July 24, 2025 ⢠42 mins
On this episode of Butternomics, our host, Brandon Butler, talks with Jarvis George, the creative powerhouse behind VibesInATL, about the secrets to creating content that consistently goes viral. Jarvis shares his journey from Navy veteran and grad student to one of Atlanta’s most influential creators, detailing how he leverages culture, consistency, and authenticity to drive engagement and build community. From content creation tips to understanding algorithms, this episode offers actionable insights for anyone looking to grow online.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Because he's getting able to talk and resonate with the audience.
It's more of a connection.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It used to be.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Social media used to be like a show off type
of thing, but now social media is getting back to
what it needs to be, being social, talking to the camera,
to that one person, face to face. And that's why
he's growing way faster than me. I avoid the camera
through my edits and my tricks and stuff like that,
but I know that if I started getting into the
camera more where it's more face to face, I will
(00:27):
see more growth and more resonation with my brand.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Everybody've hooked another episode of butter Nomics. I'm the host,
Brandon Butler, founda CEO butter ATL and today got somebody
special in the building. My man, the one and only
mister Jarvis, George Jarvis vives at ATL. How you doing, bro,
I'm going, good man? How you If I was any better,
I'd be you brother.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
You know what I'm saying. That was life treating you.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Everything good man, Everything keep going.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So I'm blessed us to have the to be in
a position and I'm man, so everything good on my end.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It's dope. Man.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Well, look, man, you know you're one of the biggest
content creators here in Atlanta. I'm definitely a fan of
your work. That's why I've reached out in the past.
We've done stuff you put up to the creators, a
color conference that stayed farm, all these other things.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
And man, look, bro, you're killing it on social media.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Dog, you out here killing it, and you're also doing
this thing at a level I don't think a lot
of people are doing that. So that's why I feel
like this'd be a good conversation to have you in on.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Brother.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
No, I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
So for those that don't know, man, who is Jarvis Georgie?
Somebody had to ask you who you are, what you do?
What is vibes and atl How would you describe it?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I'm a Navy veteran turn content creator. I'm an MBA
dropout that just likes to have fun. I like to
make money, and I like to make money with my
friends while I'm doing it. Oh, I also like to
make an impact. So just a regular guy that just
likes to enjoy himself, enjoy the things that he do
and just take things one day at a time.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Oh for sure, man, for sure. Man, So how did
you start your brand, How did you get How did
Vibes and atl get started?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
All?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Right, So the crazy backstory behind this. I graduated from
UCF in twenty twenty. Right before I graduated, was in
the military. After I got out of the military, I
went to UCF, went to school for business. I did
everything right now I was supposed to do slow route.
When I graduated, literally all the businesses shut down. Nobody
(02:12):
was really hiring the biggest jobs you can get in
Orlando when you graduate UCF or Universal, Disney, Lockey Martin
and all of them were reducing staff.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
It wasn't a lot of people hiring during COVID. Right,
this is during COVID.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So when COVID happened, you know, we had the lockdowns,
I had time to really just like sit down and
sit still for a second. One of the big things
I was going off with social media YouTube. You're starting
to see a lot more people make content. It started
to become like a creative boom. So for me, during
those times I was in lockdown, Like I won't say
like those three months, I want to say, I was
trying to look for the next city that would help
(02:47):
me from my financial career. As well as just where
I would love, like I wanted to be in the
city where I would love to be there every single day. Yeah,
like if I wanted to take a vacation, I didn't
need to because I love the city that I'm in.
So my top cities were Washington, DC Atlanta, And what
was my thing really It was just those two Washington,
DC and Atlanta. So when I didn't get into grad
(03:08):
school in Washington, DC, I got into grad school last
minute for Georgia State. And mind you, me, being a veteran,
when I go to grad school since nobody's hiring, that's
my way I can get money with my GI bill,
you know, they'll pay you to go to school.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
That was giving me like a little bit of.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Leeway to, you know, still try to figure things out
while the tragedy's happening with COVID and everybody's not hiring
and stuff. So ended up moving to Atlanta. Got into
Georgia State super last minute, and when I got here,
I just told myself, I was like, man, you were
in the city where it's just like I'm not saying
it's easier to blow up here, but from what I saw,
it was like there's a strategy that you can do
(03:44):
and you can blow up big in Atlanta. So for me,
it was just like, Okay, you've had Instagram for years
on end when you were on lockdown, You've seen people
fifty years old, thirty years old, twenty one years old
make money from social media. You literally saw it in
that time and watch them on a day. What would
happen when you moved to this new city and you
was more intentional with social media? Like, what would happen
(04:05):
like if you ever tried it? That's what I was
thinking to myself, So I actually like just tried it.
