In this week’s episode, Lauren hosts Jazerai Allen-Lord, sneaker icon and Founder of True to Size. Jazerai opens up about turning her passion for community, culture, and sneakers into a career and we discuss finding community in the early internet days. Jaz shares how she gained confidence through other’s beliefs in her abilities, and the pivotal coaching she received when starting her own agency.
We also get personal, and the ‘Comeback Kid’ talks about the value of keeping some things private, why sentimental gifts matter so much to her, and the joy in giving her kids a front row seat to what it looks like to chase a dream.
“I firmly believe that if I’m in the position, I’m going to go balls-to-the-wall and just see what happens.” - Jazerai Allen-Lord
Follow Don’t Fuck This Up on IG: @dontfckthisup.podcast
Follow Lauren Alvarez on IG: @LaurentheAlvarez
Follow Jazerai on IG: @nerdlikejazzy
Follow Jazerai on X: @jazzyrae
Follow True To Size on IG: @tts.agency
Work with True To Size: www.truetosize.com
Email the show at advice@dontfckthisup.com for your questions to be answered on an upcoming episode!
In this week’s episode, Lauren hosts Jazerai Allen-Lord, sneaker icon and Founder of True to Size. Jazerai opens up about turning her passion for community, culture, and sneakers into a career and we discuss finding community in the early internet days. Jaz shares how she gained confidence through other’s beliefs in her abilities, and the pivotal coaching she received when starting her own agency.
We also get personal, and the ‘Comeback Kid’ talks about the value of keeping some things private, why sentimental gifts matter so much to her, and the joy in giving her kids a front row seat to what it looks like to chase a dream.
“I firmly believe that if I’m in the position, I’m going to go balls-to-the-wall and just see what happens.” - Jazerai Allen-Lord
Follow Don’t Fuck This Up on IG: @dontfckthisup.podcast
Follow Lauren Alvarez on IG: @LaurentheAlvarez
Follow Jazerai on IG: @nerdlikejazzy
Follow Jazerai on X: @jazzyrae
Follow True To Size on IG: @tts.agency
Work with True To Size: www.truetosize.com
Email the show at advice@dontfckthisup.com for your questions to be answered on an upcoming episode!
Jazerai Lord (00:00)
And I pray I don't fuck this up, so thank you for having me, Lauren.
Lauren Alvarez (00:04)
My pleasure. Also, I know you well enough to know you're not fucking this up. Like, you would take this, spin it on its head, teach it a couple of dance moves, and send it on its way. It's going to be good. Yeah, I mean, I've definitely seen things have been really busy for you these last few months. Before we dive into everything, how are you doing?
Jazerai Lord (00:13)
Yay!
I just got off the road for 13 days, way to kick off 2024. And it's been intense for sure, but I constantly am reminding myself, like, this is the life you prayed for, this is the life you asked God for. And so I'm learning how to live it. Like every single day, I feel like I'm just learning how to live the life that I worked for.
Lauren Alvarez (00:26)
Wow.
Yeah, and I feel like you have such a cool and storied and unique kind of ascent into your career. And now today as a CEO and founder of your own agency, True to Size, you know, starting out early days, like I when I was thinking of all the things we could talk about in this interview, I was like, oh, my God, there's so much to cover. But I do, you know, remember, you know, back early days, you started out.
posting pictures on Tumblr of your sneakers, right? This was like an early passion of yours. And I think that's something I hear a lot from listeners is that they wanna figure out ways to turn their passion into their career, but also figuring out ways to not lose their love for it. I feel like if anything, you love sneakers more. Is that safe to say?
Jazerai Lord (01:28)
I think today, yes, there was definitely, especially in the place where we met, I mean we've known each other quite a while now, but I was.
in a space where I was like, figuring out how do I love it because I had given so much to it that there were so many blurred lines. And I think a lot of creatives go through that of like, I love this thing, but when you work in it, there's this extreme consumption of that thing. And so it's like, how do I remain loving it while still putting the business around it? And I think that took me quite a quite a while too.
Lauren Alvarez (01:43)
Yeah.
Yes.
Jazerai Lord (02:05)
come to terms with within myself. But in today, yes, like, I can say I've gotten to a place where I love the product again. I'm a consumer and a joyful consumer. And I think that also has a lot to do with where the industry is today, because there's a lot more product to be excited about.
Lauren Alvarez (02:22)
Yeah, definitely. And I saw you had said recently in an article that you can't I think you said like, I can't be bothered chasing a shoe around the internet, something like that. And like, I'm too grown for that. Is that kind of your perspective now? Because I mean, like, there was a time where everything was like, have the hype sneaker wait in line outside of the store, go online and try to beat all the bots. But like, where have you evolved to? And you're thinking now? Are you just like, it's about comfort? Or it's about one particular shoe? Like, how do you kind of figure that out?
Jazerai Lord (02:32)
Yeah.
I think also when you've been doing it, I mean, as you said, I love sneakers since I was 11 years old. So I have a sneaker bedroom, a room for my shoes that there is also a bed in case guests come. But I think that you kind of collect these things, these relics over the years of memories of decades of your life. And so at a point, it's like how many more things are there to get excited about? Or
Lauren Alvarez (02:57)
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (03:16)
when the brand is dropping the same shoe four and five times in your lifetime, like, do I really, am I really excited every single time? And occasionally I am. The Bread 4 just came out in leather and I bought it again. And you know, I just like bought the shoe four times in my life, I'm gonna buy it every time it comes out. But I really love the stories. And recently we've seen so many women hero to sneaker culture, the WNBA having a moment and.
Lauren Alvarez (03:25)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (03:43)
the stories are starting to feel far more resonant again for me, which makes me want to buy. It kind of changes my perspective. I want to chase the shoe that means something to me. But to your point, like, I don't want to chase everything that comes out every Saturday. I don't have the energy anymore.
Lauren Alvarez (03:53)
I love that.
I mean, yeah, who has time for that, please? Like, especially, like, I mean, I know you're not sitting home just like eating chips when you're, uh, have downtime. Like, what is boredom? You don't know. I don't either.
Jazerai Lord (04:11)
I don't know. I'm here trying to do laundry for the first time in February.
Lauren Alvarez (04:15)
Oh, totally. I mean, actually very relatable. That was like our whole weekend was just sorting a mountain of laundry and like, it just never ends. It's like, what are you gonna do? Especially after travel. I mean, thinking about like you touched on it. So is the bread four? Is that your favorite sneaker of all time? Do you have a favorite sneaker of all time? You said that there's memories related. So I'm guessing there could be kind of some overlap here.
Jazerai Lord (04:38)
I'm a California girl, so the Chuck Taylor, well, I mean, that's the first shoe my mom couldn't afford with her, you know, with being a single mom. And so I had like the little off-brand Chucks, but the Chuck Taylors, the Bread 4, absolutely was one of the shoes that I had when Zion was a baby. You know, I bought that shoe and had it for a few years and then Zion came into the world in 2002. So, so many shoes are connected to times in my life and they just remind me of those.
Lauren Alvarez (04:56)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (05:08)
the De La Soul Nike SBs. I camped for those shoes. So it's just such a, yeah. And then I did, I got married in those shoes and ended up meeting Paz from De La Soul and styling him for a couple of years and developing a long-term friendship with him through those shoes. And so there are things I think that are so intricate, you know, to who I am.
Lauren Alvarez (05:13)
Wow. And you got married in a pair of those, right?
Jazerai Lord (05:36)
that it's difficult to separate myself from the shoes and separate my emotions from the shoes.
Lauren Alvarez (05:36)
Yeah.
Yeah, that really makes sense. I mean, you talked about your mom not being able to afford the shoes. You brought me back to, I just had a memory of, I remember the very first sneakers that I really wanted and my mom reluctantly looking at the price tag and being like, we could put these on layaway. And I remember that was my big back to school moment is like, okay, I'm going to have these Air Max 96s. They're not that cool.
