S7E2 - Cowgirl Camryn

Abriana Johnson44min

Abriana Johnson

00:00

Hey, y'all, and welcome back to another episode of Black in the saddle podcast. You know, I'm really liking this every other week schedule, I'm really liking the fact that you get a chance to let the previous episode marinate. Okay, you get to lick and chew on what was talked about, you could share with your friends talk about it, and you can just let it resonate a little bit before you get hit with another episode. So I'm like, Abriana. Girl, why did you not do this sooner? Ciao. I don't know. Okay. But we're here now. All right, we're here. So today's episode is going to give you a little bit of a glimpse into what I do outside of black in the saddle. Historically, when I when I look back and say, Wow, what am I good at. I have been someone who has built brands and built programs that are designed to bring people together and to impact a particular community. And so it's only natural and it's only right, it's only fitting that I do that with another one of my brands, which is cowgirl Cameron. So in this episode, we're going to talk about my first brand holiday cowgirl Cameron day that happened this past weekend, I'm going to give you a little bit of a glimpse into the back side of that what it took to put that on what it means. And we're going to talk a little bit about some business stuff, because it's not something that I normally talk about on this podcast, I do have a business podcast called the Digital Health print podcast. But in an effort to not hide the my range, okay. And the average to not hide my range. And the other things that I have gone on besides this podcast and building this community, I just want to talk about it a little bit and show you what's what's possible, and how you can go into something and do it unlike anyone else has. Okay, so let's get into this episode. I'm super excited to talk about cargo Cameron day, and to share some other things with you. So let's get it. All right, a few announcements first, you know, just like they do in church, we got any helpful minutes in the beginning, okay, some dates that I want you to keep in mind. On September 6, if you are in our Facebook group, you are, you have access to this information. The black and this adult community is a space for Black Horse men and women to come in and connect. It's a safe space to have conversations to talk through challenges to simply exist in ourselves as ourselves without expectation, or, you know, work, really. So you can find that at black in the saddle.com/f B group if you want to join. But um, September 6,

Abriana Johnson

03:30

is our next fireside chat and still up in the air on a topic or if we're gonna have a topic. So we'll talk about that a little bit in the group. September 30, through October 1 is our first blackness saddle Mita y'all is going to be in Virginia, I'm super excited about this. Not only is it checking something off my bucket list, okay? It's checking off the fact that I have wanted to travel this country, the world meeting with other black horse men and women who simply want to be in community and learn things, learn things about horses, that we simply didn't know, you know, I come from trail rock culture. So it's one thing to just meet as a collective and fellowship and have fun. But I'm also a little bit of a nerd and I really center horses in all of my work. So I want to be able to learn some new things and create experiences that we're not used to having simply because we either don't know about them or don't feel comfortable going by ourselves. So I'm super excited about this meetup. That information is also in the Facebook group. If you are interested in going in the black in the saddle Facebook group is not really the space for you. Feel free to shoot me a message and we can do We can talk about it. Okay. Next winter circle Wednesday, if you check out our Instagram page when a circle Wednesday was lit from last Wednesday. So check it out. We have several people on we did the whole four way Instagram Live. It has a really good conversations about positivity and being intentional about positive self talk in order to actually make progress. So, if you need to pick me up, go, go watch that. Okay, go watch it, play, hit play, and wash dishes or do laundry or whatever you need to do and just tune into what it means. When people come together with common challenges and talk their ways, their way through it together. That's exactly what it was. I want to circle Wednesday this past Wednesday, so I loved it. Thank y'all. Y'all know who you are, who came on when to circle Wednesday. And it happens every Wednesday, eight o'clock on Instagram mob eight o'clock Eastern time. Okay, now that we got announcements out of the way, I want to talk about cowgirl Cameron. If you don't know if you are new, cowgirl Cameron is the children's book series. Or it started off as a children's book series that I published in 2019. During that time, it like right before the pandemic, I was doing a lot of traveling around and reading to kids, I was taking encore. Sometimes I would take encore sometimes I would just go and dress up as a cowgirl. But all of the books that were about cowboys and cowgirls. They really had a historical context. And of course, when we start talking about history, slavery is a giant part of that for black people. So, you know, you you, as someone who gets asked to read the kids, I'm reading to kids that are like, what, like, they don't know about slavery, they're not old enough to understand what's going on. So I said, you know, there should be some books, there should be books, you know, with this identity of a black cowgirl or even have a black cowboy. And it simply show the lifestyle that we live should simply show what we do on a day to day basis, some of the situations that we find ourselves in, even if there's a lesson attached, right? Even if there's a you know, oh, don't judge a book by its cover no bullying, or be resourceful or work together as a team. Those lessons should be able to be learned through the lens of this identity that we are me specifically are so passionate about. And so since I'm you know, just a little bit artiste on the side with my right hand. I, I started

