Kinnawa Kaitibi is the CEO and Owner of African Thunder Inc. & Thunder Studios. He is a Communication Specialist with a variety of skills within the entertainment industry. Here is Kinnawa's roadmap to a full-time creative career.

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  • Growing up, I realized I loved to entertain others. I soon learned that I could make money doing such a thing. I started early and did professional theatre in Memphis, TN.

  • I used college as an opportunity to increase my network and gain access to resources (internships & celebrity interviews) that I may have missed out on had I not attended.

  • As I grew older, I increased my skill set in order to solidify that I would always have a multiple streams of income coming in. I turned my talents of theater into skills within Radio, Photography, Videography, Marketing, Brand Consulting, etc.**

  • I gained real world and professional experience learning from creatives locally and across the country.

  • Finally, I applied the knowledge that I had gathered over the years and officially started my production company that I had initially been running on a small unofficial scale.

  • I embraced my failures just as much as my success and now I have my own Production Studio and am currently working as a Communication Specialist within the city.

ADVICE FOR STUDENTS:

  • Visualize your goal and how to get there | Write down your goal and how to get there | Work towards your goal and how to get there.

  • You can always find success in failure. Over the years, I’ve learned that sometimes it’s not about what you are doing, but how you are doing it.

  • Network — Communicate with the people in the room and around you. You never know who could possibly help you get to the next level.

  • Never think your dream is too big. Those dreams will drive your motivation and fuel your ambition to make them come to fruition.

  • Turn your “Idk” to “I will figure it out.” Many times we get discouraged, because “we don’t know” how to do something. I learned a lot of the services that I provide with my company through the “I will figure it out” mentality. Skills you may not know now, could easily turn into skills you are great at. **