Falayn Ferrell, the Managing Partner of Black Restaurant Week, LLC and Chairwoman of the Board of Directors for Feed the Soul Foundation is a native Houstonian.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Finding the gap in the market to launch Black Restaurant Week.
• Growth marketing strategies used for scaling Black Restaurant Week to other cities.
• Solidifying relationships and strategic business partners

Falayn will contribute to the Growth Marketing Strategies panel at the Marketing For The Culture Summit. Make sure you get your tickets and join us from May 31-June 2nd.

Contact Falayn:

• https://blackrestaurantweeks.com/
• https://feedthesoulfou.org/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/falaynf/

Contact AAMA:

• https://www.aa-ma.org/black-marketers-to-watch/
• https://www.aa-ma.org/marketing-for-the-culture-summit-2023/ 

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Falayn's full bio:

Falayn earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Florida A&M University. After graduation, she relocated to the New York tri-state area to work for a leading Fortune 500 company. She quickly realized that her true passion lay in helping small businesses with their brand management and she was most inspired by helping non-profit organizations achieve their vision.

She established Fade Media, a digital marketing firm in Houston in 2015 with Derek Robinson to develop brand identities, design websites, create marketing collateral, and organize strategies for small businesses and nonprofit organizations. In 2016 Fade Media was awarded a Crystal Award by the American Marketing Association for its outstanding work in design and branding

She established Fade Media, a digital marketing firm in Houston in 2015 with Derek Robinson to develop brand identities, design websites, create marketing collateral, and organize strategies for small businesses and nonprofit organizations. In 2016 Fade Media was awarded a Crystal Award by the American Marketing Association for its outstanding work in design and branding. 

In 2016, Falayn Ferrell partnered with Warren Luckett and Derek Robinson to organize Black Restaurant Week in Houston, TX and now serves as a Managing Partner over Operations for the initiative. The annual national awareness campaign showcases over 1200 black-owned culinary businesses and professionals with 15 regional Black Restaurant Week campaigns across the United States and Canada. Black Restaurant Week garners over 400 million impressions for the black culinary industry annually. The campaign and its participants have been featured in local and national media outlets such as Good Morning America, New York Times, Essence, Bloomberg, and more. In 2021 Black Restaurant Week was awarded a Crystal Award by the American Marketing Association for its remarkable work in special events marketing.

In 2020, Black Restaurant Week established Feed the Soul Foundation to support sustainability and growth amongst minority culinary businesses. Since 2020, Feed the Soul Foundation has provided $500,000 in grants to Black-owned and Latin-owned businesses across the US. The foundation also established a National Emergency Relief Fund to aid culinary businesses across the nation and has provided $34,000 to assist businesses with unforeseen and natural disasters and restaurant equipment repair. The foundation has also awarded $75,000 in scholarships to minority hospitality and business students at Dr. Kirk Lewis Career & Technical High School, Careers through Culinary Arts Program,  University of Houston, Texas Southern University, Florida A&M University, and Morehouse College.