June 5, 2025 ⢠45 mins
On this episode of Butternomics, our host, Brandon Butler, sits down with Terrance Albritton, founder of Grady Baby Company, to talk about building a brand that reps Atlanta for real. Starting from just sticky note on his desk to licensing deals and airport retail, Terrance breaks down how he turned a local phrase into a cultural symbol. They talk about legacy planning, streetwear economics, and why Grady Baby was never just about shirts, it’s about stories that last.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I don't know why we view nepotism as a sin.
If you can start on third base, why not Why
would you want to start at home and you competing
with someone who's starting on third If your parents have
built the foundation, maybe you can be the one that
take it to the next level. And so instilling that
into my children and making them want to take over
(00:23):
it and want to run it is key. And helping
them understand I'm not working this hard.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Just for me here.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Everybody, welcome to another episode of Butter. I'm your host,
Brandon Butler, found in CEO of Butter ETL. And today
we got another special guest in the studio. We were
trying to get this guy up in here for a
minute minute.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
He's been busy, he's.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Been out here making things happen, moving the culture, you know,
dropping these amazing Grady Baby cold shirts. I mean, all
this kind of stuff we don't get in everything. Man,
but the one, the only, mister, Terrence al Britton. Terrence,
how you doing this morning?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Man? I'm great, I am here.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I'm happy to have you here, bro, not just because
you know you're a fellow Georgia Southern lum like Southern,
but because you're doing all the work around here. You
know what I'm saying. Man, Good to see you, brother.
It's hey man. Look man, so look what we've been
doing here. Normally I used to kind of ask people
to introduce themselves or like talk about themselves. But you know,
we're doing something little bit different around here. I asked
(01:22):
chat cheap pt who you were. So I'm gonna read
what chat cheapt said about you, and then you you
let me know if we're on track, if it's missing anything,
if you need to go in there and make any
kind of edits I got. I got the good plan.
So it came back with a lot of stuff. Okay,
let's check this out, all right. So, mister Terrence Albritton
is the founder and visionary behind Grady Baby Coke, an
(01:42):
Atlanta born lifestyle brand. It turns deep cultural pride into
wearable statements. Known for its bolt designs and authentic storytelling,
Grady Baby Co. Has grown from a grassroots movement into
a nationally recognized brand of retail partnerships and foot locker
and a major presence in Heartfield International Airport. A native
son Atlanta and a true Grady Baby himself, Terrence built
the brand as a love letter to the city and
(02:04):
if was in heritage, hustle, and hometown pride into every product.
His works is the intersection of culture and commerce, reflecting
both the heart of Atlanta and the sharp instincts of
a creative entrepreneur. With six years of brand building under
his belt and a mission bigger than clothes, Terrence is
not just running a business. He's preserving a legacy and
redefining what it means to represent Atlanta from the ground up.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Man, I need to put it on the website, right,
you know what I'm saying that.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Wow, that's what it said about you, brother, All type
there was who is? Who is?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Who is Terrence Albritton from Atlanta? That's all put in there. Man,
That's that's what it came back with.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
It's kind of scary, but but no, like, that's that's it.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Like even though I.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Was a great baby, Like that's yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Man.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Look you said it somewhere, some somewhere someplace. You mentioned it,
so it pulled all that stuff in.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Yeah. That's that's good man, that's good.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
But no, man, you know, I love the city and
as you even raise you know, this was an opportunity
to build something for my children because of course my profession,
my vocation.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
I'm a small business banker.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
But I realized, Brendan, you know what I've said before
that no matter how good I am at banking, two
things I can guarantee you. One, CEO propably never paid
me enough to be his neighbor. And two, no matter
how high I go up in the company, when I
get ready to retire, I could not leave my role
(03:31):
to my children.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
And so it became incoming upon me.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
When we think about generational wealth, not just leaving money,
but leaving an economic engine that produced revenue that they
can just take and it can live on beyond me.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
I think when the.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Bible talks about leaving inheritance for your children's children, that's.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
How you do it.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
You leave something that produces revenue that all they got
to do is pretty much maintain. Yeah, And so that
was the thought behind building a fan family brand and
why I've resisted taking on partners.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Now for those that don't know, like what's the spirit
behind Grady Baby code, Like what does it represent to you?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
So great baby coming in a peril?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
We call it company and apparel because it's not just
going to be apparel. It's going to be an offshoot
of other things that we're going to get into.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
We started with apparel.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So my background from Georgia Southern was printing management, and
so my degree was in printing and I worked in
printing right after college up until technology kind of started
to phase out some of the printing processes. And even
at Georgia Southern, we had a class on screen printing
where I learned how to print T shirts and I
(04:40):
actually did some T shirts while I was, you know,
in school, and so that was the brainchild behind it,
and it said, hey, you know, and it kind of
started with my oldest daughter when she said, Dad, we
need to do some shirts that say we full.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
You know, they kind of play on the traffic.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
This is when she was attending North Carolina ANT and
she had came home from one weekend.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
I was like, well, yeah, we're gonna do it.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
We're not just gonna be a T shirt you know,
I don't want to be the T shirt guy.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
We're gonna actually build a brand.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And that that kind of lunched us, and the timing
man couldn't have been better. It was when the Falcons
was and when the Super Bowl was here in Atlanta,
and that's when the WE four kind of went viral.
Good friend Maso had wore some to the press row
that week and that Friday that he was walking out
(05:28):
with the WE full sweatshirt on and the AJC pter
reporter took a picture of it and did the article
on it, and man, it just fast trackers.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Man, yeah, I say, take me back to that moment,
like if that was the first that was the first
piece of a pair of y'all dropped.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yes, well, the first piece of the pairl we dropped
was the shirt I have on now at the logo
because we wanted to get the bang the name of
the branding out, and then we did the WE four
and the WE four. Man, it just took off. When
people see it, they would just start laughing. That was
one of the ones that brought foot Locker to us
because they reached out to us us about partnering, and
so that shirt lives even when we try to move
(06:04):
into other directions. That one shirt and hoodie all ways
sell and it's funny. It's the simplest design. I never
forget when I had the thought of it. I still
have the picture of the sticky note where I wrote
it out the same way in texting and sending it
to my graphic artist, and he mocked it up.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
And yeah, it has been our number one seller consistently.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
What's it been like seeing that on you know, celebrities
and just influencers and people all over the place.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
It's surreal and it's humbling, because like I had the
idea of what it could be, but it was like
God said, nah, bigter And what I love about Atlanta, man,
the celebrities and influences from Atlanta who have supported us
(06:51):
actually bought it out the store.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Yeah, didn't reach.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Out, didn't say hey, I can you send it to me?
Or can you charge me to wear it? You know,
Loudle got it out of the store and posted it
on his own Instagram, you know, c Low when Desmonrida
was here with the Falcons, you know, and.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
It just truly has grown organically.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
No, man, What's like, when's the moment you kind of
realized with everything you've been working on, this was more
than just an idea, right, but like it could actually
be a brand.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
When I got a call from the HR department of
my bank.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Got that gun, it was it was.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
An interesting conversation That's when I realized, like, we have
really like taken off here because it got to a
point where there was so much media attention behind it
where I had to get approval to continue to do it,
you know, because they was like, hey, you know, we
got to decide here what you know what you're doing
(07:56):
because you're getting a lot of notoriety from it. I
never I had a client call out of state and
I'm talking to him about business and he your name, Terrence.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I was like yes, he was like I know your voice.
He was like, you're on the clothing company. I was
like yeah. He was like yeah, I'll follow you on Instagram.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
And then that's won.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I was realizing like, okay, yeah, this thing is is
bigger than what I thought it could be.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Now, how did you take the name Gratty Baby? Because
I mean, we all know what a Gretty baby is.
You're a Gretty baby. You know again, that was a
baby that was born at Gratty Hospital here in Atlanta.
It's kind of become a cultural thing, but like, how
did you take that into something commercial without like losing
its soul and feeling like it's sold out?
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Well, but by being authentic to Atlanta and always still
telling the story. You know, that wasn't always a term
of endearment to say you was a greater baby. Yeah,
but so much of our culture, we take things and
we reframe it to make it work for us. And
being able to keep the center focused on what we
(09:00):
do around Atlanta, because Grady Baby and Atlanta they are
a most synonymous.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
You ask somebody where you're from and they say, Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Your very next question gonna be high school when you
was born there, you know, and so like, uh it
it truly is a badge of honor. Uh to say
that you are a Grady Baby. Then you got people
like Kanye, people like Spike Lee who are born in Grady.
You know, it's a It's truly a badge of honor
(09:30):
and represents the city.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
And is this just again you just come up with
these ideas yourself, just inspired by things you see, Like
how do you even come up with the different ideas
for the different types of stuff that y'all create?
Speaker 4 (09:39):
You know?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Most what do we full idea was my oldest daughter,
But most of our our ideas come from my wife.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
What creditors do? Yeah, she's she's.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
A real creative behind the brand. Like, I have to
give the credit. What credits?
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Do you know?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I get a lot of at the boys for the
success of Grady Baby, But I can honestly say that
Great Baby would not be where it is as a
brand if it was not for my wife.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, and like, what does it really take to even
get a brand like this out of just you know,
selling online? But again, y'all are in foot locker, y'all
are in the airport, Like what.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Was that experience? And process?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Like, it's so one thing I tell people who reach
out to me because they're trying to do it, you know,
I'm like, hey, don't sell out of the trunck, and
I know that's not, you know, novel for some people.
