I am here to confirm that I have one of the best jobs in the world. I absolutely love what I do! For those of you who do not know, I am a social media strategist and I specialize in blogger outreach and producing content. This Monday I had the pleasure of attending the SCAD Style Etoile Awards Gala to see five fashion luminaries be honored in New York city. My team was on site to execute behind the scenes interviews and live stream the awards in addition to inviting bloggers to cover the event. Honorees included hip hop mogul and designer Russell Simmons, Tony Award-winning Broadway costume designer William Ivey Long, Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion editor Robin Givhan, actress and philanthropist Cornelia Guest, and New York City Planning Director Amanda Burden.

As a musicfan, you can assume that I almost passed out when Russell Simmons came in to be interviewed. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity! This time last year I was finishing my senior year in college, and currently one year later I’m live streaming an event that featured Russell Simmons. I think I’m doing pretty good if you ask me! I uploaded the video of Russell’s interview on YouTube and I wanted to feature the original video on my blog, but the file is too big In the interview, Russell shares his thoughts on the cultivation of creativity as the most important thing in the education process. Also, I think it’s pretty cool that Uncle Russ was extremely interested in what Sherri and I were doing in the room as Sherri was filming the interview on the Flip cam and I was manning the chat room while Twittering.

Russell: I think you need to get on Twitter! Julie’s on Twitter, but I know you could be a leader in the space! If Diddy has almost 275k followers, I KNOW you can have double that! Hit me up at erica.hartfield@gmail.com if you need some assistance in setting up your account!

For everyone else: enjoy the video!