01.26.2022
Bonus Episode: Summer Terry, Program Success Manager at Base Beauty Creative Agency
Summary
She was determined to achieve her goals, and that she did. Summer Terry, Program Success Manager at Base Beauty, believes that anything can be achieved with enough tenacity, passion, and bold self-confidence. Very often, life requires you to be your own biggest cheerleader!
Transcript
| Announcer | Welcome to Where Brains Meet Beauty®, hosted by Jodi Katz, founder and creative director of Base Beauty Creative Agency. |
| Jodi Katz | Hi Carey. |
| Carey Channing | Good morning Jodi. How are you doing? |
| Jodi Katz | I am so jazzed for our podcast. |
| Carey Channing | I know. There's just too much going on and it's too exciting, and I think we should dive right in to telling our listeners why we are so excited. |
| Jodi Katz | First of all, we're excited to bring you this bonus episode featuring Summer Terry. She's a program success manager at Base Beauty. She is so inspiring and you're just going to love getting to know her. Then on top of that, we have oodles and oodles of milestones to announce. Carey, why don't you give us some of them? |
| Carey Channing | Okay. It's like the club sound. All right. We are starting our 15th anniversary year at Base Beauty Creative Agency. This year marks the fifth year of Where Brains Meet Beauty podcast. It also happens to line up perfectly that we are launching our 200th episode very shortly. Kicking us off is Dr. Shah, who many of you might have seen on TikTok or Instagram. He is so entertaining and so informative, so having him as the first guest is very exciting. Then we are launching a Where Brains Meet Beauty podcast book. We can't even get into that now, but it's coming soon, stay tuned. Then the final thing is we are doing YouTube live, which means these episodes instead of just getting to hear them, now you have the opportunity to watch them on YouTube live as they're happening, as we're recording, and get to see these conversations in video form. |
| Jodi Katz | I am so excited that Dr. Shah is going to be our 200th guest. He's a dermatologist who just makes skin care so fun and entertaining. I've watched so many of his videos and I feel like I know him. But I don't know him yet, and you're going to get to know him when I get to know him, which is during our YouTube live this month. So please tune in for that, mark your calendars. It's going to be so fun to watch the podcast in real-time on YouTube live. The other thing Carey that we should mention, is that we're moving the show to a quarterly theme. Our first quarter's theme for the year is technology. So all of our guests this quarter will be tied to beauty and wellness technology. Then our second quarter's theme is sustainability. So all those guests in the second quarter will be tied to beauty and wellness sustainability. We're giving our listeners a chance to really focus and dive deep into these themes and categories, and learn about more people in our industry. |
| Carey Channing | So we just gave you a lot of information, do not worry. If you follow us on Instagram at Where Brains Meet Beauty podcast we have behind the scenes, we have everything coming up, giveaways, fun, fun content, that way you don't miss that on anything. We also share all of this on LinkedIn. You can follow Jodi on her personal profile, on the Base Beauty Creative Agency profile. Then lastly, if you're not as familiar with YouTube, just find us search engine Where Brains Meet Beauty podcast. There is a little subscribe button in the top right hand corner, and then they make it even easier by putting a bell and you click that and you get notifications for when we're going live. Everything is right at your fingertips. |
| Jodi Katz | Yes. As we embark in this YouTube live world, we really recommend that you subscribe to the channel and sign up for notifications, that way you'll never miss one of our live events and they're going to be super fun. Let's talk about Summer. |
| Carey Channing | Yes. Summer is the epitome of work-life balance. I love that you always celebrate what people do outside of the work day. I don't want to give it away I want our listeners to tune in, but she has a very cool side business side hustle, on top of all the work that she does at Base Beauty. So let's just roll the episode and share Summer Terry with everyone. |
| Jodi Katz | I'm so excited to be able to share someone who I get to work with every day as our next guest. Her name is Summer Terry, and she is Base Beauty's program success manager. We're going to have so much fun talking about career journey with Summer. I'd like to welcome Summer to the show. |
| Summer Terry | Thank you Jodi for having me. |
| Jodi Katz | It's so great to see you here Summer. |
| Summer Terry | It's so great to see you. I'm excited for this and what we're about to discuss. |
| Jodi Katz | Well, I want to start with what's on your wall behind you, because we both have a lot of art behind us. I got a peek of some of the art and I'd love to know more about it. |
| Summer Terry | I just have some, let me see if I can lift this up. Just some pictures of women, I guess you could say outlining. I didn't want actual faces just like outlining of African American women just on my walls. Just like a reflection of me walking through life as a fashionable woman and then a younger version of me. |
| Jodi Katz | I love it. Well behind me I have a lot of Disney World art. |
| Summer Terry | I love it. |
| Jodi Katz | I love vintage Disney posters. |
| Summer Terry | Thank you. |