I was like, because you don't want to be known
as a T shirt person? Yeah, you want to be
known as a brand. And I never forget when I
first started, people used to always be like, well, why
(10:36):
you don't carry stuff with you? And I was write, no,
go to the website, purchase it will ship it to you,
because I wanted to be known as a brand.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Now.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I didn't know why that was on me the way
it was, but I just felt that's how God was
telling me to do it. The very first thing Footlocker
asked for when they reached out were the analytics of
my website to see who I was selling to, how
I was selling, what was the average price, but geographies
I was selling to. And because I was sending everybody
(11:04):
to the website, all I had to do is go
in to squash space, go to analytics, print out all
of that stuff and send it over and so. But
it was because of how we started that allowed us
to be able to create the partnerships that we have.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
And then the same thing with the airport.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
They wanted to see what our numbers were, how we
were selling, what products were selling, and based on those
how they selected their first round of products they wanted
to put in their stores.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah, now I think that speaks Again, it's just like
kind of starting with the end in mind. I think
a lot of times, and you know, people don't realize
too when it comes to doing these deals with brands
or even acquisitions, how many of these things fall apart
because folks don't have the numbers and the analytics like
back stuff up. So to your point, even though you
might not have realized or thought about it from that perspective,
you were very intentional about saying, you know what we're Brent,
(11:51):
I ain't got none on me, you know what I mean, Like,
if you want one, go because I not only need
the money, but I need those analytics because one day
this is all gonna kind come in handy right right.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
And if you see then, if you see the CEO
of Nike in the street, you're not gonna be like,
hey man, you got those joints in the trunk, right,
you know you're gonna go to the you don't go
to the store. And that was kind of like the
mindset like no, when you see me, No, yeah, I
want you to support the brand, but I need you
to go by I need you go make the purchase
so I can register those numbers and I can show like, hey,
(12:22):
here's what we're doing. Yeah, you know, and those and
those numbers help looking at how many people on your
website looking you know what they're looking at. You know,
then you got to have your retargeting ads to make
sure the people who are on your website that you
have a way to reach back out to and bring
them back to the website.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
And so it was just learning all those things.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
The amount of money I was spending on advertising, the money,
amount of money I was spending on trying to gather
all of that information so I can better target what
products and what areas to be able to sell to
is IM material.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, now you're in foot locker in the airport, and
I'm sure you know there's got to be a sense
of pride, not only when you walking around seeing people
rocking it, even if you see it from a distance, right,
Or I know that's happened with me with some of
the butter merch we have, right, I'll be out of like,
oh no, I know that shirt, or even like with
the shoes we did with a datas Like I was
at an event last week and I was walking around.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I was like, yo, I designed no shoes, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And I'm sure you feel the same way, Like what
runs through your mind when you see your stuff in
the wild.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
It is, Man, I'm still in awe about it.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Like I can be walking somewhere and I see it
and I'm like me and my wife was out of
the country and I saw somebody with a WE full
T shirt on.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
I was doing a.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Wedding in Saint Lucia and the guy walked out of
his cabana and had on a we full T shirt
and I was just sitting there like, wow, you know,
this was an idea we had in our house, you know.
And I think it's just wonderful for my children to
be like, you see that label you cut out my fortune,
(13:56):
fifteen year old, that label you cut out. It's in
the store when we all sat around and was talking
about ideas for shirts. And now you can walk into
a foot locker and you see that shirt. And it
just changed now the way my children think about money
and opportunity. Like my youngest daughter fourteen, she texts me
yesterday and say, hey, can I work this weekend? Because
(14:19):
I want, God, you.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Want some money.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
And so it has changed even the way they view
money as children because they realize like, hey, we got
this business, and if I want some money, I can
go work for my own business and get paid to
do it. And that's the other thing I try to
tell parents who have family business. The reason your children
don't want to be a part of your family business
(14:40):
is because you make them feel like it's a chore.
If you show them that they value, take their ideas,
take their input, and you pay them, it makes them
want to be a part of the business. Then they'll
go from okay, when dad and mom transitioned, like who
gonna get this? They start thinking different, want it, you know.
(15:01):
And so it's been it's been an amazing ride, man,
And this is just beginning, no.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
I mean, and that's something I think a lot of
people are dealing with right now too. There's this whole
you know, tied away of folks getting ready to retire soon.
And it's a big issue for a lot of these
folks is they've built these businesses up and their kids
don't want any parts of them.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
You just don't want it because they probably to your.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Point, made it a chore, made them almost probably hated
to a certain extent. Or again, you you know, you
build something up, your kids go to school, they say,
you know what, I don't want to come back and
do this, right, But like actually having them be a
part of it and feeling some ownership to it, seems
like that's what's going to keep them involved in some capacity,
you know.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Again, way beyond you, right.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yep, Randon, that's where you know, being in banking comes in.
You'll be amazed at right now, in twenty twenty five,
how many businesses that are thriving, that are multi millionaires,
businesses that the owners are ready to transition, and the
children don't want to be a part of the business.
(16:09):
And most of it is our culture. I don't know
why we view nepotism as a sin.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That's how you get on in this country.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Like if you can start on third base, why not
There's so many because when I meet with them, there's
so many people I meet and the children are like.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Well, I want to get it on my own.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Why why would you want to start at home and
you competing with someone who's starting on third If your
parents have built the foundation, maybe you can be the
one that take it to the next level. And so
instilling that into my children and making them want to
take over it and want to run its key and
helping them understand I'm not working as hard just for me. Yeah,
(16:52):
we're going to embrace nepotism. I want you to be
able to open doors by saying that your last name
is all written and them being like, oh, parents, all
bring your dad. Yeah, let me let you into this
door without you having to sit in and wait in
line like everybody else. I want you to appreciate the
groundwork that I'm laying because I'm not doing it all
for me, and so but it comes with, you know,
(17:14):
making them be a part of the conversation, making them
be in some of those lawyer's meetings, sitting down with
them and talking and talking to them about the details
of the legal battle that we were in, why it happened,
how it was resolved, making them feel a part of it.
And so when we have those in stores with foot locker,
having them come out where people want to take a picture,
(17:34):
pulling them into it and saying, hey, we are all owners.
Anytime I speak about it, I always say, hey, we
got five owners.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
We all own own it equally.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
It's all our input because I'm making them understand that, hey,
this is going to be a good.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Thing for you.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah, And like how much of that came from just
your experience in banking and again just seeing people do
it that don't necessarily look like us, probably, but just
understanding like how they actually run businesses and build businesses
and make sure you instilled.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
That definitely came from that.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
I watched how you there on their third or fourth
generation of ownership. And so a lot of people are
familiar with coca Cola, but don't understand that Coca Cola
don't technically own some of the Balling plants. And so
the first time I went and viewed the new Boling
plant when they first put it down here off South Fullarton,
and I'm walking through with the people who run it,
(18:22):
and it's like, yeah, it started with our great great granddaddy.
He was really in the carriage, and then it went
to the son, the son, and then the wife's son,
and I'm like, you got generations running this business that
has kept all of that money in the family, and
it's like that is the goal. And then you start
(18:43):
talking to them, how did you make them even want
to be a part of the business. How did you
make them want to be like, hey, I want to
run this one day. And it's by involving them in
early and paying them and not making it feel like
a chore.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Gonna say that some kind of a side question too,
especially because I don't think people really understand like, these
folks got money, and these folks got a lot of money.
Like we talk about generational wealth and we talk about
just the importance of it starting especially like in the
black culture and everything, but like you just maybe give
some context to like, no, no, I need y'all to
really understand, like how far we potentially are behind as
(19:22):
it relates to some of these other groups and just
the wealth they've amassed over generations.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
I give you an example so I'll never forget.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
When I was a branch manager and a young lady
came in with her mother to wire her down payment
for her clothing. Her mother's sitting there with her and said,
what is your interest rate? And I told her what
(19:49):
the interest rate was, and her mother said that is
too high. How much is the house? I think the
house is like half a million? And her daughter said
she has her or She said, hey, what's the payment?
And her daughter told her the payment and she was like,
you and I forgot the husband name.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Y'all can afford that that payment a month and it's
no problem.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And she was like, uh yeah, And she said, son,
you pulled my account up and just wire the whole amount.
And she said, and y'all just pay me every month
and she was like, and we'll just deduct it off
the top with no interest.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
She was like, because that's interest rate is too high.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
I just just send me to I'll just send you
to make just buy the house and cash and you
just pay me back exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
But they have a family, a business that's the family
owned and that has been in the family for generations.
And I said, here is a parent that realized that
her child wasn't getting the best deal, and she used
the money that they generated as a family to put
(20:55):
her child in a better position. Yeah, and that's when
I realized, us, that's what I have to do. Now
here's the other caveat that I've seen. There's no point
in leaving your children financial assets, liquid assets, fixed assets
if you don't properly teach them right. Pointy case, I
had a young lady. You ever heard those stories bread
(21:18):
than when people find out like, hey, I had a
distant relative I never met and had all this money.
Lawyer reached out said, hey, on your dad's side, you
had a great aunt she passed and there's like twenty
five million that just been sitting there that you're now
heir too. It's like, we'll do all the paperwork, we
just want five percent of it.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
She come in, she said, hey, I want to buy
a house. She said, by the time I'm finished, I
have twenty million. She comes in, so many paperwork, the
house is ten million, that we're not allowing you to
buy a ten dollar house, right?
Speaker 4 (21:56):
No?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
No, it was regularly fourteen I'm getting a deal. Like, no,
do you even know what it's gonna cost you?
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Yeah, maintain it.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I'm like, and I had my wealth advisor and he
was like, look, I'm not telling you not to spend money.