Jazerai Lord (06:04)
Yep.
Lauren Alvarez (06:06)
And, but they were then and like I definitely was really excited just like in that moment to feel like I was going to belong to something. I don't even think I knew what I was going to belong to, but there was this moment for me of like, these aren't from Payless. These are, these are big time. And I mean, I wore them down. I ground the souls into the ground, into the ground, you know, it's like wore them out completely and then recently was able to like rebuy a very similar pair. And I was like, oh, oh.
Jazerai Lord (06:15)
Okay.
Lauren Alvarez (06:33)
There they are. So I do get that. Take me to one of your earlier memories of what was one of your first bigger purchases when it came to sneakers and what did that feel like for you?
Jazerai Lord (06:44)
It was a Jordan IE 11 Low and I re-bought that shoe years later at a resell shop in San Diego, my hometown. So it was very full circle and nostalgic for me. I put that shoe on layaway. I think that's a lot of our stories. You know, I...
Lauren Alvarez (07:00)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (07:01)
walked in and I worked at the mall at Sears and I walked over to Foot Locker and they were 75, $76 and I put them on layaway and I paid $20 every paycheck and was so excited when it was time to go pick them up and wear them out of the store and put my old shoes in the box and all of that is not really a part of the culture anymore and I think it's you know it's difficult to explain to somebody that has never been able to like.
Lauren Alvarez (07:08)
Yep.
Yeah.
I know.
Jazerai Lord (07:30)
walk into Foot Locker and buy a shoe. You know, that's just not the vibe today.
Lauren Alvarez (07:33)
Yeah. And the smell, the smell of the new shoe and the box in the store and the trial socks, if you weren't wearing the right ones, were always really weird. I was like, I don't know. I don't know.
Jazerai Lord (07:38)
Yeah.
Now, and the little thing you put your foot in, right? To like do this. Yeah.
Lauren Alvarez (07:46)
Oh, to measure. I remember that. I had no idea what that feeling, like as soon as you said that, I was like, oh yeah, I remember what the cold metal and the things sliding. Now for anybody like Gen Z that you're listening to this, you're like, what are these old kooks talking about here? There is a metal foot sizer. I actually feel like I need one of those after having a baby, totally.
Jazerai Lord (08:04)
You're gonna have to put one. You're gonna have to put one in the-
Lauren Alvarez (08:07)
Yeah, I'll put a picture in the episode. Please click on the show notes if you'd like to see what this looks like. But yeah, it was probably, and I know you have two boys, so it was definitely for you, but I didn't know that my foot size was gonna change when I had a baby and that it might not go back. And that is an expensive, yeah, they get longer. I thought they were gonna get fat and then skinny. I was like, I can deal with that, but they get longer. And that was something that's a very expensive problem to have if you're a shoe collector like you are, like I am. It was...
Jazerai Lord (08:12)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yes. They're bigger. Mm-hmm.
Yep.
I mean, I can't fit a lot of these shoes, but if I'm not selling them and I'm not giving away, I'm like, these are my shoes. And to your point, maybe one day I'll fit them again, but I doubt it.
Lauren Alvarez (08:38)
Yeah.
Yes.
Totally, I'm like, can I shrink my feet back down? Talk to me a little bit about early career because I know that like you were in, you know, hoping to go into editorial, into journalism. I remember you telling me this story back when we met years ago, but that you said print died. And I'd love to hear like,
Jazerai Lord (08:49)
Yes, exactly.
Lauren Alvarez (09:03)
what did you think it was gonna be? And then what did you do with that moment when you realized, hey, that career I wanted isn't an option?
Jazerai Lord (09:09)
I thought I was gonna have a column in Sassy magazine. Shout out to Sassy. Definitely a moment in time for the rebel girls of the 90s and Jane magazine, I thought I would have. I would read Cosmo and Glamour because these were the publications that were available to us. Like the woman who was between teen beat or like, you know, these pull the magazine, pull the covers for...
Lauren Alvarez (09:13)
Dreams can happen. Yeah, hello, Sassy.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (09:38)
your wall type of moments and like, what is womanhood? And I never really found a resonant voice in those publications outside of Sassy and Jane. And so that was kind of where I felt, oh, I want to be like Khadijah James on Living Single, but I don't want to talk about hip hop. Like I want to talk about women's stuff. And it was just like, oh, wow, there's 2006, I'm graduating and there's nowhere to write. I mean,
publications are just folding left and right. And all of a sudden this thing called a blog exists. And I kind of started, I was like, well, I guess I'm gonna be a blogger, like whatever that means. And I started at AOL and like doing freelance work, doing earthquake preparedness articles pet adoption articles. So I would go to the Chatsworth rescue.
Lauren Alvarez (10:16)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (10:30)
center and I would, they would give me a list of animals that needed like a little ad and I would write up about the animal and how you need to come and take it home and take pictures of it and yeah, that's kind of how I started in writing. I would post a lot personally on Tumblr and I got married in a pair of De La Soul SB highs and that picture of the shoes under my wedding dress just went viral on Tumblr.
Lauren Alvarez (10:47)
Mm-hmm.
Jazerai Lord (10:57)
the CEO of Kicks on Fire ended up reaching out to me on AIM. Shout out to AIM, what a time. And yeah.
Lauren Alvarez (11:02)
Yes. That's how I reach out to you to come on the show. Don't play, yeah. Ha ha ha.
Jazerai Lord (11:09)
Exactly, a little AOL IM. And he was like, Hey, like, do you like sneakers? Is this you? And I'm like, Yeah, that's me. It's like, Do you like sneakers? Yes. Do you want to write on a blog? And I'm like, Hmm, what is the blog? What is that? And he's like, I'm gonna pay you to write about sneakers. And I'm like, Fuck yeah. Yeah, like, I'm doing that for free. Of course. So
Lauren Alvarez (11:29)
Yeah, you're like, dream unlocked. Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (11:38)
It was very serendipitous. And I think what the advice I give people in coming into this industry is like, it's a relationships business and you can teach skill later. But, you know, he heard of me from somebody else who saw this picture of me on Tumblr and was like, do you wanna do it? And that's kind of how I started.
Lauren Alvarez (11:58)
That's amazing. And you also had a long relationship with Kicks on Fire. I mean, that was like, you know, almost 10 years, right? That you were writing with them. Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (12:04)
Yes, yes, I started as a junior copywriter making $5 an article, you know, and again, thinking I'm coming out of college to make $2.50 a word to go to $5 an article was quite a shock. And then I helped Khan build his business there and left as the director of operations and kind of just didn't know that media had a larger pathway. And I'm honestly not sure if for like,
Lauren Alvarez (12:14)
Right.
Yes.
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (12:32)
women in sneakers, there was a larger pathway at that time. And so I wanted to kind of go into a different type of storytelling, which is when I met you.
Lauren Alvarez (12:35)
Yeah.
Yeah, totally. And I feel like, you know, it can be really isolating to be like on an island of Jazz array where you're like, I don't see myself represented exactly in the industry. And there's something to be said about being, you know, the thing you're lauded for, you're independent, you're, you know, no one's met anyone like you, you're so different, you're so unique. But sometimes that can create a separation, you know, when you're in those spaces and you look around and you're like, there is no other me, like I am on this island, and I'm kind of doing this by myself. And I feel like, you know, that can be a really difficult thing to overcome.
when you're in industry. And I don't think this is, you know, this is agnostic of the sneaker space or of journalism. I mean, this is really any industry. Like we walk into spaces and we look to see ourselves represented in those spaces. And when we're not, it can really make you feel othered. And I feel like a lot of your work has really centered itself on.
creating belonging and creating spaces for people who represent multitudes who are not just single-faceted. And I think that's something really interesting. It's a through line into the work you're doing today, but even back then you were starting to try to put the feelers out there. Where are the other people? I know you're out there. Talk to me a little bit about that desire to activate and to find community in those spaces where there really wasn't any.
