner of the site.
How has Urban South grown or changed since its inception?
I could speak on this question all day. Urban South has grown from an idea to a reality beyond my imagination. We’ve been working on this one project since 03’ and I definitely appreciate everyone that has helped us grow to this point.
How large is the team that currently assists you with running this project?
We currently have a team of seven(7) people but only two(2) at the moment with the online project.
During an average work week, how many hours do you spend working on the Urban South project?
I, myself, currently spend approximately 40-60 hrs (Sun.-Sat.) working on the Urban South project.
What's the most challenging part of maintaining or operating your website?
The greatest challenge would be laying down the foundation and road map. Being the CEO/ Owner, everything is constructed around my vision which can be good & bad. I’m blessed to be around a group of people who are not “YES” men/women. This is really a full time job and hard work especially the content verses the number of people on our team. Also, I’m a HTML dummy. :)
What are your goals at the current time for Urban South?
Our mission at the moment is to spread Urban South like a virus….lol Our goal is to better provide information, updates, alerts, exposure, etc. throughout the South.
What are some other projects you're working on, or anticipate working on in the future?
Besides www.UrbanSouth.us I am currently working on a model promotional project with an upcoming photographer, Charles Reece, and Urban South spokes models Tronda White and Asiah Jacobs. I’m heavily involved with music promotions and we are working promotions for an artist named Money Waters whose album “The Porch” is now in stores. The Porch can be seen and bought through the Urban South music channel page on www.UrbanSouth.us . We are anticipating working on projects with the new Young Bleed album from Da’ Tention Home, Friend or Foe Records out of Jackson, MS, Showboat Entertainment out of Atlanta, Platinum Visions, LLC out of Jackson, MS, and Jalco Entertainment out of Dallas, TX.
What part of operating Urban South gives you the most enjoyment?
My enjoyment comes from being able to provide a service to the Urban people from an idea built with my own hands. It’s truly amazing and a blessing!
Do you work a regular 9 to 5 job or is Urban South your primary project?
The answer would be “NO” to both! My 9 to 5 ended in summer of 03’ because of lay offs and I’ve struggled paying dues ever since just to win on creditability to make Urban South a primary income. Creditability has taken me further than income at this point. I know because Urban South is doing an interview with AwesomeBods.
What's your opinion of the industry regarding ethnic models today?
My opinion on the industry is that there definitely is a market for ethnic models. Exposure, castings, portfolios, promo, videos and being booked does work when done right. Look at Melyssa Ford on BET right now as a host.
If you could start this project all over again, from scratch, what would you do differently?
Nothing; I wouldn’t change a thing! I’m working with a loyal group of people that I think I would of never met if anything was different.
What are the positive and negatives you've experienced when working with models?
When starting on the modeling side of it with photographer Charles Reece, I would say our greatest negative is models being late and/or missing appointments without timely cancellation. Another negative I see is not fully representing the person/company the models are promoting at the time. Away from that I love working with the models that are hungry, take harsh criticism, professional, and most of all they feel good about working with us.
What does Urban South offer it's visitors that they won't necessarily or can't find on similiar websites?
We offer a one stop home online for the urban community. We’re giving you updates, local news, underground music exposure, women, men, business, entertainment, forum, urban directory and directories for all major cities in the SOUTH. We are the online hub dedicated to the South. We want to bridge all urban online communities in the SOUTH together whereas a person can contact and network with someone in Miami without having to drive or fly there when they don’t have the budget. In addition, we feel strongly about supporting the Urban & Minority communities online.
What advice would you give to people looking into creating or starting a project similiar to Urban South?
My advice would be if you have the idea, make it happen. We started with a $0 budget but the key was not to sell ourselves the dream we were visioning. People believe you have to have a certain budget to make a project come alive from scratch which is true….lol My most vital advice would be to take your time and plan your project out in advance with no limitations. With limited funds to start up Urban South, I took my time to build it the way I wanted it instead of going all in with nothing. We’ve been working on www.UrbanSouth.us for well over a year. Take your time and have patience!
Urban South would like to thank David Campbell and AwesomeBods for this opportunity. Much respect and love!
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