Today we’d like to introduce you to Tahj’ee Smith.
Hi Tahj’ee, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
In 2016, I received a football scholarship to further my education at Southwest Minnesota State University. I played college football for 3 years and studied Communications, Broadcasting Digital Media. I attended SMSU starting in the spring of 2017 and graduated Spring of 2020 with honors.
In 2021, after giving it some thought, I decided it was time to invest in a camera along with other equipment to help jumpstart my new hobby. I started to travel, vlog, and create all different types of content. After a while, I got more acclimated with Youtube and started to upload content after post-production.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Yes, there were plenty of obstacles. The road it took for me to get here was not easy by a long shot and took a lot of dedication. I had the grades and the GPA to go to many different four-year colleges; even my dream school, Louisiana State University. Due to the cost of tuition, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go. Instead, enrolling in junior college was the route I had to take to further my education. Wanting to go to a university wasn’t out of the question, it all came down to, “How” was I going to get there?
A football scholarship was the most realistic way to make my dream a reality. I had plenty of local junior colleges around to apply for, the problem was becoming a full-time student. Over a year and a half time, I was only able to enroll in a total of 3 classes because of how quickly the classes I needed were over-occupied. And on top of that, I haven’t even begun to play college football yet which was really frustrating. It was a trying time because I was giving plenty of effort, but it seemed like nothing was working and the time was constantly ticking. After 3 long years of work that seemed like it was in vain, constantly working out and staying in shape, I was finally able to say I was a full-time student and a college football player.
My dreams were finally at the palms of my hand and all I had to do was apply myself and stay the course. The junior college struggle was a tough experience that had me thinking at times if it was possible to finish, but my faith in God helped me persevere. Nevertheless, the trials and tribulations didn’t stop me from being a 2x dean’s list student, an all-conference strong and free safety at my alma mater, Yuba College in California. This ultimately led to me obtaining an athletic scholarship to attend Southwest Minnesota State University. I’m thankful for that experience because it made me smarter, stronger, and wiser which helped lead me to the position I’m in now.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
After 3 years of attending SMSU and playing football, I graduated with honors and received my bachelor of science in Communications, Broadcasting digital media. At the time, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to be involved in media. After giving it some thought, I bought a Panasonic Lumix G85 camera and equipment to go along with it to create content. I decided to start traveling and vlogging the trips I went on to hone my skills. After a few creations I did, a lot of people started to take notice of the work that I specialize in.
And once the word was out, that’s where I naturally started to build a clientele based on the vlogging videos I put on Youtube. Over time, I became more acclimated with Final Cut Pro, Apple motions, and post-production. Shooting videos and editing them became a specialty of mine that put me in different conversations. My peers came up with the nickname for me, “Smack” because of the approach I took in football being someone eager to attack the ball carrier playing safety. I contemplated on it and thought, why not call my business “Smack Ent” short for entertainment?
I made business cards and promoted myself to make people aware, that I’m here to provide a service for businesses or individuals who may need a videographer and editor. People may still see me as that college football player, but the narrative has changed. People now see me as a content creator and editor.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
People can work with me in various ways! Whether that’s doing a joint project together or if a client needs pictures or a video of some sort. I provide all different types of edits clients may need and I’m always willing to do projects with other creators to learn more. I upload all of my content to Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
So, some ways people can support me is by subscribing to my Youtube channel, watching, sharing, and liking the content will definitely help grow my media accounts and the content that I have. Another way of supporting me is also sharing ideas and giving feedback so I can put out better content and become more proficient in my skills.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smackent_9/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tahjee.smith
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tahjeesmithlinkdin9/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SmackEnt_9
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@smackent_9/featured
Image Credits
Lar Htoo
