Cynthia Morgan Jenkins, Head of Supplier Diversity, Managing Partner at GroupM

Erik  00:03

We want to welcome all of our listeners to another episode of MRP Minority Report Podcast with Erik and Kerel. Each episode, we talk with real operators, and leaders in media, tech and business. And today joining us is Cynthia Jenkins. Cynthia is the Head of Supplier Diversity and Managing Partner at GroupM. Let's jump in and get to know Cynthia. Cynthia, welcome. How are you?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  00:26

I am well, thank you. Thank you for having me.

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Erik  00:29

We're thrilled that you can hang out with us for a little bit and spend some time with us. Cynthia, I love your title. Can you help us understand a little bit about what it is to be the Head of Supplier Diversity at GroupM? Tell us a little bit about that.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  00:47

Wow, well, a Head of Supplier Diversity, according to Group M, WPP is the liaison between our diverse owned vendor partners, media partners, and our clients. So that is the textbook actual title. Managing Partner, it's just an internal hierarchy. And that is the answer. part one. Part two, "Head of" is a title that was created in 2020, after George Floyd, for very many, middle to the top in between minorities, primarily women, who were in a holding pattern on their way to the next step.

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Erik  01:28

I love the meaning, the compounded meaning and the context around all that. I think it's fantastic. That's a lot.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  01:38

It is a lot. It's saying something and doing something at the same time, it's providing an opportunity, right? For those that might not have had one. But it's also a newly created title that has existed maybe for five years now. If you look into it a little bit more there are inquiries about what was before "Head of," what is after "Head of" but it is indeed a newly created role. And I'll take it because it's a newly created role. And it's a newly created title.

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Erik  02:10

That's fantastic. That's awesome. We're gonna come back to that, but first, I want to know a little bit more about you. Cynthia, where did you grow up? Where were you born and raised?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  02:20

Wow. Well, I'm from Long Island. And I say it how it is. "Long Island," emphasizing the G and the I. Born and raised. I am proud of this accent. I am proud of being a Long Island woman, girl. Although it's a place that I definitively knew early on I wasn't going back to. But I'm born and raised from parents that actually ended up there. They weren't born and raised there themselves. And my parents are African American. My mother, from the South, from the Deep South, Deep South is North Carolina, but-

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Erik  02:55

I was just gonna ask you what's Deep South to Long Island?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  02:58

For her era and the time that my mother was raised in the early, she was a 30s, late 30s born. So she's been through it all, right? Although she experienced the civil rights movement, she was in college then. My mother was tapped, along with several other black women to come teach the lovely children of Long Island, way out on the East End where they had Native Americans. And they went to HBCUs and got black women from the South to come to Long Island and start a new life. And my mother took that. And being true to who she is and what she passed on to me, she loved to party and she met a fabulous Brooklyn boy at one of those parties and I am their child. (laughs)

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Erik  03:48

Amazing.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  03:49

Yeah, there's a little bit more to that because my father passed away. That's a story. And my mother remarried to another gentleman from the South. So my roots are Southern base with a little bit of city in there.

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Erik  04:01

Absolutely. Absolutely. Have you had any time to head to the South?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  04:06

Absolutely. Absolutely. It feels like home to me. I am deeply rooted in African American culture. And most of African American culture is deeply rooted in the south. So I go down south, as we say on a regular. I was there for my birthday. I am a history buff. I had a fun birthday this past birthday in March. And my idea of fun was going to the Gullah Islands and met up with some girlfriends to find out more about the culture. My father that raised me, not my biological was a Gullah man. And he spoke Gullah, his culture, his background, his family, my family, is of that lineage and I understand the language and for my 50 something, we went, a group of friends and I to enjoy and take in South Carolina in that way. To which everyone we told we were going there said, "Oooh South Carolina!" because it's you know, it's different from my people. It's different if you're not from there. It's a completely different vibe and you got to have your head on swivel to this day. But my idea of going south is North Carolina, or the DMV where my sister is, and that's, you know, a minute from New York, very New York-ish.

