Update: The business model of i40 Marketing has changed in years since this article. According to current owner Rebecca Harrelson, “i40 Creative, formerly i40 Marketing, is a remote creative content and collaboration company based in Wilmington NC. Owned and operated by Wilmington local, Rebecca Harrelson. i40 Creative sets entrepreneurs and business owners up with the content, tools, people, and platforms they need to succeed in their business. Essentially, i40 Creative is your one-stop creative shop for all your business needs.” The company’s website can be found at i40creative.com.
WILMINGTON — As the city of Wilmington continues to grow, so does it’s resident millennial population. As a college town, people come from all over the country to attend schools like the University of North Carolina Wilmington and Cape Fear Community College.
According to a 2016 census, Wilmington had over 10,000 people ages 22 to 35 living in the city. The problem is, a city can only grow so fast. So, what do young people do to find meaningful employment?
For 25-year-old Wilmington native Rebecca Harrelson, the answer was simple: Become your own boss.
After graduating from Hoggard High School, Harrelson attended the University of North Carolina Greensboro off and on for several years, not quite sure what she wanted to do.
Putting herself through school, Harrelson worked as a journalist, slowly realizing her passion was in the community. This passion led to an internship with the Greensboro based company CoLab, which taught her how to market and pitch “well formulated” ideas for small businesses.
This led to the creation of her first company, RH Marketing. After returning home to Wilmington, Harrelson met her eventual business partner, Lauren Meyers, through a mutual friend, a step that was integral to opening her up to the possibility of going full entrepreneur, full time.
“We’d known each other for a couple of months, and I told her I was thinking of re-branding my company for Wilmington, but if she was interested we would re-brand it completely and start a new company together, to be a business that would be a ‘creative hub,’” Harrelson said.
After that, Harrelson left her steady job as the events coordinator at the Brooklyn Arts Center, taking a leap of faith to pursue her dream.
This led to the creation of i40 Marketing, a culmination of Harrelson and Meyers combined experience in marketing and management, that specializes in working with bands and musicians, social media management, press relations and booking.
Although the road was a long one, Harrelson said her so-called “pickiness,” and passion to seek out something she really loved, kept her on the path toward owning her own business, a trait she feels is shared by many millennials.
“There’s an entrepreneurial mindset to millennials,” Harrelson said. “A lot of people talk (expletive) about millennials, they talk crap about their work ethic, or maybe that they’re lazy. But I think, ‘sure, that could go for any generation, any age group.’
“When I moved back to Wilmington, I met so many young people, from 25-35 who were working a job that they loved, or working a job that they didn’t mind, all the while pursuing a passion on the side.”
And that, according to her, is the key to it all. You have to hone in on what you love to do, and find that source of inspiration that drives you.
Find what you love to learn
“I think a lot of millennials are picky enough that they won’t work at a job that they hate,” she said. “I think the goal for people this age is to find something that you know you love, and something that you know you love working with. You always have to keep learning.”
She believes that a key difference between this generation and the one before it is the way people learn. Where many millennials’ parents were taught to take on more traditional careers, either by going through school or learning a trade, young people today are more apt to be self taught, she said.
Although she is a self described “book nerd,” much of what she reads comes from her interest in marketing in business. As much as she loves to read, Harrelson says that wasn’t the case in college, where she preferred to learn through online platforms like webinars, and podcasts.
“I think with everything that’s at our disposal now, our generation has Instagram, webinars, podcasts, iTunes and all these different mediums at our finger tips, I think that allows information to get absorbed so quickly,” Harrelson said. “And as amazing as that is, it can be overwhelming. If you don’t know what you love, and you don’t know what your passionate about, how do you pick?
“How do you pick what you’re going to risk it for? If you don’t work (expletive) jobs then you may never know,” she added. “If you don’t work jobs that make you have conversations you may not have had otherwise, with your boss, with your co-workers, if you’re not meeting different people, how are you going to know what drives you?”
According to Harrelson, you have to have that willingness and hunger to learn, to find your true calling in life.
When it’s all said and done, she believes these driven individuals need to get out and just go for the it.
“I think honing in on what you love learning about is the key to it all,” she said.
‘Life is too short to regret not doing something’
i40 Marketing, now almost a year old, has already signed seven clients to its team. Meyers and Harrelson have taken the time to hand pick their employees, like-minded individuals who have the drive to break out on their own.
Recently, they signed a large music festival, “Carolina Jubilee,” an annual event with the mission of buying farm land and putting it into a protective trust to lease back to new and existing farmers.
The pair also wants to provide a venue to all Carolina microbreweries, wineries, and farm related vendors to showcase their products and educate the community, allowing entrepreneurial individuals like themselves to thrive.
“Life is too short to regret not doing something,” she said. “Go out and find what you love, and just do it. The first steps can be scary, but they payoff and satisfaction in the long haul is worth it all.”
Get in touch with Reporter Cory Mannion: follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or send an email at cory@localvoicemedia.com.
