In this special live episode of Butternomics, Brandon Butler sits down with Jai Ferrell, the CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, to discuss her remarkable journey from managing commercial operations at the world’s busiest airport to leading one of Atlanta’s most impactful organizations. Jai shares how her experiences at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, overseeing a $2 billion portfolio, shaped her leadership style and prepared her for her current role. Tune in to hear how she broke barriers, embraced authenticity, and continues to inspire the next generation of leaders through her work with the Girl Scouts. This episode is filled with insights on leadership, community building, and personal growth.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Until you commit, everything's gounda saying crazy. But the moment
that you commit to something, providence will move to and
things that you do not expect outside of your control
will start to move in your favor. And I start
realizing that was doubting myself.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You got a enter room with confidence.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Prior to joining the Girls Scouts of Greater Atlanta, she
was the chief Commercial Revenue Officer for Hartsfield Jackson International Airport,
managing commercial portfolio to be exceeded. This is one point
five billion, but I feel like it's more like two billions.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
It was about two billion every year.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Yeah, like a level of.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
And even more than that. She is a graduate of
Southwestern Path High School, east Side People east Side saying
again Rida in shut Out. She's also a graduate of
Spelman Georgia State University, where she got her master's degree,
and the Harvard Business School of Executive Education. Everybody, please
(01:05):
give a big welcome to Joffrel.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
You know, it's so crazy when you hear people read
it like that, and I'm so grateful for people to
be reading it while I'm still here to hear it
and not in my habituary. So thank you for joining
us today.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Now, joh, the last time you and I sat down, okay,
we had a couple bottles.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Of wine, a lot of bottles.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It was, you know, something like that. It was at Barcelona.
We were catching up. There was a lot of stuff happening,
you know, a lot of amazing things that happened to
you since then.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Just first of all, how are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
You know?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I am so grateful that people chose to brave the
traffic and the great city of Atlanta and all the
construction projects and all the heat to come hang out
with us. So they could been anywhere else in the world,
but they hear with us. I feel really blessed right
now to be here.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
You are.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
You are blessed and highly favored, as they say that
I am. Now, John, let me tell you. So let's
get into this. So one thing I always appreciate about
GI is I think with certain people. So for those
of y'all who know, no, Yes, I do run Butter
at l but I also am a partner and the
CEO at a creative agency out here at Atlanta called Majority.
We do all the commercials for nbag leagues right General Motors.
(02:23):
So I know what I'm talking about I don't just
make names for a living, Okay, you know, I do
a little something something, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (02:29):
I do a little something like.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
But one thing I appreciate about Gie every time we
talk is there are certain people that you can tell
our leaders, and every conversation that we have, I can
see why you were in the position that you were in.
Like you you literally you care yourself as a leader.
You've been a leader for so long. Just but when
you're going through this and doing all this stuff, like,
(02:51):
did you ever imagine you know that you would be
in a space where you were literally leading not only
the airport, but like one of the biggest organizations in
influential organizations in Atlanta history.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Absolutely not. Never. Fortunately for me, I'm usually the first
of many things.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I'm hopeful to one day not to be the first,
but always to have folks in my left and my
right that look like me. A lot of the spaces
that I've been, I've been the person either to be
the first, the youngest, the only one with the vagina,
the only one that was in this type of you know,
space of intellect. And my mother who's here, she don't
(03:28):
like this, but she I'll make her say hey, can
she fine?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Hey mama, hey, mama said you hang out?
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Ma bearegia head? Come on now, don't do that.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Give me plap for MoMA, Come on, plap for mama Cla.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So I was always taught to believe I could fly
like my mother literally was like, there is nothing that
you cannot do, and we will always do so with
grace and class in everything you do.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So from losing a basketball game.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
We usually beat Redan by the way, but to losing
a basketball game, from losing a basketball game to not
getting the job, to not getting the public recognition, it
was always about grace and how we do things even
when it's time to exit, how to do so gracefully.
You don't have to set everything on fire, and learning
how to do that even when it's one of the
(04:15):
hardest things to do. I've been in a lot of
situations where I would have loved to show them my
grady baby blackness, show me side east side all day,
show them that I was raised in English Avenue and
now on cal Road. But I always also remember there's
(04:35):
no reason for me to do that, because I know
whose I am, and I also know that God takes
care of all of his children, and so when it
comes down to dealing with things, I truly believe. I'm
like God, I don't know, but this is a part
of your plan. My honey and my best friends. I
wear him Melissa, and I told him I was gonna
do this day back the day.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Want sit up here.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Melissa and I have had some of the most parents conversations.
And Malcolm gets in the car, He's like, why are
we listening to Donnie Hathaway? So I challenge everybody, I
want you to go listen to Someday We'll all be
free because that song was literally how I got over
because there's a portion when he says, hang onto the
(05:17):
world as it is spinning around, and not let that
spin get you down, because it's so easy to think
that something is directly happening to you. But what I've
learned is the betrayal is even part of the plan.
And if I follow my faith and stay true to
who I am, there is nothing, no one, know, nothing
(05:41):
that can take me out of who I am. And
the moment I step outside of myself, stuff just always happens.
Like y'all ever had those friends who can do stuff,
like all these truth plans and stuffuff. I'm like, I'm
the person that if I do this stuff, I'm going
to jail, Like I always get caught, Like I'm always
the one to get this called. I'll tell you a
whole story. I always minded my business. I really want
minded my business. But we were at Golden Glass skating
(06:01):
ring and glood and my mama gonna laugh because this
is for real. We'd a Golden Glads skating ring and
I went through a cussing phase, real bad, real real bad.
I was probably maybe what ten nine. I was in
summer camp, and it wasn't summer. I wasn't in basketball
camp thing because after that I was in camp every year.
And we were at Golden Glide and minded my business.
(06:22):
I might have set a couple in mephis and a
couple of dogs, and I used to cut hard and
so get home that night. My mama fried chicken everything
my mill of choice when I was little, with fried chicken,
macaroni and cheese. I grew up on Columbia Drive. I
used to be at my grandmother's house all the time.
But this time I went home and so my mom's
cooking and everything, and she's.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Like, so how was your dad camp?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
And I was like, it was good.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
You know, we skated listening to I Want to Sex
You Up? And Solda sould it was great.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I mean, this is nineties and she said, so, how
is that mouth of yours mouth she was talking about?
Willis say, I don't have no mouth.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I didn't saying anything. She said, oh, so you want
to cuss y'all? Her childhood best friend's nephew was in
there and he.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Told on me. And I still don't talk to that
boy this day.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
And I am not lying.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I just saw him and I did not speak because
because my mom was like, do ladies curse? And I
was like, how do you know this?
Speaker 4 (07:18):
And how?
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So what I started realizing was that the world was very,
very small at Decata, Georgia wasn't big at all. And
I knew that if I was going anywhere, that I
was a leader's child and Rosa's grandchild, and I had
to make sure I was always on my best behavior.
So even when it's difficult, even when I get to
these places where I'm like they really trying my four
oh four right now, I have to remember, first of all,
I'm God's daughter, but I'm Lolita's daughter and rose Field's
(07:40):
granddaughter too. So I can't embarrass my people, but people
will look and they will try you and gaslight you
to see how you will respond, and when you do
so with grace, And my response is always I'm God's daughter.
You don't mess with his children. They don't know how
to act because you know what they do for the
rest of their lives. Look over their shoulders because something
will transpire. And the other thing I've realized is that
(08:02):
it might not be you, but your children. Sometimes inherit
the sins of the mother and the father. So I
always try to do the right thing. I'm not a
perfect person, but if I can just help somebody, if
I can show up because I know that somebody is
waiting on me to show up so that they can
show up, I've done my part. And so that's really
(08:24):
what gets me through the hard times, the fun stuff,
the Belvedere drinks, all that, you know, just being authentically
who I am.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Because I don't know how to be anybody else. I
don't know how to do that.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
You got to be yourself because everybody else is taken right.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I'm the best person to ask me about, you know,
And so when people start talking crazy, Oh I heard listen,
I'm the best person to ask me about.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So you got some questions, I'm the best person to
ask me about.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
I love it like and I recognize that too, because
you know, I ain't groumb with Columbia Drives.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
You know, a group off of you know, South Harrison.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Your parents had a house laying hand on house.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
You know what I'm saying, shout hitting hills. You know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
If you know, you know you got a golf course
in your neighborhood, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
But I did grow up growing to the Greater Party
Girl Baptist Church off of Columbia.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I mean, I'm off of Glenwood, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Revend Jones, And my original pastor, William Flippan became the pastor,
and my mom was the head of the choir. And
I remember she would sit literally right in the main
like the choir seat, directly behind the past and she
could see me every Sunday, and she had this rule.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
She would always tell me, She's like, look, I don't
care what you do. You go out, you be.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Outside, but you know where you're gonna be at at
seven o'clock or seven forty five service every Sunday, is
you gonna be in church? And she looked she had
this thing. Your mom, ever did that really look look
right at you can find you anywhere you at in church.
I tried to go sneak out across street and get candy.
She knew about it. When I was messing up in
a Sunday school she knew about it. I mean my dad,
he didn't really care.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
My mom. She was on me though, So I know
you can.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
See they can see. So my my church family is
actually here, my Toto and my my church Memberdell.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
So I grew up.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
My grandmother grew up in a bluff in English Avenue.
She went to Washington High School. My big mama, who's
not here, that's me in Toto's big mama, Shawn's here,
they're here, is hey Shan.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
No, my family don't play about me. And that's so
that's another reason why I have to look remind people
like it ain't it ain't worth it. It's not worth it.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Because I got the cousins who went to college, also
got the cousins who went to prison. You don't want
to take chances on either one of them. But my
big mama, my mother, and we just talked about this.
My mother would weaponize my big mama. See, my big
mother was a very demure woman before the social media
fantasticism and all that, and so she would say, you know,
(10:50):
your big mama gonna see you you go to sleep,
and I would be like, how she gonna see me?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And I don't know what it was, y'all, but she
would know. She would know.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
She'd be like, oh, so you want to go out
to skate because you know, we used to have lock
ins back in the day before people started really killing
people and doing crazy stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
You just be able to go to the skate ring,
have a good time, lock in for a little bit,
you know.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And the one stipulation was if you lock in, you
going to church, and not only going to church, you
going to Sunday school, which means you got to get
to church an appur earlier before everything starts. And so
I'm in there and I'm ready, and big Mama would
be like, oh, so you can sit by me, and
I'm like, I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Sit by you. The church service, so that village, that
thing is for real.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
But again, my church, that's why I got a lot
of my stuff, my fight, my public speaking, my balance.
I think because I didn't know, I didn't know what
I didn't know at the time, but I was surrounded
by such amazing women and people who were literally a dream.
Like I think about them now and that's a part
of what I do at the girls houses. I believe
(11:52):
that every little girl should have a bomb village like
I did. I mean, had I had a good one.
I mean there's nobody I had in my space that
I can be like. Man, I wish I could have
all of them. I take pieces with them in every
room I enter, and I take them with me. And
so when I think about like what they meant, and
even when I want to go for or four, I'm
reminded that I'm covered by their prayers too.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
And I'm like, you know, it ain't even worth it.
It was kind of worth it.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
This morning when this girl was blocking me in my
street on Cassavere Hill, I ain't gonna tell nobody because
I send the picture of my mama.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I was like, I gotta see Brandon to night. I
can't go to jail. I got pictures. Ain't lying. But
I'm also reminded, like again, some people somebody shon't wait
on me to show up to be myself. And I
so I take a little bit.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I call my big mama wheezy, like weezy, and my
big Papa's name is Albert, so weezy. Albert like Albert
Johnson from Color Purple. If you ain't never seen Color Purple,
don't ask about Albert right now. But Weezy and Albert.
And then my grandmother was a statuesque woman and not
to be played with. I mean, Medea would be scared of.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
My grandmama like it was like for real, like for real,
like seriously, and she fair care of a gun and
all that. So I.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
I believe I take all of them with me. But
to your point about church, that's why most of my
my foundation comes from that. It comes from right down.
And matter of fact, you could well not now because
it's all messed up, but you could leave North Yards,
go straight down North Avenue and you're dead into my church,
which is Wendy Street Baptist Church, and it's was established
in nineteen twelve and that's where we still go into
(13:23):
this day.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
So you know, jih, some of the ato cars and
stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Every once in a while somebody pops up on social
media trying to like check my ATO card.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
You know, like, oh, what's butter about? How legit is?
Butter is Butter official? Who's behind? Who's this? I wasn't
born that great a, y'all. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I didn't have any I had a golf cars in
your neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
We don't get back to that. We used to steal
those golf cars. But one thing I can say about
JII is she has always been a supporter. I'm gonna
show you how much is a supporter. You've always been
hit the slide real.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Quick for me.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
I know you lie because we just talked about Now,
this was the Butter atl launch party in twenty eighteen eighteen.
I know I saw Bame up in here earlier. Bamee
where you at.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Bab's still here, bame Joiners are still up in there.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Thank God.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
The land influences everything. That's Jai right there, that's me,
Rashaan A Lee j Carter Bane. You remember that night
you see Atlanta on my shirt.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
I'm all, I'm real, I'm real about this thing, like
I'm all about my city. That is crazy.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I just asked you about that because He gave out
these really cool so you know, and Mark and you
get the cheap gifts.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Everybody be like, oh, you gotta spend a dollar per item.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
He gave us these really nice glass butter holders, and
I was so afraid to use it because it was
so nice.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
I still have it.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I'm sure this dishwashers safe, but I never used it.
It's still it's still in my house. But man, so
I'm gonna tell you what this means to me. Nicole
Garner called me and she said, you know Brandon, he's
from the Decatur. I'm like the one with the glasses.
And she was like, yeah, he's launching this thing and
it's all about Atlanta and culture. And I was heading
(15:03):
into my trajectory at there. For I think I was
probably a senior director or deputy. No, I wasn't a
deputy at that time, I forget, but I was something.
I had like fifty people in my group, and I
was just so happy to see somebody who looked like me.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Because you can google me, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
But I started realizing that no publications had anything nice
to say about me, ever, Atlanta Business Chronicle. But I
was forty under forty for that Atlanta magazine because I
was Atlanta five hundred.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
You know, actually three times.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I know you just got yours, got I just got
my third. But you're like five, You're like five, I'm
like three.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
And so when Nicole called and was like, yo, it's
a black publication. It's about the culture of Atlanta. It
ain't even black for religious really about the culture and
the fiber of the atl And I was like, I'm there.
I remember leaving and I had to sing where I
wore two tubes everywhere. Melissa remember this because I got
on't wanet right here. I used to wear them all
the time.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
I don't know what it was. Matter of fact, I
was on the stage one time we're rioting and I
wore two too. I was like, what's going on with me?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And so we had a hackathon on or me and
Joey Digital did something in here for for goody years ago.
