Graduation at Madison College: Putting the Underground Economy in Perspective
Jophia Turner put her experience as a street merchant into perspective through her Madison College business and marketing classes.
By Jonathan Gramling
Jophia Turner is a natural born marketer and entrepreneur. Her gift for gab and high energy can easily get you going with her on whatever vision she is intellectually painting. It is these skills that have allowed her to come up through, survive and succeed in the streets. And one could almost hear her say, ‘I owe all I know to the streets and Madison College.’
Turner took to Madison College like she did at Rock Valley College when she lived in Rockford, Illinois where a mentor told her to get involved in college life beyond the classroom.
“I was a RISE Advisory Board member,” Turner said. “I was part of TRIO. I got involved in a lot of stuff on campus. Getting involved has been a blessing. I also tried really hard in school. I had perfect honors for a while, but I did get a couple of Bs and ended up with a 3.8 GPA. That’s okay because I’m not a robot. That’s what Steve Knoll said. Keep trying and believing.\”
While Truner had been a street entrepreneur and hip hop artist, it was her studies that allowed her to conceptualize what she had been doing and pout words to it.
“My first semester here, I had signed up for the business management degree,” Turner said. “In that degree, my first semester, I took a class called Marketing Principles with Steve Knoll. In that class, my mind was blown. We were learning stuff and all of a sudden, I’m like, ‘I do that. It’s called that?’ I had no idea that something as simple as when I was selling my mixtapes, I would take a Sharpie and autograph it and put my YouTube on it. And I would sign them all the same so people would know that it was me. I didn’t know it was called Branding. I started learning stuff like that. And then I realized that I knew all this stuff. And then what blew my mind was I had raised my hand and I asked, ‘Well what about something like this.’ I can’t remember exactly what I told him or asked him, but it was something that I had done out there selling mixtapes. Steve said, ‘Oh yeah, that’s Chapter 14. We will get to it in a couple of weeks. Remind me.’ And my mind was like ‘What?’ That very next semester, I switched my degree to marketing because I realized that I am a marketer. And I had been in marketing for years. It was just amazing. And I am so glad I got through the program because I learned so much. Even though I knew a lot, I’ve learned so much more. And it has been a blast.”
During her Madison College career, Turner continued to apply her business sense and hip hop art business to the classwork she was doing. The blend of classroom and real business world worked very well for Turner.
“I did a couple of honors projects that were really cool,” Turner said. “Steve Knoll is amazing. He did a mote with me. He actually let me do it for my music, but I learned so much doing it. I made my song called Role Model. When I was being the keynote speaker, they actually played my song too. It was awesome and I got four subscribers on my channel. I made that song for one of my honors projects. I made the video for it. And then we actually did a Facebook marketing ad. I ran it throughout the United States and Canada. I got the most hits from California, which I have never been to in my life. On July 4, I have a new song coming out. The song is Keep Trying and Believing. It’s awesome. It’s a dope song. The beat was custom made for me. I finally got back to them where they were able to make a good track out of it, so I’m going to do that one next. I’m actually going to market it around here in Madison, Milwaukee, Janesville, Beloit and California. It’s going to be fun. I want people to know that about me. Jophia’s J-LITT Curtis.”
And Turner also worked with local hip hop producers, Corey Whitmore and DJ Pain 1.
“This beat was personally made for me by Media 22 and DJ Pain 1,” Turner said. “I went in there and recorded a couple of sessions. And they were like, ‘We make beats too.’ I subscribed to their channel and one of the beats they dropped, I went there and I called it ‘Living My Life. It’s a dope song. I sent it back to them and recoded it there too. But I sent it to the actual producer because there are about six of them in there. He hit me back. And he said he learned the song and then two months ago, he said, ‘I made this beat with you in mind. Let me know if you can do something to it.’ I was finishing up school, but I listened to it, but I was too busy. I had five classes this semester, so I had to put it on the back burner. After that, I finally got back to it and I ripped it. I can’t wait for them to hear it. I do a lot of free-styling and so after I ripped it, I had to go back and write everything down. I’ve been listening to it for the last three days. On Wednesday, I’m going to actually put it down with them.”
While Turner’s life has had its ups and downs, she looks back at it as everything happens for a purpose. If she didn’t experience those challenges, she wouldn’t have made it to Madison College. And without Madison College, she wouldn’t have honed and enhanced her marketing skills.
Now that she had graduated, Turner is enthusiastically pursuing her music and applying her marketing and entrepreneurial skills.
“I’m starting a t-shirt company,” Turner said. “My wife has a nail salon. My older brother is going to be opening the first Black-owned jewelry store in Madison on June 1st. We are all entrepreneurs. I’m marketing all three of our companies. And I’m actually helping my brother too with sales. I’m pretty dope at sales. My brother knew that I was good at sales all these years. But it was the first time that he actually saw me selling. He called me and said, ‘That’s what’s up.’ I was doing it.”
And Jophia Turner will keep doing it through the skills that she learned at Madison College.
