Welcome to Speak Up! International with Elton Brown and Rita Burke!
We have a very special guest on today. No bias whatsoever. As a matter of fact, all of our guests are special, but today, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we have Nikki Clark. Nikki Clark is the founder, producer, and host of the multiple award-winning talk show, the Nikki Clark Show. It's hosted by Afro Global TV network. Nikki just recently launched her women's fashion line, and we need to talk about that called Levon. Did I pronounce that correctly?
Absolutely perfect.
Nikki is an accomplished singer songwriter and has released a gospel single entitled For Your Love. We may ask you to sing today Nikki! She is the immediate past president of the Ontario Black History Society. Nikki has over 25 years of experience as a community activist. She is an honorary of the hundred Black Canadian women in. 2022 accomplish black Canadian of 2022 and there's so much more that I wanna say, but I'll just make one more statement.
Nikki is the current regional business manager for the Canadian Black Chamber of Commerce. Let's welcome Nikki Clark. Everyone!
Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Thank you so much Rita for the introduction and thank you Elton. It's an honor to be here.
It's an honor to get to have a conversation with you, you are a lady of many talents and so out of all of these things that you can do, what happens to be your favourite thing that you're drawn to the most
The thing that I'm drawn to the most is music. I actually play. Gospel throughout the night. I play songs with, musical interlude in the background. And I wake up to gospel and I'm always listening to music. Music has been I don't know very much a part of me since I was a little girl. I enjoy listening. I enjoy singing. So that is that is very much a passion of mine.
So help me understand what I just heard. Please, music throughout the night. Do you sleep with music on?
I sleep with music on.
How does that, enrich your life, enrich your sleep. How does it benefit you?
It benefits me in staying tapped in to my spirituality, which is the core of everything I do. I'm a woman of faith and one of the things that I'm proud to say is I am a pastor connecting to the source is very much a part of what gives me the energy. and the compassion and the love to support people the way I do. So that's my fuel supply.
I like how you said that, connecting to the source. what is your source?
God is my source. Jesus is my source. I grew up in a Christian home. But understanding the relationship I had with God was something that I had very early. And, as you get older in life you become independent. You start a family like I did in my 20 to about 40 something years, I was wandering and thought I could just do things on my own.
So I'm really happy to say that I reconnected to the source, in my mid forties and it's been going strong and stronger staying, close to the source and it's been so much better for me in terms of just understanding my purpose, helping to empower people to understand their purpose in life and helping my my family. I have three children who are grown, but they are now getting into starting their families.
So I, I think it's really important to have that person to help them, learn from their mistakes so I can share my wisdom and also to help them navigate through life, cuz that's very important. With my connecting to the source, I pray for wisdom and discernment. So that if I can help them navigate properly, they don't have to make the mistakes that I did.
I know that you enjoy the company of your guests that you have on your program. It just shows from the several clips that I looked at. You just love talking to these people. You love just having these very intimate conversations with them and so I'm just wonder. out of all of these people that you've have interviewed, which one or two individuals, you don't have to give any names, but they really motivated your audience?
I've had so many Stellar guests. And I was very honored to have Rita and Sam Burke very recently on the show to talk about their beautiful endeavors to enrich the world. But I have to say, and I don't want to single at anyone. I think what I love the. about what I do is I can sit back and I can listen and I can learn.
And as much as the show is a platform to, share from the heart and to help transform those who are listening to maybe pick up a nugget to help them be empowered or to take something right away and maybe grab it and go into a service or whatever have you sitting back and, and listening and just saying, wow, I can identify, I can relate to that story and this has helped me so much. I've had people, Elton, from all walks of life, I've had children on the show.
I think maybe if I have to, if I have to be biased, I think there was a child that came on the show who was a cancer survivor. She was nine years old and she actually had me in tears because of just her spirit of generosity and she was so filled with love and appreciation.
