Rakia Reynolds is regarded as one of the most sought-after minds in strategic communications. So it’s no surprise that she was one of the honorees at the New York Women in Communications (NYWICI) 54th Annual Matrix Awards celebrating women writing their own rules and breaking the status quo. Reynolds, along with her fellow 2024 Honorees: Singer and actress Kristin Chenoweth, Editor-in-Chief of ELLE Nina Garcia, Chief Executive Officer of The New York Times Company Meredith Kopit Levien, CMO of H&R Block Jill Cress, CEO of the Americas, BBDO Nancy Reyes, and Global Head of Communications, Citi, Jennifer Lowney graced the stage as the accepted their awards with inspiring speeches.
As the founder and executive officer of Skai Blue Media, Rakia Reynolds has made a mark with her unique style of creative thinking and strategy. I sat down with her for a chat at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Midtown Manhattan and she talked about her approach to storytelling and her journey to where she is today.
Congratulations on your 2024 Matrix Award. It must feel great to be recognized as an industry leader who has achieved success by writing their own rule and breaking the status quo. Can you share a pivotal moment in your career where you took a bold risk that ultimately led to significant success or change in direction in your career?
To give context, I graduated from school after studying to be a counseling psychologist. So I was working in the world of mental health very early on when it wasn’t as widely spoken about. It caused me to think about things a lot differently. In trying to figure out who I was, I shifted careers and became a TV producer for TLC, MTV, and Discovery Health. I learned so much and I am so grateful for my TV career, but I was laid off.
After getting laid off, It felt like the rug was pulled from underneath me and I knew I never wanted that to happen to me again. That was when I designed my destiny of becoming an entrepreneur. I said, “I’m going to take all of the things that I love, film and television and storytelling, and psychology, and mix it all into one and create a digital communications agency”. So that period of tension was a setback that was a setup for a great comeback, and my comeback was becoming an entrepreneur.
The 2024 Matrix Award Honorees: Kristin Chenoweth, EMMY® and TONY® Award Winning Actress and Singer, Nina Garcia, Editor-in-Chief, ELLE, Hearst Magazines, Meredith Kopit Levien, President, and Chief Executive Officer, The New York Times Company, Jill Cress, Chief Marketing & Experience Officer, H&R Block, Rakia Reynolds, Founder / Executive Officer, Skai Blue Media, Nancy Reyes, CEO of the Americas, BBDO and Jennifer Lowney, Global Head of Communications, Citi.
You often talk about the non-linearity of your career. How do you embrace that?
You know, very early on in life, before our prefrontal cortex is fully formed, we are forced to make decisions on who we are going be for the next 10 or 20 years, and for me, I didn’t want to be just one thing. Maybe I wanted to work in education or work in psychology. I am the type of person that learns by actually doing the thing. So I got an editor job for Marie Claire, I wrote some articles for Forbes, and I produced television shows. I decided to do all of the things that bring me joy. I always asked myself, “What can I do that makes me want to wake up before my alarm clock?” And that’s how I measure things. What are the things that make me wake up before my alarm clock? What are the things that make me super excited? I’ve live on that alone and my gut and intuition. I do the things that bring me joy. I do the things that intrinsically motivate me and I don’t act based on extrinsic motivation.
As a creative strategist, you’re often referred to as “one of the most sought-after minds in strategic communications”. How has your creative thinking and leadership style evolved over the years? What new strategies have you adopted to stay effective and relevant in an industry that is changing constantly?
I think this new world of storytelling is quite interesting. We’ve come from this world of omnichannel storytelling where you tell one story in the same way on all of the platforms because you want all eyes on it and get the widest distribution. One of the things that the Beyonce Renaissance Tour taught us was that we’re now in the world of transmedia storytelling. Transmedia storytelling is essentially taking something you want people to consume, to believe in, and to feel, but talking about it differently in different channels. If I text it to you, I’m gonna say it differently. If I have it on a billboard, it’ll be translated differently. If you read it in a magazine or as user-generated content across the verticals of social media, it’ll be different. So I think transmedia storytelling is the new storytelling because our brains are changing and we have lower attention spans. And so telling great stories in different ways with one overarching narrative, but in different mediums that meet people where they are.
Rakia Reynolds and Daughter Skai
As a trendsetter in this industry, where do you see the industry going in the next 10 years?
It depends on what part of the industry. I think that we’re going into these spaces where campfire discussions should be focused. From the events that you go to and the ways that you communicate, smaller is actually greater and better. So having more curatorial approaches in the way that you build rooms, the way that you write stories, the way that you even curate your social media feed. It’s gonna be smaller, condensed, more high quality, more high impact, and with less noise. It’s cutting out all of the noise. The way we’re moving right now in experiential marketing and experiences in storytelling is smaller curated conversations. Smaller stories with higher impact, whether it’s the way that you curate your social media feeds, how you’re filling rooms to how you’re bringing and convening communities. This is why messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp exist really well. This is why more people are using Snapchat for dating. People want to have more private, concentrated, curatorial experiences and approaches to their everyday life.
Ziegfeld Ballroom