How Ryan Cameron Built a Legendary Career in Radio and Culture

On this episode of Butternomics, host Brandon Butler sits down with Ryan Cameron, the unmistakable Voice of Atlanta, to break down his journey from intern to media legend. He shares how he built a lasting career, stayed relevant, and why Atlanta’s culture thrives on reinvention. We talk betting on yourself, staying present, and the power of collaboration—plus some wild stories from his radio days. Packed with laughs, wisdom, and real talk—this is one you don’t want to miss!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stop putting timetable limits on yourself. You know a lot
of times we like to say, you know.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh, man, by time I'm thirty, I need to be
doing this and doing that.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
And by the time I'm twenty five, you know, they
got They call it the quarter life crisis, right, And
I don't think it works like that. God will place
things in their proper perspective based on how you are
aligning yourself with what you're supposed to do in your life.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Butter. I'm your host,
Brandon Butler, founder CEO of Butter atl And today we
got a legend up in here. We got a very
very special guess you just go. You'll know who he
is just by the voice. This is the voice of Atlanta.
Mister Ryan Cameron. How you doing, bro?

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Welcome boy the plane track. This plane is departing. Please
hold on and wait for the next train. I'm gonna
start off like that because I still get a kick
out of that. Man, I still get the.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Kick out of the plane train being my voice.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
And whenever people, you know, they go through the airport,
like after all the things I've done, it is the
one thing that everybody talks about and then I was
like why, But then somebody said, it's two hundred and
fifty thousand people that ride the train every day.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
That's ninety two million people a year. So I'm good.
I'm glad to be on. I'm glad to be on with.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
You by really finally, man, I appreciate you. And look now,
how many how many times you have to record that?
Like when you went in there, like you like one
take totally.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
With it, you know, because they wanted it to sound friendly, right,
because usually if.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
You come to an airport you kind of feel.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Like you're lost, Like, man, how long do I need
to stay on there before I get the baggage claim
or whatever?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
So I was doing it in a certain way and
then like I need you said smile.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
More so you know concourse a a as in or
b as in burgers. So you know, I wanted to
be like y'all folk, ay bro see Steve, but they
were like, nah, I ain't.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
Gonna Workden just on four four audio.

Speaker 5 (02:08):
You know.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
It's funny like as a as an airport venture myself,
Like I don't think people fully understand how crazy that
thing you sell it. Please move to the center of
the vehicles in the way, like the Roebody voice.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
And you know what's funny is there that's an actual
person really? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
So if you google airport plane train voice, there's a
story where the lady who got the job. They were
they took the news, took the people out and they
were like, hey, this is the lady who does a
plane train and they're like, okay, do the voice. And
she she made her voice sound different, which I didn't understand,
like why would you not have it sound like you?

(02:44):
So she made herself sound like a computer. And then
everybody was like, now I don't know if that's over
and that's her. That was like I was like, so
I wasn't gonna do that because I wanted it to
be I wanted you know, it's me.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
That's that's what we're doing.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
How do those opportunities even come around? Like how does
somebody decide, you know what, we need a new voice
for the plane train, we need voice for these things.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
I was riding the train one day about nine years ago,
just like anybody else, and I heard the voice and
I was like, man, whan to be dope? But they
say like c as in Coca cola or d as
in Delta. I said, that's the way to sponsor it,
and then you could get money. And I didn't know
it was a government agency and it couldn't be sold.
But I presented the idea to America Sam Read and
he said, I think it's a great idea. I had

(03:22):
an actual sit down meeting and it kind of got tabled,
and then Kisha came along and it got table, and
then Andre came along and I was like, man, I
got this idea for the plane train. I sent it
out maybe like ten years ago. He was like word
and I was like yeah, And you know, the next
thing you know, I'm in there. I'm doing the TSA announcements,
which is funny because the only thing that people recognize
is the sex trafficking one. And I'm like, they were like, yo,

(03:46):
I heard you doing the sex trafficking that and I'm like, well,
whoa whoever that is, you need to let them go.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Get ready to kid out of all the things I'm
saying about, hold onto your legs.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
All you cared about is the sex trafficking went so
if we're from TSA, and then they were like, you know,
we want the voices. Jan Lennon who is the general
manager interim out there said I wanted to be a
universal voice throughout the airport.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
I want the.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Plane train, I want the rent a car train, I
want the TSA to all be the same voice.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
And I was like, say, let's.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
I'm it so kid growing up in Atlanta. Now you're
the voice. Gave you the voice of Atlanta. Now you're
the voice of everybody coming to Atlanta too. So you
like the first thing people hear when they touch down. Now, man, Yeah,
I mean it's still kind of surreal. I mean coming
up the escalator and then having you know, the big
billboard and all that. I mean people that are relatives
or come in town for business. Like even the founder
of the.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Company was like, I was coming up and I tell
your big head on the thing and I was like, thanks, Alfred,
you know Liggins, I appreciate that. I guess I guess
that's support, you know. But yes, it's a big deal. Man,
I'm really happy about it.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
That's still man.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
So one thing I've always wanted to ask you is
I always see hashtag yacht dreams. Yeah, after everything he
posts like what's that about?

Speaker 4 (04:58):
Like where did that come from? But also what's it
about well, you know.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Fisher Island in Miami is the most expensive zip code
in the nation, right and if you google Fisher Island,
the average property down there, and it's away from Miami.
You actually have to catch a ferry to go to
Fisher Island. And now it's all private. You used to
have a hotel there, but you have to have somebody

(05:21):
that you know has to invite you. It used to
be like I took my wife at the time down
there for her fourtieth birthday and flew twenty seven people in.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
We had the whole island.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
There's no Starbucks, there's no car wash. There is a school,
there is a grocery store in about four or five restaurants.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
But in the middle.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Of that is a yacht slip where people are in
there and they have all of their boats parked. And
so I was up there one day with my daughter.
Kai would always go to this brick up in pizza
place and sit out on the thing and I'd be
sitting there with my beer and they bring out the
pizza and I'd be looking at all the boats out there,
and I was like, man, Kai, I know that one
day you're gonna have a boat my Scorpio's daughter. I

(06:03):
got yacht dreams, okay, and I think it's gonna come
true one day, and she was like okay.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
And so when I left the radio, I told that story.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
I said this for all the people to have yacht dreams, right,
And for some reason it stuck and became a hashtag
and people started posting it and putting yacht dreams behind.
It's like, we all aspired to do bigger and better
things and we see them from afar, but how do
we get there?

