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Speaker 1: It's Friday, fustifoards the next day and we had not secured.

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Speaker 2: All the permitted.

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Speaker 1: Me and Brandon are literally running around. We had to

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Speaker 1: get the fire department to sign off. And it's been

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Speaker 1: at the very last minute. You know, folks on Friday

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Speaker 1: in the government is they've taken off trying to get

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Speaker 1: up out of there, So we were down to the

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Speaker 1: last minute.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to our Idea Generations All Angles, a podcast about

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Speaker 3: culture's most influential brands and the teams that built up.

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Speaker 3: If you're an entrepreneur, creative, or anyone interested in harnessing

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Speaker 3: the power of collaboration, join me Noah Callahan Beveror each

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Speaker 3: week as we dissect the most dynamic companies in culture.

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Speaker 3: Because the only way to truly understand success is to

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Speaker 3: look at it from all angles. Idea Generations All Angles

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Speaker 3: is a Willer Media podcast. In twenty ten, Brandon mcahern

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Speaker 3: and Marcus Allen through a hip hop centric Earthday celebration

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Speaker 3: for the black community in Los Angeles, and in the

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Speaker 3: decade plus that followed, that party would evolve into Broccolly City,

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Speaker 3: a global brand focused on community, music, health, and culture,

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Speaker 3: culminating at an annual festival in Washington, d C. But

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Speaker 3: along the way, broccoly City would discover the challenges that

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Speaker 3: come with running a festival, expand into digital content, and

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Speaker 3: developed new exciting initiatives to make a positive impact in

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Speaker 3: their community. On this week's episode of All Angles, we

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Speaker 3: talked to co founders Brandon mcaheurn, Marcus Allen, and Darryl Perkins,

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Speaker 3: creative director Hugo Cubias, and Chief of staff Jacqueline Austin

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Speaker 3: to hear the intricacies of throwing a major festival and

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Speaker 3: creating one of the most dynamic brands in music and culture.

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Speaker 3: But before any of that happened, years before booking Future

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Speaker 3: as a headliner or having the DC Mayor attend one

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Speaker 3: of their events, there were just two best friends growing

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Speaker 3: up together in Greensboro, North Carolina.

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Speaker 4: My mother is a second grade teacher.

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Speaker 5: My pops, you know, middle class dude, worked at the bank.

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Speaker 3: This is Brandon mckahurn, founder and CEO of Broccoli City.

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Speaker 5: They were also very very active in our church, in

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Speaker 5: our church community.

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Speaker 4: I think that's where I kind of got.

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Speaker 5: A lot of my each one teach one type of

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Speaker 5: mentality from was growing up in the church out there

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Speaker 5: in North Carolina.

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Speaker 3: Down the street from Brendon was his best friend and

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Speaker 3: future business partner, Marcus.

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Speaker 4: I know Marcus my whole life. We grew up together.

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Speaker 4: My neighborhood is pretty close to his, and we used

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Speaker 4: to ride the bus together.

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Speaker 5: I used to pick on him, he used to pick

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Speaker 5: on me, but yeah, always been my friend.

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Speaker 2: I met his mom first second grade, and then shortly

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Speaker 2: thereafter I met him.

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Speaker 3: This is Marcus Allen, co founder of Broccoli City and

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Speaker 3: one of Brandan's best friends since childhood.

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Speaker 2: He was a grade behind me. We got connected, you know,

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Speaker 2: probably summer or second grade, summer third grade. At that time,

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Speaker 2: they were still living like a little bit away. I

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Speaker 2: think in fourth or fifth grade they moved close to

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Speaker 2: where our elementary school was. That was really where we

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Speaker 2: got like super cool and it really became a friend group,

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Speaker 2: from sports to hanging out, to picking each other up

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Speaker 2: to just the whole mine.

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Speaker 3: The two stayed closed throughout high school, but eventually I

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Speaker 3: ended up taking different paths for college, with Marcus going

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Speaker 3: to North Carolina A and T, while Brendan went to

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Speaker 3: North Carolina Central and Durham.

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Speaker 5: In college, I actually was a part of the theater

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Speaker 5: department there and acted in a couple of plays.

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Speaker 4: I was like, Yo, I'm gonna do the Hollywood thing.

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Speaker 5: I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I'm

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Speaker 5: gonna do something in that world and in that realm.

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Speaker 5: I graduated and moved back to Greensboro, like most of

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Speaker 5: us do. You graduate school and you moved back home.

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Speaker 5: And when I moved back home, I was watching Entourage

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Speaker 5: every Sunday. I watched Asarage and then I had a

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Speaker 5: homegirl who actually lived in La Right, so I'm watching,

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Speaker 5: you know what I mean, Vinnie and Turtle, I'm watching

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Speaker 5: all these adventures. I'm like, Yo, this shit is crazy

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Speaker 5: fucking e you know what I mean, just like the

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Speaker 5: whole thing, the ris of the world, the whole thing.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 3: Brandon had Hollywood dreams, and after visiting a friend in

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Speaker 3: Los Angeles, he knew he needed to move out west.

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Speaker 3: So he packed up his things and hit the road,

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Speaker 3: driving across the country in search of a new adventure.

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Speaker 3: In Los Angeles.

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Speaker 5: Man, I was super excited. I've always been the type

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Speaker 5: of cat that's excited for like the first day of

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Speaker 5: school or the first day you know, somewhere new, you

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Speaker 5: know what I mean.

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Speaker 4: So I was super duper excited.

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Speaker 3: Taking the Southern Rape to get to California. The timing

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Speaker 3: of Branda's trip could not have been worse, so we

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Speaker 3: didn't know it he would be driving directly into the

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Speaker 3: wake of Hurricane Katrina.

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Speaker 5: I had went through Atlanta to pick up my older

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Speaker 5: brother so he can ride with me most of the way.

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Speaker 5: I came around like the Katrina Tom It was crazy.

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Speaker 4: He had got caught in a.

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Speaker 5: Huge storm, you know what I mean, off the back

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Speaker 5: end of Katrina. I mean, when we pulled over somewhere

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Speaker 5: in Alabama, we didn't have no gas, and then I

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Speaker 5: ended up meeting these like super cool white boys and

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Speaker 5: they were like, follow us to this gas station and

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Speaker 5: they like, man, they pumped the gas for us, like

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Speaker 5: all sorts of shit. And then I turned around and

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Speaker 5: they were gone. I know that sounds crazy, but it's

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Speaker 5: like the dead ass truth, you know.

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Speaker 4: What I mean. Then I got to California and I

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Speaker 4: ended up visiting my homegirl. I was like, wow, like

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Speaker 4: this is where I need to be. Once I got here,

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Speaker 4: I was like, yo, I need a job. And I

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Speaker 4: ended up.

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Speaker 5: Going on Melrose and I met somebody who was actually

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Speaker 5: still my.

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Speaker 4: Friends to this day shout out to my man Seed's.

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Speaker 5: He worked at this store called Workmen's and Workman's It

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Speaker 5: was on Melrose Avenue, and they were doing things like

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Speaker 5: cossignment with like T shirt.

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Speaker 4: Brands and things of that nature.

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Speaker 5: Now, granted, I'm from North Carolina, so I don't know

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Speaker 5: anything about you know, I don't know anything about none

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Speaker 5: of this, you know what I mean, the hundreds, none

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Speaker 5: of that shit, right. I just remember like being engulfed

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Speaker 5: in this world. End up getting a job at the

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Speaker 5: place called Workman's. I met Sees. He was from the

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Speaker 5: East Coast, so we automatically just kind of vibed and

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Speaker 5: he was like, oh, you just moved out here. I'm like, yeah,

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Speaker 5: I just moved out here, man, need a job. Like,

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Speaker 5: what's up, bro? I always been like personable when I

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Speaker 5: was working in Workman's. I just got hip to the

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Speaker 5: Los Angeles kind of culture.

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Speaker 4: At the time.

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Speaker 3: Labrinia was discovering the culture of Los Angeles. Marcus moved

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Speaker 3: to Washington, DC to work in local government as a

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Speaker 3: logistics coordinator. Even though the two friends were across the

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Speaker 3: country from one another, they still talked daily, and soon

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Speaker 3: they were both enamored by the buzzing streetwear scene. Local

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Speaker 3: brands like Crooks and Castles and the Hundreds had brand

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Speaker 3: his attention, and both of them wanted in on that energy.

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Speaker 3: That desire would plant seeds for the two to develop

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Speaker 3: their own brand, Broccoli City.

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Speaker 2: There was a lot of other brands, the Hundreds, Crooks

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Speaker 2: and Castles, but they were much darker in terms of

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Speaker 2: their concepts. Like the look of it was Darkerhnny Cookcakes

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Speaker 2: was very playful, it was colorful, it was it was

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Speaker 2: a bit it was a bit more jovial, and that

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Speaker 2: was kind of the brand that we were, Like Yo,

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Speaker 2: Johnny Cupcakes, Like yeah, like Broccoli City, like we gonna

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Speaker 2: be that.

