How Melissa Proctor’s Rise from Intern to CMO Redefined Success

On this episode of Butternomics, we sit down with Melissa Proctor, Chief Marketing Officer of the Atlanta Hawks, to explore her inspiring journey from a high school intern to a trailblazing executive. Melissa shares the unconventional path that led her to the C-suite, proving that success isn’t always a straight line. We dive into how she overcame challenges as a Black woman in sports, balanced motherhood with her demanding career, and used culture and authenticity to drive innovation. Melissa also reveals her strategies for shaping the future of fandom and inclusivity within the Hawks organization. Whether you’re looking for career inspiration, leadership insights, or just an incredible story of resilience and vision, this episode is packed with lessons that will leave you ready to take your own leap of faith.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
For me, I've always seen being a woman, to see
a black woman working in sports as my superpower because
the one thing you can't tell me about is what's
relevant to women or people of color. When I got
promoted to be a CMO, you're able to park in
the reserve parking area at.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
The arena, which is a big deal.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
And during the day I was heading over there to
a meeting I had just gotten promoted, and I parked
my car. I was walking into the building at a
security guard stop and he's like, I'm sorry, man, you
can't park there. That's reserve for executives. And I was
just like okay, and I kept walking and he was
like ma'am. Then I showed him my badge. I was like,
I say, like most of party literally says executive underneath it,
and I could see his mind like like what, huh what.

(00:39):
But for me, it was like the best moment because
I was changing the perception of what a senior level
executive looks like for an NBA.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Team, for that person.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
And I think every time that I'm in a room,
or I'm able to let my skills or my work speak,
or i am presenting and speaking, I think it changes
the mentality of like, oh oh she knows.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Okay, she's good, she got it.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of butter Nomics. I'm
your host, Brandon Butler, founder and CEO of Butter atl
and Today we got the biggest M in the building.
The biggest, not the little, the biggest M, Miss Melissa Procter.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
How you doing about hilarious? I'm going well, thank you
for having me.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Oh always always, you know, you're one of my favorite
people out here.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
You know, out homie, always stay one.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
You know, I remember when when a certain person who
won't be named, said we need to connect, and you know,
we had a little breakfast one more and you know,
and talked about some stuff. And ever since then, you know,
we've been we've been building together, so one.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Hundred one hundred. I recall that vividly.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Actually, you know, time flies look at that, it really does.
It's crazy. That was probably like what four or five
years ago. Almost I looked up.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
But I just celebrated ten years with the Atlanta Hawks
last month and I could not believe it.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
That's crazy. Congratulations, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, for those that don't know, Melissa is the CMO
of the Atlanta Hawks and also State Farm Arena. Correct, Yes, correct,
So a lot of people don't understand that, right, A
lot of people don't understand that. You know, in your role,
you both oversee stuff for the Hawks and the arena,
So just give them a little context. It's not just
the games, but it's the concerts, the events, everything that
happens at the State Farm, right.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
So, I mean every marketing officer role in the NBA
is different, so they are not at all app even
may go to another team and their title may be
the same, but their role is completely different.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
So ad my role.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Marketing really encapsulates all of our media general marketing, traditional,
non traditional social. It also incorporates all of our retail,
so we have a brand merchandizing team. We do all
of our retail in house, our eCOM. All of that
we call have Hawk Studios, which is our internal agency.
So people always ask what agencies you work with? That
open was so great, and I'm like, we may partner

(02:38):
with production companies, but all of the other work is
done internally, so we don't have an agency record.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Hawk Studios is our internal which is so dope.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
We have our live entertainment and production team, which is
really game operations, and so that's everybody from Harry the Hawk,
to the dance team, to the engineers that are helping
make sure all of our boards and our center hung
are working great, all of our production Big Tigger, the
whole team, and so that's a really really great team.
Our community impact groups, all of our community work and
basketball programs, so camps, clinics, all that good stuff is

(03:08):
in that world. We created a new department recently called
the Entertainment Industry Relations, So it's all around how we work.
Especially being in Atlanta with the home of entertainment, we
found the need. There were so many you know, requests
and things and not just people coming to games, but
really what we do behind the scenes. So all of
that really makes up marketing in addition to looking at
the future of fandom and all the rest.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
And so we have not just.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
The Hawks but also the College Park Skyhawks, which is
another part of our business, as well as our two
K league. But within that people like, oh, see work
for the Hawks, and I'm like, we know over the
Hawks and stay for Marena. While the building is you know,
for the most part of rental space. So if you
are a promoter. You want to Hey, I want to
do a show there you come in. But we have
a marketing team that also supports our promoters, so they're
helping with you know, when WWE is here and they

(03:53):
have oh we want wrestling, how do we cross promotes? Well,
we'll see cool promotions between you know, the Hawks and
you know Trey Young doing something. And then how do
we also reciprocate to help push ticket sales. It's all
of that all together, which is cool. It just makes
it whether there's never a dull day.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, it sounds like it's low. How many how many
events in between events and games? How many you think
you all handle a year?

Speaker 1 (04:12):
I want to say the last count for this year
was one hundred and sixty, one hundred and seventy something
like that. Goodness across the board and that I mean
that doesn't count people who want to have meetings and
there or when we have sales events where they're coasting
you know, potential season ticket members.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
And stuff like that. That's games or you know, big shows.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, So as a CMO for the Hawks and State
from Marino, like, what are what are some of your
overall remits? Like what don't you set goals. How do
you set goals? Is around attendance? Is it around you know,
revenue streams? Like what are some of the things that
you get measured on as a CMO at that level?

Speaker 1 (04:44):
I mean a number of things, and I think because
the role is so varied, it just depends on which
department overall across the board. Our ownership team day one
where they came on board, said we exist to be
a civic asset before we are a basketball team, and
so we look a lot at our work. We have
a community Impact Report we put together every year that
highlights all the work across the organization that we do
for the community and through our Hawks Foundation, and so

(05:05):
that's kind of like part one. Obviously, revenue for any
business is important, so keep yeah for.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
The most part.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
So most people say, oh, CMOS, your job is butts
and seats, and so obviously ticket sales is important. You know,
how we work with our corporate partners My team is
sitting with our corporate partnership team when they're looking at
different sponsors that are coming in, designing the pitches that
we're going out with, and so executing out all of
that flawlessly is a big part of our agreement, but
it's how do we keep the brand relevant?