Speaker 2 (06:26):
And so that's where the whole yacht dreams thing came about.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
The follow up, which I've never talked about, is I
got invited on a yacht, right, and the lady who
was like the steward who ran the yacht.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
I was like, man, this is incredible. I said, how
much does one of these boats cost? Because I expect
to be millions. She's like, oh, he.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Said, you know, you can get this boat for about
maybe four hundred thousand, and I was like four hundred thousand.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
She's like yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
I was like, well, how she said, Well, one thing
about yachts you can't tell the year, Like if you
go out here now and it's a nineteen ninety bans.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Oh that's old ass Benz.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
But you don't know if it's a nineteen ninety yacht.
She said, they all look alike except the inside. So
she said, look up there. You see all these little
holes around the boat and I said yeah. She said
those used to be stripper poles and I was like what.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
She said, yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
So the Russians would come over here, they would party,
bring their little people out there. They dance and do
all kinds of crazy stuff on the boat. And then
they started increasing the ability to come into the country.
So they had to get rid of the boat because
they couldn't get back he because they would get all
way over here and get sent back. So they sold
it to my boss, who put about a million dollars

(07:37):
in it. But they say, you know, Ryan, the boat
has to sail. A yacht can't sit in the pier.
There has to be a crew. It has to run.
You cannot just have it sitting around. So you're here,
you're enjoying yourself.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
I said yeah. She said you got the speedboat.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
I said yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
She said you got the food and the drink.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
I said yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
She said, so what you do is you come here
for the weekend and you go to the Bahamas and
you sell and you enjoy all the stuff, and then
you enjoy the food. And then she says, and then
at the end of three days, you get the fuck
off the boat.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
And I was like, yeah, that's what you do.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
So that's the yacht yacht Dreams twenty five, Like, do
all those things, but get off the boat, because the
maintenance that it takes to maintain something like that is
nothing that we ever see. All we see is y'oll
we're on the boat, and you know, you remember Wolf
of Wall Street and everybody's doing the lobster and the
drinks and all that, but you don't see what it

(08:30):
takes to maintain that. So you go out and you buy,
and you spend you know, ten fifteen grand, you take
your family there, and you get off the boat.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
You know, it's funny. I have I have a buddy
of money. He doesn't own yacht, but he definitely owns
a boat, and he kind of says the same thing.
He's like, man, this is like the best and worst
thing in the world. Like I got to get here
before everybody to get everything set up. Then all y'all
come on my boat. Y'all party, y'all kick it, then
crash it. Y'all trash it. Then y'all get y'all drunk asses.
All right, and y'all go home. I'm still here for
another hour, hour and a half cleaning everything up.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
True facts.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
Hey man, Look, so.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
I got to ask to Ryan like because because Mike
was getting on me about this. Mike, Mike Nice was
getting on me about this ahead of time. Now, I
know you and I have talked about this a little bit,
but yeah, you know, I used to intern for you.
And you say you don't really remember it because that's
how short my internship was. But you do you not
remember me sending ninety seven copies of my resume tewn

(09:24):
in the mail?

Speaker 1 (09:25):
Anything about a Brandon And I don't want you to
take this wrong way because we're friends and I love
you like a brother.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
I don't remember that shit at all.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Okay, So just you know, but I want you to
know that it comes with a good company. So when
I got my internship and I was over at the
Blockbuster Video, I would walk across the street and do
my comedy show. Right there was a comedy competition and
Mike Roberts and Carol Blackman were there for the finale
and they had a celebrity guest. Bobby Brown was a

(09:55):
celebrity guest, and so I went over there and I
worked at Blockbuster Video for those that was a a
chain of video stores that stayed open to midnight. So
I would take my lunch break and walk across the
street and compete in the comedy competition. And that night
I came in second. Because the guy who won did
all the jokes from the Apollo. The crowd was going crazy,
and so Mike Crow was like, man, I've heard those
jokes before, but I had to go with the crowd.

(10:16):
I was like, okay, he says, so what do you
want to do? Said, you know, I was an intern
in college. I really want to be an intern at
V one O three. And he's like, come down and
see me on Monday. And then Bobby Brown was in there.
He's like, man, whatever this guy want to do, let
him do that shit, man, because he is a funny
motherfucker right. And I was like, yeah, Bobby Brown is
co signed for me. And so fast forward thirty years

(10:39):
later and they're getting the star on the Walk of
Fame outside of Mercedes been stadium. You know, they got
the Black Walk of Fame and so it's all the
new addition up there.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
I mean, everybody, all six of them.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
And I get up and I said, man, I will
never say anything bad about Bobby Brown, I said, because
he's the reason that I am here today. I tell
the story and everybody's like, what, yeah, oh man, that's what's.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Up man, And Bobby says, I'm sorry, man, I don't remember.

Speaker 4 (11:11):
I got an idea why he might not remember.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
For all these years I've been telling this story, I
would never say anything because I'm thinking, you know, in
the in the grand scheme of things, that he's the
reason that'm on the radio or now he's going to be,
you know, like totally in narrow bout the story, but
he don't remember it. So I'll lend this plan by saying,
you know, I'm glad that you sent those letters, Bro.
I mean, there are interviews that when you do and
I've heard like Big Boy and and Charlomagne say, when

(11:35):
you do so much, so so many, it all becomes
like a blur sometimes, like some things I can really
really go back to and remember.

Speaker 4 (11:43):
But it was a different time. It's a different time.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
It's a different time.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
But you know that's that's interesting. You say things were blur,
like with all this stuff you have done. What are
some of those interviews and moments that like you really
do remember, like really jump out at you.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
We had an interview with the Rock and he was
promoting remember that movie called The Tooth Fairy.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, right, he was out and he's promoting The Tooth Fairy.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
And there's a window like this at the studio, right,
and you see her over there, and you see you
see Mike over there.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
They gave us ten minutes to interview him on the air.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Well, we get in there and we get to laughing
and we're laughing at the same jokes. Eight minutes go by,
and then the lady comes to the window like she's there,
and they go start wrapping us up. Then nine minutes
go by, and ten minutes go by, then twelve.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
But he's having a great time. He's not ready to leave.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
He's got to do seeing the end or some other
So like thirteen minutes go by. She comes to the window.
She starts she's.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Banging master's money banging on that glass, and he says,
excuse me for a second.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
And he goes out and he fires her on the
spot and he comes back in and I'll never forget this.
He was like, man, sometimes motherfuckers think they you and
we was like damn.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
But it was one of those things.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Where i know my schedule, i know where I got
to be, but I'm doing this right now. I'm being
present with what's going on here right now. And it
spoke to me. It's like, man, sometimes you just got
to move stuff around and just pivot to where you
are right then. Because he was president, we have having a
great time. It's a great interview and that was one
of my most memorable ones. Another one was the Vasace

