{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/xs5j96226x/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Kamilah Beltran-Harris Interview"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/571/original/full-color_2x.png?1735841768","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["The African American Network TV (TAAN TV)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eKamilah Beltran-Harrison discusses her work in the corporate information technology sector and her transition to entrepreneurship to pursue digital marketing and web design. She emphasizes the importance of representation, offers advice on breaking into the field, and compares Texas barbeque to St. Louis barbeque.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eAll materials are for noncommercial educational or research uses only. Please contact SAAACAM for any questions regarding usage rights.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["created"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Interview"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["MP4"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["Information Technology, Digital Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship, Web Design, Barbeque, 300 Voices in 300 Days"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["Information Technology (topical term)","Digital Marketing (topical term)","Business (topical term)","Entrepreneurship (topical term)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Access Ss"]},"value":{"en":["access_public"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eKamilah Beltran-Harrison discusses her work in the corporate information technology sector and her transition to entrepreneurship to pursue digital marketing and web design. She emphasizes the importance of representation, offers advice on breaking into the field, and compares Texas barbeque to St. Louis barbeque.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eAll materials are for noncommercial educational or research uses only. 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I'm your host, Vance Bradford, and our special guest is Kamilah Beltran. Good morning. How you doing ma’am?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  0:13  \r\nGood morning. I'm doing very well. How are you?\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  0:15  \r\nFine, thank you. I'm fine. Thank you. You're looking wonderful.\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  0:18  \r\nThank you. So are you.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  0:20  \r\nOkay, alright. So do you mind if we ju- jump right into this interview?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  0:22  \r\nOh we can definitely do that.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  0:23  \r\nOkay. Well, just tell TAAN TV audience: where were you born?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  0:28  \r\nI was born in Kansas City, Missouri.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  0:31\r\nOh, K.C. \r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  0:32\r\nYes. I’m with the Chiefs. \r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  0:34\r\nThe Chiefs, okay.\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  0:36\r\nYes. And I have lived here, for the last seven years, in San Antonio.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  0:42  \r\nOkay. So you’re a Kansas City Girl? \r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  0:44\r\nYes. \r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  0:45\r\nOkay. Chiefs? Love them Chiefs, huh? \r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  0:47\r\nLove the Chiefs. \r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  0:48\r\nSo you haven’t moved over to the Cowboys yet.\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  0:51  \r\nI actually like the Cowboys. I actually like the Cowboys, but I'm always gonna put the Chiefs before the Cowboys.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  0:56\r\nIs that right?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  0:57\r\nYes. \r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  0:58\r\nOkay then. That’s- [laughs] that’s all good. Okay, so tell us something about your education. Where’s your- Where were you educated?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  1:05  \r\nAlright. So I actually have an undergrad in information technology with an emphasis in visual communications. And then… [pauses] I do have an MBA, no emphasis. I was like, “I have just, um, so much experience.” I didn't feel like I needed to do… [pauses] any kind of emphasis. So yes, the bachelors and the masters.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  1:29  \r\nThe bachelors and the masters. Okay. Well yeah, that's good. That's great. So did you go straight through or there- was there–?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  1:34  \r\nNo, I did not go straight through, I became a non-traditional student. And after I got into the workforce, I went back. So I went [pauses] to school, um, straight out of high school, and I tried to work and go to school–kind of bounce back and forth–but I finally completed them both. [laughs]\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  1:53  \r\nWell, congratulations.\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  1:54  \r\nThank you.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  1:55  \r\nYes. Yes ma’am. So tell us a little bit about your family life. You know, your family: mom, dad.\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  2:01  \r\nYes. So I'm married. I've been married for five years now. I have two beautiful little children who are five and two. And [pauses] my mom lives in Olathe, Kansas which is actually a suburb of, um, of Kansas City, Missouri. My father is, um, is deceased from a young age, but my mother, that is my inspiration. She is a rock star.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  2:32  \r\nShe's a rock star, huh?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  2:33\r\nYes.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  2:34\r\nMoms, we love moms. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Okay, great. So,  so what brought you to San Antonio?