But I remember it being like I just want to
support him, Like how can I help him? How can
I And so we started talking about that because I
remember one of my mentors always said, y'all have the
issue of trying to go all the way to the top.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Whenever y'all need stuff. You need to be looking Peter
peer group.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And then maybe two years ago Easter Race at the
same thing, she said, stop trying to go to the producer,
the EP of that person. You need to be looking
to the left and the right of you. So as
you guys rise together, your network will do that. And
it's true, y'all. I got friends that are cmo CEO, coos,
venture capitalists, the guy who owns the yacht and the bowl,
(16:41):
I mean, and we all started grinding as interns that
turning together. But this is what that reminds me of.
It was I was grateful to be in a room.
We're at that brewery over there, right, and I remember I.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Was so proud of you. I mean, I love all
things that that I can connect myself with. But I
know what it takes. I know how many no's, I
know how many tears. I don't how many gambles, y'all.
I'm dating. I am in a domestic partnership with the entrepreneur,
So pray for me.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Because his wins be big and the trips are great
and the bags are awesome. But I've had to also
learn that we don't win every day. And like what
that looks like, and so I know a lot of
entrepreneurs in this room. I'm telling y'all just stick with it.
The wind is coming. The wind is coming. The wind
is coming, the wind is coming. You're working on something
and the wind is coming. And I just remember being
so happy for your win, and I feel like, if
(17:34):
everybody can just celebrate the winds and now I would
like to be celebrating the Falcons win.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I think I'm gonna take your stand up comedy. I
think I got time in.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
But no, so literally, I was so happy for Brandon,
Like I was so happy for him because I was like,
he figured it out, he broke the cold, and if
I can help be there for him, if me showing
up is gonna make his press release look fly. I
had on a two two, so I was like anyway,
I had Atlanta on my shirt, so I figured. I
was like, but I'm so proud of you, Brandon, Like
(18:06):
you just read off my stuff, like, dude.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Do you know what majority is? Like? Do you know
what butter does?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Do you know that you literally can You were like
the warm buffet of Atlantic culture, Like if you move
your bricks, people start paying attention, like they do so
I got you on my Rollodex and we can have
water Barcelona. Like, I feel like I did something right.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
You know, I wasn't on really social media before I started, Butter,
I remember that night. I was like, if we can
just get the three hundred followers, this thing is gonna
be big. Like I remember saying that. I think it
was like two ninety seven. I think we had like
three oh one by the time the party started. And
I just remember like, if we just get the three
hundred followers, it's gonna be the biggest thing in Atlanta.
And you know, Joe came out, Jay Carter came Outshan
(19:00):
now they Rashan did a thing on on the on
TV the next day talking about it, and I was
just so honored that, you know, people like you all
again we were just building our relationships. Saw something in
me and you all believed in me. And again for
yose of y'all know me now again, you see, I
ain't got no black shirt now, so you know this
is this This tells you how old it does. That's
probably like my uniform every day. This you know, you know,
(19:23):
changed a little bit now, but it's still the same
old band. But again, thank you so much. Just I
just want to get in this show. Atlanta supports Atlanta.
And I think that's one of the things you'll see
more and more when you start kind of digging below
the surfaces, you'll see relationships like this right to where
now literally six years later, we're sitting here, you know,
talking about not just Butter atl And and you know
(19:45):
the airport. We're talking about you now being the CEO
of the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, you know, me
and majority and Butters become this whole other thing, and
like again, just this is the moment, this is literally
a moment right here that I really have never shared
this photo.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
No, just picture that.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
So I'm like, would you I got something for you,
my old what you're gonna do. But but I'm also
tell you what that means is that greatness surrounds itself
with greatness. And like we have this saying in my
family with competitives, second place is the first loser, because
so don't try for second place.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
And then iron shoppers iron.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
So you shopping your iron, you shopping your mind, you
shopping your body, you shopping your family, you shopping your
financial health, your wellness.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
The people who are around you.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I see somebody who's right here, and yeah, I'm calling
everybody else, So y'all better hope I don't see these
blinders over here. I remember being in Atlanta Station, not
Atlantic Station. Atlanta Station is where Eric Gordon used to live.
And Eric had had this crazy show at one point,
and he was we were I could be honest with
my friends, probably dangerously honest. They don't fight me, but
(20:46):
they want to usually when it's when we're talking about things.
And Eric hat this show because I was at that time,
I was I think was I incubating that Turner or
I was coming out of incubation at Turner. I think
I was coming out of it, and so I saw
what was getting sold. So I like work on like
Welcome to Dreamland and Monica Show and Nephie and all them.
And I was telling him. I was like, Eric, this
is not it, like we gotta do this, we gotta
do that, y'all. We used to be in his three
(21:07):
story townhouse. It will be a whole bunch of deuce.
He was a person who put me on superfoods early
because he did this whole buff thing. He wanted to
show his muscles this before he was a father and
her husband. But I just remember being like, yo, like
we got something so special and we all we had
to do is just keep tweaking. And now he's like,
oh yeah, i'mna be in Coln this week because I'm
doing this pitch. Oh yeah, I'm gonna be over here,
and Martha's ving doing that. I'm like, dang, can I
(21:28):
get a plus one to come with you? But I'm
so proud of that because I remember the grind, right,
I remember doing the crazy Immerging one hundred events and
like trying to like see out what life was. And
so I'm so proud of my people, and I take
y'all with me, I promise. So when somebody's like, yo,
I'm looking for a marketing person, I'm like, oh, I
got somebody, or I'm looking for a person who does this.
(21:49):
Oh yeah, I got somebody I'm developing. And now don't
do that out to midje website. I got somebody.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I'm always like trying to help because I also know
that now my voice has prowess and before it did it.
But you know how I got that is because there
were people speaking my name in rooms that I was
not in and who were like, she could do this.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
I have to tell you this. I did not apply
for this job. I didn't. I did not apply for
this job Edbie parsons.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
If y'all don't know Ebbie, don't follow him on social
media because he's an avid supporter of crazy.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Things, at least to after November. But when.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I love Ebbie, so I knew if Ebbie's work because
I have a lot of family friends. I'm'a spell my woman,
but half of my friends, more than half of my friends,
was a fam and so I heard of Ebbie before
Ebbie knew of me.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
I didn't know he knew who I was, and I
knew his wife, Ayana.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
She's a former co founder for Fearless Funds and you
should know about her, and so I thought they were
just super dope. Right when my close friend called and
was like, hey, Naima's doing some work with Ebbie.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
They're looking for something. Can they call you mind you y'all?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
This probably was the week before we went to dinner
because I was gonna tell Brandon I needed a job
because I wasn't sure what I was gonna do. I
just knew my season at the airport had departed. And
it was time for me to move on.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
And I remember being like, yo, like Ebbie knows.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Me, because what I knew about Ibbi was that he
had placed bowl Saint John at Netflix.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
So I'm like, this is the guy, right, like, this
is the guy. You know my name?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
You know about me? Did I cut some old like
and what did I do? Did I say something crazy
on a Facebook post?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Because I'm good for that.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I've calmed down on my keyboard courage because I'd been
trying to see about people on some of these posts,
but I've learned I can't do that anymore.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
But Ebbie was like, hey, I think this would be
a great opportunity.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
You gotta sign an NDA And I was like, I
never had to sign an NDA before for a job application,
like to talk about it, and he said, oh no,
you don't understand. We've been talking about you in some
circles anyway, and your name was shortlisted for something in JFK,
but I diverted you here, and I was like.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Wait, ain't nobody in New York called me and talk
to me about anything?
Speaker 1 (23:51):
But it goes to show you that your name might
be on lists and in places where people are already
paying attention to you and you have a pulse on
so many things. And he was like, hey, is this opportunity.
It's nonprofit. I was like, oh, nonprofit means no money.
He said, no, it hits your comp I said, okay,
let's have a conversation. And so then and then we
started talking and he started talking about the bonuses and
the things. And then he was like, look, you get
(24:12):
to be Ji. And I was like, so you sure
they don't expect nobody else because I don't how to
be nobody else. Now they're gonna see this black girl
come in there and all this magic, all six feet
of it. And then so I go in and he's like, oh,
I didn't just put you in. Your name was already
on a list from a board member. And I got
one of my comedy people in here.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Where is she? I don't see her this year? Hey, bo,
I don't have my glass because I got these lashes on.
And this is not gonna work out.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
But but I just remember talking to people who were like,
you're special and it's so crazy. So okay, have y'all ever,
y'all bet I've seen this before. Have you ever seen
what's love got to do? With it.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
So that's my one of my Grandma' favorite moved.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Just one of the last movies we saw South of
kamp Mall before it turning the South Africa Mall. I
don't have a movie THEA tomorrow. It is South af
Come on, it's nothing there. We should buy it. Actually,
I just let's go like we should. Let's South finish
line right there. Then I went to g G because
(25:14):
they had cheap clothes. When I went back to finish
line so I can get my sneakers. But we went
to see it, and my vivid memory of it is
when Anime Bulllock was singing this little Light of Mine
in the beginning and I'm gonna let it shine, and
then the quad director was like, you're doing way too
much and pulled her by her ear and pulled her out.
But I show that clip in my talks because that's
(25:35):
how I want to sing this little light of mind.
So before every talk, even today, I sing this little
light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine to myself.
I used to sing it in my Kanye voice, but
then Kanye stopped being Kanye, so I stopped singing it
the way that he sings it. But when when I
say it to myself. I do say this little light
of mine because guess what, this is the only light
I have. It is the only one I got, and
(25:55):
I have to let it shine or I'm not showing up.
So this little light of mine, I don't care how
little it is, but all it takes is light to
push out darkness.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
And that's what I try to do.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
John, What Yeah, come on, Clap for that. Clap for that.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
You know, one of the things you talked about was
your name being your name being mentioned in rooms you're
not in, and just people advocating for you. And again
I can tell you I remember when I went through
my NBA program at Georgia Tech. One of the things
they talked about is at a certain level, these jobs
aren't going to be on LinkedIn, They're not going to
be on glass door.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Like there's a certain level.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
The same thing that happened to me with majority right,
Like the same thing I was doing my thing and
I get like a random message on LinkedIn from shack
and this guy named no Meat.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
I thought I was a scam. I was like, what
is this?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
And all of a sudden, my room was my neiame
was being spoken in the room. Somebody from Coke had
recommended me. They said, you know what, y'all are starting
this agency in Atlanta. We think there's a lot of opportunities.
Go talk to this guy. I had never met them
before in my life, and we came, we sat down
and talked, and now I'm a partner at the agency.
You know, we got semi acquired last year. So again
it's important, y'all gotta understand these relationships at a certain
part really matter. Just kind of speak on that for
(27:01):
a second, right, Like, what is it like kind of
going through that process. But also, how do you, you know,
plant those seeds you trying to talk about the idea
of you know, small steps and leading the bigger things.
How do you kind of plant those seeds so those
opportunities do happen.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
So one thing I'll say is authenticity, y'all know what
y'all gonna get. I'm this person all the time. It
sayds a makeup in lestions because I really don't worry
these and it's really this one right here is really
bothering me. Shout out on my makeup artist, Rayeh, she's great.
But being authentically yourself and showing up see most of
them laughing.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
But they used to this already.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
They they I really, I really could be on common View,
but no, seriously, so authentically I show up as myself.
But what I learned very early at those nice days
on ten fifty tech Wood Drive as an intern and
also at seven fifty five hang Air and Drive as
an intern where my mother actually used to pass out
programs and napkins and things like that as an usher.
And then I get an internship and I was the
(27:51):
only black girl there that year. I learned very how
important it was to have advocates. So there's a different
and mentor and sponsors. Mentors these are the people I
talk about my stuff with. They're almost my therapists, but
I don't pay them. I talk about things, approaches. They
may even prove of an email for me because I
(28:12):
might be two, four or four in it, so I
have to remind myself about how my posture is and
they can check me in an emotional way. My sponsors
are one hundred percent transactional. Do not get it twisted.
They know exactly while they're in my book because guess
what they need me is currency too, because a lot
of times they need to be able to say, Oh, no,
I know an amazing black woman who does this. I
(28:33):
know somebody in Dei that does that. Oh I have
somebody in Atlanta. Oh my god, you're trying to get
the Brandon Giant. Brenda are really closed, She mentors his daughter.
You'll be amazed at what people say in those rooms.
And guess what, sometimes they're not happening in rooms, ladies.
So let me look at me real quick. Get you
some male sponsors. Okay, get you some because even now
in twenty twenty four, a lot of the opportunities I've
(28:55):
gotten it's because men have been on the golf course
or to speak easy or the cigar room.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Because there are still spaces we're.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Not in right, And so I had to learn very quickly, like, Okay,
Dan Gordon likes me, let me work on this. Alex
Urban PGA Tour executive director thinks I'm cool. So I
gotta show up to the PGA tour like I started
putting things together. And guess what, they were more happy
to see me there because there was no intimidation factor
for them.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
They were happy to usher me into the room.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
They were happy to say ji with somebody I invited,
and the reason that is also important is because it's
like trying to go viral. You know those people who trying,
like these crazy people who keep going on this baby
oil up thinking that it's gonna make them look cool,
and it's really not.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
It's really kind of yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
And I ain't gotta say what y'a already know and
so and I'm thinking, you're trying so hard to be viral,
You're trying so hard to do something.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
If you're yourself and show up, those are the moments.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
I'm pretty sure the nice young lady who said very
demure and very mindful had no idea that people will
be talking about this a whole month later, right. It
was just that person being authentically who they were. It's
the same thing where you're talking about showing up in
these rooms. But here the one thing that I have
to say to all of us have a plan. A
lot of y'all, Oh, John, can you help me do what?
Speaker 4 (30:07):
You know? What I mean?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
People come to you, hey, I want help for what
you know?
Speaker 1 (30:11):
What do you want help for? In the terms of Joey,
I don't think he's here because he was under the weather.
But we talked about MVPs and mxvps. If you've ever
done ideation before, you know exactly what this is from
design thinking, what is your minimum viable product to get
where you're trying to go. So when somebody asks you
what you want, don't give me what you want five
years at the capital investment and after some ideation and
(30:32):
after your film is finished, what do you want?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I need a meeting with the producer at Viacom. Can
you help me with that?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Not I want to be you know, produced and on
Netflix that you're not ready yet. And the other thing
is when you start talking about these things, align yourself
with people who do what you do, who can champion you.
I think sometimes we want things to be ready, wanted,
the microwaved, we want the thirty second button hitting it
(30:59):
to work, and just does not work that way. One
of my favorite methods is Samuel ed Jackson. And if
you look when he became Samuel L he was already fifty,
already fifty, already kicked out of more House all at
already fifty.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
And so when you start talking.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
About those things, you had to think about like, maybe
my time isn't yet, but trust and keep working, keep digging,
keep moving in that direction.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
It's okay to pivot too. That's the other thing.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Fail.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
If you're gonna fail, fail fast, fail forward, dust yourself off,
but move on to the next thing. A lot of
times were perpetually failing, and now you've lost money and time.