(13:17):
store in Phillips Plaza. Right, the guy who owns Umi
is Fashid. Fashid used to be the manager of the
Vasascei store in Philps Plaza. So who was at number
one customer when he was living in Atlanta was Elton
john So Elton john was always in the Vasace store
and they hit it off so much that Elton actually

(13:37):
hired Forshid to become his manager. So you go for
me and the manager of the Vassacei store to the
manager of Elton Johnson Judd.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
So you know, I'm talking to.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Fashid one day, I'm like, you know what, man, I
want to interview Elton John. He was like, man, he's
not I said, just asking, bro. He said, he's not
gonna do it. So he said, he said he they'll
do it. So he had. There was two floors in
Buckhead in that house, and we went over there and
it was supposed to be a fifteen minute interview and

(14:07):
it ended up going for four hours well, and we
talked about so many things. And it's almost like when
I do an interview, you always say eventually the microphones
are supposed to disappear if you're doing a good job.
And he talked about so many things that they called
us the next day and say, hey, man, you can't
please don't air this part. Please don't air this part

(14:27):
because there's some things in this interview. It's gonna have
to wait till he's gone. Like if I was like
cloud chasing the stuff that he's talking about in his
interview about how you know there were cigarette companies that
had him a private jet on standby for twenty four
hours that you know, he could take it on the
ever he wanted to, and he could fly in and

(14:47):
he was the first one to get a million dollar
show for thirty minutes, you know, I mean, and all
the things that he talked about that like right.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Now would not be correct in the grand scheme of things.
You know. I have to table that to another day.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
We didn't do an interview, but I tell you one
of the most memorable things is somebody said to me.
They said, hey, man, are you and a man for Lauderdale.
I said, I can get there. I said, well, we
should like to meet Minister Farakahn. This is like when
he was still flying around and doing stuff. And I said, okay,
and we go and I go to this penthouse suite
and it's got all security and stuff, and it's supposed to

(15:20):
be fifteen minutes, and I ended up staying there for
three hours. I mean, we just hit it off with
the stuff that he was telling me. And he was
actually predicting things that happened in my career based on
how I was presenting myself and the facts of what
I was going through at the station.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
At the time. And he was like, man, he said, oh,
they're gonna try to get rid of you. And I
was like, they ain't gonna try to get rid of him.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
They're gonna try to get ready And he was right,
because I was so blinded by the fact that I thought, nah,
they'll never try to get.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
Rid of me, and he was on it, on it.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
You've met a lot of people too. I mean, obviously
you've met a lot of people. You've interviewed a lot
of people just and a lot of people with money.
Like what what have you noticed about people just to
that level of success or wealth that the average person
might not realize.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
If you had a Holy Field told me this one time,
and he said, the only thing worse than an a
hole is an a hole with money. Imagine I'm already
a jerk, right, you already can't stand me, and then
I get rich, it's turned up. Then it is like

(16:39):
now I'm making.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
You do all.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
I mean, look at what what what what Kanye is
talking about like he's going out on ten like he's like,
I'm back a billionaire, Trump's an office.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
All is right with the world.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
And today he's embracing Hitler and talking about he got
to line with Sean John, got.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
His wife walk around and naked, going on.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
Man, it's like he got the money.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
He's like, who gonna cancel me, right, And so what
I've learned from people with money, man, is that it's
better that they came from nothing and they can appreciate
it more than you know. They was talk about the
people who win the lottery, how they're like usually broke
within four or five years because they just don't know
what to do with it. They can't handle all of that.

(17:22):
So the people that I know that really have done
really well, there's still the same people. Like I said,
I can call them, I can text them, they'll call
me because I just don't ask him for anything because
I'm like, everybody else is asking you for stuff, so
I try not to do that.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
It seems like because I see like the stuff you'll
post with like you and Ludacris and stuff like that, Right,
it just seems like y'all just yeah, it's just two
friends hanging out and kicking it.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
We always check on each other, man.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
And Chris is probably one of my closest friends who
was also an intern. But as I watched him grow,
he's the same guy, you know what I'm saying, And
I think he gets the opportunities that he's like the
new snoop.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
I feel like because you'll.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
See him on Commrshaals and with Mavado or with State
Farm and all these different things. It's very strategic and
the stuff that he's doing, it's very mainstream. Then he
got the Fast and Furious franchise. I mean, he's doing
all those things. I askedim, I said, you should send
jo Rule, you know, money every year because you know,
when he was decided he was going to go on

(18:19):
tour and not do that Fast and Furious, that's when
they got Chris and here we go.

Speaker 4 (18:23):
Like eight movies later, Fast and Furious fit them all.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
Man, That's that's you gotta be ready.

Speaker 4 (18:29):
It's a franchise franchise show.

Speaker 5 (18:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
Man, Let mean even think about like, folks like that,
you've seen Atlanta evolve over the years. What do you
think makes Atlanta so unique in like the way that
the culture here operates, because it's not perfect now by far,
but like which makes Atlanta unique? Especially just haven't seen
it all for these years?

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Well, I mean I always tell people Atlanta is a
city of mavericks. Okay, so you can go all the
way back to Doctor King and to Jose Williams and
to you know, Ralph Abernathy, to Andy Young, to Maynard Jackson,
to Hank Air and to Evandae Holy Feel, to all
those people that never tried to fit in. I mean,

(19:04):
even look at what you've done with this. Right when
you came up with this idea, you weren't trying to
mold yourself to be anybody else.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
You would try to be unique to the culture. And
then you know, they always say, if you're good enough,
the people.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Will find you, right, And that's kind of been how
I think Atlanta is, even with all the stuff with
outcasts and the South's got something to say and all
those different things. I mean, I think that what we've
been able to land on is that we've never tried
to fit in with everybody else. We don't come down
and try to do another accent and try to be
somebody else, so try to wear somebody else's clothes. It's
always been Atlanta to the fullest, no matter what that is.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
Now.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
The thing that's different between and now I'm not going
to say old Atlanta, but traditional Atlanta is Atlanta back
in the day. We want it to be them. Yeah, Atlanta,
now look what I'm doing. Look, you know, so you
got eighty nine different toy drivers right, you got eighty
nine different turkey.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Giveaways as opposed to.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
You calling this guy and that guy got that guy,
and we said, yeah, it's going to costco and let's
buy ten thousand turkeys. Let's do one mass giveaway. But
it's very separate now. And that's the only thing that
I get disheartened by. It's like I wish that somebody
I was talking to. This is a quick aside. I
was talking to Shirley Franklin yesterday, right, and her number
is still the same. She's the fifty seventh mayor of