Jazerai Lord (13:45)
Yes.
It started as like not a business mission. I was really looking for other girls, you know, and I felt to your point super isolated. I had a strong sneaker community in the school I went to in college and, you know, in my hometown, but there were very few women in those communities and I would meet women at the sneaker shows, but they would be like Jen twice in Florida and.
Lauren Alvarez (14:09)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (14:16)
You know, Jay Cheyenne in LA, I was living in San Diego at this time. And so they would be all over the place. So when I was at Kicks on Fire, I really used my platform to attempt to rally up all of these women and try to create a community in the digital space for us, because we weren't finding that on our own in our hometowns. And we had chicks on fire and we would feature like 50 women every week. That my best friend, Janay and I, and.
Lauren Alvarez (14:19)
Mm-hmm.
Jazerai Lord (14:41)
it came to a point where we had to put up like Craigslist ads to look for women. Like we were just so desperate to find them. This is before Instagram existed and you know, when Twitter was a place that you text your tweets into. And so there wasn't a lot of social, um, as far as finding people that way. So we kind of went to the message board, the Reddit route, and we're looking for women in that way. Um, and you know, collecting a small community.
Lauren Alvarez (14:48)
Of course.
Yes.
Jazerai Lord (15:09)
of women who, and I think at that time, we were really looking to be not the model, but the collector. And there was a lot of representation for women, but it would be like paid women who would be in their boyfriend sneakers, or import, you know, car show type girls who would be on the arm of a man. But there wasn't a lot of women being featured who genuinely loved the community and the culture.
Lauren Alvarez (15:15)
Yeah.
right.
Mm-hmm.
Jazerai Lord (15:36)
especially women who worked in the business, but even at that time, just women who collected shoes. There was no representation for that. So that started as just a passion project and looking to find a community. And now I would say there are so many communities of women. That piece, that pain point that we saw 15 years ago, I don't think is there anymore. I think we still see a lack of communities being uplifted for sure. But women are...
Lauren Alvarez (15:57)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Jazerai Lord (16:04)
Women are doing the work. Women are like, I'm gonna find, we'll find each other. We'll find our own budget when we'll create the space ourselves.
Lauren Alvarez (16:09)
Yes.
That's amazing too. And I think there's something about like that kind of online first community that was like such a big part of, I mean, I was definitely like an early internet kid. It's funny, my husband, I were talking to this last night and he was not that way, but I was like, oh yeah, I had like a live journal, I had Friendster, I had, he's like, what in the internet are you talking about? And we're the same age, but I was like, yeah, I was just like, really, I was like using CSS to like make my page look cool and put the music on it and everything like way before that was.
Jazerai Lord (16:32)
Yep.
little sparkly drop downs on the... Yeah!
Lauren Alvarez (16:40)
sparkly drop downs and sharing pictures of like my outfits or my sneakers or whatever. But that was like not normal. And I love that you were talking about Tumblr because it like totally brought me back to like, yeah, that was like where that was the original fit check. We were like, hold on. Here's my look and bringing that online culture offline into, you know, real life. Like what were some of the earlier meetups or experiences that you were building out? Because that was that kind of experiential strategy or like culture moments that you were really pulling people in person for.
Jazerai Lord (16:45)
Yep.
Yes.
Oh man, we would start just meeting up at Dunk Exchange. That's like lightweight, not just, not official meetups, but like who's going to Dunk Exchange Vegas? Who's going to Dunk Exchange LA? Like let's try to all get together and do it there. And then we would have like a breakfast or a dinner together after the show. And then I would say that the first formal women's project I probably did was at Kicks on Fire.
Lauren Alvarez (17:17)
Love.
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (17:38)
And we partnered with Millennium Shoes in Inglewood and they allowed us to host a kind of chicks on fire event there. And I, oh my gosh, this was maybe before 2010, maybe somewhere between 2009, 2012. And I had, you know, women collectors out there, women, there was this woman named Aubrey and Gretchen who used to do like sneaker yoga.
Lauren Alvarez (17:54)
Wow.
Jazerai Lord (18:04)
So they would do like these really intense sneaker pose or yoga poses in sneakers. I had a woman artist out there who did live art and just a bunch of women coming out and hanging out within the store. I think they had a women's drop that day. And so it was thematic around that. But that was the first time I really kind of put a professional stick in the ground, I wanna say. And said like, okay, well let's.
Lauren Alvarez (18:25)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (18:29)
let's formalize this if we can. We were really just like, I always say throwing pasta at the wall at that time. Like no idea what we were doing, just trying stuff a lot. Tuesdays we would feature women on Twitter like throughout the day. So we would have chicks on fire and just constantly create threads once we got threads. But in the beginning, individual tweets about.
Lauren Alvarez (18:35)
I'm sorry.
Jazerai Lord (18:53)
a woman in her journey in sneakers and introducing people to them through our platform on Kicks on Fire.
Lauren Alvarez (18:57)
Yeah.
That's amazing too. And just thinking about like being featured on that would be like such a cool highlight for someone who was like, oh, I thought I was just doing this for me, or maybe I'd go to the mall and someone would be like, oh, I love your sneakers. But like to be featured in a way where you are gonna connect with new individuals in that community is such a cool, just like a cool thing to offer to others. I mean, talk to me a little bit about how some of like the past life positions that you held have maybe helped to define that professional approach and the lens that you have today, because you've worked in so many different types of environments.
worked for yourself a lot, but you definitely have like a more specific approach, thank goodness. We all need more of that. Thanks for listening.
Jazerai Lord (19:37)
I think it was important for me to understand everything happening in the room and which is
you know, going into the agency world was like, I know editorial, but I don't understand the strategic piece of it. I don't understand how business is sold. I don't understand the net 60. So, you know, like I didn't understand, I was telling a story from like editorial and doing all the fun creative stuff. But I understood that if I wanted to be more in sneakers, I had to learn more and to learn every factor of the business. So the strip, the strategy and the production and.
Lauren Alvarez (19:56)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (20:12)
the KPIs and the marketing piece, digital versus real life user experience, how those things are hybrid. All of those things were new to me. I kind of jumped into it wanting to make cool things and wanting to bring people together and not understanding that at the end of the day, even when it is sneakers, it's a business first. And so taking the time to kind of learn the business of it.
Lauren Alvarez (20:23)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (20:40)
I think really allowed me to see where the gaps were and kind of where voices were not being heard or where there wasn't a position created for a voice to be heard. And that really informed how I approached the work, and just taking a look at every single piece. At True to Size, we use a process called Checking the Fit and we check the fit between the talent and the product and the product and the message and the message and the audience, the audience and the environment that we activate in.
Lauren Alvarez (20:42)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (21:09)
you know, really walk through each piece of those things. And I also noticed in the agency world that a lot of people wanted to tell a lot of different types of stories. And while I'm very confident, and I think that I am that girl when I walk into the room, I also know I cannot tell everybody's stories. Like, I don't play soccer. How am I gonna tell a conca-calf story? I can't, like, this is not intrinsic to who I am, so.
Lauren Alvarez (21:18)
Yeah.
Thank you.
Jazerai Lord (21:36)
I just decided to go all in on what I know I could do exceptionally well. Um, and that's tell stories for women and tell stories for my community.
Lauren Alvarez (21:45)
I mean, let's talk about that confidence because I think that you definitely do have, like I am that girl, like when you walk in the room and there is a confidence. And I think that it's helpful, you know, a lot of our listeners are, that's a question I get all the time is like, how do I get more comfortable? How do I get more confident? You know, how do I put myself out there? Can you talk a little bit about maybe some of the sources of your own confidence while you're navigating these larger kind of transitional moments and then any advice that you have for folks who are trying to build their confidence?