Sometimes respect depend upon who money you lost. So I'm
talking to the entrepreneurs here. But when I talk about
you have to believe in yourself. A lot of people
want to be next to sunshine, right, They want to
be next to lights. So bring your light to whatever
(31:50):
it is that you're doing and be proud of that.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
I'm not you know.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
I talk to my partner all the time because I
believe I'm the baddest shack in the room. And let
me tell you, because my mama told me long time ago, baby,
you can't be sure.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
That's not who you are. You're not gonna have no
big old booty. That ain't who you are.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
You're not gonna have real you know this, ain't it right,
That's not who you are. But be who you are
and be true to that part of you, and people
will literally come to you. It's like a magnet. My
mom gets to ask all the time, like has she
always been like this? And miss Dale right here can
tell you she'd been with me since before I was
with me. Matter of fact, Julia is named after my
grandmother and my mother will talk about that later. But
miss Dale, my church member here, is only before me.
(32:31):
And I've always had this light always because I've always
just been who I was. I couldn't be anybody else.
So if I leave you with nothing, find you somebody
who can speak your name in a room you're not in,
and they don't have to look like you. Blackness doesn't
always meaning having black mentors and sponsors.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Blackness means having an ally. I take them all.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
I take the ones who are not Atlanta centric but
are cultural adjacent. I take the ones who are trying
to figure out what a vibe is and I can
be their vibeure. I take the ones who are trying
to find whate to put their money because they don't
know you can always buy girls scout cookie, but I
need more than that from you.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I take the ones who.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Are starting an app or a dot com platform that
nobody really understood in twenty eighteen but still figured it
out later. I take the people who are just about
wanting to be around good people and good vibes, because
that's where you cultivate, that's where you build and you learn. Again,
when Brandon was a matter of fact, what they were
talking about it as a website. I was like, a website,
like because talking with Tammy was big back then, and
(33:31):
Shandra rolls ooh, and so I was like, is it
gonna be like that because I don't want to do
Atlanta johnt.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
They're like, no, it's culture.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
And then Bang always been talking about everything starts in
Atlanta child, He's the Atlanta unofficial mayor, right, And I
was like, is it like bang stuff?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Now it ain't really bang stuff either. I'm like, well,
Bang gonna beat her? So how is it? Like? It
was just so weird.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
So what I will tell you is this is how
you meet people in these rooms. You'll be amazing how
many of my c sweet friends are sitting right here
tonight to come support me.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
You have no idea what that looks like. The other
thing is show off your people. Show up for them.
It means the world to them, and they will show
up for you.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
And sometimes that might be an email, a LinkedIn connection,
taking their kids to vacation, and then him telling me
that she is always supposed to go to spell men.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
She don't know that yet.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
But the day before we go to Calaway, Gardens's gonna
call me talking about we're not gonna make it.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
I'm like, we've been planning this. We go to Calaway
every year for five, seven, ten years. Like what are
you talking about?
Speaker 1 (34:25):
But again, get people around you who you can trust,
who you think you can keep your kids with, right,
Like if you if you got a question if these
people should be around your family, your kids, Get you
some new friends.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
I think one thing that a lot of people don't
realize is, you know, they see the titles and the roles,
they see this stuff. But one thing I think it
kind of gets, you know, glossed over, especially like in
this entrepreneurship game that Atlanta likes to play specifically, is
that like building something is hard, and not only is
it hard, it's hard on you personally, mentally, emotionally. I
(35:07):
got to tell this story about there was a time
when I had a chain of web design stores and
you know, we were doing okay and things were happening.
I had like three different locations, I had employees that
worked for me, and you know, I didn't know anything
about P and L's. I remember I got a copy
of quick Books and I went and like knocked on
this accountants firm that was by my house and said,
you just show me how to I paid to guy
one hundred bucks and say, you just show me how
(35:28):
to use this so that I can do right by
my employees.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
I remember one time I literally drove my had my man.
I loved that car.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
I had my nineteen ninety five accurate RL and I
drove it to Title Wow. And I was sitting in
the parking lot because I had to make payroll, and
I was like, I can title upon my car right
now to make payroll.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
And I remember I got an email.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
And that that one email that I got was enough
money to help cover my employees for the next two weeks.
So I don't think people talk about that kind of stuff, right.
So leadership and building something is hard. But on the
other side of that, how do you especially running a
two billion dollar you know, organization, especially running now the
Girl Scouts of Atlanta with over thirty thousand people, Like
how do you manage your well being in mental space
(36:08):
in trying to build what you're doing? Because you got
to be able to show up too, and again, you're your,
you are you, but you're also still a person.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Oh absolutely, I'll say this leadership is lonely. I remember
when me and Melissa were at Turner. Melissa got y'all.
They sent Steve Conan sent her a UK and she
did Turner Europe and everything.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
I was just still working the bridess. I was really jealous.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
But one of the things we wanted was in office
with our name. Oh my god, office was our names
on it, Like there goes LORI, y'all. But I told
you my friends, they they show for me. But but
I want an office with my name on it. And
that was all I was working towards. Like I never understood,
Like I was like, I want to be that person
that they talk about in the press releases.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I've learned now, Yeah, I really would rather not you
talked about in the press. I've had enough, fresh child.
My Google footprint is deep.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
But when it comes to this idea of what leadership is,
we just look at what we're aspiring to have because
we're looking out of this this gaze of the glory.
My mother's guy brother, my uncle, Craig Oliver, has a
sermon that he talks about not understanding the story behind
the glory and what it takes to get there and
(37:21):
how I mean he's dyslexic and all these things that
nobody knew anything about. And he's a mega guy, right,
he's the guy to know. And he would he would
always tell me to stay true to myself and my faith,
and a pray don't have to be long. It could
just be simple as lead me and guide me, oh Lord,
because sometimes that's all I had words for. Because when
(37:41):
you were being attacked again, I'm very googleable, when you
were being attacked publicly and you have these people coming
for you, My honey said, he still owes me another
dinner at the pass Very Houston's because I could not
enjoy my rabbi because I was crying so dog on
hard because I was tired.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
You know, you get tired, You like, why am I fighting?
Why am I doing this?
Speaker 1 (38:05):
But there's this this this concept and I can't remember
the person's same now we'll put it somewhere in the chat,
but it says until you commit, everything's gonna seem crazy.
But the moment that you commit to something, providence will
move to and things that you do not expect outside
of your control will start to move in your favor.
(38:28):
And I start realizing I was I was doubting myself.
Like then I was like, wait a minute, you got
a interroom with confidence. Because I used to go into
rooms afraid and asking for permission to be there because
I felt like I was so grateful to have the opportunity.
And I started realizing I was like, oh wait, I'm
the only one with this amazing dax ribo nucleic ascid
(38:49):
that's DNA and there if anybody else can be me,
then I wouldn't be here. And so I started realizing
that it was a blessing for me to step into
that room, and that was purpose for me to be
in that room. And there was some rooms I wasn't
supposed to be in. There were some clients when I
was consulting and figuring out my life out I didn't
need to take. There were some people who I just
needed to distance myself from because I started realizing I
(39:11):
don't even like them like that I like for real
and it's just like the people consulting. You'd be like
I really hate this client, just let it go. But
I also started realizing, like I have to make time
for myself. As a matter of fact, my cousin has
graduated from college May third. She'll be the first dds
in our family. She's going to medical school after she's
at Tennessee State. She just crossed ALTFHA cap Alps already incorporated,
(39:33):
and we're so proud of her. Well, I got a
board meeting that was already pre scheduled pre PJ, which
I called PREGI, and so I called my board chair
to di text. I said, I ain't gonna be here
May third, So y'all can have this ward meeting, but
I'm not gonna be here because I started realizing, I
stopped showing up for my family, and I started feeling lonely.
I stopped showing up for the birthday parties, the bridal showers,
the fish fries, the meean up to wash the falcons.
(39:56):
Hopefully when they didn't do it that a lot these
last couple of years, but maybe they were going forward
where I started.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
I stopped showing up for those things because I was embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
You ever felt like everybody knew what was going on,
like everybody you know was well in the reality was
your family just wanted you to be who you were
and I started surrounding myself with people whose eyes were
lighting up when they saw me. I forgot that gentleman's name,
but he was like, be around people whose eyes light
up when they see you coming. And that's when I
(40:24):
started being like, you know what, I want to be
around people who love me level crum. David Banner a
good friend of mine. We were just talking about. He
and I just did American sash. Where was that worstraquiler?
I think it was, I can't remember Saturday Friday. So
we just did American Chess. And one thing that David
Banner said to me, and we talk about this a lot,
because he'd be on some godboxing, some biblical ancestry stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Y'all just got to watch this stuff. Oh watch Fight
Night too, because he's good in that.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
But he was saying to me, he was like Joe,
I stopped going places where I had to I couldn't
put my back to the door, and I ain't feel love.
I stopped going places where I felt that way. And
so I challenged you, as leaders, if you get to
a point, well, I listen. People thought I was gonna
be the CEO of the airport. I never signed up
for that. Let me be clear, I never asked for that.
(41:07):
I always wanted to keep having fun. And if you've
ever been to any of my talks, you know that
I have fun and everything I do, I'm the same
person in front of air bashing. I'm the same person
all the time. But when it stopped feeling like fun,
and when I couldn't sleep, and when I had to
have a conversation with my mother, I was coming back
from Africa. I never seen anything as beautiful as Africa
my life. Literally, I felt so one with everything. I mean,
(41:29):
I feel like my body was sage, like I was
say out there and I was like, what is going on?
And I called my mother and I was like, Mom,
I can't do this no more. But she said, you
have done enough and it is okay. And turning down
your next or saying that you were done and leaving
on your own will is not the same as quitting.
(41:50):
And all I needed was that permission from my mama
and my BOO said you don't have to do this.
I called Melissa and I was in tears. I was like,
ma'am Mail, one of my ball of friends.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
I was like, mal, I just want to pay my
mortgage you know, I want to just be able to
take care of my family because I'm not for my
family right like I'm just that one I always have been.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
By the way, I'm being a mother isn't my ministry,
but I'm a mother to a lot of folks kids.
And I just was like, I can't. I don't want
to feel like I'm quitting. I felt like if I
was leaving I again, Land of five hundred decorated. I'm
actually aviations forty under forty. I got that when I
was thirty six years old and I was the only
black girl on the docket. Like I was. I was like, Mama,
(42:33):
if I leave, they gonna think that I did something.
And she said, you were leaving with your pride, and
you are leaving for peace.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Baby, You're not quitting.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
So I'm speaking to someone who's trying to figure out
if they to sign that deal, take that job, stay
on that course.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Continue.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
It is perfectly fine to raise the white flag for
your peace. It's not about the black girl failing, because
that's another whole conversation. And have in Kumbaya and sit
and sing, you know the Ceilionetti songs about right, like
the feeling of failure because I had been propped up.
But what I also started realizing was you were being
(43:10):
propped up, so if you failed, they could say it
was because you were a black girl. And I start realizing, like,
oh my god, that's what this is. So let me
do the graceful thing. Let me choose my integrity, let
me choose my illumination and my light, let me choose
my energy, and let me choose myself. Right, y'all, I've
(43:31):
had days went in between time when I was trying
to figure out my life.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
I used to live. I still live in Castlebury Hill.
That's why I got here in five minutes.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
But I used to be afraid when So we had
this fence, so we actually live right underneath pascals on
top of pascals, and the garage was underneath, and it
was a roll up garage.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
And you know, people just best messing up.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
So if you know how it is when you live
in communities where people mess up again and everything, well,
the gate protected me because report man can come get
my car. See that's see listen, and I remember, and
then my ac compressor went out and I can try
to get the m man.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Hen we done came a long way.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
When when I started thinking about literally it goes back
and I guess, go bi before.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
When I look back over my.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Life and I think things over, I can truly say
that I've been blessed.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
I have a testimony.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
And so when I start thinking about that and I
think about leadership, we are not here to be broken.
We are here to give the treasure of which has
been bestowed to us. And when the person of which
you're issuing your treasure to refuses it, don't let somebody
tell you more than once they don't want you.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
And that's what people were doing.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
I wasn't playing in Atlanta way, I wasn't playing Atlanta game,
and I had no idea when we talked.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Remember I told I was like, I don't know what
I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
I literally got every phone call that following week and
text you a green heart because I was like, Yo,
this is weird, but I'm trying to tell y'all you
have to have faith. And it's scary and it is lonely,
but trust it will be all right. It may look
different than what you thought. It might not come in
that nice package, it might not even have a bow
(45:09):
on it, but it may be your gift and be
okay with stepping into the unknown. Do I know anything
about nonprofit by laws and regulations?
Speaker 2 (45:17):
I got people for that. Do I know anything about law? No.
I had a whole bunch of contracts, but at the
airport I had twenty lawyers. I have people for that.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
There will be positions that God will put you in
that you were not qualified for. Trust and believe and
you won't have to apply.
Speaker 4 (45:34):
For I only got one word to say. Message.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
You know, you talk about stuff like transition. You talked
about the challenge and again as especially in this world
we live in this Atlanta entrepreneurship space where everything's on
social media. It's hard to walk away from that stuff.
And you're so publicly successful, trus I dealt with those
same challenges. I went through a very large legal battle.
A lot of people don't know when I left the
agency that I started butter At. I was in litigation
(46:19):
with them for nine months. I remember, and I was
paying for butter out my pocket and it was bloody,
and it was bloody, It was messy, but I had
to fight for it because what I didn't want to
do is I didn't want to walk away from it.
And all of a sudden, if it became something else,
y'all be looking at me. Y'all have been saying, oh, okay, No,
he wasn't who he said he was. He wasn't really
doing what he said he was gonna do, or he
was really just this. So I had to fight for that,
(46:39):
for my own peace of mind and my own reputation
because I had built something in public and I was
so public about it being so different that these people
tried to take it from me and I had to
fight them for nine months to get it. So I
get it and understand transition. But on the other side
of transition, though, good things happen. And now you are
now the CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta,
the first one in one hundred years, over hundred years.
(47:01):
My question for you is in this role now, how
do you see all those experiences rolling up and for
you to be able to kind of change this culture
and make your new vision for the Girl Scouts of
Atlanta Greater Metro Atlanta, Like, what do you see that becoming?