Even though she's in her nine years she's been in the hospitals more than someone can count she still had this ability to give of herself and she was there to share a fundraising opportunity to give to a cancer society and to help other children who are in the same situation. And that type of leadership and that type of spirit of love really moved me and that's what I do.
What, that's why I do what I do to meet individuals like that who are agents of change, who are selfless and they're just driven by this incredible purpose and she understood her purpose at that young age and that made me say, wow, Nikki, the sacrifice. To have the show because, people see the show. But as with any organization or business, there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to keeping it going. Yes. So I'm no different from that story.
Although the show's been around for 15 years, I've sacrificed to keep these stories alive. And when I meet people like her, when I meet people like Rita and Sam and others, and they share and they're doing wonderful things, I say, yes, this is why I do what I do.
So that's how you get your label community activist, I suspect. So very happy that you shared this, the story about the child, but I'd like to go back to something that I shared from your bio the fact that you were once the president of the Black History Society. As I am fond of that organization. I have been connected in some ways to that organization. So I want you to talk a little bit more about that and your experience with that organization.
I am still very much connected with the Ontario Black History Society as the immediate past president. So if there's an e ever an opportunity for me to speak about Black Canadian history whether it be in, in the schools or the boardroom of corporations, I'm happy to do that. I'm very passionate about that. I am you know. Originally from Jamaica, came to Canada when I was a little girl, and my first experiences in Canada. Were blemished with, I would say confrontational racism.
So I learned very early that there was this kind of resistance and understanding very early my identity and I have to thank my parents for pouring that knowledge into me about being a black girl and how I'm fitting into the world. And also, I was grounded in black history from a very early age.
I knew a lot about what was happening in, in Black Canadian history as well as my Jamaican history and also growing up in the seventies, I was seeing a lot of what was happening in the activism in the states through the civil rights movement, Angela Davis the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who I was able to meet through my father, who was um, a community worker in Montreal at the time where I grew up. This all attributed to the person I became and very solid in my knowledge of black history.
When I started to become more involved with the Ontario Black History Society, it just made sense for me to stay close and to if there were ever an opportunity to share my experience and also what is relevant to Black History, then I would be there. One of the greatest parts of meeting people. Talking to children, especially because this is where you can get them early and you can groom them in their understanding of Black Canadian history.
I think from my experience visiting the schools, a lot of the educators there are missing gaps of information, Rita and the information they may know is closely tied to American black history. The children are very well inform about Martin Luther King Day. They may have, a little bit of information about Malcolm X or Harriet Tubman. But when I ask them about Viola Davis, blank stares. So this is where we come in to fill in those gaps and very happy to do that.
I also have to say as part of my community activism I was privileged to have the role of an S.F.A. The S.F.A. Is a student and family advocate coordinator. These roles were actually born of the need for more advocacy work to. Help families who may be in situations of anti-black racism. So these programs started about three years ago after the whole George Floyd situation and the Ontario government put these agencies. In place in Ontario.
So they're I believe 17, 18 agencies across the G T A and I was part of one and as the S. F .A. I came in and came to the to the aid of families who felt that their child was be beyond classroom situations, they felt that the child was being singled out. They felt that the treatment was very different from the other children and this is where we came into to investigate. One of, one of my clients at the time was a, was he's four now. But the time the incident happened, he was three.
And as I know of childhood development and being a parent also of three children three year olds, very often when they're not able to regulate themselves. They're not able to describe what is happening to them internally through words. They acted out movements and what have you. So this child had I guess he was having a little bit of a moment because he was not understanding his environment and the staff believed that his behavior, they deemed it to be violent.
There were 12, 12 adults around in that situation. And they were trying to contact the family to take the child home, but it quickly escalated to police arriving on the scene and putting the three year old in the back of a cruiser. This is why S.F.A.s exists because we have to resist these situations and to make people accountable for the way they think and how they have to change the way they approach black children and give them the right opportunities.
Give them safety and give them the chance to have a successful outcome in school. Children shouldn't be afraid to go to.
