Hidden Gems: Meet Pamela Bynum of mytCreative

Today we’d like to introduce you to Pamela Bynum.

Pamela, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
In 2020 my great Aunt turned 100 years old, she said to me “in all my living, I’ve never seen anything like it,” and today we all have one thing in common with her, we lived through a national shutdown in the wake of a global pandemic. Since then it has come in waves and caused many of us to pivot and shift. The good news is we survived and now it’s time for us to Thrive! Hello, my name is Pamela Bynum and I am a Digital Solutions Developer and Technology Consultant for mytCreative – “Where our Team becomes Your Team.” In short, I’m your problem solver.

My job is to listen to the need, Understand the problem, and identify the solution.

I have two sons and both played on their high school basketball team. We learned that our boys were giving away their lunches to others at school, then they would call home and ask for more food or money and then give that away too. We later started going out to the school to provide meals for the players between practices. Eventually, some of these kids started to come over on Fridays, and then they kept coming back week after week. We learned that some didn’t have internet or computers at home and would come to our house to use their cell phones to complete online assignments. So coming over on Friday after practice turned into staying all weekend. After a while, the school began to learn which boys were our boys. We established relationships with both the school and the parents and found ourselves in the midst of a mentorship experience. We identified the need and provided a solution that solved a problem that we didn’t know existed. That’s when the idea to use mytCreative as a tool, was born. The goal was to help build them up and prepare them for their future.

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?
My family and I moved from Maryland to North Carolina on labor day weekend, 2014. The short version of this story is, we all sold our houses and moved together into one big house. It was 6 of us under one roof. The goal was to help take care of my grandfather a WWII veteran who had recently become an amputee. By May 2015, I was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, stage 3, which moved very aggressively through my body. Going from a small knot I found under my right arm to a large mass in my right breast in under a month’s time. It began to move through my lymph nodes and into my skin. At the time we only had 1 kid coming to the house, but then the summer came. Both my sons when back to Maryland for the summer and I went into treatments right away.

It had only been about 8 months and this is how my life in North Carolina started. I was also the founder and pastor of a new church plant at the time called The SiNGWeLL Church, but with this diagnosis, everything stopped. All at once, no church, no work, no business; only doctors, appointments, and treatments. The summer passed, the boys returned for another school year and that’s when my god-brother moved from Georgia to help take care of the boys. So now 7 of us are under one roof and the best part was “I was not alone.” When I say “we,” this was a collective effort.

I spent my first few years learning how to go back and forth to the hospital and doctors’ appointments. I learned how to travel to and from Raleigh and Durham, and back to Rocky Mount. Going to Duke and seeing specialists. I received Chemotherapy in Wilson, NC, and radiation in Rocky Mount, NC. I remember the surgeon saying to me, We are going to get you into whoever will see you immediately. One time I was hospitalized and the nurse nicknamed me “fearless.”

Don’t get me wrong, this experience was hard. I remember waking up some days and just staring at the walls. Not realizing that days and weeks had passed by. All I knew is that it was another day and I was still alive. This is only a short version of the whole story, one filled with faith and loss as well. I was surviving my battle but others lost there’s during my journey. I met my husband during this journey, but we lost his mom during hers. She didn’t live to see me marry her son, but she left me with great memories and a precious gift, love.

Between 2015 – 2018 I went through several surgeries and other procedures. I went back to work and in 2019 I started taking clients again. Then 2020 came, everything shut down and it appeared that everything stopped, again.

I kept pushing and once again it started with my youngest son and 3 boys. The school was virtual and they were struggling, but OIC of Rocky Mount offered a place for the boys to study in a safe environment so that could get their schoolwork done in a quiet place with access to adequate internet. My job this time was to pick them up and drive them to OIC. Then pick them back up again and take them back home. About 15 miles, which was about 30 minutes one way. Not a long drive but we did this for a little while until school reopened.

Now, I am back on my feet. I survived cancer, the impacts of COVID-19, and how it has shifted many industries since 2020. I am living and learning how to function in my city and some things still feel new to me even though I have been here for almost 7 years now.

Today, I give back. I revamped my business and went back to school so I can teach youth problem-solving skills using custom computer programming.

We’ve been impressed with mytCreative, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
mytCreative develops solutions to help local and small businesses resolve their technical or digital needs. We offer services such as Business transformations and Brand Development. We help small businesses to develop solutions to boost online sales. We build websites that work, develop the content, set up the website, and get it ready for SEO, such as the google search engine. In turn, you get ownership, control, and convenience. After all, what we develop for you is your tool, your service, your solution, for your business. What does this mean for you? For the chef, the nutritionist, or the meal prep specialist. You get to keep cooking your meals while we manage and support your website. For massage therapists and those in the service industry, you get to keep serving your clients while we help manage how your next client will find you.

What sets us apart from our competition? 3 things: Mentorship, Youth, and Technology, this is our myt-Initiative.

Where we teach the importance of value, relationships, and community. We exist to Innovate and Educate. Our mission is to use technology to bridge the gap between the youth in our community and the business owners around them. How, by teaching them problem-solving skills through coding, custom computer programming, and web development. We just completed our first cohort, teaching youth problem-solving skills through web development it is an 8-week program that started on June 15th and ended on August 4th. We partnered with OIC to offer an 8-week program where the students learned web development skills in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. We had guest speakers join us via Zoom from California to DC. We had a couple of local business owners come and speak to the students as well. In addition, we had a shark tank-like experience, where the students had a chance to pitch their ideas, meet with clients and learn to identify solutions to help meet their needs.

What does success mean to you?
I learned a lot from working with our students. One might say that success is measured in numbers. Some may look at the bottom line, to determine if there has there been a true return on investment. Did my business grow this year?

Am I bringing in a significant amount of income? All of these things may be true but I learned something greater working with the youth. No matter how a person may appear to you, no matter their differences, their struggles, or their backgrounds. If you give them an opportunity and space to thrive, you will see a return on investment. You will see that there is a place of love and care on the inside. If you put them in the right moment that love and care will overflow. The best part of the class was watching these students learn to work together. Do something different and learn something new. I enjoyed watching them encourage and support one another. To me, this was a success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mytcreative.com