Meme bestie of the Month January 2023

You guys remember meme bestie Mondays? These were great but way too hard to keep up with. So instead I will be doing meme bestie of the month. This will be a combination of a blog post and a live (maybe, let’s see how I feel) where I highlight a meme bestie that I believe has something wonderful to share. Our first meme bestie of the month is my dear friend Kevon Foderingham of Trinidad. Kevon and I met through his creative NGO East Yard where he launched the Caribbean Fashion and Arts Film Festival (from which we were subsequently banned because we kept winning in clean sweeps each year). These short films done together with Fiona Compton formerly of Paradise Prints and now more known for her Know Your Caribbean Page on Instagram, were definitely during my glory days when so much was going on! Our first winning piece was a documentary on our experience and the Caribbean Fashion Week in 2015. You can find it here on You tube! Kevon even flew to St Lucia to hand us our award, and being the mover and shaker that he is ended up having a whole ceremony at the Ministry of Creative Industries with the PS and a film crew to do so! Good times… We’ve remained good friends ever since.

Now I had mentioned in a previous blog post, that I had lost my love of creating. This sent me down a dark hole and left me quite disinterested in the brand for quite some time. Once you lose site of your ‘why’ you resort to doing things ‘will nilly’ or ‘any ol’ a-how’ as we would say in St. Lucia. A few things led me back to my focus including my New Year’s Day reset, but I believe the main catalyst was my dear friend Kevon Foderingham’s book, “Things I learnt in my 30’s“. Now if you know me you know that if a friend makes something, sells something, does something, I support whole heartedly. I happily pre-ordered his book when he made his announcement and like any normal 40 year old, I promptly forgot about it. As I continued on my 12 books for the year reading journey and ran out of book towards the end of the year, I turned on my kindle to see if I could cop a free book. And there it was, my friend’s book that I forgot about. It was an easy read, could read it in maybe a day or 2, so I thought this would be an easy addition my 12 book goal.

To be honest I had zero clue what this book was about, I bought it to support and assumed it was merely musings on his 30 years of life. Well, to my surprise it was way more than that. It was musings, poems, art and a life story that forced you to also take a deep dive into the things you learnt along the way. The book made you think, and question your own motives. It had worksheets and exercises to prompt you to reconnect with your creative soul and find your why.

When I was done, I kicked myself a few times, for several reasons. The obvious was because I didn’t read the book sooner. The not so obvious was because Kevon had recently visited DC and held a branding workshop. My arrogant self didn’t think this was for me, being an established brand and all *insert eye roll here* but in retrospect this was the very thing I needed! I quickly called Kevon and asked for an online consultation and always the professional, he was ready to listen, understand and advise. It was like business therapy! He made me realize that how I was feeling was normal and that after 12 years any brand is due for a refresh. He gave me some solid tips, which birthed ideas such as my Weekly Fives, as well as to remind me that meme bete is about the people behind the brand as much as it is about our products.

I do think though that I read the book at the right time. I’m not sure if I had read it earlier, if I would have been able to absorb the message so well. For those of you who follow me on Instagram did you see a shift towards the end of the year? Did you see my non stop Christmas creations? I hadn’t created this much since Covid Lockdown, and it felt GOOD! I have to say that Things I learnt in my 30’s was a life changer for me. I would like to encourage anyone, you don’t need to be a creative, just anyone looking to establish their own personal brand to give this one a read. And it’s for this reason that Kevon Foderingham is our meme bestie of the month for January!! And yes I know it’s February lol, I will be better next month I promise!