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Speaker 3: When starting a brand, one of the hardest parts can

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Speaker 3: be deciding on a name that's worthy of your vision. Luckily,

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Speaker 3: for Brandon and Marcus, they already had that on deck.

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Speaker 5: I used to rap back in the day and I

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Speaker 5: had said Broccoli City.

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Speaker 4: In a rat one time.

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Speaker 5: I don't remember the exact line or nothing, but something

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Speaker 5: that rhyme with witty or something I'm from Broccoli City

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Speaker 5: or something like oh shit, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 4: That's a vibe.

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Speaker 2: He was in this little shitty band. It was like

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Speaker 2: a hoodie and a blowfish. It was like the black

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Speaker 2: rapper with the with the band, you know what I mean,

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Speaker 2: Jim class Rod type ship. Right, it was that whole vibe.

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Speaker 2: We were just outside one day and he was like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: because we from the Broxi City, it's just like, oh shit,

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Speaker 2: Broccoli City. That's hard. And then it was like, look

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Speaker 2: different places. We would say it randomly.

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Speaker 5: I remember actually going and visiting like New York and

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Speaker 5: other places and people would ask me where I was from,

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Speaker 5: and instead of saying Greensboro, I would say like, yeah,

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Speaker 5: I'm from Brockley City and people would.

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Speaker 4: Be like, oh, snap, you know what I mean, what's that.

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Speaker 5: I kind of just carried the name with me through college,

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Speaker 5: Like you'll have a friend from DC and you'll be like, oh,

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Speaker 5: they're from PG County or they're from the district, and

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Speaker 5: you know, I would say things with my little friends

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Speaker 5: like yo, oh they're from.

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Speaker 4: The brock Like, oh, they're from Greensboro.

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Speaker 5: Brockley City is Greensboro, so like Broccoli is the green

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Speaker 5: and then Borough is the city part, so it's Brockley

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Speaker 5: City Greensboro. So when you met me, instead of it

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Speaker 5: being Brandon, it was like I was building somewhat of

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Speaker 5: a community. So I would introduce myself as like branding

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Speaker 5: from Brockley City.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 4: I'd be like, yo, brand in Brockley.

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Speaker 5: City, but up and people would save my number as

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Speaker 5: brand in Broccoli or Broccoli b or whatever the case

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Speaker 5: may be.

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Speaker 4: I always pushed it. It was always my.

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Speaker 3: With a name in hand. Brandon looked to his new

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Speaker 3: LA connections to help bring the brand to light.

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Speaker 4: I ended up meeting this guy named Dee.

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Speaker 5: He was like this Filipino dude, and he was outside

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Speaker 5: of Workman's and he was like smoking a joint or

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Speaker 5: something and he just.

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Speaker 4: Looked mad cool. So I'm like, damn, like who is you?

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Speaker 4: What the fuck you do?

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Speaker 6: Bro?

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Speaker 5: And he's like, man, you know I got a T

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Speaker 5: shirt line. It's called Crooks and Castles, you know what

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Speaker 5: I mean. We got the T shirts in here and

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Speaker 5: the T shirt was the Fasace mask with the ski

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Speaker 5: mask on the face. I was like, Yo, this is crazy,

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Speaker 5: Like so how'd you do this? And he like, yeah,

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Speaker 5: this is my company, Bro. I got a graphic designer,

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Speaker 5: you know what I mean.

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Speaker 4: I just I put it together and I'm like, oh.

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Speaker 5: Shit, I said, make some T shirts like this say

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Speaker 5: Brocoli City on them.

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Speaker 4: I ended up just like talking to people trying to

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Speaker 4: find like graphic designers.

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Speaker 5: At this time, it wasn't like the my spaces and

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Speaker 5: the igs and what was my space? But it wasn't

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Speaker 5: like IG's and all that, so you couldn't just find

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Speaker 5: cats the way you can find them now.

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Speaker 4: I went to a spring print spot. It was in

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Speaker 4: the Valley. I had like the regular Fine with just

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Speaker 4: like Broccoli City on it.

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Speaker 5: You know what I mean, Like that had have been

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Speaker 5: times New Roman or some shit like that, and I

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Speaker 5: took it to the screen shop to get it printed.

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Speaker 4: I met this dude there. It was a Hispanic cat.

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Speaker 4: His name was Fine, and he was there with this other.

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Speaker 5: Dude named KB I mean, who was like a rapper

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Speaker 5: at the time, and they had this brand called Ghetto

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Speaker 5: Rock off.

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Speaker 4: Of the common song. I was like, man, like, how.

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Speaker 5: Much would you charge me to do, you know, to

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Speaker 5: do a logo? And he was like, you know, I

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Speaker 5: forgot what he told me, but scrambled up.

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Speaker 4: I got the money. I paid him, and then he.

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Speaker 5: Created the first like Broccoli City logo, and then I

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Speaker 5: created like a website, you know, the whole nine.

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Speaker 4: Because farn was super nice and all that shit.

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Speaker 5: And at this time, I'm telling Marcus about all this

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Speaker 5: stuff that's going on right like he's still on the

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Speaker 5: East coast.

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Speaker 4: I'm on the West coast.

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Speaker 3: As Brendan networked and spread the Broccoli City name in

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Speaker 3: La Marcus was in DC plotting on the future. Soon

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Speaker 3: they were throwing their first Broccoli City parties and stumbled

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Speaker 3: up on the inspiration for their first major event.

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Speaker 2: We had been starting to have like smaller parties at

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Speaker 2: like this spot called Center Space. We had started giving

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Speaker 2: T shirts away. It was really to promote the T

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Speaker 2: shirt line and to get more visibility, and we ended

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Speaker 2: up giving a bunch of T shirts away. If you

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Speaker 2: go back and look at the pictures and just look

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Speaker 2: at the vibe, I mean, everybody from like Nick Cannon

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Speaker 2: to like, you know, everybody who was popular in LA

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Speaker 2: culture at that time some kind of way ended up

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Speaker 2: coming to our events. Ultimately, we got hit up by

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Speaker 2: earth Day Network, which is the organization that manages earth Day,

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Speaker 2: the holiday. We ended up making some T shirts for

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Speaker 2: them for like their thirtieth anniversary, and that was the

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Speaker 2: first time we'd even heard earth Day, Like that doesn't

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Speaker 2: even exist. In North Carolina at that time, right, So

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Speaker 2: it's like Earth Day, Like, yo, what is this? So

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Speaker 2: I ended up going to the celebration and it was

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Speaker 2: on a National Mall in DC. It was like Usher

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Speaker 2: Anita Baker and like all these big artists, but it's

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Speaker 2: like no Black people there. But it was obvious they

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Speaker 2: were like booking this for it to be multicultural, but

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Speaker 2: it was like no people of color there. And I

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Speaker 2: remember hitting b after that shit, like, bro, they had

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Speaker 2: to shit the fucking National Mall. That shit was crazy.

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Speaker 2: I see Usher da da da da, but it was

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Speaker 2: no Black people out there.

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Speaker 6: Bro.

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Speaker 2: Like, I'm telling you, it's some shit with it, yo,

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Speaker 2: we might need to do it. When to do a

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Speaker 2: Black earth Day celebration.

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Speaker 5: I remember hearing and learning more in depth about earth

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Speaker 5: Day and what Earth Day represented, and I was like,

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Speaker 5: oh shit, like you know, this is super dope, like

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Speaker 5: a day that focuses in on community love, you know, sustainability,

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Speaker 5: this that to the third I'm like, man, like why

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Speaker 5: ain't nobody done that in you know, in the urban community,

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Speaker 5: in the black community, right, And I'm like, yo, I'm.

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Speaker 4: Gonna do a party during Earth Day, you know what

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Speaker 4: I'm saying?

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Speaker 5: Like that was like my thing because I'm like, oh,

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Speaker 5: it's Broccoli City, so automatically, a lot.

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Speaker 4: Of people thought that it was, you know, health driven,

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Speaker 4: you know what I mean, because of the broccoli.

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Speaker 5: They even thought it was health driven or weed driven,

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Speaker 5: which I always used to think was hilarious, what makes

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Speaker 5: perfect sense. But I always wanted to have some time

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Speaker 5: a community element to whatever I did.

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Speaker 3: Their passion for community health and the environment led them

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Speaker 3: to planning an Earth Day celebration for the Black community

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Speaker 3: in LA. While searching for brands to work with on

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Speaker 3: the event, they ended up meeting a future partner of

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Speaker 3: broccoly City.

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Speaker 1: My parents were always very engaged kind of with social

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Speaker 1: movements in the Bay areas.

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Speaker 3: This is Darryl Perkins, co founder and managing director of

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Speaker 3: Broccol City.

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Speaker 1: I grew up around a lot of social justice activism.

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Speaker 1: I think that was always I always saw myself doing

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Speaker 1: something to help my community to be socially active. And

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Speaker 1: I ended up going to Howard University, and I started

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Speaker 1: as a business student, but I wasn't really feeling the

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Speaker 1: business courses, but I enjoyed my anthropology classes and looking

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Speaker 1: at how cultures changed, how culture and music played along

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Speaker 1: with social movements back from the slave spirituals all the

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Speaker 1: way to hip hop. The relationship between the two as

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Speaker 1: social movements went from then to now, how music and

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Speaker 1: artists played a large role in the Civil rights movement.