Take a million, blow it, you know. He was like,
I can show you how we can take this money
and it will generate. I think at the time he
was like it was gonna generate for her like twelve
grand a month. And he was like, now, your money
(22:26):
won't grow, but you'll be able to live off the interest.
He does is have much and he was like, and
I'm gonna tell you how. I know you can live
off the interest because you're doing it now. And he
was like, what can you do in a one million
dollar house that you can't do that? You you know
it can't do this fourteen million. And we finally told her, hey,
we're not the company for you because we're not in
(22:47):
good faith. We in good faith, we can't let you
you do that and now and in that moment, I
also realized, Okay, so it's not just good enough to
leave the money, you have to leave the education.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So my fourteen and fifteen year old had e trade accounts.
They have a basic understanding of the stock market. And
so like when we flying and say, hey, why do
we fly Delta because we own stock? Why do we
have iPhones because we own stock and Apple?
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Like, I drill it in their head.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
You know, on my life insurance policies, I have the
name of the financial advisor who they have to call.
I've told the financial advisor, if I go first, you
call my wife. Both of us go first. This is
who you call. I told my close friends. I say, hey, man,
something happened to me. Give the wife a week to grieve.
And I want y'all say, hey, you know, Terres wants
(23:40):
you to meet with the financial advisor because I want
to make sure that I give from the graving it last.
And so you got to make all those decisions now,
you know, putting a house into trust and using because
I got multiple policies, using one of the policies putting
that in trust and allowing that policy to take care
of all.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
The needs for the house.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
And so now between my three kids, hey, they're always
gonna be a house in the family. All three y'all
got to decide. Is all three of y'all gonna live
in it? Or are y'all gonna rent it out? Or
y'all split the money every every month. You ain't gonna
have to worry about maintenance taxes or nothing, because one
of my insurance policies is gonna be there to make
sure the house taken care of. So now I can
die and go on to heaven knowing that as long
as the all Bringer is alive or all bringing.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I always have a place to stay. Man.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
That's what's about We've had I've had a trust to
turn in here explaining this kind of stuff. And again, man,
we gotta that's how you get it. And that's why
I asked that question because I just don't think people
fully realize like I always tell people, But these folks
got money out here, and y'all playing money.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Like the one thing, the lady that came in and
worried that if you saw her on the street and
you saw the car she drove, you would not think
that she had the money that she had. And the
other part of it is I bank a lot of
entertainers and I've banked a lot of athletes over the
time in the years, and you'll be amazed at how
(24:58):
multimillion dollar athletes leads struggle during the off season.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Oh, I believe it.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Like struggle they maintain.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Man, they live in paycheck to paycheck too. They don't
look at that paycheck football.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
They get that paycheck eighteen weeks out of the year,
which means them other weeks.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
You got to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
And most people may say, hey, if your mortgage is this, this,
and this, then you make enough doing the season to
do it. I'm like, yeah, but you got to have
that mindset to be able to do it. And so
it just shows me that giving them that amount of
money without the education, it's turning them out to giving
a five year old Kisio car and just letting them
(25:39):
take off.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Man, this is deep. Man, I love this.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Now.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
I got to ask, as you kind of mentioned it,
we don't have to get all the way into it,
but I know, you know, you were kind of in
the trenches for a little bit, you know, with with
with an organization out here around the business.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Everybody know, cause we got tagged that.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yes, we were in a lawsuit with Grady hospital over
the name Grady Baby that I legally trademark, and you know,
we worked it out like we work it out. We
work it out, and you know God will and you
will see some uh, you'll see us together and you
know in the future.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
But God definitely worked it out.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
What does that taught you about ownership?
Speaker 1 (26:18):
That always listen to wisdom because I had so many
people telling me before I lunched that I didn't have
to go to that extent with filing all the necessary paperwork,
paying the money for the trademark, registering the name, doing
all of those things before I lunched, and I realized
it was only because I did all of those things
(26:38):
before I lunched that when the lawsuit came about, I
had a leg to stand on. And so it just
shows you why even if it takes time, there's a
difference between growth and swelling.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
You can swell overnight, but there's no substance to it.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, true growth take time, and you got to ask yourself,
do you want to swell or do you want to grow?
And I want to grow, and so I knew it
was gonna take time and making sure that foundation was
laid long enough.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
And like you know, when you.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Think about the birds Clief, which is the largest building
in the world, it took them just a year the
later foundation.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
M why because they knew what they was building.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah, and so if we take the time and lay
the foundation, the amount of foundation you lay determines the
strength of your building.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
And so you get to decide how.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Much you want to grow and how much you want
to build based on how much foundation that you lay.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Now, I love that, and I talk to people, especially
doing you know, businesses all the time, and I tell
them it's like, yo, like like you wouldn't build a
house with out a blueprint, you know, And so many
people want to just start running, and I understand there's
an element of just kind of getting stuff out there.
But I tell them it's like, if you just think
about that for a second, right, Like you can build
a house with out of blueprint, it's gonna be very
expensive because you're gonna be figuring this stuff out to
(27:51):
you to your point, you know, laying those foundations and
figure out the right things you need to focus on
early on helps you kind of again like but you know,
helps you go fast exactly. I'll always kind of give
is you know, when you think about a space shuttle, bro,
they got to check that thing, double check it, triple
check it. And the reason why is because when they
like that rocket, that thing is it's not turned, it's
(28:12):
only going one direction, and it's going that direction fast.
And you know, again, like the fast something's moving, you
don't have time to go course correct, right, you know
what I mean. So that's why they do all that.
And it sounds like it's kind of very similar situation
with you.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, I didn't want to be out here trying to
change tires on the vehicle going downhill.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
So it's like let me you know.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
And being in business, you know, so part of my
job in my vocation is to help business owners work
on the business as opposed to end the business. And
because I think a lot of times we equate the
level of hard work in the business as what we
need to be doing, Like, no, you needn't be working
on your business. If you build, If you build a system, right,
(28:53):
that system should run without you.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
If it can't run without you, then you got a
failed system. Right, system, and that business is only going
to grow as far as you can take it. Well,
as you get older, you can't move you know, you
might have to move from dB to free safety, you know,
or you might have to move up to the booth,
you know. But if you don't build the system right,
it's always going to be dependent upon you, and it
(29:18):
will only grow to the level of your ability, which
at some point is going to top out.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
What's been the hardest thing about building this business.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Getting the grace from customers that other businesses get. I
hear you, yep, my policy yeah, yeah, my policies say
fourteen days. But you got to realize that we are
the manufacturer.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
We the designer.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Where the shipping and receiving, where the packaging or the logistics,
and some sometimes things just don't work out, you know.
We may drop a design and then take off fashion
in what we thought, you know, so sometimes it may
come a little behind. Like I've had people like file
a dispute on the fifteenth day, like come on, man,
(30:15):
or you know we mess then order up, you know,
I tell them, hey, keep it, apologize we sent you
the wrong thing. We'll you know, send out the right thing,
and like I'm never ordering with you again. You know,
this is why we hate black business. Like, man, how
many times have McDonald's butchered your order.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Right, and you still ain't wrote a letter to the
CEO of nobody. You ain't talk to the manager of
the stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
No, you just go and you go back to the
next day, you know, so like give the same grace.
And then the other part of it is I didn't
realize until there's how much running a business you run
it out of.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Your front pocket until you're profitable. Yeah, it is around you.
And then the other part is strangers will make you rich.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
That's the part right there.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
You know, it gets to a point where your friends,
your friends and amacn only help support you know so much,
and how to tell people the manufacturer is not giving
me a free shirt, so anything I give you that's
free cost me.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
So what's the benefit? And I, at least Calias get
to like a.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Share of a picture, you know, of something, because I'm
not getting anything for free, you know, because I was
so worried about the people who I knew not supporting
and hearing God saying, but the strangers are gonna make
you rich, and so then it just helped me shift
my focus.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
No, that's how it is.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
I think again, a lot of people, and it's interesting,
a lot of people send the team to like start ideas,
and the first people they go to their friends. And
I get that part, but I also ask people like,
are those your customers? Because what ends up happening is
that their friends don't support it and they start feeling down,
like but them, not even the people that you really
trying to go. I mean, I understand they should rock
with you to a certain extent, but at the same time, like,
you didn't make it for them.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
No, you probably made it for somebody else.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
And here's the thing where you in my business, you
just can't design the things that you like, right.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
You got to be able to look at what's selling.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
You got to look at the advertisements from foot Locker
and Nike about the shoes that's getting ready to come
out and make sure you're dropping things in those same
color combos. That way, when somebody in the store and
the new Jordan is coming out, you got something that
goes right with that that same color scheme.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
And so having a.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Partner like Footlocker works because I can get with the
buyer and be like, hey, what shoes are coming out
in the spring, because we got a spring line coming out,
and he'll show me, Hey, here's are the things that
we're getting ready to drop in the spring. Now, I
gotta design color combinations to fit with those shoes so
that when they go in the store now they can
be God put the complete thing together, and then you
(32:46):
got to be a season ahead.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Yeah, so it really makes you, really it makes you think, yeah,
down TheStreet and around the corner about like what actually
gonna make sense? Like what's what's something that you wish
would have known earlier once you started this business, like
good or bad?
