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Meet Loud Pen of 8515 + ISLP in Central Dallas

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Loud Pen.

Loud, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. After graduating from high school, I attended college at Hampton University where I earned my BA in English. Then I moved to New York City, and this was when I started my business.

In the beginning, I was just blogging about music and my personal life via my first blog, The Loudest Pen Ever. Then I met my business partner, Cacha` Lopez and we started our agency, 8515 (formerly The Network) in 2010. 8515 is a multicultural creative agency based in Dallas and Baltimore. We offer branding, marketing, PR, event planning, and styling. I’ll admit that when we first started, we had no idea what we were doing. We’re just two young multicultural millennial women with a dream.

Over the years, we’ve gained extensive experience. We have planned events, created marketing campaigns, as well as landing press features for 8515 and its clients. We’ve also styled countless ad campaigns and we currently manage four different social media accounts on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

In 2013, I relocated to Texas from NYC. I originally moved to Houston but since I didn’t like it, I moved to Dallas three years ago, and I love it! In 2014, I decided to publish my first book #MakeUrPenLoud: How To Be A Lifestyle Blogger as well as start a new business, ISLP. ISLP is a lifestyle production company and boutique based in Dallas. We create books, magazines, music, film, clothing, and accessories for multicultural millennials.

All of our products are available via our website www.islpdtx.com. I created ISLP because I knew I wanted to create and sell my own products directly to my audience so I wouldn’t have to depend on brand partnerships and clients to make money. With my own online boutique, I can make money while I sleep which is my ultimate goal.

Has it been a smooth road?
Goodness no! The struggle is always real never fake. Every day there’s some new issue that you must tackle. With 8515, it’s making sure that we are producing great work to keep our clients, event attendees, and followers happy.

With ISLP, it’s making sure that we create amazing products that enhance the lives of our customers, so they buy our work. On top of that, there’s marketing, emails, product development, planning, content creation, etc. No two days are alike but with two businesses this, it’s not a big surprise.

I just focus on staying positive and finding time to disconnect so that I get away from work. The time away helps me relax and gives me the energy I need to keep going.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with 8515 + ISLP – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
8515 is a multicultural creative agency. We offer branding, marketing, public relations, event planning, and styling. We specialize in working with multicultural brands and women-owned businesses. We’re best known for our events and styling work. We’ve planned over 20 events since 2010 and have produced 10+ visual marketing campaigns.

Our events include Pen’s Flicks, #MP3, Pensgiving, Flavor’s Night Out, Mix n Mingle, and The Breakfast Club. Our visual marketing campaigns include AfriDally, All Pen Everything, Flavor NYC, and Y-Clad Lovers Lane. As far as what set us apart from other agencies, we keep it real, we work hard, and we’re original. We also believe in building in silence meaning that we like to focus on creating amazing work and then posting it on our website and social media once the work is finished. As far as our accomplishments, this November our signature event, Pensgiving was sponsored by Follow Your Heart, Tofurky, and Kieu Hoang Winery. Also, our April event #MP3 was highly successful since the event sold out and we were able to sell copies of our sister company ISLP’s book #MakeUrPenLoud: How To Be A Lifestyle Blogger during the event. 

ISLP is a lifestyle production company and boutique based in Dallas. We offer books, magazines, music, films, clothing, accessories, haircare, skincare, and home decor. We specialize in creating original lifestyle products for multicultural millennials. We’re most proud of the fact that this past August we launched our online boutique, ISLPDTX.com which means we can now sell our products directly to our customers instead of using a third party distribution service. This allows us to develop a real relationship with our customers and create a unique experience for them.

We’re also proud that this year we released our second book, The Loudest Pen Ever. Additionally, this past September we went to California to produce our first travel guide, Cruising thru Cali. While in Cali, we went to L.A., San Francisco, Napa, and Sonoma visiting various different restaurants, wineries, and breweries. Cruising thru Cali will be available via ISLPDTX.com this Christmas. We’re different from other production companies because instead of offering production services like videography or photography to clients, we create our own digital and physical products and sell them directly to consumers. This lets us control the production process as far as creating the products that we want to, when we want to. Furthermore, it gives us the opportunity to make money at any time since our site is always accessible to customers. The best part is that it makes our products exclusive because they can only be purchased on our site. So our tagline #InkWithUs is a reality.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least.
I love that there’s always something to do in Dallas. It’s also very entrepreneurial, so I’m always meeting creatives, entrepreneurs, bloggers, influencers, etc. It’s so dope to see so much creativity happening in the city at the same time. It keeps me inspired and motivated. I also love the cost of living, Dallas is still pretty affordable, so I can have a really nice apartment and still afford to do the things I want to do as well as invest in my businesses.

The only thing I don’t like is the traffic and the fact that Dallas can be cliquish. There’s literally always traffic in Dallas, and because the city is growing so fast, there’s construction everywhere. Dallas can also be cliquish. It took me forever to meet cool people and really build genuine friendships. As I grow my businesses, I definitely want to help people make connections and get over the Dallas cliques.

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Clothes: MusebyDC, Jewelry: Strut, Shoes: ShuEsq, Styling: LoudPen, Hair Stylist: Evia, Makeup Artist: Tony Price, Model: Shanitta Turner, Photographer: DeMarcus Mitchell, Editorial Name: AfriDally, Photographer: Emmanuel Lopez, Creative Director, Stylist, Makeup Artist: LoudPen, Models: Danielle Mia Moore, Justin Collins, G Peoples
Casting & Production: 8515, Designers: Mory Jay by Memory Jora and BabaAfrik Outfits, Jewelry: Strut, Makeup: Civilized Cosmetics, Publication: de la Pen… All Pen Everything, Publisher: ISLP

Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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