Sep 18, 20205 min read

MEET JADA RENEE: CEO OF INDI MEDIA

Jada, tell us a little more about how you started INDI Media & INDI Music Group?

The story is still in motion for sure, but for the most part the "INDI" brand stands for “Individuality” and we are a creative platform for musicians and entrepreneurs to develop their brands via creative marketing strategies and marketing opportunities.

We have three tiers to the brand: INDI Media, INDI Music Group, and the INDI clothing line.

As a kid, I was always into art and music, I wouldn't say I was ever interested in being a musician per say but music was definitely always around me thanks to my mom.

I grew up listening to several types of music from Maxwell ,The GAP Band, Bone Thugs N Harmony, Biggy, Tupac, Mob Deep, Jamiroquai, Alanis Morissette, Anita Baker, Phyllis Hyman, and Dionne Faris.

I was a fanatic for BET’s Access Granted, Word Up Magazine, and MTV Cribs so all of 90’s hip hop culture definitely helped guide my creative interests.

Everything in terms of the creation of the INDI brand started during my time in college at Kent State University.

I was granted the opportunity to travel abroad to South Africa, Johannesburg my sophomore year through an outside nonprofit organization called, “The KENO Foundation” based in Atlanta.

The trip awarded ten students to travel to Johannesburg for three weeks to learn about business development and the economic opportunities of South Africa.

During my time in Africa with the KENO Foundation, we participated in several workshops geared towards business development.

For one of the workshop activities we had to complete a mock business plan for a potential business that we wanted to create and the creative ideas for INDI started flowing.

We were told that our business plan could be modeled after our personal interests and hobbies, my hobbies have always involved mixed media, music, fashion, and the arts so I feel that my brand name and concept came to me in that moment.

I first started to network with friends and students at my college by creating a clothing line for the brand self titled, “INDI” while also finding ways to promote the clothing.

I ended up throwing college house parties, and artist networking events at local bars and art galleries in downtown Kent, Ohio.

I would work with my friends to collaborate with musicians and artists at my college and surrounding universities to do local shows for artists and this eventually led to the INDI brand creating overall opportunities for artists and entrepreneurs outside of Ohio.

After doing a few shows our merchandise ended up on "Syd the Kid" from The Internet Band during their "Ego Death" album tour.

This was the first thing that sparked momentum for the INDI brand and we began to receive notoriety amongst the mainstream indie artist scene in music.

I chose to live in Houston for a few summers to develop more of the music foundation of the brand.

I connected with several Houston artists and created ways to expand the brand and this led me to connecting with my first artist, “Aphiniti” when I arrived back home in Cleveland.

I connected with Aphiniti after her classic freestyle with 'Sway in The Morning' back in 2015.

We instantly started to build and find ways to work together to advance our journey in music in the independent artist industry .

We started creating brand concepts and project ideas for Aphiniti which led to INDI managing and booking shows while doing event planning and brand management for a few art organizations in Cleveland.

After a few years, we were granted the opportunity to have Aphiniti collaborate on a social justice music project with the Late Great Nipsey Hussle and two Cleveland organizations by launching a music video campaign, social justice panel, and live performance.

This spearheaded a lot of momentum for the INDI brand under the Music umbrella.

So, I started to apply what I learned from event planning for the art organizations into developing branding and strategy plans for artists including overall ways to help artists develop and advance in the independent artist industry.

This involved the development of our first independently booked artist tour out of Los Angeles featuring Aphiniti and Cleveland artist Peachcurls, more booking opportunities for artists and press opportunities in order to brand our artists properly.

What does INDI Media & INDI Music Group provide for independent artists?

INDI Media provides all media marketing services for creative entrepreneurs and art organizations such as graphic design, event planning, social media marketing, and brand strategy while INDI Music Group is the official record label under the INDI brand.

IMG offers music marketing services for musicians along with artist development, artists management, and

artist booking services for independent artists.

You are a very accomplished entrepreneur! What would you say to aspiring entrepreneurs who look up to your incredible work?

Thank You!

I appreciate that I would say that patience, planning, and strategy are the three keys to entrepreneurship that I have mastered so far.

I'm growing everyday in my craft however, those three things will make or break any entrepreneur.

Patience is needed as the fuel to drive in the race to chase your dreams because without it you can start to seek instant gratification and attract ego based comparisons to yourself or your brand.

It is good to know that everyone’s journey in entrepreneurship is personal to them, so patience serves as your friendly reminder of that.

Planning is how your ideas will get put in motion because without the plan you will have no idea what you are looking to execute with your dream.

You must have a motive for your dream or else you will chase things outside of yourself to validate what you think is necessary to be successful instead of what is best for your personal growth.

Lastly strategy is the most important, one must have strategy in business in order to know the route one wishes to take to the success they wish to seek.

Your execution strategy will serve as your resume for how well you can do in the business world.

Do you have anything new or upcoming we can expect to see from you?

Yes!

We actually have an event featuring our artist Aphiniti for RADD Ohio, an arts organization based in Columbus, Ohio focused on initiatives for driving under the influence.

Aphiniti will be premiering a few singles from her latest album, “Fountainhead”.

We also have a show in Atlanta lined up for Aphiniti on October 29th where she will also be premiering songs from her latest album.

We have another artist, Reco Bandz who will also be released on a Spotify playlist sponsored by Hip Hop artist “The Game” later this month for his single, “Mistake by the Lake”.