Speaker 2 (05:31):
You know, in the city of Atlanta, there's so much
to do. So people look at like, oh, who are
your competitors?

Speaker 1 (05:35):
You know, it's at the Praise at the Falcons, and
I'm like, no, it's Netflix, it's your couch, it's every
restaurant in the city of Atlanta. Because ultimately we're a
basketball team, we're also a great night out. You know,
we really strive to keep our experience top nots when
you're coming into the building, regardless win or lose. I
don't control that.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
You know.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
I talk with other cmos all the time, and I'm like,
the difference in being a CMO of a sports team
is I don't control my product.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
If I worked at you know, Pizza Hut.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
I can say, hey, this ingredient is in right now,
let's you know, we can do taste tests and focus
groups and decide what the product would be best in
order to sell basketball operations. And I are good friends,
but I make no I have no claim. People like
who we signed. I'm like, I am not the one
that's not me. And so because of those reasons, we
can really focus on the brand and the experience, and
that's what we do.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, I mean, y'all do a lot of work and
like tying into culture, especially in Atlanta, And we always
kind of talk about, you know, brands that tap into culture,
you know, are always more authentic. They make stuff happen.
But to your point, since you all can't control the
product on the field or on the court, like what
kind of do you use for inspiration around those different
ideas and activations, you know, beyond just what's happening at
the game.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, I mean, our brand, Mantra, has been true to Atlanta.
And when I started ten years ago, I came in
as a VP of Branch Strategy to help really define that,
like who do we stand for?

Speaker 2 (06:47):
What do we exist for?

Speaker 1 (06:48):
And we defined our target audience's next generation Atlantans. And
so we recognize that since nineteen ninety four there was
a little bit of a drop off in Hawk's relevance
to the city. Everyone said, what happened in ninety four
we traded Dominique, and there's literally generations of people.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
Who are like, oh man, the Hawks, what are y'all doing?

Speaker 1 (07:06):
And so when we came on board, myself, Steve Coohan,
our CEO, came on board and brought me on board
to help with the brand strategy. That a ton of research,
we says, you know what, we realized that we missed
generations after that happened, and so now it's all about
generational fan building. How do we look at building the
team for the next generation. So if I say that
you know you came from New York, does no matter
what I do, I can't make you a Hawks fan.

(07:27):
You go either love the Knicks, clean orange and blue,
and that's just what it is. However, if you moved
to Atlanta leol, which a lot of people have now
at it ten times, you're going to settle here, You'll
have a kid here. I want to be the team
for your kid. We first started how do we do that?
It was when we had those feather patterns, when olddidas jerseys.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
How do we become the coolest team?

Speaker 1 (07:45):
If you're playing NBA two K, so like, oh wow,
they got a feather pattern on their court.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
That looks cool. I might not even be a Hawks fan.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
But I like what they're doing getting all the dope
artists that are just coming out, like Who's Next?

Speaker 2 (07:56):
And so for us, it was super intentional.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
I remember when we launched it Jersey people over thirty
were like, oh, this is garbage.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
You don't like it. I'm like, great, it wasn't for you.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
Wasn't for you.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
We intentionally made this not for you.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Obviously we've evolved a ton since then and gone, you know,
to a look that I think is really classic but
can work both ways, as well as Nike designing their
city Edition program that allows us to be flexible every year.
But for us, it's all around really engaging that next generation.
So the connection to the culture is really through that
looking at what's happening. When we did Tender Night back
in the day, it was like, what's relevant today?

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Tender all right?

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Hod we bring that experience into the real world, and
so we're constantly looking at ways to do that. Last
year it was only fans we had to talk about
the NCAS and tournament.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
We made this only.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Fans spot with Harry the Hawks, and I'll tell everybody,
I got fired two hundred times and re hired two
hundred and one times that day after it hit TMZ.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
It was a whole situation. But that's really what we
strive to do.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
I mean, and when you're doing stuff like that. It's
always interesting because I think, you know, I see it
on the gency side a lot, right. It's like, you
come up with these big ideas, you want to get
it done, but there's always people sometimes on the inside
of the organization that don't get it and maybe a
little hesitant to it right, And so I always say
it's really important to have good advocates on the other
side of the table that understand what you're doing, to
kind of see the bigger picture, like how do you

(09:08):
work through those kinds of situations again, how do you
get people, you know, not to freak out too much?
We say I got this idea about OnlyFans, Well they definitely.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
First of all, some people didn't know what only fans was,
so let's start there. But you know, I think it
really starts at the top and having a leader on
Steve Cooden that is creative and visionary but is also
understanding of culture and how to how to get things done.
And so that as that as an example, the brief
was the n Season Tournament has now been created by
the NBA. No one knows what that means, and there
are all these interviews with players Tyber like.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Oh, I don't know what that is? Are you excited
for it? What is it?

Speaker 1 (09:40):
You know? And so we said, well, how do we
cut through the clutter? So the league was doing their
own marketing, which they do nationally, and so the brief
was cut through the clutter to let fans know that
the NCAS and tournament is coming and then get them
to learn about it and sell some ticket.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Cool. So when I gave that to talk.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Studios and our creative team, the only fans idea came out,
and that was the one idea that everyone was like, oh,
this is crazy, like this cuts through the club that
does exactly what the brief stated. So they came up
with the idea, you know, shot something and I had
to be the one to deliver it, obviously representing from
my team, and I was like, all right, so you
got to know how to pitch it.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
And the very first time we watched it, it was like.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Okay, huh, don't know how this will land. And it
was great because at the same time it was this
is definitely cutting through the clutter in a very different way.
And so we had conversations internally and kudos to Steve.
It was like, let me make sure that we can
bring everybody along with us. So we shared with ownership,
we shared with our entire executive leadership team, and had

(10:37):
conversations about it. How people felt understanding. Some people don't
find the humor. Some people were like, what's only fans?
You know, it was a different thing ultimately, even going
to Adam Silver because the irony is when we dropped
that video, the team was playing in Mexico City and
our CEO was sitting next to Adam Silver and so
the people are asking him about this video. So we
needed to make sure that everyone was aware. But when