So as soon as I moved here, everything wasn't together
for me. I had to get a roommate off Facebook marketplace,
I got enrolled into grad school, I got rolled into
my classes, I got my basis for like just exploring
the city and stuff like that. But once I started
to save money, I was able to get my apartment.
As soon as I got my new apartment, that's when
(04:26):
I started making content and just being consistent with it,
and literally it was like everything that I loved about Atlanta,
Like I literally was trying to figure out like what
my niche would be, and a lot of people said,
your niche is anything that you genuinely just.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Enjoy and you don't really you would never get tired
of it.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
The reason I moved to Atlanta is because when I
get off of work at five o'clock, I got a
lounge I can go to that can make me feel
like I'm at a club on a Tuesday. I got
mallains that I can go to and make me feel
like I'm on a vacation on a random Wednesday. I
got Creaks, I got good Weather, I got four seasons,
and as somebody from Florida, it's something different from me.
It's all a whole different experience. Every season is different
(05:02):
from me because I'm used to being hot, humid, not
a lot going on, not a lot of people look
like me. But Atlanta was just like my playground. So
when I moved here, I just want to just keep filming,
keep recorded, really just documented my experiences. But then it
got to the point where I'm going into grad school,
I'm taking these classes, and I'm starting to see, like
the the ways I can make money from it. So
(05:25):
one of the craziest things that happened to me was
I got hit up by his restaurant and this is
like my first time. They were like, yo, we really
love your videos. We see what you're doing. I think
I'm about like two months in being consistent. They're like,
we want to pay you to go to come here
and get some food. I'm like, wait, y'all want to
pay me to get some food? Like y'all don't want
to just y'all. Y'all gonna give me food and then
you're gonna pay me as well. I think at the
(05:46):
time it was like seventy five dollars. So I'm like, man,
I'm about to skip class. Hey, y'all fin to go.
So I get there, and mind you, I'm still new.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I don't really know everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
There's other creators that are there in the parking lot,
and so they were like, oh, we seen your page.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
We love it page, we love what you do.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
And I'm like, oh wow, like dang, like y'all really
are noticing me, Like my page is really getting traction.
So when this happens, they're like, oh, you're here for
a collab too. I'm like, what do you mean. They're like, oh,
like they paid us to come here. I was like,
well for real, I was like, man, this is crazy.
I never even knew this was like a thing, mind you,
first time being on the internet, first time seeing like
how you can monetize from it. Yeah, when they told
(06:22):
me that they got paid, I was like, I was
being nosy. I was like, how much did y'all actually
get paid? They told me they got paid like three
hundred dollars to five hundred dollars. Mind you, I got
paid seventy five dollars. I'm happy as I don't know
what because they're finna give me free food and they're paying.
But once I realized that there was a bigger opportunity
and people are getting paid more to do the same
things that I was doing, it made me start to realize, Okay,
(06:42):
how can I do what I'm doing now, but scale
on a bigger level? What is the biggest level? Mindjum
in grad school at the time too. So it's just
like the biggest quote I ever got while on Lockdown,
before I even became a creator, was this one thing,
and it was from this dude named Rashad Balau. Anything
that you were entertained by is a form of business.
So when I got to Atlanta, I always kept that
(07:03):
mindset of there's a lot of people out here that's
making money doing what they love to do, like literally
point bank period. They're not hating it. They literally get
to wake up and go do what they love to do.
You don't really know who they are. You're not gonna
run into them. But that could also be you because
you're in that same city. You have the same resource,
and you have the same like, you have the same
playing field. The Internet is open to anybody. It's a
(07:25):
low barrier entry market. It's a low barrier entry thing
that you can do. So once I just started learning
the ecosystems a bit of having a niche the things
that you can monetize from, I kind of started going
back to my NBA classes and talking to my professors
about it. We end up having a project where they
where we had to start like a whole business from scratch,
(07:46):
and you have to make like a business plan, forecast everything,
and from that one time getting paid from going to
eat some wings, I made like a business plan and forecast. Okay,
let's say I've bumped my rate to three hundred dollars
and I got paid from different brands or I sold
other restaurants. Content how much money could I make in
a month. How much money if I kept this consistent
(08:07):
and I only had three new customers a week, how
much can I make in two months, three months? And
when I started seeing the numbers, I started looking at everything.
