Today we’d like to introduce you to Latasha Edwards.
Latasha, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’m a military brat, but my parents retired in Houston. I traveled my entire life so leaving Houston for college in Tallahassee was a breeze. Little did I know that attending Florida A&M University would develop my future and encourage me to become an entrepreneur. I always loved entertainment and sports. While many of my former classmates were trying to go into non-profit, I knew that I wanted to go into entertainment and hopefully one day own a major agency. So I moved to NYC with one suitcase and a dream. Even though I have a Master’s Degree, I worked from the bottom up. I worked retail jobs and freelanced in marketing and public relations.
While in NYC, I was encouraged by a FAMU friend based in LA, A’sia Horne, to start The Purple Hill Group. She gave me my first client, Vickilyn Reynolds, an actress who played in the movie Friday as Chris Tucker’s mom. I got her in local news coverage catching the attention of Sheryl Lee Ralph, and she attended one of Vickilyn plays. From there on, I gained clients Tiara Monet (singer-songwriter @tiaramonetqueen), Lovemarks and Crowns (children’s book @lovemarksandcrowns), and Harold Williams (filmmaker, two time ABFF winner and TRUtv comedy writer winner @haroldcreates).
I later met Andrea Hill, a Dallas native, who pitched her podcast idea to me called G.R.I.T.S. and the City. From there on, I taught myself how to audio and video edit and even came up with the branding for the podcast.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. Many people that attend HBCU’s are natural go-getters because we understand what challenges we have outside of our communities. When I started, The Purple Hill Group, it was difficult because I had to brand everything alone, build contacts, and create a business plan alone. I self-taught myself everything from building a website to learning different marketing platforms. Starting a podcast was just as difficult. When you work with people, you want to make sure your drive matches their drive. Sometimes you may over exert yourself if the workload isn’t equal. Here I was, learning how-to video and audio edit, all alone. I was up until 4 am on a daily for months, just learning how to better skill sets. I taught myself all of the Adobe creative suites. One thing FAMU SJGC has taught me is to be a triple threat. Learn everything!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
The Purple Hill Group specializes in integrated marketing services. I provide help with branding, digital strategy, public relations, and more. G.R.I.T.S. and the City Podcast is a humorous podcast about two girls raised in the south living in NYC/the city where they give their southern perspective about NYC life from dating, to work to cultural/regional stereotypes.
What were you like growing up?
I was a renaissance woman. I was in everything growing up-band, sports, student government. I was a tomboy, but yet a girlie girl. I played sports all throughout my childhood, and after games, you would see me in heels or a dress. I was considered a leader and a class clown.
Contact Info:
- Website: Thepurplehillgroup.
com - Email: latashaedwards24@gmail.
com - Instagram: purplehillgroup
- Facebook:
gritsandthecitypodcast - Twitter:
gritsandthecitypodcast
Image Credit:
Kelvin Medina @kelviin_96
Kafelly @the.visionist
Jessica @jessicagailsphotography
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