WEBVTT - Brandon Butler, Butter.ATL 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:01.440 So I think that's what you gotta do. 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:03.880 It's not just about oh, my cousin knows TikTok and 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:06.240 so he can do it. It's no, you should be 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:09.680 going on TikTok. Let's use the hoodie example. You know, 0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:12.119 if you have a hoodie company, you should be on 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.840 TikTok finding out who makes dope content about hoodies. You 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.280 should be looking at every hoodie hashtag, you know, every 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:23.360 hoodie rated brand, every creator that's making jokes about you know, 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.920 the girls stealing your hoodies or its hoodie season, and 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:30.440 you will find somebody in there that probably resonates with you. 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:32.760 And then that's how you find somebody that can make 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:33.720 you hoodie content. 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:45.880 I'm well, lookas this is black tach green money. 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:47.480 Hey look. 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:50.800 Brandon Butler is Partner in Chief, Culture and Innovation Officer 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:55.880 at Majority in CEO at Butter atl in Atlanta based 0:00:55.920 --> 0:01:01.120 media company covering all things Atlanta from sports, news, music. 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:06.679 His storytelling about communities is a high ROI play which 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:09.960 feeds ecosystem. And when the ecosystem is strong for black 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.160 entrepreneurship and culture, are people thrive. 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:15.679 I just believe that. 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:19.440 All companies in organizations should see themselves as media companies 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:23.160 and put the work in to tell authentic stories. Butter 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.559 Atl believes this also and puts this philosophy to work 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.959 for the city. So I asked Brandon how this came about. 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.040 Yeah, you know, it started with this idea that some 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:37.000 of the most successful companies and brands tend to operate 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.880 as media companies. The example that always kind of references 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:42.760 Red Bull. You see Red Bull doing all kind of 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:46.000 crazy stuff. You see guys, you know, jumping from outer space. 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.320 You know, you see them doing race cars. And you've 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.600 never really seen like a Red Bull commercial though, You've 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:54.400 never really seen a commercial with somebody holding the Red 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:56.360 Bull saying like go buy this or drink it. Right, 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:59.000 So they've associated their brand with this idea that just 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:02.680 you know, content and media and being associated with it, 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:04.640 you know, will give people what they need to know 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:06.200 that this thing exists. 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.519 And so for us, we kind. 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:10.120 Of had the same that same belief right that the 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:12.760 most successful brands operated that way, and and so we 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:14.520 kind of started looking around and at first, you know, 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:16.960 there was this idea that you know, maybe we do 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.760 it for like the culture at large, you know, So 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.000 it's just what's trending what's in pop culture right now, 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:25.000 and and I mean we we did that for a 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:27.800 little while, but honestly, it just didn't feel it didn't 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:30.959 feel right, didn't feel super authentic, you know, as my 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:33.639 uh as my gud Bame Joiner, one of the founders 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:37.040 of Atlanta influences Everything, says Atlanta influences everything. And so 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:39.240 you know, based on that idea and really based on 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:43.200 this idea that Atlanta is a really special place. You know, 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:45.520 I always say, I think our number one export in 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.399 Atlanta's culture. Uh you know, why not kind of turn 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:53.120 that that lens inward and and and really find ways 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.520 to kind of highlight and and tell stories and just 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.680 showcase the city that honestly has been overlooked in so 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.880 many different ways. You know, It's always funny to me, 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:04.600 right like when you go back and you look, you've 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:06.680 noticed that these brands would come in from you know, 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:09.440 the New York, LA and Chicago and they would want 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:11.560 to kind of give us permission to talk about Atlanta. 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:13.840 They'd come down here and say, hey, you know, we 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.160 heard y'all like Lemon Pepper wings down there. Can you 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.720 tell us about Lemon Pepper wings Man y'all don't eat 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:20.280 limp pepper wings in New York, you know what I mean, 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.600 y'all eat, y'all eat buffalo wings, whatever those are, and 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:25.640 so and so again, it was like, why do we 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.280 need to wait for somebody from another city or state 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:30.120 to come down here and ask us about that and 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.600 then take that story back home and say, so I 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:35.400 went down to Atlanta, and this is what I learned. 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:38.120 You know, if we're really leading in all elements of 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:41.160 you know, culture and media and all these different things, 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:43.440 why not be able to tell those stories ourselves? And 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:45.200 then even thinking about it even more, you know, when 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:47.560 is the last time you've seen a brand or a 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:50.800 media company really focus in specifically on a city like this? 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.440 And so, you know, for me, it was kind of 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:56.440 just an opportunity that was kind of hidden in plain sight, 0:03:57.200 --> 0:03:59.760 and we very quickly, you know, I think we maybe 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:01.680 did the national thing for like a week or two, 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:04.840 but we very quickly said, you know what, let's just 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:06.920 focus this thing on what we think is the coolest, 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.520 most interesting, most you know, cultural relevant city in the 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.400 world really, which we think is Atlanta. And you know, 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:16.520 it just again, it really resonated with people connected with 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.240 people really quickly. You know, people down here we have 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:20.880 a tendency to kind of protect the culture in a 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:22.960 lot of the senses because we know how special it is, 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:26.920 and I think that, well, we both put that lens 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:29.200 on it. But then also people realize that the person 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.320 that was doing it was from here that understood those 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.159 kind of nuances about the city. There was just a 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.120 whole different level of appreciation for it. You know, I 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.960 always loved Atlanta on FX by Donald Glover because it 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:44.640 was kind of the same way. You know, if you're 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.040 from Atlanta. Even if you're not from Atlanta, you can 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:50.200 appreciate that as a good show. But if you're from Atlanta, 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.640 there's this additional level of appreciation you have for it 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:56.560 because they shoot that show in places that you've been to. 