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Good or bad? Accept the help when it comes.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
I think oftentimes, had I listened to my wife and
daughter sooner, I could have saved me a lot of
money and avoided a lot of headache. But it was
my baby. Yeah, it was my baby. And couldn't nobody
teach me how to raise my baby? And I missed wisdom,
(33:25):
I missed some timing, I missed some opportunities, some partnerships
that could have happened because I was too worried about
other people getting credit.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
And to God had to show me that, Terrence, you.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Can accomplish a whole lot in life if you're not
concerned with who gets the credit. Just being able to
see your stuff out there knowing that it's yours should
be enough for you. And it was like, why do
you want people to know it's you? Why do you
want your face to be out there? Why do you
want people to when you're walking around and be like, hey,
(33:58):
isn't that such and such? And I realized I was
making it all about me. So if I could go back,
I will stick to the store. Until my children were
saying like, hey, you saying family business, but it don't feel.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Like because the only idea is that get dropped are yours?
I was like sting a little bit.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
And so this last airport dropped all my daughters. Yeah,
it's a crazy part. Some of the designs. I was like,
m it took off.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
It took off our biggest order from the airport yet. Wow.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
And they called me They have only been in stores
probably two or three weeks, and they called me yesterday
saying that they haven't it will put a reorder in
next week.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
See.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
I think that's something I've realized even in just you know,
running butter is you never know what's going to be
the thing. And so what I've had to do over
the years is, yeah, like detached myself from a lot
of the stuff that we do, not that I don't
care about it, right, but like to your point, I
kind of look at it through the lens of even
if it doesn't necessarily resonate with me, it might connect
with somebody else. And there have been many pieces of
(35:04):
many kinds, many things we've done to where it's like
it only went out because I was like, Okay, let's
give it a shot.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
You know.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
But yeah, if you make her, if you make it
too much like art, it's too precious, you never let
go of it, you know, you never get that thing.
And right and again we do. It's almost like a
volume game in some levels, right, because you've got to
kind of go through X number designs or rext some
pieces of content to get to that one thing that
all of a sudden takes off.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
But all you need is that one.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
All he needs that one, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
And Bill Gate said it best you don't hire smart
people to tell them what to do.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Mh.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
So why are you hiring somebody that's skilled in the
particular area you're not, But then you're the one that's
telling them everything to do, as opposed to allowing them
to flourish in the area of that gifted. Yeah, my
wife is an artist. She takes pictures, she can draw,
can paint. It's like, that's the creative. So if she's saying, hey,
(35:56):
I don't think that's a work, what rationale am I
using to say? I don't agree, Yeah, just because I
don't like it. But I'm not a creative you are.
It took me a minute to be like, Okay, what
are your ideas on this? Or like with our June
teenth shirt that we're working on, say hey, we need
she said, we need the June team shirt. I said, okay, cool,
(36:17):
give me your ideas and I'll send it to the
graphic artists and have them create your idea the piece
uphand down. We went through probably six iterations of that.
It took us two years for her to finally get
a design that she felt was good, and we sold
over one hundred of them within the first two weeks.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
But it took me being.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Able to realize like, hey, this is the area you're
strongest that we will team.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
I would tell one of my friends yesterday, I was like,
you know, it's interesting that the first time a woman
is mentioned in the Bible, she's called a help me.
It was somebody to help Adam do something that he
could do on his own. And so if God sent
me somebody that can help me do what I can't
do on my own, why am I fighting against it.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
That's a good point. I thought about it like that before.
There's there's a reason, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah, And then I tell you all the time, you know,
because of course I make no bones about being a
personal faith I tell people all the time. I was like,
you have to realize it was God's idea to make her.
God looked at Adam and said, hey, it's not good
for you to be alone. You need somebody to help you.
And so when you think about it, I'm like, Okay,
I'm married with a wife that has my back and
support and she's a natural creative that's gonna help me.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Okay, I need to listen. Okay, let's change seats.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Yeah, let me focus on the numbers, the logistics, the
shipping and that part of it, because that's the.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
Part I'm good at. It's creative part. These photos, the
Instagram that's you.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
That's you have.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
There have been moments where you wanted to walk away
or said, you know what, I'm not doing this no more,
and like, how'd you get through the Oh?
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (38:01):
When that was a conversation I had early on because
we had that immediate success and I just thought this
was gonna last forever and it didn't. I went from getting,
you know, thirty forty orders a day to going two
and three days with no orders, and I was like, ah, man,
(38:21):
you know, we missed it, you know, And I never
forget ben ma Si was having a conversation one day.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
He was like, I'm telling you, man, just you got it.
Just keep going, you know.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
And it was like, you know what, Terrence, how bad
do you want to I have quit so many things
in my life, I said, but this one, I'm not
gonna quit. I'm gonna go until God closed the door
and be like, hey, this is it. I'm one of
those ones, though, Brandon, there's anotherhing in my life I've
wanted to do that I hadn't tried. Yeah, like that, like,
(38:52):
if I have a thought about doing something, I'm gonna
try now. I might not be successful in it, but
I have attempted everything from wrapping, modeling, you name it.
If I said I wanted to do it, I tried it,
and it didn't work, And that's how I teach my children, Hey,
go forward, what's the worst that can happen?
Speaker 4 (39:15):
And this was one I went for and it worked.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Yeah, that's the thing, right like you got because if
it works, it's like, man, I should have been doing
this earlier.
Speaker 4 (39:25):
All you need is one.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
But all you need is one. Yeah, and then once
you get that one, then you build. Last biblical analogy,
I'll give you. Bible clearly says that God had four
rivers going into the garden that even to sustain it. Well,
if we really believe God is all powerful, he could
have had one river sustain that whole garden if he
wanted to. But it says because it was so vast,
(39:49):
he had four rivers going in to sustain it. So
how can I be out here believing in the God
that understands multiple streams and I'm out here trying to
get one stream to fund and everything?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Man, look out, man, look out, man, you're preaching now,
this is let Man, you ain't gonna be You're gonna
come in here and preaching. That's you know, I never
thought about it like that before.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
If God wanted to, he could have had that one rib.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
But it would have never failed.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Right, So what is God teaching us right there in
the garden Because of how vast it was, I got
to have four rivers to go in in here, it
says to sustain it.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Yeah, we need at least four.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
That's that's that's a bar right there. Man. Look man,
where's your vision? Where does greaty Baby go? Next?
Speaker 1 (40:37):
We focus on the Grady Baby Company part which we
have Grady Baby Cares, which is our nonprofit arm. You know,
we partner with a bar's home every year where before
school and Christmas we give clothes, We donate clothes. We
partnered with Jack and Jail for two years for their
(40:59):
Christmas initiative and getting into other things.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
You know. This is but this is when I'm waiting
on my children. Yeah, I'm fifty.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
I'm giving myself another ten years ten max fifteen to
work and I'm letting y'all run. I built it. Where
do y'all wanted to go?
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (41:22):
I got my pension, I got my four one k
I got my investments. I tell them all the time,
I got me and your mom in life and in death.
Y'all don't owe me nothing but success. So I can't
wait to see what y'all gonna do with what I built?
Because you're not starting from where I started, You're gonna
start from where I finished.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
So when it's all said and done, and that seems
like the legacy you want to leave is you know,
this is something that I started with My kids and
my family have taken it to tight time.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
I couldn't even imagine.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
Couldn't imagine every ally.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
The time we was in Disney World the other weekend,
I was telling my son, who was fifteen, I said,
you know what's interesting about Disney World? He said what
I said, walk and didn't get to see it? Yeah,
I said, but.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
What was fun it was the day it opened.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
One of the board members said, I wish Walt had
seen this, and another board member said he did because
he had the vision. And I said, and that's us.
I said, I have the vision. I see what you
guys can do. And I was like, and one day,
y'all gonna do it. And I was like, even if
I don't see it physically, I've already seen it.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
Man, broll.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Look, I didn't know coming to get some inspiration and
get a couple of bars in here. We had church
up in here. Man, this has been well worth it.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
Brother.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
I'm glad we finally got a chance to get you
up in here. Man, before we get out of here,
just what people know, man, How can they support you?
How can they support Grady Baby Company? And the peril
tell them all the things.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
So yeah, definitely social media Instagram is the place for us,
and we're trying to migrate everything over to fan base
because you got to put your money where your people are.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Yeah, I mean that's just period. And so at Grady
Baby Co.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Is where you find us at the website the same
babyco dot com. And if you see us in the
mall Atlanta Heartsfield, we're on Concourse A and T. Or
if you're in the foot locker in the Atlanta area,
go grab your shirt. But I gotta say, man, I
am so impressed and inspired by what you're doing. I talked,
(43:18):
I talk about you to other people like we grew
up together. I'll be like, man, like he is doing it,
like to see a brother take this from what it
was so now, Like I remember when you was doing
the lives before you broke away with you and the
(43:40):
other guy, and how you've just grown and then the
stuff for four four day. I was like, you know,
and I tell people all the time, you're not the competition,
your proof it can be done.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Yeah, And so I pray and hope.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
People look at you and see you as the proof
that what you dream about can be done.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Oh, man, I appreciate that. Man.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
I again, I fully believe there's enough room out here
for everybody to win. And you know, even with what
four and four day has become. You know what I'm saying,
It's it's interesting that you know, when we started kind
of doing it, like it wasn't really nobody doing it.
Now like it's everywhere, and you know, like I wanted
to be done the right way obviously, but it's it's
just it's you know, it's just it's just really an
(44:29):
inspiring and and you know, to just see like a
whole city kind of to your point, like rallying around
an idea.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
I think that's the.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Beauty of the human mind, is the ability to like
bring an idea from here and like manifest it into reality.
So now, brother, I appreciate that. I appreciate you again.