(10:59):
we had those conversations, were like, you know what, we're
going to do it. And the one thing that I
was very proud of is I said, you know, if
we don't do it, we're going to hurt our culture
because we have a team of really young creatives who
have big ideas and to what you said, it can
be disheartening, like you're not going to come with the
big ideas over and over again if it gets killed
every time, right, And so I said, you know, if
we don't at least put it out there, it's going

(11:19):
to hurt the culture because they fulfill the brief and
that was the ask and I think kind of the
combination of just understanding internally and being willing to take risks,
which a lot of people are not willing to do.
I had other CMO from NBA teams and like, how
did y'all how did you get that through? Like what
did you how did that work? We could never and
that really made me proud to know that we're working
for an organization that's willing to say, hey, you know what,

(11:41):
we'll try it. And it was great, then it wasn't,
then it was and it wasn't. But overall, I think
for us, it was probably one of the biggest lessons
and like things that our team like congratulates us on,
like thank you for being willing to support us and
doing something that was different.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yeah, And I mean, you know, it's also interesting because
it takes building that culture up. I mean, my guess
is the San Antonio Spurs probably wouldn't jump into a
only fans night, right.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
And every market is different.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
So it's also when a send in your market, you know,
in Atlanta, we have a lot of creativity, flexibility.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
What's been some of your other favorite you know, events
or promotions that y'all have done, Like I know that
one sticks out, But has it been your favoriteor has
it been another one? You just think it's just been
amazing from end to end.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
I mean, I always say my absolute favorite was what
we did with Doctor King for our City Edition uniforms,
And for me, it was personally my favorite because I'd
been with the Hawks maybe three or four years and
I got promoted to CMO and the first meeting that
I had was with Nike because they were talking about
the City Edition program and they're like, hey, how do
we You know, we're about three or four years out

(12:43):
from the time that the uniform drops when they're having
these meetings, so it has to be something evergreen, can't
be trendy, can't be something that's you know, hot today
because by the time you go to production and timelines
at Nike and delivery, three years would have passed. And
so you know, my idea said, you know, we do
something great every year for Mlkday to honor the legacy
of Doctor King, but I love to do it for

(13:04):
more than a day, So is there any way that
we could do that? And they're like, well, you know
they work with the King of State every year around MLKDA.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
They said, well, you'd have to get the estate on board.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
So I built a relationship with the head of attorney
for the estate, who we are now great friends. So
we worked a lot together in that, and then we
had to get the NBA on board. We had to
get the Players Association on board. And so by getting
all those parties together on the line and Nike working
with us on the design, by the time we finished it,
it was like we knew we had something special. Even

(13:34):
our ownership was like, whatever we need to do, like.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
We'd love this idea.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
And so when we designed it, we had no idea
what was going to happen in the summer of twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
So it was also a lot on just timing. So
it was like, oh, it's coming out.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Twenty twenty twenty one, Like oh, okay, you know, it's
a couple of years covid on nobody's mind. So the
fact that it was George Ford Covid all these things
at one time, Black Lives Matter signs everywhere. And then
the teams were in the bubble. The Hawks were in
the bubble, but the NBA was playing in the bubble,
and that's when we launched it on with T and
T on air, it became so galvanizing, like people who

(14:08):
aren't even Hawks fans were like, I love that jersey
so much.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
So I got a call from the Pope who ushed.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Out and they were like, hey, like, you know, the
Pope is really inspired by the Doctor King one of
his one of his inspirations. He loves what the NBA
has been doing. Would you be willing to send him
a jerky? Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (14:26):
What can we do?

Speaker 1 (14:26):
So, working with our partners at UPS, we were able
to send him one and even the images of that.
This looks so crazy to me, but to know that
an idea that came out of your head of like,
oh this could be cool, could end up becoming that,
And I think what took it a step further, which
is probably why I'm most proud of it, is we
also decided at the time we did a lot of
work with Doctor King with the family, and it was

(14:47):
their desire was to help educate the next generation of Atlantans,
our target audience on the legacy of Doctor King. Makes sense,
This is a perfect partnership, and so because of what
we said, you know, the last work that he was
doing was kind of the Poor People's Movement. How do
we look at comic parody and empowerment for people of color.
So we decided that every single jersey that we sold,
we were going to donate one hundred percent of our

(15:07):
profit to entrepreneurs, and it ended up being the Women's
Entrepreneurship Initiative of Atlanta. So I love the idea that,
you know, professional men's basketball team is donating money to
women entrepreneurs to help create the next generation of business
people to drive our community forward. And we did that
and then fortunately the team played the best it ever
had since it's been in Atlanta in them Eastern Conference finals.

(15:30):
And so now we keep the center court in the
arena on permanent display right by our hawkshop. You have
a frame jersey there along with a picture of the
pope and kind of the story of all that happened,
but the combination of like community and culture and religion
if we're gonna bring the pope in and all of that,
as well as winning because team performance matters, Like I
don't think we could have crafted a better story, and

(15:52):
it was something that was it was written well before
we got here.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
No, it's interesting because I mean I haven't done a
ton of researching since some of the other city dation,
you know, jerseys and stuff like that. But I do
think Atlanta, especially with our history of culture and just
all these things like that, was a perfect moment in
the court, like the maze and I remember had to
stain glass element to it, and you know, the black jerseys.
But at the same time, you know, kind of one
of my definitions of culture is kind of the tension
between what's old and what's new. And I think, you know,

(16:18):
y'all did a really good balance with it right there.
But I got to be honest, the more we do stuff,
I do love those old red you know, Hawks retro
jerseys sometimes, Like how do y'all balance that, especially knowing
that you know, even though you're going after this younger
audience and you know, the kids of like, you know,
these next generation fans, Like, how do you kind of
give those subtle nods back to you know, the old
Atlanta or you know, again, those retro jerseys that people

(16:40):
I think it's really come back in style now too.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, Well, we always sell them, so they're always available
in the arena, and the NBA actually has restrictions on
when teams can bring them back, so it has to
be all a big anniversary, either a zero or a
ten year or a five year or something like that.
So if you're retiring a players jersey or something like that,
you're able to bring it back for those reasons. So
it's not so much hey, we really like that, let's
just do it this year, and the same thing. It