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Erik  05:26

That's right. That's right. What a special connection that you just described when you go to a place, and it feels like home, and you feel connected. You clearly had a great experience there. What's the next place that you feel like you would want to go and explore and have those connections again?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  05:50

Of course, Africa, for sure. For sure. I'm gonna get there one day, for sure. I, like many, did the good old genealogy report. I'm in advertising so I won't name which one, but I did one. And it was very interesting. They recently actually, within the last year told me, I'm 30% Nigerian, which was interesting, because what I know to be true, is it's a motley crew at family reunions, based off of marriage and mergers. My father, my biological in Brooklyn, has Caribbean lineage from Barbados, and my family on the Barbados side and my great grandmother is Italian from Arthur Avenue. It's very much so a mixing pot. I identify and I am African American, because that's how I was raised.

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Kerel  06:42

Very similar to you, Cynthia, my parents are from the south. And even though I'm born and raised in New Jersey, every time I go south, I do get a sense of like, I'm going home.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  06:53

It is. Yeah.

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Kerel  06:54

Yeah, definitely, definitely. I want to bring it back a little bit to your career and working in the media and advertising space. Is that always something you wanted to do was be in media and advertising?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  07:05

Absolutely not. But I did want to express myself. And I just started out expressing myself in a different way. And this is where it goes left. So I was a dance major. And I was a dancer in the early 90s. And while I went to college for a BFA dance program, and I did two European tours with a dance group called the Venetians Culture Workshop, and I auditioned and I was an Alvin Ailey Junior repertoire, and I danced danced. I loved music, and there was this thing called music videos that jumped off, and they were a lot of fun. And my family, mother reminded me that's not the type of dancing lessons you went to school for. But that was the type of dancing that moved my spirit. And I had a lot of fun going to college in New York City and all the clubs and the movement of the city and the energy that always spoke to me when we came to the city. To Brooklyn to see families and the city for plays and shows, but that I never really enacted upon. I knew I was going to college in New York City. And I did as a dance major. And that was a way of communicating. Along the way I injured my leg and I had to sit out a semester. And my mother who was an educator said "Pick up something else. Pick up another major." Also, she saw that music video dance in which she had not signed me up for in her mind and she said, "That's not going to be it. I'm not paying for that." And communications media and expression, she said "Use this, use this. You always talking. Use that." And I went right into communications media. It was a different form of, to your point, was that always yes, I've always been communicating, but it sort, I started to lean more into the verbal communicating of at all, which is still a form of expression.

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Kerel  08:58

Gotcha. Tell us a little bit about the early parts of your career. Give us a little sense of your career path.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  09:05

Wow, I'm a risk taker. I still am to this day, I mentioned that I'm in a newly created role. I have always been in roles that were created for me and with me in mind, which I am extremely fortunate to be able to say I am realizing that now with my own young adult, college aged children that I have talked and created all of my roles. While I was in college, I was a intern with a radio station. And I was the van driver for that radio station because they needed someone to drive that big Econoline to all the parties and things that they were doing. And one day in the office, I saw that they were bunch of people on the floor that were very well dressed, moving fast and doing a lot of hustling. And I inquired, I learned that was sales. I went down to that side of the floor and I said oh, I gotta be over here. And so I joined the sales organization from there. I went straight into it right after graduation, I had a job waiting for me, primarily because and I'll name names, Howard Stern had a hand slap from the FCC and needed to hire two minorities. And I was the female that he hired and he hired a male from an HBCU. We're still good friends to this day. And at the end of the day, it was an experience because KROCK was something I'd never experienced in my life at that time. He had a unique way of storytelling, but it was totally getting the attention of the masses. And I grew from Howard Stern to walking around the station and saying rap lyrics to the classic rock that they were playing to someone tapping me and saying, some friends of mine are starting the nation's first hip hop radio station, you should have a conversation with them. And I did, and we launched Hot 97 radio, and I just talked myself into Hot 97. When I was at Hot, I grew up there. I gave a lot of my time like, partied, got engaged, got married, had my first child and having to go to The Tunnel in the late night hour, when you have a young child was not going to be it for me. The Tunnel is an infamous nightclub, I was like this is not it.

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Kerel  11:21

I've been there once or twice myself. (laughs)

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  11:24

(laughs) A great place, but you know, we evolve. And so I moved from place to place, my career follows my life. I went from Hot to EBONY, JET. I went from EBONY, JET to working mother. I went from working mother to a pharmaceutical client because there was no black female sales rep selling Viagra in the South Bronx. And I wanted to have a little bit more flexibility, it wasn't all the flexibility that we have today. Pharmaceutical reps work from home. I was a killer at selling Viagra in the South Bronx, for a pharmaceutical company. And I moved from there, back into media with Viacom at the time BET Networks where I was for 10 years.