| Jodi Katz | So Summer the question that I love asking my guest makes me so happy, and we're going to go back in time together. If we go back and we meet 10 year old Summer, what do you want to be when you grow up? |
| Summer Terry | Oh wow. When I was 10 years old, I actually wanted to be a choreographer. I went to a performing arts elementary school, and I took tap, jazz and ballet. All I wanted to do was dance, I couldn't stay still. I was in all recital shows I even did talent shows. So I definitely wanted to be a performer. |
| Jodi Katz | For how long did you pursue dancing? |
| Summer Terry | I think that stopped when I entered into middle school. I think because my school, my elementary school had the program within the school. Once I got to middle school, I didn't take those classes anymore, so that's where that ended. |
| Jodi Katz | Well, I guess as a program success manager you are doing a lot of different types of dance all day long, as you move from client to client and brand to brand. So there might be some symmetries in that childhood passion with what you're doing right now. |
| Summer Terry | Yes the handoff. |
| Jodi Katz | I know what you do every day and you make magic happen, but you have a side hustle that I really would love to talk about, which is that you make handcrafted wigs. Tell us about that side hustle? |
| Summer Terry | Yes. I make custom lace wigs, I style them. I take the raw materials of the hair on a basic wig cap and I hand stitch them onto the wig cap, according to people's head measurements. Then I also saw them. So I cut color, curl, crimp, whatever style you want I create it from raw materials. |
| Jodi Katz | So can you give a shout out to that business so people can find you on Instagram? |
| Summer Terry | Yes. My business is Society LaFemme and is Society LaFemme on Instagram, www.societylafemme.com. |
| Jodi Katz | If you follow Summer on Instagram you'll see the magic of her wig making. It's not just the making that's amazing to me, but the styling. What you're able to do with the same raw materials and get a completely different outcome is incredible. |
| Summer Terry | It's really therapy for me because it's really relaxing. One of my friends made fun of me, because she was over at my house one day and she was watching me do like barrel curls with a curling iron on a wig. She said, "I've never seen someone curl hair with so much passion." Because it's really relaxing for me. |
| Jodi Katz | I love it, and I love that so many of our team members do have side hustles. I love celebrating those side hustles and that passion. I really believe that we're all meant to be dynamic, creative, multi-talented people. I know many of us have worked in businesses and companies where that was squashed, or you had to be really secretive about it. I just love at our company that we honor each other's side hustles and celebrate them. |
| Summer Terry | I love that at Base Beauty you can show up as your full self, like you said, I don't have to hide that part of me. I can embrace it, celebrate it, talk about it. It's celebrated with my coworkers and my team so I love that. |
| Jodi Katz | So Summer let's talk about your career journey, because you've been at other agencies. Let's start with what was your first job? |
| Summer Terry | Oh, in general? Because I've had a lot of jobs. |
| Jodi Katz | Yeah that's even like as a teenager. |
| Summer Terry | Wow, so my first job was actually McDonald's now that I think about it. I worked the drive through at McDonald's in my neighborhood for about two weeks. I've worked at Auntie Anne's pretzels, I actually really loved- |
| Jodi Katz | Wait, wait, wait let's pause. Why only two weeks at McDonald's? |
| Summer Terry | I don't know I couldn't... It was weird, I didn't like it. It wasn't for me and the hours were late. I guess it was also it was after school, so the hours were late. But Auntie Anne's pretzels I enjoyed because it was in a mall. So on my lunch breaks I can go to the different stores and visual shop to see like... When you're young all you want to buy is clothes and cute things. So on your break you get to see what you're going to spend your paycheck on. |
| Jodi Katz | Oh that's so fun. I worked in a mall too, I worked at Express in college. |
| Summer Terry | I worked in Express on 34th Street. |
| Jodi Katz | I learned how to fold a lot of sweaters |
| Summer Terry | With the folding square that they give you to fold yes. |
| Jodi Katz | Okay so after the pretzel store in the mall what was the next big job? |
| Summer Terry | After a lot of retail, my next big job was I interned at Emmis Communications for Hot 97. Once I got into college, my goals shifted and I wanted to... I think this was also a part of me wanted to be a performer. I shifted that instead of dance into radio, I wanted to go into radio. That's what I went to school for in communications and I fell in love with radio, broadcasting so I said, I want to work at Hot 97. Oddly enough, the first time I applied for the internship I didn't get it. But that did not discourage me. I continued to apply and I actually got it for the next semester. Then after my semester as an intern they actually hired me in the promotions and marketing department. |
| Jodi Katz | Okay let's go back to that time you're applying for the internship, you have your heart set on it because Hot 97 is the place to be. If you were in New York in the 90s you know what we're talking about. |
| Summer Terry | Yes. |
| Jodi Katz | You don't get it. How are you feeling in that moment? |