(20:23):
the city. And I called her and I said, congratulations
on having the a street named after the reservoir and
the street in front of the city Hall named after her.
And she said, well, you know, my mom always said
if you ain't got nothing nice to say, I don't
say nothing, she said, But I want to say, you know,
it wasn't just me. I was just in the right
place at the right time, and Maynard and Andy, you know,

(20:45):
they just put me in the right place. And shit,
I want to say, you know, thank you to people
like you. And I forgot that when she ran power,
I was me, Dallas and Jermaine, like all of us
got together and just say we was going to support her,
and she was like, y'all really kind of help. And
I forgot it again, Like I forgot about it, you know,
but you reminded me. But it's like when you see

(21:06):
stuff like that and you see people who are again,
she's the first black mayor in the city's history. That's
a woman. It's mavericks man. It's like not trying to
fit in, but just kind of you know, doing what
we do.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah, I think that's I mean, I experienced the same
thing even with the stuff we do with four four day, right,
Like there's a million different people trying to do different things,
and so one thing that we've tried to do, to
your point is like bring people together around it. And
it's tough, you know, because everybody kind of wants to
do their own thing for different reasons. But like I
actually just had like walked through with some folks the
other day and it was like, yo, like let's just collaborate, Like, yeah,
we could do so much more together. And I don't

(21:37):
see a lot of people having those kinds of conversations.
I don't know when it became like so so like singular,
so personal.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
I mean, I think it's the question Brandon that's not
asked is the worst question ever.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
You know, if you don't ever asked a question.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
And you know, I remember being in a room and
I think I have told you this, but for the
sake of this. It was like I was in a
room and actually Luda had invited me. He's like, I
want to take you somewhere, and I was in face.
I said where we're going, and he's like, I can't
tell you. I can't tell you. So we get in
this car and we go behind these hotel suites and
there's all these SUVs parked, and we get on this elevator,

(22:12):
but there's a car on the elevator, like a like
a convertible, and I'm like, it's a convertible on the elevator.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
So we get off and we're like in a little vegetable.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
It's about maybe a third of this room, and all
of a sudden, just Prince disappears like out of thin air,
like poof.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
And he's like, I hope you guys are hungry, and
I'm like, oh, and I want to go.

Speaker 4 (22:32):
I want some pancakes.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
But I was like, kick me out, and so we're
sitting at this table and it's me, it's Luda, it's
Gabrielle Union, it's Tony Braxton, it's Sean Robinson from Access
Hollywood and Hill Harper, and then on this end of
the table it's Dave Chappelle and on this end it's Prince.

(22:56):
And so Tony Braxton is talking to Prince and she's
saying how expensive it is to have a show in Vegas.
She's like, they can charge me for this. They charged
me for that, and they charged me for this. And
then she says, I don't know if I'm be able
to do this in print, like this is Vegas, they
print money. I am not paying anyone for anything. And
she was like, what, why do you tell me? And

(23:17):
he was like, you're in't asked, And I kind of
think that's what it is in business and with relationships
in Atlanta. It's like, if I go out and I
know that something's gonna fail, this ain't gonna work. I've
done it, I've seen it flop, but you don't ask me.
That's on you. But if I go out and if

(23:37):
it fails and I say no man, you say, hey, man,
what's you think of this idea? And I don't tell you,
then that's on me. And I just think that we
have a problem in trying to share information because we're
in a very much I win, so you must lose
mentality as opposed to I win.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
We all can win together, and I think if.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
We could change that, it's only gonna take a couple
of us to have some really big you know, and everything.
I always tell people, everything doesn't have to be a
home run.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Man. You know, there are people in the Hall of
Fame who hit a whole bunch of singles.

Speaker 4 (24:07):
You know, if you can back three hundred, you know that.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
You know what I'm saying, Everything got to be a
home run, you know.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
So I wish that we would share more information, information
about what we can do to succeed as opposed to
just failing.

Speaker 4 (24:20):
No, I agree.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
I think a lot of people kind of have that
win and lose mentality. It seems very binary. Sometimes it's
always like, all right, it's gotta be fifty one forty nine,
Like somebody's got to get a little bit more, a
little bit more credit, a little bit more notoriety, a
little bit more money off of it. And it's like
you get more value by leaving some of that stuff
on the table exactly and bringing more people into it.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Everybody should eat.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
Everybody gotta eat. You know.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Now, you've been doing the radio stuff obviously for a
long time, but you've had like multiple moments. I remember
one moment I always remember is I think when you
went back to v and you I think you had
like a signing day or something like that, like a
first no press conference, and I had never seen something
like that before. I'm like, man, this is amazing. But
you know, all this comes from you kind of betting
on yourself. Like what advice would you give to somebody

(25:00):
when it comes to just betting on themselves. Because again,
we're in this space right now. Everybody wants to be
a maker or creator. Everybody wants to have a platform
of voice, and look, it ain't built for everybody. Some
people are really good number twos and number threes and
number fifteens in companies.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
There's three hundred thousand podcasts right pretty much.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
I mean I was just talking about somebody earlier today.
They was like, everybody wants to be Joe Rogan. Everybody
wants to be not worth the game or you know,
the pivot. It's just they were telling me somebody who
I thought was very successful. I mean, I was like,
what they was like, Yo, it's cost them six grand
a podcast and they ain't ain't no money yet.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, and they do forty eight Uh they do eight whatever.
It was like fifty grand, And I was like what
they was like. I was like, man, that's tough. You
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
But I think my advice to people is if you
keep doing good work, they will find you. You know,
My situation has always been the guy who was in
front of me nutted up.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
It's just plain and simple person who had the spot
before me.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
They did something that either made them lose a spot
or they just want ready for the lights. And I
think you always say, man, if I can just get
a shot, if I can just get a chance, you know,
and then you get a chance. I remember one time, man,
there was this guy. You go to barbershop, right and
people talk trash about sports man something Eagles ain't gonna

(26:25):
have nothing on cheesing blah blah blah, and they just
they run in the barbershop. They are the king of
the barbershop in trash talk. So one of the sports
talk stations had an opening so a guy shot at
Jerry Clark. I got Jerry Clark and this guy to
go in there and they did their audition. Of course,
Jerry Clark went on to do his podcast and doing
great things. But the guy who was with him was

(26:45):
the barbershop guy. So they get in there and Jerry
tees him up and this guy this thing right here.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
He wasn't ready for that man. I mean, he froze
to the man. He could have been geezy.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
He was so frozen in that joint and it was
one of those things where.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
You're like wow.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
He always say if I ever had a chance, and
he had a chance, and he basically wasn't ready. So
it's like, you got to be ready when your time
comes to shine, because it ain't for everybody.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, a friend of mine gave me some advice that
always stuck with me. He said, you know, when it
comes to opportunities, looks get you in the door, right.
Talent gets you hired, he said, But once you own,
it's all about stage presence, right, Like what do you
do with the microphone the lights are on? What do
you do when it's your time to step up? And
so that's something I've always kind of thought about right.
It's like again, people that you've got to be doing
something from me to look your direction?