(17:04):
has to be thought out well in advance, and so
we're fans of it too, even so much we're looking
at ways that we can incorporate some of that into
our design language as we move forward.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
But we never abandoned it.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
And to be honest, even from talking about those feather
pattern jerseys that we had five years after we launched it,
we were like, we want to go back closer to
the core. So even the colors of our core uniforms
now that we have kind of that golden ride red,
it was very focused on that Niak era of.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
Hawks that a lot of people love.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
So it is a little bit of blending the old
with the new, but designing something that's classic. When we
look back at our history of our uniforms, we changed
a lot, like do different ownership teams through different eras.
Before the team was in Saint Louis and it came here,
we had that bright green pistol picher like we've gone.
When I look back that, I was like, wow, we
did a lot of different things. So when our current
ownership team came on board, we said, you know, we

(17:52):
want to design something that this team is going to
win a championship in from now in years to come,
because there are some teams that do have legacy brands
that don't change. Are one of them, I think the
next or one of the Lakers like and the Celtics. Yeah,
those uniforms are pretty much the same standard. They may
make nuanced changes, and as an organization, historically we just
haven't been So what we've designed now is kind of

(18:12):
the blend of the old and the new in a
classic timeless way that we believe we're going to keep,
you know, forever, so we no longer have that going
back and forth kind of look.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
One thing too, I always appreciate about you, Melissa, is
just kind of your intentionality and how you talk about
different things, and how you talk about marketing and branding.
But one thing I'd love to understand too, especially for
the folks that are listening, is how does a person
or how did you kind of get to that CMO level.
I think for a lot of people that's kind of
there's like a glass ceiling you kind of hitting your career.
And I know I pumped in my head against it
a couple of times and was finally kind of able

(18:54):
to break through it through different means. But you know,
how did you kind of make that jump? Like what
was kind of the requirements of going from doing the
brand strat as you work to kind of making that
jump to actually getting into the C suite?

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Man?

Speaker 1 (19:03):
You know what the biggest jump I took was was
getting laid off, because real talk, if I didn't get
laid off, I don't know if I'd be here, you know.
But to be honest, I've always been driven by passion,
Like I don't I still don't know what I want
to be when I grow up, and I say it
all the time, but I genuinely never was like I'm
going to be a CMO one day.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
R I love marketing.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
I liked brand strategy and I liked it as an
intern at Turner, so I went to grad school in
London to learn a little bit more about it. But
I was like, I'll just do brand strategy. I'd be
a brand manager somewhere. I love the idea of building
a brand as a foundation and having other things come
on top of that.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
And I remember when I was at T and T,
I was like, what does branding even mean?

Speaker 1 (19:39):
And a woman Jennifer Dorian, who's one of my calling
my friend tour it's a friend of the mental still
she's a friends.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
Too, are now?

Speaker 1 (19:47):
She was like, you know, imagine T and T is
a television network, but we had to build a brand.
We know drama, and you have all these shows on
top of it, which are kind of the products. But
then imagine you want to take T and T and
put it in the Atlanta airport. What does a TNT
store look like?

Speaker 2 (19:58):
What do you sell? What does this smell like? I
was like, my creative mind was like blown, Like that
is cool.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
So the idea of being able to craft that creatively
for me, and I grew up as an artist, it
was another way to take my art creativity or ideas
and apply it in a different way.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
And so that was it for me.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
And so I ended up staying at Turner, got jobs
and brand strategy. Soone's tapping, hey, you're interested in this
business strategy, where with cartoon networking adult swims like, all right, cool,
I'll take I'll learn about that too. Because I didn't
have a it has to be this And I think
that's probably the biggest lesson cause I've talked to people
all the time and they're like, I want to be
a CMO and I'm like why, And the why is
always either the perception of power. I want to make decisions.

(20:35):
I want to decide what the strategy is. I was like,
I have people who run brand strategy or marketing strategy.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
I don't get to decide.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
Now.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
I have to manage the people who are doing the work.
So it's a very different world.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
But ultimately the higher up that I got and I
think I was last VP of Communications and marketing and
content for a digital health and wellness startup that no
one's ever heard of called Upwave while at Turner, and
I love that job because I got to learn about
digital and you know, really working on building out an
app from scratch and making content and putting on HLN.

(21:06):
And then we were the last business started and when
a new CEO came in, we were first business cut.
And I was eight months pregnant with my daughter and
I was like, hey, you started as an intern, We
all love you.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
You ain't got no job, and I didn't.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
I couldn't worry about it because I had to have
my daughter, so you know, I had a little bit
of severance, but not enough to last for maternity League.
But to be honest, I wasn't worried, but I didn't
know what I was going to do next. And I
was a ballgirl for the Miami Heat in high school,
just mopping up sweat. When I moved to Atlanta as
an intern, I made no money, so I called them
all Boston, the Heat, you know, anyone at the Hawks.
So I ended up being a ball girl for the

(21:39):
Hawks my first year in Atlanta. I think, oh two,
the other All Star Game was here because I got
to work on the court for that. But I never
imagine going back to basketball because in my mind I
had Evald that now was an entertainment. And literally a
good friend of mine invited me to go with her
to the draft party at the Arena after I had
my daughter.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
She was like, you ain't got no job, it's free,
you know, why don't you come? And I'm like all right.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
So I go to this draft party as a fan,
jeans and a T shirt. And I run into Steve Conan,
who was a mentor of sorts while I was a Turner,
but I never worked for him before, I'd worked for
like multiple people under him, and he saw me. He
knew that I mopped up sweat at those Hawks games
because he was sitting courtside and would see me. We
worked together on some big branch strategy projects while I
was at Turner. One was a rebrending Court TV to

(22:22):
True TV, and a couple of projects for Turner Classic
movies and things. He's like, Hey, I know you love basketball,
I know you love branding. You know I might need
your help in building a brand. Would you mind sitting
in on some meetings run the process of redesigning this jersey?
And I was kind of like, heck, yeah, all day
for free, like no issue. So he walks me around
that draft party and introduces me to every senior level

(22:44):
executor for the Hawks while I was there, and I
was like, in my mind, I'm like, I'm not dressed
for this, Like I have been a job interview.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
I just came, you know, to kick it at the
draft party.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
But every single one of them were like, we've heard
so much about you, we can't wait for you to start,
And I was so confused.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
I'm like, start, what what are we starting?

