Scale Your Passion Feature Interview | Q Ragsdale

Founder of Twilight Quest and Orange Moon Media

So tell us about yourself and your company! 

In underestimated communities, too often we start great endeavors but they don’t always continue, why is that?

With my educational platform Twilight Quest, I specialize in offering online educational programs focused on supporting social enterprises with great ideas. Twilight Quest helps them to build a solid foundation by offering a curriculum focused on teaching vital business strategies including implementing self-care and positive mindset practices, which are essential to creating a sustainable business. 

What do you specialize in and how did you get started? 

I started my creative journey in film and video production, my college degree is in Film, but I always loved the business side! Because as a Filmmaker, you have to have a multi-faceted skill set. Not only do you have to be skilled at production, but you have to be a great team lead, be great at event planning, logistics, finances, marketing, you have to be a jack of all trades. 

After the market crash of 2008, which really hit my video production business hard, I decided to pivot. I’d been dabbling in graphic and web design and decided to start offering that as a service. I quickly realized that my clients needed advice and coaching on how to leverage and market themselves. I also used to be a party and event promoter, which also requires a lot of marketing and business development skills. So through these endeavors, I was able to see that I really loved this work! 

I especially enjoy working with non-profits and social entrepreneurs and after I moved to Baltimore and met so many of my “ideal client”, I was able to take these services and skills that I’d been offering to folks “one on one” and transfer it into a teachable curriculum. That is how Twilight Quest was born! 

How did you come up with the name “Twilight Quest” for your company? Is there any special significance?

Yes! The name “Twilight Quest” is inspired by my great-grandmother, my Big Mama. She was the owner of “Twilight Beauty College” in Memphis, Tennessee. I always say if I could hop in my Delorean, go back in time, and to share what I know with her, the business would have been able to continue and be passed down to future generations. 

My quest is the help as many Big Mama’s as possible. So, Twilight Quest essentially takes the skills and services that my other company, Orange Moon Media, offers as services and makes them teachable. It’s really rooted in me wanting to make the most impact and the whole idea of “teaching someone to fish”. I come from a family of teachers, so doing this is really apart of my DNA! I’m super passionate about giving social entrepreneurs and enterprises the skills they need to lay a solid foundation for themselves to be successful, sustainable, and scalable. 

Read more about the history behind Q’s “Big Mama” and Twilight Beauty College and Toggery Shop here.

What is your “big vision” for your creative company and Baltimore’s larger “creative economy”? What do you see happening in the next 5-10 years?

The goal of Twilight Quest is to expand our reach in Baltimore and then to serve entrepreneurs on a national and eventually international level. There are many innovative folks who need what we have to offer and my goal is to make it as accessible as I can.

I am a transplant to Baltimore and I love that despite its size there are so many awesome enterprises, both for and nonprofit, collaborating, sharing resources, and co-creating. The future of Baltimore won’t be found in silos. This is more of a creative village economy and it will thrive if we continue to lean on and support each other. I am a big believer in keeping an abundance mindset. I believe there is enough for all of us, as long as we continue to champion economic creativity.