Background information:

Where are you from? 

I grew up in Clarksville, TN.  I grew up as an Army brat and lived in three other small military towns.

What do you do? How did this “role” come about? How are you best known by others?

I help people turn their life’s lemons into lemonade.  By sharing my story of 100 interviews in an 8 month period and tips to navigating our careers and life with content on BrittneyOliver.com, to creating a safe space for Millennials to come together and talk about life’s lemons in an event series I created.  After sharing my story of struggling to enter a career in PR after graduating and what I learned from that experience, I discovered that I wasn’t alone. Other people were or had experienced the same thing and I wanted to keep the conversation going and create a community where people feel supported while they are going through life’s lemons.  From there I created the Lemons 2 Lemonade blog and started the event series for real-time face to face engagement with people we see shining on social media, but at the L2LMixers they get to share how they overcame their lemons.

Did you attend college and/or have formal training in your respective field or industry? If so, please elaborate on the year you graduated and from what institution.

I graduated as one of the top students in PR from Howard in 2011.  I was slated to be a rising star in the field, but when I moved to NYC that all changed.  Little did I know I would go through 100 interviews in an 8 month period before getting a job that I was under-employed for.  It took me two years to finally enter the PR industry full-time, but during that time I kept true to my goals and found opportunities to consult and freelance until I had my breakthrough.  

What factors of your upbringing influenced your career goals? 

I loved to write as a child and loved magazines, so I applied for a Journalism class in high school and later became the newspaper editor.  I also had a love for event planning and community organizing which I did as class president for two years. During that time MTV had a reality show called, PR Girls and I thought it displayed a combination of two things I enjoyed.  That’s what made me want to pursue public relations.

How long have you been in this career? What did you do previously?

I’m no longer in this field full-time.  I consult, but my passion is content creation.  After realizing the traditional PR career wasn’t for me, I moved on to marketing but with this economy and the insecurity of the job market, I realized that you always need another source of income. So I started to freelance write and find contributing opportunities to have another stream of income, but to also find another outlet to share the stories of people of color and their career and entrepreneurial triumphs to larger platforms.

What long-term goals do you have? What steps are you currently taking in this direction?

I never imagined I would be an entrepreneur but here I am building a brand. I’m looking to continue to build L2L to something that reaches people nationally and globally.  I’m focused on finding new ways to push out content and to bring the L2L Mixers to other cities.

Tell us about your social media presence. Do you use it in your line of work? Why or why not, is it important in your day-to-day responsibilities, platform or career?

Social media is a way to engage with people and share content. It’s definitely an important tool that I use to tell people about new blog posts, to share what inspires me and to announce new mixers.

Which public figures, role models and or historical figure shaped your goals as a child and in adulthood? Any that embodies your personal values?

Oprah has been someone who inspires me, but so has Michelle Obama. Seeing black women reach high levels of success and stay graceful when life’s lemons are thrown their way inspires me. They are the epitome of class and set the example of what being intentional in life really means.

What does it mean to you to be a millennial? How do you share that with others in your life, those you meet and with your peers?