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Erik  12:02

I was gonna ask you about your time at BET.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  12:04

Yeah, it was a long time.

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Erik  12:07

Yeah, that's a good run.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  12:08

A chunk, a chunk. Yeah. 

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Erik  12:12

Yeah, there had to be some interesting experiences. And then also, BET has a very unique and special place in media. Right? What was that like for you with that experience and that tenure there? From there, do you feel like you could take on to future stops?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  12:36

Be ready so you don't have to get ready.

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Erik  12:38

Love it.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  12:39

BET was amazing. A huge part of my growth. I frequently say, I didn't go to an HBCU, but I worked at BET and I learned a lot personally, professionally. I went to BET for a startup they were starting Centric. And there was a evolution and change in media, and how African American, black people were being represented, right? We were right on the cusp of more of us being involved in politics, and the Centric network, which at the time was being launched as Centric because it was that which is central to Black Entertainment. And that's where the name started. They wanted someone that reflected the people they were trying to reach. And so a role was created. I was the person that took the opportunity to sell Centric when it launched. Unrated, unknown, as a tag along to BET. And the goal was to get all the money off the table, whatever BET didn't take, Centric got. And I stayed there for a while, grew Centric, we eventually evolved to BET Her because we needed to be aligned with the name because not everyone got it. And it was an experience like no other. I'm trying to put words to it. It's growing and learning and finding your voice all at the same time.

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Erik  14:03

Want to ask you Cynthia about special motto? It is "By Culture and By Merit?" 

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  14:13

(laughs) Who taught you that? 

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Erik  14:15

(laughs) What does that mean? And tell us more importantly, what AKA means to you?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  14:21

Yes, AKA is more than just a sorority. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated is a lifetime commitment. I am the daughter of a sorority woman, I believe in legacy. My daughter is now an Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority woman. We believe in the culture and we believe in merit based activity and lifting as we climb. And that speaks to who I am, to everything I exude and everything I try to accomplish in all that I touch and move. Do it for the purpose and the benefit of the culture, and do it in a merit based honorable way where it can live on after you. And while it's occurring, it can be acknowledged and looked upon favorably. And not even the so much acknowledged part because I don't care about that as long as we are making movement and strides and doing it justly, and serving and serving without any issue.

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Kerel  15:25

Thank you for that Cynthia and everything that you just talked about, right, from your sorority. I mean, it's just not when you're around people that are a part of that. That's a part of your everyday life. Right?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  15:39

Absolutely. You know that, Kerel. (laughs) You know that more than most. Yes. Yes.

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Kerel  15:44

Awesome. So talk to me a little bit about, Cynthia, because in your role, you are a leader at Group M, you've been a leader for a long time in your career, right? What are some of the like your keys to leadership?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  15:59

Wow, it is creating a path for you and knowing the why in that path. I think you cannot lead unless you're worthy of being followed. So I make it a point to make sure that I am on the right path with all that I'm attempting to do for myself. I have goals for myself. And in leading others, I am able to know that they're a part of my larger personal goals. So I'm also personally motivated putting my face mask on first, right? That's what they say on the airplane. I'm looking out for me, I'm also looking out for you. I think, as we move forward in life, when you're a giver, and when you're an empath, and I am both, you can tend to forget yourself, I think it's important to keep your personal goals in mind, the goals for the team, for whomever it is that you're working with. To be effective and to coach. And be coached because there's a give and take in that. And to check yourself along the way. I learned that definitely at BET Network, state your piece, be concise and move on, measure it, have the facts to back yourself up. You cannot consistently create roles for yourself, unless you can sell yourself through and your accolades and your winnings, right, what is the point and the purpose behind everything you are trying to do. And I think when you are open to giving and receiving feedback, and making sure that you're aligned with the goals and the mission, and those that you are bringing along the way can receive it, you're going to have success, because the transparency and trust is king overall. Being a strong leader is about being self aware to be able to lead to me.

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Kerel  17:51

Yeah, yeah, I love the self awareness part because you do have to understand where your strengths are, where maybe some of areas where you're challenged, you have to be open to feedback as well, too. So I love the self awareness piece there. What gets you excited?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  18:10

Wow. There's so many things that get me excited because I'm a natural cheerleader. But I love to see the underdog. I love to see the unexpected. So I was rooting for my Knicks. I'm a die hard Knicks fan. Didn't happen that way.

