Felicia Pride (replay) on Pivoting, Ownership, and Building a Sustainable Creative Career

Fanshen Cox and guest co-host Christabel Nsiah-Buadi welcome writer, director, and producer Felicia Pride to Sista Brunch for the first remote-recorded episode during COVID-19. Pride traces her path from marketing and posting poetry online to freelance journalism, grad school, book publishing, and authoring six books, including The Message, before a seven-year pause from writing while running a marketing consultancy.

After burnout and a layoff in film distribution, she recommitted to screenwriting, publicly reclaimed her identity as a writer, and built her career through classes, coaching, and strategic work. Pride discusses marketing as sharing one’s journey, hiring a publicist, impact producing, and using those skills to crowdfund and release her short film Tender, centered on self-love, intimacy, and Gen X Black queer women.

She also shares coping with racial trauma through therapy while working as a staff writer on Grey’s Anatomy and highlights Create Daily as a resource for underrepresented creators. 00:00 Pandemic Pivot Intro 00:39 Felicia Pride Snapshot 02:03 Welcome and Guest Bio 05:04 Origins and Early Writing 06:18 Journalism to Publishing 07:57 Six Books and Burnout 08:44 Consulting Years and Reset 09:19 Move to LA and Layoff 11:53 Reclaiming the Gift 14:57 Marketing Yourself Publicly 17:00 Why a Publicist Matters 19:20 Defining Your Career Story 19:49 Impact Campaigns Teaser 20:12 Impact Producing Explained 20:59 Tender as Brand 24:17 Ownership and Community Funding 27:19 COVID Work and Healing 30:47 Tender Themes and Self Love 32:19 Why Gen X Stories 36:03 Where to Watch and Follow 36:37 Create Daily Opportunities 37:26 Final Thanks and Wrap