Entrepreneur Profile: Rakia Reynolds of Skai Blue Media

Rakia Reynolds, owner of Skai Blue Media, a lifestyle public relations firm, grew up hearing that the “skai” was the limit to her potential. “My parents were blue collar workers and told me I could reach for the stars and do anything I wanted to do, and I always truly believed them.”

Her upbringing may have been part of the reason she was comfortable navigating the twists and turns of her unconventional career path and picking up useful skill sets from each. “I went to Temple University and was working in residential housing and student life, and I was learning all of these great interpersonal skills and managing budgets and supervising staff.” 

After a while, her hard work and solid reputation paid off when she was recommended for a different job. “MTV was doing a local TV show and needed someone who knew all about Philly, and someone told them that I knew the city and knew people. I became a consultant for the show and then began producing content for networks like Planet Green, Discovery Health, TLC, and Fox.”

Rakia worked in a variety of roles until Lucky Magazine took notice of her. “Lucky called and said they had heard I was a TV producer who was really into fashion, so I started producing editorials for the magazine. From there, a local PR firm heard about me through Lucky, and I was recruited to join them, and that’s how I got my start in public relations. All those experiences, all those years, I was building the foundation for what I am doing now—I was in training.” And with those years of training under her belt, Rakia decided to branch off and start her own PR firm, Balahu, which specialized in working with artists.

But Balahu wouldn’t end in the success to which she was accustomed. “Balahu just didn’t work out—I fell flat on my face. I remember thinking, ‘This is not how I envisioned things going!’” Soon after that setback, however, a restaurant called and asked Rakia to do their PR in the same way she had for her artist clients, and finally her business fell into place, utilizing her skills that had been years in the making. “Because of my background in television, I use video and mixed media, along with other forms of promotion. I’m not a traditional publicist where I have one view of media placement.” The result, Skai Blue Media, is a lifestyle PR firm for restaurants, business districts, boutiques, artist organizations, salons, designers, and anyone else in the beauty and fashion worlds.

Skai Blue Media is different from other PR firms because of Rakia's combined education and work experiences. “Having worked at a bigger PR firm and starting my own, I wanted it to be smaller, more a boutique sense, and I needed the organic component to be there. Going back to my business school years, we did everything in study groups and bounced ideas off each other, and that really worked for me. When I talked about a thesis to a group of 50 people, I had the experience of organically bouncing ideas off classmates, sitting in one room, working together, and I wanted that for Skai Blue Media. We all help each other out. Everyone is assigned to certain accounts, but if someone is stuck, others offer to help.”

Rakia’s ideas about partnership carry over into the rest of her life as well, making relationships a large priority in both her professional and personal life. “I’m a big proponent of people having and being mentors. As someone helps me find out where I need to go, I want to help others figure that out. The only way to work in this day and age is to have really good, strong relationships and talk to people and be genuinely interested in them.” 

She tries to include a variety of clientele and services in her business. “Right now we’re taking on freelance clients from a lot of different circumstances. We have some ask us to style them for press conferences, and televised events. We have mothers who are returning to work and want to know what pieces to have in their closet for work. We talk to college students about what to wear in the work world. People come to me with tattoos asking how to cover them up.”

And for the immediate future, Rakia is allowing Skai Blue Media to evolve as naturally as her own career has. “Since we’re so immersed in the fashion world, we’re going to be launching a full-fledged styling service in September. Our styling services will be a one-stop-shop concierge service. We work with stylists, makeup artists, estheticians, closet organizers, and give people a 360 experience on their style.”