About Me

My entrepreneurial spirit emerged at a young age through one of my favorite classes in elementary school: economics. I always saw it as a puzzle, and I loved puzzles! These classes led me to want to find ways to make my own money, so I would sell snacks to my classmates, which led to me funding many of my hobbies, including thrifting. Thrifting is when I got into the world of marketing. It was my business, after all! I learned how to run social media pages, strategize ways to find new ways to sell my items or find new suppliers for more coveted clothing/shoes, and research trends and ways to stand out from others. It was a fun business to run and a hobby I hope to return to soon. My high school teachers heard about my business and suggested that I go to college to study marketing. I thought about it and decided to go to school for marketing to help small businesses and non-profit organizations with their marketing needs. In my senior year of high school, I decided to head to Virginia Commonwealth University to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Marketing: Product and Brand Management.

VCU was the perfect fit for me. I enjoyed that the campus coexisted with Downtown Richmond. Attending school in the city gave me a lot of life experience, and Richmond is a great city for entrepreneurs and small businesses, so I knew my skills would be useful here. For example, I would help promote events around the city or shows around the city. I also got to network with some small business owners to learn how they handle marketing. These conversations helped shape my interest in assisting small businesses and non-profits. Knowing what I wanted to do led me to want to share my passion with others and hopefully inspire them to take advantage of and give back to the community where they were also attending university. This inspiration led me to become the president of a marketing organization called Collegiate DECA at VCU. Here, I wanted students to see the evolution of small businesses in the Richmond area and learn how we could help with what we’ve learned in school.

At VCU, I took classes on :

• Graphic Design (Adobe Creative Cloud)

• Marketing Analytics (SEO, Social Media Analytics, Tableau, Google Analytics)

• Digital Marketing (Google Ads, Social Media Management, UX / UI Design, Search Engine Marketing, PPC)

• International Marketing

• Integrated Marketing Communications

Once I graduated from VCU, I began working at 5&1 Consulting Group. 5 & 1 Consulting Group was a digital marketing agency, and we worked with just about anybody in any industry. Some of my favorite clients included an internet service provider, a celebrity tattoo artist, and a few musicians. Though I was the lead digital strategist for most of my time there, I started in sales. After a couple of weeks of being on the sales floor, I would go to marketing meetings and add my input on projects being discussed. My boss decided to give me a shot to be on the marketing team. After a couple of months and having a few successes with the clients I was made the lead digital strategist. Here I was in charge of communication with clients, Google Analytics, Google Ads, Social Media Management, Copywriting, Web Design, SEO, and overall strategy for 5&1 Consulting Group and Clients.

After my time at 5&1 Consulting Group, I ended up going down the IT route at Christopher Newport University as a Web Content Assistant. This position granted me more experience in editing and copywriting for universities. This position fell under the office of Communications and Public Relations so I got to sit in on some of their digital strategy meetings to get familiar with the marketing and language used around the university. In addition to working on the public site and the faculty/staff site, I was in charge of the university’s event calendar, Localist.

Now I am back in Richmond, looking for opportunities both for a career and/or freelance. If you are in the Richmond area and are requiring assistance in Marketing (mainly digital marketing) please reach out to me through email (deejacksondigital@gmail.com) or through the form below!