Speaker 1 (23:01):
So when he asked me, I guess he had mentioned ow,
you know someone who was in creative and can kind
of help us. They didn't have a perspective of a
woman or a woman of color anywhere on that team.
And so sitting with the then head of marketing and
the agency they were working with on the design was
such a great process.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
I was just doing it.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
Then maybe ten meetings in, he was like, I think
you should consult Would you mind consulting. I'd love your
perspective on, you know, designing this brand strategy.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
And I was like, cool, yeah, I'm consulting.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Why not?

Speaker 3 (23:27):
I got time?

Speaker 2 (23:29):
I got nothing but time.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
And then you know, by September of that year, I
came on board as a VP of brand Strategy, and
so very quickly we had our major racial crisis. We
remember back in the day with previous ownership, we had
to onboard a new ownership team. We'll go through the
process of selling the team onboarding a new team. No
one knew how to do that, so I figured it out.
So I ended up becoming the SVP of business strategy.
Just in doing filling gaps. It was like I was

(23:53):
kind of a chief of staff. I was writing speeches,
I was helping manage digital agencies, whatever was needed. I'm like, hey,
I got it Swiss army knife and partnered with the
whole organization. And then the reality was one day he
was like, hey, I want you to be CMO. You
know we had we had worked and got new ownership
on board. We're about to open up. We were about
to start working with Emry on a practice facility and

(24:14):
start talking about redoing the arena. And so our head
of marketing was also the head of a creative and
he was pulled in different directions on those two things.
So the day to day tactic of marketing was kind
of it needed some love. And he was like, I
love you to step in. You've worked in marketing, can
you support And I was like, CMO. I was like
me and I was like no, thank you, And I
turned it down actually multiple times, really because I loved

(24:37):
doing brand strategy.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
I was a team of one.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
It was really like being an internal consultant beginning to
work on all the cool stuff.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
And he asked again and I was like, nah, I
think I'm good.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
And then it got to a point where he's like,
all right, Melissa, look, this is the job that we
need right now. And it was positioned in a way
where I love I'm very organized and detailed and also
very creative, and so they needed some operational help and
it was campaign management tools and I.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Was like, oh, that's cool, I can do that. He
was like, all right, well you'll be CMO and do
that and I was like, ah, you got me, gotcha.
And I was like, well, why me? And it was
the one question I asked, and he's like, you know what,
my mantra has always been like I just want to
make dope.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
Shit.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
I'm here to make though. That's what I'm that's what
we do. And he was like, it's because of that.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
You aren't driven by most things that people are driven
by that want this role.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
It was a perception of power.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
It's understanding that you know, in sports doesn't pay historically
as well as you know other Fortune five hundred companies,
So you're not not just about money.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Like the reasons why you are great at what you
do is for this.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
You're great with people, You're great at leading teams and
I want that energy in this role. And I was
kind of like, Okay, I could never have imagined that
seven years I'd still be in the position.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
And the role has grown and evolved.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
Tremendously since then, because I was taking over a really
small piece of the team. But for people who are
looking to get in that role, I think it's so
much more around the curiosity of looking at how to
fill those gaps. If I didn't take that business strategy
year role with Cartoon Network in Adult Swim, I don't
know if I would have had the P and L
inside of knowledge to help lead parts of this organization.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
You know, creative.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
There's some people that come up through creative, some are finance.
There's all different ways, you know, to get to this seat.
But starting out as an artist, I was, you know,
an art school in Miami, growing up drawing, painting, went
to Wake Force, had an art scholarship. It's very rare
that you find someone who's in creative that has the
ability to kind of I call it the superpowers, but
being both creative and strategic, right, and that is incredibly

(26:29):
necessary in this job because there are no two days
that are the same and so I'm always questioning when
people say I want to be a Samle, I'm like why,
because now why really matters because if it's about getting
the title, if I came into it trying to become
a CEMO, I probably would have made very different decisions
within my career. I would have taken on jobs that
I thought I'd have to take in order to get there.
And the reality was I had it was have like

(26:51):
a ladder. Career path of mine was a jungle gym
all day long. I was going left, right, back front,
different places didn't matter to me.

Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yeah, well, you know you can always connect the dots
looking backwards is what I can say, right, And like
when you look at it, you nah, And when you do,
you look at it like, you know what if I
wouldn't been together, if I wouldn't have done this thing,
then maybe this thing wouldn't have happened. And like you,
it makes sense when you look backwards at it until
your point, you can't always you know, forecast it.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
You can't.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
And the irony was I remember when I was a
turner thinking about taking that digital startup job. I went
to all my mentors and I talked to Steve, who
was like a mentor to me, and he said, don't
take that job. And I was like every mentor I
had said, don't take that job, and I took the job,
and ultimately.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
I got hired. I did it, I loved it. I
got laid off.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
And I later learned that Steve, when he left Turner,
because he was there as well, had a policy where
he couldn't take talent from Turner with him. So if
I didn't get laid off from the job that he
told me not to take, not to take, I probably
couldn't even physically could not be in the role at
the Hawks. And so, like I truly am a believe that,
you know, women of faith, everything happens for a reason,
but that was like a major one to me.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah, And I mean even kind of going back, I
mean over the last ten years. I mean, we won't
get into but I remember when that whole transition with
lead Ship happened, I was actually working at the Agency
and we were doing a lot of work, you know,
with the Hawks of that whole situation, and I got
a chance to kind of work with Steve Cohan directly
on that and saw the kind of leader he was,
and I could I was definitely appreciative of just, you know,
his approach to everything. I think that was the first

(28:13):
time I really worked with somebody at his level that
kind of saw things in a very holistic way and
kind of understood you know, culture, but had a lot
of intentionality behind it too. So I can totally see
how he could evolve you into that kind of role.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
Well yep, yep, yeah, he also has a vision for
what he wants and he were like, oh, yeah, you
didn't know. I already knew, he knew from the from
the beginning. But what I what I also appreciate about
working with him is like he's also not afraid to
say he doesn't know what he doesn't know, and a
lot of times at c CEO level people never want
to say I don't know, and I'd be the main one.
I'm like, look, you know who helped build me a

(28:45):
sead of brains around this, like how do we do
this better? Or sometimes it even comes to like can
you be my cultural advisor? Like I say, this is
that the right thing to say? Some people don't want
to have those conversations, but an appreciative that I can
be and it's also trust, you know, built over years.
Did are things that I will say to him and
he'll be like, Okay, all right, got it? You know

(29:06):
check where I think it's just based on our relationship
over time and so having that sort of leadership and
you know, that's rare, and I try to have the
same with my team where I'm like, please give me feedback,
because ain't nobody perfect.