Speaker 2 (47:14):
So there are two things.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
There's one book, Carla Harris, Expect to Win is real easy,
you should read it. And I'm not a reader, by
the way, so if I'm giving you these books, it
is because they probably real easy to read.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
On a playing flight from Atlanta to New York. You
can be done. So Expect to Win is one of them.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
And the other book I can't I think his name
is Franz, but it's called The Metachi Effects in the
Medici Effects. In the book, it talks about how they
bring all these people from different backgrounds to solve one
common issue. And what I realized was that And this
goes out to Vicky Hamilton. She is one of my mentors,
but she talks about this idea of having tools in
your toolbox that were transferable skills that will be able
(47:50):
to get you somewhere. What Eric could tell you is
that I'm really I'm killer on Adobean Graphics and Premiere
and I could do all of that right.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
So I was a one woman show like I used
to be able.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
To do my own events, build my own creative, build
my own spots and pre role and people thought I
was a big agency and I was thinking it till
I made it the whole time. My honey, tell you,
I can build a website in a couple of minutes
and they're like, oh my god, this is amazing.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
He has an idea.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
I just bought the Groogle domain from whatever, you know,
seven dollars on wits. But it was the idea of
the presentation. I knew how to do that very well.
And then also I had a little bit of charm
and I had a lot of a little bit of brilliance,
and I was smart enough to enter the room. I
started realizing, you know, I had everything I needed. I
had the expertise, I had the leadership, I had the
(48:34):
transferable skill set.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
I just had to believe I could do the job.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
A lot of times we go in and we're grateful
that people just interviewed us, not understanding that we're actually
a KPI that somebody's trying to meet. We're the key
performance indicator they're trying to find, and instead of us
being who we are, we're coming in with levels of gratitude.
That's why we are so disproportionately paid less, both black
women and brown men than any other race, because we
go in just grateful to be in a room.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
Oh thank y'all so much, and so m a no lie.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
One of my mentors says, stop entering the room with
an absence of confidence.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
So what now? Now? What I play along with this
a lot of mine.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
I play optimistic by sounds of blackness because I'm like,
you can win as long as you keep your head
to the sky, like you could whatever is going to
be in the midst of all your sorrow, right, as
long as you win. And I'm blasting this in them folks,
uh parking lot at the Girl Scouts And so yeah,
I listen every now and then. I might listen to
trape Dot too, because sometimes I do sell bricks when
(49:30):
I'm on the way to work.
Speaker 4 (49:32):
Just silly.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
But but what happens is that you have everything you need.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
We're always trying to find ways of to say, Okay,
I don't check off this box. It might be volunteerism.
It might be at your church, it might be in
your community. It might be some freelance thing you did.
It might stop finding reasons for you not to be
good enough. I think some of it's the trauma in
our bloodline, and we'll get through that, maybe, I'm hope.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
But that's why we do what we doing for zoe'
so zo.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
We don't have to feel this way, right, So when
you try to each bloodline, each generation. You try to
remove the trauma each time. At least we should, and
if you're not, you should be trying to do that.
Because that's what I realized. Like, I was like, Okay,
I have everything I need. A matter of fact, they y'all,
I ain't never been on no job interview or no
job process where they give you a leadership assessment. I
(50:19):
took a Hogan assessment. I don't take everything Maya's Bridge.
They told me I should be a farmer.
Speaker 4 (50:23):
It was so random.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
Shane's finder truths find their true colors, you know, take
all of them. One of the things they told me
was that I was too resilient. I had never heard
of that before. Mind you, these are not people who
look like me giving me the test. I'm like, what
are you talking about. I'm not too I'm too resilient.
Like I'm like, do you know what this like to
be black in America? So what she told me was
(50:48):
the opportunity in my resilience is that I was dismissive
of other people's ability to process because I would be like, Okay,
that didn't work, let's move on.
Speaker 2 (50:57):
But she was like, as a leader, you have to
be able to that that some.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
People need to dwell here for a moment, right, you
need to feel the I'm not a really good pacifier either,
so I'm like, if people start crying in my office,
I'm gonna be freaked out. So like, I'm trying to
figure it out. So she told me, she said, I
want you to give yourself a moment. It might be
the end of the day, maybe give them to the
end of the week, but give them a deadline for
(51:20):
to feel the grief, the transition, the harm or whatever
and then move on.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
But my resilience comes from my mother. My resilience comes from.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
So y'all know the reason I love Outcasts is because
Outcast was storytelling.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Also the greatest group absolutely speak a speaking box Love
Below came out twenty years a day. Kick It on
butter At like that post.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
But there's a portion that was so important to me
because on Elevators it talks about how he caught the
eighty six lath onon from headed Todicator. My mom and
I used to ride the eighty six lith Onion for real.
It's on the corner of columb Drive in Rainbow and
Me and my boo Because I wanted to show him
where I was from. He from the country y'all got.
They got probably eight hundred people in the town. He's
(52:07):
from Mississippi. I ain't lying.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
It ain't no y'all. It adn't no gravel is no.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
They don't even have a golden pantry. If you country,
you know you got a golden patrie. They ain't got
one of those. But he went to college and Officer
Oxford and played football. But go dogs, we're gonna have
a thing in a couple of weeks because Georgia plays
Oh miss. But I went took him to Decatur, and
I was like, I gotta show you something because he's
so me and my mama talking the phone every morning.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
He knows this.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
Everybody knows this. Melissa knows this. Everybody know that I'm
be on the phone my mama around. I'm not a
morning person. So around about seven thirty eight o'clock, we'll
be talking the whole time, and before my grandmother transitioned,
it will be the three of us. The people that
Turner even knew this, They will leave me alone until
I got to phone my mom and my grandmother. My
mother's resilience of the eighty six, lath Onion headed to Decatur.
I wanted him to see where my mama used to
(52:52):
have to walk. I wanted him to understand that she
ain't gonna never have to pay She might have to
pay a car note, but she's not gonna have to
pay assurance for the Because I wanted Malcolm to understand,
I was like, I want you to see what this
comes from. My mother is beautiful, like she gives Leila,
I lead the rest of them a run for day money.
You want to go see how fine she was. She
was real fine for her for theyse class room in
you last week, and so she was she she was.
(53:14):
She was a batty for real. And so I showed Malcolm.
We were walking up the here y'all ever been indicator,
you know, you coming from south of Camp Mall and
you coming straight up like you going to Columby Drop
and you go down that hill and up that big
old hill where matthis Dairy is.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
My mother used to walk that every day and.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
The way that she would Now I know this, I
have a love for funians, you know, honey bun and
orange juice.
Speaker 2 (53:37):
Because we was stopped by matthis Dairy.
Speaker 1 (53:40):
Because my mother would get me something to give me
a distraction from how long we were walking, and so
I wanted I told Malcolm because Malcolm was like, wait,
your mom used to walk this, I'm like, every every day.
And she was also a Santa's Oh if we had
the first black Santa Claus or rest in peace Missus
Stanta because he passed away, but we had the first
black Santa Claus, and that's where she would work. And
(54:00):
so when we talked about resilience and I had to
explain to my leadership person, I was like, ma'am, that
stuff is in the fiber who I Am Like, I
can't just let that go because it's not convenient for
this workplace. But what I started to realize was I
could use those things as tools to bring and level
up the next person, to give them opportunities to learn
about resilience. The only reason I'm sitting here is because
there are people who believe that I could do something that. Okay,
(54:22):
I don't know anything about planes, but I knew that
they obviously can't be that close together, because then something happened,
Like you know what I'm saying, Like, I knew that
it takes a lot of energy to push and turn
the propellers on. So don't stand right here. Like there
were some things I knew, and so I also started
to educate myself. Google's your friend, but like I got
friends in spaces. I was like, okay, nonprofit Milton Little.
(54:45):
I have been calling the Milton every week. I'm like,
how do you do this? How does this work? So
to answer your question and to go back to center.
My resilience is what keeps me centered. But I use
my network all the time. If I don't know something,
I'm not afraid to ask. I'm pretty smart, but I
don't know everything. Even when I was in HBS, I
was the only black girl in my group, and I
(55:07):
used to be like, I'm tired of being the only one. Jesus, please,
I need an ally, a sister, soldier, somebody. But I
just remember, you know, I was like, Okay, I'm here
for a reason. So now guess what I got people
who are financial years for nonprofits. They might be on
the countries, but I can call him and be like, hey,
how does this work? How do ohd j'ade just do
this or just do that. So when it came down
to being a CEO, because I was reminded that I'm
(55:28):
the trifecta. I've been in corporate government and now nonprofit,
and so I wasn't prepared for nonprofit, so you think,
but I started realizing, I was like, well, wait, nonprofit
is just a tax designation.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
It's still a multimillion dollar business.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
And so when I started looking at my core and
I'm still in my first one hundred days, I'm like,
oh no, no, no, no, this is twenty million dollar
revenue generated business. I do'tant to make money if I
can't do nothing else right, And so I'm like, to
your point about P and L statements and just in
hygiene of the data and asking if you don't know,
just ask. I think a lot of times we're so prideful, like,
oh god, I don't want to look dumb. I can
(55:59):
assure you messing up and doing the publicly look way
more dumb than if you asked before you did it.
Speaker 2 (56:03):
And so I put my pride aside.
Speaker 1 (56:07):
That's the other thing, and I was okay with asking,
and and you know what, I started realizing people respected
me more when I asked. I was like, look, I don't,
I don't I have never done this before, or I'm
not sure about X, and I gave a finite response.
It was respect there, and they saw that I valued
them because I had enough courage to come and ask them.
And they were like, oh my god. You know so
(56:28):
I think put your pride aside. But again, when you
enter that room, don't enter it with an absence of confidence. Listen,
the first black woman in one hundred and three years.
I pray every morning. There are still some places that
I cannot go by myself in the thirty five counties
I served, because they still have some sun downtowns. We
went to what was that we went too? We went
(56:50):
to Armucci, Georgia and yeah, so i'n'na tell you all
about it with our girls scouse do in there. We
went to Armucci, Georgia, and then we went to Luthersville
and believe or not, did you know that it's fifteen
hundred acres of rolling hills properties. I have oversight over
three lakes. One is one hundred acres large. We have
possession of sixty eight horses. I have a twenty million
(57:13):
dollar revenue business. Cookies is just one vertical of that
portion of the program. So when I talk about girl Scouts,
I know she's cute in front of your publics and
support her, But I need you to support other ways too,
because I have a full program.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
Of things that we offer.
Speaker 1 (57:27):
But I started realizing, I was like, Malcolm, I can't
go out here by myself because there are still some
people that are not happy that I'm sitting here. And
I know that all I ask is to give their
daughters a chance to change the world. That's all I ask.
That's all I ask. That's all I ask. I get
I know the seat that I occupy. I asked that
y'all keep me coven in prayer and keep me undemonished
(57:50):
from my four or four because she'd be jumping out
every now and then. But I started realizing, I was like,
I'm who I am because of the people that I have,
even those who are showing up for me today. I
just want to be that for somebody else's little girl.
That's all I just I don't know who she's gonna be.
Speaker 4 (58:05):
Yeah, you never you never know.
Speaker 3 (58:07):
Trustee this again, there's a lot of people you sit
back and that's I think that's again. I think that's
one of the beautiful things about Atlanta. There's so many
people that we went to high school with you know, Atlanta.
We're all about high schools out here, right, It's like
where you went to high school? If you tell somebody
from Atlanta, the first question, the'renna ask. That's gonna tell
me everything I need to know that the problem is
not that all these new high schools now, like I
(58:28):
ain't never heard of that one before.
Speaker 2 (58:29):
Like you know, they're bifurcating our schools and creating all
these little micro schools. That's why the football teams ain't
as good as the ones up north, because I'm like,
you've got five schools where used to have one. So
I said, that's what we're supposed to go to exactly,
like what what what cross section shirt you on? Kelly Chapel?
You like, whe where are you at? For real?
Speaker 1 (58:44):
So no that, and then be from the AUC because
if you're from the AAC, like you know, see how
you thinks they run things, it's fine, It's okay, Well
we'll give them that.
Speaker 3 (58:54):
Well, look, John, this this has been amazing. I know,
we got people in here. We want to get into
some networking. I got like, I think a couple hundred
drinks from our sponsor's Belvetere and herenessity that we got
to give away.
Speaker 4 (59:05):
So y'all please not everybody take them all at once.
Speaker 3 (59:07):
But before we get out of here, before we get
to the networking portion of the program job. My last
question for you I have is if there was a
billboard in Atlanta that you could put some advice on
a message on whatever you want the city to know.
Now again, there was one time where there was a
BMF billboard. It was that's the whole from But if
(59:29):
you had you had the Joharil billboard, you can put
it wherever you want in Atlanta.
Speaker 4 (59:33):
What would that billboard say? What piece of advice would
be on that billboard?
Speaker 2 (59:37):
Hmmm, it's a double side billboard.
Speaker 3 (59:39):
It could be it could be one of those electronic
ones that flips through a couple.
Speaker 2 (59:42):
But you know, I'll say this.
Speaker 1 (59:46):
I've been all over the world and the airport had
awarded me to get every stand on my passport except
for Australia and Antarctica. I've been everywhere. I even took
my mama with me. She said she want to ever
going nowhere else with me. That was longer than eighteen hours.
She went to China and she was like, I'm done
but I will tell you, and this is just a
little bit of history for you. The reason that the
(01:00:08):
airport was built now one hundred years ago, it'd be
hundred of the Cincinnio's next year for the airport is
because the Atlanta was the city too busy to hate.
We had great race relations and we had a thriving
black populace. So for those who come to Atlanta, welcome.
(01:00:28):
But if I had to have a billboard with everything
I've seen stands in them Bibia, if I can live
in them Bibia, I would have a house there and
they probably didn't listen, trust me, but it would be
Atlanta no place like home. I go places, I enter
rooms all the time, and there are not a lot
of people who look like us, and not just look
(01:00:51):
like us, but wanting stuff like we literally have a
mayor named Andre and we just had one named Keisha,
like you know, I.
Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Like I.
Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
Even at Turner you had Loretta Walker and Vicki Free
and like all these amazing brown women who were like
doing it. And I had never seen anything as everything's about,
like Shaye Butter.
Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
It was awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
But I would say Atlanta, there's no place like home
because Charlotte tries DC his mates and is fair attempts.
Dallas is hot and it got hurricanes. But there's no
place like Atlanta. So if I had to put up
a billboard, it would be Atlanta. There's no place like home.
Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
On my billboard, I put up Wakanda Forever. No, Jod,
thank you so much. It's an amazing conversation. I'm so
excited and so proud of everything you've accomplished. I'm glad
to call you a friend. I appreciate you pulling up
to this conversation. I wish you nothing but success and
whatever we can do. When I say we, I mean
(01:01:58):
Butter's resource, Old Steve. Atlanta are all behind you. We
want to see you when and we cannot wait to
see what you continue to do next. So congratulations everybody.
Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
Please thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:02:07):
Johharell.
Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
You've been listening to button Nomics and I'm your host.
Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
Brandon Butler comments feedback.
Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
Want to be a part of the show, send us
an email today at hello at Butterdomics dot com. Butter
Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by Ramsey,
with marketing support from Queen and Nike. Music provided by
mister Hanky if you haven't already hit that subscribe button
and never missed an episode, and be sure to follow
us on all our social platforms at butter dot at L.
(01:02:38):
Listen to button Nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Until you commit, everything's gounda saying crazy. But the moment
that you commit to something, providence will move to and
things that you do not expect outside of your control
will start to move in your favor. And I start
realizing that was doubting myself.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You got a enter room with confidence.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Prior to joining the Girls Scouts of Greater Atlanta, she
was the chief Commercial Revenue Officer for Hartsfield Jackson International Airport,
managing commercial portfolio to be exceeded. This is one point
five billion, but I feel like it's more like two billions.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
It was about two billion every year.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Yeah, like a level of.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
And even more than that. She is a graduate of
Southwestern Path High School, east Side People east Side saying
again Rida in shut Out. She's also a graduate of
Spelman Georgia State University, where she got her master's degree,
and the Harvard Business School of Executive Education. Everybody, please
(01:05):
give a big welcome to Joffrel.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
You know, it's so crazy when you hear people read
it like that, and I'm so grateful for people to
be reading it while I'm still here to hear it
and not in my habituary. So thank you for joining
us today.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Now, joh, the last time you and I sat down, okay,
we had a couple bottles.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Of wine, a lot of bottles.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It was, you know, something like that. It was at Barcelona.
We were catching up. There was a lot of stuff happening,
you know, a lot of amazing things that happened to
you since then.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Just first of all, how are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
You know?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I am so grateful that people chose to brave the
traffic and the great city of Atlanta and all the
construction projects and all the heat to come hang out
with us. So they could been anywhere else in the world,
but they hear with us. I feel really blessed right
now to be here.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
You are.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
You are blessed and highly favored, as they say that
I am. Now, John, let me tell you. So let's
get into this. So one thing I always appreciate about
GI is I think with certain people. So for those
of y'all who know, no, Yes, I do run Butter
at l but I also am a partner and the
CEO at a creative agency out here at Atlanta called Majority.
We do all the commercials for nbag leagues right General Motors.
(02:23):
So I know what I'm talking about I don't just
make names for a living, Okay, you know, I do
a little something something, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (02:29):
I do a little something like.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
But one thing I appreciate about Gie every time we
talk is there are certain people that you can tell
our leaders, and every conversation that we have, I can
see why you were in the position that you were in.
Like you you literally you care yourself as a leader.
You've been a leader for so long. Just but when
you're going through this and doing all this stuff, like,
(02:51):
did you ever imagine you know that you would be
in a space where you were literally leading not only
the airport, but like one of the biggest organizations in
influential organizations in Atlanta history.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Absolutely not. Never. Fortunately for me, I'm usually the first
of many things.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I'm hopeful to one day not to be the first,
but always to have folks in my left and my
right that look like me. A lot of the spaces
that I've been, I've been the person either to be
the first, the youngest, the only one with the vagina,
the only one that was in this type of you know,
space of intellect. And my mother who's here, she don't
(03:28):
like this, but she I'll make her say hey, can
she fine?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Hey mama, hey, mama said you hang out?
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Ma bearegia head? Come on now, don't do that.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Give me plap for MoMA, Come on, plap for mama Cla.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So I was always taught to believe I could fly
like my mother literally was like, there is nothing that
you cannot do, and we will always do so with
grace and class in everything you do.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So from losing a basketball game.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
We usually beat Redan by the way, but to losing
a basketball game, from losing a basketball game to not
getting the job, to not getting the public recognition, it
was always about grace and how we do things even
when it's time to exit, how to do so gracefully.
You don't have to set everything on fire, and learning
how to do that even when it's one of the
(04:15):
hardest things to do. I've been in a lot of
situations where I would have loved to show them my
grady baby blackness, show me side east side all day,
show them that I was raised in English Avenue and
now on cal Road. But I always also remember there's
(04:35):
no reason for me to do that, because I know
whose I am, and I also know that God takes
care of all of his children, and so when it
comes down to dealing with things, I truly believe. I'm
like God, I don't know, but this is a part
of your plan. My honey and my best friends. I
wear him Melissa, and I told him I was gonna
do this day back the day.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Want sit up here.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Melissa and I have had some of the most parents conversations.
And Malcolm gets in the car, He's like, why are
we listening to Donnie Hathaway? So I challenge everybody, I
want you to go listen to Someday We'll all be
free because that song was literally how I got over
because there's a portion when he says, hang onto the
(05:17):
world as it is spinning around, and not let that
spin get you down, because it's so easy to think
that something is directly happening to you. But what I've
learned is the betrayal is even part of the plan.
And if I follow my faith and stay true to
who I am, there is nothing, no one, know, nothing
(05:41):
that can take me out of who I am. And
the moment I step outside of myself, stuff just always happens.
Like y'all ever had those friends who can do stuff,
like all these truth plans and stuffuff. I'm like, I'm
the person that if I do this stuff, I'm going
to jail, Like I always get caught, Like I'm always
the one to get this called. I'll tell you a
whole story. I always minded my business. I really want
minded my business. But we were at Golden Glass skating
(06:01):
ring and glood and my mama gonna laugh because this
is for real. We'd a Golden Glads skating ring and
I went through a cussing phase, real bad, real real bad.
I was probably maybe what ten nine. I was in
summer camp, and it wasn't summer. I wasn't in basketball
camp thing because after that I was in camp every year.
And we were at Golden Glide and minded my business.
(06:22):
I might have set a couple in mephis and a
couple of dogs, and I used to cut hard and
so get home that night. My mama fried chicken everything
my mill of choice when I was little, with fried chicken,
macaroni and cheese. I grew up on Columbia Drive. I
used to be at my grandmother's house all the time.
But this time I went home and so my mom's
cooking and everything, and she's.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Like, so how was your dad camp?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
And I was like, it was good.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
You know, we skated listening to I Want to Sex
You Up? And Solda sould it was great.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I mean, this is nineties and she said, so, how
is that mouth of yours mouth she was talking about?
Willis say, I don't have no mouth.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I didn't saying anything. She said, oh, so you want
to cuss y'all? Her childhood best friend's nephew was in
there and he.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Told on me. And I still don't talk to that
boy this day.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
And I am not lying.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I just saw him and I did not speak because
because my mom was like, do ladies curse? And I
was like, how do you know this?
Speaker 4 (07:18):
And how?
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So what I started realizing was that the world was very,
very small at Decata, Georgia wasn't big at all. And
I knew that if I was going anywhere, that I
was a leader's child and Rosa's grandchild, and I had
to make sure I was always on my best behavior.
So even when it's difficult, even when I get to
these places where I'm like they really trying my four
oh four right now, I have to remember, first of all,
I'm God's daughter, but I'm Lolita's daughter and rose Field's
(07:40):
granddaughter too. So I can't embarrass my people, but people
will look and they will try you and gaslight you
to see how you will respond, and when you do
so with grace, And my response is always I'm God's daughter.
You don't mess with his children. They don't know how
to act because you know what they do for the
rest of their lives. Look over their shoulders because something
will transpire. And the other thing I've realized is that
(08:02):
it might not be you, but your children. Sometimes inherit
the sins of the mother and the father. So I
always try to do the right thing. I'm not a
perfect person, but if I can just help somebody, if
I can show up because I know that somebody is
waiting on me to show up so that they can
show up, I've done my part. And so that's really
(08:24):
what gets me through the hard times, the fun stuff,
the Belvedere drinks, all that, you know, just being authentically
who I am.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Because I don't know how to be anybody else. I
don't know how to do that.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
You got to be yourself because everybody else is taken right.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I'm the best person to ask me about, you know,
And so when people start talking crazy, Oh I heard listen,
I'm the best person to ask me about.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So you got some questions, I'm the best person to
ask me about.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
I love it like and I recognize that too, because
you know, I ain't groumb with Columbia Drives.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
You know, a group off of you know, South Harrison.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Your parents had a house laying hand on house.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
You know what I'm saying, shout hitting hills. You know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
If you know, you know you got a golf course
in your neighborhood, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
But I did grow up growing to the Greater Party
Girl Baptist Church off of Columbia.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I mean, I'm off of Glenwood, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Revend Jones, And my original pastor, William Flippan became the pastor,
and my mom was the head of the choir. And
I remember she would sit literally right in the main
like the choir seat, directly behind the past and she
could see me every Sunday, and she had this rule.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
She would always tell me, She's like, look, I don't
care what you do. You go out, you be.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Outside, but you know where you're gonna be at at
seven o'clock or seven forty five service every Sunday, is
you gonna be in church? And she looked she had
this thing. Your mom, ever did that really look look
right at you can find you anywhere you at in church.
I tried to go sneak out across street and get candy.
She knew about it. When I was messing up in
a Sunday school she knew about it. I mean my dad,
he didn't really care.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
My mom. She was on me though, So I know
you can.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
See they can see. So my my church family is
actually here, my Toto and my my church Memberdell.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
So I grew up.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
My grandmother grew up in a bluff in English Avenue.
She went to Washington High School. My big mama, who's
not here, that's me in Toto's big mama, Shawn's here,
they're here, is hey Shan.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
No, my family don't play about me. And that's so
that's another reason why I have to look remind people
like it ain't it ain't worth it. It's not worth it.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Because I got the cousins who went to college, also
got the cousins who went to prison. You don't want
to take chances on either one of them. But my
big mama, my mother, and we just talked about this.
My mother would weaponize my big mama. See, my big
mother was a very demure woman before the social media
fantasticism and all that, and so she would say, you know,
(10:50):
your big mama gonna see you you go to sleep,
and I would be like, how she gonna see me?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And I don't know what it was, y'all, but she
would know. She would know.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
She'd be like, oh, so you want to go out
to skate because you know, we used to have lock
ins back in the day before people started really killing
people and doing crazy stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
You just be able to go to the skate ring,
have a good time, lock in for a little bit,
you know.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And the one stipulation was if you lock in, you
going to church, and not only going to church, you
going to Sunday school, which means you got to get
to church an appur earlier before everything starts. And so
I'm in there and I'm ready, and big Mama would
be like, oh, so you can sit by me, and
I'm like, I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Sit by you. The church service, so that village, that
thing is for real.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
But again, my church, that's why I got a lot
of my stuff, my fight, my public speaking, my balance.
I think because I didn't know, I didn't know what
I didn't know at the time, but I was surrounded
by such amazing women and people who were literally a dream.
Like I think about them now and that's a part
of what I do at the girls houses. I believe
(11:52):
that every little girl should have a bomb village like
I did. I mean, had I had a good one.
I mean there's nobody I had in my space that
I can be like. Man, I wish I could have
all of them. I take pieces with them in every
room I enter, and I take them with me. And
so when I think about like what they meant, and
even when I want to go for or four, I'm
reminded that I'm covered by their prayers too.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
And I'm like, you know, it ain't even worth it.
It was kind of worth it.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
This morning when this girl was blocking me in my
street on Cassavere Hill, I ain't gonna tell nobody because
I send the picture of my mama.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I was like, I gotta see Brandon to night. I
can't go to jail. I got pictures. Ain't lying. But
I'm also reminded, like again, some people somebody shon't wait
on me to show up to be myself. And I
so I take a little bit.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I call my big mama wheezy, like weezy, and my
big Papa's name is Albert, so weezy. Albert like Albert
Johnson from Color Purple. If you ain't never seen Color Purple,
don't ask about Albert right now. But Weezy and Albert.
And then my grandmother was a statuesque woman and not
to be played with. I mean, Medea would be scared of.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
My grandmama like it was like for real, like for real,
like seriously, and she fair care of a gun and
all that. So I.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
I believe I take all of them with me. But
to your point about church, that's why most of my
my foundation comes from that. It comes from right down.
And matter of fact, you could well not now because
it's all messed up, but you could leave North Yards,
go straight down North Avenue and you're dead into my church,
which is Wendy Street Baptist Church, and it's was established
in nineteen twelve and that's where we still go into
(13:23):
this day.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
So you know, jih, some of the ato cars and
stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Every once in a while somebody pops up on social
media trying to like check my ATO card.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
You know, like, oh, what's butter about? How legit is?
Butter is Butter official? Who's behind? Who's this? I wasn't
born that great a, y'all. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I didn't have any I had a golf cars in
your neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
We don't get back to that. We used to steal
those golf cars. But one thing I can say about
JII is she has always been a supporter. I'm gonna
show you how much is a supporter. You've always been
hit the slide real.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Quick for me.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
I know you lie because we just talked about Now,
this was the Butter atl launch party in twenty eighteen eighteen.
I know I saw Bame up in here earlier. Bamee
where you at.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Bab's still here, bame Joiners are still up in there.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Thank God.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
The land influences everything. That's Jai right there, that's me,
Rashaan A Lee j Carter Bane. You remember that night
you see Atlanta on my shirt.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
I'm all, I'm real, I'm real about this thing, like
I'm all about my city. That is crazy.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I just asked you about that because He gave out
these really cool so you know, and Mark and you
get the cheap gifts.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Everybody be like, oh, you gotta spend a dollar per item.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
He gave us these really nice glass butter holders, and
I was so afraid to use it because it was
so nice.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
I still have it.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I'm sure this dishwashers safe, but I never used it.
It's still it's still in my house. But man, so
I'm gonna tell you what this means to me. Nicole
Garner called me and she said, you know Brandon, he's
from the Decatur. I'm like the one with the glasses.
And she was like, yeah, he's launching this thing and
it's all about Atlanta and culture. And I was heading
(15:03):
into my trajectory at there. For I think I was
probably a senior director or deputy. No, I wasn't a
deputy at that time, I forget, but I was something.
I had like fifty people in my group, and I
was just so happy to see somebody who looked like me.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Because you can google me, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
But I started realizing that no publications had anything nice
to say about me, ever, Atlanta Business Chronicle. But I
was forty under forty for that Atlanta magazine because I
was Atlanta five hundred.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
You know, actually three times.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I know you just got yours, got I just got
my third. But you're like five, You're like five, I'm
like three.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
And so when Nicole called and was like, yo, it's
a black publication. It's about the culture of Atlanta. It
ain't even black for religious really about the culture and
the fiber of the atl And I was like, I'm there.
I remember leaving and I had to sing where I
wore two tubes everywhere. Melissa remember this because I got
on't wanet right here. I used to wear them all
the time.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
I don't know what it was. Matter of fact, I
was on the stage one time we're rioting and I
wore two too. I was like, what's going on with me?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And so we had a hackathon on or me and
Joey Digital did something in here for for goody years ago.