| Summer Terry | I was crushed. I was crushed because at that age that was the only place I wanted to be. There was no other option. But I didn't get it but I actually got the chance to intern at Radio Disney. So even though Radio Disney was the backup, I wanted Hot 97. But I still got an awesome internship, and then I got to go to Hot 97 the semester after. |
| Jodi Katz | What gave you the courage to reapply for that internship? |
| Summer Terry | Because that's what I... I'm very determined. I knew that by some way I was going to get in that building. I was going to get in that building, I was going to work there. There was no way that it wasn't going to happen for me, so I just I kept going. |
| Jodi Katz | I asked that question because I'm somebody who often was debilitated by self-doubt. If I didn't get that internship, my head space would've been like I'm not good enough, they don't want me, I'm never going to work there. I really would've gone down a spiral of negativity. I'm so inspired by people who just say no, I just kept trying and I tried again. So I'm curious why do you think you had that in you? I hear the drive to work there and be around what was happening and what was relevant at the time, but what inside you gave you the confidence to just keep going for it? |
| Summer Terry | I think also because I had my own radio show at my college, and I surrounded myself with everything that had to do with radio, music, and I think I was just really tunnel vision. I was really tunnel vision, very like this is where I want to be. Like I said, there was no plan B. That was like when you know they say plan B is plan A, that was it, so I just kept going. I said if I don't get it this semester, I'll just get it next semester. |
| Jodi Katz | That's interesting because we work with a lot of performers, they work with us as side gigs in between auditions and whatnot. I feel like that's a similar attitude to a performer. They go in casting after casting after casting after casting. Rejection or no feedback at all, and they just are completely laser focused on that end goal whatever that is. That attitude that you're expressing sounds a lot like how a dancer would move through the world. |
| Summer Terry | It's hard to say you can't take rejection as defeat because even as like that young age it's easy to take it as defeat. But I don't know if it's something that's innate in certain people, that you're just so determined. As an adult now, I look back and you know how I've been doing a lot of self-help, and just learning to be kind to myself, speak kind to myself, and pull out those things that sometimes we do have self-doubt even as adults. You have to say Summer you're smart, Summer you're tenacious, you're driven, you're ambitious. I live in that, and that's a daily gratitude walk that I make it a point to practice daily as I'm growing as a woman soon to be 40. I'm living in that and really just looking back, you look back at all the things that you've gone through in life and the cycles and the different journeys through life and professionalism, the different doors, and you just say I'm one tough cookie, I actually did that and I handled it. |
| Jodi Katz | I summarize what you're talking about as being able to view progress. To look back and be like wow, look at where I came from. I want to know what the job was at Hot 97. You got into the marketing department, what were you actually doing every day? |
| Summer Terry | I was assisting the on-air promotions coordinator. Her job was to schedule and write out the copy for all the contests you would hear on the radio. The advertisers would work with the sales department, once they have their ad buys, it's so funny because I'm kind of paid ads still now. They would work together with the sales department, once that is all solidified it now goes to the promotions department, and we write out the copy of what the on-air people would read on air. Then once the winner is picked, which we did, we contact the winners to come up to the station to get their prizes. Then if there is concerts picking winners for the concerts, dealing with the guest list. It was really fun, I will say that it was a lot of fun. |
| Jodi Katz | I would imagine it is the best place to be as a young person in New York City. Being able to manage the guest list at the hottest concert, surrounded by the talent that you're inspired by. |
| Summer Terry | Yes. It was so funny because they tell you the first day, the first day. I was in the promotions department. Most of the celebrities they go straight, they don't walk through the building. There's a secret door that they go straight to the broadcast area where the booths are. In promotions there's a binder that we have to bring over to the studio every morning. Usually the morning show was the biggest show. The biggest stars come in the morning shows. I would have to always go in to get the binder or give the binder. On day one they always told the interns don't ask any questions, drop the binder off and leave. I got to meet people. |
| Jodi Katz | Did you ever have a fan girl moment Summer? Did you ever break the code and have a fan girl interaction? |
| Summer Terry | Oddly enough I thought I would, and I never had a fan girl moment, never. I met Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Kanye West, a lot of artists and I thought that I would fan girl. The one person I can say I fan-girled out, but it was like, you know like you have the moment and then five minutes later you realize you had that moment. It was when I was in the elevator with Jay-Z. It was during time he had the song Dear Summer. He had no security, I was leaving work and we're both in the hallway to go to the elevator. He asked, "Did they leave me?" I think this was the fan girl moment, because I looked back is he talking to me? I was like, "There's nobody here." So then he got on the elevator with me and asked me my name. I told him my name was Summer he mentions the song. It was really quick because we were only on the fifth floor. It was really quick, but it was one of those moments that I feel like lasted forever but it was so quick. I was cool, then once I got to the train station, that's when I freaked out. |