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.800 They shoot that show, and you know, you'll see things 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.520 allude to things that just you recognize instantly. And so 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:05.760 that was kind of how we approach Butter was you know, 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:07.560 if we tell this story, but we also just really 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.279 authentic and truth to the culture, people will hear it. 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:13.440 You know, people will hear the drawl in my voice 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:15.600 when I speak. You know, people will see the references 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:17.080 that we make the things that are authentic, and I 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.680 think a combination of all those things just really kind 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:21.679 of helped put Butter in a really special place for us. 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:23.680 I want to go back to something you talked about 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:25.280 in the beginning, that you talked about the Red Bull 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:27.600 story and how they don't really do commercials about Red 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.360 Bull saying hey buy this, and there's such a key 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.280 there that a lot of small brands that you know, 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.720 are trying to get traction, trying to find their fit 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.000 in the marketplace. That's an investment to do what Red 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:43.520 Bull is doing because it's not necessarily a direct pitch 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:47.159 to by the thing, it's explicitly an indirect one. And 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.760 so how do you admonish or encourage people who have 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.120 a hoodie line or you know, a hair you know, 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.000 a shade butter and they're trying to make sales because 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.679 they need that to keep going at all and don't 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.400 have the marketing budget like a Red Bull would have 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:06.080 to actually find different ways to tell their story or 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.279 to show what people who buy that thing do. 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:12.680 Yeah, I mean, the beautiful thing about where we're at 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:14.880 right now just in content and media is I think 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:18.480 the bar has been significantly lowered, which is making it 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:18.800 a lot. 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:19.880 Of easier folks to get involved. 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:22.080 Right, Like, everybody's got a cell phone, and all cell 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:24.000 phones pretty much shoot in HD quality. 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:25.480 So there's your camera. 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:28.440 You know, you can get a why I saw a 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.320 wireless microphone on sale on TikTok for ten bucks, right like, 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.000 you can get a wireless mic for your cell phones. 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.039 And now you got audio, You've got good video. What's 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:37.479 the only thing you need beyond that is just a 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.640 good idea? And you know, and even when you kind 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:42.520 of think about it, you know, there are trends that 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:44.160 go on. So I think it's I think it's kind 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:45.160 of easy to jump in. 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:46.320 You know what. 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:49.080 I what I noticed and I've really noticed is over 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:51.359 the last you know, Butter's been around now for you know, 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.560 five plus years, and we make content every single day. 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:58.080 So the thing I've noticed making content every day for 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:00.760 the last five years is that at the end of 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:03.960 the day, it's all about just continuing to kind of 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.280 throw you know. The thing I would tell my team 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.560 is if you if you ever watch a person that 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:15.720 knows how to juggle, everybody always watches, you know, the 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.040 hand that they kind of like they always kind of 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:19.600 just watch the person they watch the hand that they 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.760 catch with. The trick with juggling, though, is to wash 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.480 the hand that they throw with because if you keep throwing, 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:27.880 the ball is gonna land in the right place every 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:30.320 single time. And so what I what I use that 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:32.960 to say is with most people, most entrepreneurs, no matter 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.760 how big or small your budget is. My my thing 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.680 to you is just start throwing. You never know what 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.160 the thing is gonna be. I can tell you right now, 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:45.000 there are you know, one of our most successful pieces 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.280 of content on Butter was a photograph of some chicken 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:52.400 wings that I took inside a cafeteria. That photograph ended 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:55.280 up on us what was it, Good Morning America, and 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.800 ended up on Complex, ended up on you know, all 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:02.040 these different channels. And it was a literally a picture 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.200 of some chicken wings that we took with no photo editing. 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:07.040 You know, I think maybe we cropped the photo and 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.640 that's it, so you never know the thing is gonna be. 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:11.920 And like that created so much, you know, a claim 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:13.120 and visibility for us. 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:13.320 You know. 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:17.120 Another thing we did was a post about you know, 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.280 different types of sneakers, which again it was a super 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:24.160 simple post, but that led to a conversation with Killer Mike, 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:26.360 which you know, a year later, year and a half 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:29.600 later he became a partner with butter and so again. 