Congratulations on everything. You know, Georgia Southern runs the world
well out, that's the pot You've been listening to button
Nomics anom your hosts, Brandon Butler, got comments, feedback, want
(44:59):
to be on the show. Send us an email today
at hello at butternomics dot com. Butter Nomics is produced
in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by kcy Pegram, with marketing
support from Queen and Nikki.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Music provided by mister Hanky.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
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
button Nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
I don't know why we view nepotism as a sin.
If you can start on third base, why not Why
would you want to start at home and you competing
with someone who's starting on third If your parents have
built the foundation, maybe you can be the one that
take it to the next level. And so instilling that
into my children and making them want to take over
(00:23):
it and want to run it is key. And helping
them understand I'm not working this hard.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Just for me here.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Everybody, welcome to another episode of Butter. I'm your host,
Brandon Butler, found in CEO of Butter ETL. And today
we got another special guest in the studio. We were
trying to get this guy up in here for a
minute minute.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
He's been busy, he's.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Been out here making things happen, moving the culture, you know,
dropping these amazing Grady Baby cold shirts. I mean, all
this kind of stuff we don't get in everything. Man,
but the one, the only, mister, Terrence al Britton. Terrence,
how you doing this morning?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Man? I'm great, I am here.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I'm happy to have you here, bro, not just because
you know you're a fellow Georgia Southern lum like Southern,
but because you're doing all the work around here. You
know what I'm saying. Man, Good to see you, brother.
It's hey man. Look man, so look what we've been
doing here. Normally I used to kind of ask people
to introduce themselves or like talk about themselves. But you know,
we're doing something little bit different around here. I asked
(01:22):
chat cheap pt who you were. So I'm gonna read
what chat cheapt said about you, and then you you
let me know if we're on track, if it's missing anything,
if you need to go in there and make any
kind of edits I got. I got the good plan.
So it came back with a lot of stuff. Okay,
let's check this out, all right. So, mister Terrence Albritton
is the founder and visionary behind Grady Baby Coke, an
(01:42):
Atlanta born lifestyle brand. It turns deep cultural pride into
wearable statements. Known for its bolt designs and authentic storytelling,
Grady Baby Co. Has grown from a grassroots movement into
a nationally recognized brand of retail partnerships and foot locker
and a major presence in Heartfield International Airport. A native
son Atlanta and a true Grady Baby himself, Terrence built
the brand as a love letter to the city and
(02:04):
if was in heritage, hustle, and hometown pride into every product.
His works is the intersection of culture and commerce, reflecting
both the heart of Atlanta and the sharp instincts of
a creative entrepreneur. With six years of brand building under
his belt and a mission bigger than clothes, Terrence is
not just running a business. He's preserving a legacy and
redefining what it means to represent Atlanta from the ground up.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Man, I need to put it on the website, right,
you know what I'm saying that.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Wow, that's what it said about you, brother, All type
there was who is? Who is?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Who is Terrence Albritton from Atlanta? That's all put in there. Man,
That's that's what it came back with.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
It's kind of scary, but but no, like, that's that's it.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Like even though I.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Was a great baby, Like that's yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Man.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Look you said it somewhere, some somewhere someplace. You mentioned it,
so it pulled all that stuff in.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Yeah. That's that's good man, that's good.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
But no, man, you know, I love the city and
as you even raise you know, this was an opportunity
to build something for my children because of course my profession,
my vocation.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
I'm a small business banker.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
But I realized, Brendan, you know what I've said before
that no matter how good I am at banking, two
things I can guarantee you. One, CEO propably never paid
me enough to be his neighbor. And two, no matter
how high I go up in the company, when I
get ready to retire, I could not leave my role
(03:31):
to my children.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
And so it became incoming upon me.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
When we think about generational wealth, not just leaving money,
but leaving an economic engine that produced revenue that they
can just take and it can live on beyond me.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
I think when the.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Bible talks about leaving inheritance for your children's children, that's.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
How you do it.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
You leave something that produces revenue that all they got
to do is pretty much maintain. Yeah, And so that
was the thought behind building a fan family brand and
why I've resisted taking on partners.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Now for those that don't know, like what's the spirit
behind Grady Baby code, Like what does it represent to you?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
So great baby coming in a peril?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
We call it company and apparel because it's not just
going to be apparel. It's going to be an offshoot
of other things that we're going to get into.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
We started with apparel.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So my background from Georgia Southern was printing management, and
so my degree was in printing and I worked in
printing right after college up until technology kind of started
to phase out some of the printing processes. And even
at Georgia Southern, we had a class on screen printing
where I learned how to print T shirts and I
(04:40):
actually did some T shirts while I was, you know,
in school, and so that was the brainchild behind it,
and it said, hey, you know, and it kind of
started with my oldest daughter when she said, Dad, we
need to do some shirts that say we full.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
You know, they kind of play on the traffic.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
This is when she was attending North Carolina ANT and
she had came home from one weekend.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
I was like, well, yeah, we're gonna do it.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
We're not just gonna be a T shirt you know,
I don't want to be the T shirt guy.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
We're gonna actually build a brand.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And that that kind of lunched us, and the timing
man couldn't have been better. It was when the Falcons
was and when the Super Bowl was here in Atlanta,
and that's when the WE four kind of went viral.
Good friend Maso had wore some to the press row
that week and that Friday that he was walking out
(05:28):
with the WE full sweatshirt on and the AJC pter
reporter took a picture of it and did the article
on it, and man, it just fast trackers.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Man, yeah, I say, take me back to that moment,
like if that was the first that was the first
piece of a pair of y'all dropped.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yes, well, the first piece of the pairl we dropped
was the shirt I have on now at the logo
because we wanted to get the bang the name of
the branding out, and then we did the WE four
and the WE four. Man, it just took off. When
people see it, they would just start laughing. That was
one of the ones that brought foot Locker to us
because they reached out to us us about partnering, and
so that shirt lives even when we try to move
(06:04):
into other directions. That one shirt and hoodie all ways
sell and it's funny. It's the simplest design. I never
forget when I had the thought of it. I still
have the picture of the sticky note where I wrote
it out the same way in texting and sending it
to my graphic artist, and he mocked it up.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
And yeah, it has been our number one seller consistently.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
What's it been like seeing that on you know, celebrities
and just influencers and people all over the place.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
It's surreal and it's humbling, because like I had the
idea of what it could be, but it was like
God said, nah, bigter And what I love about Atlanta, man,
the celebrities and influences from Atlanta who have supported us
(06:51):
actually bought it out the store.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Yeah, didn't reach.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Out, didn't say hey, I can you send it to me?
Or can you charge me to wear it? You know,
Loudle got it out of the store and posted it
on his own Instagram, you know, c Low when Desmonrida
was here with the Falcons, you know, and.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
It just truly has grown organically.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
No, man, What's like, when's the moment you kind of
realized with everything you've been working on, this was more
than just an idea, right, but like it could actually
be a brand.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
When I got a call from the HR department of
my bank.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Got that gun, it was it was.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
An interesting conversation That's when I realized, like, we have
really like taken off here because it got to a
point where there was so much media attention behind it
where I had to get approval to continue to do it,
you know, because they was like, hey, you know, we
got to decide here what you know what you're doing
(07:56):
because you're getting a lot of notoriety from it. I
never I had a client call out of state and
I'm talking to him about business and he your name, Terrence.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I was like yes, he was like I know your voice.
He was like, you're on the clothing company. I was
like yeah. He was like yeah, I'll follow you on Instagram.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
And then that's won.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I was realizing like, okay, yeah, this thing is is
bigger than what I thought it could be.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Now, how did you take the name Gratty Baby? Because
I mean, we all know what a Gretty baby is.
You're a Gretty baby. You know again, that was a
baby that was born at Gratty Hospital here in Atlanta.
It's kind of become a cultural thing, but like, how
did you take that into something commercial without like losing
its soul and feeling like it's sold out?
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Well, but by being authentic to Atlanta and always still
telling the story. You know, that wasn't always a term
of endearment to say you was a greater baby. Yeah,
but so much of our culture, we take things and
we reframe it to make it work for us. And
being able to keep the center focused on what we
(09:00):
do around Atlanta, because Grady Baby and Atlanta they are
a most synonymous.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
You ask somebody where you're from and they say, Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Your very next question gonna be high school when you
was born there, you know, and so like, uh it
it truly is a badge of honor. Uh to say
that you are a Grady Baby. Then you got people
like Kanye, people like Spike Lee who are born in Grady.
You know, it's a It's truly a badge of honor
(09:30):
and represents the city.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
And is this just again you just come up with
these ideas yourself, just inspired by things you see, Like
how do you even come up with the different ideas
for the different types of stuff that y'all create?
Speaker 4 (09:39):
You know?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Most what do we full idea was my oldest daughter,
But most of our our ideas come from my wife.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
What creditors do? Yeah, she's she's.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
A real creative behind the brand. Like, I have to
give the credit. What credits?
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Do you know?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I get a lot of at the boys for the
success of Grady Baby, But I can honestly say that
Great Baby would not be where it is as a
brand if it was not for my wife.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, and like, what does it really take to even
get a brand like this out of just you know,
selling online? But again, y'all are in foot locker, y'all
are in the airport, Like what.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Was that experience? And process?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Like, it's so one thing I tell people who reach
out to me because they're trying to do it, you know,
I'm like, hey, don't sell out of the trunck, and
I know that's not, you know, novel for some people.