Speaker 3 (29:17):
As a woman in leadership too? Like what's it been like?
Just as you've kind of navigated different elements of it?
My assumption is that a lot of this sports stuff
is kind of an old boys club in certain areas.
You know, I don't know how much basketball is compared
to you know, I really feel like football is probably
the way more, but I mean maybe they're equal. But
just especially as a black woman too, Like, what's that
process been like as you've had that role and had
to kind of institute some of these changes and ideas?

(29:39):
Is it you know it is there been friction? Has
there been challenges? And how does you kind of work
through those things?

Speaker 2 (29:44):
You know, I've seen it evolve.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
I remember when I was working for the Heat when
I was in high school, and I remember every summer
in college I would go back and volunteer with the
Heat helping out draft free agency, and they're like a family,
Like I love them, I love their ownership.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
They're a really really great organization.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
There's a person working in scouting and I was putting
together there's kyting reports, and I was doing something but
it wasn't efficient, and I was like, there's a better
way to do this, and so I made a suggestion.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
And I was told, you don't get paid to think.
You get paid to do what I tell you to do.
And I was like, huh, all right, check that ain't
gonna work. But I got it.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
But there were areas kind of like that where you know,
it wasn't overt just in terms of like, oh, you
know you're a woman, just sit down, shut up. It
was never that, but I felt the energy. It's different
on the basketball operation side than it is on the
business side. And I think the NBA has done a
tremendous job over even the ten years that I've been
with the Hawks of just make seeing that change and
evolving that business like from team presidents to you know, coaches,

(30:40):
assistant coaches. Obviously with the w and all the great
things happening there, I definitely think there's an evolution happening,
and it's coming quickly in a way that's super positive.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
But for me, I've always seen being a woman.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
To see a black woman working in sports is my
superpower because the one thing you can't tell me about
is what's relevant to women or people of color. So,
especially in the leadership role with the Hawks, I do
think there's being in Atlanta's unfair to ask that question
because I do think there's a different perspective for people
that live here and understand who's coming to our games,

(31:13):
what's happening, what's relative. They don't They're not listening to
what's happening. They're not on Instagram, they're not going outside
like I see you outside. I want to also live
in the world. So I do think that helps with
that authenticity and being relevant, and so I've always really
proud of myself on that. Now when I got promoted
to be a CMO until the story and is so
interesting to me. But you're able to park in the

(31:35):
reserve parking area at the arena, which is a big deal.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
If anybody goes, you know, parking at arena, it's it's
a thing.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
I've seen them, you see it.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
So you can park in a reserve spot. And during
the day, I was heading over there to a meeting.
I had just gotten promoted, and I parked my car.
I was walking into the building at a security guard
stop and he's like, I'm sorry, man, you can't park there.
That's reserve for executives. And I was just like okay,
and I kept walking and he was like, man, I'm
not so to my badge, I was like, I say,
like most of party literally says executive underneath it. And

(32:04):
he looked so confused. And I was wearing maybe some
Jordan some sweats and sneakers, and I could see his
mind like like what, huh what? But for me, it
was like the best moment because I was changing the
perception of what a senior level executive looks like for
an NBA team, for that person. And I think every
time that I'm in a room where I'm able to
let my skills or my work speak, or I am

(32:25):
presenting and speaking, I think it changes the mentality of.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Like, oh oh, she knows, okay, she's good, she got it.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
And so as a woman, I'm always trying to represent
not just for me, but everybody else on my team
and so when I first started with the Hawks, had
just had my daughter, there were no lactation rooms. It
was not a very female friendly environment. They're actually women
that came to me when I first started and said,
thank you so much for being here. We've never seen
a woman in a VP or senior level role because
a lot of times women get promoted if they have

(32:53):
a kid, they either get demoted or they leave based
on the rigor of working in sport. And so I always,
you know, give props to Steve because he was like, nope,
I want you to be here. I want you to
be able to use a family room to take your
daughter if you have to work a game and you
don't have child.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
Whatever.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
It is like, we wanted to make that environment. So
now that is our culture. But I think he had
to come in and really instill it. But I had
to check myself because sometimes I'm so chill, laid back, cool,
easy going that I forget that people don't just see me.
It's like, oh, you're a list. Like no, you're a
woman in the senior role. And as an example, I
had gotten a promotion and I had a really small

(33:29):
office that I loved because it's facing my house and
I can see traffic on the way home, and Atlanta
traffic is no joke. And so I didn't want to move.
And they had a big corner office available. They're like, hey,
you can move into that office if you want, and
I turned it down like twice, and I have a history.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Of doing that. I'm like, no, I'm good, all right,
it's fine, But I really liked my Space.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
And I remember having a conversation with someone or like,
you know, there's no women in corner offices, and it
hit me and I was like, wow, by not taking
get you're sending a signal that that is not what
women And so it just really changed my perspective.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
I'm like, no, I will not take notes in that meeting.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Yes, I want to sit in the middle of the
boardroom and the table and not kind of shrink back.
But I think when you're more junior, it's really the
experience that kind of helps you get there. And so
for me, I've been able to grow and see that
over time. So now I'm telling my team, I'm like, hey,
young lady, you sit right here, don't sit back there
like you you come up, And I want to help
give people the same knowledge that I had to get,

(34:29):
you know, kind of overtime myself asking asking questions. Times
are I needed help and I'm like everyone else has
an admin or you know, help, why don't.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
I have one?