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:31.440 But all that comes from, just like I said, throwing, 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:34.840 Like you know, we put stuff out, everything doesn't go viral, 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:37.120 and that's totally fine with me. A lot of times 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.040 I put stuff out just to see what will happen 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.040 because I'm kind of past this place, and oh well 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.600 it didn't work, take it down. So the biggest, yeah, 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:46.640 the biggest advice I would give the people that they 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:48.920 feel like they don't have a budget is you don't 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.120 really need that much of a budget. You just need, 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:53.440 you know, some ideas. And at the same time, again, 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:54.880 you just need to just kind of start getting your 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:58.200 stuff out there and throwing and and again I'm a 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:00.760 big believer in frameworks, you know, whether you're kind of 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:05.360 doing the the Gary v jab jab jab hook or 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.840 what I like to say is, you know, candy, vitamin 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:10.920 and painkillers, right, Like, I think there's certain kinds of 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.680 content that's candy. In other words, you know, everybody loves candy, 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.880 but too much candy or rocket teeth, you know, I 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:20.840 think that there is a content that is vitamins, and 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:22.280 that's the that's where I kind of put a lot 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.480 of the Gary V content at like, no shade to him, 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.280 but he can yell at you about hustling all day 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:30.640 long until you actually go out and do something. It's 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:32.920 just the pep talk, right, but you're getting that motivation, 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:34.439 but you still have to actually do the work. It's 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.040 no different than taking vitamins every day and not going 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:39.000 to the gym, right like you said, to do the work. 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:41.480 And then there's then there's painkiller content. There's content that 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.840 like solves the problem. It has very high utility, right like, 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:47.720 and I tell that by the number of saves that 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:49.440 we get on the post particularly, right. So I think 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:51.280 you know, again, when you start thinking about content from 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.600 the standpoint of again whether jab jab jab hook or 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:57.760 candy vitamins painkillers, you'll see that, you know, the really 0:09:57.800 --> 0:09:59.600 the only thing that's kind of stopping you from you 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:01.600 is is is really you know what you think people 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.160 want to see. And I can guarantee you that the 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:05.959 only way to find that is by putting out enough 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.400 stuff to really start to get good insights. 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.320 That's so key there. And I want to dig into 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:12.400 that a little bit because you know, and I have 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:14.720 a couple of small businesses also, And to your point 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:16.760 of like when things work and when they don't, I 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.520 tell you this quick story. So last last Thanksgiving, this 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:22.120 would have been twenty twenty two, the coffee house was 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:24.480 like a year old, and there were still so many 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:27.360 people in the community who didn't know that we existed. 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:31.520 And so Thanksgiving the Black Friday, Black Friday morning, we 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.440 were open and I found I'm like, oh, I got 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:36.080 to tell the community we're open. So I just went 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.040 through my photo album real quick on my phone, found 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:41.120 the first photo I could find, put it up, say hey, 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:44.120 we're open today. Just so you know, I didn't know 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:48.160 this Sunday morning. It had twelve hundred shares on it 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:51.839 on Facebook. And if I would have spent any time 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:54.679 thinking about that post, I would not have used the 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.000 picture that I used because there was nobody in it. 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.200 It looked empty, you know, it was an angle that 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:01.000 was just it was just a random fhotto because I 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:03.320 just needed to get something up. But to your point 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:06.240 of you don't know what to work and what doesn't. 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:08.320 If it wouldn't have worked, I would have taken it 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:11.520 down on Monday. So how do you get old? 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:12.440 I guess the question. 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:14.760 A better question is what are you looking at in 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:18.080 a post metrics wise or otherwise. If you're saying just 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:21.480 put up shots, what are you looking for it to do? 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:24.880 Yeah, I mean I think that's something that people have 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:28.640 to think about. Right again, I'm a big believer in 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:30.679 kind of starting with the end in mind for things. 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.400 There are certain types of posts that we make that 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:39.040 are specifically created to drive comments. I literally do not 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.520 care if they don't get a ton of likes. I 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.880 am more interested in the comments, and we engineer our 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:46.800 content like that. You know, we did a post the 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.680 other week about you know, I'm so old Atlanta, I 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:52.679 remember X, Y and Z and ask people to kind 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.000 of fill that out. Well, the thing is that thing 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:57.840 got like a thousand comments on it. And the beautiful 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:00.480 thing about those comments is if you start to think about, 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:02.640 just like marketing is now, you go on those comments, 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:04.560 you start to kind of go through and read, you 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:08.000 get ideas for new content. You see, you know, when 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.320 people somebody mentions something and gets a bunch of likes now, 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.120 or there's a whole bunch of replies to it, that 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:16.040 should be a signal that goes off to you and 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:18.319 says oh wow, there's an engagement around this. Maybe I 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:22.160 could build more content around that, right. You know, again, 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:23.800 when you think about stuff, you know, I would always 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:25.760 say like if you you know, it depends on what 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:27.160 you want to do. If you want to create content 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.440 that drives shares, you want to share like a really 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.800 interesting fact or something like that, you know what I mean? 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.720 Like something again, like people share content because it represents 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:39.040 them or helps them kind of tell a story. There's 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:41.720 this whole idea of like, you know, I always get 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.160 the example of, you know, there's certain pieces of content 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:47.000 that people send because it helps them prove a point. 