Happy Monday, Creators 👋
This is the welcome for all the new people. If you’re a regular, feel free to jump to the next block. Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.
Welcome to Remarkable Monday. This is our corner of the internet where we get the inspiration and insights to crush our content goals for the week ahead. Make yourself at home and feel free to hit reply if you want to get in contact with me, your host. I’m Mark Patterson, and my hope for you this week is that you make it remarkable!
Meet the “T’Challa” of marketing
Aaron Francois is an award-winning creative strategist and marketer who founded Black Visionaries, a nonprofit community for Black professionals across industries. On LinkedIn, his voice has opened doors to speaking engagements, brand partnerships, and mentoring relationships that most people spend years chasing. This week on ConvoRoom, Aaron traced the full arc of how he got here and what it actually takes to build a presence while still excelling at your job.
Before the brand, there was a stage
Aaron Francois was a street dancer before he was ever a marketer. He hosted underground hip-hop tournaments, commanded crowds, and grabbed mics in front of thousands of people. It was just who he was. Then he entered corporate America. By 2020, he had a defining moment. He started posting on LinkedIn after opening his phone to watch someone who looked like him get killed.
Representation
He calls himself the T'Challa of marketing, and as you learn more of his story, that nickname earns its weight. Black Panther was the first time he saw a Black superhero walk into any room, carry his people on his shoulders, and make others feel like they belonged there too. That is what he decided he wanted to be in his industry.
What strikes me most is that he was already doing it before anyone gave him a title for it. He was getting speaking engagements before he ever called himself a speaker. He was mentoring people before he built a platform around it.
Pick it up.
Aaron's story is less about discovery and more about recovering the greatness buried beneath the surface. He unearthed his passion, started building the infrastructure to match it, and refused to wait for someone else to name what he had already proven by actually doing it. For early-stage creators like us, that is the whole lesson. You are probably further along than you think. The work is not starting over. It is picking up what you already put down.
I underplayed it until I realized later in my career: this is a valuable thing and I need to show that.
Weekly Playbook
Four moves to make before next Monday:
Run an honest audit on yourself: Write down three skills you use consistently that you have never formally claimed. We’re not writing a bio anew here. Just competencies you effortlessly show up with. Then ask one person who knows your work what they come to you for. Their answer will likely name something you have been taking for granted.
Define your three pillars: Aaron described pillars as things that speak to your ethos and your values, not just trending topics. If you are creating content, speaking at events, or building a business, you need a center of gravity. Sit with this question: what three things do I genuinely know and genuinely care about? Your pillars live at that intersection.
Show up where you want to be invited: Identify one brand, organization, event, or community where you want to be known. Then, engage genuinely this week.
Protect two hours: Aaron shaved two hours from weekend downtime to build his content system. Not his whole weekend. Just two hours. That boundary is not a sacrifice. It is a jar. It is the space where your preparation actually happens. Identify the two hours this week and put them on the calendar before something else fills that slot.
If you’re reading this far…
I hope this message finds you well. I’m sharing from my heart in hopes that you will be inspired to unearth and live out your God-given purpose. Hopefully, something I said resonated. I would love to hear from you if so. Please feel free to reach out to me on social media.
FYI: I’m mostly active on LinkedIn these days. If you were forwarded this message, you can subscribe here to receive thoughts like this directly in your inbox. And don’t forget to check out the latest episode of my podcast, ConvoRoom with Mark Allen Patterson.