Storytelling in the impact space is a really hot topic. But one of the things I love about our guest this week, Tamika Brickman, is that Tamika originally was a journalist and now is helping impact brands with storytelling through PR and video and other modalities. Tamika has a sense of how to do storytelling with much more nuance and much more granularity than many other folks I'm hearing using the term. So she's not just talking about it in theory or in concept, but has really granular strategies from many, many years being in the storytelling space that she's gonna share with you on this episode. Hi. This is Paul Zellizer, and welcome to the Awarepreneurs podcast. On this show, we dive deep into wisdom from some of the world's leading social entrepreneurs. Our goal is to help you increase your positive impact, your profitability, and your quality of life.

Before we get into today's topic, I have one request. If you could go to your favorite podcast app, do a review, hit subscribe. It makes a difference. It helps more people find these incredible impact stories and learn how to have positive impact through a values based business. Thanks so much for considering it. Today, I am thrilled to introduce you to Tamika Bickham, and our topic is the art of social impact storytelling. Tamika is the founder and CEO of TB Media Group. She's an award winning journalist and a podcast host who helps CSR and ESG leaders build brand trust and loyalty through nonfiction video production.

Tamika, welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to to dive in and have this chat today.

I'm super excited about it. I was doing my research and I was thinking, you know, you wanna talk about one of those, like, lingo things that people toss around. Right? We're supposed to tell stories in this and not just present facts and make emotional connections. But one of the things we talked about before we hit record is like, okay. Let's get it out of concept, and let's, like, how do you really do that in some granular way, not just use the word storytelling 27,000 times and said, great, my job is over. So Tamika's an expert in this. I'm super happy to have you here. But before we get into that, like, real granular part of the episode, Tamika, just give our listeners a little bit of back story about your journey, the work you've done, and kinda where you're coming from.

Yeah. No. Absolutely. And thank you for that. I mean, you definitely teed it up perfectly, But, you know, I feel like I was into storytelling before it became this buzzword because I actually started in a little bit of a different path in broadcast journalism. So I was always drawn to stories as a consumer myself as a kid growing up and really just interested to uncovering, investigating. And I always got sucked into learning from different perspectives that were different just different from my own. And that was really a big reason behind wanting to pursue broadcast journalism, and that was really what I did for the first part of my career working in small markets where I started in Montgomery, Alabama and then coming back to where I am now in South Florida.

But I said, hey. A lot of what I do is the feel good stories in our communities. It was a lot of crime, especially if you know Miami Fort Lauderdale market.

Hey. I live in Albuquerque. Come on. Like, freaking bad. Right? We know something about that. You know a little bit. You know a little bit, though.

But it it was it was tough, and I felt like, hey. I have these skills as far as visual storytelling, pulling interviews and sound, and real stories about real people together. How can I use this for good? Which ultimately led me to where I am and what I'm doing now.

Yeah. So give us a little sense. We'll we'll get to what you're doing now. But give us a little sense, like, what were some of the stories? You you mentioned crime. Like, was there a story that really stood out in your career that was really powerful or was real you were renowned for people might have known your name as a journalist from that part of your career?