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Where's my camera right there?

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah, whenever I go watch Mike, whenever I go into
an event like this, whenever I go into a podcast
or a thing on a big stage, I wear these socks.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
Not the fuck this shit sucks.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Because that to me, when I look down, I'm nervous,
I'm like, man, fuck this shit like it ain't It
ain't that big of a deal. Just going in and
be you. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
Don't get too Sometimes you get so worked up about
stuff that you will blow the opportunity. Worried about the
people sitting out there in the audience who are just
as nervous as you are. You know, I saw, like
Nicki Glazer last night for the NFL Honors. She was
doing the same joke. She was doing that to Tom
Brady roast and they was falling flat.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
I mean, who, you gotta read the room right right,
And she didn't read that room.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Because athletes are all used to being talked about and
being made fun of. She made a joke about somebody
and it just with crickets, and I was like she
should have all some fuck this shit socks. She just
went there and went for it, because you can see,
once a joke falls flat, then it changed your whole trajectory.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
Now the whole I just ain't. So.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
I always wear these socks no matter what I'm doing.
If it's a bigger, the bigger the event, I'm gonna
have one of these socks. I never you know, it
might be a podcast, it might be going to you
know them saying the hundred black men black tied dinner.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
It might be you know, whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
I'm gonna have all these socks because I don't ever
want to get.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Too worked up about the event.

Speaker 4 (29:08):
No, I mean, you know what.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
And they're available on Amazon.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
I was so to say it, We're gonna get it, except.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Amazon just type of shit socks.

Speaker 4 (29:17):
Give me some up in my superpower.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
Let me ask you a man, like if somebody that
does a show every day, like what makes a good
radio show in your opinion, Like, how do you kind
of prepare to make sure you're giving your audience the
best show possible.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
I get up at five and I start looking for
stories because my dogs are up at six, and if
I'm not up before them.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
They're gonna be howling and scratching.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
I got four dogs, right, and my wife is sitting
there and she's like, they're gonna start in a minute.
I'm like, Okay, let me try to get these stories done.
But the team is the most important element, right It's
a reason that you have her, it's a reason that
you have him, and you're an engineer.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
The people, and we've talked.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
About this, yeh off, Mike, the people behind you are
the most important.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
My producer, my producer right now, body banks.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
Shout out to Bonnie.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
She's a beast man.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
She's a beast and she's a sagittarist too, so she
takes no prisoners and has no filters, just like me.
So when you find somebody like that that you know
is a like mind and it's just as hungry to
help you shine, Yeah, you know, sometimes people just want
to be in the background. Like Gelman on the Kelly
and her Husband's show. He's been there forever. He'll say

(30:42):
something every down and then. But then he's also a
feature of the show, like Bonnie is a feature of
the show, you know, because she has that millennial attitude
of a thirty something year old and she'll say some
stuff like, you know, coming on the radio and saying
that if Michael Jackson was allowed today, he'd be opened
up for Beyonce.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
Girl, you're tripping some millennial stuff.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
But that's a millennial that she actually believes that, you
know what I'm saying that to have that kind of perspective.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
But I think to answer your question, man.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
The team is what makes you get excited about going
to work every day. Because I've been to work sometimes
in other radio stations and the person didn't do any
prep at all and they just came in and just
kind of laughed at their their.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Jokes, and I was like, man, this is tough.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, it's tough when when people don't come in it's
almost like having a group project and they get an a
you know, they didn't do nothing.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
She's kind of what it feels.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Like like when everything has been changing again, because like
radio is obviously different now than it was you got started,
and you have all these other things like social media
and all that stuff like r how do you kind
of reinvent in what you do to kind of just
make it stay fresh and make it stay relevant.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
Well, I mean, here's the thing about difference between radio
and podcasting or all these other things. If there was
a plane that were to crash right here, right now,
and I was to go outside and see that plane,
I can go on the radio right now and do
that story live by the time the.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
News gets it, gets in the truck, gets a camera. Man.
It's not.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
The thing about radio is always now, we can do
it now. You got to upload this podcast. You gotta go,
and you gotta edit it. It's not instant. That's why
radio is always going to have a foothold in society
because it's instant.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
It's right now now.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
Streaming of course has its own merits, but as far
as like being able to go on and do it instantly, that's.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
What I think is radio a strong suit.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
I mean, you're saying, what's happening right now with TV
TV is where radio was a couple of years ago.
TV revenues are down, show everybody's holding on the budgets.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Stuff is getting canceled left and right.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
You're not getting the second year, you're not getting like
the syndication deals.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
All those things are going by the wayside.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
Now because people are like, we just we don't have
the ad revenue to support the salaries, and so you
see that happening in a lot of times where the
atmosphere just changes because the money's changed because revenue is down.
So I'm sure they're not going to be as expensive
as they've been in past years because things have changed.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
It's a very kind of like cyclical thing. I think.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
You know, you see these opportunities and you see just
the way everything kind of moves into your point. Like
you know, I kind of got my chops working with
the Two Lives studs back in the day when I
was at seven ninety, and that's what I kind of learned.
I always said, you know what, like the ability for
radio is is now to your appoint but it's also
the ability to kind of mobilize people, right, And that's
what I think is really interesting about it.

Speaker 4 (33:29):
Another.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
I think that's also what people kind of miss even
when it comes to social media and all this stuff.
Right like this, you have, sure you have influence because
somebody like liked the post or left the comment, right,
But the real influence is can you get people to
get off that phone and come meet you somewhere, come
do something.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
It's even happening in religious stuff, right. I have friends
that are mega pastors, I mean big time, And I've
said to them, I said, why is church shorter? They
were like, yo, we have conferences too, and they say,
you know, you get into a church and as a
down clock. Yep, And they say the average attention span

(34:05):
of somebody in the church service these days is twenty minutes.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
Really, so no more of that. Come on quiet now?
And then you're like, man church was hey? Man church
at one o'clock? They say, when it gets to two minutes,
it starts flashing.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
And they're telling all the ministers, if you don't get
this message out there, you're gonna lose these people. And
I'm telling you, if I told you some of these names,
you be like really, because now in this society, people's
attention span is totally different. You're not gonna you're gonna
miss the message.

