by Kandiss Edwards
Might 1, 2025
Steve Jones has persistently performed the work in Hollywood as a advertising and marketing govt, producer, and host. He can now add creator to his record of titles
Steve Jones has been a drive in Hollywood for two-decades whereas flying largely underneath the radar. Now, the multi-hyphenate advertising and marketing govt, producer, and creator is moving into the highlight, and he’s bringing a roadmap with him.
Jones’ begin within the business got here by probability, however was pushed by sharp instincts. As a pupil, he noticed a serious alternative when Future’s Youngster’s album leaked on-line. Within the early days of the web, file labels had been scrambling to determine digital harm management. Jones acknowledged the hole, took initiative and contacted Music World, and finally Mathew Knowles. He supplied to wash the album from the web touchdown him an internship with Knowles’s firm—his first step into the enterprise.
Jones instructed BLACK ENTERPRISE about working with stars like Jennifer Lopez and Brandy, producing high-profile content material for the Oprah Winfrey Community and channeling years of expertise into his debut guide, Hollywood Confidential: 12 Secrets and techniques to Changing into the Star of Your Personal Life.
Half memoir and half self-help, the guide, which comes out Might 6, is an insider’s information for anybody seeking to pursue their ardour, particularly Black creatives navigating an business the place fairness applications are underneath assault.
“There weren’t assets for folks like me once I began,” Jones says. “Now, I wish to double down on uplifting and informing the following era.”
Jones isn’t simply reflecting on his legacyhe’s constructing one. And this time, he’s doing it in full view.
BLACK ENTERPRISE: Why was it necessary so that you can create this roadmap for fulfillment?
Steve Jones: I simply consider there’s a disparity between white creatives and Black creatives. There are gatekeepers, or there’s an absence of assets accessible. I believed it was my job, my accountability, my name to offer again on this method and create this roadmap and blueprint for fulfillment.
Every part of the guide begins with an affirmation and private anecdotes. What was your inventive course of for connecting these dots?
Brandy and I grew to become buddies, and he or she gifted me a journal for my birthday. It allowed me to get my ideas out onto paper after which let God take it from there.
Subsequent factor you realize, I began writing affirmations. Then I began posting quotes on social media, and people began going viral. I felt like I may supply up some affirmations and private anecdotes which may shift the trajectory of somebody’s life—or simply merely shift their mindset.
Hollywood Confidential is such a strong area—filled with knowledge handed down from specialists and legends. Some folks overlook those that got here earlier than them, however you selected to spotlight them. Why?
So many individuals (in leisure) weren’t efficiently coming into or touchdown their desires. That was my precedence: determining the best way to present instruments, data and assets. Then I believed, we may do two issues without delay. What if the knowledge, the instruments, the assets may come from legends in Hollywood who’re prepared to offer of their time?
A line that actually stood out to me was about having the “bravery to prioritize the achievement of your desires.” What does that type of bravery seem like on a day-to-day foundation?
It’s transferring with intention. It’s about determining your “why,” figuring out your North Star, after which setting and defending boundaries round that North Star so that you’re prioritized.
You may be of service to others, however you must prioritize the achievement of your individual desires above every little thing else. As a result of when you get the place you wish to go, then you might have a much bigger platform and extra assets to offer again to the following era.
The guide is damaged into 12 chapters: “Braveness,” “Optimism,” “Nuance,” “Religion,” “Ingenuity,” “Detachment,” “Endurance,” “Negativity,” Tenacity,” “Intention,” “Allergy,” “Authenticity,” and “Luminosity.” Which one was an important to you in your journey?
Nuance.
We’re conditioned to consider that we will solely do one factor at a time, however the actuality is, we’re multidimensional, multifaceted human beings. If I had solely stayed a advertising and marketing govt, I by no means would’ve turn into a tv govt. I by no means would’ve grown right into a journalist or a bunch, as a result of I might’ve had too many limiting beliefs. I feel we’re conditioned to lean into these limiting beliefs. That chapter, to me, actually has the ability to shift lives.
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