Speaker 1 (34:38):
And once my boss I'm like, hey, is it possible?
He was like, sure, you never asked, and I was like, man,
this is crazy.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
But now I understand.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
You know, a big part of luck, and you know,
success is always say it's asking the right combination of
really smart questions, stupid questions, and obvious questions. Yeah, you
know you gotta have you you can't have you let
your ego get in the way of that. Like you
know what, I'm asking a stupid question or maybe it's
just stupid to y'all, but I'm gonna get it because
I just needn't know right.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
And most times people are like, oh wow, you know
that should come with I'm like, people don't know what
you mean until you tell them, you know, I mean,
And it's not about being annoying or repetitive.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
It's like sometimes it's just saying it.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
How do you feel about all this amazing stuff that's
happening in the w NBA. Now, I mean, you know,
we had an amazing college of you know, Women's tournament
a couple of year ago. W NBA season. W NBA
is getting so much you know, credit and visibility now,
like things are starting to happen, and I can really
see that starting to trend and uptick. Like, how excited
are you about that in comparison with the stuff what
you're working on right now too?

Speaker 1 (35:48):
I mean, I love it. You know, I know that
there's some NBA teams that own their w team. We
are not one of those teams. To me, that's super
exciting when you can blend it too. I was talking
with the young lady that's the head of the Valkyries,
Georgia Golden State's new WNA team they're launching next season,
but because they're owned by the same team, they're doing
such amazing things like their camps and clinics. They're giving
boys WNBA jerseys and girls NBA jerseys because it shouldn't matter,

(36:11):
you know what I mean. And I love that just
in the idea of taking the perceptions way because I
think before it was like, oh, that's just this, that's
just that, and so having it being elevated on a
national scale is awesome. I'm all about parody, and so
I look at salaries, I look at what executives are making,
and that still is not where it needs to be.

(36:34):
But I think obviously they're taking large steps forward having
teams be able to fly on charters. I think for
the w like, that's a big deal, you know, But
I think the more people can support, and that's literally
buy a ticket, watch a game on TV because a
lot of people are like, oh, yeah, that's great, but
it won't grow until they get the eyeballs because that's
at the end of the day, it's all about the revenue,

(36:54):
and so that's really important. While they got a bigger
TV deal, the NBA's TV got it even bigger, and
so I love it and I don't want it to
be a blip because of Caitlin Clark. I don't want
it to be like, Okay, well it's going to write.
I don't think that's the case at all. But in
order for that to continue growth, I'm like, hey, my ticket,
come out to a game, watch a game, because that's
that's how it's going to keep growing.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Yeah, and it's got we got to support that thing.
I mean, you know, the Dreams sold out some games
that they sold out season tickets this year, which was amazing.
So you can kind of see the trend starting to happen,
and yeah, my hope is that it continues to just
makes the game even more exciting. Like, what are some
other trends that you kind of noticed or you're you know,
you're kind of being like, you know what, let's keep
down on the radar some other things that you know,
helped the Hawks and stay from Marina, kind of stay

(37:34):
ahead of the culture and be innovative.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
I mean, there's so many things for us.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
We talked like and asking about the state from arena side,
we thought in COVID, when the touring industry went from
popping too disappeared, that you know, okay, people may start
coming back to events, but it came back with a
vengeance and which we were just talking about in one
music fest like the idea of festivals like people will
want to be together and I mean, and COVID is

(38:03):
so far back removed now, but we always kind of
look at that as the mark because it was like
we're up and then we're way down and then it's
shot straight up. And so currently, even with the Usher
residency that we have at the arena, you know, blocks
of shows doing more of those things. While he did
that in Vegas super successful, like oh can you do
that on tour and arenas? Currently we're in the process
of doing that, Like that's a trend that like I

(38:23):
never really saw that as a trend, and I'm like, oh, yeah,
but it is. So we're looking at what happens in
three years from now, does it start to decline? You know,
looking at the economy, looking at all these things, and
so for our business, consistently focused on what happens in
that space. How do we get more creative with types
of shows and events you see big podcasts or major
podcasts being able to use you know, big venues like

(38:44):
arenas to draw crowds based on all of that. So
I'm consistently looking at Influencers are a big one right
now and people have always obviously used influencers in multiple ways.
How do you sell a ticket or make it transactional?
But for us, it's about building relationship over time and
incorporating them in different ways within our game, presentation, within
our show, within our business, a lot of different things.

(39:05):
I'm always keeping my eyes and ears open. Obviously everyone's
talking about AI and I'm like, yep, sure, yep, that
too for all in all the ways, for all the things.
But I have a young lady on my team who's
focused on building the building out research to help us
get smarter on the future of fans because we've learned
a lot and that those are kind of the trends
that we're focused on. Internally, the future of fandom is

(39:25):
going to be very different. And one example we talk
about is millennial parents. So when you were a kid,
if your parent was a fan of something, they made
you a fan of it, like you didn't have a choice,
Like you're going to be a fan of the foul
because if you like my like football, this is what.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
You're gonna do.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Millennial parents grew up with the power of choice, so
now they're giving their kids like, oh, you know, my
parents made me do that. You can be a fan
of whatever you want. You don't like it, it's okay,
we'll find something else for you. And that has changed
the number of kids. And there's also a lot of
research that shows the number of kids that play a
sport have a higher propensity of becoming fans of that
sport down the line. But there's been a decline line

(40:00):
and use sport participation. I think it's because you're up
against an iPad and everything else. And so we're constantly
looking at how do we grow our basketball camps and clinics.
How do we find opportunities to do drop in at
stem camps or art camps or whatever else to give
them a basketball exposure experience so that we can ultimately
build that next generation Hawks fan with those you know,

(40:20):
the difference in youth now, I really wonder so much
of what sports looks like ten fifteen years from now
for our for our kids, because it's a different world
and the desire isn't necessarily the same. So while there
are things like casem I don't know if you've seen it,
or like the sphere you can go and watch games,
these really amazing VENUESU experience, right, Yeah, that's fantastic, and

(40:43):
some people may love that more than come in to
a game, you know, I suppose if you can get
it for cheap and whichever. And so it's looking at
how do we partner with some of those things, how
do we get inspiration from it? But really looking at
evolving what we do, because we can't just stay stagnant.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Do the same thing over and over again.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, you know, I have two kids.
I even watch my son. He plays baseball. He's started
get into basketball and stuff like that. I put a
basketball goal up in the backyard, you know, two years ago,
just to see what would happen. You know. He goes
up there every once in a while. She's a couple
of jump shots. But I think, yeah, there's just a
lot of challenges even as a parent, of trying to
you know, get the practices and get them over there.
I think that's the part where I get it, you know,

(41:18):
frustrated a lot of times personally. Right, It's like I
want him to do more things in sports. But between
doing a million things myself and then trying to get
there and get him to practice.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
And the world is in so much you can be like, hey,
get on your bike and go to school and do
that because you know safety, and it's it's a different generation. Yeah,
and we're always looking at like, all right, so because
of that, what do we do differently?