Speaker 4 (34:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
So if you're missing the message, then what you go
to church for? You know, So you're gonna got twenty
minutes to get that message across the people. The closing,
you know, when the minister comes up for the closes,
it ain't gonna be longer than twenty minutes.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
Oh no, I remember all the you know, all the
theatrics and stuff like that. Even my parents' church is
a very long standing traditional churchman around I think over
one hundred plus years. Yeah, I go there now and
I remember growing up. Yeah, you get the church at
seven am. You know you're not leaving until one o'clock
in the afternoon. And that's if there's not a program.

Speaker 5 (35:07):
Yea.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Now they got a forty five to fifty minute surface
one time a day. They're like, yeah, we get him out.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
You lose people, you lose them.

Speaker 4 (35:16):
What do you think of some of the most defining
moments in just like Atlanta culture, if you had to
pick like two or three, what are just some moments
that just really jump out at you.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
I always tell people it is now. They don't want
to act like I know what I'm talking about. You know,
Atlanta nightlife has been defined by crime.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
Shallowy leuse.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
He was second. So if you look at it, Fred Tokars, Yeah,
kills his wife on my birthday. I never forget it.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
When you hired that crackhead to kill his wife in
front of her two boys.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
That eliminated diamonds and.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
Pearls and all that because of his ability to launder
those money for that drug dealer. So that changed all
that culture. And then the Buckhead Bar district was ray
Lewis that you alluded to earlier, where that happens. Then
you have all those things are closing. It was like
it gave people a chance to say, this is what
we needed finally to get.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
These negroes up out of here.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
And then you had the BMF era, which of course
once that stuff happened, that was just like the finale,
you know what I'm saying. So I think anything that's
been like really shifting the culture in Atlanta, which starts
with the nightlife. When they brought the culture of Vegas
to Atlanta, when it went from being a dance floor

(36:36):
to just sections, it changed everything. When I've dealt with clubs,
I never dealt with a promoter. Always dealt with the owner,
the person who put the butts in the club. So
I'm sorry that the promoter people got mad, but you know,
you have one night.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
No.

Speaker 4 (36:54):
But it's true though.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
I mean as a person that goes out, yeah, you
go to all these spots, it's just sections, everybody kind
of sitting around. It's not you know, people are in
there like I'm like this, this y'all version of a
good time, Like y'all came here. You spend all this
money right to come to this room to sit on
your phone on a sofa and not talk to anybody exactly.

Speaker 4 (37:10):
You know, why do it? Why do it?

Speaker 3 (37:12):
But to your point, like that's that los that's that
like West Coast Las Vegas, Los Angeles culture.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
It's definitely Vegas.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
I mean, if you go to Vegas right now, you're
gonna have the lights and the music and you're just
gonna have a good time regardless because you're in Vegas.

Speaker 5 (37:25):
You know.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
I always tell people when they come in to Atlanta,
like I just rating it at night. I was like,
what if it was random Vegas where we stay in.
I'm like, nah, here let's go.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
When you have people come in, if you have to describe,
like what's a perfect day in Atlanta like to you,
if you have to describe it for somebody coming from
out of town.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
I mean everything that I do right now always revolve
around good food, okay. You know, because if you go
to a great restaurant in Atlanta and it's good from
the bread steaks to the dessert, it's a good time,
right And to me, it's like the traditional like I
love all the Buckhead Life restaurants, right, and because I

(38:01):
one of the owners and my son went to school together,
so Pano and when it was Pano and Paul's and
when they had all these different restaurants and when they
sprung out, and that's Chops and lobster bar and Chema
and preachy.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
It's all based on the food for me. Right. But
as far as.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Like like, there's the one thing that is avoided after
you eat is that there's nowhere to go and land
for any live entertainment.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Right.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
I have not seen any place in Atlanta be able
to sustain that we used to have. Remember they had
the juke joint that was downtown or whatever right there
on the Pea Streets right there the next to two hundred.
I mean I thought that was going to happen.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
You know.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
We had Kenny's Alley, which was like, you know, they've
had all these different It's just that's the one thing
that I was like, So people say, okay, we.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
Ate, now what that's the problem.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
I mean even right over here, they had a spot
over here called Damsel. I don't know if you ever
saw that, but it was kind of like a you
would go in they had dinner and everything set up,
and then they kind of had like a burlesque style
show and it was really nice. It was put together,
and that thing was open for like three four months,
and then it's hard.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
It's hard when you got like the workspace over here.
We kind of christened that thing. Like when I was
living in the law right here on Marrietta Street, we
would come down here before they even had, like they
don't have like two stores in that joint, and to
see what has become, it's like amazing. But still you
wish there was something they could do in there that
would be something that would be live entertainment. I know

(39:26):
they have stuff, you know, spotted here and there, but
I think that's the one thing that Atlanta is missing,
is like it's too many creatives in here for us
not to have a spot where it's not just R
and B night, Like if it was a place every
Friday night we did this almost like they have the
Wednesday wind down and all these different things.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
But somebody needs to be able to pull that off.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
But I don't know if people can want to risk
that kind of money because if it doesn't go well,
you're stuck in at least that you can't get out of.
I mean even with like I say this and one
thing about being able to hold the l I think
Atlanta is a place where you got to sometimes say, Okay,
maybe that was a good idea on paper.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
So when I open up dough Boy in South da
camp mall, people like, man, what you doing in there?
Why are you doing it?

Speaker 5 (40:12):
And there?

Speaker 1 (40:12):
And I was like, man, black people need to have
a place where they can eat and do whatever. The
mall traffic is not what it is, and it's gotten
even worse. Super Bowl Sunday will be my two year anniversary, right,
which is in restaurant as a lifetime, right, So shout
out to all the people who have come out and
supported and who've bought pizza and whatever. If you're coming

(40:35):
in there, you're doing it because you want to support us,
and we got damn good pizza.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
Right.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
But I think one of the challenges with that is
that if you see some of these businesses that try
to pop up and do something that's different, if they're
not really catering to the fans of the brand, they're.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
Going to struggle. Yeah, it's going to be a struggle, man.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
And I see so many people, you know, and shout
out to Big Dave and the Chiefe States and that
he's got the Crab Boys and something else. And with
Pinky what they've been able to do. They just lashed
on and local greens, you know, and Zach, those people
you can find a niche and those people hold onto
that craft.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
You know.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
For me, the only thing they said that did not
have a problem during the pandemic was Chinese food and
wings and pizza. So I you know, I'm like, well,
I don't think black people are gonna come and think,
you know, Ryan's Chinese food.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
That ain't gonna work.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
So we did the pizza thing, and you know, it's
been some it's been some challenges because to what we
talked about earlier, people, these young.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
Folks, they just don't want to work. They don't want
to work at all.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
They have no drive because I blame some of the
times the parents is that we've given them so much
they expect I had this. I know, I've had a
million assistants. Right, This young lady came in and she
was a former school teacher. She had never done it before.
She came in and she worked for one week and
then she googled.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
I said, well, let's see how it goes.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
For the first week, she googled personal assistant and she said, well,
I'm gonna present something to you and I said, okay,
well present it and he said, well, I want you
to read over it, and I said okay.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
She had all these duties. She said, I want to.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Work from nine to three Monday through Wednesday, and then
I need to have Thursday through Sunday off. I said, okay,
so what else. Well, you'll see here that I want
to be. You know, I think it's fair. I got,
you know, five thousand dollars a month, I said, and

(42:38):
you get four days off, right. I said, well, it
was nice knowing you. I wish you the best. And
she said, we can't talk about it.