I was like, because you don't want to be known
as a T shirt person? Yeah, you want to be
known as a brand. And I never forget when I
first started, people used to always be like, well, why
(10:36):
you don't carry stuff with you? And I was write, no,
go to the website, purchase it will ship it to you,
because I wanted to be known as a brand.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Now.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I didn't know why that was on me the way
it was, but I just felt that's how God was
telling me to do it. The very first thing Footlocker
asked for when they reached out were the analytics of
my website to see who I was selling to, how
I was selling, what was the average price, but geographies
I was selling to. And because I was sending everybody
(11:04):
to the website, all I had to do is go
in to squash space, go to analytics, print out all
of that stuff and send it over and so. But
it was because of how we started that allowed us
to be able to create the partnerships that we have.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
And then the same thing with the airport.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
They wanted to see what our numbers were, how we
were selling, what products were selling, and based on those
how they selected their first round of products they wanted
to put in their stores.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah, now I think that speaks Again, it's just like
kind of starting with the end in mind. I think
a lot of times, and you know, people don't realize
too when it comes to doing these deals with brands
or even acquisitions, how many of these things fall apart
because folks don't have the numbers and the analytics like
back stuff up. So to your point, even though you
might not have realized or thought about it from that perspective,
you were very intentional about saying, you know what we're Brent,
(11:51):
I ain't got none on me, you know what I mean, Like,
if you want one, go because I not only need
the money, but I need those analytics because one day
this is all gonna kind come in handy right right.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
And if you see then, if you see the CEO
of Nike in the street, you're not gonna be like,
hey man, you got those joints in the trunk, right,
you know you're gonna go to the you don't go
to the store. And that was kind of like the
mindset like no, when you see me, No, yeah, I
want you to support the brand, but I need you
to go by I need you go make the purchase
so I can register those numbers and I can show like, hey,
(12:22):
here's what we're doing. Yeah, you know, and those and
those numbers help looking at how many people on your
website looking you know what they're looking at. You know,
then you got to have your retargeting ads to make
sure the people who are on your website that you
have a way to reach back out to and bring
them back to the website.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
And so it was just learning all those things.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
The amount of money I was spending on advertising, the money,
amount of money I was spending on trying to gather
all of that information so I can better target what
products and what areas to be able to sell to
is IM material.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, now you're in foot locker in the airport, and
I'm sure you know there's got to be a sense
of pride, not only when you walking around seeing people
rocking it, even if you see it from a distance, right,
Or I know that's happened with me with some of
the butter merch we have, right, I'll be out of like,
oh no, I know that shirt, or even like with
the shoes we did with a datas Like I was
at an event last week and I was walking around.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I was like, yo, I designed no shoes, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And I'm sure you feel the same way, Like what
runs through your mind when you see your stuff in
the wild.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
It is, Man, I'm still in awe about it.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Like I can be walking somewhere and I see it
and I'm like me and my wife was out of
the country and I saw somebody with a WE full
T shirt on.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
I was doing a.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Wedding in Saint Lucia and the guy walked out of
his cabana and had on a we full T shirt
and I was just sitting there like, wow, you know,
this was an idea we had in our house, you know.
And I think it's just wonderful for my children to
be like, you see that label you cut out my fortune,
(13:56):
fifteen year old, that label you cut out. It's in
the store when we all sat around and was talking
about ideas for shirts. And now you can walk into
a foot locker and you see that shirt. And it
just changed now the way my children think about money
and opportunity. Like my youngest daughter fourteen, she texts me
yesterday and say, hey, can I work this weekend? Because
(14:19):
I want, God, you.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Want some money.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
And so it has changed even the way they view
money as children because they realize like, hey, we got
this business, and if I want some money, I can
go work for my own business and get paid to
do it. And that's the other thing I try to
tell parents who have family business. The reason your children
don't want to be a part of your family business
(14:40):
is because you make them feel like it's a chore.
If you show them that they value, take their ideas,
take their input, and you pay them, it makes them
want to be a part of the business. Then they'll
go from okay, when dad and mom transitioned, like who
gonna get this? They start thinking different, want it, you know.
(15:01):
And so it's been it's been an amazing ride, man,
And this is just beginning, no.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
I mean, and that's something I think a lot of
people are dealing with right now too. There's this whole
you know, tied away of folks getting ready to retire soon.
And it's a big issue for a lot of these
folks is they've built these businesses up and their kids
don't want any parts of them.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
You just don't want it because they probably to your.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Point, made it a chore, made them almost probably hated
to a certain extent. Or again, you you know, you
build something up, your kids go to school, they say,
you know what, I don't want to come back and
do this, right, But like actually having them be a
part of it and feeling some ownership to it, seems
like that's what's going to keep them involved in some capacity,
you know.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Again, way beyond you, right.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yep, Randon, that's where you know, being in banking comes in.
You'll be amazed at right now, in twenty twenty five,
how many businesses that are thriving, that are multi millionaires,
businesses that the owners are ready to transition, and the
children don't want to be a part of the business.
(16:09):
And most of it is our culture. I don't know
why we view nepotism as a sin.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That's how you get on in this country.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Like if you can start on third base, why not
There's so many because when I meet with them, there's
so many people I meet and the children are like.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Well, I want to get it on my own.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Why why would you want to start at home and
you competing with someone who's starting on third If your
parents have built the foundation, maybe you can be the
one that take it to the next level. And so
instilling that into my children and making them want to
take over it and want to run its key and
helping them understand I'm not working as hard just for me. Yeah,
(16:52):
we're going to embrace nepotism. I want you to be
able to open doors by saying that your last name
is all written and them being like, oh, parents, all
bring your dad. Yeah, let me let you into this
door without you having to sit in and wait in
line like everybody else. I want you to appreciate the
groundwork that I'm laying because I'm not doing it all
for me, and so but it comes with, you know,
(17:14):
making them be a part of the conversation, making them
be in some of those lawyer's meetings, sitting down with
them and talking and talking to them about the details
of the legal battle that we were in, why it happened,
how it was resolved, making them feel a part of it.
And so when we have those in stores with foot locker,
having them come out where people want to take a picture,
(17:34):
pulling them into it and saying, hey, we are all owners.
Anytime I speak about it, I always say, hey, we
got five owners.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
We all own own it equally.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
It's all our input because I'm making them understand that, hey,
this is going to be a good.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Thing for you.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah, And like how much of that came from just
your experience in banking and again just seeing people do
it that don't necessarily look like us, probably, but just
understanding like how they actually run businesses and build businesses
and make sure you instilled.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
That definitely came from that.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
I watched how you there on their third or fourth
generation of ownership. And so a lot of people are
familiar with coca Cola, but don't understand that Coca Cola
don't technically own some of the Balling plants. And so
the first time I went and viewed the new Boling
plant when they first put it down here off South Fullarton,
and I'm walking through with the people who run it,
(18:22):
and it's like, yeah, it started with our great great granddaddy.
He was really in the carriage, and then it went
to the son, the son, and then the wife's son,
and I'm like, you got generations running this business that
has kept all of that money in the family, and
it's like that is the goal. And then you start
(18:43):
talking to them, how did you make them even want
to be a part of the business. How did you
make them want to be like, hey, I want to
run this one day. And it's by involving them in
early and paying them and not making it feel like
a chore.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Gonna say that some kind of a side question too,
especially because I don't think people really understand like, these
folks got money, and these folks got a lot of money.
Like we talk about generational wealth and we talk about
just the importance of it starting especially like in the
black culture and everything, but like you just maybe give
some context to like, no, no, I need y'all to
really understand, like how far we potentially are behind as
(19:22):
it relates to some of these other groups and just
the wealth they've amassed over generations.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
I give you an example so I'll never forget.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
When I was a branch manager and a young lady
came in with her mother to wire her down payment
for her clothing. Her mother's sitting there with her and said,
what is your interest rate? And I told her what
(19:49):
the interest rate was, and her mother said that is
too high. How much is the house? I think the
house is like half a million? And her daughter said
she has her or She said, hey, what's the payment?
And her daughter told her the payment and she was like,
you and I forgot the husband name.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Y'all can afford that that payment a month and it's
no problem.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And she was like, uh yeah, And she said, son,
you pulled my account up and just wire the whole amount.
And she said, and y'all just pay me every month
and she was like, and we'll just deduct it off
the top with no interest.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
She was like, because that's interest rate is too high.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
I just just send me to I'll just send you
to make just buy the house and cash and you
just pay me back exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
But they have a family, a business that's the family
owned and that has been in the family for generations.
And I said, here is a parent that realized that
her child wasn't getting the best deal, and she used
the money that they generated as a family to put
(20:55):
her child in a better position. Yeah, and that's when
I realized, us, that's what I have to do. Now
here's the other caveat that I've seen. There's no point
in leaving your children financial assets, liquid assets, fixed assets
if you don't properly teach them right. Pointy case, I
had a young lady. You ever heard those stories bread
(21:18):
than when people find out like, hey, I had a
distant relative I never met and had all this money.
Lawyer reached out said, hey, on your dad's side, you
had a great aunt she passed and there's like twenty
five million that just been sitting there that you're now
heir too. It's like, we'll do all the paperwork, we
just want five percent of it.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
She come in, she said, hey, I want to buy
a house. She said, by the time I'm finished, I
have twenty million. She comes in, so many paperwork, the
house is ten million, that we're not allowing you to
buy a ten dollar house, right?
Speaker 4 (21:56):
No?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
No, it was regularly fourteen I'm getting a deal. Like, no,
do you even know what it's gonna cost you?
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Yeah, maintain it.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I'm like, and I had my wealth advisor and he
was like, look, I'm not telling you not to spend money.
Take a million, blow it, you know. He was like,
I can show you how we can take this money
and it will generate. I think at the time he
was like it was gonna generate for her like twelve
grand a month. And he was like, now, your money
(22:26):
won't grow, but you'll be able to live off the interest.
