Bossing It: Tahira White on Transparency, Flexibility, and the Power of Community
Tahira White is a multi-disciplinary entrepreneur with a passion for storytelling and travel. In just over 15 years, Tahira’s journey has propelled her to the position of co-founder and executive, commanding two enterprises: 19th & Park, a trailblazing creative marketing and production powerhouse, and Wercflow, an AI-driven SaaS solution for developing and managing productions.
Starting her career at Hearst Magazine, Tahira harnessed her entrepreneurial acumen, embarking on a freelancing venture that earned her collaborations with industry giants like Samsung and the visionary artist, Frank Ocean. Today, as a driving force behind 19th & Park and 1Park9, she masterminds creative marketing and production, catering to clientele including Nike, L’Oreal, Meta, Apple, Ulta Beauty, and many more.
LBB> What was your first experience of leadership?
Tahira> Leadership started very early for me as I began building and leading teams for an entertainment business in DC while I was in college. I wouldn't have called that leadership then, it was just me doing what I love, which is bringing people together and creating experiences. I was really just excited to be able to do it at such a young age, like as a freshman and as a sophomore in college and being trusted with that responsibility.
That really quickly translated into my career as a producer. It’s a role that holds a lot of weight and responsibility. You have to bring ideas to life despite any challenges while also ensuring synchronicity (and the best experience) for everyone - from C-suite executives to crew and vendors. I would say it was my second foray into leadership, again without knowing, because I was at least being recognised for successfully doing this “thing” project to project.
The next step of leadership really came when I became a key decision maker for every element of our company alongside my co-founder [Whitney Headen]. I think it was an awakening for both of us!
It was every element, from HR to legal to all things new business, alongside managing project experiences, that really required me to deepen my leadership skills and knowledge of corporate operations. This led me to taking an executive leadership course at Cornell and joining a few organisations to just really be able to learn from others who've had similar experiences and that has really driven my leadership over the last couple of years.
LBB> How did you figure out what kind of leader you wanted to be – or what kind of leader you didn’t want to be?
Tahira> Lots of didn’ts!
Based on my experiences, I never want to make anyone feel the way that I once felt. While becoming a leader was really an organic experience, the root of it has always really been wanting to ensure people feel good about what they're doing and have an open space to express themselves - in a respectful way.
I always knew that I didn't want to be a leader that overpowered everyone without giving credit or acknowledgement because I knew what that felt like - not good. Being on teams, working so hard, hearing your ideas shared and not being empowered to add to the conversation or acknowledge. I really believe that someone’s hard work is deserving of recognition and as a leader, you don't actually lose anything by acknowledging your team in any room or in any space. I had many experiences where that wasn't the case. So I always knew that I didn’t want to be that kind of leader.
Additionally, I'm the kind of leader that is always in a constant state of evolution and always seeking to be proactive instead of reactive. And I just hope that thought process and way of operating is something that's inspiring and really rubs off on the people that are around me.
LBB> What experience or moment gave you your biggest lesson in leadership?
Tahira> There were two, back to back, that happened to be in the same year. So I just call this my year of lessons! Hiring my first executive in production and hiring our first business development lead.
At that time, myself and my co-founder had been doing all of the work; I’d been producing everything and we both had been handling business development and client management. I believed that giving these new team members authority meant stepping away. I was exhausted. I was just so happy someone could relieve me of some responsibility. But what I quickly learned is authority doesn't mean skipping over KPIs, weekly check ins and detailed reporting for accountability. You have to understand the difference between enforcing those as a way to encourage success versus being a micromanager that creates worry and insecurity within the team.
I had to learn that through experience, through difficult conversations as well as a few losses. I have to say that those moments really helped me understand the balance of control.
LBB> Did you know you always want to take on a leadership role? If so, how did you work towards it and if not, when did you start realising that you had it in you?
Tahira> I was in leadership roles early on before I realised it, likely because I wasn't corporate or attached to a title.
My journey as a leader has been through the startup and entrepreneurial route and that required operating as a leader to succeed and survive in the environment. I think the moment I realised I could lead independently and run my own shop really came when I built a store for a NBA player in Columbus, Ohio in 2017 - and I had four months to do it.
It wasn't just creating the physical experience (which I was used to doing as a producer at all these different production companies), but it was developing the entire business operation end to end. And I had never done anything like that before. But as always, I was up for the challenge and thankfully given the authority and autonomy to build what became a successful staple business in the city that only recently closed due to COVID - as a lot of retail stores did.
And it was only a few weeks after launching that store that I decided to join my co-founder and build 19th&Park. I had been freelancing, but again, it had always been under the guise of someone else's company and someone else's leadership. And that was the first moment I was like ‘okay, I can do this fully end to end and I actually know a bit more than just a project, I actually know how to build a business.’
LBB> What are the aspects of leadership that you find most personally challenging? And how do you work through them?
Tahira> There were two that stand out to me; the first is balancing short and long term goals. I'm always thinking into the future, anywhere from six to 18 months depending on what it is. And often opportunities will come that we can immediately jump into, but they also have the potential to pivot us from our immediate focus. You have to be able to say “not right now” and maintain those relationships that are attached to opportunities so that when the right time comes, we're not starting from scratch. It becomes a working solution versus just saying yes and diving right in.