Speaker 4 (42:47):
No.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
You what you ain't ever even done this before.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
This is your first time doing this, and this is
what you want. This is how you come in like
you gotta you know, at it's.

Speaker 4 (42:58):
Level, we gotta step up. You go earn it, Come on, man.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
But I mean, it's just the way that they think
these days. It's a sense of entitlement. It's a microwave society,
and everybody wants it now.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
And I never came from that.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
I was sticking out, you know, lying on the business
permit applications when I was, you know, thirteen, saying that
I was fifteen sixteen, Yeah, riding the bus to the
mall to get a job. You know. I mean, you see,
that's what you do.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
That's what you get that work ethic from your parents.
Like my mom had one job her entire life. She
started off as a phone operator and that was when
it was Southern Bell, who then was acquired to become
Bell South, which then they got to be AT and T.
But she stayed with the company her whole entire life,
even to retire. So from being a teenager, she has

(43:57):
that kind of loyalty. And I started working at the
age of twelve. I lied and was working at the
Chinese food restaurant near my neighborhood called the House of Whole,
and was washing dishes for twenty six dollars over the
weekend because I just wanted to go out there and
just earn my own money.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
I've always been like that. But I watched her work,
so I'm like, Okay, let me go out there and work.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
You know, I think if you see people grow up
to be what they see and if you see a
good role model that's out there working.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
My grandfather, may he rest in peace.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
He worked at Ideal Roller Company for thirty years and
he worked from two pm to eleven PM. And I
saw him go out there every day. My other grandfather,
he had a janitorial service and he worked and worked
and clean buildings and houses and stuff. I mean, if
you see work, you're gonna work. But if you see nothing,
you ain't gonna do nothing.

Speaker 5 (44:45):
No.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
I remember I was I used to intern at this
kid that was interning for me back when I was
working in PR. It was over the summer. You know,
I was kind of missing some things here and there.
But you know, we tried to work with him. At
the end of the internship. I'd always kind of sit
down with everybody' be like all right, you know, obviously
the go here.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
In an exit interview.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
Yeah, but your goal is for you to hopefully like
transition into like an entry level role in some way.
And so you know, I was kind of having my
interview with him just kind of seeing, you know, where
his head was at. And I'll never forget. We were
talking and I was like, well, you know, it's been
a little tough, but you did all right. So have
you started like looking at roles and stuff like that,
like entry level? And he was like, yeah, found a role.
He slid a piece of paper across the desk and
it was like an SVP level. And at this point,

(45:24):
I was the vice president at the company. I said,
so let me get this straight. You want to go
from intern to SVP. You want to go even higher
than I currently am here and I've been here for
like four or five years. And I said, I asked him,
I said, what makes you think now? You read the
qualifications on the paper, Like one qualification says you need
fifteen years of experience, Like, sir, you've been out of
college for three months. Why do you even think that

(45:45):
you could apply for this? And he looked me dead
in my face and he said, my mama said I
can do whatever I want to do.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (45:52):
I said, well, does your mama have fifteen years of experience, because.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Hey, it'll work if you were.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
I saw a post today and they were talking about
and it gives you your credit as well for your
letters that you wrote that Roger Goodell, who they said
has made seven hundred million dollars as the NFL commissioner,
and they were talking about how he got started. He
wrote fifty three letters trying to become an intern. True, like,

(46:19):
this is the commission of the NFL, he said, I
wrote fifty three letters and finally they called me and
they said, listen, if you ever in New York stop
about eight o'clock in the morning, he said, he was
in Pittsburgh. I know that game, and he drove all
night to make that interview. It's like, and now you
see he's one of the most powerful people in the world.
But I'm like, you got to have that gumption that

(46:42):
that won't to and I just don't see it a
lot with people now.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
They don't have that want to.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
If you find somebody and they have that be more
creative in saying, hey man, what else is it that
you want to do, and try to encourage those things,
because after a while people gonna get board and next thing,
you know, hey man, sorry Brandon Man, you know, but
now it's been good.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
But I'm out like wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, She's like,
you've never.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Kevin Rathman, right, who owns Rathman State and owns all
those places. He used to be the head chef at
the Buckhead Life Restaurants. A lot of people don't know
this right, and he'll tell you the story for himself.
And he was like he talked to him and he's like, yo,
I really want to do my own restaurant.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
I really want to branch out. Now. All they had
to do is like, you know what, cav Yeah, let's
do this. Let's partner.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
They was like, nah, nine, we want you to stay here,
and he was like, okay, I'm out. And now he
owns them near all the Croc Street because he, like
you said, he bet on himself. And I think a
lot of times, if people want to partner with you,
just go ahead and try to help somebody with their dream,
because it may end up being, you know, something bigger

(47:56):
than anybody could ever imagine. I saw DMX's wife and
she was talking about how jay Z came to DMX
and was like, Hey, I'm investing in the Barcolay Center
and you know, do you want to do it? Put
in a million dollars and his wife was like, yeah,
we should do that. He was like, I don't know,
and you saw what it ended up being. And she

(48:17):
was like, I don't know anything about it, but I
knew it seemed like a good idea. But you know
they always say the person who is the most dangerous
individual is a person with no counsel and no conscience
and you don't care what nobody feels or thinks.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
That's a very dangerous individual.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
And not saying that's what happened with DMX, but a
lot of people saying that's what we're saying right now,
what's going on in the White House. It's like, you
can't tell that man none right, and he ain't listen
to nobody.

Speaker 4 (48:40):
He's got all the access, all the power.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
I did it you all the way the first time,
and I fired all those people.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
And this is what I'm doing. And it ain't even
three weeks.

Speaker 5 (48:49):
Man, get ready what I'm saying right it's going to
be a buppy frid Like I said, we a month
in at this point in your life and career, man, Like,
how would you define like this point in your life
and career?

Speaker 1 (49:01):
I think I'm trying to pivot into there's a book
call from Strength to Strength.

