VP of Development, Alicia Agramonte, joins The Black Creators Club Podcast to talk about owning your power and influence in the workplace.
In a recent episode of The Black Creators Club, hosts Akilah Ffriend and Eboné Chatman interviewed Alicia Agramonte, VP of Development for Morgan Freeman’s Revelations Entertainment production company, on how to make your career and life work for you in this modern world.
Throughout this Black Creators Club episode, Alicia Agramonte gave crucial feedback on how to own your power and influence in the workplace and how to leverage your brand. She discussed the mix between curiosity, ego, and humility and how that catapulted her from a college student wondering the set of a Netflix show to a 27-year-old Vice President of a Hollywood production company. She shared a story indicating the type of person she was in college- the type who can influence a crowd to believe in her ideas, but simultaneously was not interested in the follow-through and commitment needed to get that crowd (and idea) to the finish line. After some disappointed classmates and mentors started to see a trend, Alicia states,
“My ego was at an all-time low and I had to remind myself and get curious about why I loved this industry. That is essentially how I fell into that [Locations Department for House of Cards] job- it is because I went to go learn.”
A day of wondering on set led Alicia on a path to where she is today. After a series of jobs, including working on set for Creed, working at BET, and taking unpaid positions at Warner Brothers and other companies in the industry, Alicia discussed having imposter syndrome and what that meant for her career. However, imposter syndrome did not stop her from approaching every opportunity from a position of power. She discussed the mindset needed to choose every one of your jobs.
“I was interviewing them as much as they were interviewing me…Even though I knew maybe they were looking for some more qualified people in this, I know that I was going to do the job 100% so I wanted to make sure that this job was going to work for me 100%. The last thing I ever want to do, and I was in this position before, was be in a job that I hated. That was not going to work for me and I just had to have faith that I could be strong about what I wanted without throwing a job away.”
Throughout the episode, Alicia gives honest and inspirational responses to all of the questions and provides insight on how to maneuver the entertainment industry- and industries overall. Ultimately, hosts Akilah and Ebone recognized the focal point of Alicia’s success to date stems from believing in her value.
“The naysayers can say what they want, but I did this by 27 and it’s not because I was spending a lot of time listening to a lot of naysayers. I was being curious…If you really believe that everybody else has domain over your happiness, if that is the world you want to live in, by all means pursue that but that is not the world where I want to live in.”
The themes in the episode are endless as we explore all areas of determination, value in the workplace, and creating opportunities for yourself when leading with service. Alicia also expands on her personal mission and plans.
“I just want to continue to shape and refine my purpose. I just want to continue to inspire people and to be inspired by people. I try to find that in my everyday life and that has worked out on a macro level. I don’t want to overthink the plan because I think the plan obviously never works out 100% the way you want to and when you look back, you don’t want to think about how much time you spent working on a plan that did not come to fruition. So I spend more time thinking, how can I look back saying ‘my purpose was successful, I was successful in my purpose’.”
This episode of the Black Creators Club gives us the rundown on the importance of honing in on and leading with your inner power – and, of course, to always abide by your ABCs- Always Be Creating!
Find the full episode on Alicia Agramonte and more content from The Black Creators Club on Youtube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Like this article and the full interview? Make sure to share this post with a friend!
Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr7RraiajpboG8CFWzHua9A
Spotify page: https://open.spotify.com/show/241lrFipWGLWn5rTsCh2a4?si=Uk94-fwCRGenZdz-kYqpBw
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-black-creators-club/id1527058192