I think even right now we're beginning to venture into long form and branded entertainment, receiving a variety of opportunities and inquiries. When this happens you get excited, but I've had to train myself to say “not right now”. It's a long term goal for sure and we have to look at how much we can manage right now. I think a part of my growth as a leader has been being able to look forward to a year from now and see where we need to be - while making conscious decisions based on what is going to drive revenue at this time versus what is going to drive revenue over time.
The second aspect that comes to mind is managing within a world and landscape with constant change. There’s a lot continuously happening with everything from AI to the political landscape in America. And keeping my team encouraged and focused is important. I've found that staying informed and being able to have honest conversations with the team, sometimes even being able to bring things to the team first and encouraging exploration of new spaces and tools together, has been helpful.
I'm going to create the opportunity to talk together on what new possibilities exist rather than operating individuality and fear of being behind. For example, when the question, “Is AI going to take my job next year?” is posed. My response continues to be “No, AI can help you stay employed - here's how.” Doing this exploration together by sharing tools and resources is really deeply embedded in the way that we work. But I say it's a challenge because it's still always something new.
LBB> In terms of leadership and openness, what’s your approach there? Do you think it’s important to be as transparent as possible in the service of being authentic? Or is there a value in being careful and considered?
Tahira> I'm learning lessons over time. I think demonstrating openness in everything I do has not been an effective way to lead and I say that from experience.
I think being able to look at the merits of each situation to determine how much transparency is needed is most important - as well as being 100% transparent as a leader around your morals and ethics, both as an individual and as a company. Beyond that, it should be treated on a case by case basis.
LBB> As you developed your leadership skills, did you have a mentor? If so, who were they and what have you learned? And on the flip side, do you mentor any aspiring leaders and how do you approach that relationship?
Tahira> I haven't had mentors, I’ve had communities. And those are communities that were proactively sought out in my early stages of starting the company; women founder organisations such as Female Founder Collective and the Women Presidents Organization. The individuals that are a part of these communities have become a collective of mentors almost. We mentor each other.
Maintaining a rotation of mentorship and support and those networking communities and small clubs have really helped me in many ways. Any issue that I've had there is someone from those networks that I can call or a chat that I can drop my question into, and know that I'll get an answer - and it's reciprocal for anyone else that's a part of it.
Any conversation I have, any stage I'm on, I always encourage people to join communities with like minded individuals that are current leaders so that you can learn truly from everyone else's experiences.
LBB> As a leader, what are some of the ways in which you’ve prioritised diversity and inclusion within your workforce?
Tahira> Well, it's in my DNA. As a person, as founders, as a company so it doesn't have to be prioritised or enforced because it exists naturally. That said, when we're engaging with clients, depending on who it is or what the project is, we may take an extra step to expand education and awareness.
So for instance, we did Pride campaigns for both Coach and Unilever during the Stonewall 50th anniversary a couple of years ago. And for those projects, we created an educational workbook of the history of Stonewall, key LGBTQIA+ terminology - plus dos and don'ts and best practices - while also prioritising representation of the community both in front of and behind the camera. And that was something that was shared again, top down from the C-suite level, middle management, above the line, below the line. Everyone was encouraged to read this documentation and given plenty of time before we came together. We even had a pre pre pro meeting dedicated to reviewing these best practices.
I've found that enforcement by way of education through conversation and experience - rather than just demand and metrics - is the most effective when it comes to prioritising diversity and inclusion across the board.
LBB> How important is your company culture to the success of your business? And how have you managed to keep it alive with increases in remote and hybrid working patterns?
Tahira> It's everything. Especially now, we're a small company so if people don't enjoy being here, they don't have to be. We're competing against WPP and R/GA and companies that can afford to keep people happy, even if it's temporarily, in a way that we can't.
Thankfully, I think the company culture is very representative of both me and my co-founder and our way of being, which is that we're always authentic. We're always reachable. We're transparent where we can be. And we're here because we really enjoy what we're doing. We are very transparent with our team about the fact that we understand that we're not saving lives. We’re just scratching the surface of driving an impact in the world if we're being honest with everyone. So let's make sure that we're not taking ourselves too seriously. But that we're doing our jobs and we're doing it excellently while we're creating work that we're proud of and we're finding ways to synergise and cross collaborate.
Another really important element within our organisation is defragmenting the ways of working that you typically would see in your traditional agency and production company partnership. It is fully collaborative across the board. There is no hierarchy, we are a flat organisation. And I think that that has been a sense of relief to most people that come into our organisation from the more traditional models - and it shows up in the work. We're able to be very flexible and nimble for our clients and for our partners.
LBB> What are the most useful resources you’ve found to help you along your leadership journey?
Tahira> Communities and conferences are the ways I learned of new books, new readings, new studies. Harvard Business Review is a great source; through the Women's Presidents Organization we actually have HMM Spark which is a curated HBR platform with more direct learnings and insights around becoming a better leader.
One of the other books that I recently completed that I think everyone in this industry specifically should read is For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be by Marcus Collins. Especially in this time that we're in, the words culture, inclusion and DEI, are just kind of thrown around now - and often attached to blackness.
Culture is a way of being, a way of living and expressing that is common amongst a group of people. Marcus Collins’ does a really good job of explaining this. I’m truly hopeful that we are in the beginning of a shift in mindsets and the way we talk about culture and inclusivity, in a way that's not rooted in separatism and ignorance.