He does is have much and he was like, and
I'm gonna tell you how. I know you can live
off the interest because you're doing it now. And he
was like, what can you do in a one million
dollar house that you can't do that? You you know
it can't do this fourteen million. And we finally told her, hey,
we're not the company for you because we're not in
(22:47):
good faith. We in good faith, we can't let you
you do that and now and in that moment, I
also realized, Okay, so it's not just good enough to
leave the money, you have to leave the education.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So my fourteen and fifteen year old had e trade accounts.
They have a basic understanding of the stock market. And
so like when we flying and say, hey, why do
we fly Delta because we own stock? Why do we
have iPhones because we own stock and Apple?
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Like, I drill it in their head.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
You know, on my life insurance policies, I have the
name of the financial advisor who they have to call.
I've told the financial advisor, if I go first, you
call my wife. Both of us go first. This is
who you call. I told my close friends. I say, hey, man,
something happened to me. Give the wife a week to grieve.
And I want y'all say, hey, you know, Terres wants
(23:40):
you to meet with the financial advisor because I want
to make sure that I give from the graving it last.
And so you got to make all those decisions now,
you know, putting a house into trust and using because
I got multiple policies, using one of the policies putting
that in trust and allowing that policy to take care
of all.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
The needs for the house.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
And so now between my three kids, hey, they're always
gonna be a house in the family. All three y'all
got to decide. Is all three of y'all gonna live
in it? Or are y'all gonna rent it out? Or
y'all split the money every every month. You ain't gonna
have to worry about maintenance taxes or nothing, because one
of my insurance policies is gonna be there to make
sure the house taken care of. So now I can
die and go on to heaven knowing that as long
as the all Bringer is alive or all bringing.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I always have a place to stay. Man.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
That's what's about We've had I've had a trust to
turn in here explaining this kind of stuff. And again, man,
we gotta that's how you get it. And that's why
I asked that question because I just don't think people
fully realize like I always tell people, But these folks
got money out here, and y'all playing money.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Like the one thing, the lady that came in and
worried that if you saw her on the street and
you saw the car she drove, you would not think
that she had the money that she had. And the
other part of it is I bank a lot of
entertainers and I've banked a lot of athletes over the
time in the years, and you'll be amazed at how
(24:58):
multimillion dollar athletes leads struggle during the off season.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Oh, I believe it.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Like struggle they maintain.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Man, they live in paycheck to paycheck too. They don't
look at that paycheck football.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
They get that paycheck eighteen weeks out of the year,
which means them other weeks.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
You got to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
And most people may say, hey, if your mortgage is this, this,
and this, then you make enough doing the season to
do it. I'm like, yeah, but you got to have
that mindset to be able to do it. And so
it just shows me that giving them that amount of
money without the education, it's turning them out to giving
a five year old Kisio car and just letting them
(25:39):
take off.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Man, this is deep. Man, I love this.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Now.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
I got to ask, as you kind of mentioned it,
we don't have to get all the way into it,
but I know, you know, you were kind of in
the trenches for a little bit, you know, with with
with an organization out here around the business.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Everybody know, cause we got tagged that.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yes, we were in a lawsuit with Grady hospital over
the name Grady Baby that I legally trademark, and you know,
we worked it out like we work it out. We
work it out, and you know God will and you
will see some uh, you'll see us together and you
know in the future.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
But God definitely worked it out.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
What does that taught you about ownership?
Speaker 1 (26:18):
That always listen to wisdom because I had so many
people telling me before I lunched that I didn't have
to go to that extent with filing all the necessary paperwork,
paying the money for the trademark, registering the name, doing
all of those things before I lunched, and I realized
it was only because I did all of those things
(26:38):
before I lunched that when the lawsuit came about, I
had a leg to stand on. And so it just
shows you why even if it takes time, there's a
difference between growth and swelling.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
You can swell overnight, but there's no substance to it.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, true growth take time, and you got to ask yourself,
do you want to swell or do you want to grow?
And I want to grow, and so I knew it
was gonna take time and making sure that foundation was
laid long enough.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
And like you know, when you.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Think about the birds Clief, which is the largest building
in the world, it took them just a year the
later foundation.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
M why because they knew what they was building.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah, and so if we take the time and lay
the foundation, the amount of foundation you lay determines the
strength of your building.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
And so you get to decide how.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Much you want to grow and how much you want
to build based on how much foundation that you lay.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Now, I love that, and I talk to people, especially
doing you know, businesses all the time, and I tell
them it's like, yo, like like you wouldn't build a
house with out a blueprint, you know, And so many
people want to just start running, and I understand there's
an element of just kind of getting stuff out there.
But I tell them it's like, if you just think
about that for a second, right, Like you can build
a house with out of blueprint, it's gonna be very
expensive because you're gonna be figuring this stuff out to
(27:51):
you to your point, you know, laying those foundations and
figure out the right things you need to focus on
early on helps you kind of again like but you know,
helps you go fast exactly. I'll always kind of give
is you know, when you think about a space shuttle, bro,
they got to check that thing, double check it, triple
check it. And the reason why is because when they
like that rocket, that thing is it's not turned, it's
(28:12):
only going one direction, and it's going that direction fast.
And you know, again, like the fast something's moving, you
don't have time to go course correct, right, you know
what I mean. So that's why they do all that.
And it sounds like it's kind of very similar situation
with you.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, I didn't want to be out here trying to
change tires on the vehicle going downhill.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
So it's like let me you know.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
And being in business, you know, so part of my
job in my vocation is to help business owners work
on the business as opposed to end the business. And
because I think a lot of times we equate the
level of hard work in the business as what we
need to be doing, Like, no, you needn't be working
on your business. If you build, If you build a system, right,
(28:53):
that system should run without you.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
If it can't run without you, then you got a
failed system. Right, system, and that business is only going
to grow as far as you can take it. Well,
as you get older, you can't move you know, you
might have to move from dB to free safety, you know,
or you might have to move up to the booth,
you know. But if you don't build the system right,
it's always going to be dependent upon you, and it
(29:18):
will only grow to the level of your ability, which
at some point is going to top out.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
What's been the hardest thing about building this business.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Getting the grace from customers that other businesses get. I
hear you, yep, my policy yeah, yeah, my policies say
fourteen days. But you got to realize that we are
the manufacturer.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
We the designer.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Where the shipping and receiving, where the packaging or the logistics,
and some sometimes things just don't work out, you know.
We may drop a design and then take off fashion
in what we thought, you know, so sometimes it may
come a little behind. Like I've had people like file
a dispute on the fifteenth day, like come on, man,
(30:15):
or you know we mess then order up, you know,
I tell them, hey, keep it, apologize we sent you
the wrong thing. We'll you know, send out the right thing,
and like I'm never ordering with you again. You know,
this is why we hate black business. Like, man, how
many times have McDonald's butchered your order.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Right, and you still ain't wrote a letter to the
CEO of nobody. You ain't talk to the manager of
the stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
No, you just go and you go back to the
next day, you know, so like give the same grace.
And then the other part of it is I didn't
realize until there's how much running a business you run
it out of.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Your front pocket until you're profitable. Yeah, it is around you.
And then the other part is strangers will make you rich.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
That's the part right there.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
You know, it gets to a point where your friends,
your friends and amacn only help support you know so much,
and how to tell people the manufacturer is not giving
me a free shirt, so anything I give you that's
free cost me.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
So what's the benefit? And I, at least Calias get
to like a.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Share of a picture, you know, of something, because I'm
not getting anything for free, you know, because I was
so worried about the people who I knew not supporting
and hearing God saying, but the strangers are gonna make
you rich, and so then it just helped me shift
my focus.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
No, that's how it is.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
I think again, a lot of people, and it's interesting,
a lot of people send the team to like start ideas,
and the first people they go to their friends. And
I get that part, but I also ask people like,
are those your customers? Because what ends up happening is
that their friends don't support it and they start feeling down,
like but them, not even the people that you really
trying to go. I mean, I understand they should rock
with you to a certain extent, but at the same time, like,
you didn't make it for them.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
No, you probably made it for somebody else.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
And here's the thing where you in my business, you
just can't design the things that you like, right.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
You got to be able to look at what's selling.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
You got to look at the advertisements from foot Locker
and Nike about the shoes that's getting ready to come
out and make sure you're dropping things in those same
color combos. That way, when somebody in the store and
the new Jordan is coming out, you got something that
goes right with that that same color scheme.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
And so having a.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Partner like Footlocker works because I can get with the
buyer and be like, hey, what shoes are coming out
in the spring, because we got a spring line coming out,
and he'll show me, Hey, here's are the things that
we're getting ready to drop in the spring. Now, I
gotta design color combinations to fit with those shoes so
that when they go in the store now they can
be God put the complete thing together, and then you
(32:46):
got to be a season ahead.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Yeah, so it really makes you, really it makes you think, yeah,
down TheStreet and around the corner about like what actually
gonna make sense? Like what's what's something that you wish
would have known earlier once you started this business, like
good or bad?
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Good or bad? Accept the help when it comes.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
I think oftentimes, had I listened to my wife and
daughter sooner, I could have saved me a lot of
money and avoided a lot of headache. But it was
my baby. Yeah, it was my baby. And couldn't nobody
teach me how to raise my baby? And I missed wisdom,
(33:25):
I missed some timing, I missed some opportunities, some partnerships
that could have happened because I was too worried about
other people getting credit.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
And to God had to show me that, Terrence, you.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Can accomplish a whole lot in life if you're not
concerned with who gets the credit. Just being able to
see your stuff out there knowing that it's yours should
be enough for you. And it was like, why do
you want people to know it's you? Why do you
want your face to be out there? Why do you
want people to when you're walking around and be like, hey,
(33:58):
isn't that such and such? And I realized I was
making it all about me. So if I could go back,
I will stick to the store. Until my children were
saying like, hey, you saying family business, but it don't feel.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Like because the only idea is that get dropped are yours?