But I remember it being like I just want to
support him, Like how can I help him? How can
I And so we started talking about that because I
remember one of my mentors always said, y'all have the
issue of trying to go all the way to the top.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Whenever y'all need stuff. You need to be looking Peter
peer group.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And then maybe two years ago Easter Race at the
same thing, she said, stop trying to go to the producer,
the EP of that person. You need to be looking
to the left and the right of you. So as
you guys rise together, your network will do that. And
it's true, y'all. I got friends that are cmo CEO, coos,
venture capitalists, the guy who owns the yacht and the bowl,
(16:41):
I mean, and we all started grinding as interns that
turning together. But this is what that reminds me of.
It was I was grateful to be in a room.
We're at that brewery over there, right, and I remember I.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Was so proud of you. I mean, I love all
things that that I can connect myself with. But I
know what it takes. I know how many no's, I
know how many tears. I don't how many gambles, y'all.
I'm dating. I am in a domestic partnership with the entrepreneur,
So pray for me.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Because his wins be big and the trips are great
and the bags are awesome. But I've had to also
learn that we don't win every day. And like what
that looks like, and so I know a lot of
entrepreneurs in this room. I'm telling y'all just stick with it.
The wind is coming. The wind is coming. The wind
is coming, the wind is coming. You're working on something
and the wind is coming. And I just remember being
so happy for your win, and I feel like, if
(17:34):
everybody can just celebrate the winds and now I would
like to be celebrating the Falcons win.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I think I'm gonna take your stand up comedy. I
think I got time in.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
But no, so literally, I was so happy for Brandon,
Like I was so happy for him because I was like,
he figured it out, he broke the cold, and if
I can help be there for him, if me showing
up is gonna make his press release look fly. I
had on a two two, so I was like anyway,
I had Atlanta on my shirt, so I figured. I
was like, but I'm so proud of you, Brandon, Like
(18:06):
you just read off my stuff, like, dude.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Do you know what majority is? Like? Do you know
what butter does?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Do you know that you literally can You were like
the warm buffet of Atlantic culture, Like if you move
your bricks, people start paying attention, like they do so
I got you on my Rollodex and we can have
water Barcelona. Like, I feel like I did something right.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
You know, I wasn't on really social media before I started, Butter,
I remember that night. I was like, if we can
just get the three hundred followers, this thing is gonna
be big. Like I remember saying that. I think it
was like two ninety seven. I think we had like
three oh one by the time the party started. And
I just remember like, if we just get the three
hundred followers, it's gonna be the biggest thing in Atlanta.
And you know, Joe came out, Jay Carter came Outshan
(19:00):
now they Rashan did a thing on on the on
TV the next day talking about it, and I was
just so honored that, you know, people like you all
again we were just building our relationships. Saw something in
me and you all believed in me. And again for
yose of y'all know me now again, you see, I
ain't got no black shirt now, so you know this
is this This tells you how old it does. That's
probably like my uniform every day. This you know, you know,
(19:23):
changed a little bit now, but it's still the same
old band. But again, thank you so much. Just I
just want to get in this show. Atlanta supports Atlanta.
And I think that's one of the things you'll see
more and more when you start kind of digging below
the surfaces, you'll see relationships like this right to where
now literally six years later, we're sitting here, you know,
talking about not just Butter atl And and you know
(19:45):
the airport. We're talking about you now being the CEO
of the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, you know, me
and majority and Butters become this whole other thing, and
like again, just this is the moment, this is literally
a moment right here that I really have never shared
this photo.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
No, just picture that.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
So I'm like, would you I got something for you,
my old what you're gonna do. But but I'm also
tell you what that means is that greatness surrounds itself
with greatness. And like we have this saying in my
family with competitives, second place is the first loser, because
so don't try for second place.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
And then iron shoppers iron.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
So you shopping your iron, you shopping your mind, you
shopping your body, you shopping your family, you shopping your
financial health, your wellness.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
The people who are around you.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I see somebody who's right here, and yeah, I'm calling
everybody else, So y'all better hope I don't see these
blinders over here. I remember being in Atlanta Station, not
Atlantic Station. Atlanta Station is where Eric Gordon used to live.
And Eric had had this crazy show at one point,
and he was we were I could be honest with
my friends, probably dangerously honest. They don't fight me, but
(20:46):
they want to usually when it's when we're talking about things.
And Eric hat this show because I was at that time,
I was I think was I incubating that Turner or
I was coming out of incubation at Turner. I think
I was coming out of it, and so I saw
what was getting sold. So I like work on like
Welcome to Dreamland and Monica Show and Nephie and all them.
And I was telling him. I was like, Eric, this
is not it, like we gotta do this, we gotta
do that, y'all. We used to be in his three
(21:07):
story townhouse. It will be a whole bunch of deuce.
He was a person who put me on superfoods early
because he did this whole buff thing. He wanted to
show his muscles this before he was a father and
her husband. But I just remember being like, yo, like
we got something so special and we all we had
to do is just keep tweaking. And now he's like,
oh yeah, i'mna be in Coln this week because I'm
doing this pitch. Oh yeah, I'm gonna be over here,
and Martha's ving doing that. I'm like, dang, can I
(21:28):
get a plus one to come with you? But I'm
so proud of that because I remember the grind, right,
I remember doing the crazy Immerging one hundred events and
like trying to like see out what life was. And
so I'm so proud of my people, and I take
y'all with me, I promise. So when somebody's like, yo,
I'm looking for a marketing person, I'm like, oh, I
got somebody, or I'm looking for a person who does this.
(21:49):
Oh yeah, I got somebody I'm developing. And now don't
do that out to midje website. I got somebody.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I'm always like trying to help because I also know
that now my voice has prowess and before it did it.
But you know how I got that is because there
were people speaking my name in rooms that I was
not in and who were like, she could do this.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
I have to tell you this. I did not apply
for this job. I didn't. I did not apply for
this job Edbie parsons.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
If y'all don't know Ebbie, don't follow him on social
media because he's an avid supporter of crazy.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Things, at least to after November. But when.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I love Ebbie, so I knew if Ebbie's work because
I have a lot of family friends. I'm'a spell my woman,
but half of my friends, more than half of my friends,
was a fam and so I heard of Ebbie before
Ebbie knew of me.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
I didn't know he knew who I was, and I
knew his wife, Ayana.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
She's a former co founder for Fearless Funds and you
should know about her, and so I thought they were
just super dope. Right when my close friend called and
was like, hey, Naima's doing some work with Ebbie.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
They're looking for something. Can they call you mind you y'all?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
This probably was the week before we went to dinner
because I was gonna tell Brandon I needed a job
because I wasn't sure what I was gonna do. I
just knew my season at the airport had departed. And
it was time for me to move on.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
And I remember being like, yo, like Ebbie knows.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Me, because what I knew about Ibbi was that he
had placed bowl Saint John at Netflix.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
So I'm like, this is the guy, right, like, this
is the guy. You know my name?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
You know about me? Did I cut some old like
and what did I do? Did I say something crazy
on a Facebook post?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Because I'm good for that.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I've calmed down on my keyboard courage because I'd been
trying to see about people on some of these posts,
but I've learned I can't do that anymore.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
But Ebbie was like, hey, I think this would be
a great opportunity.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
You gotta sign an NDA And I was like, I
never had to sign an NDA before for a job application,
like to talk about it, and he said, oh no,
you don't understand. We've been talking about you in some
circles anyway, and your name was shortlisted for something in JFK,
but I diverted you here, and I was like.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Wait, ain't nobody in New York called me and talk
to me about anything?
Speaker 1 (23:51):
But it goes to show you that your name might
be on lists and in places where people are already
paying attention to you and you have a pulse on
so many things. And he was like, hey, is this opportunity.
It's nonprofit. I was like, oh, nonprofit means no money.
He said, no, it hits your comp I said, okay,
let's have a conversation. And so then and then we
started talking and he started talking about the bonuses and
the things. And then he was like, look, you get
(24:12):
to be Ji. And I was like, so you sure
they don't expect nobody else because I don't how to
be nobody else. Now they're gonna see this black girl
come in there and all this magic, all six feet
of it. And then so I go in and he's like, oh,
I didn't just put you in. Your name was already
on a list from a board member. And I got
one of my comedy people in here.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Where is she? I don't see her this year? Hey, bo,
I don't have my glass because I got these lashes on.
And this is not gonna work out.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
But but I just remember talking to people who were like,
you're special and it's so crazy. So okay, have y'all ever,
y'all bet I've seen this before. Have you ever seen
what's love got to do? With it.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
So that's my one of my Grandma' favorite moved.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Just one of the last movies we saw South of
kamp Mall before it turning the South Africa Mall. I
don't have a movie THEA tomorrow. It is South af
Come on, it's nothing there. We should buy it. Actually,
I just let's go like we should. Let's South finish
line right there. Then I went to g G because
(25:14):
they had cheap clothes. When I went back to finish
line so I can get my sneakers. But we went
to see it, and my vivid memory of it is
when Anime Bulllock was singing this little Light of Mine
in the beginning and I'm gonna let it shine, and
then the quad director was like, you're doing way too
much and pulled her by her ear and pulled her out.
But I show that clip in my talks because that's
(25:35):
how I want to sing this little light of mind.
So before every talk, even today, I sing this little
light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine to myself.
I used to sing it in my Kanye voice, but
then Kanye stopped being Kanye, so I stopped singing it
the way that he sings it. But when when I
say it to myself. I do say this little light
of mine because guess what, this is the only light
I have. It is the only one I got, and
(25:55):
I have to let it shine or I'm not showing up.
So this little light of mine, I don't care how
little it is, but all it takes is light to
push out darkness.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
And that's what I try to do.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
John, What Yeah, come on, Clap for that. Clap for that.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
You know, one of the things you talked about was
your name being your name being mentioned in rooms you're
not in, and just people advocating for you. And again
I can tell you I remember when I went through
my NBA program at Georgia Tech. One of the things
they talked about is at a certain level, these jobs
aren't going to be on LinkedIn, They're not going to
be on glass door.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Like there's a certain level.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
The same thing that happened to me with majority right,
Like the same thing I was doing my thing and
I get like a random message on LinkedIn from shack
and this guy named no Meat.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
I thought I was a scam. I was like, what
is this?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
And all of a sudden, my room was my neiame
was being spoken in the room. Somebody from Coke had
recommended me. They said, you know what, y'all are starting
this agency in Atlanta. We think there's a lot of opportunities.
Go talk to this guy. I had never met them
before in my life, and we came, we sat down
and talked, and now I'm a partner at the agency.
You know, we got semi acquired last year. So again
it's important, y'all gotta understand these relationships at a certain
part really matter. Just kind of speak on that for
(27:01):
a second, right, Like, what is it like kind of
going through that process. But also, how do you, you know,
plant those seeds you trying to talk about the idea
of you know, small steps and leading the bigger things.
How do you kind of plant those seeds so those
opportunities do happen.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
So one thing I'll say is authenticity, y'all know what
y'all gonna get. I'm this person all the time. It
sayds a makeup in lestions because I really don't worry
these and it's really this one right here is really
bothering me. Shout out on my makeup artist, Rayeh, she's great.
But being authentically yourself and showing up see most of
them laughing.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
But they used to this already.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
They they I really, I really could be on common View,
but no, seriously, so authentically I show up as myself.
But what I learned very early at those nice days
on ten fifty tech Wood Drive as an intern and
also at seven fifty five hang Air and Drive as
an intern where my mother actually used to pass out
programs and napkins and things like that as an usher.
And then I get an internship and I was the
(27:51):
only black girl there that year. I learned very how
important it was to have advocates. So there's a different
and mentor and sponsors. Mentors these are the people I
talk about my stuff with. They're almost my therapists, but
I don't pay them. I talk about things, approaches. They
may even prove of an email for me because I
(28:12):
might be two, four or four in it, so I
have to remind myself about how my posture is and
they can check me in an emotional way. My sponsors
are one hundred percent transactional. Do not get it twisted.
They know exactly while they're in my book because guess
what they need me is currency too, because a lot
of times they need to be able to say, Oh, no,
I know an amazing black woman who does this. I
(28:33):
know somebody in Dei that does that. Oh I have
somebody in Atlanta. Oh my god, you're trying to get
the Brandon Giant. Brenda are really closed, She mentors his daughter.
You'll be amazed at what people say in those rooms.
And guess what, sometimes they're not happening in rooms, ladies.
So let me look at me real quick. Get you
some male sponsors. Okay, get you some because even now
in twenty twenty four, a lot of the opportunities I've
(28:55):
gotten it's because men have been on the golf course
or to speak easy or the cigar room.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Because there are still spaces we're.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Not in right, And so I had to learn very quickly, like, Okay,
Dan Gordon likes me, let me work on this. Alex
Urban PGA Tour executive director thinks I'm cool. So I
gotta show up to the PGA tour like I started
putting things together. And guess what, they were more happy
to see me there because there was no intimidation factor
for them.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
They were happy to usher me into the room.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
They were happy to say ji with somebody I invited,
and the reason that is also important is because it's
like trying to go viral. You know those people who trying,
like these crazy people who keep going on this baby
oil up thinking that it's gonna make them look cool,
and it's really not.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
It's really kind of yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
And I ain't gotta say what y'a already know and
so and I'm thinking, you're trying so hard to be viral,
You're trying so hard to do something.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
If you're yourself and show up, those are the moments.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
I'm pretty sure the nice young lady who said very
demure and very mindful had no idea that people will
be talking about this a whole month later, right. It
was just that person being authentically who they were. It's
the same thing where you're talking about showing up in
these rooms. But here the one thing that I have
to say to all of us have a plan. A
lot of y'all, Oh, John, can you help me do what?
Speaker 4 (30:07):
You know? What I mean?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
People come to you, hey, I want help for what
you know?
Speaker 1 (30:11):
What do you want help for? In the terms of Joey,
I don't think he's here because he was under the weather.
But we talked about MVPs and mxvps. If you've ever
done ideation before, you know exactly what this is from
design thinking, what is your minimum viable product to get
where you're trying to go. So when somebody asks you
what you want, don't give me what you want five
years at the capital investment and after some ideation and
(30:32):
after your film is finished, what do you want?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I need a meeting with the producer at Viacom. Can
you help me with that?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Not I want to be you know, produced and on
Netflix that you're not ready yet. And the other thing
is when you start talking about these things, align yourself
with people who do what you do, who can champion you.
I think sometimes we want things to be ready, wanted,
the microwaved, we want the thirty second button hitting it
(30:59):
to work, and just does not work that way. One
of my favorite methods is Samuel ed Jackson. And if
you look when he became Samuel L he was already fifty,
already fifty, already kicked out of more House all at
already fifty.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
And so when you start talking.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
About those things, you had to think about like, maybe
my time isn't yet, but trust and keep working, keep digging,
keep moving in that direction.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
It's okay to pivot too. That's the other thing.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Fail.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
If you're gonna fail, fail fast, fail forward, dust yourself off,
but move on to the next thing. A lot of
times were perpetually failing, and now you've lost money and time.
