Suggestions
Nichelle Stephens
Bookkeeper, Comedian, Front of House Professional, Newsletter Writer and Podcaster
Professional Background
Nichelle Stephens is a multifaceted professional with extensive experience in blogging, event production, social media strategy, and public relations. As the co-founder of "Cupcakes Take The Cake," Nichelle has played a pivotal role in shaping one of the most beloved blogs centered around cupcakes, celebrating the art of baking and the joy of sweet confections. Through her dedication, she has built a vibrant community of cupcake enthusiasts and bakers who share their passion for creating delightful cupcake recipes and beautiful presentations.
Her entrepreneurial spirit led her to create "Keeping Nickels," a blog dedicated to personal finance and business accounting that serves freelancers and entrepreneurs, the backbone of today's economy. This platform empowers its audience with financial literacy, helping them understand the intricacies of managing finances while balancing the creative demands of entrepreneurship.
In addition to her blogging endeavors, Nichelle is an accomplished event producer. Currently, she serves as the local co-producer for TECHmunch in Atlanta, where she has taken on the responsibilities of securing sponsors, moderating panels, and ensuring successful promotions. Her role in co-producing TECHmunch in New York since 2010 has garnered her recognition within the tech community, leveraging her expertise to connect food and technology enthusiasts through thought-provoking discussions and networking opportunities.
Education and Achievements
Nichelle's formal education includes studying for a Bachelor's in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting at the University of Cincinnati and pursuing Industrial Engineering at the prestigious Georgia Institute of Technology. This solid educational foundation equips her with the analytical skills necessary for her roles in finance and management, particularly beneficial for the freelance community she serves through her blog.
Among her numerous accolades, Nichelle's contributions as keynote speaker at influential events underline her authority in social media best practices and entrepreneurship. Noteworthy events where she shared her insights include the Salon LGBTQ in October 2013 and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Women’s Business event in March 2013. Her speaking engagements at prominent industry conferences like Blog World Expo, Internet Week NY, Social Media Week, SXSW, and multiple TECHmunch events showcase her status as a thought leader in the confluence of social media, technology, and business.
In 2012, she was the community manager for the Digital Undivided’s FOCUS100 Symposium, significantly contributing to this event achieving a global trending topic on Twitter, an impressive milestone that showcased the growing intersection of technology and entrepreneurship among Black women. Her prior experience with organizations such as the NAACP Image Award-winning "Pepsi We Inspire" blog confirms her expertise at creating impactful narratives for diverse audiences, extending her voice within the community of African American women.
Achievements
Throughout her career, Nichelle has demonstrated remarkable versatility and commitment to various roles that have shown her range as a professional. Her time as the editor of "Pepsi We Inspire" from 2009 to 2011 earned recognition and served as a community for African American women to share their stories and interests. The success of this lifestyle blog has been instrumental in fostering strong narratives around culture, beauty, business, and inspiration. In 2011, she was the keynote speaker at the Rochester Institute of Technology's SMAC Conference, where she engaged with students and budding entrepreneurs.
Nichelle's expertise also extends beyond blogging and events; she has contributed her writing talents to several notable publications, including AllBusiness.com, About.com, dot429, Black Table, Gothamist, NewYorkology, and PSFK. Whether with humor or sharp marketing insights, she brings a unique perspective that captivates her audience, illustrating her ability to adapt writing styles to diverse themes and topics.
Further demonstrating her leadership qualities, Nichelle has held key positions across multiple organizations. She has served as the newsletter editor at Nichelle Newsletter, a small business bookkeeper at Keeping Nickels, and a community fellow at Code for America. Her diverse background includes roles such as social media manager at Loop21.com and community evangelist at Digital Undivided, which has provided her with a well-rounded approach to public relations and event production. One of her innovative ventures includes founding and co-producing “Chicks and Giggles,” a live stand-up comedy showcase that has received excellent coverage and accolades in prominent media such as The New Yorker and BUST Magazine.
Additionally, her past endeavors extend to roles such as being a contributing writer and photographer for Well FED Savannah and managing media relations and events for authors as a publicist. Her comprehensive career and her ability to connect the dots between various industries underscore her extensive knowledge in event production, media relations, and audience engagement strategies.
In summary, Nichelle Stephens stands out as an influential voice in the digital landscape, with over a decade of experience in blogging, event production, and social media strategy. Her dedication to empowerment through financial literacy, creativity, and community-building is evident in every aspect of her career. Nichelle’s multifaceted skill set enables her to create lasting connections and inspire individuals across various sectors.
Tags
blogger
event producer
social media strategist
cupcake enthusiast
personal finance expert
community engagement
public relations
content strategy
business accounting
keynote speaker
entrepreneurship
digital media
women in tech
People also viewed
Related People
Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
People also viewed
Related People