So true.
Exactly, talking about school, I know that you provide training for social media, marketing, video production. How does all of that work? Tell us in a nutshell, what is those programs about?
Absolutely. Just backtracking a little bit I was an educator in Sheridan College for 10 years as an E.C.E. Professor. And I started the show about 10 years. So teaching for 10 years and then I. What I call the calling to start the show.
So when I left teaching, I left a safe corporate job, and I'm sure a lot of people must have thought, has she lost her mind, to, to deep dive into something that was very new to me and I didn't have all the the knowledge on how to do it, but I just knew that I had to start the show. So when I started the show, I had to learn everything myself, Elton, in terms of production also how to market myself online and keep the show growing organically. So what I teach is basically what I've learned.
And I have some training. I did certification in social media marketing. But I think it's really important to impart the wisdom from, what has worked for me and what doesn't work. So in the social media course, I teach people kind of the principles of marketing. and I also teach the science behind certain social media platforms. We have the popular ones, Instagram, Facebook LinkedIn, but each one has its own personality Elton and each one speaks to a different audience.
So we, we take a deep dive into each one and we see how the different audiences match up to the type of services or products that we offer through our business and then so that's basically how it works. We do the principle review. We take a look at each platform, how it works, the audience, and then how to create a message that is effective and contagious. How to craft a contagious, content for your audience and to keep them engaged.
Because that's really what it is engagement and the bottom line is to direct people to your website. The bottom line is the conversion so that you're making sales that, so that you are getting members.
Thanks for the lesson. I concur with you to the bottom line is to get people to your site. The bottom line is to get sales. Two very important things for me. You talked about the source and being connected to the source.
Yes.
I find that fascinating because the, our previous interviewee was a deeply religious woman as well. And the next point I want to make is that I too got up one morning and decided I was gonna get give up my career job. Which I had been in for about 20 years and decided to open a bookstore. So maybe the two of us did not drink at the same time Kool-Aid, but maybe not Yes. Not at the same time did we drink the Kool-Aid.
So I wanna go back to a specific question that perhaps I should have asked at the beginning. What inspired, what motivated the Nick Clarke show? Rita, that's a great question and I think I've always known that I wanted to have a show. Growing up in Montreal I was always doing things that put me in front of the class.
I was acting very early writing short stories being able to communicate in front of others was something that I enjoyed doing and my parents saw it early in me they had me doing plays from the time I was five years old. And they're both community workers, so they always had me engaged with people doing something, some activities, my parents are Jamaican, so they were always afraid I'd be idle. That's one of the things, we don't want you to be idle. So I never had an idle moment as a child.
And that, that developed my heart for community and also developed my interest in finding out what's happening in the world, a huge curiosity of what's going on and how to make things better. And I thought developing the show was a way to get people to come into a safe place. Where there's no judgment and they can share their stories from the heart and we could have this authentic connection and people could grow from it.
Very often, some of the people who've come on the show it's the first time releasing that story, whatever they have. And so it's a cathartic release for them. It's a healing moment for them and it's like a, oh wow. I'm not isolated in that situation. Is going through the same thing. And what I try to do is I try to connect them to resources so that they can get the help after, it's like you open a can of worm. So now what?
Always make sure to have the follow up and to have them connect to where they can finish that experience or at least enhance it.
Rumor has it that you are the Oprah of Canada. How do you feel about that?
Huge shoes to fill. Oprah has always been very close to my heart. One of the reasons I started the show is because I fell in love with the show back in the early eighties when I was a journalist a student journalist at McGill filming communications. I saw her and identified with her right away. I said, yeah, this is what I want. The show represented. The honesty and stories that I wanted to develop later on in life.
And but when you're doing, when you're in school and you have a strong academic, disciplinarian parents who say, okay, there's no money in TV. You can choose between being a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher or family disgrace. So I chose to be a teacher, and and then, teaching for so many years, which I loved, I thought I, the divine whisper got louder and it was like, remember what you said you wanted to be? So I just answered the call and yeah, left teaching to start the show.