Sometimes respect depend upon who money you lost. So I'm
talking to the entrepreneurs here. But when I talk about
you have to believe in yourself. A lot of people
want to be next to sunshine, right, They want to
be next to lights. So bring your light to whatever
(31:50):
it is that you're doing and be proud of that.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
I'm not you know.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
I talk to my partner all the time because I
believe I'm the baddest shack in the room. And let
me tell you, because my mama told me long time ago, baby,
you can't be sure.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
That's not who you are. You're not gonna have no
big old booty. That ain't who you are.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
You're not gonna have real you know this, ain't it right,
That's not who you are. But be who you are
and be true to that part of you, and people
will literally come to you. It's like a magnet. My
mom gets to ask all the time, like has she
always been like this? And miss Dale right here can
tell you she'd been with me since before I was
with me. Matter of fact, Julia is named after my
grandmother and my mother will talk about that later. But
miss Dale, my church member here, is only before me.
(32:31):
And I've always had this light always because I've always
just been who I was. I couldn't be anybody else.
So if I leave you with nothing, find you somebody
who can speak your name in a room you're not in,
and they don't have to look like you. Blackness doesn't
always meaning having black mentors and sponsors.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Blackness means having an ally. I take them all.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
I take the ones who are not Atlanta centric but
are cultural adjacent. I take the ones who are trying
to figure out what a vibe is and I can
be their vibeure. I take the ones who are trying
to find whate to put their money because they don't
know you can always buy girls scout cookie, but I
need more than that from you.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I take the ones who.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Are starting an app or a dot com platform that
nobody really understood in twenty eighteen but still figured it
out later. I take the people who are just about
wanting to be around good people and good vibes, because
that's where you cultivate, that's where you build and you learn. Again,
when Brandon was a matter of fact, what they were
talking about it as a website. I was like, a website,
like because talking with Tammy was big back then, and
(33:31):
Shandra rolls ooh, and so I was like, is it
gonna be like that because I don't want to do
Atlanta johnt.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
They're like, no, it's culture.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
And then Bang always been talking about everything starts in
Atlanta child, He's the Atlanta unofficial mayor, right, And I
was like, is it like bang stuff?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Now it ain't really bang stuff either. I'm like, well,
Bang gonna beat her? So how is it? Like? It
was just so weird.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
So what I will tell you is this is how
you meet people in these rooms. You'll be amazing how
many of my c sweet friends are sitting right here
tonight to come support me.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
You have no idea what that looks like. The other
thing is show off your people. Show up for them.
It means the world to them, and they will show
up for you.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
And sometimes that might be an email, a LinkedIn connection,
taking their kids to vacation, and then him telling me
that she is always supposed to go to spell men.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
She don't know that yet.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
But the day before we go to Calaway, Gardens's gonna
call me talking about we're not gonna make it.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
I'm like, we've been planning this. We go to Calaway
every year for five, seven, ten years. Like what are
you talking about?
Speaker 1 (34:25):
But again, get people around you who you can trust,
who you think you can keep your kids with, right,
Like if you if you got a question if these
people should be around your family, your kids, Get you
some new friends.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
I think one thing that a lot of people don't
realize is, you know, they see the titles and the roles,
they see this stuff. But one thing I think it
kind of gets, you know, glossed over, especially like in
this entrepreneurship game that Atlanta likes to play specifically, is
that like building something is hard, and not only is
it hard, it's hard on you personally, mentally, emotionally. I
(35:07):
got to tell this story about there was a time
when I had a chain of web design stores and
you know, we were doing okay and things were happening.
I had like three different locations, I had employees that
worked for me, and you know, I didn't know anything
about P and L's. I remember I got a copy
of quick Books and I went and like knocked on
this accountants firm that was by my house and said,
you just show me how to I paid to guy
one hundred bucks and say, you just show me how
(35:28):
to use this so that I can do right by
my employees.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
I remember one time I literally drove my had my man.
I loved that car.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
I had my nineteen ninety five accurate RL and I
drove it to Title Wow. And I was sitting in
the parking lot because I had to make payroll, and
I was like, I can title upon my car right
now to make payroll.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
And I remember I got an email.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
And that that one email that I got was enough
money to help cover my employees for the next two weeks.
So I don't think people talk about that kind of stuff, right.
So leadership and building something is hard. But on the
other side of that, how do you especially running a
two billion dollar you know, organization, especially running now the
Girl Scouts of Atlanta with over thirty thousand people, Like
how do you manage your well being in mental space
(36:08):
in trying to build what you're doing? Because you got
to be able to show up too, and again, you're your,
you are you, but you're also still a person.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Oh absolutely, I'll say this leadership is lonely. I remember
when me and Melissa were at Turner. Melissa got y'all.
They sent Steve Conan sent her a UK and she
did Turner Europe and everything.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
I was just still working the bridess. I was really jealous.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
But one of the things we wanted was in office
with our name. Oh my god, office was our names
on it, Like there goes LORI, y'all. But I told
you my friends, they they show for me. But but
I want an office with my name on it. And
that was all I was working towards. Like I never understood,
Like I was like, I want to be that person
that they talk about in the press releases.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I've learned now, Yeah, I really would rather not you
talked about in the press. I've had enough, fresh child.
My Google footprint is deep.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
But when it comes to this idea of what leadership is,
we just look at what we're aspiring to have because
we're looking out of this this gaze of the glory.
My mother's guy brother, my uncle, Craig Oliver, has a
sermon that he talks about not understanding the story behind
the glory and what it takes to get there and
(37:21):
how I mean he's dyslexic and all these things that
nobody knew anything about. And he's a mega guy, right,
he's the guy to know. And he would he would
always tell me to stay true to myself and my faith,
and a pray don't have to be long. It could
just be simple as lead me and guide me, oh Lord,
because sometimes that's all I had words for. Because when
(37:41):
you were being attacked again, I'm very googleable, when you
were being attacked publicly and you have these people coming
for you, My honey said, he still owes me another
dinner at the pass Very Houston's because I could not
enjoy my rabbi because I was crying so dog on
hard because I was tired.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
You know, you get tired, You like, why am I fighting?
Why am I doing this?
Speaker 1 (38:05):
But there's this this this concept and I can't remember
the person's same now we'll put it somewhere in the chat,
but it says until you commit, everything's gonna seem crazy.
But the moment that you commit to something, providence will
move to and things that you do not expect outside
of your control will start to move in your favor.
(38:28):
And I start realizing I was I was doubting myself.
Like then I was like, wait a minute, you got
a interroom with confidence. Because I used to go into
rooms afraid and asking for permission to be there because
I felt like I was so grateful to have the opportunity.
And I started realizing I was like, oh wait, I'm
the only one with this amazing dax ribo nucleic ascid
(38:49):
that's DNA and there if anybody else can be me,
then I wouldn't be here. And so I started realizing
that it was a blessing for me to step into
that room, and that was purpose for me to be
in that room. And there was some rooms I wasn't
supposed to be in. There were some clients when I
was consulting and figuring out my life out I didn't
need to take. There were some people who I just
needed to distance myself from because I started realizing I
(39:11):
don't even like them like that I like for real
and it's just like the people consulting. You'd be like
I really hate this client, just let it go. But
I also started realizing, like I have to make time
for myself. As a matter of fact, my cousin has
graduated from college May third. She'll be the first dds
in our family. She's going to medical school after she's
at Tennessee State. She just crossed ALTFHA cap Alps already incorporated,
(39:33):
and we're so proud of her. Well, I got a
board meeting that was already pre scheduled pre PJ, which
I called PREGI, and so I called my board chair
to di text. I said, I ain't gonna be here
May third, So y'all can have this ward meeting, but
I'm not gonna be here because I started realizing, I
stopped showing up for my family, and I started feeling lonely.
I stopped showing up for the birthday parties, the bridal showers,
the fish fries, the meean up to wash the falcons.
(39:56):
Hopefully when they didn't do it that a lot these
last couple of years, but maybe they were going forward
where I started.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
I stopped showing up for those things because I was embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
You ever felt like everybody knew what was going on,
like everybody you know was well in the reality was
your family just wanted you to be who you were
and I started surrounding myself with people whose eyes were
lighting up when they saw me. I forgot that gentleman's name,
but he was like, be around people whose eyes light
up when they see you coming. And that's when I
(40:24):
started being like, you know what, I want to be
around people who love me level crum. David Banner a
good friend of mine. We were just talking about. He
and I just did American sash. Where was that worstraquiler?
I think it was, I can't remember Saturday Friday. So
we just did American Chess. And one thing that David
Banner said to me, and we talk about this a lot,
because he'd be on some godboxing, some biblical ancestry stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Y'all just got to watch this stuff. Oh watch Fight
Night too, because he's good in that.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
But he was saying to me, he was like Joe,
I stopped going places where I had to I couldn't
put my back to the door, and I ain't feel love.
I stopped going places where I felt that way. And
so I challenged you, as leaders, if you get to
a point, well, I listen. People thought I was gonna
be the CEO of the airport. I never signed up
for that. Let me be clear, I never asked for that.
(41:07):
I always wanted to keep having fun. And if you've
ever been to any of my talks, you know that
I have fun and everything I do, I'm the same
person in front of air bashing. I'm the same person
all the time. But when it stopped feeling like fun,
and when I couldn't sleep, and when I had to
have a conversation with my mother, I was coming back
from Africa. I never seen anything as beautiful as Africa
my life. Literally, I felt so one with everything. I mean,
(41:29):
I feel like my body was sage, like I was
say out there and I was like, what is going on?
And I called my mother and I was like, Mom,
I can't do this no more. But she said, you
have done enough and it is okay. And turning down
your next or saying that you were done and leaving
on your own will is not the same as quitting.
(41:50):
And all I needed was that permission from my mama
and my BOO said you don't have to do this.
I called Melissa and I was in tears. I was like,
ma'am Mail, one of my ball of friends.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
I was like, mal, I just want to pay my
mortgage you know, I want to just be able to
take care of my family because I'm not for my
family right like I'm just that one I always have been.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
By the way, I'm being a mother isn't my ministry,
but I'm a mother to a lot of folks kids.
And I just was like, I can't. I don't want
to feel like I'm quitting. I felt like if I
was leaving I again, Land of five hundred decorated. I'm
actually aviations forty under forty. I got that when I
was thirty six years old and I was the only
black girl on the docket. Like I was. I was like, Mama,
(42:33):
if I leave, they gonna think that I did something.
And she said, you were leaving with your pride, and
you are leaving for peace.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Baby, You're not quitting.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
So I'm speaking to someone who's trying to figure out
if they to sign that deal, take that job, stay
on that course.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Continue.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
It is perfectly fine to raise the white flag for
your peace. It's not about the black girl failing, because
that's another whole conversation. And have in Kumbaya and sit
and sing, you know the Ceilionetti songs about right, like
the feeling of failure because I had been propped up.
But what I also started realizing was you were being
(43:10):
propped up, so if you failed, they could say it
was because you were a black girl. And I start realizing, like,
oh my god, that's what this is. So let me
do the graceful thing. Let me choose my integrity, let
me choose my illumination and my light, let me choose
my energy, and let me choose myself. Right, y'all, I've
(43:31):
had days went in between time when I was trying
to figure out my life.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
I used to live. I still live in Castlebury Hill.
That's why I got here in five minutes.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
But I used to be afraid when So we had
this fence, so we actually live right underneath pascals on
top of pascals, and the garage was underneath, and it
was a roll up garage.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
And you know, people just best messing up.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
So if you know how it is when you live
in communities where people mess up again and everything, well,
the gate protected me because report man can come get
my car. See that's see listen, and I remember, and
then my ac compressor went out and I can try
to get the m man.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Hen we done came a long way.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
When when I started thinking about literally it goes back
and I guess, go bi before.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
When I look back over my.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Life and I think things over, I can truly say
that I've been blessed.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
I have a testimony.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
And so when I start thinking about that and I
think about leadership, we are not here to be broken.
We are here to give the treasure of which has
been bestowed to us. And when the person of which
you're issuing your treasure to refuses it, don't let somebody
tell you more than once they don't want you.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
And that's what people were doing.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
I wasn't playing in Atlanta way, I wasn't playing Atlanta game,
and I had no idea when we talked.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Remember I told I was like, I don't know what
I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
I literally got every phone call that following week and
text you a green heart because I was like, Yo,
this is weird, but I'm trying to tell y'all you
have to have faith. And it's scary and it is lonely,
but trust it will be all right. It may look
different than what you thought. It might not come in
that nice package, it might not even have a bow
(45:09):
on it, but it may be your gift and be
okay with stepping into the unknown. Do I know anything
about nonprofit by laws and regulations?
Speaker 2 (45:17):
I got people for that. Do I know anything about law? No.
I had a whole bunch of contracts, but at the
airport I had twenty lawyers. I have people for that.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
There will be positions that God will put you in
that you were not qualified for. Trust and believe and
you won't have to apply.
Speaker 4 (45:34):
For I only got one word to say. Message.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
You know, you talk about stuff like transition. You talked
about the challenge and again as especially in this world
we live in this Atlanta entrepreneurship space where everything's on
social media. It's hard to walk away from that stuff.
And you're so publicly successful, trus I dealt with those
same challenges. I went through a very large legal battle.
A lot of people don't know when I left the
agency that I started butter At. I was in litigation
(46:19):
with them for nine months. I remember, and I was
paying for butter out my pocket and it was bloody,
and it was bloody, It was messy, but I had
to fight for it because what I didn't want to
do is I didn't want to walk away from it.
And all of a sudden, if it became something else,
y'all be looking at me. Y'all have been saying, oh, okay, No,
he wasn't who he said he was. He wasn't really
doing what he said he was gonna do, or he
was really just this. So I had to fight for that,
(46:39):
for my own peace of mind and my own reputation
because I had built something in public and I was
so public about it being so different that these people
tried to take it from me and I had to
fight them for nine months to get it. So I
get it and understand transition. But on the other side
of transition, though, good things happen. And now you are
now the CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta,
the first one in one hundred years, over hundred years.
(47:01):
My question for you is in this role now, how
do you see all those experiences rolling up and for
you to be able to kind of change this culture
and make your new vision for the Girl Scouts of
Atlanta Greater Metro Atlanta, Like, what do you see that becoming?