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Kerel  18:26

(laughs)

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  18:27

You know, I'm gonna always root for the underdog. And if not the underdog, when in doubt, who all has green? Because green means something to me, for many reasons, right? Green means growth. Green means a new beginning, not just a Sorority. People people think, "Ohh, green is your color because...-" No, green is a new beginning. Green is forward thinking. So yeah, what really gets me excited is when the defeated and the unheard are heard and undefeated and in a better circumstance than when they started. That gets me very excited. I frequently watch television, or I have it running, because I try to watch and support everything that I make sure that we invest in. And in doing so I watch a lot of channels where I don't know the language. And my young adults, my husband are like, "You don't even know what they're saying. What is this?" But I do it because I feel like I feel it. And I'm like, but I know, you know what they're saying, you know what they're referencing, because I do. I do. I might not know, but I am feeling it. And in that I can be a cheerleader and I can be excited, if that answers your question. (laughs)

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Kerel  19:36

Absolutely.

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Erik  19:38

Cynthia, I'm thinking about, you know your descriptions or like, what you started off doing. What kind of advice would Cynthia today pass on to Cynthia just getting started in her career?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  19:55

It's my mantra right now - you know what you're doing. We have so much self doubt sometimes in our lives and at times for me, it definitely rears its ugly head in the most opportune time. Like, I could be flying through something or I could say, wait a minute, wait a minute, what am I doing? Like, should I rethink it and let me go back and resketch it and change the goal or figure out a new way. Or we can look at this metric and, you know, add fuel to the fire unnecessarily. I would just say you know what you're doing. Even if you don't, it's gonna work out, but you do know what you're doing. And that's what I frequently say to myself when I'm in that distressed or like frazzled place, I know what I'm doing. I know what I'm doing. I know who I am. And because I do know who I am, I might not always, always know what I'm doing. I might be winging it. But I have a general direction. And all things are aligned, I believe. So my advice would be, trust your gut, you know what you're doing.

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Kerel  20:52

It's so interesting how sometimes we can, as individuals overthink things, right? Because we're in our head all the time. We're in our own head all the time.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  21:03

Mhm. Too much.

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Kerel  21:03

Yes. Yes. What's something you wish you were better at?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  21:07

Promoting myself.

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Kerel  21:08

Mm mmm.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  21:10

Which is odd, considering I just said, and it's come to my attention, because I'm gonna call it to my attention. I'm working with a coach that said, "You created all your roles." So I have no problems, but you know what I've realized. I'm in another organization and we had an event, I had an event over the weekend, and a small group of ladies were saying after the event was over, and encouraged me to say, I usually do my thing and I'm out. And it was a larger group event. And I was like, "Yeah, I'm out. See y'all." And they were like, "No, stay!" and I was like, "Stay? You mean, like just a small group of us, just like, five of us and chat. Like, that's what we doing now?" But that's really is going down, right? And I stayed an additional two hours and that self promotion that I have done where I've created roles have been small one on one, speak to one other person, someone saying to me, "I think we can create something for you, can you put it down in writing and bring it back to me?" That's one on one, I might ask one other person, what does this look like? But that's a small group. When we're talking about the masses and getting your name out there, there comes that self doubt again, right? It's self promotion, you've got to be ready, so you don't have to get ready. But if folks don't know that you aren't ready, you've done yourself a disservice.

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Kerel  22:31

Very true. Alright, so the next time you and I are at an event together, and I see you leaving earlier, I'm gonna say, "Nope, you got to stay." (laughs)

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Erik  22:40

Just 5 minutes. Then it'll turn into two hours. (laughs)

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Kerel  22:43

(laughs)

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  22:43

(laughs) We'll try it! I'll try it.

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Erik  22:46

That's funny.

