This Momaraderie feature is the first (besides my mom’s) to share about a woman who doesn’t know she’s being tapped. (I love surprises!) She made such an impression on me in the last 48 hours, and what a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning sharing it with you.
Shakirah Dawud is a mother of a daughter who is two-years-old. We all know what that means; following around the baby, consistent attention and basically doing EVERYTHING for her child. She is also a professional copywriter and book editor, and when you sign on to regularly read her blog at Deliberate Ink, you’ll grasp immediately how she can be an editor…a really good one.
It’s because her writing always knocks it out of the park. ALWAYS. I’ve not had the privilege of working with copywriters (it feels more like an advertising thing), and she’s not fully in the camp of public relations (because she’s sitting just outside the fence) yet I see the possible blend, especially with someone so engaged.
Let me tell you a bit more. I’m learning about her in snips and snaps and this should give you a head start:
** Not sure how I was first introduced to Shakirah, perhaps she just appeared in my stream one day with this terribly long Twitter ID with her full name TaqqiyahShakirah_Dawud, I think. And, then, she shortened it to @ShakirahDawud (yeah) b/c I could remember it better. In my blog comments she was commenting, and I asked her how I ought to address her as there were two first names; she told me Shakirah and that was perfect.
** And, she told me she was shy; and I saw that in comments and could feel her holding back. Now that she’s entirely more comfortable the floodgates have opened and she’s pouring out the content and comments everywhere and engaging her personal brand. It’s marvelous to see.
** Nice segue to the comments; Shakirah is one of the most thoughtful and in-depth commenters I’ve ever had the privilege of having on my blogs. On Friday, I posted a Childhood Obesity and BMI Screening Mandates piece over at The SMB Collective. It was one of the most popular posts ever on that blog (I’m still in test mode trying to figure out what it’s going to be when it grows up), and I thank Shakirah for pushing the conversation. She posed such rich thought which encouraged others to weigh in, too, and keep the stories coming. I will be pulling from comments to do a round two on that topic.
** Around the same day, Shakirah posted a blog at her house about Wet Jeans and Chrysler about her childhood memory of wearing tight, skinny jeans to a water park and getting teased.
I’m so eager to keep learning more; in fact, I’m quite eager to see her lovely face – when do we get an avatar, Lady? Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy getting to know Shakirah as much as I have. Her blog is a wonderfully warm place with equally warm individuals sharing personal anecdotes (how does she do that?). Stop in to find out…again, you can find her over at Deliberate Ink.
What a ‘sweet’ post on our favorite copywriter! Richly deserved! Now that you mention it, I have also noticed a ‘blossoming’ in the comments and frequency offered by @shakirahdawud:twitter and I’m so happy to see it! I think I’m still getting inbox alerts on her recent post at Deliberate Ink about the comment queen, Davina, AKA @3hatscomm:twitter . Bravo!
As am I… and that interview has me thinking on a few things, something for next week probably.
I’m trolling through my inbox, and go, “Huh, a pingback!” [Click] “Momaraderie With…” [Click] “Oh, Jayme!” This is a sweet surprise for this copywriter.
The reason I’m so interested in public relations is because my favorite advertising device is storytelling, and drawing on the image each company has of its product or itself is very important to that. That tends to lean toward the PR side of things, I think.
As for the avatar, well… I think anonymity is underrated, and I’m keeping my actual face offline for my own reasons right now (nothing negative, just personal). But I’ll probably be changing at least one of my Twitter account avatars to something human soon, in any case :). Otherwise, I’d love to meet you whenever our roads do cross.
Thank you, Jayme, this means a lot to me.
Agree on the anonymity.. it’s partly why my FB is separate yet I don’t use it as much, why I have the personal Twitter, etc. I can be more myself online in some contexts, just b/c you’re not seeing the everyday bad hair, no make up me. FWIW.
I forget I also need to show up here and remark and not always do it on Twitter instead. I think that’s silly, Jayme. Just talking to myself. Great to give you candy on Sunday, Shakirah!
Shakirah is great! So glad to see her here. Thanks Jayme!
‘Morning Jayme!
I have seen Shakirah around and am happy that I now have her link so I can go meet her! Thanks for this introduction!
By the way, the second link (just happened to be the one I clicked on!) has an error.Have a great day!
Lori
Lori, I finally figured out who you are via the comment you made over @Shakirah’s. I think you’ve been writing her with a first name only! I couldn’t properly credit you anywhere else but here, so thanks! And, will fix that broken link momentarily; thanks — another blogger fail of mine; hit publish and then not take time to check the second-tier links. Must do better! Good Morning and thanks for coming in!
Ms. Gosselin; I finally have a sir name or madam name to find you! I was wondering who “Lori” might be over at SMB Collective last week! Thanks for popping in and sharing a broken link or two with Shakirah and me!
Thanks for introducing us more fully to Shakirah, Jayme! I just popped over to her website, and read a few of her posts. She is indeed a delightful writer!
Shakirah, thanks for putting yourself “out there” for the world to see!
Thanks for the visit, Michelle; I look forward to engaging more often with you–I appreciated your thoughts over on the SMB Collective over the weekend, too. It is actually interesting Jayme would post that, because about a month or so ago I’d trolled through Christa’s blog, following a tweet of yours, and saw her post about her aversion to discussing weight issues, and it was quite funny and quite real. I was gratified to see her speak up in the other forum, too.
Sorry to show up late! Victoria Day weekend for those of us north of the 49th.
So nice to learn about Shakira. I know I’ll learn from her and enjoy great stories at the same time.
Hi, Dawn, it’s so nice to meet you, and I sure hope my thoughts are useful; I probably have a lot more to learn from you!