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:49.200 You know, Like somebody sends a post is like see, 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:51.000 this is exactly what I was talking about, right, So 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:53.760 that's kind of that is this is so me kind 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.480 of content. Right, So I think you know, or again, 0:12:57.520 --> 0:12:59.000 if you want to, if you want to, if you 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:02.480 want to drive you know, follows or likes. Again, you 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:04.800 want to create a content that has a like I said, 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:07.360 either tip in it or it's just something like really 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:09.320 fun and engaging. Right, So again, I think what you 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:10.880 have to do is just start to kind of think 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:14.480 about what you want and also again understand that it's 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:15.600 not any one post. 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:16.520 It's kind of again the. 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:18.960 Totality of all the things you do that really kind 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.400 of help you figure out what the real insight is. Again, 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:24.760 I would tell people, if you really want to figure 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:27.199 it out, you know, get get you know, get thirty 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:30.080 shots up, get thirty posts up, and then just start 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:31.800 to go back and look and figure out again what 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.640 are the things that absolutely worked what doesn't work? Again, 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.000 I can tell you a little trick, especially on social media, 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:41.560 is when something's gonna work, it works immediately. There are 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:44.720 very few things that I've seen go out to where 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.160 it sits dormant for like a day or two, and 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.840 then all of a sudden it takes off. In my 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:54.160 in my experience, the things that work work almost it's 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:56.559 crazy how it happens. I have some theories about why 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:58.520 that might be like that, but that's all different conversation. 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.640 But you know, it's like so so it's like, when 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:04.240 you see the things that are working, you do those things. 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:06.640 I think too much with people, like we have this 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:08.360 weird thing about oh, you got to work on this 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.319 stuff you're not good at. Nah, forget that. There's a 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:12.839 lot of stuff I'm not good at. I don't want 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:14.400 to spend all day trying to get better that I 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:16.040 want to get better than things I'm already good at. 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:19.640 And so again, I think it's figuring out, Like I said, 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:23.120 what works by putting up shots and just being really 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.640 honest about what are you seeing? What's the feedback? Like, 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.400 what are people saying reading the comments? You know, I 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:32.360 tell people when we first launched Butter, I actually put 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.800 a post up one day and said, hey, you know, 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:38.640 I think we had maybe ten thousand followers at that point, 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.600 and I said, hey, you know, thank y'all for following Butter. 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:45.600 Look we have some questions for y'all. So if y'all 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:47.720 are interested in, like, you know, being a part of 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.960 our user group, fill out this form and I'll call you. 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:53.480 And I literally called like fifty people. 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:56.440 Yeah, and it was like, hey, hey, this is Brandon 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.280 from Butter atl They were like, you're really calling me? Yep, Yeah, 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:01.520 you filled the format, you put your phone number on there. 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.480 But I literally asked them, hey, what made you follow Butter? 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.000 Just out of curiosity? What made you click the follow button? 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:10.360 What made you how did you find out about the page? 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.080 And I'm just what I'm saying, like even that level 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:15.200 of insight is informed things that I do to this day. 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:16.840 Like I'm not really in a position to do that 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:19.280 right now, but like I said, it's that whole idea 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:20.640 of like do things that don't scale. 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:21.040 Yep. 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:23.440 And that was one of those things to where you know, 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:28.200 actually talking to people having those conversations, even with those folks, 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:29.840 you know, those are some of our early followers. So 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:31.120 I feel like those are the folks who were really 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.280 rocking with us right out the gate. But to kind 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:34.880 of go back and ask them, like, what do you 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.720 want to see? It just gave me more perspective in 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:39.720 what kind of things people were looking for, and then 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:41.520 we just gave them more of that stuff over time. 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:45.040 There was an interview I saw where you did and 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:46.920 there was a quote from you where you said, we're 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.120 most proud of our ability to tell the story of 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:53.040 Atlanta's culture with high quality, intentional content. This was some 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:56.120 time ago when you said that, so, and I wonder 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:58.200 if it's still true in this way. Is because it 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:03.000 seems like today there's this battle between high quality production 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:08.680 and raw and where produced content may not get be 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:11.120 as valuable, not that it's not good, but it may 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:14.440 not be as valuable to the mainstream audience that consumed 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:16.720 social media content. What do you say to that? 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:20.080 Yeah, I mean, I don't remember when I made that comment, 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:22.320 but I think the thing that probably changed a lot 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:26.040 of that stuff was, honestly, COVID. I think the pandemic. 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:27.840 You know, I told people coming out of the pandemic because 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:30.080 my backgrounds actually in tech. I spent the first half 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:33.400 of my career as a engineer and a solution architect, 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:34.960 so I just kind of have a different perspective when 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:36.520 it comes to a lot of this stuff. But coming 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:38.400 out of the pandemic, I told people like, look, this 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.000 thing moved us ahead four years. I don't know if 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.040 y'all realize it or not, but again, when we went in, 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:45.640 nobody was using video conference, and we came out, even 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.120 my mom was using video conference, and you know, we 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:51.800 went in, nobody wanted to use QR codes. Now everybody 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.400 uses QR codes, right, So it really like moved us 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.000 ahead in a very short period of time. And I 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.880 think in that again, what started to happen was, yeah, 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:04.679 they're like, produced content is good, but it's very easy 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.880 to over engineer something. And I think, you know, again, 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.879 people get just sense authenticity they can sense, you know, 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:15.679 when you've probably gone through uh you know, a table 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.000 read and getting the script created and all that kind 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:20.200 of stuff and getting the perfect shot. I think there 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:22.720 are times for that. But you know, again, I think 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:24.119 just in a day and age, and also just the 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:26.200 volume of content that we kind of have out there, 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.840 just honestly, the expectation of people is a little bit lower. 