Speaker 4 (49:07):
You told me about that and I did read it.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
I appreciate so you know where and you're younger, way
younger than me, but it talks about how eventually all
of your skills are going to start to diminish and
you're no longer going to be the go to guy.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
I had to do this this con. I did a
thing the other day for they had.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
The HBCU job fair and all these kids are at
Banker High School and then there was a step show
at the end and I was an MC and I
told the guy in charge, I said, hey, man, I
got a team people that do this, And I said,
I want you to still book me, but I'm going
to book it and send it.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
Off to them because these young people are.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Going to identify with them more than me because they
look like them. The thing that motivates me is like
I'm trying to downsize, right because I've had all the things,
the mansions, the ours, all that stuff. I mean, but
to me now, life, a good life is great food,

(50:06):
great company, and somebody that you can trust day by
day when you get home. Like my garage at my
house I live out in Stockbridge. My garage don't work,
but every day when I get home, the censer goes
off and my wife knows that I'm there, so she
opens the garage and she comes out and I put

(50:28):
up on a post and she's greeting me, and the
look on her face it makes me realize that that's
what it's all about, right, And I'm never getting that
garage fixed because to see her every day and to
see that look, it makes me understand what is important

(50:48):
to me. It's like I always tell people, don't try
to book me on a Friday. There's why, because we
had booked this on a Friday. Like if this had
been a Friday night podcast, I wouldn't be here because
when I get my.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
Shoes off, that's it. Bruh, we take them, fuck this
shit socks on, it's over it.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
Because to me, if you've done a whole career, I
think I probably.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
Have done I know, ten thousand interviews.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
So nothing gets me like there will be tours that
I would buy tickets to just to sell because I'm
not going because I've seen it. Like Atlanta. The one
thing that Atlanta people don't talk about. It's the same
four streets right right north side Drive, you know, going
down to Marrietta or whatever, and every event that goes there,

(51:37):
what happens. You're going, you have a great time, and
then you're stuck in traffic for two hours to get out.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
It's like, okay, I'm not doing that.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
I would rarely go see Usher in Tampa or in Vegas,
or go see you know, the weekend in New Orleans,
where at least I got something to do afterwards.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Like we cannot change that, but we keep building stuff.
You got to and now you've got State Farm Marina,
and now you got a hotel. And now when they.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Get the Golts developed, it's gonna be and the world
covers come here.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
It's gonna be a come on man, Like, No, I
just can't. I don't. I can't entertain that space.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
I'm one of those people like I go to a
place and they'll be like, yo, Ryan, come over to
such and such and I'll drive around the parking lot
and if I can't find a space, I'm like, this
is God, this is God telling me that I need
And they're like, where you're at, man, Man, I'm back
at the crib.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
Just I can't do it. But I like my house, yeah, man,
like my mind being there.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
Man, I pay for it.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
My neighbors are like a movie set. Bro, I haven't
seen I've been there over a year, and I think
I might have seen one person and she was walking
a cat on a leash. So I'm feeling like I'm
in some kind of like nether World upside down space man,
cause I don't see anybody that's fire with me.

Speaker 4 (52:58):
I'm good peace.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
Yeah, look, man, before we get out of here, my
last question for you is just what is a piece
of advice that you kind of go by that you
know they kind of help drive and helps you, you know,
stay motivated.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
It ain't mine. I mean I and I gave this
to him and he didn't remember. He's funny.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
Lokoj was on the show and he's got a.

Speaker 1 (53:18):
Book and in one of the passages at the very end,
he talks about dreams not having deadlines. And I say
to people, you know, stop putting timetable limits on yourself.
You know a lot of times we like to say,
you know, said, oh man, by time I'm thirty, I
need to be doing this and doing that. And by
the time I'm twenty five. You know, they got they

(53:38):
call it the quarter life crisis. Right where you were
putting these these limits or these timelines or these deadlines
on things that you want to have accomplished or where
you should be in your life, and I don't think
it works like that. God will place things in their
proper perspective based on how you are aligning.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
Yourself with what you're supposed to do in your life.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
Right me, going through therapy is like it's a major
thing where you got to realize, what is it that
made my intent of crooked? Why can't I see this
foolishness coming? Or why was I more not as discerning?
Or why did I not have boundaries? And you have
to go through all those things and once you're starting
to straighten those things out, you'll see things straighten out
in your life.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
Until you work on yourself. This is a great analogy. Right.
One of my friends said this, he said, what are you?

Speaker 1 (54:27):
Are you Tarzan? Are you Spider Man? And I was like, man,
what the hell are you talking about? He said a
lot of times with us, when you're successful, right, you
will be Tarzan.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
And what Tarzan does he goes from one rope and
he grabs the next rope.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
So you go for one thing, and you grab the
next thing, and you go for one thing, and if
you hold on too long, it's gonna pull you back,
right you know. But Spider Man, he'll shoot a web
and he'll go to that building.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
Then he'll just float.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Down sometimes and just hang there and then he'll hit
something else. Like you gotta be more Spider Man than
Tarzan sitting on from one thing to the next thing
to the next thing. Just kind of hang for a minute, man,
and let it unfold and then latch onto something else.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
And I was like, man, that's pretty damn dope.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
He was like, you can have that because it makes
sense when you think about it, because as we go
through life, we're always trying to grab on to the
next thing, and we never celebrate the wins or just
kind of be still and just float like a Spider
Man would do.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
We so busy trying to be Tarzan.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
So my advice would like dreams, don't have deadlines, man,
but try to be Spider Man.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
I like that.

Speaker 4 (55:36):
Hey, Spider Man versus Tarzan, Spider Man versus Targe to
use that one man.

Speaker 3 (55:40):
Yeah, well, Ryn Man, I appreciate it. Again, always have
admired the work you've done. And I'm just happy that
to consider you a friend. Somebody connect with our friends,
and I consider we are friends.

Speaker 4 (55:52):
We actually do talk.

Speaker 3 (55:53):
We actually our friends, you know. But no, man, I
really appreciate you pulling up to the podcast, man.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
I appreciate it, man, and now and continue to do
all the things you're doing. Man, I appreciate you.

Speaker 4 (56:01):
Bro absolutely man. And that's the pod.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Y'all.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
We out you've been listening to button Nomics and I'm
your host, Brandon Butler. Got comments, feedback? Want to be
on the show. Send us an email today at hello
at butternomics dot com.

Speaker 4 (56:13):
Butter Nomics is produced.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
In Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by Ksey Pegram, with marketing
support from Queen and Nikki.

Speaker 4 (56:19):
Music provided by mister Hanky.

Speaker 3 (56:21):
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 atl Listen to
buttteron Nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.