Jazerai Lord (22:14)
I think for me, it really helped us to get real about what I was great at and what I wasn't. And I know everybody wants to do all the things. You know, I meet with young creatives and they're like, yeah, I want to be the videographer and the art director and the script writer. And I'm like,
You could be great at all those things, but at one, I'm sure you're amazing at. And I think it, one understanding what's the through line, like that's tying to your point, like all of these things together, and understanding that that's your mastery. And so going all in on what you can master and what you can focus on will really help you build that confidence. Because for me, it's like, I do the reading. You know, I set up at night and I read the industry blogs and the business blogs, and I...
Lauren Alvarez (22:35)
Yes.
Jazerai Lord (23:00)
pay attention to what's happening on the ground with the influencers and the kids, you know, 42 now. So it's like, I'm not the demo. So it's staying present where I know that I'm great. And the other things, you know, I cannot even entertain anymore at this time because it's too much energy for me. And if I want to feel confident, I have to know that I'm great. So again, like I'm not gonna tell the soccer story because I'm not gonna be great at it. You know?
Lauren Alvarez (23:04)
Yeah.
Yeah, I think, right. Right, but you know the other thing too is that you know the person to tap for the soccer story. You're like, I'm not that person, but let me tell you who is. And I think that it's also about leveraging your network. We don't get places alone. We do that by saying other people's names in the rooms that they're not in. We do that by tapping other people when we have opportunities. And I think you've always been really great about activating others around you. And
Jazerai Lord (23:29)
Thanks for watching!
Absolutely.
Lauren Alvarez (23:52)
calling out what you are and aren't good at. And I think like scream that into a megaphone, please, because I really think that there's a lot of people who try to do everything just as you said. And if you're doing everything okay, then you're doing nothing great. So it's like hone it in a little bit, zero in on what you're excellent at, and then start to like really talk about what you're excellent at so that other people can tap you when it's your time to shine, right?
Jazerai Lord (24:18)
Absolutely. You know, we say all the time in our shop that.
It's not the stories that you tell about yourself. It's the stories that other people tell about you. And when you're trying to do all of these things, you're not giving somebody a solid story to latch onto. And that was my problem with my content for a long time, which is like, yeah, I'm a mom and I cook and I like sneakers and I write poetry. And I do, you know, like, and people are like, okay, but like, you know, I think people should be able to.
walk away with three things about you. So when people, I try to frame the things that I put into the world around that. I want people to know that I care about my community, that I do women's work and that I'm a sneaker mom. And that I think that outside of that, outside of that, it's all fringe fun and games, but I really, this is where I try to remain solid so that when people think about me to...
Lauren Alvarez (25:01)
I love that.
Jazerai Lord (25:13)
for a project or for a press opportunity or something that they kind of keep it within this lane
Lauren Alvarez (25:18)
Yeah, definitely. I mean, what would you say is the hardest challenge that you've had to overcome in your life, you know, that has brought you to this place? I mean, because you are in a place where you seem, I'll say unbothered as a compliment, you know, and in a really good way, because there's just a lot of shit that gets hurled in all directions. And you seem to be pretty good at dodging it. But can you talk about maybe some challenges that haven't been as easy?
Jazerai Lord (25:39)
Oh man, I think when I think about myself, I always think like everything I'm afraid of already happened to me. And so, you know, like, bring it on. That's kind of how I feel now. But it's, I think that for me, it's been about watching myself recover. A lot of my friends in my early career, they called me like the comeback kid.
because they're like, man, the whole world fell apart for you and you bounced right back. Like three years later, here you are again. And that's like a reality for I've been divorced. I've lost a child. You know, like I've been, I'm a single mom. There's just been so much in my life that has totally rocked my world. And there have been times I stayed down for a long time, but I think that it's about getting up and knowing that like, okay, well.
Lauren Alvarez (26:08)
Yeah.
Mm.
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (26:28)
I remember in the beginning when it was harder for me, I would tell myself, like, I'd be like, oh, it's over, it's over. And then the little voice would say, you thought it was over the last time too. Like, you know, like, you know, like. So I'm like, you could, you thought it was over the last time, but this time you just forgot to pick up the dry cleaning. Like, you're gonna be okay, Jas, you're gonna be okay.
Lauren Alvarez (26:37)
Yeah.
Totally. I mean, yeah.
Totally, I mean, and since you love poetry too, I mean, there's a spoken word artist, Buddy Wakefield, who I always love, and he has this great line where he says, you know, hearts don't break, they bruise and get better. And he says, if its hearts really did break, I'd be able to offer you confetti by now. And you're like, oh yeah, so relatable. Cause it's like, wow, the times where I just remember feeling like absolutely destroyed, you know, whether that was career related or relationships. And then it's like, it opens up some other avenue for you to kind of take things to a whole nother level. And I mean,
Jazerai Lord (27:06)
Yeah, exactly. Yep.
Yeah.
Absolutely, and I firmly believe that like God has a purpose and a plan so when something is taken from me I don't feel sad about it. You know, I'm like, okay, well, it's not where I was supposed to be and the right thing will come along at the right time. It's a patience game, you know, it's definitely a patience game.
Lauren Alvarez (27:34)
Yeah.
Totally.
It is, and I think it's interesting because I really want to get into the weeds on the things that you waited a long time for. But I'd be remiss not to mention a recent post of yours where you shared a very sweet gift that you were given for Valentine's Day. And I will say, as someone who also can relate to being told my entire life that I'm, quote, hard to shop for,
Jazerai Lord (28:01)
Yes.
Lauren Alvarez (28:02)
Let's talk about sentiment when it comes to gift giving, because you can share what it was, who gave it to you if you want, but I just thought there was something really special because it was obviously the sentiment and it has nothing to do with the dollar amount and it really, it touched me. I thought about it several times since I saw it. So, yes.
Jazerai Lord (28:07)
Yeah.
Yes. Mm-hmm. Aww, thank you. I mean, listen. I'm gonna get my teddy.
Let me get Teddy to join the conversation because he's here with us. He's entered the chat. Yeah, I think, as you know, I've been single for quite some time and like definitely in some relationship trauma in this business, but I've been seeing someone about a year and it's been going really well. And I think that I'm really sensitive to what it's like to.
Lauren Alvarez (28:28)
Teddy has entered the chat.
Jazerai Lord (28:51)
date somebody like me who has a very public profile and does women's work, you know, and can sometimes be a little spicy. But I think that what I really, really love about him is the very first time that we met, he's like, I'm not interested in getting to know nerd-like Jazzy, like I wanna know Jaz-er-ay. And so we spent a lot of time getting to know each other as humans. And I did tell him in our friendship that
Lauren Alvarez (28:54)
Yeah.
No.
Jazerai Lord (29:19)
I always wanted this little Teddy Ruxpin, and that my mom couldn't afford it. She was a 19 year old single mom, and she was trying to put clothes on my back. And so she's like, I don't have 70, $100 for a talking bear. I'm sorry, Jazz, like it's not gonna happen. And so for Valentine's Day, he, yeah, he found this 1985 Teddy Ruxpin. So cute, it looks perfect. He went to go see eight of them. And I mean, just like the effort.
Lauren Alvarez (29:33)
I'm going to go ahead and turn it off.
So cute.
Jazerai Lord (29:48)
and the intention to me is like, at this place in my life and my career, I can do the things I wanna do for myself. I can buy the things I wanna buy for myself. And what I've learned being single over the last seven years or so is that, oftentimes like the financial gifts, the big moments, these big moments are like the easy thing in relationship. It's the hard thing is giving you your time and your attention and.
Lauren Alvarez (29:56)
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Jazerai Lord (30:17)
your space to grow something. That's the hard thing. And so yeah, I think this is just, to your point, the most extreme revelation of what that looks like.
Lauren Alvarez (30:28)
Yeah, and it's honestly like that sentiment and that thoughtfulness, that paying attention, like just knowing someone is listening to you and really hears you for what you're saying, not hears you and is trying to find the secret coded message. It's like cut away all the bullshit or the chaos and at its purest form, I mean, that's love. And I think that is, it's really special. Like I said, it really touched me. I've got nerdy goosebumps now because I'm such a dork for romance, but like I really think also.