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:32.639 So even what that means for us is that means 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:34.160 that it's not as important for us to go. 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:35.680 Out and shoot stuff on red cameras. 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:37.639 It's not as important for us to go out and 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.679 you know again, uh, you know, create a create a 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:44.280 deck in a script about a thing. Sometimes we just 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:46.880 kind of turn the camera on and start going. Sometimes 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:48.879 we just make a piece of content and we're not 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:52.800 you know, overly worried about is it pixel perfect, because 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:54.120 again I know at the end of the day, we're 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:56.520 gonna be right back at it. So uh, you know, 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.120 I think it's I think it's not as important now, 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:01.280 and I think it's actually a good thing because again now, 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:03.879 which is it's lowered the barrier to entry for so 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:06.560 many other people to kind of create opportunities and content 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:08.920 and get their stuff out there. That it should really 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.560 hopefully not intimidate people and really want to enable them 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:14.879 to kind of stick their toe in the water and 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:16.640 start doing what they need to do to get their 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:20.119 selves or their brand out there. So, because you also 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.600 managed creative talent today, what are you looking for in 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:28.280 that talent? Because I imagine. 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:29.960 The portfolio matters. But and I want you to answer 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.120 this from the perspective of small businesses, medium sized businesses 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:34.919 who are looking to bring people on their team and 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.600 see themselves as a media company, because what they might 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:40.040 say is, hey, my nephew knows how to do TikTok, 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:43.400 let's give him the keys to the thing. So how 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:43.960 do you do this? 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:48.040 Yeah? You know what really, So it's a couple of things. 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:50.960 What really worked for me was. 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:54.760 Find some you know, if you want if you want 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:57.080 to find people that, if you want to find good people, 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:00.639 find the good work and then find the people that 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:01.080 made it. 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:02.399 So. 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:05.119 I remember when we first kind of launched Butter we 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.320 were doing this post on the Clairemont Lounge here in Atlanta. 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:12.000 It's a iconic establishment. I'll let your audience look it. 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:14.919 Up one day. But you know, I was I was 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:15.240 coming up. 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:16.760 I was looking for ideas, and I said, you know, 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:18.760 let me jump on ig for some inspiration. And so 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:22.480 I kind of started clicking on the Clairemont Lounge hashtag 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.120 and I'm just scrolling and then I see this post 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.680 that somebody made about the Claremont Lounge and I just said, 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:30.840 you know what, that is what I was looking like, 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:34.040 I want that. So what I did was I literally 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.200 DM the person that made it and was like, yo, 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.680 my name is Brandon. I got this company called Butter. 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:42.040 I'm not crazy, but I saw you make this post 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.919 about the Clairemont Lounge and I'm actually working on some 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:47.840 content very similar. Would you be interested in work with 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:50.120 me on this content? And they were like, yeah, well 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:52.080 that ended up. Person ended up working on that thing. 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:54.160 It went well. Then I ended up hiring them full time. 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:57.320 They worked with me for three years, right, And so 0:19:57.520 --> 0:19:59.600 I think again, if you want to find so I 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:00.919 think that that's what you got to do. It's not 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:03.399 just about oh, my cousin knows TikTok and so he 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:04.399 can do it. 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:07.280 It's no, you should be going on TikTok. Let's use 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:08.160 the hoodie example. 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.080 You know, if you have a hoodie company, you should 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:14.280 be on TikTok finding out who makes dope content about hoodies. 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:18.040 You should be looking at every hoodie hashtag, you know, 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.959 every hoodie rated brand, every creator that's making jokes about 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.399 you know, the girls stealing your hoodies or its hoodie season, 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:29.359 and you will find somebody in there that probably resonates 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:31.600 with you. And then that's how you find somebody that 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:32.879 can make you hoodie content. 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:33.679 You know. 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:36.119 Again, like so, and even with the portfolios and stuff 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:38.600 like your portfolio, you know, I don't need to see 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:43.680 your overly crafted, curated online portfolio. I can look at 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:46.600 your Instagram and your TikTok because if you're really making stuff, 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:49.200 it should be on there. So I wouldn't trust anybody 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:52.280 that's a maker that isn't making stuff and putting it 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:54.199 on there in their free time, right because again, if 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:55.760 you're doing this, a lot of these folks are like 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:58.240 really in this for a living, and even when they're 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:01.000 not making stuff for their job, they're making stuff for fun. 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:02.600 They're making things that inspire them. Right. 