I was like sting a little bit.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
And so this last airport dropped all my daughters. Yeah,
it's a crazy part. Some of the designs. I was like,
m it took off.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
It took off our biggest order from the airport yet. Wow.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
And they called me They have only been in stores
probably two or three weeks, and they called me yesterday
saying that they haven't it will put a reorder in
next week.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
See.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
I think that's something I've realized even in just you know,
running butter is you never know what's going to be
the thing. And so what I've had to do over
the years is, yeah, like detached myself from a lot
of the stuff that we do, not that I don't
care about it, right, but like to your point, I
kind of look at it through the lens of even
if it doesn't necessarily resonate with me, it might connect
with somebody else. And there have been many pieces of
(35:04):
many kinds, many things we've done to where it's like
it only went out because I was like, Okay, let's
give it a shot.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
You know.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
But yeah, if you make her, if you make it
too much like art, it's too precious, you never let
go of it, you know, you never get that thing.
And right and again we do. It's almost like a
volume game in some levels, right, because you've got to
kind of go through X number designs or rext some
pieces of content to get to that one thing that
all of a sudden takes off.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
But all you need is that one.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
All he needs that one, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
And Bill Gate said it best you don't hire smart
people to tell them what to do.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Mh.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
So why are you hiring somebody that's skilled in the
particular area you're not, But then you're the one that's
telling them everything to do, as opposed to allowing them
to flourish in the area of that gifted. Yeah, my
wife is an artist. She takes pictures, she can draw,
can paint. It's like, that's the creative. So if she's saying, hey,
(35:56):
I don't think that's a work, what rationale am I
using to say? I don't agree, Yeah, just because I
don't like it. But I'm not a creative you are.
It took me a minute to be like, Okay, what
are your ideas on this? Or like with our June
teenth shirt that we're working on, say hey, we need
she said, we need the June team shirt. I said, okay, cool,
(36:17):
give me your ideas and I'll send it to the
graphic artists and have them create your idea the piece
uphand down. We went through probably six iterations of that.
It took us two years for her to finally get
a design that she felt was good, and we sold
over one hundred of them within the first two weeks.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
But it took me being.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Able to realize like, hey, this is the area you're
strongest that we will team.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
I would tell one of my friends yesterday, I was like,
you know, it's interesting that the first time a woman
is mentioned in the Bible, she's called a help me.
It was somebody to help Adam do something that he
could do on his own. And so if God sent
me somebody that can help me do what I can't
do on my own, why am I fighting against it.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
That's a good point. I thought about it like that before.
There's there's a reason, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah, And then I tell you all the time, you know,
because of course I make no bones about being a
personal faith I tell people all the time. I was like,
you have to realize it was God's idea to make her.
God looked at Adam and said, hey, it's not good
for you to be alone. You need somebody to help you.
And so when you think about it, I'm like, Okay,
I'm married with a wife that has my back and
support and she's a natural creative that's gonna help me.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Okay, I need to listen. Okay, let's change seats.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Yeah, let me focus on the numbers, the logistics, the
shipping and that part of it, because that's the.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
Part I'm good at. It's creative part. These photos, the
Instagram that's you.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
That's you have.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
There have been moments where you wanted to walk away
or said, you know what, I'm not doing this no more,
and like, how'd you get through the Oh?
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (38:01):
When that was a conversation I had early on because
we had that immediate success and I just thought this
was gonna last forever and it didn't. I went from getting,
you know, thirty forty orders a day to going two
and three days with no orders, and I was like, ah, man,
(38:21):
you know, we missed it, you know, And I never
forget ben ma Si was having a conversation one day.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
He was like, I'm telling you, man, just you got it.
Just keep going, you know.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
And it was like, you know what, Terrence, how bad
do you want to I have quit so many things
in my life, I said, but this one, I'm not
gonna quit. I'm gonna go until God closed the door
and be like, hey, this is it. I'm one of
those ones, though, Brandon, there's anotherhing in my life I've
wanted to do that I hadn't tried. Yeah, like that, like,
(38:52):
if I have a thought about doing something, I'm gonna
try now. I might not be successful in it, but
I have attempted everything from wrapping, modeling, you name it.
If I said I wanted to do it, I tried it,
and it didn't work, And that's how I teach my children, Hey,
go forward, what's the worst that can happen?
Speaker 4 (39:15):
And this was one I went for and it worked.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Yeah, that's the thing, right like you got because if
it works, it's like, man, I should have been doing
this earlier.
Speaker 4 (39:25):
All you need is one.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
But all you need is one. Yeah, and then once
you get that one, then you build. Last biblical analogy,
I'll give you. Bible clearly says that God had four
rivers going into the garden that even to sustain it. Well,
if we really believe God is all powerful, he could
have had one river sustain that whole garden if he
wanted to. But it says because it was so vast,
(39:49):
he had four rivers going in to sustain it. So
how can I be out here believing in the God
that understands multiple streams and I'm out here trying to
get one stream to fund and everything?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Man, look out, man, look out, man, you're preaching now,
this is let Man, you ain't gonna be You're gonna
come in here and preaching. That's you know, I never
thought about it like that before.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
If God wanted to, he could have had that one rib.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
But it would have never failed.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Right, So what is God teaching us right there in
the garden Because of how vast it was, I got
to have four rivers to go in in here, it
says to sustain it.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Yeah, we need at least four.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
That's that's that's a bar right there. Man. Look man,
where's your vision? Where does greaty Baby go? Next?
Speaker 1 (40:37):
We focus on the Grady Baby Company part which we
have Grady Baby Cares, which is our nonprofit arm. You know,
we partner with a bar's home every year where before
school and Christmas we give clothes, We donate clothes. We
partnered with Jack and Jail for two years for their
(40:59):
Christmas initiative and getting into other things.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
You know. This is but this is when I'm waiting
on my children. Yeah, I'm fifty.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
I'm giving myself another ten years ten max fifteen to
work and I'm letting y'all run. I built it. Where
do y'all wanted to go?
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (41:22):
I got my pension, I got my four one k
I got my investments. I tell them all the time,
I got me and your mom in life and in death.
Y'all don't owe me nothing but success. So I can't
wait to see what y'all gonna do with what I built?
Because you're not starting from where I started, You're gonna
start from where I finished.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
So when it's all said and done, and that seems
like the legacy you want to leave is you know,
this is something that I started with My kids and
my family have taken it to tight time.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
I couldn't even imagine.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
Couldn't imagine every ally.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
The time we was in Disney World the other weekend,
I was telling my son, who was fifteen, I said,
you know what's interesting about Disney World? He said what
I said, walk and didn't get to see it? Yeah,
I said, but.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
What was fun it was the day it opened.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
One of the board members said, I wish Walt had
seen this, and another board member said he did because
he had the vision. And I said, and that's us.
I said, I have the vision. I see what you
guys can do. And I was like, and one day,
y'all gonna do it. And I was like, even if
I don't see it physically, I've already seen it.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
Man, broll.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Look, I didn't know coming to get some inspiration and
get a couple of bars in here. We had church
up in here. Man, this has been well worth it.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
Brother.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
I'm glad we finally got a chance to get you
up in here. Man, before we get out of here,
just what people know, man, How can they support you?
How can they support Grady Baby Company? And the peril
tell them all the things.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
So yeah, definitely social media Instagram is the place for us,
and we're trying to migrate everything over to fan base
because you got to put your money where your people are.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Yeah, I mean that's just period. And so at Grady
Baby Co.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Is where you find us at the website the same
babyco dot com. And if you see us in the
mall Atlanta Heartsfield, we're on Concourse A and T. Or
if you're in the foot locker in the Atlanta area,
go grab your shirt. But I gotta say, man, I
am so impressed and inspired by what you're doing. I talked,
(43:18):
I talk about you to other people like we grew
up together. I'll be like, man, like he is doing it,
like to see a brother take this from what it
was so now, Like I remember when you was doing
the lives before you broke away with you and the
(43:40):
other guy, and how you've just grown and then the
stuff for four four day. I was like, you know,
and I tell people all the time, you're not the competition,
your proof it can be done.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Yeah, And so I pray and hope.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
People look at you and see you as the proof
that what you dream about can be done.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Oh, man, I appreciate that. Man.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
I again, I fully believe there's enough room out here
for everybody to win. And you know, even with what
four and four day has become. You know what I'm saying,
It's it's interesting that you know, when we started kind
of doing it, like it wasn't really nobody doing it.
Now like it's everywhere, and you know, like I wanted
to be done the right way obviously, but it's it's
just it's you know, it's just it's just really an
(44:29):
inspiring and and you know, to just see like a
whole city kind of to your point, like rallying around
an idea.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
I think that's the.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Beauty of the human mind, is the ability to like
bring an idea from here and like manifest it into reality.
So now, brother, I appreciate that. I appreciate you again.
Congratulations on everything. You know, Georgia Southern runs the world
well out, that's the pot You've been listening to button
Nomics anom your hosts, Brandon Butler, got comments, feedback, want
(44:59):
to be on the show. Send us an email today
at hello at butternomics dot com. Butter Nomics is produced
in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by kcy Pegram, with marketing
support from Queen and Nikki.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Music provided by mister Hanky.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
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
button Nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Host
Brandon Butler
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