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Speaker 3: Daryl's passion for combining culture, music and activism led him

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Speaker 3: to work with a top leader in the environmental justice space,

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Speaker 3: and was also about to lead him to working with

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Speaker 3: Brandon and Marcus too.

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Speaker 1: I was working with Carrie Fulton, who's actually a leader

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Speaker 1: in the environmental justice movement, has been and continues to

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Speaker 1: be Carrie Fulman. And we met through Carrie as we're

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Speaker 1: doing outreach to different folks that were.

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Speaker 4: Doing these Earth Day events. I remember those early.

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Speaker 1: Conversations but like, oh, they're just doing dope stuff, and

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Speaker 1: they saw it from a perspective similar to the way

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Speaker 1: I saw getting again, folks that look like us, talk

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Speaker 1: like us, making it cool to have these conversations about

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Speaker 1: the environment, because at that time talking about the environment

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Speaker 1: was not a cool thing to do.

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Speaker 4: I mean it was you know, they.

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Speaker 1: Saw them as not folks that look like us. You know,

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Speaker 1: we're putting as tree huggers. There's just not us having

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Speaker 1: these conversations. Well, at the same time, we knew how

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Speaker 1: important that these environmental issues had on our communities, and

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Speaker 1: so we understood that. And so the way that we

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Speaker 1: saw that as well as to have the look and

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Speaker 1: feel of something that I would want to be a

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Speaker 1: part of it my friends who want to be a

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Speaker 1: part of it, was very important. I was working on

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Speaker 1: a campaign called Green the Block, and we were doing

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Speaker 1: all these events around environmental justice, fighting power, and involution

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Speaker 1: around the country. One of the things that came of

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Speaker 1: that was we did all these Earth Day events all

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Speaker 1: around the country, and Broccoli City was one of our

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Speaker 1: flagship events. It was called the Global Cooling and I

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Speaker 1: believe this was twenty ten, if I'm not mistaken.

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Speaker 3: Broccoli City now had a partner in place to help

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Speaker 3: launch their first major event.

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Speaker 5: I ended up getting that with them, and we end

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Speaker 5: up calling this event Global Cooling right, because they you know, cooling,

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Speaker 5: global Cooling bomb.

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Speaker 4: It was downtown LA on Margot Street.

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Speaker 5: It was healthy food vendors as well as musical acts right,

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Speaker 5: and the acts that we had with everybody such as

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Speaker 5: Dom Kennedy, you and I, Kendrick Lamar, and it was

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Speaker 5: so much camaraderie. On the West coast at that time,

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Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. We had dom headline, and

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Speaker 5: it was right when he had dropped on West Side

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Speaker 5: from Love from West Side with Love, so like he

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Speaker 5: performed like nineteen ninety seven, you know what I mean, Like, Bru,

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Speaker 5: this is for anybody who's in this world listening to this,

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Speaker 5: I know they're getting chill bumps, you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 5: BJ the Chicago kid, Casey Veggie's and anwar carriage. We

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Speaker 5: thought we were gonna do two hundred and fifty people

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Speaker 5: or whatever the case may be, but the joint ended

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Speaker 5: up doing like five six hundred people, and at that time,

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Speaker 5: like that's a lot of people. That joint was smacking,

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Speaker 5: you know what I mean. And then it was on

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Speaker 5: all the blogs. This was like twenty ten when we

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Speaker 5: put that first festival together. It was during that blog

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Speaker 5: era time filming the recap and trying everything in my

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Speaker 5: power to get it to like Mika.

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Speaker 4: And them over it too dope boys, you know what I.

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Speaker 5: Mean, because that was like the thing to get like

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Speaker 5: your video on their blog. I ended up meeting him

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Speaker 5: and he ended up posting all of our recap videos.

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Speaker 5: That was kind of like the beginning of okay, let's

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Speaker 5: turn this into something physical outside.

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Speaker 4: It exceeded expectations for sure, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 4: For sure?

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Speaker 3: For sure, even though Daryl had worked on these kinds

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Speaker 3: of events before, working with Brandon and Marcus on the

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Speaker 3: Global Cooling, it felt different.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's beautiful and you have a space and

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Speaker 1: there's nobody there, and then you have a lot of

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Speaker 1: people there coming together to celebrate Earth. It was powerful,

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Speaker 1: but I think it was also our high moment in

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Speaker 1: terms of we can bring people together in a positive space.

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Speaker 1: It can be fun, it can be cool, it can

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Speaker 1: be educational, it can be impactful.

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Speaker 4: I think it was like, oh there's something here.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there was a magic there. And then

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Speaker 1: after it's done, the war just kept spreading like if

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Speaker 1: you missed out, Like, man, you kind of missed something.

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Speaker 4: I think we made a little money, but it wouldn't

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Speaker 4: nothing to even talk about.

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Speaker 5: It was like, oh, okay, we didn't go broke doing it,

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Speaker 5: you know what I mean. Obviously I had to pay

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Speaker 5: the ax, but I didn't have to pay it. What

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Speaker 5: you gotta pay acts nowadays.

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 3: The Global Cooping was a huge success, and the team

399
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Speaker 3: saw the potential for Broccoli City to grow, but they

400
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Speaker 3: weren't sure that Los Angeles was the best home for it.

401
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Speaker 5: So I'm thinking, Okay, you know what I mean, Let's

402
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Speaker 5: do this again. This shit about the pot let's do it.

403
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Speaker 5: But then just the finances became a thing because, like

404
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Speaker 5: I said, everybody ended up getting signed.

405
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Speaker 4: The landscape in Los.

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Speaker 5: Angeles, you know, it still was a very clicks town,

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Speaker 5: and I'm not really too heavily into like all the

408
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Speaker 5: clicks and all that stuff.

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Speaker 4: You know what I mean.

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Speaker 5: So yeah, we had to like sit down for like

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Speaker 5: a year and a half, like two years. May ain't

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Speaker 5: really do nothing.

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Speaker 4: Just try to figure it out, like what can we do.

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Speaker 2: I was in DC. I was working government contracting. I

415
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Speaker 2: got a job, but I'm active, like I'm in the streets,

416
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Speaker 2: like I'm going out every night, like I'm partying, like

417
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Speaker 2: I'm having a fucking ball, and I'm talking to be

418
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Speaker 2: Because at the time, he's working for James Dubows as

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Speaker 2: a PA.

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Speaker 5: While I was working as a pdu duction assistant for

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Speaker 5: a guy by the name of James Debos. I worked

422
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Speaker 5: on like The Keisha Cole Show and some MTV shows,

423
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Speaker 5: but I was just a PA, and for anybody who

424
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Speaker 5: knows what a PA is, you're like the lowest of

425
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Speaker 5: the lowest of the lowest when it comes.

426
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Speaker 4: To like production.

427
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Speaker 5: So like I was going and getting people subs and

428
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Speaker 5: you know, making sure what no onions on that joint

429
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Speaker 5: things like that, but also playing like an office manager too,

430
00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:27,359
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, to the production places and

431
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Speaker 5: having to drive and drop off cuts.

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Speaker 2: He's calling me every day with like printing out map

433
00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:34,960
Speaker 2: quest just dropping off like reels and dropping off cameras

434
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Speaker 2: to different people all over LA. And I'm sitting in

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Speaker 2: my office with the door clothes and we're talking for

436
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Speaker 2: like four hours a day, just like just talking shit.

437
00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:45,320
Speaker 2: He just in the car. I remember just telling him

438
00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:48,040
Speaker 2: and just talking to him, like, Yo, this DC shit

439
00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:50,919
Speaker 2: is just like LA, It's just different. He like, Bro,

440
00:19:51,119 --> 00:19:55,320
Speaker 2: you tripping. I'm like, fam cats are out every day

441
00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:58,840
Speaker 2: till two three in the morning. The only difference is

442
00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:02,720
Speaker 2: they got job and they wake up for their jobs.

443
00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:05,360
Speaker 2: I'm like, Yo, they go out and they wake up though,

444
00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:08,000
Speaker 2: I'm like, yo, they beat it their job at nine

445
00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:10,399
Speaker 2: in the morning and they do that shit again the

446
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:13,200
Speaker 2: next day. I'm like, it's not even that popping on

447
00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:15,400
Speaker 2: the weekends. I'm like, yo, it's all during the week

448
00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:18,520
Speaker 2: I'm like, there's a culture here that people got money.

449
00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:20,480
Speaker 2: I'm like, bro, we should do it here.

450
00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:22,840
Speaker 4: He was like, yo, being we need to bring it

451
00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:29,320
Speaker 4: to DC. Bro Brandon agreed.

452
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:31,119
Speaker 3: That a DC event was a great idea, but if

453
00:20:31,119 --> 00:20:33,040
Speaker 3: they were gonna throw a party there, he would have

454
00:20:33,119 --> 00:20:35,560
Speaker 3: to be bigger. So they started putting into motion where

455
00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:38,200
Speaker 3: would become the first ever Broccolly City Festival.