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:05.240 You want people like that because if they can get 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:07.840 inspired on their own, they can definitely get inspired and 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:10.520 it comes to kind of working for you. The other thing, 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:12.560 I kind of tell people too, is like, you can't 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:15.199 work for me until you work for me. So you know, 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:18.560 when you find that person that's doing good work, give 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:21.640 them a project. You know, I tell you the only 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:23.119 way to find out how somebody works is to give 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:25.159 give them a project. And what I what I like 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:28.120 to do is I actually will depending on the kind 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:31.240 of job, but I actually give people like test projects. 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:32.800 Just to see how they're going to react to stuff. 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:34.639 So you know, I had I was looking for a 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:38.800 video editor and I kind of came down to three candidates, 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:40.800 and so I gave them a couple of things. 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:42.680 I said, look, i'll pay you. I said, here's the rate. 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:44.520 I'll pay you this rate, which I think is more 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:46.879 than fair because it shouldn't take you more than this 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:48.520 much time to do this work. Like I don't want 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:50.720 you to spending a week on this, but I need 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:52.920 you know, a video about this. I need a video 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:55.919 about this, and I need you to go on my 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:58.560 social media and give me your feedback. And even with 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:01.119 the videos I gave them, it wasn't the best video, 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:03.639 but I want to see how what they were gonna 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:05.639 make with it. I can tell if you're just gonna 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:08.520 stick stuff together on a timeline and just put some 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:10.840 fades between it or if you actually did something with it. 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:13.159 And so again I think you know, we should do it. 0:22:13.200 --> 0:22:14.879 Is the only way to see how people work is 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:16.359 to actually get them to work for you. And I 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:21.159 would much rather pay somebody for a project. See what 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:23.640 they work like, See how we interact, you know, see 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:25.720 how long they take the turn stuff around, See if 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:27.800 they do the minimum, if they go above and beyond, 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:30.280 and if you know, if you're amazing, I have no 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:33.760 issue whatsoever, and in paying you and keeping you around. 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:35.760 But again if you don't, if you don't knock it 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:38.880 out the park, and that that's cool. It's no issues. 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:41.680 You've got paid, I got something. But you know, we're 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:44.399 probably not gonna work together. And so like, those are 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:46.680 the ways I've seen, especially kind of in this again 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:50.000 world where like everybody's just making stuff or some hacks 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:52.159 that I found to kind of like find talent, but 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:53.200 also find the right. 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:54.560 Folks, because again, you just have to. 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:57.680 It's it's a continuous effort to find the right people 0:22:57.680 --> 0:22:59.240 to kind of get on the bus to get it 0:22:59.640 --> 0:23:02.159 that understand what you're trying to accomplish. That they have 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:04.200 their own goals and it all works together. So you 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:07.000 have to always kind of have your antenna up for 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:09.120 talent once you kind of get into that game as well. 0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:13.159 So what does it mean to be chief culture and 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:14.119 innovation officer? 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:14.320 Like? 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:16.040 What is your what are your days like? 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:17.960 Yeah? 0:23:18.040 --> 0:23:20.840 So so on the other side, So again for the 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:23.560 folks though, I actually I'm a co owner and partner 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:25.440 at the agency I here call majority. We started with 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:28.119 Shaquille O'Neil a couple of years ago. We do you know, 0:23:28.160 --> 0:23:31.560 big creative work. And the whole idea behind the company 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:34.159 was founded on the idea that the reality is in 0:23:34.240 --> 0:23:37.400 most agencies, you know, people of color are the minority, 0:23:37.920 --> 0:23:40.800 but so much of the content that the agencies make 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:44.080 wants to land in culture. That and the culture at 0:23:44.080 --> 0:23:46.840 a macro is you know, again more black and brown 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:48.760 than people want to admit. I mean, by twenty thirty, 0:23:48.840 --> 0:23:51.760 the minority will become the majority in this country. So 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:53.399 the whole idea with us is that what if you 0:23:53.400 --> 0:23:55.520 actually flip that model and made it so that you know, 0:23:56.280 --> 0:23:59.520 seventy to eighty percent of the company, especially the leadership positions, 0:23:59.760 --> 0:24:02.920 were you know, minorities, right, But we're also still making 0:24:02.960 --> 0:24:07.119 general market work, and so because of that culture is 0:24:07.160 --> 0:24:10.080 super important, especially in the city like Atlanta. You know, 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:11.680 what Butter has given me the ability to do is 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:13.760 be able to get into different rooms and just connect 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:17.600 with people. But also it's given me the opportunity to 0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:21.320 kind of give people, to give people opportunities. Again, especially 0:24:21.359 --> 0:24:23.640 in the agency world. You know, Atlanta's kind of looked 0:24:23.680 --> 0:24:26.399 over the talent. It was always kind of considered this 0:24:26.480 --> 0:24:28.240 is the place that you can't start a career at 0:24:28.280 --> 0:24:30.239 if you were serious about working an agency, you had 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:32.600 to go to New York, LA, Chicago, Miami or something. 0:24:33.240 --> 0:24:35.320 And so, you know, from from a keeping people down 0:24:35.320 --> 0:24:38.080 here standpoint of keeping talent local, you know, one of 0:24:38.080 --> 0:24:40.000 my biggest remits is really just to kind of go 0:24:40.080 --> 0:24:46.560 out and engage with different you know, people, schools, talent creatives, 0:24:46.600 --> 0:24:48.359 just anybody in that space around the city and just 0:24:48.400 --> 0:24:50.919 kind of build relationships so that they know that at 0:24:50.960 --> 0:24:54.320 the end of the day, that majority is is authentically 0:24:54.600 --> 0:24:57.000 rooted and connected to the culture and it's a priority 0:24:57.000 --> 0:25:00.480 for us. That means again making sure that we're you know, 0:25:00.480 --> 0:25:02.919 again being proactive and going to the auc to make 0:25:02.960 --> 0:25:05.240 sure that we're getting talent from the Atlanta University Center 0:25:05.280 --> 0:25:08.320 and make sure that we're you know, doing things around 0:25:08.320 --> 0:25:10.720 the seed to bring in people that might not have 0:25:10.840 --> 0:25:12.840 had a traditional path. You know, everybody doesn't go to 0:25:12.880 --> 0:25:15.399 college anymore, so how are we looking for people that 0:25:15.520 --> 0:25:17.520 didn't go to school and can how how can they 0:25:17.520 --> 0:25:20.119 get into this industry? And then on the innovation and 0:25:20.160 --> 0:25:23.639 then also just again how do we even manage our 0:25:23.680 --> 0:25:26.199 culture internally? You know, I'm not HR, but I'm a 0:25:26.200 --> 0:25:30.320 big believer in you know again people people you know, 0:25:30.400 --> 0:25:33.080 high achievers want to be around other high achievers, and 0:25:33.119 --> 0:25:35.040 so you know, I really want to help us. I 0:25:35.119 --> 0:25:36.639 work to kind of help us create a kind of 0:25:36.680 --> 0:25:39.960 a high achieving atmosphere for our team. That's fund, it's engaging, 