Mediaboss Marketing

By Mary Kate Brogan

Once we met, we were inseparable, Jackson said. We were always togetherthroughout school, birthday parties, family events, things like thatuntil life took us apart.

The friends made time to get together through collegeMason at Virginia Commonwealth University, Jackson at University of Marylandmarriages, motherhood, careers, promotions, even Jacksons first big move from Richmond to Pittsburgh. But when a new opportunity meant Jackson would need to move to Las Vegas, the two realized they needed a new strategy to broaden their social circles, Mason said.

We ended up having a conversation about friendships as adults, how difficult it is to make friends as an adult, said Mason, who graduated from VCU in 2015 with a B.S. in psychology from theCollege of Humanities and Sciencesand a B.S.W. from theSchool of Social Work. When youre a kid, you just go out to the playground and you play with whoevers outside. As an adult, its a totally different thing.

The traditional networking events Mason and Jackson tried werent quite as fun and easygoing as theyd hoped, so they took to social media to share their dilemmaand see if anyone wanted to get brunch. After booking a brunch in Los Angeles and another in Richmond with rapidly growing guest lists, Mason said, we realized we were on to something. The response from others having a hard time making connections was huge, she said.

People were just coming out of everywhere, like, What are you doing? How are you doing this? We need that inourcity. How can we bring that here? Mason said. We quickly learned that we were not the only people feeling that way.

Tips from Lillian Jackson and Melissa Mason, co-founders of Brown Skin Brunchin, for fostering personal and professional connections where you are:

The pair foundedBrown Skin Brunchin, a platform and app (available on theApp StoreandGoogle Play) geared toward encouraging women from minority backgrounds to connect and build relationships over brunch. Since those first brunches in 2018, Jackson and Mason have expanded Brown Skin Brunchin to 71 cities with nearly 25,000 members in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean and thousands of followers onFacebook,InstagramandTikTok.

People come in theyre a little nervous at first sometimes but by five minutes in, you would never know that these people did not know each other, Mason said. Weve had complete strangers that are now lifelong friends, traveling with each other, doing stuff outside of brunch. Its great to see how bringing people together in that environment where they feel comfortable, how quickly people hit it off and just make new friends, make new connections, whether it be personal or professional.

Creating a welcoming environment for women of color has been a major focus for the founders of Brown Skin Brunchin.

Its geared toward women of color, and in communities of color its often more difficult to kind of interact and be open and not have to think about what it is youre doing all the time, said Mason, who cited her studies at VCU in helping her understand the impact building a community can have. My education and background helped me with getting people to a point where they feel comfortable. (At our events) people can come and be free. Theyre themselves. They can speak with someone who may understand what theyre going through as a person of color.

In addition to helping others feel more at ease in a new situation, Mason said meeting people where they are, without preset expectations, is a lesson that applies to Brown Skin Brunchin from her studies at VCU, student internships in social work and psychology, and career using her degree in social work. The skills she developed outside the classroom, too, have served her well as she has balanced working full time and raising her kids while she and Jackson have built their business across two time zones.

When I was a student at VCU, I had two school-age children. I was a double major. I was doing two internships at a time, and I was also working, said Mason, who also served as a student leader in theBachelor of Social Work Student AssociationandStudents Today Alumni Tomorrow. That, in and of itself, if you dont learn how to multitask and manage your time in a situation like that, you wont make it. So you have to figure out how to adjust, figure out what works best for you, figure out routines that work best for you and your family.

That time management, paired with her strong friendship with Jackson, has made building Brown Skin Brunchin easier, though certainly not easy, Mason said with a laugh. Jackson agreed and encouraged students and recent grads, if they want to build a business, to pursue their ideas, big or small.

Never in a million years did I think that we could do something around brunch, which is something that we both love, Jackson said. Find your passion and go for it.

Subscribe to VCU News at newsletter.vcu.edu and receive a selection of stories, videos, photos, news clips and event listings in your inbox.

Originally posted here:
For VCU alum and 25000 others using her platform, meaningful connections start with brunch - VCU News