Dove right in with no safety net and I'm happy to say 15 years later. I'm glad I answered. I'm glad I listened to the Whisper
To some degree though, I think you could say that what you do is educating. You may not identify it as teaching, but you are educating and it's fascinating because we say that our podcast is intended to educate, to inform, and to inspire and I think we're doing that today in talking with you.
Thank you.
And so I have another question for you, and that question is, what's the best piece of advice that you've ever been given?
The best piece of advice I've ever been given is to be myself and to not give up. I tell people, if you can see it, you can achieve it. and sometimes the vision happens years before it actually manifests, but at least it gives you a glimpse of what to work towards. This show happened many years after. I first saw it when I was a child, but I stuck to the vision.
What does it take to be part of your network?
To come on the show? You mean Elton?
Yeah,
you just reach out to me and express an interest. Love to hear what you do and to see if it's in alignment with the show. The common denominator is to offer something that can help others, an inspirational story, and then it's just a matter of choosing the date for the taping and and then we take it from there. Yeah, it's very easy, we had some stories that didn't really make it because it wasn't really in alignment, and that's okay.
But yeah, for the most part it's just a joy to hear what people are doing, and I believe everyone should be celebrated, whether they are, all over the world known or just known because they're my neighbor, whoever it is, as, as long as they're leaving some, leaving a good legacy behind in the world. yeah.
So how does it feel to be an accomplished songwriter? You wrote the song and then it was featured in 2021 for Your Love, which was a gospel inspirational music. How does it feel to know that people accept and love your music?
I just feel very blessed. I'm humbled and for me, all the glory goes back to God because I'm writing it for his children to help them you know to connect back to him, really the song I wrote For Your Love, I wrote during COVID, I had a lot of time as many of us to reflect. And during the period of isolation I just said, okay, despite everything that was happening and there were some really tough things that were happening in my life, I said, Why am I still here?
Why do I still have, why am I here? Because of my love? It's for your love. Why I do this for God's love and the love that he has for me. It, it was really a thrill and a very e emotional kind of confirmation for me that even though I do. I'm doing it for God's glory. It's hap I'm really happy that people like the music and it's helping them and it encourages me to keep writing. In fact, I'm going back into the recording studio next week
Wow.
To to finish a song that I've been working on for over a year now and it's another gospel song. It's called Hold On. hold on to your faith. Keep your faith strong. And what I like to do is I like to take gospel and maybe give it a different spin because I wanna incorporate all ages so that the music is not your traditional kind of, Gospel music, yes it's dancing.
You can, it's got a little beat, so that's why the teens can dance to it and then, the young 90 somethings can dance to it because I want everyone to enjoy the music.
Sounds extremely inspiring.
Thank you.
Today you have helped. to accomplish our goals, which I said earlier are to inspire and to inform and to educate. And so I want to say a huge thank you for doing that. If I were to think about a word that captures what I see in Nikki Clarke, it would be eclectic. Nikki Clarke does a little bit of everything and does it well. And so congratulations so much and thank you for joining us today on SpeakUP! International.
Thank you so much. I really do appreciate your invitation and it's been a joy to talk to you and Elton. Thank you.
Thank you so much for listening to the speak up international. To contact and Vicki Clark her email address is contact@Nikkiclarknetwork.com. To know more about the Nikki Clarke show and her educational services. Please go to our website at Nikkiclarknetwork.com. Her name is spelled. N I K K I. Nikki. Clark. C L a R K E. If you would like to have a conversation with us SpeakUP!
International, please drop us a message containing your name, company, name, and email address to, info@speakuppodcast.ca. To connect to our podcasts using Spotify. or your favorite podcast platform search for SpeakUP! International. You can also find our podcast using our web address. www.speakuppodcast.ca. Our logo has the woman with her finger pointing up mouth open. Speaking up!