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  2:42\r\nLove. [laughs]\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  2:44\r\nLove? [laughs] I like that.\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  2:46  \r\nLove brought me to San Antonio. At the time, I was actually trying to relocate to Dallas. I was there on vacation. I met my husband in Dallas, but he was from here in San Antonio. We met, sparks flew, we did the long distance thing. And at the time, I didn't have any children. And I was like, you know, “I'll just take a chance and move to San Antonio and see what happens.” And here we are married, two kids later.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  3:16  \r\nWow. Great. Great. Okay. Okay. So now you- we’re here in San Antonio, tell us, what do you do now?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  3:25  \r\nWhat I do now- well, I'll start with a little bit of background. \r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  3:29\r\nThere you go.\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  3:31\r\nI was a network engineer for the last 13 years before I switched careers. I worked at Sprint, a company here. I moved here, I- I jumped right into the whole- um-  the network engineering thing and my mom–the rock star–she's like a techie, she's in that networking, cybersecurity space, she pushed me into this industry. And I loved it, but it was like I never found, like, my niche in it, that part that I loved. But all that time, I would, you know, have a hobby of web designing and, you know, playing around on websites and creating things for fun. And it was just something that I just always enjoyed doing. So in my last year in- in corporate America, I had, like, started taking the web design serio- seriously, hired a business coach, and she was like, “You can make a lot of money doing that.” So I did that. She shared me with her audience, and it just made the business start to boom. I mean, I had web project after web project, and I couldn't handle my day job and doing the web designing on the side. So I fired my boss and jumped out here into this full entrepreneur world. So that is what I do full time: web development, digital marketing, the whole entrepreneurship, training people how to design their own websites, the digital marketing, Facebook ads, sales funnels, all that kind of good stuff.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  5:13  \r\nIt’s stuff that's happening now that we really need to be up on, huh?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  5:17  \r\nYes, yes. I'm all in the tech space. I love it.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  5:22  \r\nOkay, okay. Well, that- that sounds like a wonder. Now, what do you think is your- your biggest contribution to San Antonio… so far?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  5:32  \r\nThe biggest contribution is just, I'm really getting in here. And the people who want to be entrepreneurs, the people who are scared of the whole tech space–-because it is sometimes intimidating–I make it easy. I take away the overwhelm, and I just love to help people build their own dreams the same way I try to do every day.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  5:58  \r\nOkay, okay. So you- nice- nice clientele?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  6:01  \r\nNice clientele, nice clientele. \r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  6:03  \r\nIs it based here in San Antonio or is it global or how does that work?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  6:08  \r\nNot quite global yet, but it is national. \r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  6:12\r\nWell, yeah.\r\n\r\n\r\n[both speakers laughing]\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  6:13\r\nNational’s good. \r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  6:14\r\nNational is good. And that's the beauty of the internet. It's not all about just in your immediate space, you have a great website, people are referring you. With e-commerce, you can get paid online from anywhere, from a person anywhere in the world. So that makes business good these days, this is the best time to hop into it.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  6:36  \r\nRight, right. So as a female in the- in this business, what- what sort of, uh, I want to say challenges do you face, you know, being in this- this type of business or field?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  6:54  \r\nWell, being a woman–I don't know why–but sometimes people don't think that you are as- as sharp as you are. And usually you can be one of the only women or the few women who are in the room that has the tech background. My last job in corporate America here, I was the only f- female in my whole entire department. So you have to become one of the guys in a sense…[pauses] And that's challenging… [pauses] There's the stereotypes there. And then also being a black woman, there are very few of us that are in the tech space, we’re underrepresented. So we need to get more of us into this industry.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  7:45  \r\nOkay. So- so now, on saying that, is there any tips that you could give out to young ladies that might want to follow- follow your footsteps in this industry?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  7:57  \r\nAbsolutely. Even though my- my undergrad is in- in IT [information technology] and I worked in networking for a long time, this web designer stuff, self taught. I have been shoulders deep in YouTube videos, Google, I mean, it's self taught. And- and we live in a world where everyone wants everything just fast. But I started playing around in web design back in 2000. And we're entering into 2008. So just, like, taking the time, it doesn't have to occur overnight. But the beauty about now is you have, like, Meetup.com, you can find groups and organizations, there are training classes. I know here, there are free ones that go on about WordPress and entrepreneurship, meeting up, getting around other people that are doing the same things that you want to do. Find a mentor. Black Girls That Code is really popular now. There are areas to go and learn coding. I'm talking to your parents if you're in high school, or even middle school about finding a school that specializes in the tech space, because now you don't even have to have a bachelor's degree to go out here and make a job that's paying you over 55,000 a year. You just have to have the skills. So this is not only just a change from the… [pauses] the professional standpoint. Closing the digital divide, it's an economic game changer for our community. So that's why we need to get the representation.