456
00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:42,880
Speaker 5: So on my side, I always have been the one

457
00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:45,239
Speaker 5: to kind of go off and book the talent. And

458
00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:48,560
Speaker 5: then Marcus on his side, he was building the relationships

459
00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:51,160
Speaker 5: in Washington, d C. With a lot of like government

460
00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:54,800
Speaker 5: agencies and things like that. He was very mixy in

461
00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:57,920
Speaker 5: terms of building those relationships. Marcus ended up building a

462
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:01,280
Speaker 5: relationship with somebody he was like in real estate, and

463
00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:03,840
Speaker 5: we were able to borrow some money from him to

464
00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:04,639
Speaker 5: pay the acts.

465
00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:07,840
Speaker 2: So my homie Nate shout out to Nate. I had

466
00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:10,560
Speaker 2: been telling him what we were trying to do. He's like, yeah,

467
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:13,560
Speaker 2: I got somebody who probably be interested. We end up

468
00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:19,159
Speaker 2: meeting at Ted's Montana Grill in Crystal City and I

469
00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:22,879
Speaker 2: walk in Chuck Taylor's you know what I mean some jeans,

470
00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:25,880
Speaker 2: hoodie or something, probably smell like weed done and smoking.

471
00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:28,920
Speaker 2: The car I get in there, they got on suits.

472
00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:32,159
Speaker 2: They're younger, though they're not like older guys, like they're like,

473
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:35,840
Speaker 2: you know, probably six years seven years older than us,

474
00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:38,159
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. But they suited, right, They

475
00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:41,320
Speaker 2: very much in this DC suit culture.

476
00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:41,640
Speaker 4: Right.

477
00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:44,760
Speaker 2: They start asking questions. I pull out a deck, start

478
00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 2: pulling out the budget, walking them through everything, and then

479
00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:49,840
Speaker 2: a week or two later I end up hearing back

480
00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:52,679
Speaker 2: from them. He was like, Bro, like you made me

481
00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:57,479
Speaker 2: readjust how I view business because I was very turned

482
00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:00,280
Speaker 2: off by you by the way you were dressed. But

483
00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:03,520
Speaker 2: when you started talking, I realized how thorough and how

484
00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:05,919
Speaker 2: much you knew what you were talking about. And he

485
00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:07,879
Speaker 2: was like, it made me really get out of my

486
00:22:08,119 --> 00:22:10,840
Speaker 2: mole of thinking, like judging a book by his cover

487
00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:12,919
Speaker 2: and just being like, but this dude, don't got on

488
00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:15,200
Speaker 2: a suit. He told me that, like, Bro, you changed

489
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:18,040
Speaker 2: how I approached business moving forward for the rest of

490
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:20,679
Speaker 2: my life. If I had just kept my guard up

491
00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:22,960
Speaker 2: based upon how you looked and just all of that,

492
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:25,000
Speaker 2: I probably wouldn't even have heard what you had to say.

493
00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:27,959
Speaker 2: But you came off so much solid. It was just

494
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:30,560
Speaker 2: it was a thing. I definitely remember him saying that,

495
00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:34,680
Speaker 2: I remember that whole that whole process of like getting

496
00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:37,239
Speaker 2: an investor and paying them back with interest and like

497
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 2: all of that. And I think they invest in like

498
00:22:39,119 --> 00:22:40,720
Speaker 2: thirty five forty grand.

499
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:44,400
Speaker 3: With some investor money in their pocket to fund the festival.

500
00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:47,680
Speaker 3: The team went out to book acts, vendors and secure location.

501
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:52,480
Speaker 5: Marcus, like I said, he handled all the operational stuff

502
00:22:52,800 --> 00:22:55,080
Speaker 5: and then I handle all the talent stuff.

503
00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:57,399
Speaker 4: Marcus ended up getting us the Navy.

504
00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:00,840
Speaker 5: Yard, which was kind of a crater or whatever, you

505
00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:01,960
Speaker 5: know what I mean, you know, and it got them

506
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:04,160
Speaker 5: big ass bends up and things like that. Like they

507
00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:06,320
Speaker 5: got him, they have him in different cities. He ended

508
00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:09,040
Speaker 5: up locking that venue. Our biggest act that we had

509
00:23:09,080 --> 00:23:11,760
Speaker 5: at the time was Big Crit. I booked Big Krit

510
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,480
Speaker 5: from I want to say, Johnny Snipes. At the time,

511
00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:17,040
Speaker 5: Big Crit had just dropped. I don't know if it

512
00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 5: was Krit was here, I don't know what it was,

513
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:19,480
Speaker 5: but it was one of.

514
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:22,360
Speaker 4: Them joints that was nuts. It was like when Krit.

515
00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:24,440
Speaker 5: Was that dude not saying that he's still like much

516
00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:26,919
Speaker 5: respecting you, Krit, I'm still a fan. We had the

517
00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:30,600
Speaker 5: likes of Phil I Day on there. I want to say,

518
00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:32,919
Speaker 5: we had a Go Go band on there. Then we

519
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:36,720
Speaker 5: also had vendors, right, we had the healthy vendors. That

520
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,000
Speaker 5: was something that I was always big on, like just

521
00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:41,760
Speaker 5: having healthy juices and things like that. I'm not the

522
00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:44,120
Speaker 5: healthiest person in the world, but I always think it's

523
00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:44,560
Speaker 5: dope to.

524
00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:46,800
Speaker 4: At least provide the option, to be honest with you.

525
00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:49,760
Speaker 5: I had never went to a festival before Brocoli City,

526
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:52,880
Speaker 5: so I never knew what one looked like outside of

527
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:56,360
Speaker 5: what we did. But what we did though, was We're

528
00:23:56,359 --> 00:23:59,400
Speaker 5: gonna create this platform and give other people an opportunity

529
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:00,560
Speaker 5: to kind of shout on it.

530
00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:04,879
Speaker 3: The first ever Brocco Lea City Festival launched on April

531
00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:09,080
Speaker 3: twenty first, twenty thirteen, and featured acts like Big Krit, Scissa,

532
00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:13,920
Speaker 3: and Jamison. They also posted yoga, art, pop ups, craft beer,

533
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:14,800
Speaker 3: and games.

534
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:18,960
Speaker 5: We thought we were gonna do like twenty five hundred people.

535
00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:22,119
Speaker 5: We ended up doing like four thousand people. And the

536
00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:25,280
Speaker 5: way it looked at the time was like, oh, shit,

537
00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:27,879
Speaker 5: and the mayor came and shit, it was crazy. The

538
00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:31,160
Speaker 5: mayor came and at that time we knew, oh, this

539
00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:34,760
Speaker 5: could really be something like there's a there's a need for.

540
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:36,680
Speaker 4: This safe space, you know what I mean.

541
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 5: For people, it was a lot of women, you know

542
00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:41,119
Speaker 5: what I mean, And not saying that like, oh we

543
00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:43,600
Speaker 5: got all the girls, but it was like for those

544
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:47,119
Speaker 5: who like wearing Jordan's but also you know, like wearing heels,

545
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:49,880
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, Like it's a very balanced crowd.

546
00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:52,760
Speaker 5: It was everybody out there, white, black, Hispanic, you know

547
00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:54,399
Speaker 5: what I mean. If you were a fan of just

548
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:56,720
Speaker 5: music and good vibes, you were out there and it

549
00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:57,880
Speaker 5: was super duper dope.

550
00:24:57,920 --> 00:24:59,800
Speaker 4: It was super duper dope. And then that was the.

551
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:02,960
Speaker 5: First one that we actually called the Broccoli City Festival.

552
00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:07,680
Speaker 3: The Broccoli City Festival had a ride. The perfect blend

553
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:11,080
Speaker 3: of rising artists, unique venders, and positive messaging made the

554
00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 3: festival a massive success. It also made the team hungry

555
00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:17,520
Speaker 3: for more. As they began planning the twenty fourteen edition.

556
00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:20,840
Speaker 3: They raised the bar even higher by making two separate festivals,

557
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:23,919
Speaker 3: one in DC and the other in Los Angeles. He

558
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:26,040
Speaker 3: was an ambitious move and one that would test the

559
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:26,920
Speaker 3: limits of the team.

560
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:29,040
Speaker 4: It's like, y'all, let's do it again, and let's just

561
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:30,000
Speaker 4: try to make it bigger.

562
00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:30,240
Speaker 7: You know.

563
00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:32,760
Speaker 4: We had made a little money.

564
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:34,440
Speaker 5: With that one, but yet again we had to pay

565
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 5: due back. But we actually stayed in relationship with him

566
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,120
Speaker 5: because he saw what we were able to do, right,

567
00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:41,960
Speaker 5: so it was like all right, you know, So then

568
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,720
Speaker 5: we bawled just a little bigger bag from him the

569
00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:48,600
Speaker 5: next time around, in twenty fourteen is when we actually

570
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:53,919
Speaker 5: moved to Gateway Pavilion, which was an old insane asylum

571
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 5: in southeast DC. It was like dead smack in the

572
00:25:57,080 --> 00:25:58,119
Speaker 5: middle of a hood hood.

