Spotlight on Success
Sweet Potato Queens
The Evolution of a Queenly Business
“Do what makes your heart sing and the money will follow,” explains Jill Conner Browne, best-selling author and the creator of The Sweet Potato Queens. That advice was given to her by a former boss many years ago, Frank Mastronardi, or “Mr. M,” as he was called. Mr. M, a positive attitude junky, was the first to tell her “do what makes your heart sing and the money will follow.” Each time Browne speaks publicly, she includes his words as a tribute to his memory. “His words changed my life,” said Browne.
Browne started The Sweet Potato Queens for fun back in 1982. “I needed to be queen of something,” Browne explains. “When a friend started what is now the third largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the country here in Jackson, I decided to be the Sweet Potato Queen in the first parade.”
Browne dressed up in her sister’s 1964 green prom dress and wore a tiara. She and a friend rode in the back of an old farm truck, hurling sweet potatoes as the parade passed through downtown Jackson. She says she rode in the parade for no other reason than purely to entertain herself. “I actually said that day, ‘somebody will pay me to do this.’”
As Browne’s friends started to join her each year for the parade, each would be the queen of whatever they wanted to be. Browne dressed in a different gown each year, and wore a different beehive wig each time. It wasn’t until 1986 that the Sweet Potato Queen look was determined. “It was something about the red wigs with the green sequined gowns,” said Browne. “We knew that was it.”
At this point in the life of the Sweet Potato Queen, the fun project had not yet turned into a money-making venture. Over the years, she worked various jobs. Browne’s first job was working for Mr. M in the credit department at Sears. After six years at Sears, Browne left to become one of the first female fitness instructors at the YMCA.
When faced with being a single mom, no child support for her daughter and caring for an aging mother, she was desperate. One job was not enough. Browne worked four jobs just to pay the monthly bills. She worked as a stringer, or a contributing writer, for a number of newspapers to bring in the necessary money. It was one of her clients at the YMCA, Beth Jones, who read Browne’s work and helped encourage her to continue writing. “Beth told me I had a very strong voice as a writer, which is something most writers struggle to find their entire career,” said Browne.
When Browne lost the stringer job that paid the monthly electric bill, it sent her into a tailspin. She had to do more. One particular break propelled her writing career. Southern humorist Roy Blount, Jr., included Browne’s work in an anthology of southern humor. “Being included in Blount’s anthology led to the invitation to be on NPR’s Whad'Ya Know? Show,” Browne explained. “More and more opportunities came about.”
“I met author Willie Morris and his wife, editor JoAnne Prichard, through my friendship with Beth Jones,” said Browne. “After Beth passed, I told JoAnne that Beth encouraged me to write a book and JoAnne was committed to helping me do that.” Prichard gave Browne direction on how to get her first book started. Nine months later, Prichard changed publishing companies, joining Random House. “JoAnne and I worked on a proposal for my first book, The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love, and she took it to New York personally. But, she lost the bound proposal the night before her presentation,” Browne recalls. “So I faxed her as much material as I could and she took about fifty sheets of rolled up fax paper into the meeting with the editor.”
And the rest is history. Browne was granted a two-book contract. She still has the email from the editor who green-lighted her project. “All it says is ‘brilliant’ with about twenty exclamation points behind it,” Browne said. “I am blessed. Most aspiring writers have agents who shop their writing around to many publishers in hopes of getting anything published.”
In 1999, before the release of her first book, friends rallied to support her. Liza Cirlot Looser, CEO of The Cirlot Agency, offered her firm’s services to design a website, www.sweetpotatoqueens.com, for The Sweet Potato Queens. “As soon as the book was released, people started contacting me through the website asking if there is really a parade in Jackson that they could participate in,” said Browne. “I answer every email myself. This is my labor of love,” she says. “I tell them to come be the queen of whatever they choose,” said Browne.
They did come. In the year 2000, queens came from 22 states to participate in Mal’s St. Paddy’s Day Parade in Jackson. “I’ll never forget a sign I saw that day. It said, ‘North Dakota Loves The Sweet Potato Queens.’ I couldn’t believe someone in North Dakota would read my book, let alone travel to Jackson for the parade,” said Browne.
Each year, the queens travel to Jackson for an event-filled weekend with Browne and thousands of other queens. Every queen is allowed to march in the parade. Browne raises money for Mississippi’s only children’s hospital, The Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children, by asking each queen to pay five dollars to march. “It is a sea of queens all the way down the parade route. They come with friends or come alone. But, I guarantee you that they all leave with new best friends,” Browne said.
Browne estimates she has sold close to three million books to date. There are more than 6,000 SPQ chapters in 22 countries around the world. Browne’s eighth book, American Thighs: The Sweet Potato Queens’ Guide to Preserving Your Assets (Simon & Schuster), is due out at the end of 2008. She will embark upon her annual book tour in January and be on the road until parade weekend in March. A Sweet Potato Queens’ Broadway show is also in the works with singer Melissa Manchester creating the music with Sharon Vaughn writing lyrics, and Tony Award-winner Rupert Holmes working on the script. A release date has yet to be determined.
While she still seems to pinch herself to believe the reality of her success, Browne uses her gift of humor as a platform to help others. “I pray before I open my mouth,” she explained. “I want them to know God has something waiting for all of us and we must have faith – there is always something better out there and beyond our wildest dreams.”
Browne said she’s never been motivated by money to work; it has always been about the passion to help someone. “I encourage people to tithe and help others. If it feels like you’re going to work, you’re doing the wrong thing. You have to be passionate. Love what you do and want to do it for nothing,” she said. “Find what makes your heart sing and the money will follow.”
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