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  9:46  \r\nWow, okay, okay. ‘Cause you know, being in a tech field can- can be kind of intimidating. So, you know, you just dove in and–\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  9:55  \r\nOne step at a time. Like that saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” You know, it may seem challenging, but that's the thing that grows your confidence. Like, “This was hard, but I stuck to it. I figured it out.” I mean, I have challenges now that people ask me to do things and I'm like, “You want me to do what?” Like, “How do you do that?” I get online, I'm looking, I'm trying different things. I'm like- it- It can take days, it can take weeks for some, but the challenge is it builds confidence and makes you do great things in this life.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  10:32  \r\nWow. That's- that’s impressive. Very good. Make it a little lighter now. You know, you gave us a wealth of information and encouragement. [pauses] What do you like about San Antonio? You've been here for seven years, is there anything you like about San Antonio?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  10:49  \r\nThe food!\r\n\r\n\r\n[both speakers laughing]\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  10:52\r\nI love San Antonio. It's just… [pauses] the rich culture, the opportunities, the people that you meet. The entrepreneurship, like, vibe here is getting stronger, the tech space is getting stronger. Even for the kids, my daughter just started kindergarten, and she's gone into a dual language program. She's already speaking Spanish at five, and learning. And by the fifth grade, she'll be 100% biliterate and bilingual. So those kind of schools aren't everywhere. Like, I checked in… [pauses] in Kansas City, there was only one dual language school there in the city. And here there are multiple ones. So just a lot of entrepreneurship, education, just rich culture to be immersed in. The exposure, I love that here. And it's a fun ci- city: always a festival, something going on. I love that.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  11:59  \r\nOkay. Okay. So, you mentioned- the first thing you mentioned about the food. Now I know you from Kansas City. Compare the barbecue: that Gates barbecue and San Antonio barbecue.\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  12:10  \r\nOh, San Antonio can't touch Kansas City barbecue.\r\n\r\n\r\n[both speakers laughing]\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  12:16\r\nWe have the best.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  12:17  \r\nIs that right?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  12:18  \r\nYes, I’ll stand on that.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  12:19  \r\nOkay, dry rub, or you like the sauce? Wh- Which way you go?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  12:23  \r\nI like the dry rub. \r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  12:24\r\nI do too.\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  12:25\r\nSauce on the side, if I just want a little bit.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  12:27  \r\nCorrect. That dry rub, boy, off the chain there.\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  12:29  \r\nMhm. Definitely.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  12:30  \r\nOh yeah. I travel through s- Kansas City quite a bit. Yeah, there and St. Louis, and stuff like that. I remember, back in college, when I went to college–I went to the University of Missouri.\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  12:41\r\nOh wow. Okay.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  12:42\r\nRight. And we used to have St. Louis and Kansas City when they two-step, used to do the- used to be those battle–\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  12:47\r\n[laughs] That’s a big deal.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  12:49 \r\nYeah that’s a big deal. So that was- that was great to experience. So that's good. Okay, tell you what, you've given us a wealth of information. Got one more. See if you can give us a good little tidbit… [pauses] As African American or just us as- as you know, people, human beings. Why do you think it’s important for us, though, to tell our story, to get our story out?\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  13:19  \r\nStories are so important. And you can't know where you're going until you know where you've been. And if you don't know the stories of people, the things that they've experienced, overcome, accomplished, then… [pauses] it's difficult to know your own possibilities and capabilities. So it's from the stories and the… [pauses] the experiences of others, those things have personally inspired me and motivated me. So it is important to tell those stories and document that history.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  14:01  \r\nYeah. Well Miss Beltran, this been a great interview. But before you go, I want to give you an opportunity to- you know, if you want- if there's a website you want us to go to where we can find you, you know, maybe some of your work or something. Is anything- or and if there's any other nuggets you want to tell our TAAN TV viewing audience, feel free and go right at it.\r\n\r\n\r\nKamilah Beltran-Harrison  14:24  \r\nAbsolutely. I'll close it out saying you can be anything that you want to be. It may not happen in the timeframe you want it to be but patience is the- the key to all of this. And you can find me at kamilahbeltran.com. That is K-A-M-I-L-A-H-B-E-L-T-R-A-N.com.\r\n\r\n\r\nVance Bradford  14:50  \r\nWonderful, wonderful. Well- well you have it. Another great episode of 300 Voices in 300 Days on TAAN TV. I'm your host Vance Bradford with our special guest Miss Kamilah Beltran. Thank you and have a great day.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2808/collection_resources/127819/file/239679#t=0.0,910.656"}]}]}]}