573
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:01,520
Speaker 4: We did like five thousand people, five thousand.

574
00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:04,240
Speaker 5: And seven thousand people. It was really like, Okay, this

575
00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:06,520
Speaker 5: is a thing. And then that's when like the city

576
00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:08,760
Speaker 5: of DC started reaching out to us, you know what

577
00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:11,120
Speaker 5: I mean, Like conversations started to change a little bit.

578
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:15,480
Speaker 3: The DC leg of the duo Festival was a total success,

579
00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:18,520
Speaker 3: but the la iteration it was a little shakier.

580
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:23,760
Speaker 1: So we just finished one, right, So we finished and

581
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:27,399
Speaker 1: then we're going out to La. It's Friday Fusiboards the

582
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:30,040
Speaker 1: next day and we had not secured all the permitting.

583
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:34,480
Speaker 1: I remember me and Brandon are literally running around. We

584
00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:37,840
Speaker 1: had to get fire fighters the fire department to sign

585
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:40,520
Speaker 1: off on so we're getting these these permitting. Then at

586
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,080
Speaker 1: the very last minute, you know, folks on Friday in

587
00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:45,040
Speaker 1: the governments they taken off trying to get up out

588
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:47,160
Speaker 1: of there. So we were down to the last minute,

589
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:48,640
Speaker 1: but we got everything handled.

590
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:52,720
Speaker 2: That was crazy. Who's fools for that? When I look

591
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:55,520
Speaker 2: at how other brands have been able to grow to

592
00:26:55,640 --> 00:27:00,720
Speaker 2: multiple cities. It was the right thought for sure, no question,

593
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:02,760
Speaker 2: was the right thought. The problem is we didn't have

594
00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 2: the resources right, Like, we were robbing Peter to pay

595
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:08,680
Speaker 2: Paul on one festival, so to do it for two

596
00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:11,960
Speaker 2: was crazy. We did have the right mindset LA at

597
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 2: that time. That's where we were supposed to be growing to,

598
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:18,160
Speaker 2: but we got an ass kick. Our venue was huge.

599
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:20,359
Speaker 2: We ended up selling like a good amount of tickets,

600
00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:22,399
Speaker 2: but the venue was so big that it looked like

601
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,720
Speaker 2: it wasn't that many people. But going back looking at it,

602
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:29,760
Speaker 2: like all the right people from LA that became like

603
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:34,479
Speaker 2: made people like super influential ended up being at that event,

604
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:36,800
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So we were in the

605
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:39,320
Speaker 2: right path. We were in the right thought. We just

606
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 2: did not have the resources as an independent brand.

607
00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:46,280
Speaker 4: The LA joint was successful from like a people coming out.

608
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 5: Wise part, you know what I mean, Like it was

609
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 5: a good look, but the venue and all that felt

610
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:52,119
Speaker 5: like we could have got a better venue.

611
00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:55,320
Speaker 1: The layout was so crazy that year because the state

612
00:27:55,480 --> 00:28:00,120
Speaker 1: was on one side and the VFQ was on the full.

613
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:03,120
Speaker 4: Like this big ass kark. I remember that day.

614
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:07,120
Speaker 1: I looked how much I'd walked, and I'd walked over

615
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:10,320
Speaker 1: a marathon because we were walking back and forth. I

616
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:14,000
Speaker 1: did over twenty seven miles walking back and forth all

617
00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:16,160
Speaker 1: day long. And I remember after I had never been

618
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:19,240
Speaker 1: more tired of out and I'm more tired.

619
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:23,119
Speaker 2: I remember throwing the shoes away, whatever shoes I had on.

620
00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:26,720
Speaker 2: The bottoms of them were so black and just melted

621
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 2: looking that it was just like yo, they're done.

622
00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 4: It was a wrap.

623
00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:32,160
Speaker 1: It was quite a feat just to do it from

624
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:34,439
Speaker 1: coast to coast, but that was our last time at

625
00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:37,480
Speaker 1: for now that we did that, especially in that short

626
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:38,720
Speaker 1: time frame we turned around.

627
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:40,000
Speaker 4: We were very ambitious.

628
00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 1: We definitely pulled it off, but it was super ambitious though.

629
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,240
Speaker 3: The team had pulled off the duel festival, but it

630
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:50,880
Speaker 3: left them exhausted. As they hit the drawing board to

631
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 3: plan for the following year. They decided to refocus their

632
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:57,240
Speaker 3: efforts on a single event in DC. If Broccoli City

633
00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 3: was going to be a staple event in the district,

634
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:01,720
Speaker 3: then they needed to up the value proposition across the

635
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 3: board through bigger bookings, better vendors, and more digital content.

636
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,680
Speaker 6: And I started a company called Simple Multimedia with a

637
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:12,080
Speaker 6: graffiti friend of mine.

638
00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:16,120
Speaker 3: This is Hugo Qbs, marketing and creative director for Broccoli City.

639
00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 6: We just started and the whole premise was, you know,

640
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:21,520
Speaker 6: like we all were marketers, like keep it simple, right.

641
00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:24,560
Speaker 6: You look at the best brands, they're always very simple

642
00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 6: and clean and easy to digest.

643
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:27,560
Speaker 2: So that was our premise.

644
00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:30,480
Speaker 6: We're like, hey, you don't need to make your website complicated,

645
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 6: you don't need to make your branding complicated. It just

646
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:34,800
Speaker 6: needs to be really clean and really efficient.

647
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 2: So fast forward.

648
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:38,600
Speaker 6: We've been doing a lot of work since two thousand

649
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:42,680
Speaker 6: and nine. You know, up until like twenty fourteen, I

650
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:44,800
Speaker 6: was just you know, connecting with a.

651
00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:46,680
Speaker 2: Lot of different people. I co called.

652
00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 6: The only person that I knew was a lawyer from

653
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 6: my school, and I was like, hey, can you help

654
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:52,360
Speaker 6: me set up an LC And he's like, oh, I'm

655
00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:54,560
Speaker 6: a real estate attorney. I don't really do that. You know,

656
00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:56,560
Speaker 6: Like I was like, all right, cool, could you put

657
00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:59,000
Speaker 6: me in contact with someone? So we started an open

658
00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:03,600
Speaker 6: dialogue to come to find out he was a startup investor,

659
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:06,120
Speaker 6: so he was investing in a bunch of startups, like

660
00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 6: he was investing in like early seed and stuff like that.

661
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:13,160
Speaker 6: And then one of his group of investors were investing

662
00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:15,520
Speaker 6: in Brocoli City, like they were one of the underwriters

663
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,840
Speaker 6: originally for Brocoli City. So like I had seen like

664
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:21,360
Speaker 6: the investment deck and what they were doing early on.

665
00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:23,840
Speaker 6: He was like, Hey, I know you're not really in

666
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,040
Speaker 6: the investing space, but like I think, you know, there's

667
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:29,120
Speaker 6: a lot of really good synergy between what you're doing

668
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:31,960
Speaker 6: and what Brocoli City's doing. I was pretty tapped into

669
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:34,680
Speaker 6: like the DC you know kind of music scene, and

670
00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:38,120
Speaker 6: you know, Marcus in Brandon in Brocoli City would always

671
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:42,280
Speaker 6: be like that kind of event that kind of stood out.

672
00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:44,320
Speaker 6: You know, there was a lot of events here, you know,

673
00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:46,760
Speaker 6: Howard Homecoming and a bunch of things that happened in

674
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:49,600
Speaker 6: the city that are kind of flagships that have you know,

675
00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:53,960
Speaker 6: program and activations around that. Broccoli City really stood the

676
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:57,400
Speaker 6: test of time. When I started paying really close attention

677
00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:01,640
Speaker 6: was like two thousand and four were teen fifteen for me.

678
00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:07,200
Speaker 6: The artwork for those festivals were so different, you know,

679
00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:09,680
Speaker 6: and so artistically creative.

680
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 2: They just didn't look like anything.

681
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:15,280
Speaker 6: Else that was out there from like a music offering.

682
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:18,360
Speaker 6: I was like, man, like the Broccoli City people got

683
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:23,080
Speaker 6: it right. Twenty fifteen, I started event production company, so

684
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,840
Speaker 6: we got this warehouse in Sterling where we operated, and

685
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:29,800
Speaker 6: I'm just more focused on, like really folks working with

686
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:32,680
Speaker 6: certain brands like Brockly City and my own brands, and

687
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 6: just working with some of these other clients. So that

688
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:37,480
Speaker 6: warehouse was really like an incubator for like a lot

689
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:37,920
Speaker 6: of stuff.

690
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,200
Speaker 3: Would Hugo bring a new perspective to Broccoli City. The

691
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:45,000
Speaker 3: team through a successful twenty fifteen campaign and were able

692
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:48,000
Speaker 3: to capture robust digital content to further grow the brand,

693
00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 3: but the team was starting to feel stagnant. Dozens of

694
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 3: others festivals were popping up across the country, and many

695
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:56,840
Speaker 3: of them were booking bigger acts. If Broccoli City wanted

696
00:31:56,880 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 3: to compete, they needed to lock in an a list

697
00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:01,080
Speaker 3: headliner for the twenty sixteen festival.

