MOVER & SHAKER

GLEAM PROFILE:  Entrepreneur Joshua Parker

His accomplishments range from being a motivational speaker and award winning scholar all the way to becoming a co-owner of a multi-million dollar business before he turns 24. The Kent State alumnus, graduated with his degree in Business Management and finance in 2007. Originally from California, the ambitious 23-year-old was the three time Ebony Achievement award winner inducted into the Alpha Kappa Mu organization  which is the highest scholastic award that is offered to African Americans. He is presently the co-founder of Constant Image, a digital advertising company that is projected to gross 1.5 million within the next year. To the less ambitious, his array of accomplishments may exude the makings of an overachiever, but to Joshua, it’s all about becoming a successful groundbreaking businessman, all the while using his resources to touch as many lives as possible

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Mr. Joshua Parker is a name we all will soon become familiar with. Aside from being one of the youngest influential people on Gleam Magazine’s top 10 lists, Joshua is well on his way to becoming a pillar of inspiration to this generation. When he was 22- years old Joshua founded a non-profit organization called Resurface in 2006 at his alma mater Copley High school. “Basically, I saw a need in terms of looking at our generation and all the negative influences that they are bombarded with on a daily basis and decided to found a mentoring program. My goal was to identify their areas of need, and to teach them study tactics to improve their learning as well as life principles and family issues. Now at 23, he is currently juggling a number of side ventures that keep him on a schedule tighter than a campaigning politician.

 “I work for my father’s church as the administrator and I also do a lot of public speaking at church functions and different business organizations so a large part of my speaking is targeted toward implementing life skills “how to” principles and tactics in terms of life and achieving success,” says Joshua. His biggest and most recent venture is his digital advertising company called Constant Image LLC. “We advertise on behalf of an array of companies using digital displays.” It all got started with a meeting and an idea. “I was blessed with the opportunity to meet with a gentleman who wanted to do business with me he gave me a chance to invest in something that would benefit us both, we sat down brainstormed and decided that digital advertising would be a pretty lucrative business venture to go into. Along side his business partner David, the duo plans to forge ahead with their business by branching out.

“We are in the process of opening our first location in Ohio. With it being such a  limited opportunity, my business partner and I  and came up with the idea to put units like digital megatrons inside shopping malls and sell ad space on them to different companies. The idea itself is such an innovative and lucrative market that has been overlooked as a major money making stream.  Instead of sitting back and waiting for an opportunity to fall in his lap, Joshua just went for it and pitched his idea to the decision makers at the malls in Ohio. “Basically, I set up a meeting with the owners of the mall wrote some stuff down pitched them my idea with nothing in my hand, and they loved it and were excited to move forward with the entire process. In the next year we have projected 1.5 to 2 million in ad sales and to branch out throughout the U. S and Canada.  Leaving nothing to chance, Joshua continues to practice what he preaches by implementing the same business principles that he often speaks about.” I feel that in order to be a success in the field of entrepreneurship you have a lot of sacrifices you have to make and it takes a significantly strong person to go out into the market place and be effective as an entrepreneur,” says Joshua. When you look at the definition of a true entrepreneur, one word that is always prevalent is “risk”, but Joshua thinks the most important word is “you”.

 

 The main reason I say this, is because working independently calls for you to be in control of your destiny. You are your support system as well as your employee – you are number one which calls for a disciplined individual, which is why it’s not for everybody.  Joshua credits his strong desire for success to his father and Dr. Price – both of which are ministers. I see myself in the next five years  going  out and reaping the harvest by taking my resources to touch as many lives as possible, and probably going over seas.

In the book of Joshua 1:8 the Bible speaks of meditating on the word of God and allowing it to make your way prosperous and then you will have good success, which is one of the scriptures

that Joshua lives by. Judging by his accomplishments thus far, this appears to only be the beginning of an array of achievments by Joshua. We can’t wait to see more of him in the future.

 

Business website: www.constantimage.com