Jazerai Lord (30:54)
Yeah, I told him that I was like, I literally told him I was like, babe, I have a it's a more of a personal interview tomorrow. And I think they're probably gonna ask me about the Teddy only because I was like, I don't want to hype you. I don't want to hype you. But like, I've been single for a long time. So like, this is a brand thing now. Like the Teddy Ruxpin was like the hard launch.
Lauren Alvarez (31:12)
Yeah.
Yeah, who knew Teddy Ruxman was gonna hard launch in 1985 when that Teddy was coming off the assembly line. It was like, I've got a big mission, but I gotta wait a while.
honestly, like shout out to this lovely human who gave you such a thoughtful gift. That was really, and I just loved it too because it's like, you're right. Like you could get yourself like the Bottega bag that if you wanted, or you could get yourself the hard to find Jordans that you want. But that is something that was just like totally not expected and I think that's super special.
Jazerai Lord (31:26)
So yes. Yes.
No, and that's, it's very easy for successful people too. It's like, oh, you want the bag? Here it is. But like, I don't know what happened in your day today. I couldn't tell you anybody in your family's name. I'm not paying attention to you or I'm not present with you. And I think that's been one of the bigger lessons in my big age and dating, you know, that I have definitely learned. It's like, there's some things you cannot buy, you know.
Lauren Alvarez (31:48)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm. Yes.
Yeah.
Yes.
Jazerai Lord (32:11)
those, and that's one of them. I think love for sure is one of them.
Lauren Alvarez (32:14)
Absolutely. Yeah, you know, I had a similar feeling when I met my now husband, but it was like, I could have given you like the list of all the qualities I would hope for in a partner, all the things that I thought I wanted. But then there was like this other like 10, 15% of things I just wouldn't have even known how to articulate or ask for because I didn't even know that was possible. Like all rolled into one. I thought I have a friend who put it like, I thought it was gonna be like an a la carte menu. I didn't know I could have the whole thing, you know? Like, yeah. I mean, weren't we all?
Jazerai Lord (32:40)
Well, I was dating like it was an a la carte. I was like, I'll take him because he has these three and I'll take him because he has these two and I'm just not going to commit. Like I'm just going to be out, you know, but to your point, like I didn't know I could have all those things rolled up into one.
Lauren Alvarez (32:57)
I mean, and I think that's the thing too is like, who has time for that? Like you're booked, you're busy. So.
Jazerai Lord (33:01)
I mean, I'm blessed that he's successful and he's able to go with me where I'm going for work. And so he was with me in LA for the Grammys and he was with me at Ojai for New Balance. And he's with me in Milwaukee when I go there and we make it work. We're very, I think, intentional about that. We commit to FaceTiming every day. And it's a hard thing for sure. But I'm like, if we, because we live, it's long distance.
Lauren Alvarez (33:27)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (33:27)
And I'm like, yeah, but if we lived in the same city, I don't know if you'd see me more. But that's just the reality of my life.
Lauren Alvarez (33:32)
Totally.
Yeah, and also like knowing what you need and like being independent, being, you know, out here running shit. I mean, it's also important to find times to soften and to know when you can just like kind of unfurl a little bit and having someone who brings that out for you and you can do the same for them. That's nice. That softness is not to be taken for granted, you know.
Jazerai Lord (33:52)
I know. Listen, I'm softer than I've ever been in my life, Lauren
Lauren Alvarez (33:57)
I know. But it's I mean, and it shows though. Yeah. Oh my gosh.
Jazerai Lord (34:00)
Even my kids, my kids are like, you're so nice now. I'm like, oh, I'm just so happy. It is.
Lauren Alvarez (34:08)
Happiness is the antidote sometimes, you know, and it's a, yeah, and especially when you've been through it, you know,
Okay, we'll pivot. Okay, so let's talk about true to size. And I think that even before you started that in 2020, you had a sold out collab with Reebok in 2019. I mean, there was this big lead up. It just felt like, okay, Jazz, we're watching. We see you're doing big things. What's next? And you're like, oh, what's next? Here, I've launched a sneaker-based consulting agency. Hello. Talk to me a little bit about that kind of moment of evolution for you.
Jazerai Lord (34:34)
Yes.
It's one I ran from for a really long time. I think that I was really comfortable playing the two and I played a really good two. I could support somebody else in their dreams and write the roadmap for them and do all that. And I loved that part of it, but there was a big fear of being the one. And I ran from that for so long. Even after the sneaker dropped, I was like, okay, maybe I'll just design more shoes. But then the pandemic happened. I think like my sneaker dropped.
Lauren Alvarez (35:06)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (35:07)
in September of 2019 and we shut the world down in March of 2020. And so I had a lot of plans and projects booked that I thought my life would take me in a very different direction, more influencer content creator designer type of vibe, which has never been even really my passion. Like I really liked the behind the scenes, putting the pieces together part. And so I was gonna ride the wave and do that, but the pandemic happened and I sat back and I was like, okay, well.
Lauren Alvarez (35:23)
Mm-hmm.
Jazerai Lord (35:37)
Honestly, my brain is like the best asset that I have and I can do that from anywhere with the world closed down. I just need somebody to give me a project to think on. And Palladium ended up coming in and they were our first kind of client to get the ball rolling. And Palladium, we worked on special projects so we did celebrity collabs with them. We opened up women's business. They're a French based brand and they were launching in the US in reaction to.
a huge influx of US consumer Gen Z girls. And so they had us kind of, you know, designed for that first collection that they would do just for the US girl. And we spent a year just designing and playing around with things. And that kind of got me to thinking like, okay, this could be a business. But I think it was for sure something that
had to happen. Like I didn't feel like I was jumping into it. It felt like I kind of backed into this corner. But it was the corner that everybody was like, eventually you're going to do this thing. We saw it with Sophia Chang and her ending up going on and having a very great thriving entrepreneur business and Melody Asani and being able to work with brands but also have a thriving business on her own. And so the Rihanna's of the world, you know, I think that this has been
Lauren Alvarez (36:29)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Jazerai Lord (36:55)
women drop shoes and then a business comes after is what we've typically seen. And so I kind of backed into a corner that people saw for me for a long time and I was scared. I had a lot of fear and imposter syndrome, but it was, I firmly believe that if I'm in the position, then like, I'm gonna go balls to the wall and just see what happens. And here we are. I mean. I'm like. Yeah.
Lauren Alvarez (37:00)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Here we are. I mean, you stayed pretty busy during the pandemic. I mean, other people were chilling in sweatpants and whether or not you were wearing sweatpants, you were not chilling. I mean, you were definitely like turning out content. You were really creating partnerships left and right. I mean, how did your output in terms of your work change through that transition? Not even just speaking to the pandemic, but really to launching this thing that you didn't even plan to launch. Did you feel like you were working backwards the whole time? Like, when did it start to feel
Jazerai Lord (37:30)
Yeah.
Lauren Alvarez (37:50)
you were facing forwards again.
Jazerai Lord (37:51)
I would say it still doesn't feel that way because it's the world has changed so much. I think we launched at the beginning of 2020 and then I secured $170,000 deal.
Lauren Alvarez (37:54)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (38:04)
and it was working on retail and then the pandemic happened. So we lost the original funding for the business. And so I was kind of just like, I'm gonna do whatever I can to feed my kids. And thank God it was things like, I worked with Pinterest for the first time that year. We worked with Palladium, I worked with K-Swiss. We worked with Adidas a ton that year. I think that I was blessed that.