698
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:08,959
Speaker 5: At this point, you know, you start noticing other festivals,

699
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:10,600
Speaker 5: you know, what I mean. You start looking at other

700
00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:12,800
Speaker 5: cats and what they're doing, and like, how can I

701
00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 5: get some of these huge, huge acts that these cats.

702
00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:17,040
Speaker 4: Have, And like I said, you know, you just try

703
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 4: to keep up with the Joneses.

704
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:21,480
Speaker 5: And they also your consumers are looking at other festivals too,

705
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:24,080
Speaker 5: and they're like, yo, I love Broccoli City, but so

706
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:26,960
Speaker 5: and so got you know whatever that you just artist

707
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:29,200
Speaker 5: is at that time. But I think that we kept

708
00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:32,960
Speaker 5: our community pretty good because you know, we just curated.

709
00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:35,880
Speaker 4: We curated some pretty good vibes. To be honest with you,

710
00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 4: I never really had.

711
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:39,080
Speaker 5: Admirations to like build a festival, you know what I mean.

712
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:42,440
Speaker 5: It was just more so about the community. I think

713
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:44,720
Speaker 5: that it helped because it got to like kind of

714
00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:48,320
Speaker 5: show off our curation in a sense, just in terms

715
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:50,520
Speaker 5: of the type of acts that we were booking, because

716
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 5: I could look at a festival and just be like, oh,

717
00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:53,880
Speaker 5: they just had money.

718
00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:59,240
Speaker 2: So twenty sixteen that was when like we had built

719
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:03,120
Speaker 2: up enough capital in the agent industry, right the agents

720
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:06,120
Speaker 2: knew who we were a bit our name was making bills.

721
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:10,080
Speaker 2: There was one agent, Caroline I think at the time

722
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 2: she was working for ICM. This was at the start

723
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:16,320
Speaker 2: of Futures Rise. At that time, it was like you

724
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 2: just got to get the right talent. It was like, yo,

725
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:23,400
Speaker 2: it was talent first and then work backwards. I'll never forget.

726
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:27,160
Speaker 2: It was around twenty fifteen Christmas time. I was doing

727
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:29,840
Speaker 2: a Christmas light like you know how you walk through

728
00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:32,760
Speaker 2: the Christmas light little thing. I was with my daughter.

729
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:36,560
Speaker 2: She was very young, She's probably two years old. And

730
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:38,880
Speaker 2: I'm out there with my wife feet and were walking

731
00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:43,840
Speaker 2: around and the calls me, like, yo, Caroline about to

732
00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:47,840
Speaker 2: call me about future And she calls and I think

733
00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:50,160
Speaker 2: we had put like a seventy five thousand dollars offer

734
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:51,880
Speaker 2: on there, which was more than we had ever paid.

735
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:54,280
Speaker 2: And she gets on the phone and she's like, yo,

736
00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:57,560
Speaker 2: I just taught this futures management. They're willing to do it,

737
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:01,240
Speaker 2: but they need one fifty So this is well more

738
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:03,600
Speaker 2: than anything we had ever spent. So now I'm like

739
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:06,160
Speaker 2: walking away from my family right I'm at this Christmas thing.

740
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:08,920
Speaker 2: I'm walking away. I feel I feel my wife be

741
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,759
Speaker 2: like literally mad as fucking me, like because I'm wandering now,

742
00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:14,720
Speaker 2: I'm casing because now because we got to make an answer,

743
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:19,080
Speaker 2: like we but we also can't look weak on the phone,

744
00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:22,080
Speaker 2: because if she senses it's anything wrong with our money,

745
00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:25,520
Speaker 2: then it puts us in a position to where she's

746
00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:29,040
Speaker 2: not gonna have confidence. So I'm like on my phone

747
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:32,239
Speaker 2: trying to do math, trying to figure out, like, Yo,

748
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:34,960
Speaker 2: how do we make this work? And I remember like

749
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:36,799
Speaker 2: being on mute and I go back home and I

750
00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:38,319
Speaker 2: was like, Yo, Carolina, can we get a little bit

751
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:39,839
Speaker 2: more time? I was like, but I think we can

752
00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 2: make it work. I just need to mess with the

753
00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:42,680
Speaker 2: budget real quick. We'll call you back in like a

754
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,480
Speaker 2: few hours. So I called me back and I'm like, bro,

755
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:48,759
Speaker 2: and Bee's already feeling it. He's like, Yo, fature the

756
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:51,000
Speaker 2: biggest shit out here, bru. If we can get this motherfucker,

757
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:55,359
Speaker 2: it's gonna sell. Like it will sell, Bro. We end

758
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 2: up just fucking cash flowing that shit. We end up

759
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:02,879
Speaker 2: negotiating negotia. She had the first deposit in two payments,

760
00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:04,680
Speaker 2: so we had to put We had to do like

761
00:35:04,719 --> 00:35:07,600
Speaker 2: a thirty and like a thirty five. So it was

762
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:10,840
Speaker 2: like we got under the deposit, we got on sale,

763
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:14,680
Speaker 2: sold some tickets, got some money back, aid the rest.

764
00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:17,359
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. Made it work. She ends

765
00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:19,719
Speaker 2: up selling out it was one of the greatest. I

766
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:22,120
Speaker 2: personally think it was like one of the best lineups.

767
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:24,080
Speaker 2: Anybody who was at that festival will tell you that

768
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:29,719
Speaker 2: shit was special. Anderson Pat Jane Ico, like the Internet,

769
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:33,799
Speaker 2: like the the vibes to have that come together. Yeah,

770
00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:35,879
Speaker 2: that shit was. That shit was special. And then from

771
00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:39,279
Speaker 2: there it was like, let's go, let's go.

772
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:48,799
Speaker 3: The Future booking came at a perfect time, fresh off

773
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:51,560
Speaker 3: the release of his critically acclaimed DS two. Future was

774
00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:53,960
Speaker 3: one of the hottest acts on the planet. Locking him

775
00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:57,160
Speaker 3: in as a headliner established Broccoli City as a premier festival,

776
00:35:57,520 --> 00:35:59,919
Speaker 3: and it got the attention of Live Nation, a part

777
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:03,240
Speaker 3: that would soon be able to help them elevate their booking, marketing,

778
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:04,080
Speaker 3: and production.

779
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:09,640
Speaker 2: The same way we were getting everybody else's attention, we

780
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,760
Speaker 2: was getting their attention. We knew we needed more marketing,

781
00:36:13,040 --> 00:36:15,760
Speaker 2: but we didn't have a cash I ended up getting

782
00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:19,080
Speaker 2: connected to this cat, Mark Mangle, who ran the Feel

783
00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,920
Speaker 2: More and ran a bunch of the theaters in the

784
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:25,920
Speaker 2: DC market. End up getting connected like, Yo, we got Future,

785
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,520
Speaker 2: we got Jay, ain't we got this? How can we

786
00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:32,560
Speaker 2: do something marketing? How can we get y'all support? He's like, man,

787
00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:34,759
Speaker 2: I love what y'all are doing. See y'all building be

788
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:37,239
Speaker 2: hearing about it. He's like, man, let's just do something,

789
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:41,480
Speaker 2: give me a dollar ticket back in done. Ended up

790
00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:44,080
Speaker 2: doing a marketing deal, was able to get some emails

791
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:47,120
Speaker 2: and some support from Live Nation ticket Master that helped

792
00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:48,839
Speaker 2: us put us over the top. We end up having

793
00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:50,960
Speaker 2: to pay them a dollar ticket on the back end.

794
00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:54,319
Speaker 2: Through that, people in the Live Nation building started kind

795
00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:57,040
Speaker 2: of connecting with us and started kind of watching what

796
00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:00,520
Speaker 2: we were doing. And then this is twenty seven seventeen,

797
00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:05,160
Speaker 2: we get a call from Mark and this other guy like, Hey,

798
00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:09,319
Speaker 2: it's guy Sean Ge, manager of the Roots. He want

799
00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:11,719
Speaker 2: to connect with y'all. He also do roots pitting it.

800
00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:14,520
Speaker 2: So we thinking like he about to be on some

801
00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:16,759
Speaker 2: hater shit, be honest with you, you know what I mean?

802
00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 2: We like, Yo, the fuck motherfucker's about to be hating,

803
00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:22,640
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. So he hiss us and

804
00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:26,799
Speaker 2: he like, yo, my wife's family is from DC. I

805
00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:29,680
Speaker 2: come to DC every holidays. When I come, I asked him,

806
00:37:30,040 --> 00:37:32,000
Speaker 2: I asked, like, all the young people, what do I

807
00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:34,279
Speaker 2: need to be looking out for? Like who's hot? And

808
00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:37,440
Speaker 2: they like yo, Rocky City. Shit's going crazy. He like,

809
00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:39,880
Speaker 2: what what the fuck is this? He's like, this is

810
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:42,640
Speaker 2: the second Christmas today done mentioned us. So he like,

811
00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:46,279
Speaker 2: let me dig into this, digs into it. Impressed. He's like, Yo,

812
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:47,960
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be in I'm gonna be in DC over

813
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 2: the holidays. Come sit down. I go meet him at

814
00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:53,600
Speaker 2: the Rich Carton in Georgetown. We do a couple of drinks.