I was like, man, I can make like a lot
of money doing this. And then I started looking on
YouTube and learning like Okay, you can get brand deals
and you can do this or you can do that.
So yeah, I answer your question.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Man.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Everything kind of happened fast, but the first two months
out of being consistent, that's when everything started opening up.
But the biggest thing that helped me was going to
grad school making that business plan and literally actually like
writing it down and like seeing the forecast and the projections.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Like yeah, I would say grad school really opened up
everything from me. Man. It made me realize like how
big it can go do man?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
When you got started, Like like how large was your
platform when you've got that first deal. I think a
lot of people feel like you have to have millions
of followers, right, like even with that first brand deal,
Like do you remember how large y'all were back then?
Speaker 1 (08:58):
I want to say I probably had ten to twelve
okay followers at the time on TikTok. I didn't really
have a lot of followers on Instagram. I was really
more focused on TikTok at the time. And mind you,
I had started my page from zero followers just because
I wanted to feel comfortable posting, and I felt more
comfortable when I had nobody following me or people I felt.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Like didn't know me, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
As a male, I feel like a lot of us
were I'm not going to say we camera shot, but
a lot of us don't care to be in front
of the camera like that, you know what I'm saying.
So that was just my way of getting out my
comfort zone and being able to manage putting out content
because I didn't feel like people who knew me would
judge me because I'm talking to a whole bunch of
random people that I'll never meet, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
So, how do you look at the difference between TikTok
and instagrams. I mean, you have large platforms on both
of them, Like, do you see a difference or do
you kind of just feel like you use the same
content on both platforms and they'll be successful.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
So everything changes.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Man.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
At first, TikTok was about exposure it was about with
nowadays everything is about death. People want to stick to you,
they want to relate to you, they want to grow
with you. Back in the day, we're not even back
in the dawn tripping in twenty twenty, it was about
with you post something nine times out of tendance, it's
going to go viral just because now it's more so like,
(10:09):
where's the value coming from this video? And that's how
this video is going to get shared. At first, TikTok
was that place you can go to where you can
put something out and somebody's gonna feel it and it's
gonna get exposure.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Instagram wasn't like that.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Now Instagram is acting like TikTok to where it gives
you that mass exposure as well, and it's performing sometimes
better than TikTok, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So it changes, it really changes. Right now. I favor
None of the companies are listening to this, but I.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Favor TikTok over Instagram only because it's more organic, I
feel like, and you kind of can find like your
people easier on TikTok versus Instagram, and people can find
you easier on TikTok versus Instagram.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I feel like, yeah, now, how did you like how
did you like find your voice? Because again, like you
had to probably try out like different kinds of content,
Like how did you feel even when you knew your niche?
You want to kind of explain it spor Atlanta because
like one thing I to your point of like not
necessarily want to be on camera all the time. Like
one thing I really like about your stuff too, is
it kind of comes like a first person POV perspective,
But like did you grow into that or did you
(11:11):
goin to start like that?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Like how did you kind of get to that?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Okay, this is how I'm gonna kind of you know,
this time, I'm going to appear and create my content.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Okay, So when I first started making content, I was
doing like the day of my life content. You're coming
me to school, coming me to grad school, coming to
me work in the city, and stuff like that. In
mys I was like the new hype Williams, I'm making
a music video of my life, except for I don't
have to make my own music. I could use other
people music and I could make my own videos that's
tailored to me my regular life and if nobody feel
(11:39):
it that's cool.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I feel it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
But then another thing started happening when my friends started
wanting to come and visit me in Atlanta. Some things
that I really wanted to do was they would always
be like, oh, where should I go?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Bro?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Like you be out everywhere. I'd be like, Bro, you
know what, look at my page. I made a video
about every place and what the specials that they got.
Because my thing was happy hours. My thing still is
happy hours. At five o'clock, seven o'clock, I'm calling my
friends up. Y'all off work, come on, let's go link
up in the city. So my thing was I was
making videos from my friends just to have a reference
(12:10):
to form when they come to Atlanta. Whether you come
two months from now, three months from now, six months
from now, these are all the spots. Don't call me
to ask no questions, just let me know which one
you want to go to and I'll meet you there.