Abriana Johnson

08:33

researching how I can make this happen. And so that's how I began. That's how I began I learned how to be a self published author, I learned what it took to market it. I learned, you know, what it took to like ISBN numbers or ISBN The N stands for number. All this stuff like I just learned this entire world of things that I did not know. And now here we are three books in since 2019. And just having a blast now, this book series transformed a little bit. Okay. I have two family members, they're actually twins once an occupational therapist or not of occupational therapist, a speech language pathologist. The other one is an artist and an art teacher and a makeup artist. And they they took the cargo Cameron book, they took the cargo Cameron book and made lessons out of it. You know, as as a new author, I was like, Oh my gosh, can you guys leave a review on Amazon? So I can like, you know, have some reviews on Amazon. And the speech language pathologist, she's, she was talking about how the use of the, the words and the alliteration, which is like one of my favorite literary things, allowed her students to practice the sound. And she had some students who were really interested in the book, and they were able to make those sounds when they weren't able to before. And so I'm like, crying. Yeah, no, because what, you know, that wasn't intentional. But that's what's happening. Then her twin sister, amazing women, I mean, just her twin sisters and artists, and she posts some pictures of a craft, a craft that her students did with Carol Cameron and the Crazy hair day. And I was like, what? One, like you did a whole crap. So from this book, and at that time, it was only one book. From this book, they were able to extrapolate learning activities that would really solidify this character, the book, the lesson in the kids mind. Now, what are that from, from little me? And this little idea I had in my head that I just made made real. And I was like, Yo, y'all wanna buy this? Wow. And so that got me to thinking. And between that and some of the employment opportunities I've had recently doing experiential education, experiential leadership development, things like that, I realized that I was sitting on something beautiful. Right. And so Carol Cameron has evolved, has evolved. And so now the the mission of it it's not just a book series is a brand. We create immersive and transformational equine innovative learning experiences, using research driven curriculum, play based design, and curated experiences to encourage curiosity and improve the social, emotional, and environmental consciousness of future generations. That is cargo Cameron. Yeah. So you'll have to check out my video on the cargo camera, Instagram, I'll walk through the entire vision for the future for cargo Cameron as the kickoff the GoPro camera week, but I'll get to that in a second.

Abriana Johnson

13:13

So I know you're like, Okay, you know, how is this related to black in the saddle? Well, I want people to understand that we are some of the most creative people on the planet. Black people. All right. We are trend setters, okay, parts of our culture, other cultures take as trends. And then they seem they act like oh, like I'm tired of this trend. Why are y'all still doing this trend? And it's like, but this is our culture. Like same period. My grandma's a period. This is not a teeny bopper, Jin Z type conversation. But starting right now, I want you in this episode to see how you can create an impact through one idea. And it can be all yours and you could do it the way that you want to do it doesn't have to be something that you've seen before. That's alright, we're gonna get into we're gonna get into that a little bit. I don't normally talk about business on here, but you're gonna get me on a soapbox. All right. Guess this podcast isn't so bugs, right? Anyway, it's related to black in the saddle because I you know, with this rebrand and going from young black questions to black in the saddle. There's a little bit of a confirmation to the audience that we already have right to the community that we've already built. This is saying okay, like, we're including everyone. At this point, right before, a lot of people felt like they were not, this was not the space for them. And so in order to still stay in touch with the younger generation, and to kind of have a pulse on that, and still have a way to impact that, I have another brand that does. So between all of the things that I do, I cover a wide spectrum of ages and identities. And Carol Cameron is for the kiddos and for the parents and for the educators and I just love it. I love it. Now, Cabo Cameron day was the anniversary of the first book I publish. Now, going, you know, in the middle of the summer, I was like, you know, I haven't I've done a couple of summer camps, I haven't really been out here hitting the pavement, with encore doing visits and things is really hot. Like, it's just too much. And so I was thinking to myself, What is something like I can celebrate? Like, what is? Are there any, like important dates to cowgirl Cameron, like, what? How can I do something that is just my own, you know, versus going to visit someone else's camp. I'm not trying to do a whole camp. But I want to do something. And so I went into my little portal where I check on my books and things, published new books. And I looked at the date. And this is about June ish. I looked at the date. And the first book was published August 13. So I pull up my calendar, and I'm like, Oh, snap August 13. It's a Saturday, you know, that means that means we can have some fun. Okay. And so I reached out to the library that I've worked with in the past really close, the the librarian is amazing. And I said, you know, would you be interested in hosting the very first cargo Cameron day? She was like, absolutely. And it was a grand old time. I mean, this was like a state of the art library, they have a multipurpose room, they have a giant craft room for the kids. It was, it's beautiful, is beautiful. Now book, the library, and I said, Okay, you know, what are we gonna do? What we're gonna do. So I took some time to think of some different craft ideas and kind of put a little bit of a budget together for what I was willing to spend. Now, as a, as someone who is just now ramping up, you know, going from a hobby to intentional growth,

