Chattanooga resident Jasmine Clark is bringing her promotional tour for her new venture, From Passion to Paycheck, to UTC Tuesday, April 19.Jasmine Clark wants to change the way college students and recent graduates think about choosing a career. Last month, the 25-year-old Chattanooga resident launched a promotional tour for her new business venture, From Passion to Paycheck.
For the past few weeks, Clark has been traveling to top schools around the country – recent stops include Cornell University, Columbia University and New York University – facilitating exploratory workshops for current students and alums, using hands-on activities to help participants create a life they are excited to wake up to every day, she said.
The tour is coming to the University of Tennessee Tuesday, April 19 from 4:30-6 p.m.
“I recognize that going through school, things are very tunnel-focused,” she said. “People end up not liking their career because they didn’t explore what they wanted to do in college.”
Clark knows this from personal experience.
“I graduated from a top business school, and at the time I was passionate about working for a big company, but I decided it wasn’t something I wanted to do long-term,” said Clark, who upon graduating from New York University’s Stern School of Business in 2013 was hired by multinational consumer goods company Unilever as a Future Leader brand marketer.
The Atlanta native’s boyfriend lived in Chattanooga, where she decided to move, and last June she started her own strategic marketing firm, JMC Marketing. Last October, during Chattanooga’s Start-Up Week, she launched From Passion to Paycheck: Freelance 101, and started scheduling speaking engagements in November.
Clark believes that instead of applying for jobs, recent grads should pinpoint their own unique talent – the thing they are passionate about that just seems to flow easily for them – and recognize the value it has so they can market themselves to businesses and create their own opportunities.
She is also experienced in this regard: Tired of working multiple jobs and still having difficulty making ends meet, Clark started networking, gathering business cards and contacting people to tell them about her desire to go to business school, conveying her passion to succeed and willingness to work hard to reach her goals.
She reached out to the dean at Stern, who helped Clark get a scholarship to attend the school. Clark said she was able to get his attention by communicating her value and presenting a plan to work to help pay for her schooling.
She wants to teach other Millennials how to create their own opportunities as well, which is the focus of her workshops.
“They may not leave knowing exactly what they want to do, but it will help them start their exploration to find not necessarily what they want to do for a lifetime, but what they want to do right now and what they need to do to get there,” said Clark.
Through her promotional tour, she said she is developing relationships with elite schools across the nation, laying the groundwork for her eventual goal of providing recruiting and consulting services for top companies.
No registration is required for the free workshop at UTC. Clark also offers private sessions through the business.
For more information, visit passionstopaycheck.com or email jasmine@jmcmrktng.com.