| Jodi Katz | Oh my God, my cheeks hurt from smiling during that story. That is so amazing. How much time did you spend in radio before you moved into other realms of marketing communications? |
| Summer Terry | I was there for three years. I was there... Actually I started in the promotions and marketing department, and then I went over to the national sales department. This is what I will say, for any young professionals that are interning or starting the workforce, be as useful as you can be. I was in the marketing and promotions department, but I made myself useful to every department. So if someone needed help with something I was in the sales department helping. If someone was in the mail room that needed help with something, I was in the mail room. The national sales coordinator she went on maternity leave, and the national sales director she asked my boss can they borrow me on certain days? So for a while I was doing promotions and sales throughout the week, and then from there I migrated to radio sales. |
| Jodi Katz | Well, did you ever have aspirations to be a voice on the radio? |
| Summer Terry | Absolutely, absolutely. That's why I still did my online shows. I went from my college online show, to I did one in Brooklyn another station. I found little pockets to do it on I guess the smaller scale, because it's really hard to get into... New York is major market radio. You have to have real experience not college experience before you get on New York major market radio. It was a little difficult trying to go that avenue, so I said I still want to be on radio, doesn't matter what market or what level I just love to talk, and I love to talk about music. I did a lot of online radio. |
| Jodi Katz | Awesome. Well, okay- |
| Summer Terry | Which that was like podcasting. |
| Jodi Katz | I know seriously. I want to shift gears to the last topic that we're going to cover off on during our chat, which is something that I'm so inspired by. This is more life journey than career journey. You went on a vacation by yourself recently. I was so inspired by your commitment to trying something that's super uncomfortable and very new. So tell us why you chose to do that? |
| Summer Terry | This was the thing, it was this year. So 2021, 2020 I really couldn't do nothing for my birthday, my birthday's in June. I always loved to travel on my birthday. I've never traveled alone, but I always like to not be here on my birthday. This was the first summer kind of post-pandemic. I was determined to go on a vacation. It was hard to get my friends to get the same days off as me and everything, but I didn't let that deter me. I said I'm just going to plan my own trip. I started watching, this is what I do for every trip, I watch vlogs of other people in the location that I want to go to and I make an itinerary. I had such an amazing time. I booked an Airbnb and then I got one of those resort passes where you can go to a hotel and just get a room for the day to enjoy the pool, the amenities. It was so relaxing and fun to enjoy my own company. I took myself out to dinner, I lounged by the pool. It was so nice and so relaxing. It was really good. I think that I would do it again. Now that I've done it once I feel like I'm confident enough to do it again and be okay with it. At a point there were times where I wasn't comfortable with doing anything alone, not take myself out to dinner or anything, now I'm comfortable with my own company. |
| Jodi Katz | What was the hardest part when you were away by yourself? What was the most challenging aspect of that? |
| Summer Terry | Taking my own pictures. I was just taking my own pictures because I didn't bring my tripod. I would have to prop it up somewhere or I didn't really ask people to take pictures of me. I would just prop it up, and then people are looking at you while you're creating content. But other than that, it wasn't really bad. I actually made a friend walking to the supermarket, a lady that I met out there and she's a real estate agent and we still stay connected. |
| Jodi Katz | Well, it's so inspiring, you continue to inspire me every day Summer. I'm so glad that you joined me here on Where Brains Meet Beauty podcast live on YouTube. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. |
| Summer Terry | Thank you for having me. |
| Jodi Katz | For anyone who wants to know more about our show and listen to more episodes, you can find us on any app that you love to listen to podcasts on, just search for “Where Brains Meet Beauty”. You can go to Instagram to learn more about our show and participate in giveaways @WhereBrainsMeetBeautyPodcast. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Jodi Katz, where there's also LinkedIn giveaways, and always news about the show you can also find on our website WhereBrainsMeetBeauty.com. So find us everywhere and anywhere. Thank you so much Summer, it was great to see you. |
| Announcer | Thanks for listening to Where Brains Meet Beauty® with Jodi Katz. Tune in again for more authentic conversations with beauty leaders. |
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