Speaker 2 (47:14):
So there are two things.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
There's one book, Carla Harris, Expect to Win is real easy,
you should read it. And I'm not a reader, by
the way, so if I'm giving you these books, it
is because they probably real easy to read.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
On a playing flight from Atlanta to New York. You
can be done. So Expect to Win is one of them.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
And the other book I can't I think his name
is Franz, but it's called The Metachi Effects in the
Medici Effects. In the book, it talks about how they
bring all these people from different backgrounds to solve one
common issue. And what I realized was that And this
goes out to Vicky Hamilton. She is one of my mentors,
but she talks about this idea of having tools in
your toolbox that were transferable skills that will be able
(47:50):
to get you somewhere. What Eric could tell you is
that I'm really I'm killer on Adobean Graphics and Premiere
and I could do all of that right.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
So I was a one woman show like I used
to be able.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
To do my own events, build my own creative, build
my own spots and pre role and people thought I
was a big agency and I was thinking it till
I made it the whole time. My honey, tell you,
I can build a website in a couple of minutes
and they're like, oh my god, this is amazing.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
He has an idea.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
I just bought the Groogle domain from whatever, you know,
seven dollars on wits. But it was the idea of
the presentation. I knew how to do that very well.
And then also I had a little bit of charm
and I had a lot of a little bit of brilliance,
and I was smart enough to enter the room. I
started realizing, you know, I had everything I needed. I
had the expertise, I had the leadership, I had the
(48:34):
transferable skill set.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
I just had to believe I could do the job.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
A lot of times we go in and we're grateful
that people just interviewed us, not understanding that we're actually
a KPI that somebody's trying to meet. We're the key
performance indicator they're trying to find, and instead of us
being who we are, we're coming in with levels of gratitude.
That's why we are so disproportionately paid less, both black
women and brown men than any other race, because we
go in just grateful to be in a room.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
Oh thank y'all so much, and so m a no lie.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
One of my mentors says, stop entering the room with
an absence of confidence.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
So what now? Now? What I play along with this
a lot of mine.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
I play optimistic by sounds of blackness because I'm like,
you can win as long as you keep your head
to the sky, like you could whatever is going to
be in the midst of all your sorrow, right, as
long as you win. And I'm blasting this in them folks,
uh parking lot at the Girl Scouts And so yeah,
I listen every now and then. I might listen to
trape Dot too, because sometimes I do sell bricks when
(49:30):
I'm on the way to work.
Speaker 4 (49:32):
Just silly.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
But but what happens is that you have everything you need.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
We're always trying to find ways of to say, Okay,
I don't check off this box. It might be volunteerism.
It might be at your church, it might be in
your community. It might be some freelance thing you did.
It might stop finding reasons for you not to be
good enough. I think some of it's the trauma in
our bloodline, and we'll get through that, maybe, I'm hope.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
But that's why we do what we doing for zoe'
so zo.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
We don't have to feel this way, right, So when
you try to each bloodline, each generation. You try to
remove the trauma each time. At least we should, and
if you're not, you should be trying to do that.
Because that's what I realized. Like, I was like, Okay,
I have everything I need. A matter of fact, they y'all,
I ain't never been on no job interview or no
job process where they give you a leadership assessment. I
(50:19):
took a Hogan assessment. I don't take everything Maya's Bridge.
They told me I should be a farmer.
Speaker 4 (50:23):
It was so random.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
Shane's finder truths find their true colors, you know, take
all of them. One of the things they told me
was that I was too resilient. I had never heard
of that before. Mind you, these are not people who
look like me giving me the test. I'm like, what
are you talking about. I'm not too I'm too resilient.
Like I'm like, do you know what this like to
be black in America? So what she told me was
(50:48):
the opportunity in my resilience is that I was dismissive
of other people's ability to process because I would be like, Okay,
that didn't work, let's move on.
Speaker 2 (50:57):
But she was like, as a leader, you have to
be able to that that some.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
People need to dwell here for a moment, right, you
need to feel the I'm not a really good pacifier either,
so I'm like, if people start crying in my office,
I'm gonna be freaked out. So like, I'm trying to
figure it out. So she told me, she said, I
want you to give yourself a moment. It might be
the end of the day, maybe give them to the
end of the week, but give them a deadline for
(51:20):
to feel the grief, the transition, the harm or whatever
and then move on.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
But my resilience comes from my mother. My resilience comes from.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
So y'all know the reason I love Outcasts is because
Outcast was storytelling.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Also the greatest group absolutely speak a speaking box Love
Below came out twenty years a day. Kick It on
butter At like that post.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
But there's a portion that was so important to me
because on Elevators it talks about how he caught the
eighty six lath onon from headed Todicator. My mom and
I used to ride the eighty six lith Onion for real.
It's on the corner of columb Drive in Rainbow and
Me and my boo Because I wanted to show him
where I was from. He from the country y'all got.
They got probably eight hundred people in the town. He's
(52:07):
from Mississippi. I ain't lying.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
It ain't no y'all. It adn't no gravel is no.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
They don't even have a golden pantry. If you country,
you know you got a golden patrie. They ain't got
one of those. But he went to college and Officer
Oxford and played football. But go dogs, we're gonna have
a thing in a couple of weeks because Georgia plays
Oh miss. But I went took him to Decatur, and
I was like, I gotta show you something because he's
so me and my mama talking the phone every morning.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
He knows this.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
Everybody knows this. Melissa knows this. Everybody know that I'm
be on the phone my mama around. I'm not a
morning person. So around about seven thirty eight o'clock, we'll
be talking the whole time, and before my grandmother transitioned,
it will be the three of us. The people that
Turner even knew this, They will leave me alone until
I got to phone my mom and my grandmother. My
mother's resilience of the eighty six, lath Onion headed to Decatur.
I wanted him to see where my mama used to
(52:52):
have to walk. I wanted him to understand that she
ain't gonna never have to pay She might have to
pay a car note, but she's not gonna have to
pay assurance for the Because I wanted Malcolm to understand,
I was like, I want you to see what this
comes from. My mother is beautiful, like she gives Leila,
I lead the rest of them a run for day money.
You want to go see how fine she was. She
was real fine for her for theyse class room in
you last week, and so she was she she was.
(53:14):
She was a batty for real. And so I showed Malcolm.
We were walking up the here y'all ever been indicator,
you know, you coming from south of Camp Mall and
you coming straight up like you going to Columby Drop
and you go down that hill and up that big
old hill where matthis Dairy is.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
My mother used to walk that every day and.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
The way that she would Now I know this, I
have a love for funians, you know, honey bun and
orange juice.
Speaker 2 (53:37):
Because we was stopped by matthis Dairy.
Speaker 1 (53:40):
Because my mother would get me something to give me
a distraction from how long we were walking, and so
I wanted I told Malcolm because Malcolm was like, wait,
your mom used to walk this, I'm like, every every day.
And she was also a Santa's Oh if we had
the first black Santa Claus or rest in peace Missus
Stanta because he passed away, but we had the first
black Santa Claus, and that's where she would work. And
(54:00):
so when we talked about resilience and I had to
explain to my leadership person, I was like, ma'am, that
stuff is in the fiber who I Am Like, I
can't just let that go because it's not convenient for
this workplace. But what I started to realize was I
could use those things as tools to bring and level
up the next person, to give them opportunities to learn
about resilience. The only reason I'm sitting here is because
there are people who believe that I could do something that. Okay,
(54:22):
I don't know anything about planes, but I knew that
they obviously can't be that close together, because then something happened,
Like you know what I'm saying, Like, I knew that
it takes a lot of energy to push and turn
the propellers on. So don't stand right here. Like there
were some things I knew, and so I also started
to educate myself. Google's your friend, but like I got
friends in spaces. I was like, okay, nonprofit Milton Little.
(54:45):
I have been calling the Milton every week. I'm like,
how do you do this? How does this work? So
to answer your question and to go back to center.
My resilience is what keeps me centered. But I use
my network all the time. If I don't know something,
I'm not afraid to ask. I'm pretty smart, but I
don't know everything. Even when I was in HBS, I
was the only black girl in my group, and I
(55:07):
used to be like, I'm tired of being the only one. Jesus, please,
I need an ally, a sister, soldier, somebody. But I
just remember, you know, I was like, Okay, I'm here
for a reason. So now guess what I got people
who are financial years for nonprofits. They might be on
the countries, but I can call him and be like, hey,
how does this work? How do ohd j'ade just do
this or just do that. So when it came down
to being a CEO, because I was reminded that I'm
(55:28):
the trifecta. I've been in corporate government and now nonprofit,
and so I wasn't prepared for nonprofit, so you think,
but I started realizing, I was like, well, wait, nonprofit
is just a tax designation.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
It's still a multimillion dollar business.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
And so when I started looking at my core and
I'm still in my first one hundred days, I'm like,
oh no, no, no, no, this is twenty million dollar
revenue generated business. I do'tant to make money if I
can't do nothing else right, And so I'm like, to
your point about P and L statements and just in
hygiene of the data and asking if you don't know,
just ask. I think a lot of times we're so prideful, like,
oh god, I don't want to look dumb. I can
(55:59):
assure you messing up and doing the publicly look way
more dumb than if you asked before you did it.
Speaker 2 (56:03):
And so I put my pride aside.
Speaker 1 (56:07):
That's the other thing, and I was okay with asking,
and and you know what, I started realizing people respected
me more when I asked. I was like, look, I don't,
I don't I have never done this before, or I'm
not sure about X, and I gave a finite response.
It was respect there, and they saw that I valued
them because I had enough courage to come and ask them.
And they were like, oh my god. You know so
(56:28):
I think put your pride aside. But again, when you
enter that room, don't enter it with an absence of confidence. Listen,
the first black woman in one hundred and three years.
I pray every morning. There are still some places that
I cannot go by myself in the thirty five counties
I served, because they still have some sun downtowns. We
went to what was that we went too? We went
(56:50):
to Armucci, Georgia and yeah, so i'n'na tell you all
about it with our girls scouse do in there. We
went to Armucci, Georgia, and then we went to Luthersville
and believe or not, did you know that it's fifteen
hundred acres of rolling hills properties. I have oversight over
three lakes. One is one hundred acres large. We have
possession of sixty eight horses. I have a twenty million
(57:13):
dollar revenue business. Cookies is just one vertical of that
portion of the program. So when I talk about girl Scouts,
I know she's cute in front of your publics and
support her, But I need you to support other ways too,
because I have a full program.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
Of things that we offer.
Speaker 1 (57:27):
But I started realizing, I was like, Malcolm, I can't
go out here by myself because there are still some
people that are not happy that I'm sitting here. And
I know that all I ask is to give their
daughters a chance to change the world. That's all I ask.
That's all I ask. That's all I ask. I get
I know the seat that I occupy. I asked that
y'all keep me coven in prayer and keep me undemonished
(57:50):
from my four or four because she'd be jumping out
every now and then. But I started realizing, I was like,
I'm who I am because of the people that I have,
even those who are showing up for me today. I
just want to be that for somebody else's little girl.
That's all I just I don't know who she's gonna be.
Speaker 4 (58:05):
Yeah, you never you never know.
Speaker 3 (58:07):
Trustee this again, there's a lot of people you sit
back and that's I think that's again. I think that's
one of the beautiful things about Atlanta. There's so many
people that we went to high school with you know, Atlanta.
We're all about high schools out here, right, It's like
where you went to high school? If you tell somebody
from Atlanta, the first question, the'renna ask. That's gonna tell
me everything I need to know that the problem is
not that all these new high schools now, like I
(58:28):
ain't never heard of that one before.
Speaker 2 (58:29):
Like you know, they're bifurcating our schools and creating all
these little micro schools. That's why the football teams ain't
as good as the ones up north, because I'm like,
you've got five schools where used to have one. So
I said, that's what we're supposed to go to exactly,
like what what what cross section shirt you on? Kelly Chapel?
You like, whe where are you at? For real?
Speaker 1 (58:44):
So no that, and then be from the AUC because
if you're from the AAC, like you know, see how
you thinks they run things, it's fine, It's okay, Well
we'll give them that.
Speaker 3 (58:54):
Well, look, John, this this has been amazing. I know,
we got people in here. We want to get into
some networking. I got like, I think a couple hundred
drinks from our sponsor's Belvetere and herenessity that we got
to give away.
Speaker 4 (59:05):
So y'all please not everybody take them all at once.
Speaker 3 (59:07):
But before we get out of here, before we get
to the networking portion of the program job. My last
question for you I have is if there was a
billboard in Atlanta that you could put some advice on
a message on whatever you want the city to know.
Now again, there was one time where there was a
BMF billboard. It was that's the whole from But if
(59:29):
you had you had the Joharil billboard, you can put
it wherever you want in Atlanta.
Speaker 4 (59:33):
What would that billboard say? What piece of advice would
be on that billboard?
Speaker 2 (59:37):
Hmmm, it's a double side billboard.
Speaker 3 (59:39):
It could be it could be one of those electronic
ones that flips through a couple.
Speaker 2 (59:42):
But you know, I'll say this.
Speaker 1 (59:46):
I've been all over the world and the airport had
awarded me to get every stand on my passport except
for Australia and Antarctica. I've been everywhere. I even took
my mama with me. She said she want to ever
going nowhere else with me. That was longer than eighteen hours.
She went to China and she was like, I'm done
but I will tell you, and this is just a
little bit of history for you. The reason that the
(01:00:08):
airport was built now one hundred years ago, it'd be
hundred of the Cincinnio's next year for the airport is
because the Atlanta was the city too busy to hate.
We had great race relations and we had a thriving
black populace. So for those who come to Atlanta, welcome.
(01:00:28):
But if I had to have a billboard with everything
I've seen stands in them Bibia, if I can live
in them Bibia, I would have a house there and
they probably didn't listen, trust me, but it would be
Atlanta no place like home. I go places, I enter
rooms all the time, and there are not a lot
of people who look like us, and not just look
(01:00:51):
like us, but wanting stuff like we literally have a
mayor named Andre and we just had one named Keisha,
like you know, I.
Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Like I.
Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
Even at Turner you had Loretta Walker and Vicki Free
and like all these amazing brown women who were like
doing it. And I had never seen anything as everything's about,
like Shaye Butter.
Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
It was awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
But I would say Atlanta, there's no place like home
because Charlotte tries DC his mates and is fair attempts.
Dallas is hot and it got hurricanes. But there's no
place like Atlanta. So if I had to put up
a billboard, it would be Atlanta. There's no place like home.
Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
On my billboard, I put up Wakanda Forever. No, Jod,
thank you so much. It's an amazing conversation. I'm so
excited and so proud of everything you've accomplished. I'm glad
to call you a friend. I appreciate you pulling up
to this conversation. I wish you nothing but success and
whatever we can do. When I say we, I mean
(01:01:58):
Butter's resource, Old Steve. Atlanta are all behind you. We
want to see you when and we cannot wait to
see what you continue to do next. So congratulations everybody.
Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
Please thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:02:07):
Johharell.
Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
You've been listening to button Nomics and I'm your host.
Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
Brandon Butler comments feedback.
Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
Want to be a part of the show, send us
an email today at hello at Butterdomics dot com. Butter
Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by Ramsey,
with marketing support from Queen and Nike. Music provided by
mister Hanky if you haven't already hit that subscribe button
and never missed an episode, and be sure to follow
us on all our social platforms at butter dot at L.
(01:02:38):
Listen to button Nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Brandon Butler
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