Lauren Alvarez (38:07)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (38:26)
in our business, I would say 95% of our work is inbound. And so a lot of people believed in me and that helped with the confidence. Like if people are coming in house to ask me to do something, and it's consistently bringing a check in, I should probably formalize this thing. And I met with a professional coach at inbound. I went to the inbound HubSpot marketing conference and I met with the coach there. And they kind of just encouraged me to figure out
Lauren Alvarez (38:41)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (38:53)
what type of projects I wanted to work on and to create that differentiator. And so I just took a look at all of the things people were coming in to ask me to do. And most of them had to do with women or young Black people. And so I kind of chose that. I said, okay, well, other people's confidence allowed me to meet them where they were with myself to say, okay, well, I guess if all these people think that I'm great at it, I must be pretty good. So let me give it everything I have.
Lauren Alvarez (39:22)
Even there, the imposter syndrome, come on. Even if people think I'm great, I must be pretty good. You're fucking awesome. We all know that. Yes, absolutely. Thinking about that and what you've been able to receive in terms of information and really peeling the curtain back on a lot of companies that you're working with, what would you say, generally speaking, do companies generally get wrong about their approach to brand partnerships and bringing their brand into more experiential physical spaces?
Jazerai Lord (39:27)
Yeah! Yeah. Thank you.
I would say it's like checking that fit. And I think that's what really created the company is my business coach saying, like, you need to sit down and write out your process. Because I'm thinking I'm not doing anything special. So he's like, no, every single thing you do, you need to write it down. And what I noticed that I was doing was checking those connections for everything somebody had put in front of me. And I think that's what brands, the more I was working with brands, I would see that
A lot of them do not believe in cross-sectional teams. And it was just such a mindfuck for me to be like, wow, so marketing has no idea about what product is doing, like when they're developing. And nobody's talking to each other. So I would be in situations where I would be working with a marketing team and the design team would bring us a product and say, hey, this shoe is called XYZ.
Lauren Alvarez (40:26)
Yeah, they're just working in silos.
Jazerai Lord (40:43)
And I would say, why is it called XYZ? And they would say, we don't know, we just called it that. And I'm like, okay, like, so what am I supposed to do with this? Like, and they're like, just make something up. And I'm like, wow, okay, like there's a problem because I know that a designer did not go into this with no mood board or no inspo or you know, like,
Lauren Alvarez (40:54)
Yeah, what do you want me to do with that? Yeah.
Right.
Jazerai Lord (41:12)
but there's no communication in between the teams. And that's really where I try to live. I try to really look at where the pain points are. And if we can give you a roadmap to resolve it, and if we can actually activate that for you.
Lauren Alvarez (41:24)
Yeah, and I think like anytime you're working with different brands, you're trying to get up, you know, like I said, you're trying to get under the hood quickly, you're trying to understand what their needs are, and you're trying to, you know, also set them apart. I mean, do you have anything like weird or funny that has happened in these brand partnership settings that you can speak on?
Jazerai Lord (41:40)
Yeah, I would say like we were working with a brand regarding their mission once and they couldn't figure out like, why does everybody in this room, they won't believe that they can't get into our mission. And they have the word fitness in their mission. And so we went around the room and it's a global meeting. So it's like Asia and every market is in the meeting and they define fitness and every single person has a different definition of fitness. And so
Lauren Alvarez (41:45)
Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Jazerai Lord (42:08)
One person saying, oh, it's like running a marathon. Another person saying, oh, it's only if you play a team sport. Another person is saying fitness is holistic and includes mental health. Another person is saying like fitness is only fitness if it's competitive. And so like there's, it showed me so, so quickly that even in the top leadership positions, like these very granular conversations are not being had and how much that affects the business
Lauren Alvarez (42:36)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (42:37)
If you feel like fitness is yoga and you feel like fitness is football, and you're developing two totally different marketing plans. Like, how, that's why you have a problem. That's why nobody believes in your mission. That's why nobody can feel it because it's not cohesive and even here in this room. And that was like one of the biggest, I would say, eye openers for me in the fact that
a lot of these problems can be solved with conversation and really it's about creating the space for those conversations to be had.
Lauren Alvarez (43:07)
Yeah, I think like the one thing that when we were talking about things that we should talk about today, you know, you said the importance of representation, you know, in marketing and the importance of representation, even in the rooms that are creating the marketing, right? Like, we've all seen that disconnect. And on the episode where I hosted Massey, we talked a lot about the representation where like Gucci or H&M are like, how did that shit get made? It's like, well, because it was a homogenous room of people who were all saying yes to each other.
forgetting about this group or we're being very US centric and are lengthier. Talk a little bit about like where your agency really kind of interjects that representation. I know you talked a lot about women. You also talked about black people wanting to have representation there. What are the kind of specifics that like you focus on different communities or are you focused on a bigger global aperture for these companies? What sort of your approach?
Jazerai Lord (43:59)
I think in the beginning when we first started, a lot of people brought us in to have these like lunch and learns where we would, you know, talk about why it's yeah, talk about why you should be inclusive in your business over lunch for an hour and a half and
Lauren Alvarez (44:06)
That's cute.
Jazerai Lord (44:15)
what I have found doing this work is that it's not like other types of work, which is a lot of selling. You really have to change somebody's heart. Like you have to change their heart and get them to understand like, yes, number one, how it affects your bottom line, but two how it affects the perception of your business, the people in your business, the feelings of the people that are working in this company. So in these, in these walls, all that really, really matters. But unfortunately,
Lauren Alvarez (44:21)
Yeah.
Thanks for watching!
Jazerai Lord (44:44)
a lot of the people that you're trying to talk to, stakeholders, they honestly do not care. They don't. It's so you have to change a heart. And so there's a different type of approach. There's a different type of finessing, you know, that you have to do in those types of circumstances. And it's honestly, I think why you see so much burnout amongst like Black-owned businesses, women-founded businesses, specifically in this space, because it is a constant fight.
$400, $500,000 for, oh, we're just doing this new product. But when it comes to Black History Month and to Women's History Month, I get like 15 to $20,000. And so even the allocations, you know, make it really, really difficult. You have to really wanna do this work, you know, to want to do this work. But for me, I've seen so much impact from my little space in the world and being able to.
Lauren Alvarez (45:24)
Mm-hmm.
Jazerai Lord (45:41)
create so much opportunity. True to size, we build teams true to size. And so I will lead every project that we work on, but every team is built niche and specific for the voice of that project. And so what the beauty for me, I think about my business is that it is a lot of young people's, young people of color specifically, first opportunity to work on a big brands moment, a campaign, an activation, a digital,
Lauren Alvarez (45:52)
Mmm.
Jazerai Lord (46:08)
piece, a YouTube story. Like this is their first time being able to show and be in the room and be paid for their work. And I think that has been kind of the space that I want to end my career in is I don't necessarily need to work on everything, but if I ever want to sit down, other people have to be at the table. And I think that for me is the most important thing is just making sure people are, I'm allowing space for people to build tables.
Lauren Alvarez (46:37)
Yeah. I mean, I think even looking early, like this time last year, there was a really big upheaval, I mean, in the iconic M&M's bunch. I mean, and there was a pretty big shakeup with all the M&M's going separate ways and having their own personalities. And there was a really big upheaval when Green decided to swap out her boots for some sneakers. But that was a good opportunity for you to team up and step in. Let's talk about what was it like to work with Green?
Jazerai Lord (47:02)
It was. Green is amazing. Oh my, and it was like such a wild thing too, to be like, I got the assets and like, it's green on the phone talking to me. And I'm like, oh my gosh, like what a moment. And I mean, it was the first time that M&M's did a rebrand in the history of the brand. So it was such a milestone moment, I feel like in my career for me to kind of design but be on a more commercial side.
Lauren Alvarez (47:06)
I'm sorry.
Jazerai Lord (47:30)
It was for the Super Bowl, and then we ended up with a cover story for People magazine. It was just, it was so amazing kind of to be a part of something that I grew up watching, you know, like a Super Bowl advertising moment. And I think that also was for me, it was two part. It was like one of the most amazing pieces of work that I've done. And then on the other hand, I also saw how the world was not ready.
