Join us for the Owning It Accountability Challenge 2023 Summer Cohort to fine-tune your personal brand with fellow women and nonbinary creators!

Overview

Personal Brand. You’ve heard the phrase a million times, but what does it mean? And how can your personal brand support your creative work?

Join us for the Summer 2023 Owning It Accountability Challenge where you’ll have an opportunity to fine-tune the trifecta that makes up your personal brand: your website, your social media presence and most importantly, your elevator pitch. 

If selected for the program, you and up to 7 other women and non-binary creators will receive a mentor, access to workshops and expert-led meetings related to elevator pitches, website best practices, social media and a special case study with filmmaker Ellie Foumbi (Our Father, the Devil) who has leveraged her personal brand to get her career to the next level. 

Throughout the month you’ll receive support from a partner going through the challenge with you along with written and verbal feedback from a panel of feedback leaders. Plan to walk away with the tools needed to approach future collaborators and decision makers about not only your projects but you as a creator. 

As this is the pilot for this program, we will only be selecting up to eight (8) fellows to participate. However, just by submitting to the program you will have the opportunity to join the elevator pitch workshop.

DEADLINE TO APPLY IS AUGUST 18!

To officially apply, please pay the submission fee and fill out the application.

TAKEAWAYS:

• Suggested tools and resources to fine tune your website (tools related to best practices for copy and graphics)
• Suggested tools and resources to fine tune social channels (specifically Instagram and LinkedIn)
• Elevator pitch workshop
• Social media workshop
• Small group meetings related to website best practices
• Filmmaker case study

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:

• You are a woman or nonbinary creator. 
• You have an existing website, LinkedIn page, and Instagram page. 
• You have worked on your website, LinkedIn page and Instagram page within the last six months. 
• You have an initial draft of an elevator pitch to showcase your background and current project(s).
• Applicants should have experience creating content. This includes any of:
  • Film and TV Production
  • Podcast Production
  • Small business in film and entertainment (can include production company, entertainment platform, event business, etc)

SELECTED PARTICIPANTS WILL BE NOTIFIED BY AUGUST 28.

Your submission fee goes to support The Owning It program. 

We hope you’ll join us!

Instructors

Rae Benjamin — Mentor

Rae Benjamin is a TV/film writer born in Los Angeles. Her mother encouraged her to write from a young age, compiling booklets of Rae’s short stories to hand out as Christmas gifts each year. This was either super cute or super cheap, depending on which family member you ask. She is currently an executive story editor on THE WITCHER (Netflix) and served as co-writer and co-executive producer for an upcoming animated feature for Netflix. Previously, she was the writer’s assistant on season 1 of BRIDGERTON (Netflix), and the script coordinator OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH (HBOMax). Rae is also the founder and CEO of In the Cut, an educational company that prives education and resources for Black creatives and other people of color interested in the entertainment industry. In the Cut has partnered with companies like Sundance, Final Draft, and more to provide programming for BIPOC writers and filmmakers.

Meghan Ross — Mentor

Seed&Spark

Meghan Ross is the Head of Creator Success at Seed&Spark and previously worked for VICELAND and SundanceTV. She’s also an Austin-based writer/director/comedian who was selected for Women at Sundance Adobe Fellowship, Sundance Episodic Lab, and NewNarratives grant from NewFilmmakers LA & Warner Bros. Discovery’s OneFifty for her half-hour comedy "Here to Make Friends" (also her personal tagline). Her shorts made The New Yorker’s Best Shouts of 2020 list, she was nominated for The Webby Awards, and she hosted the late night show That Time of the Month for 5 years. Most importantly, Meghan’s an aspiring stage mom to her rescue pit-lab, Dreidel.

Moderators

Ellie Foumbi — Case Study Leader

Ellie is a Cameroonian-American filmmaker whose debut film, OUR FATHER, THE DEVIL (2021) premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It went on to win 27 prizes at international film festivals and was nominated for Best Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards. She's a BAFTA Breakthrough USA Fellow and was named one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine. She holds an MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts in Directing.

Malla Haridat — Workshop Leader

Malla Haridat is an award winning entrepreneurship coach/strategist. As the founder of New Designs for Life Training, Malla is a nationally recognized expert on entrepreneurship. She has traveled extensively throughout the United States working in partnership with companies like Verizon, Barnard College and the City of New York developing creative solutions for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Her company was awarded the New York City Small Business Award of the Year and she has presented at conferences including Fast Company, Inc and Black Enterprise. She has been featured in media outlets including The New York Times, Black Enterprise, Inc, Fox Small Business, Huffington Post and ABC.

Chynna Monforte — Website Consultant

Chynna Monforte is the founder of Monforte Studio, a QWOC-owned studio that advocates through design. Monforte empowers underrepresented communities by providing custom websites and authentic branding for entrepreneurs, creatives, and organizations that are invested in radical futures. Chynna brings years of experience in the arts and custom Squarespace builds since 2017. Prior to founding Monforte Studio, Chynna worked in the arts education sector with museums such as Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and The Getty, and non-profits like Self Help Graphics and ArtworxLA.