815
00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:56,239
Speaker 2: He's telling me about his plans. He was gonna be

816
00:37:56,239 --> 00:37:59,279
Speaker 2: getting a new venture Underlive Nation, and he was like, man,

817
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:02,560
Speaker 2: I love to make y'all the first thing under our venture,

818
00:38:02,800 --> 00:38:06,759
Speaker 2: but it's gonna probably be late twenty seventeen before I

819
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:09,319
Speaker 2: have a deal in place. He's like, so, I want

820
00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:11,320
Speaker 2: to see what y'all do in twenty seventeen.

821
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:18,160
Speaker 3: But in order to secure the partnership with Live Nation,

822
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:21,280
Speaker 3: they first needed to impress the president of its urban division,

823
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 3: Sean g with their twenty seventeen festival. The pressure was on.

824
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,960
Speaker 2: We had a twenty seventh teen festival. That lineup was crazy.

825
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:32,279
Speaker 2: It's the first time we try to do two stages.

826
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:36,040
Speaker 2: We're still in the hood at this fucking mental institution

827
00:38:36,239 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 2: or whatever it is. It rains in classic Broccoli city form, right,

828
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:43,359
Speaker 2: It's rain and it's cold, but people was out there

829
00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:46,480
Speaker 2: still so shan jee there he calls like, y'all, I'm

830
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:48,360
Speaker 2: back to the festival. He's like, yo, walk me through.

831
00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:51,640
Speaker 2: We walking through. He's like, Yo, this shit is late,

832
00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:55,520
Speaker 2: damn Like this motherfuckers has really got some shit. Two stages,

833
00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:58,280
Speaker 2: people going back to back, go back to the back stage,

834
00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:01,080
Speaker 2: were in the little artist area. It's clean, it's done.

835
00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 2: He's like, Yo, shit was good. Now, mind you, I'm

836
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:07,200
Speaker 2: already known we didne lost a couple in a thousand,

837
00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:10,279
Speaker 2: Like I'm already knowing this going into the event, Like

838
00:39:10,320 --> 00:39:13,160
Speaker 2: I'm knowing this, but I'm walking around like shit, sweet,

839
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:13,480
Speaker 2: you know.

840
00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:13,879
Speaker 4: What I mean.

841
00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:18,759
Speaker 3: As with any festival, rain results in money pouring down

842
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:22,280
Speaker 3: the drink. The twenty seventeen festival was a heavy loss financially,

843
00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:24,640
Speaker 3: but the team did enough to impress Sean g in

844
00:39:24,719 --> 00:39:27,400
Speaker 3: Live Nation and it set them up for a brighter future.

845
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:31,920
Speaker 2: We sent back down and start talking about how we

846
00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:34,279
Speaker 2: can pull a deal together and what that would mean,

847
00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:37,960
Speaker 2: and at that time Sean hadn't like he was pretty

848
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:40,359
Speaker 2: much just following our lead, like yo, getting us who

849
00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:42,440
Speaker 2: we wanted? I think the only name he pushed back

850
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:44,880
Speaker 2: on was like Nipsey Hustle because Nipsey wasn't really he

851
00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:47,560
Speaker 2: didn't have no history. But we were like very tapped

852
00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:50,520
Speaker 2: into Nipsey because B's in La. We just was watching it.

853
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:53,319
Speaker 2: We were like, nah, Nipsey, I'm telling you. So he like,

854
00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:55,880
Speaker 2: all right, you think so we end up doing Nipsy.

855
00:39:56,120 --> 00:39:58,560
Speaker 2: Then he like, yo, something is missing. He like, listen,

856
00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:00,680
Speaker 2: I got a relationship with Cardi B. She had just

857
00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:05,200
Speaker 2: done a management deal with QC. I think he like yo,

858
00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:07,040
Speaker 2: I think I can get Cardi.

859
00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:15,560
Speaker 3: Twenty eighteen featured headliners Migos Miguel and Cardi B. Broccolely

860
00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:17,680
Speaker 3: City was now able to get the A list headliners

861
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:20,319
Speaker 3: at the top, but the overall curation remained the heart

862
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:22,960
Speaker 3: and soul of the festival, so further down the lineup

863
00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:25,640
Speaker 3: you could still find Grammy Award winners like Nipsey Hustle,

864
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:29,600
Speaker 3: Her and Daniel Caesar, local DMVX, and a variety of

865
00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:33,040
Speaker 3: exciting vendors and artists. Live Nation also provided more than

866
00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:35,800
Speaker 3: just bookings and production support. They had some very talented

867
00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:36,799
Speaker 3: employees as well.

868
00:40:40,239 --> 00:40:44,000
Speaker 7: So Broccoley City is the most unique organization I've ever

869
00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:47,160
Speaker 7: worked for. I teld people this all the time because

870
00:40:47,880 --> 00:40:49,400
Speaker 7: they are very free flowing.

871
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:52,200
Speaker 3: This is Jacqueline Auston, currently the chief of staff at

872
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:55,000
Speaker 3: Broccoli City. At the time, she was being mentored through

873
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:57,400
Speaker 3: a Live Nation training program called femet Forward.

874
00:40:57,800 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 2: So I come from a corporate environment.

875
00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:03,360
Speaker 7: You know, everything's pretty structured, and you know you have

876
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:07,000
Speaker 7: certain ways of doing things, and Brocoley City is almost

877
00:41:07,239 --> 00:41:08,879
Speaker 7: the opposite of that in a great way.

878
00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:09,319
Speaker 4: Right.

879
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:13,480
Speaker 7: Growing up, I always wanted to work in entertainment, but

880
00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:15,879
Speaker 7: because I went to North Carolina A and T, which

881
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:20,640
Speaker 7: is also marcusist alma mater, I studied communications and journalism

882
00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:24,240
Speaker 7: and also study that for my graduate degree at John Hawkins.

883
00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:28,200
Speaker 7: My plan was to be in entertainment. Somehow, I did

884
00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:32,040
Speaker 7: a program called them Forward. It's by Live Nation and

885
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:35,919
Speaker 7: it's actually pioneered by Hedelori, and they pair you with

886
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:38,839
Speaker 7: a mentor in a field that you're interested in. They

887
00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:40,719
Speaker 7: paired me with a mentor name of Shavn.

888
00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:42,960
Speaker 2: She's the s VP of Live.

889
00:41:42,880 --> 00:41:47,439
Speaker 7: Nation's curated program. She became my mentor in twenty twenty one,

890
00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:51,279
Speaker 7: and I told her that I had a history of

891
00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:54,920
Speaker 7: doing event planning and communications and tech and all of

892
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:57,600
Speaker 7: that stuff, but I wanted to start a transition into

893
00:41:57,800 --> 00:42:00,200
Speaker 7: festival spaces, and she said, well, do you happen to

894
00:42:00,239 --> 00:42:02,400
Speaker 7: know the founders of Brox City. I said, I've never

895
00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:04,640
Speaker 7: met them, but I know the festival, and so she

896
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:08,239
Speaker 7: introduced me to Brandon and I took it from there.

897
00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:12,359
Speaker 3: Jacqueline started working on projects with Broccoli City and would

898
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:14,800
Speaker 3: eventually join the team full time as chief of staff.

899
00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:17,200
Speaker 4: I had spoke to Jackie.

900
00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 5: Jackie was just looking for some opportunities to work in

901
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:22,480
Speaker 5: the live space. She already had a job, she was

902
00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:25,839
Speaker 5: already good. And I remember the first conversation I had

903
00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:28,680
Speaker 5: with Jackie. I felt like I knew her my whole life,

904
00:42:28,719 --> 00:42:30,560
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. And honestly, she was just

905
00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:33,120
Speaker 5: the sweetest person ever, you know what I mean.

906
00:42:33,160 --> 00:42:34,960
Speaker 4: And she's so like on it.

907
00:42:35,120 --> 00:42:38,080
Speaker 5: From a project management perspective, from a you know, just

908
00:42:38,120 --> 00:42:42,040
Speaker 5: an organizational perspective, man, yeah, I honestly don't even know

909
00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 5: where we would be without Jackie at this point.

910
00:42:46,640 --> 00:42:50,200
Speaker 3: Twenty nineteen saw Childish Gambino, Lul Wayne, and Gunner Grace

911
00:42:50,239 --> 00:42:52,600
Speaker 3: the stage, further cementing Broccoli City is one of the

912
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:55,759
Speaker 3: most exciting festivals on the East Coast, but the COVID

913
00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:58,200
Speaker 3: nineteen pandemic in twenty twenty would prove to be their

914
00:42:58,200 --> 00:43:01,560
Speaker 3: toughest test yet. With live events shut down, the team

915
00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:04,080
Speaker 3: had to rethink their entire business model and figure out

916
00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:06,960
Speaker 3: how to expand the brand beyond just festivals. So they

917
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:09,280
Speaker 3: turned to Hugo in his Warehouse Content studio.