Lauren Alvarez (47:42)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Jazerai Lord (47:57)
the amount of pushback in that campaign. I mean, I had death threats on TikTok. I had multiple sexual assault threats on Instagram. Like they had to shut my comments off because there were just so many people, very conservative people that were upset about green wearing sneakers. And what does this mean about her sexuality? And what does this, you know, what does this mean? Like why is she not feminine? Men, grown men upset that they
Lauren Alvarez (48:02)
Oh my god.
Mm.
Jazerai Lord (48:27)
couldn't think about fucking the green M&M anymore. And like, that's my fault. So it kind of put up, yeah, that's my problem now. But it honestly put this big fire in me. Like I'm sometimes in an echo chamber, I guess, where like, yeah, I know that people are not there yet, but wow, they're really not there yet. You know, when the ad has millions of views, you know, and you can see that, okay, well.
Lauren Alvarez (48:30)
Disgusting. Yeah, and you're like, and that's my problem, how? Yeah.
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (48:55)
There's still a lot of work to be done. And to me, that's like very inspiring. It means that my work is necessary and that more people at the table is also more than necessary.
Lauren Alvarez (49:06)
Yeah, and I think also like that's the thing with, you know, social is like, there's sort of that, there's the upside of like how, like the virality of things and how quickly, you know, something can gain momentum. And then there's obviously the other part of it. I mean, how do you advise, you know, our listeners, like when it comes to social, like that constant posting, that constant feedback, it's like the, the feedback chamber is always open unless you turn off the comments.
How do you kind of deal with that? How do you recharge from that? And what advice could you give to somebody who might be experiencing that on their own?
Jazerai Lord (49:37)
The biggest pieces, like, I didn't have, I kind of, my life opened up accidentally. Like I said on Twitter, hey, this is Jazzy from Kicks on Fire. And all of a sudden, thousands of people went to my Instagram to find me and I'm just like a mom.
Lauren Alvarez (49:51)
Mm-hmm.
Jazerai Lord (49:53)
posting my meals and not posting my sneakers at all. I wasn't using my, it was very personal to me and my family and all of this. And so in hindsight, I really wish that I would have chosen things to keep private for myself that I could just love. And that didn't have anything attached to it that weren't part of the brand. I'm very, very intentional these days because it's been so long with my family, with my relationship.
of like how much I'm sharing because I want to keep these things very pure and very protected. And so I feel like you have to have a separation between the curated view of yourself, nerd like Jazzy and like what's happening in the nerd like Jazzy world. But Jazz Array and nerd like Jazzy are not the same people. Nerd like Jazzy is a very curated, very, very curated view of.
Lauren Alvarez (50:23)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (50:49)
who Jazz Array is. And I think having that separation, even if you are not a influencer, but you're the director of a company that is very, very well known, people are going to know who you are. They're going to look up on LinkedIn. They're going to know your business profile. And there has to be some type of separation between who you are in your real life to the people that you love and who you are to the world.
Lauren Alvarez (51:03)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it's so interesting you bring that up. I have always sort of vacillated. I generally have had a private Instagram and I like to keep things private for my personal life. And after I got married and right up until early on in my pregnancy, I was like, I'll try being public for a while. And I just really hated it. I felt like people had way too much information about me, way too much knowledge of me. I mean, I just felt like the need to like.
Jazerai Lord (51:33)
Mm-hmm.
Lauren Alvarez (51:39)
bring it all in and you know, I have boundaries in my life. There's certain people that I don't fuck with like, and there's also, you know, my professional life, which is not my personal life. My podcast is not my, not my personal life. It's not my professional life. It sits somewhere in the middle, right? But it's like, these are my opinions. These are my points of view. And knowing when the boundaries are and just not feeling bad about it. Like, that's the thing for me is I'm just like, if you feel left out, then maybe like, you should try to be my friend. And if I am not interested, then like,
Jazerai Lord (51:44)
Yeah. Exactly.
Lauren Alvarez (52:09)
Go find somebody else to look at on the internet. I'm not that interesting. Like, you know, I...
Jazerai Lord (52:12)
It's also hard for the family too though, like my mom the other day is like, you haven't posted a picture of me on Instagram. I'm like, mom, this is not for you. This is a business channel. I don't just put my coffee up here. That's literally what she said. I know.
Lauren Alvarez (52:19)
Oh my God.
She's like, well, Teddy Ruxman got a pretty big spread, so. No, no. Sorry, mama. Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (52:37)
she's gonna be like and Teddy got a slider.
Lauren Alvarez (52:43)
I mean, yeah, it's hard. And it's like the time goes by so fast too, that I'm like, oh yeah, we had these really cute photos done with our baby back in November. And I'm like, it doesn't even look like the same kid anymore. He has more hair, he looks taller. And like, I'm not even gonna post these. Cause like, by the time I get around to posting, I'm like, what am I doing this all for? You know, and it's like, I'm just, yeah, I'm just trying to live as much as possible in the present and share those kind of personal moments with the people that I want in my personal life. Like it's a good thing to have those boundaries.
Jazerai Lord (52:46)
Yeah.
Yeah, forget it.
The moment's gone.
Mm-hmm.
Lauren Alvarez (53:10)
What other values, think boundaries are a big one, what other values are really important to you when you think about the kind of business you wanna be known for having?
Jazerai Lord (53:18)
the kind that treats people fairly but beyond the nuance for their life, I think that that's what I have really appreciated in the places that I've been. I know that when we knew each other, like people, you want me to go on a project for a week but I have two small kids and like it's going to cost me $500 to have a nanny come in. So how bad do you want me to be there?
Lauren Alvarez (53:39)
Right.
Jazerai Lord (53:39)
you know, how important is it that I'm there, you know, because it's going to be a little bit more of an investment. And I'm grateful that like people were willing to make that investment in me, but it took for me to speak up about the nuances in my life that I needed, maybe that other people may not need. And so it really means a lot to me to create that type of environment for the women that I work with, because I predominantly work with women of color.
Lauren Alvarez (53:42)
Thanks for watching!
Jazerai Lord (54:06)
queer women as well. And so it's like, well, I want to make sure that you have the freedom to figure out if you have this thing in your life. I've had the unfortunate realities of our life, like people's moms passing away or needing to be a caretaker for a parent or having a family member with a family emergency. Like, I want to be able to create space for people to not feel like they're going to lose their job because something out of control is happening in their life. And that they especially people that really have a desire
to be in it. And I think that if it's something so small, in the grand scheme of things, like paying for your nanny so that you can come to work, your job should be willing to do that. Your job should be willing to meet you where you're at and create a comfortable, holistic place for you to be, especially in this type of work. I think we travel a lot where there's sometimes production long days, 14 hour days.
Lauren Alvarez (54:55)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (55:02)
We require a lot from people, specifically women, in this business. And so we should be just as soft with them when we ask that of them.
Lauren Alvarez (55:10)
You know, I think you're really speaking to something that's such a big part of the conversation right now. And the US is just so far behind when it comes to family care and leave and being able to get coverage when it comes to work or our transition back. And something I get asked, coaching a lot of clients, is like, oh, we have people who came back from parental leave. And they're really not as strong of effort as we've seen in the past before they went on leave. And I'm like, oh, my god.
What did you do to set them up before they went out? What did you do to bring them back? Did you offer them a transition? Did you give them a safe place to land? Did you check in on anything? No. Okay, well that's probably why they're not as successful right now, why they're struggling with their work. And I think that, yeah, we're just so far behind. And I saw Ashley Graham recently posted a video where she's talking about, people ask, how do you balance motherhood and your career? And she's like, is anybody asking men, how are you balancing fatherhood in your career?
No one.