0:25:40.880 --> 0:25:42.879 but you know, we also get stuff done. And then 0:25:42.920 --> 0:25:44.679 on the innovation side, like I said before, you know, 0:25:44.720 --> 0:25:46.560 my background's in tech. I always just have a love 0:25:46.560 --> 0:25:48.359 for technology. I spent the first half of my career 0:25:48.359 --> 0:25:51.919 in that. And so it's also about figuring out what 0:25:51.960 --> 0:25:53.800 are the tools and things that we can use to 0:25:53.800 --> 0:25:57.040 help innovate and make ourselves more efficient so that as 0:25:57.040 --> 0:26:00.119 an agency, one again, we're just being more efficient so 0:26:00.119 --> 0:26:03.160 we can create more opportunities. But We're also given our 0:26:03.240 --> 0:26:07.040 people in employees access and experience to use, you know, 0:26:07.119 --> 0:26:09.080 more cutting edge things that will just help them stay 0:26:09.080 --> 0:26:12.320 competitive in their jobs. I'm I'm a big believer in AI, 0:26:12.480 --> 0:26:15.720 but I think even with AI, for example, the people 0:26:15.720 --> 0:26:18.960 that learn how to embrace it and integrate it into 0:26:19.000 --> 0:26:20.960 their workflows are going to be the ones that are 0:26:21.000 --> 0:26:24.440 the most successful. Like, it's very true that AI might 0:26:24.520 --> 0:26:27.440 replace some jobs, but on the same time, I think 0:26:27.440 --> 0:26:29.520 it's a lot like a computer, you know, Like there 0:26:29.560 --> 0:26:31.359 was a time when everybody had typewriters, and now we 0:26:31.400 --> 0:26:34.560 have computers. And so the folks that embraced learning how 0:26:34.560 --> 0:26:37.600 to use email, learning how to use a computer, you know, 0:26:37.720 --> 0:26:39.760 learning how just to use tech in general, had just 0:26:39.880 --> 0:26:43.640 more opportunities than the folks that said, I'm only using 0:26:43.680 --> 0:26:46.040 a typewriter. And so I think, you know, AI is 0:26:46.119 --> 0:26:48.040 kind of that same thing, right, like the folks that 0:26:48.200 --> 0:26:50.600 learn how to you know. I literally was just in 0:26:50.640 --> 0:26:52.760 a meeting a little while ago with my creative team saying, 0:26:52.800 --> 0:26:54.800 you know, how can we use AI to help make 0:26:54.880 --> 0:26:57.879 us more efficient? Like, you know, is it recording all 0:26:57.920 --> 0:27:00.879 our meetings, you know, with a tool like and then 0:27:01.440 --> 0:27:04.000 you know, then sharing those meeting notes backed out to everybody, 0:27:04.040 --> 0:27:05.439 so that somebody just have to do it, is it? 0:27:06.400 --> 0:27:08.840 You know, using tools like mid Journey or you know, 0:27:08.880 --> 0:27:11.360 Getty Images even has an AI generator now to help 0:27:11.440 --> 0:27:15.760 us quickly ideate on you know, conceptual you know design 0:27:15.880 --> 0:27:17.840 for clients to kind of just get stuff out the door, 0:27:17.960 --> 0:27:19.399 not that they will ever go live, but it just 0:27:19.440 --> 0:27:21.679 gets the juices for them. Right, How can we just 0:27:21.720 --> 0:27:24.320 think about technology to help us be more efficient? So 0:27:24.400 --> 0:27:26.360 you know, that's kind of what my day typically includes, 0:27:26.440 --> 0:27:29.160 is that, and you know also a lot of spreadsheets 0:27:29.160 --> 0:27:30.320 and budget stuff too. 0:27:32.200 --> 0:27:35.600 So with Butter, I mean, you guys are covering every 0:27:35.800 --> 0:27:40.919 category of the culture in Atlanta, and that's you know, sports, news, food, music, 0:27:40.960 --> 0:27:46.080 and et cetera. What is so special about the black 0:27:46.320 --> 0:27:51.200 entrepreneurial landscape and these particular verticals in Atlanta? 0:27:52.440 --> 0:27:55.800 Yeah, I mean, you know, well, I always say Atlanta 0:27:55.880 --> 0:27:58.680 is a special place in general, just because if you're 0:27:58.680 --> 0:28:00.760 ever not clear why the once you get off the 0:28:01.880 --> 0:28:04.000 get off your plane at the airport, you know, Atlanta 0:28:04.080 --> 0:28:06.800 is different. I've been all over the world and that's 0:28:06.840 --> 0:28:08.440 one of the few places I've ever been that when 0:28:08.480 --> 0:28:10.400 you get off from the moment you kind of touch down. 0:28:10.440 --> 0:28:13.560 You see people of color at all, you know, all 0:28:13.640 --> 0:28:16.160 walks of life, from the pilots to the janitors, right, 0:28:16.280 --> 0:28:18.520 you know, so and I think you know, the different 0:28:19.720 --> 0:28:21.640 verticals around Atlanta are very much the same thing. 0:28:21.680 --> 0:28:21.879 You know. 0:28:21.920 --> 0:28:24.320 It's it's it's a very unique thing that we can 0:28:24.359 --> 0:28:26.320 go to these brands, go to these companies, go to 0:28:26.359 --> 0:28:29.400 these large organizations, and the people that are making decisions 0:28:29.440 --> 0:28:32.520 at the top, you know, look like you. And you 0:28:32.560 --> 0:28:34.680 know what does that mean. It means that one, it's 0:28:34.680 --> 0:28:37.600 easier for you to be your authentic self. You know, 0:28:37.640 --> 0:28:40.280 it's easy for you to walk into certain conversations and say, 0:28:40.280 --> 0:28:41.400 you know what, I don't have thought I have to 0:28:41.520 --> 0:28:44.480 you know, overly code switch or be somebody I'm not. 0:28:44.560 --> 0:28:47.280 I can actually be authentic. I could bring my whole 0:28:47.360 --> 0:28:50.680 self in here to this conversation. But also what's amazing 0:28:50.720 --> 0:28:53.640 about that is because you have people that you know 0:28:54.240 --> 0:28:56.560 that are from the culture or or they get it 0:28:56.640 --> 0:28:59.400 at the top making those decisions, you're just able to 0:28:59.440 --> 0:29:03.600 do things that resonate more broadly because everybody's kind of 0:29:03.760 --> 0:29:04.360 understanding it. 0:29:04.440 --> 0:29:04.600 Right. 0:29:04.640 --> 0:29:08.400 So again, you know, it's it's it's it's like again, 0:29:08.440 --> 0:29:10.480 it's like, you know, when people would say, yeah, we 0:29:10.480 --> 0:29:12.200 got to get an influencer on this, it's like, well, 0:29:12.200 --> 0:29:13.280 why you know? 0:29:13.360 --> 0:29:14.560 But but now when you have. 0:29:14.600 --> 0:29:17.960 Somebody in there at the top that understands the nuances around, 0:29:17.960 --> 0:29:20.040 I'm just gonna use it Atlanta as like Atlanta culture. 0:29:21.640 --> 0:29:23.560 It's not like you're just you know, throwing things in 0:29:23.600 --> 0:29:25.000 there to say we gotta do this, we gotta do this, 0:29:25.040 --> 0:29:27.600 we gotta do this. It's really the conversations more often 0:29:27.720 --> 0:29:31.640 not tend to leverage around what's impactful, what would really 0:29:31.840 --> 0:29:35.120 you know, resonate, what would really help this be successful? 0:29:35.600 --> 0:29:37.120 And then how can we kind of do that together? 0:29:37.160 --> 0:29:40.080 And again it's just having that ability to be collaborative 0:29:40.960 --> 0:29:43.480 while also just being your full self, I think is 0:29:43.520 --> 0:29:45.360 what makes Atlanta really special and unique. 0:29:45.400 --> 0:29:47.080 And again, having. 0:29:47.160 --> 0:29:49.280 Traveled and worked all over the world, I I you know, 0:29:49.480 --> 0:29:51.200 I've said that's not always been the case, and that's 0:29:51.200 --> 0:29:53.680 why I think that again, that's why lant is such 0:29:53.680 --> 0:29:54.320 a special place. 0:29:55.200 --> 0:29:58.480 So if you think about what you guys have done 0:29:58.520 --> 0:30:01.680 with butter Ato and how it's work for Atlanta, and 0:30:01.760 --> 0:30:05.480 then giving the platform to people doing really great things 0:30:05.520 --> 0:30:09.760 in Atlanta, what can other communities learn from that think 0:30:09.800 --> 0:30:14.800 about Detroit, you know, Cleveland, Baltimore, Chattanooga. What can other 0:30:14.920 --> 0:30:18.920 cities replicate that has worked well for Butter. 0:30:20.520 --> 0:30:22.800 Yeah, I mean at the end of the day, you know, 0:30:22.880 --> 0:30:25.160 every city. I think every city has a story. I mean, 0:30:25.240 --> 0:30:27.520 use Detroit as an example, right, Like you think about 0:30:27.560 --> 0:30:30.959 just the history from you know, the car companies, the 0:30:30.960 --> 0:30:33.440 motown and everything in between. Right, Like, there's an element 0:30:33.480 --> 0:30:37.520 of just having pride, you know, in your city, in 0:30:37.640 --> 0:30:39.320 the place you live, in the place you call home. 0:30:39.400 --> 0:30:41.840 And I think, you know, the great thing about that 0:30:41.960 --> 0:30:45.120 pride is is that you can activate it and really 0:30:45.120 --> 0:30:49.680 fun and interesting ways. Just recently, you know, just recently, 0:30:49.720 --> 0:30:52.520 we did the very a very similar thing, right you know, 0:30:52.640 --> 0:30:57.160 here in Atlanta, an announcement came out that the city 0:30:57.200 --> 0:31:01.240 of Decatur schools had a path do balance of almost 0:31:01.280 --> 0:31:05.360 eighty eight thousand dollars for student unpaid school lunches, and 0:31:05.400 --> 0:31:08.840 because of that, they were going to start giving students 0:31:08.840 --> 0:31:12.480 that had unpaid balances a cheese sandwich and a cart. 0:31:12.320 --> 0:31:12.760 And of milk. 0:31:13.360 --> 0:31:15.080 Now, there's a lot of common questions that come up 0:31:15.080 --> 0:31:17.160 when you say that, like what if they're Lato's intolerant, 0:31:17.240 --> 0:31:20.600 or you know, is that now singling out the people 0:31:20.760 --> 0:31:23.560 who might be having issues at home. But what was 0:31:23.560 --> 0:31:26.240 really interesting was, you know, we partnered with another amazing 0:31:26.320 --> 0:31:29.720 entrepreneur right here called Jasmine, Jasmine Crow of Gooder, and 0:31:29.800 --> 0:31:31.800 she had this idea to basically say, you know what, 0:31:32.200 --> 0:31:36.040 because we're the people that you know, care about this city. 0:31:36.680 --> 0:31:40.680 If the city of Decatur can't raise eighty eight thousand dollars, 0:31:41.080 --> 0:31:45.360 why we can. And literally, in forty eight hours, we 0:31:45.480 --> 0:31:49.440 raised eighty five eighty six thousand dollars on GoFundMe, enough 0:31:49.480 --> 0:31:54.920 to pay off the entire outstanding Student Outstanding Student lunch 0:31:54.960 --> 0:31:56.920 balance for the entire city of Decatur. 