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Kerel  22:48

Alright, I got a fun question for you now. What's in your music rotation these days?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  22:53

Oooh it's crazy. I'm stuck on something that's gonna throw you. West Side Boogie, what a "N**** Needs". I love it. What a "N**** Needs" is a lot. And he's going in on all that he needs because he just needs to stop and just get down and do it. My favorite part is in the last few seconds of the song, which is what got it in heavy rotation for me. I can't believe I said that song because my favorite song is "Keep Risin' to the Top" Keni Burke, but you have to remember I worked in radio for years, so I'm gonna give you the name and I'm gonna give you the artist. Alright, the end of the song and I'm not going to choke up but at the end of the song, which got me into the song he plays his mother's voicemail. His mother left him a voicemail. And she says "Baby, you better call me now. I haven't heard-" That's- I'm a mother. I don't have my mother. Mothering is a huge part of who I am. But he goes through this hardcore "a n**** needs what he needs" and then it goes "BOOP. Baby now this is mama, you better call me. I haven't heard from you." That is my song. Please listen to the song. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's a great song.

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Erik  24:05

Cynthia, have you ever left that voicemail?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  24:09

Have I ever left a voicemail? Yes I have. 

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Erik  24:11

That one.

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Kerel  24:13

"It's your mom, call me."

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  24:14

"It is your mother!" (laughs)

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Kerel  24:17

(laughs)

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Erik  24:17

(laughs)

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  24:17

"You better call me! It's been 48 hours!" Yes, yes I have. And possibly, you know, when I fell in love with that song, my eldest was going to college. And yeah, and I remember I sent it to my girl, she's like what are you listening to right now? And I was like, this is where my head is. And she was like, who are you?? She was like, I didn't even know this about you. But I'm all over the place with music. And that just came to me.

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Kerel  24:41

Well see, that's one of the reasons why we ask that question because I think music is one of those genres, right, where you can really get a sense of who someone is overall or a sense of who they are at a particular stage in their life or in a particular week, too right, because I'm sure our music rotation all of us changes slightly week to week, depending on the mood that we're in.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  25:04

Yes it does.

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Erik  25:05

How are we feeling, what's going on, where we going, what time is it?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  25:09

That's right. (laughs) That's right. All the things.

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Erik  25:12

Cynthia, this has been a lot of fun. Thank you for spending some time with us.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  25:16

(gasp) We're done?! What??

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Erik  25:21

It goes by fast doesn't it?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  25:23

Oh my goodness, and you even made me cry. [inaudible] And we even had emotion. Wow.

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Kerel  25:31

You know, so the one of the reasons why and I'd say this to Erik all the time. I mean, we've been doing this podcast now for six years, 170 plus episodes. One of the reasons why I love doing this podcast is because I get to talk to people who I've known in the industry for a long time, like you and in 40 minutes, find out a lot of things about you that I didn't know, but just because we get so wrapped up in our day to day. And now we get to peel back the layers a little bit and really get to know people for who they are. So we appreciate you joining us and sharing parts of your story and your journey.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  26:14

Thank you. I'm looking forward to hearing it. And you know, all that comes from it. I appreciate you and thank you so much first and foremost as I said when you reached out, thank you for thinking of me, says the person who doesn't self promote but thank you for seeing me, for seeing me, because that's really what it is.

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Kerel  26:32

Absolutely, yeah.

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Erik  26:33

Cynthia, what are some ways that our listeners and viewers can get in touch with you?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  26:39

Wow, now here's where the old Mamma me comes out. That's You mean like social, right?

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Erik  26:45

LinkedIn?

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  26:46

Yeah. That's the ticket, LinkedIn. And in that it's Cynthia M., Cynthia Morgan Jenkins. And IG is @4cynnyc, actually fun fact I'm CYN which is NYC backwards. My dad, biological diehard Brooklynite New Yorker music buff, and I really didn't know him because he died when I was an infant, he was a fan of Sly and the Family Stone. And Cynthia was the drummer. And they frequently say in their lyrics, or at least in dance to the music, by Sly and the Family Stone, "Cynthia was having a good time and she's dancing." And ironically enough, you know, art imitates life. That is what I am often doing. Having a good time, listening to music and dancing, and I might even be playing the drums.

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Erik  27:40

We'll save that for another episode.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  27:42

Yes we will.

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Kerel  27:42

(laughs)

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  27:43

All the things. (laughs)

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Erik  27:45

Thanks a lot, Cynthia.

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Cynthia Morgan Jenkins  27:47

Thank you. Thank you very much.

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Erik  27:49

Thanks, everyone for listening to another episode. Be sure to look for more episodes everywhere you find your audio and video, just search for the logo and look for MRP Minority Report Podcast with Erik and Kerel. Thanks, everyone.