918
00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:16,680
Speaker 6: That Warehouse really like saved us during the pandemic because

919
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:19,799
Speaker 6: we were able to create a bunch of tools on

920
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:22,319
Speaker 6: the virtual side that we still use to this day.

921
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:26,440
Speaker 6: We were so known for festivals and live events that

922
00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:28,640
Speaker 6: we had to pivot and have like a different identity,

923
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 6: and I think the identity that we did have was

924
00:43:31,239 --> 00:43:34,000
Speaker 6: like a very relevant cultural voice that I thought was

925
00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:35,000
Speaker 6: really interesting.

926
00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:38,360
Speaker 2: COVID really made us take a step back. We decided

927
00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:40,880
Speaker 2: to really center ourselves around people who was like smarter

928
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:43,000
Speaker 2: than us from like just a brand and just like

929
00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:46,880
Speaker 2: an overarching standpoint. So we surrounded ourselves over COVID around

930
00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:49,280
Speaker 2: like some really smart people to really make us critically

931
00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:52,960
Speaker 2: think about what value proposition we want the brand to

932
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:56,560
Speaker 2: have on culture. It was just this concept that we

933
00:43:56,600 --> 00:44:00,520
Speaker 2: came up with that BC Broccoli City for Black change

934
00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:06,719
Speaker 2: right and really leveraging our brand to create real valuable

935
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:10,040
Speaker 2: change in a lot of different ways, right, Obviously social

936
00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:13,440
Speaker 2: impact and community involvement being important, being able to use

937
00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:18,959
Speaker 2: our platform to provide information about issues and challenges and opportunity.

938
00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:21,880
Speaker 2: We just understood that we just we played a unique

939
00:44:21,880 --> 00:44:24,200
Speaker 2: space in terms of who we connected with. But then

940
00:44:24,239 --> 00:44:27,400
Speaker 2: also too, like always pushing culture and being able to

941
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:29,640
Speaker 2: leverage like our Live Nation and trying to get big

942
00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:33,000
Speaker 2: artists and trying to push big productions for people of

943
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:34,600
Speaker 2: color in our events.

944
00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:37,520
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, yet again, it was always about education

945
00:44:37,640 --> 00:44:39,560
Speaker 5: for us, right, it was always about community.

946
00:44:39,719 --> 00:44:40,920
Speaker 4: And I had a lot of people.

947
00:44:40,680 --> 00:44:43,600
Speaker 5: Hitting my line like Yo, man, how y'all do this festival?

948
00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:47,120
Speaker 5: I got this idea for this festival, and I always

949
00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:48,799
Speaker 5: wanted to be willing to help, you know what I mean,

950
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:50,680
Speaker 5: just like a regular person, right, Like you just want

951
00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:52,960
Speaker 5: to help somebody out. So I'll be like, all right, man,

952
00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:55,319
Speaker 5: just shoot me over a debt or something, you know,

953
00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:57,520
Speaker 5: just shoot me like a little one sheet. And the

954
00:44:57,560 --> 00:45:00,680
Speaker 5: Hallmies was like, what's a one sheet? What's a I'm like,

955
00:45:00,719 --> 00:45:03,279
Speaker 5: oh shit, okay, so you know what I mean, Let's

956
00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:04,240
Speaker 5: start this with scratch.

957
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:06,600
Speaker 4: So that was the idea of doing the conference.

958
00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:10,080
Speaker 5: So we started a conference called the Broccoli Conference Broccoli

959
00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:10,920
Speaker 5: Conference short.

960
00:45:11,239 --> 00:45:14,080
Speaker 6: One of the things that I'm really proud of, the

961
00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:17,400
Speaker 6: broccolikon digital over two days, we had almost seven million

962
00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:18,840
Speaker 6: people view that stream.

963
00:45:19,080 --> 00:45:21,520
Speaker 5: And then on the flip side, we also knew that

964
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:25,160
Speaker 5: a lot of people within our community couldn't necessarily afford

965
00:45:25,239 --> 00:45:28,239
Speaker 5: festival tickets right and never like Broccoli City was a

966
00:45:28,239 --> 00:45:31,080
Speaker 5: super expensive festival, but when you think about the people

967
00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:34,240
Speaker 5: that we cater to, you know, one hundred and fifty dollars,

968
00:45:34,239 --> 00:45:37,640
Speaker 5: two hundred dollars for you know, a day festival ticket

969
00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:39,839
Speaker 5: to see a couple of music acts, that's a lot.

970
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 5: You know what I mean, if you got two kids,

971
00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:43,760
Speaker 5: if you got you know what I mean, you got bills.

972
00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:47,160
Speaker 5: So we had created this campaign called the Power of

973
00:45:47,200 --> 00:45:50,799
Speaker 5: One campaign where you can volunteer in the community, whether

974
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:54,600
Speaker 5: that's Southeast DC, Northeast DC, wherever, and then be able

975
00:45:54,600 --> 00:45:59,879
Speaker 5: to earn a free ticket to Broccoli City.

976
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:03,239
Speaker 3: He looks to the future, the possibilities are endless. They've

977
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:06,880
Speaker 3: mastered live events, can create digital content in house, and

978
00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:10,440
Speaker 3: are launching some incredible initiatives to help their community.

979
00:46:10,760 --> 00:46:11,719
Speaker 2: Marcus says the best.

980
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:14,040
Speaker 6: He's like, we just want to be different Coachella does

981
00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:16,239
Speaker 6: it a certain way, Dreamville does it a certain way.

982
00:46:16,280 --> 00:46:17,960
Speaker 2: Everyone does it a certain way. Like we just want

983
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:19,480
Speaker 2: to have our own lane.

984
00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:22,319
Speaker 6: I'll take our Broccoli City team against any team, you know,

985
00:46:22,880 --> 00:46:26,000
Speaker 6: just because like we've been doing it together and separately

986
00:46:26,040 --> 00:46:26,840
Speaker 6: for so long.

987
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:29,200
Speaker 2: Really just thinking about the long play and really just

988
00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:32,760
Speaker 2: really just making us say, like, man, our brand could

989
00:46:32,760 --> 00:46:36,120
Speaker 2: be so much more valuable if we position it as

990
00:46:36,160 --> 00:46:40,960
Speaker 2: something that is a platform for change and not just

991
00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:42,000
Speaker 2: the annual event.

992
00:46:42,480 --> 00:46:44,760
Speaker 4: I mean, that's really it, man, Like it's the brock,

993
00:46:44,840 --> 00:46:46,719
Speaker 4: you know. And we're gonna keep going. We're gonna keep

994
00:46:46,760 --> 00:46:47,400
Speaker 4: doing what we do.

995
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:52,520
Speaker 3: Broccoli City story is a testament to the power of

996
00:46:52,520 --> 00:46:58,120
Speaker 3: community collaboration and constant elevation. Initially a local celebration intended

997
00:46:58,160 --> 00:47:01,160
Speaker 3: to promote climate change awareness and the black comunity, Broccoli

998
00:47:01,239 --> 00:47:03,839
Speaker 3: City has evolved into a global brand, and they've done

999
00:47:03,840 --> 00:47:07,320
Speaker 3: it with integrity and a constant commitment to their founding ethos.

1000
00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:11,840
Speaker 3: As a combination of opportunity, creative ambition, and market forces

1001
00:47:11,840 --> 00:47:15,360
Speaker 3: compelled the company to evolve. They've expanded into digital content

1002
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:18,120
Speaker 3: and developed righteous programs to give back to their community.

1003
00:47:18,520 --> 00:47:21,319
Speaker 3: With every facet covered broccoly City has become a three

1004
00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:24,320
Speaker 3: to sixty brand that would make any music festival green

1005
00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:29,200
Speaker 3: with envy. For Idea Generation, I'm Noah Callahan Beverer. Thanks

1006
00:47:29,239 --> 00:47:31,680
Speaker 3: for listening to the All Angles Podcast presented by will

1007
00:47:31,719 --> 00:47:35,200
Speaker 3: Packer Media. If you've enjoyed this episode, please don't hesitate

1008
00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:38,120
Speaker 3: to like, comment DM or tell a friend to tell

1009
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:41,480
Speaker 3: a friend about Idea Generation and the All Angles Podcast.

1010
00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:48,640
Speaker 3: This episode was brought to you by Will Packer Executive

1011
00:47:48,640 --> 00:47:52,279
Speaker 3: produced by John Balachik and Helena Ox. Original music by

1012
00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:56,520
Speaker 3: Valentine Fritz, edit and sound mixed by Nonsensible Production, and

1013
00:47:56,600 --> 00:48:02,440
Speaker 3: hosted by me. Idea Generation founder Noah Callahan bever Idea

1014
00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:05,320
Speaker 3: Generation's All Angles is a Whelpacker Media podcast