She cashed in her life insurance to get her own magazine on the stand.
Journalist, editor and founder of Black Heritage Today magazine.
Barbara Campbell on Make Your Mark.
So, Barbara, tell me a little bit about yourself and how you first got started.
I started out in journalism as a journalist at The Voice newspaper,
became editor of their sister paper, The Journal, within a couple of years of being there.
And then after I'd been working for a journalism institute,
I decided that I wanted to do my own thing.
There were loads of ideas that I had.
Magazines I wanted to produce because I didn't see them out there.
So I left, which was on June 30, 2000, which was my birthday.
You know, you wake up in the morning, you just think you need some changes here,
want to do something different.
So I just did.
I walked into the project manager's office and I said,
I'd like to leave.
Is it okay if I leave without spending any more time here?
And they said, as soon as it's your birthday, fine.
So I left, and within a month, the first issue of Live Listings was out there.
And so it's just gone on since.
Now there's three magazines and a whole host of other publications I produce for other people.
I started my business when I look back, aged 11.
And I started it by loving to write and knowing that my classmates hated doing essays.
So I thought, I love writing and making up stories.
You show me a subject and I can make a story out of it.
So I decided that what I was going to do was write their stories for them,
and charge them 10 paper time.
I did that for a whole year.
It was a really lovely enterprise and I made a lot of money.
And the teachers never guessed that all those little essays came from one pen.
What's been your main inspiration?
I think my mother, because at the end of the day, because I'm in media,
people expect me to see Oprah Winfrey or something.
And really, truly, as much as I like Oprah, she was not an inspiration to me.
My mother was, and it was the worth ethics that she instilled in me,
because she was pretty high up in government in Jamaica.
And when she came to this country, despite a long arm of qualifications,
she couldn't get a job anywhere but in our whites factory.
I mean, they took her on to work on the production line.
But at the end of the day, when they needed somebody to do certain things in the office
that the staff there couldn't do, they used to take her off there,
on the quiet and get her to work in the office.
She showed me that no matter what you come against,
no matter what's happening in your life, you can make a difference.
If you just hold your head up, you know, buckle down and get on with it.
And she was holding down three jobs.
You know, it's fantastic that she was my inspiration in terms of doing what I do,
you know, the work ethics that I have.
When I first went to the bank, they told me that they couldn't give me any loans
to do what I wanted to do, and I didn't have anything of value for collateral.
They refused to take my two children.
I just had to take something else.
So I decided to just sell my life insurance, cash it in,
and start my company.
So you went on to create the Heritage Magazine.
How did that come about?
In 2003, I developed an interest in my background, in my history, in my heritage,
and I wanted to learn more about black people as a whole.
So I decided to start studying black history.
And it was in what I was finding that it really illuminated me as to how we have actually impacted
and contributed to societies, not just here, but all over the world.
You know, that's not been documented.
And as I'm reading and learning more and studying, I thought,
well, I'd love to tell other people about this.
I just wanted to grab people as they were passing and saying, did you know?
You know, but you can't do that to people.
So I thought, oh, how can I let people know?
And that's when the idea of starting a Black History Month magazine came about.
But I didn't want to call it Black History Month because there's more to us than that.
It's our heritage at the end of the day.
So I called it Black Heritage Today.
You know, that's how it all began for me with that one.
So what makes you feel really good?
There's quite a few things that actually make me feel good,
apart from a good rum and coke.
What makes me feel good is producing a publication.
I produce the Heritage and the International Women's Month magazine.
And every time I do that, it's a little bit like giving birth,
and you have that motherly pride.
And, you know, you look at it, you just think that's fantastic.
But also, when I get feedback from the public,
people have no hesitation whatsoever.
And I let them know that they can contact me anytime.
I give out my telephone number, I don't care.
Just call me if you want to talk to me, tell me what you like about it,
what you don't like, what you'd like to see in it.
So it's knowing that I'm doing something for the community
that they like and look forward to, that there's no feeling like it.
Right from day one, the biggest challenge was with advertisers.
Because you're new, they don't want to give you the opportunity.
They say, well, we do advertise in the ethnic press,
but the ethnic press for them is just one publication
that's been around for 20 odd years, which is the voice, of course.
And it's just trying to win them over to see that I'm not trying to replicate
what's out there, I'm trying to do something different,
to reach a different kind of market.
You know, so that's been the biggest challenge,
getting them to actually take me seriously.
But now that I've been doing this now for eight years,
I pick up the phone, or they pick up the phone and call me, which is fantastic.
You feel like you've finally arrived, really, when they do that.
So what next for you?
I have so many ideas, so many things that I wish to explore.
I do contract publishing as well as producing my own publications,
but I want to do something that involves working with the youth
to get them to not just learn how to produce magazines themselves
and get them into journalism, but actually get them to work on what they're producing.
So it's all in one.
It's like a journalism college, you know, but working on something
that is quite commercially viable at the same time.
So in order to do that, though, I'm looking for a business partner
that can come in and help me to run my mini-empire.
Because I've actually been asked to take it to the States
and to take it to various parts of the world.
And the kind of publications they are, they can easily sit quite comfortably,
whether it's in America, I've been asked to take it to France.
They really desperately want the heritage over there.
But I can't do anything until I find that business partner,
someone that knows about advertising, someone that knows about business acumen,
someone that just wants to buckle down and do some work.
Yes, I have won awards.
My story is very, very full.
It includes people who are jealous of your success
and will try their best to put you down.
I mean, take you out of business, rivals.
There's a limit about business. It's a nasty place.
But you know if you believe in yourself and if you've got trust in God,
trust me, nothing is impossible.
And finally, lastly, how would you most want to be remembered?
I would like to be remembered as someone that gave something back to the community.
For me, it's not all about take, take, take.
A lot of people don't know that on the side I actually teach journalism.
Now, some colleges, they charge up to three grand to teach journalism.
I charge nothing.
As long as people have an interest, they can come into the office
because when I talk about work experience,
I don't talk about making me a cup of coffee or doing the photo copy.
And I talk about teaching you so that at the end of the day,
when you walk away, you have a skill.
That's what I would like to be remembered.
Somebody that gives something back.
One of the things that I always say to people is,
don't be discouraged, although you will be discouraged, but don't give up.
Because the crime is not falling down, but in staying down.
So thank you very much for your time.
Thank you.