0:31:57.560 --> 0:31:57.760 Right. 0:31:57.840 --> 0:32:00.480 So I think that's where that whole city pride comes from, 0:32:00.600 --> 0:32:03.200 right because why the people that followed Butter, they went 0:32:03.240 --> 0:32:05.320 to school, Indicator, they went to school, they have kids, 0:32:05.320 --> 0:32:07.440 they have family around there, they have pride in that sense. 0:32:07.520 --> 0:32:07.640 Right. 0:32:07.720 --> 0:32:10.880 So, while we have fun and we try to keep 0:32:10.920 --> 0:32:12.720 it positive and we try to you know, do things 0:32:13.320 --> 0:32:17.000 when we do need to activate our audience, our audiences 0:32:17.160 --> 0:32:20.240 is very engaged and they want to see the city 0:32:20.280 --> 0:32:21.480 and the culture be protected. 0:32:21.480 --> 0:32:23.440 And so I was super proud for that. 0:32:23.320 --> 0:32:25.520 Moment just and again it wasn't even my idea, it 0:32:25.520 --> 0:32:27.360 was not that we helped out with, but the idea 0:32:27.400 --> 0:32:30.520 that we had a huge audience and you know, just 0:32:30.520 --> 0:32:33.760 putting this message out here drove tens of thousands of 0:32:33.760 --> 0:32:36.880 dollars and you know, submissions literally in twenty four to 0:32:36.880 --> 0:32:40.760 forty eight hours, you know where on Monday, you know, 0:32:40.880 --> 0:32:42.880 they were saying this is what was going to happen. 0:32:43.520 --> 0:32:45.760 Two three days later they're like, Okay, the balance is 0:32:45.800 --> 0:32:46.240 paid off. 0:32:46.560 --> 0:32:46.760 Right. 0:32:47.200 --> 0:32:50.520 So I think that's the benefit of a butter like 0:32:50.560 --> 0:32:52.560 object in other cities. Right, It's like there could be 0:32:52.600 --> 0:32:56.520 moments where because government moves slow, or because it takes 0:32:56.560 --> 0:32:58.920 a while to activate, like, how else can you just 0:32:58.960 --> 0:33:00.760 get the best of a sty to kind of stand 0:33:00.800 --> 0:33:02.920 up and say, you know what, we're all gonna get 0:33:02.960 --> 0:33:05.040 behind this thing and make something happen right now. And 0:33:05.040 --> 0:33:07.280 I think, you know, when you cultivate that audience by 0:33:07.760 --> 0:33:10.320 providing them value, giving them an outlet, letting them have fun. 0:33:10.400 --> 0:33:12.320 But then when you say hey, y'all, I need y'all 0:33:12.320 --> 0:33:13.840 to step up and they do it, it's just an 0:33:13.880 --> 0:33:16.360 amazing thing to kind of see. And so I think 0:33:16.360 --> 0:33:19.000 that's something that again, all these other cities could really use, 0:33:19.640 --> 0:33:21.600 you know, a very a very similar like I said, 0:33:21.600 --> 0:33:22.440 Butter like object. 0:33:23.560 --> 0:33:26.800 And then so when you started Butter, like this was 0:33:26.840 --> 0:33:29.320 this design to be a business or was this design 0:33:29.360 --> 0:33:31.560 to be something We care about the community, we want 0:33:31.600 --> 0:33:33.320 to tell these stories, et cetera. And here's why I'm 0:33:33.360 --> 0:33:36.360 asking this question is you know, I have the belief 0:33:36.400 --> 0:33:39.280 that and maybe you agree that you can build You 0:33:39.280 --> 0:33:41.160 can try to sell a product without a brand, and 0:33:41.160 --> 0:33:43.200 you may sell something, but if you build a brand, 0:33:43.480 --> 0:33:47.000 you can sell anything almost that aligns with your product, 0:33:47.040 --> 0:33:49.440 it aligns with your you know, true north Like, think 0:33:49.480 --> 0:33:52.600 about a Rihanna. Rihanna can sell almost anything. She can 0:33:52.640 --> 0:33:55.960 sell many things. But if she just had didn't have 0:33:56.000 --> 0:33:58.160 the name, but just had a product, she could sell 0:33:58.200 --> 0:34:01.120 some product, maybe sell some fansy, maybe people will buy it, 0:34:01.120 --> 0:34:03.880 maybe they don't, but they will follow her anywhere now 0:34:03.920 --> 0:34:06.520 because she has a brand. And so my reason for 0:34:06.560 --> 0:34:09.160 asking question about Butter is was this design to be 0:34:10.080 --> 0:34:15.160 I guess was it more contributory, contributive to the community 0:34:15.480 --> 0:34:18.160 and a business happened, or was like, Hey, we're going 0:34:18.200 --> 0:34:21.040 to start a business and we're going to create content. 0:34:22.239 --> 0:34:25.000 Yeah, So when we started Butter, I actually launched and 0:34:25.000 --> 0:34:27.239 incubated it inside of an agency that I was working 0:34:27.239 --> 0:34:30.479 out here in Atlanta. You know, in the beginning, folks 0:34:30.560 --> 0:34:32.359 thought there was like some weird angle. I had people 0:34:32.400 --> 0:34:34.560 hitting me up like, are y'all just trying to market 0:34:34.560 --> 0:34:36.840 to black people? Or what are you selling? I said, no, honestly, 0:34:36.880 --> 0:34:39.880 there's no hidden agenda. The only agenda is I'm just 0:34:39.880 --> 0:34:42.880 trying to do cool shit for the city. But the 0:34:42.920 --> 0:34:46.080 beautiful thing about that it kind of being incubated was 0:34:46.160 --> 0:34:48.960 it allowed us for the first couple of years to 0:34:49.120 --> 0:34:52.440 not worry about making money and just focus on the brand. 0:34:53.520 --> 0:34:55.719 I think there was always an there was always a 0:34:55.760 --> 0:34:59.600 goal or I think a vision that this could be something. 0:34:59.640 --> 0:35:01.279 We just had kind of figure out what it was. 0:35:01.480 --> 0:35:04.080 And you know, the trick is is, like I said, 0:35:04.320 --> 0:35:06.840 when you actually have the ability to build an audience 0:35:06.840 --> 0:35:09.719 and build a brand first, what you can then do 0:35:09.800 --> 0:35:11.239 is you can then go to them and ask them 0:35:11.280 --> 0:35:14.240 what they want, and then it's easy. Like that's honestly, 0:35:14.280 --> 0:35:16.920 that's that's like almost the definition of marketing at its core, right, 0:35:16.960 --> 0:35:19.040 It's like understanding your audience and just giving them what 0:35:19.080 --> 0:35:22.000 they want. And so, you know, building up this brand, 0:35:22.080 --> 0:35:24.160 building up this audience, is super just tied in and 0:35:24.200 --> 0:35:27.080 resonated to Atlanta. You know, we would do little stuff 0:35:27.080 --> 0:35:28.719 here and there to just kind of have fun, but 0:35:28.760 --> 0:35:31.040 it was never kind of a you know, Okay, we 0:35:31.040 --> 0:35:32.800 got to do this to pay the bills kind of situation. 0:35:33.560 --> 0:35:37.600 When I left that agency and then fully acquired all 0:35:37.640 --> 0:35:40.680 the IP for Butter, you know, I was like, Okay, 0:35:40.680 --> 0:35:42.680 we have to do more of a business now. But again, 0:35:42.760 --> 0:35:44.719 we already kind of knew because our audience and we 0:35:44.800 --> 0:35:47.439 knew what they wanted, what are the things that would work? 0:35:47.480 --> 0:35:50.560 And so for me, the fun part is is now 0:35:50.600 --> 0:35:52.440 that I have such a good understanding of our audience, 0:35:52.800 --> 0:35:54.680 the fun part is really figuring out, Okay, what are 0:35:54.680 --> 0:35:56.440 the things that we could do to kind of do this, 0:35:56.520 --> 0:35:58.680 because at the end of the day, you know, great 0:35:58.680 --> 0:36:01.840 content needs a business model. You know, I'm not a 0:36:01.920 --> 0:36:04.440 huge fan of the advertising business model in general, even 0:36:04.440 --> 0:36:06.680 though I work in that space, but you know, I 0:36:06.719 --> 0:36:08.799 do think for us, it's it's kind of similar to what. 0:36:08.760 --> 0:36:09.600 You said about Rihanna. 0:36:09.640 --> 0:36:12.120 What I'm looking at now is what are things that 0:36:12.200 --> 0:36:15.640 only Butter could do and that could push out because 0:36:15.640 --> 0:36:18.719 of our audience and they would just love this and 0:36:18.719 --> 0:36:20.319 they would actually want to you know, buy it or 0:36:20.320 --> 0:36:22.760 do something with it. So you know, I'm thinking about 0:36:22.800 --> 0:36:26.359 you know, different you know, events, activations, we think about 0:36:26.400 --> 0:36:29.839 actual real products. There's lots of stuff that we're kind 0:36:29.840 --> 0:36:31.800 of working on right now with that idea that we 0:36:31.880 --> 0:36:33.840 kind of came out of last year, with that realization 0:36:33.960 --> 0:36:36.040 of Okay, the audience is here. We kind of we 0:36:36.080 --> 0:36:39.000 have the distribution built in. Now, the question is what 0:36:39.040 --> 0:36:40.799 do we put in front of them? What do they want? 0:36:40.840 --> 0:36:43.279 And so that's going to really be the focus. You know, 0:36:43.320 --> 0:36:44.880 that was the focus last year and going into this 0:36:44.960 --> 0:36:49.120 year is you know, products and services that our audience 0:36:49.160 --> 0:36:50.560 you know, we know they'd like that we could just 0:36:50.560 --> 0:36:52.200 put right in front of them, and we know they 0:36:52.200 --> 0:36:53.919 would just you know, snatch it up off the gate. 0:36:54.040 --> 0:36:56.560 Because again, you know, in order to stick around, you 0:36:56.600 --> 0:36:58.560 do got to make money. And you know, again that 0:36:58.640 --> 0:37:01.680 money goes to help you know, fun, the salaries of 0:37:01.719 --> 0:37:03.600 the team and everything else. And so that's why it's 0:37:03.600 --> 0:37:05.480 important that we that we go out and create those 0:37:05.480 --> 0:37:08.960 things so that this can exist one so we can 0:37:09.000 --> 0:37:12.240 do things, but to the next time a Decatur Schools 0:37:12.280 --> 0:37:15.839 type situation happens. There's a brand here that can also 0:37:15.880 --> 0:37:18.040 help activate people and make stuff happen, you. 0:37:17.960 --> 0:37:37.480 Know, black tech. Green money to production to Blavity, Afrotech 0:37:37.800 --> 0:37:40.399 from the Black Effect Podcast Network and I Hire Media. 0:37:40.480 --> 0:37:44.920 It's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas. If 0:37:44.960 --> 0:37:48.200 you got something out of this episode shared with somebody, 0:37:48.880 --> 0:37:49.720 we'll get your money. 0:37:50.680 --> 0:37:51.279 Piece of luck.