Leadership is something that you can spot a mile away just by having a conversation with someone, and I immediately got that feeling after meeting Khaleel. He taught how the importance of family, and surrounding yourself with likeminded people can push a community forward in the right direction. Lights, cameras, action, Khaleel, how are you doing?
“I’m doing phenomenal. Every day on this earth is a blessing so no matter how hard things may get I try to keep a positive and optimistic attitude. It doesn’t mean that things don’t affect me, sometimes the weight of the world feels like it's on my shoulders but I try to still take a positive outlook on life. But right now I’m feeling really good and energized. We have a lot of work to do, I'm just looking forward to the future.”
I asked if he can just dive into a little bit of what he and the Loyd visuals team does for and around Charlotte:
“I’ve been in Charlotte for 10 years now. It has been great to move to a city and feel like I have grown with the city, Charlotte has grown immensely. I was able to grow up here, go to school here, work a corporate job here, and now being able to start a business here, I feel is a huge blessing. Currently, I am working and building a creative agency by the name Loyd Visuals. We have been working with non-profits here locally, we provide value to our clients through digital media. Being able to tell stories that resonate with the community from a client perspective is what we strive to do. The best part about it is that I get to do this with my two younger brothers. Myself, Najm and Maleek. This is just the beginning of what is to become something that Charlotte hasn’t seen before.”
I wanted to see how COVID-19 has effected his business and what they have done to shift the direction of what they provide:
“Back in March we just moved into this space at Hygge. We had to leave after the first two weeks and from there we had four or five clients that postponed events and then ended up canceling. 2019 was one of the best years that we had, we had a lot of momentum coming into 2020. We got hit hard but lucky we keep our overhead low. We have been rethinking the business to meet the needs of our clients. There are a lot of unknowns and I think we are still in that space where we are all trying to figure it out and learn as we go. Fortunately, we are in a field where content is needed, video, photo, design is needed. We have been able to manage and sustain, we are seeing a spike in our inquiries. I tell my team that, if and when we can get on the other side of this pandemic we are going to be so much stronger both personally and professionally so I take this as a challenge and that when you take a step back it’s okay to not know. You just need to roll with the punches.”
Connection to the community is important and I wanted to see if that has changed recently for the team:
“In some ways along the lines with the social unrest, the community has come together to rally around a common cause which is justice, and equality but on the other side of that, with COVID-19, we had to be disconnected and separated for health reasons. From a common goal perspective, we have gotten close to the community. For us, coming from the communities of where we grew up, we understand and we have experienced what it’s like to be black in America and we have been able to just lean into that even more. We have been raising money for black led, nonprofits here in Charlotte, and that came from the Black Lives Matter mural that was painted. Maleek was capturing a visual of that day and he got an overhead shot of the mural. A lot of people reached out asking for the photo to use it and license it. We offered it up and told them that we are donating all the money to folks in Charlotte that are actually doing the community work. We stay connected with our core values — creativity, collaboration, and communication. Now I would say Community is our 4th value, it's not that you don’t care about the community, it's that you ARE the community and people are realizing that we are stronger together. If people understand that shit needs to get better here in our city, our state, our nation, and in the world, we can make some change when we are together. We raised and donated $1,000 each to Hope Vibes Charlotte and Heal Charlotte. That was a huge blessing for us and it felt so good to help out.”
People in this series have referred to the 2016 protests a few times, have you seen any difference in the impact this time around?
“This year is unlike any other year we have experienced, so I wouldn’t compare this year to anything. The social unrest has been prevalent in this country for quite some time. We now have cameras and access to the internet and we can now hold people accountable for the death of black bodies. From 2016 to 2020, I can remember vividly in 2016, I was at work sitting in my cubical and I remember that I felt so powerless. It was one of those times where you had death after death, murder after murder. It was eye-opening, the city came in a rage after what happened with Kieth Lamont Scott. I was so distraught, I called Ohavia and I didn’t know what to do or how to help, that moment, we already started the business and I realized that if I really wanted to help my community then I couldn’t be chained to a desk. So I said you know what, let me take my fate into my own hands and I thought eventually I’m going to quit and dedicate myself to build the business and at the same time, serve the community. It’s a blessing to us because it’s not transactional anymore, it’s more so about what/how can we offer our talents to help you achieve what you’re doing knowing that you guys are doing good work in the community.”
I wanted to see if Khaleel had any different and important goals or takeaways from this past year:
“I realized the importance of health, both personal and mental and that is very important for us to figure out ways to work together around a common goal. Specifically for the black community, we have experienced so much separation in the community. It’s time now for the black community to come together to rally around a common goal and figure out how our children and grandchildren don’t have to go through what we are going through now. For everyone, take inventory of what you do well, what you have to offer to the world or the community, and whatever that is, offer that up. Don’t feel like you have to do a bunch of different things. We need to take ownership of what our purpose is here and to just lean into that and rally around people that are likeminded and care about the same things.”
