Business - Page 4

Photo Credits: Ariel H. and The Fresh Faces Project

Calynn M. Lawrence, the newly crowned Miss United States Universe Tourism 2021, is the 25-year-old CEO of the Calynn Communications & Creative corporation. The firm not only services clients such as Chick-fil-A and various Fashion Weeks, but it owns her nonprofit initiative, The Fresh Faces Project, that has helped almost 500 small businesses and talents with free and discounted PR and marketing services. They offer them services such as being featured on the publications owned by the firm like What’s Good Weekly, Icons In The Now and Millionaires In The Making and their numerous partnered publications. They also offer local participants the chance to be interviewed on their 5-star rated web series “Chicago Talent” and featured as cast members, and the chance to be honored at the annual Fresh Faces Project awards free of charge.

Despite her age, being but a few years out of college, she has a decade of work experience doing progressive levels of marketing, creative and communications. Having started her career as a fashion retail intern at the Nordstrom mall in downtown Chicago at 15, she’s come a long way from fetching garments, cashiering and doing the occasional advertising assignment. At this point in her career, she’s worked with every kind of brand “from artists to attorneys” and has garnered 17 awards for her work. Some of them include 4 Chicago Oscars, 4 Virtual Visionary Awards, the National Community Service Leadership Award, Woman of the Year and the Alumni Achievement Award given to her by her primary school alma mater where she graduated as Valedictorian in 2010 after she gave the 2018 commencement speech. 

Education wise she has a stack of post-secondary diplomas. She has a degree in Business and Art, along with college certificates in various areas of marketing and advertising. Most recently in 2020, she completed three professional certificates from Harvard Business School Online through their HarvardX program in Persuasive Communications, Leadership and Entrepreneurship. 

She’s using her knowledge and education to benefit startups and stars in the making by giving them the fundamentals of digital marketing, public relations and social media in her new course launch “How To Master Marketing, The Media and The Masses: The First Wave!” The course will go over the basics of everything you need for a well rounded marketing and P.R. strategy as someone who’s just starting out or struggling with building your brand and gaining a fan base. And, it will be priced at a significantly lower rate than market average to “expand the pool of potential people that it can help.” In addition to this, patrons will receive a certificate of completion and a free P.R. service offer from her firm! The best part of the course is that at least 20 percent of the proceeds are going towards funding her nonprofit efforts through The Fresh Faces Project. It’s set to launch in just a few days and she will be regularly updating her social media on its progress.

When asked about her goals with the course, she had the following to say:

“I want this course to be able to assist as many people as possible. It took me years to finally compose a digital product that would be a go-to for so many of the small businesses, artists and professionals that I work with because I wanted it to be great. I have this mantra that I live by, ‘Each one reach one and teach one.’ And, I used to do this through mentoring and youth leadership as a teenager, then through blogging and being an editor at lots of up-and-coming publications, then through coaching and consulting. Now, I finally have a tool that can be a valuable resource to so many individuals and organizations, far more than I ever could have before. Because now this product allows me to work one-to-many, not just one-to-one. I don’t have a specific sales goal because getting rich from this course was never the goal, hence why it’s priced drastically cheaper than courses of similar value. But, I do have an impact goal: that this course benefits everyone who buys it, and that it inspires them to grow their companies or their fan bases to the levels they deserve.”

When asked about her goals in life, she said the following:

“In life, I would like to help as many people, touch as many hearts and impact as many lives as I can through my work. By the age of 35, I’d love to be a full time humanitarian and focus the majority of my time doing nonprofit work to better the community. How I get there doesn’t really matter. In my personal life, I’d love to be able to financially support my parents someday and other relatives too because my family is so incredibly encouraging to me and I’m very grateful. I’d also love to fall in love and find a long-term partner who was on the same page as me. Someone where we could build a legacy together, support each other’s dreams, and raise a family together. Just like with my career, I’m not super picky about how that occurs either. I’m trying to keep my mind as open as possible when it comes to my long term goals because you never know how things will come about. He could be a Black man or a Latino man who’s a super educated, white-collar executive. Or he could be a White guy or an Asian guy who’s blue-collar and maybe was a young father who didn’t get a chance to secure that degree but he’s a hard working family man. Or he could be somewhere in between. Whatever the case, I’m just looking forward to the joy in my heart that comes from a solid, steady, love-filled relationship.”

There’s no question about it that Calynn M. Lawrence is a die-hard, dramatically driven young woman who we’re sure will tackle her goals in business and her personal life! This nontraditional beauty queen is lovely in appearance, and in spirit. As a “Supergirl” of Small Business P.R., she’s dominating the industry as one of the biggest advocates for people living their dreams and pursuing their passions!

Visit her website to learn more:

www.caycomcreate.com