Breaking Down Racial Barriers

Managers often pour everything into building an artist’s profile and forget that their own brand carries equal weight. At our midpoint in the F.A.M.E. Program, today’s session shifts the lens back onto the cohort, focusing on the power of a manager’s identity, reputation, and public presence. The way a manager shows up shapes trust, opportunity, and access long before a contract is signed.

Subject Expert: Tia Upshaw, Founder and CEO of Blk Women in Excellence (BWIE), an award-winning entrepreneur whose work has reshaped how Black women and women of colour enter, navigate, and lead in business. Her approach to branding is rooted in clarity, purpose, and lived experience.

With more than ten years as a serial entrepreneur, Tia has built companies, developed training programs, and helped thousands of women strengthen their voice, define their value, and tell their story with intention. She is also a recognized speaker and media personality, known for her candid perspective and her recurring segment “Tuesdays with Tia” on CTV Morning Live.

Her leadership has been honoured with the NS Human Rights Commission’s Burnley “Rocky” Jones Award, Top 50 CEOs in Atlantic Canada, NSCC Entrepreneur of the Year, inclusion in the JA Business Hall of Fame: Legacy in the Making, and recognition among Canada’s Top 100 Black Women to Watch. She also serves as Professional in Residence at Acadia University’s Launch Box.

In this session, Tia guides the cohort through how managers shape their own narrative: the story they tell, the impression they leave, and the consistency that builds credibility. Participants examine what their brand communicates today and what it needs to communicate for the level of rooms they intend to enter. A manager’s brand opens doors, protects their authority, and signals the standard at which they operate.

⸻

📍 F.A.M.E. (Foundations and Acceleration for Management Excellence)
Rooted in Culture. Driven by Excellence.
🔗 www.bdrb.ca/fame