Jazerai Lord (56:09)
I mean, that's a really people oftentimes I work on Mother's Day in this business and people oftentimes are like, I can't believe you work on Mother's Day. I can't believe that you work on your birthday. And I'm like, it's so weird that
nobody in the NBA is or nobody's asking these men like you're working on a holiday. I can't believe you got to play on a holiday or like, yeah, nobody says that to men. But you know, it's a very common narrative. And there are things that I and I'm very transparent with my kids, like, these are the hard lines that they need me to be here. And here's sometimes that mom has to work, but we
Lauren Alvarez (56:28)
Yeah. Steph, it's your birthday. Are you sure you're going to play in the game? Yeah.
It's so true.
Mm-hmm.
Jazerai Lord (56:50)
agreed upon those things. I've never worked all-star weekend. My son's birthday is that weekend. So there are things that I'm constantly checking in with them to make sure. In 2022, I was on the road for seven months out of the year, not consistently, but I was gone four days, I'd come home two. I'd be gone three days, I'd come home one. And towards the end of that, seven with my younger son was like, I don't want to be away from you anymore. So I'm like, okay, well.
Lauren Alvarez (57:10)
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (57:18)
I'm already contracted, so you're coming with me now for the rest of the year. You don't want to be away from me. I already signed the contracts, the compromises. We go together now. And next year, I will only work up to 50%. It's constantly checking in with them, I think, to make sure that my kids feel comfortable. Outside of that, I really don't give a fuck who's comfortable and who's not.
Lauren Alvarez (57:20)
Yeah. Would you like an internship starting tomorrow? Yeah.
I love that.
Exactly. Yeah. Again, priorities. And I think like, so, you know, I wish I had you all day. I mean, we could just, we could just chop it up forever, but I'm curious, you know, what are some of the things like, cause now your sons are at the age where they are either starting to work or probably dipping their toes into that. What has been kind of the thing that you're most helpful for is they set out on their own career paths. And I know you're, you're a hard worker. And I'm sure that seeing that much of their life, they know that there's a grind involved, but what else, you know, have you really shared with them?
Jazerai Lord (57:47)
Mm-hmm.
Yes. I want them to like do what they love. And that's the reason I think a lot of times I wanted to go back and like get a job at the fucking bank and be like a teller, you know, but I'm like, I could never imagine my kids seeing that I did all this. Yeah.
Lauren Alvarez (58:27)
swaggiest teller there ever was. Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (58:31)
You know, I didn't want them to see that I did all this to give up. And I also wanted them to have a front row seat of like what it really looks like when you chase a dream, like it's going to be fucked up at times. Like it's not always just a consistent trickle up. Like it's more like this, like a little like stop chart. You know, like it's really honestly what it, what it, what it feels like and looks like. And for them to see me not get knocked down and come back stronger and to know that.
it will always be okay, but at the end of it, like you have to do what you love. My older son chose not to go to college. I totally understood that given the fact that he was an athlete who lost his senior season thanks to the pandemic. He didn't, he was not motivated to go and he never thought that this would be his situation. And so I'm like, you know what, you wanna work in sneakers? Let's try to make that happen. And he was able to get an internship at Overtime and now he's in a full-time position at...
Lauren Alvarez (59:12)
Mm.
Oh my gosh.
Jazerai Lord (59:27)
as an on air sneaker reporter at Overtime Kicks. And this is his dream job at his favorite outlet. And I think when I look at them, I can't be the parent that's saying, I'm disappointed in you because you didn't choose college. How many 22 year olds are working in their dream job at one of the biggest media outlets in sports? I'm like, you can always go back to school. Just try, give this all you got. And my younger son is an artist, he's a producer. He's already dropped his first album.
Lauren Alvarez (59:35)
amazing.
That's right.
Jazerai Lord (59:57)
He wants to go to music college. He has one year left in high school and that's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna continue to invest in the things that they love as long as they continue to show up.
Lauren Alvarez (1:00:08)
I love that so much. And I also think like, what a good message if my parents would give me that message. I mean, I had my own plan, my own path going anyways, but without having that resistance, like, you know, in some ways it pushed me to stay true to myself because I didn't, I was like, you're giving me an ultimatum. I'm gonna do the opposite of what you want, right? Like a true creative, but also, you know, if I'd had the support, like how much further could I have pushed it? You know, and I think that it took me a long time, you know, my early twenties to really figure that out for myself, but having, you know,
Jazerai Lord (1:00:25)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Yes.
Lauren Alvarez (1:00:37)
Everyone should wish for a Jazz Array mom. I mean, come on. That's amazing.
Jazerai Lord (1:00:41)
And I think that that's the number one thing I sit down with a lot of young women of all walks of life. And the number one thing they come to me and they say is like, I want to do this thing, but my parents want me to do this thing. And I have to tell them like, what's the worst thing that's gonna happen? Your mom's not gonna talk to you for a year? It's your like, that's what so what? I hate to say it like that. It's gonna go by real fast.
Lauren Alvarez (1:01:00)
Totally.
That year's going to go by real fast. Yeah. You'll find another mom. You'll be fine. Yeah. You'll be good. Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (1:01:09)
You'll be fine, I promise you, but like...
You'll be good, don't worry. But it's so scary. And I remember being that, like I wanted to go to FITM after high school. And I think that too, like how much different would my life have been if I went to FITM at 19 and didn't have all these other college trials in the real world trying to follow my parents' dream. And I think that everything happened the way it was supposed to. I wonder too, like...
Lauren Alvarez (1:01:29)
Yeah.
Totally.
Yeah.
Jazerai Lord (1:01:43)
what I would have done with all this in my 20s and in my early 30s. Like I think the long game is so crucial. I know a lot of people who are like 25 and at the height of their career, and you have to continue to scale up from there and to scale up until you're 60, till you're 70. Like that's intense. So I'm very blessed that it's been a long road for real. And I hope my kids see that it's a long road too.
Lauren Alvarez (1:01:59)
Yeah.
I love that. I mean, yeah, if you're going to 60, you definitely got some time on the clock, so you're good. Yeah, you're totally good. just a couple final questions for you. Where can folks go to learn more about you, learn about True to Size? Where should we direct them to? We'll definitely drop it in the show notes. And I think that we probably need to put Zion's show in there too.
Jazerai Lord (1:02:15)
Yep.
Yes, I know! You can find me on Instagram. It's nerdlikejazzy and the agency is truetosize.com. And on X Twitter, as I'm still calling it, I am Jazzy Ray, R-A-E like Rayquan. And yeah, I think that my son is Overtime Zion and he hosts the sneaker shows on their social feeds at Overtime Kix.
Lauren Alvarez (1:02:54)
He's like a born voice for hosting. Also, I was listening and I'm like, oh my gosh, it's like so natural. So, you know, it's like when you see someone who's really in their bag, IE you, and also Zion, it's really cool to see that and just like hear it. Yeah, definitely. Thank you.
Jazerai Lord (1:03:08)
Thank you. And here with you. Okay. I was like, look at Lauren, the podcaster. Okay. She's doing it. Yeah.
Lauren Alvarez (1:03:15)
I mean, listen, give me a microphone. I'll keep talking, right? Like, oh God, at least people can opt in on this one. But I mean, what is one final thought you wanna leave our listeners with today? I feel like you've dropped so much wisdom, so much guidance, but how could we summarize it if possible?
Jazerai Lord (1:03:32)
Oh man, I don't know, I like to encourage people to live loud. Like that's my sister and I say that to each other all the time. Like live loud, you're only going to do this once. Like go balls to the wall, get your ideas out, you know, like do it, live loud, live as loud as you can. I think that the world has attempted to silence women for so long that we have a voice, there's a space for us to use it. So it's time to scream. It's a rebel yell.
Lauren Alvarez (1:03:59)
I love that so much. Jazeree, thank you for joining me today. This has been so special just to sit down and get the full deets.
Jazerai Lord (1:04:08)
Thank you so much for having me and for asking me. It was so good to spend this afternoon with you.
Lauren Alvarez (1:04:13)
I agree. Well, this has been another episode of Don't Fuck This Up, the podcast answering the ultimate question, how the fuck did you land that cool job? I'm your host, Lauren Alvarez, and we'll talk to you next week.