But I didn't know that solving that problem for my
friends made it me solving a problem for other people
in the city.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Whether they're new here, they've.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Been living here, they just don't have the urge to
figure out where to go. You know what I'm saying,
Like I solved like a bigger problem than I thought
it actually was. And you know, to create a business,
the first thing you got to do is figure out
how does that business solve a problem?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
So no, it's dope, man. Now when it comes to
creating content, Like what's your process? Because, like I said,
I see you shoot your stuff yourself, Like, like what's that?
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Like you go in, you shoot it. Do you have
like you create shot lists? Again?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Like, and I asked this because I know there's a
lot of people that probably want to do content creation.
They want to kind of figure out like how you
do this stuff? So again, like do you have a
playbook in you here? Like all right, I'm gonna ahead
and do this thing. Is just like organic and you
just like shoot everything and then figure it out later,
Like how'd you kind of create your process to create content?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I look at my content as like a PowerPoint. You
got a beginning, you gotta middle, and you gotta end.
So like let's say, if I'm going out of town
or if I want to go out of town, it
all depends on what I want at the time. If
I want to work with like a certain brand, like
for me. My thing is travel. I love to travel,
Don't get me wrong. I love the food in Atlanta.
I love like making events and doing all these other
(13:29):
different things. But if I want to attract like a
certain brand, it's a bait and switch. To get that
brand to come in, you have to put the content
out to get it. So for me, like let's say
I'm traveling, I'll go to a hotel in another city.
I'll scale the hotel just to see what I like,
see what catches my eye, and then I'll just break
it down on some Okay, what would be the beginning
of the video. Okay, let's capture the entrance, Let's capture
(13:51):
the check in process, Let's capture with the hotel process.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
It's like, what is the middle of the video.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
The middle of the video is me actually using the hotel,
maybe unpacking my things, maybe going down to getting some food,
going to get a drink, like just the main things
you want to see. What does the gym look like?
The pool of like the amenities. Okay, the end of
the video, how did you utilize the hotel? How can
this work with the brand? Or how can you portray
yourself to where people can see themselves marketing through you.
(14:17):
So that's the way I do different things. If I
want to work with like a certain restaurant or a
type of restaurant niche, I would just put out that
content heavy to where they would want to come back
and work with me. A lot of times is bait
and switch. Like a lot of people think that I
probably get paid from a lot of restaurants and stuff.
I'll just do pop ups and I'll pay my own money.
I won't even tell people I'm my influence and I'll
just go do it. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
(14:39):
But I know with me, just go doing that is
going to bait in a brand, or it's going to
bait in an actual brand that's going to be worth
trying to pay me my rate and stuff like that,
you know. So it really just all depends on how
I want to go into it. If I'm not trying
to do a bait and switch, then I'm just gonna
just do it organically just so people can feel me
and feel my content in death. But at the same time,
it's going to be something with a beginning, a middle
(15:00):
in the end, and I gotta add value.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Whether the value is.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Breaking down where the place is at where you can
park the specials that they have, or the value is
telling people about a certain hotel and why you should
visit or the best time to visit. You always got
to add value, and you always gott to have a
structure where it's a beginning, a middle, and an end.
And I always try to make sure I keep attention spanned.
In mind, a video can't be thirty seconds long if
(15:24):
you don't have a story to tell them for thirty seconds.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
So it's all different scenarios, but the biggest thing I'll
say is keep it like a power point. You got
a beginning, you got a middle, you gotta end. You
got pictures, you got text you got different things you
can put in there. But as long as you get
that storyline right, you good.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
A friend of mine, Maddie James, talks about kind of
a similar concept, right like, in order to get brand
deals and certain stuff, you have to put out the
content first.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
And that attracts And I.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Think a lot of people get that flip flop right.
They think you just sit back and wait. But to
your point, if you want to work with restaurants, go
do restaurant content, Go shoot it so that they know
what they know that when they're searching they see it's like,
oh okay, this guy does it, like I can tap in.
You want to do travel stuff, go travel like capture
that content and then put it back out there and
again that's how you attract those brands.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
That's really a smart way to kind of go about
doing it. Like when you shoot all this stuff, Like
what tools do you use? Do you do all the editing?
Like are you using like tools?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Like again, like I see you got your Osmo Pro
you know what I'm saying, your Pocket three? Like you know,
are you using AI, chat, CHIPTD LP? You write scripts?
