The Creative Collective NYC (TheCCnyc), a bold space for black entrepreneurs, creators, and business owners, was founded and is led by Imani Ellis as CEO and Founder. She founded the business in 2016 from her Harlem bedroom as a way to promote deep friendships.
“We curate brave spaces for creatives of color so they can be their full and unapologetic selves. We also want to cater to people with a 360-degree approach. We don’t want to just know what they’re working on, we also really care about how they’re doing. We want to inspire action because the best way to build anything…is to just start,” she told Forbes.
According to Forbes, the company has now developed into one of NYC’s fastest-growing communities for people of color eager to build connections that go beyond the business card.
She ran TheCCnyc part-time while working at NBA Universal prior to going into business for herself full-time. She began her career at NBC Universal as an assistant before rising to the position of vice president.
According to Ellis, the whisper that she wouldn’t be at NBC indefinitely was the beginning of her company. She originally made an effort to ignore it because she was content with her job at the cable network. But as the whisper got stronger and louder, the idea for her side business began to germinate.
“And so I definitely wrestled with it because it wasn’t comfortable,” she told Side Hustle Pro. “But ultimately, you know, left in November of last year, and now I’m you know, full-time CEO of culture con and Creative Collective, which is still so unreal to say.”
However, leaving NBC to go into full-time entrepreneurship was not easy for her. According to Ellis, she was emotionally attached to her job, but she quickly had to learn that in life, there is a need to mourn and grieve chapters of one’s life.
“But by the end of like my deciding and grieving period, I had decided, like I had just decided I had really said pros and my cons, I would say, and for me, I’m someone that like I take a long time in the what are my options phase? It’s annoying,” she told Side Huslel Pro.
According to Ellis, she found the need to create because people often find themselves completely defined by their careers and it doesn’t give them much breathing space to the rest of who they are.
“I am a publicist but I also really love working on creative projects and there didn’t seem to be a place where I could do both,” she said. “I also wanted to help create a safe space for curious creatives of color. Little did I know that we didn’t need a safe space… we had been playing it safe for far too long. We needed a brave space.”