How Donye Taylor Went from Myspace to Making Space for Black Creatives

For those who are looking to connect the dots between content and culture, call Donye Taylor. She’s been doing it since the Myspace days and hasn’t stopped since. As the CEO and Co-Founder of The Digital Footprint, a Black-owned creative marketing agency, Donye ensures her clients are on a path to success by outlining strategies and metrics through the lens of a business partner. The most inspiring part? Almost all of her clients are Black. Twitter’s God-is Rivera admires Donye for using her talents and for her keen understanding that this specific audience is the one who is pushing culture forward. “The Digital Footprint website states, ‘A Black-Owned & Millennial Led Creative Agency’ and ‘Everybody on our team is a person of color.’ Those simple yet powerful statements let you know immediately how important representing her community and culture are to Donye…From impressive creative partnerships with brands like Nike and hit products like Culture Tags to her own creative consulting projects, it seems like Donye is not going to be stopping anytime soon.” Read on to find out how Donye ensures all her work leads back to people of color being respected and valued in the creative space, how a friend who was a source of support went on to become her business partner, and why her definition of success is a striking resemblance of a God-is Rivera in the making. Tell us about what you are doing now. As the CEO and Co-Founder of The Digital Footprint, a Black-Owned creative marketing agency, I oversee leading our clients to the path of success as it relates to their brand. I also serve as a member of the Fohr Diversity Advisory Board, where I provide guidance and insight on how to make influencer marketing a more inclusive space for creators of color. I wear a lot of hats and do a lot of work on a daily, but everything I do always circles back to making sure that people of color are valued, respected, and nurtured within the creative space. How did you get to where you are today? I started out creating Myspace pages and I was always known as the girl who would take everybody's photos and help with their captions on social media. This grew into a curiosity for graphic design. I taught myself Photoshop and started monetizing my graphic design skills by making logos for clients. Thanks to the help of my friend and now business partner, Raymond Smith, I landed a job as a Junior Marketing Manager at a sneaker retailer on the east coast. We worked closely together on several accounts such as Nike, New Balance, and adidas for about a year. This job is where I really found out that enjoyed working on marketing from a 360 perspective and not just for graphics. Shortly after, I started The Digital Footprint with Raymond. Since then, I have been on a journey and constantly evolving as a Black creative. The Digital Footprint was commissioned by Nike to capture and create content for the AF-1 Anniversary Campaign in Baltimore, MD. What’s one way you’ve invested in yourself that’s had the most impact over the course of your career? What about within the past year? Most recently one of the best investments that I have made as a business owner has been hiring somebody to help our agency out with processes and workflows. When I first started out, I thought that scaling your business was hiring a bunch of people but now I know that scaling businesses means implementing a system that can handle influx. The most productive and successful businesses have tightknit operations in place and I’m so happy for the progress that we have made since hiring our new Operations Coordinator. This investment has not only helped me as a business owner, but it has helped my team work more efficiently which in turn has a positive impact on their mental health. Who has helped you in your journey and how did they help shape your career? I never really had “mentors” and I always thought I needed them. But I realized that my best friend and business partner, Raymond, has been a great mentor to me. He has taught me how to navigate as a woman in this industry and how to remain calm and think logically. I don’t know who I would be as a woman or as a CEO without his guidance. What’s the single best piece of advice you’ve ever received? My uncle told me this when I was growing up and this advice pretty much applies to everything: sometimes you have to give a dime to get a quarter. Sometimes you have to give a dime to get a quarter. This means that sometimes you will have to sacrifice a thing or two in order to get what it is that you REALLY want. This mindset has allowed me to put my head down and do the not-so glamorous work in order to get the results that I want. What does success mean for you? Success to me is measured by how many people that I can impact. Through my work I don’t just want to create amazing content and campaigns that generate revenue for my clients–I want to create culturally relevant content that people can emotionally connect to. Be sure to check out the other features in our special week-long edition of Women Trailblazers as we highlight powerful women of color who God-is sees, admires, and wants to amplify as they leave their own mark on the world. Why Deadra Rahaman’s Leadership Role is A Big Deal for the Future of Advertising