Today we’d like to introduce you to Sharíck LaMay.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Sharíck. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was born a creative. I was literally born in Oakland, CA to two visual artists who met in their high school fine arts class so to say creativity runs in my blood is an understatement. I was always encouraged by my family to express myself creatively and naturally took a liking to a leadership role in everything that I put my efforts into. My first love was music and dance, I naturally fell in love with theater arts, then surprisingly at a young age journalism. I remember vividly how intently I would go around with my fisher price microphone recorder and interview people in my family, so its no surprise 25 + years later I’m making a living from talking and interviewing interesting people. I find people fascinating; how we are alike, how we are different and what makes us tick. Creativity to me expresses all of those many facets in a multidimensional way. I made it a point to become a connoisseur of pop culture and an enthusiast of politics and social justice.
I later earned my professional degree in Communications from California State University Los Angeles and used that as fuel to cultivate not only a career but relationships and experiences on the entertainment and creative arts scene. I started out as a marketing and promotions intern for Clear Channel’s 106.1 KMEL (Bay Area) and later Black Entertainment Television (BET). But I knew it was important to invest time joining forces with like-minded and talented young creatives, via event production, creative directing, and marketing as a means of not only growing my creative footprint but to help others do the same. In 2015 after years of struggling to find my place in corporate entertainment, I decided to launch my baby, my own digital media platform LaMayDay.com with the intention to create content that caters to the “Worlds top Creatives.” God literally spoke to me one night and told me to write my “love letter to creative and artistic souls,” so I did.
What started out as a blog, became a production house and a platform for myself and my peers to showcase our talents and be a helping hand to others like us. My first self produced project “LaMay Day Limelight” is a web-based talk series featuring candid conversations, insights and tips between myself, my cohost j.Pin and featured successful creatives about art, lifestyle, and culture. But it doesn’t stop there, I wanted to create a business that would provide branding, producing, and marketing services to valuable, yet disenfranchised companies and brands, thus LaMay Day Productions LLC was truly born. We not only strive to produce our own content that gives back to the creative community and display positive and innovative messaging that nurtures mental health, in a world full of short attention spans, we empower the creativity of others by providing the necessary tools and services they need in order to be seen and to thrive.
Has it been a smooth road?
In retrospect I’ve faced many struggles more than I can admit and they will always continue. Whether it be a lack of financial resources, job opportunities, or simply a lack of motivation, even when I’ve felt myself falling too deep into worry, fear, doubt and depression, I caught myself and managed through prayer and my sister/brother circles to switch my mindset. During my adolescence I was an over achiever and was generally thought of as someone who would be extremely successful, famous even, and that I believe fed me a false sense of ego that made me big headed and sometimes flat out lazy. LA has a funny way of putting things into perspective for you. I believe most people thought I had everything under control and I even put up the facade that I did, but overall my struggles produce humility so I’ve learned to almost get excited when facing adversities because I know triumph and peace are on the other side of the mountain.
After 18 years of constant praises and hearing YES, I received perhaps more “NOs” or “we regret to inform you’s” than I can count stars in the sky in my attempts to place my talents within more corporate entertainment roles. People I thought were mentors seemed to only have their own self-interests at heart or became simply neglectful. One of the few people in LA I considered to be a mentor passed away tragically and the flakers and time wasters seemed to lurk at my every turn running a muck! I eventually became numb to them and decided rather than chasing a job that creating my own platform and becoming my own creative force was what was best for me. Having creative control and controlling my own narrative became far more valuable to me and those mountains of rejections I came to look at as my rights of passage.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with LaMay Day Productions LLC – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
LaMay Day Productions began as an entertainment news website or dare I say “blog” but I realized soon into it that I had little interest in writing as do most patrons have little interest in reading. With all of my talents and experience in journalism, production, PR, marketing and branding, decided to turn LaMay Day into a conglomerate of content curation not only for myself but for clients. Although I’m perhaps most known for being a red carpet hostess, through the LaMay Day Productions Platform, I am a producer, an event curator and a branding specialist and I now have a team of creatives that execute these duties. What sets LaMay Day apart is we operate with the mindset that it is okay to be a hummingbird or a jack of all trades, in fact it is celebrated. You can have a 9-5 and be a blogger, be a rapper and a health coach, even be a publicist as well as a host. We don’t believe in the rule of mastering one craft and one craft only instead we create a platform and provide tools to help creatives put all f their tools on the table and with them build something monumental.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
LA is full of opportunity. I love that you can meet people from all corners of the globe, all beliefs, and all backgrounds. It is a creative melting pot. Although it sounds cliche and super redundant, if you can make it in LA you can make it anywhere. I was asked by father when I made the decision to move here from the Bay Area if I wanted “to be a big fish in a little pond or a little fish in a big pond.” Although it is overpopulated and my field is now suddenly oversaturated, I will never regret choosing the adventure of the little fish and swimming with all of the other amazing little fishes with big talents I’ve met and became family with along the way. There aren’t any dull moments… ever and if there are, I’m not doing something right. That is my motivation.
Contact Info:
- Website: lamayday.com/productions
- Phone: 3239991147
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @lamayday @sharicklamay @lamaydaylimelight
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/lamayday
- Other: www.sharicklamay.com
Image Credit:
Main Photo: Maurice GL Sapp @mr_gl “Will Work for Food” photo series.
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