Speaker 3 (41:37):
Yeah? Actually, I ended up coaching his tee ball team
last year because of that, and I was like, look y'all, like,
look I'm just out here because I want him to
have a good experience.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
You know, that's wonderful.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
So he's going to be the star player too, Just
so y'all know. But if anybody else goss something to say,
let me know, you meet y'all new star player. I'm
the coach. It was, and we had a good season.
You know, he enjoyed it whole story about he said, Man,
that's some of my favorite memories.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
No, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
You go, so men, she didn't. How does as a parent?

Speaker 1 (42:07):
Then?

Speaker 3 (42:07):
How do you balance with all this different stuff? I mean,
you got a million one thing's going on, You got
a hundred plus events. You got basketball concerts, you know,
not just at the venue but at school probably other events.
How do you manage on that?

Speaker 1 (42:20):
You know? I tell everybody you know, I love being
the same of the Hawks, but being a mom is
my number one job.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
And so you know, single mom. Daughter's ten years old.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
Marley is amazing, and she is super creative. I feel
like I gave virtual a senior citizen because she's like
really responsible and like cooks, and it's very into anime
and art, which I was as well, So that that
brings me joy. But she hates basketball, has no desire
to come to a game, and I'm like, you've been
going into her two months old, like, you know, come on,
she just wants to eat then leave. So I find

(42:49):
that I really pride myself on kind. I call it
work life harmony. Sometimes you got to work a whole lot.
Other times I'm like, hey, I took her to Japan
this summer because she loves anime and wanted to really
learn more about the culture. Having the ability to do
that or taking the time to do that is where
I put my priority.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
So I said it a year in advance. I'm like, hey, all,
this is what's happening. Cool.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
And I find on a regular basis, like yesterday it
was Halloween, she didn't have school. I was working from home,
the whole trick or treat thing or talking about it
like that was what I was going to do. First,
she comes to the office, hangs out with me. Everyone
knows her because they feel like they've seen her grow up.
But that was a big part of it. Even to
the young lady that mentioned to me, like, oh, you know,
when women have kids, they leave or get demoted. I'm like,
I'm she coming with me, and we go and we're

(43:33):
getting promoted, and so I want to show that so
that others know that it's okay you're a mom, be
a mom. And I think COVID kind of put down
a lot of those barriers, invisible barriers, and I think
corporate some corporate people had like, oh, no, I can't
show too much of my personal life, and I'm like,
go this, this is this.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
Is the biggest part of my it all.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
So I'm I'm managing Girl Scouts and it was cross country,
and you know, I want to be at every meet.
Sometimes I can't make it. There has to be a
big situation or reason why I can. But for the
most part, I'm there and she knows that. And I
think just having a strong relationship with her to me
is most important.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
That's dope. That's dope. Well, Melissa, this has been a
great conversation. I appreciate you pulling up before we get
out of here. I like to ask people if there
was a Melissa Proctor billboard somewhere in Atlanta and you
could put any message you want to put on that billboard, Oh,
what message would you put on your Melissa prouct the billboard?
Bonus points if you know where you would want to put.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
It, but you can't just throw that at me.

Speaker 3 (44:35):
That's would you put on it? Would you put a
piece of advice? You put a quote? Would you put
who was it? Would you say? Make dope? Shit?

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Like that's so funny because that's where I was going.
We actually have it up in our offices on the wall.
The creative team put it up there, and I don't
think they know where it came from. So I'm like,
you probably can't curse on the billboard either, So huh, well,
I would want it on our corner board selfishly, because
it's the biggest board in the southeast right there. To
tell him at part driving Marietta, talk about that Hudson girl.

(45:03):
Because it goes around around there. It does a lot
of things, and so I would put it there for sure.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
What would it say? You know, I love fun and
good energy.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
So when I was born, my name was Melissa Bree
McGee mm hmmm, so in college everyone call me That's
what it would be.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
So I would probably have a picture of me my daughter.
It would just say mm m. And if people knew,
they'd be like, oh, it's so crazy. All she got
it a little board. But I figured that would be
like amazing and hilarious all at the same time.

Speaker 3 (45:34):
Well, that would cap it off perfectly. Those who know,
it's like, if you know, you know, if you know
you know, if you don't know, ask.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
It's right underneath it. I would probably put make dope.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
Shit for yo. Melissa, Thank you so much for pulling up.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
Thanks.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
This has been an amazing conversation. Y'all. Make sure y'all
go out there and support the Hawks. Y'all make sure
y'all go out there to these events at State Farm Marina.
And please y'all don't don't be calling her passing for tickets.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Okay, oh yeah, don't don't don't. Oh and check out
my book too, all girl.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
CMO almost forgot, but yeah, I wrote it for my daughter,
So that's that's that's a big one, anyone to all
the jams.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
Everything that I learned, I wrote in there for her.
So that was a good one. Starting as a ballgirls
a CMO.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
Well let's do it, you know, congratulations and everything, and uh,
thank you. That's the pot. Y'all We out peace. You've
been listening to button Nomics and nom your hosts. Brandon
Butler got comments feedback, want to be on the show.
Send us an email today at Hello at butteronomics dot com.
Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by
Casey Pegram, with marketing support from Queen and Nikki. Music

(46:32):
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 a t L. Listen to better Nomics on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.