By Clint Confehr
NASHVILLE, TN — While working in a cubicle, she dreamed of having a business in her own building. Now, after orchestrating hundreds of ribbon cuttings for clients, she’s cutting one herself.
Monchiere’ Holmes-Jones’ grand opening for her MOJO Marketing + PR agency is 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, May 24, at 1100 10th Ave. She says it’s “purposely placed” just off “historic” Jefferson Street.
“I think everybody is excited, from a cultural stand-point, to see that there’s a woman-owned, black-owned agency in Nashville,” Holmes-Jones says. She acknowledges competition from freelance marketers, but Holmes-Jones says she offers “a full service agency.”
As MOJO’s chief brand curator, she offers “more reach and more exposure to boost your bottom line.” Holmes-Jones has been boosting business for years, starting in four internships while studying at Xavier University of Louisiana. After graduation, she promoted Domino’s, White Castle and GM with King Logan Marketing & PR in New Orleans. Logan connected her with J. Walter Thompson, the best-known marketing communications brand, other than the “Mad Men” in the 1960s-period TV drama about Madison Avenue advertising firms.
Because King Logan partnered with Thompson, Holmes-Jones worked “with 50 key markets … right out of college.”
After 13 years in corporate marketing and advertising, Holmes-Jones started her business in New Orleans in 2011, subsequently moving to Nashville.
Here six years, MOJO Marketing + PR has served clients including: HCA Healthcare; The Cupcake Collection, a multimillion dollar bakery in Germantown; and Hiller Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electrical. It’s expanded to Memphis, Columbia and elsewhere.
Holmes-Jones says she’s always wanted to be connected to Nashville “in some form or manner.” She’s inspired by American Baptist College and Jefferson Street. With new offices, she can walk to clients like Metropolitan Teachers Credit Union.
It didn’t happen overnight. Working from her Nashville home, Holmes-Jones “did a lot of speaking for free to talk about marketing,” she said. “I spoke at Mary Kay Cosmetics meetings … teaching how to brand and sell, beyond what they’re selling.” At one presentation, she said, “A woman stood up and said, ‘We need you,’” and Holmes-Jones found her first Nashville client.
As an individual, she helped open 86 offices in three years for Metro PCS, which is now T-Mobile by Metro. Its offices are from Memphis to Bowling Green and Knoxville. She was opening a PJ’s Coffee shop in New Orleans recently, and she has clients in Atlanta.
After HCA hired her, she decided she could realize her dream and move from the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, a communal office building at Peabody Street and Lea Avenue. She’s developed a freelance graphic team including people who were “in the business since before I’ve been in the business,” Holmes-Jones says. She has a four employees at her office.
Her grand opening includes music, a food truck, remarks from the Small Business Administration’s local chief and clients who’ve watched her grow. Tenth Street will be closed between Jefferson Street and Rev. Dr. Enoch Jones Boulevard. Parking is available at the church lot behind her office.
Holmes-Jones is “inviting our neighbors to come out” so everyone can meet and celebrate.
A week later, she’s orchestrating a grand opening and ribbon cutting for SPD CPAs at 4121 Clarksville Pike.