Abriana Johnson

18:11

I knew that I was going to have to invest a little bit more than I may have been comfortable with. But with the vision that I have, I am fully convinced that all of my investments will go a very long way. And so I knew I wanted to have a professional photographer, professional videographer there. I wanted to invest in really cool experiences, because experiential education is all about what someone remembers and the full body learning of them being in your vicinity. And so I wanted to make it super cool. So we had a few stations, I created two crafts for the kids to do in the craft rooms. And it was a grand old time. Now, the crafts. One of them is a craft that I came up with. It's called the achievement buckle. And so you know, when rodeo competitors, when they likely get a prize buckle for whatever event they did, or whatever the rodeo was something it says what their great achievement was. And so the kids got to write their greatest achievements or their goals for the school year and decorate their buckles and I brought baling twine to put around their the buckle so that they could wear it. Simple, simple, simple craft, but they had a blast. They had a blast decorating it and everybody came in wearing their little buck Those that gave the other craft was a horseshoe decorating craft. So they use different items to decorate their horseshoes. Now, I did not buy horse shoes. I contacted a friend who was a farrier, and she has more shoes, she runs a bar, and she has a bucket overshoots. Okay, they were rusty, I had to clean them, prep them problem. We weren't trying to give anybody tetanus, okay. But I had to prepare them for the kids to be able to decorate. But outside of that I didn't spend anything on them. And so when you are doing things for your own organization, your own program your own business, look for ways to be more resourceful, or to repurpose the things that are around you to create a positive experience for somebody else. Let's see, the vendors that I chose for the different experiences. So we had a photo booth, I like a digital photo booth, as well as the photographer, and they were people, they were black. You know, that was important to me as well, I want someone I want to support my community in building my own vision, right. So I was super excited to be able to find people who were close by and who were really excited about what I had going on. So that was that was exciting. And then the way the day was scheduled, I did a reading read one of my books answered a ton of questions, everyone got to pick on core. And then once it died down, I read another book for any of the stragglers coming in, about an hour later. And then we wrapped up and it was a great time. It was great. Now, it's important for me to, to share a little bit of on the on the business side. Why you should think about if you have a business, or an organization, or you're even a volunteer somewhere, it is so important to establish some sort of holiday or celebration for your program, or event. Or business, sorry, it's so important to figure out a way to bring people together to celebrate your existence, honestly, because when you ask for support throughout the year, you know, you have to spend so much time and energy trying to reach more and more people, especially if you want to do something online, especially if that's your only means of marketing really, and if you're really trying to

Abriana Johnson

23:10

get your name out there, but you don't have a lot of boots on the ground. Okay, so building this community. And creating a space that is celebrating the work that you do will do several things for you. First of all, it'll bring awareness to what you have going on. You can choose to collaborate with other businesses in the area with businesses that are kind of adjacent like not really, in your industry, for example, I am in the horse industry, I collaborated with a library. So you know, is a little bit of a horizontal correlation, but we still were able to support each other. It helps you build community, right? I mean, when you collaborate with people, you get to share the people that they serve in the community that they built, you get to share that exposure. And so you build a community of your own because people are interested and yours collaboration. You get to network with people, there were so many people who were like, hey, I want to introduce you to this person. I want to share this with you, I want you to come out to this school, I want you to connect with this person, that networking potential is infinite. And you just have to be prepared to to follow up and put yourself out there. So that you can have so that you can sustain that growth even after the event is over. And then you can Use this event to have a a charitable arm or a charitable giving capacity. Right. And so I knew I wanted to do this event. But I also wanted to be to give back, right I wanted to, I wanted to celebrate Calico Cameron. But I wanted to give to the people who were coming. It's not like they had to pay to come, but I wanted to be able to give back to them. I wanted to be able to provide some level of support. And that's important for cowgirl Cameron as a brand. That's one of the things that we value the most is this is a mutual exchange. We're here to support you. Right. So, of course, at our first event, we're have to gotta have to incorporate that somehow. So I decided to do a school supply drive. I put up the fact that we were doing the school supply drive. Two weeks before the event. I didn't really have a money goal, but at four days, four days after I posted it, I'd raise $250 Let's see if we can get 500. Okay, I made Oh no, I hadn't made a real yet announced like, okay, we're at $250 Like, this is amazing. Two days later, we're at 500. I'm like, Okay. We have we have over a week until cargo Cameron day. So let me double the goal. I mean, we're, we're at 500 now, so let's make it the goal. 1000 Made it 1000. I made a whole reel on on Instagram. And I was like, okay, hey, guys, we made 500 We're going to double our goal. Thank you so much. And by the time I posted the real, y'all, we were at 750. I said, Okay, well, I worked hard on that. Let me just tell the people that that, you know, no longer accurate. I was so thankful. But I have really worked hard on that. And so by the day that I was school supply shopping, we had raised $1,085 for school supplies, that was an entire cart full of school supplies. And we were able to give them away school supplies and backpacks able to give them away at Calico Cameron day. I was floored, I was floored at the fact that I just had this idea.

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