Like which kind of you your stack of tools you
used when you do stuff?
Speaker 1 (16:39):
All right, So this is the funniest thing in the world.
I actually have every tool you can think of, and
I don't use none of them. I don't use I
barely use my Ozma Pocket three. I probably got one
YouTube video and I've had this for like a year.
I have the Sony A seven R five and all
the fancy cameras. I use my cell phone for the
most part. I'm probably gonna use my cell phone even
(17:01):
for like editing and stuff. I have the MacBook, I
have the Mini Mac Pro and the desktop set up.
I edit on my cell phone still only because I'm
so used to it and it's just so much easier
in the I don't want to say, like maybe a
year ago, two years ago, all the fancy tricks and
the camera qualities, all that stuff used to matter. But
now that I'm starting to realize like what people actually
(17:22):
care for, I realize that you don't really need all
the fancy camera tricks.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
You don't even need the fanciest camera. What is your.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Story, how are you resonating, or how you add in value?
Those are the biggest things that matter. The camera really
doesn't matter. Even like my editing tricks and stuff, it
doesn't matter. And I'll give you like a perfect example.
There's food bloggers out here that they don't do all
the fancy editing or anything, but they just keep the
camera still and they talk to the camera. They grow
faster than me, They grow faster than me and followers,
(17:49):
and they also grow faster than me and resonating with people.
Like for instance, I name one food blogger like in Atlanta,
people like they literally was smiling, like yo, that's my guy.
No fancy camera tricks, no edit, Just get in front
of the camera with his cell phone, talk, tell you
what it is, get off nothing else. You ever heard
a food stalker, Yeah, that's me, boy. But that's the
perfect example. I want to say. Me and food Start
(18:11):
are kind of made content around the same time. But
I notice over the years his page grows way more
rapidly and more fast than mine. Mind you, I do
all the camera tricks, the edits, the flips, the voiceovers
and everything. He just does steal shots, get in front
of the camera and talk. You understand why because he's
getting able to talk and resonate with the audience. It's
(18:32):
more of a connection. It used to be social media
used to be like a show off type of thing,
but now social media is getting back to what it
needs to be, being social, talking to the camera, to
that one person, face to face. And that's why he's
growing way faster than me. I avoid the camera through
my edits and my tricks and stuff like that, but
(18:52):
I know that if I started getting into the camera
more whereas more face to face, I will see more
growth and more resonation with my brand. It's just hard
to get out when you know you get comfortable with
your ways on how you do things.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
No, I understand that. You know.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
One thing I always talk about, too mean, even when
we built button our platform is there's always like moments
I see, there's like infliction points, like what were some
of the specific videos or specific moments, So it's like
you did a thing and all of a sudden, like
you actually saw like wow, like I did this and
like this massive growth happened or something.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Those moments like jump out.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
For me, yeah, or was it kind of just like
a slow stream over time.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Honestly, I'm not gonna lie man Like for me, I
had like this relentless tenacity of I'm gonna make this work.
It wasn't really like a like I had a moment
like oh my god, I can't believe this worked out,
like I honestly, like I was so intentional with this,
Like literally, mine was straight strategy.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Honestly, I have to put out good content. But it's
just like once I learned how to make good content,
it was all about being consistent.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
The biggest thing I got from this was it doesn't
matter what influence were IVE been and I went to.
It doesn't matter what party I went to or who
hands I shook. It doesn't matter who knows those who
are who I know like that does now they don't
get me wrong, But the basis of it all is
sitting my tail down in the house and getting that
content out consistently and showing up, if not every day,
(20:11):
three times a week, four times a week for two
months straight, three months straight, four a year straight.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
That's the basis of this whole thing.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
If you don't get that out, don't expect a lot
of good things to come to you. Yeah, like you
may get like one or two rare occasions where somebody
meets you they like your page and you're connected. But
for the most part, the biggest thing out is getting
in front of that camera or getting that camera out,
getting that content edited and putting it out to the world.
That's what brought me the biggest opportunities.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
How'd you figure out how to start charging these brands? Again,
you said you noticed that the first one page you
seventy five, You heard these people getting three to five hundred.
Now you're doing bigger deals. Like, how did you figure out?
Was it just like learning?
Speaker 2 (20:46):
You know, as you you got to make friends and
talk like that's the biggest thing.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
You can't just go into an industry thinking you know everything,
because you're never going to know everything. Everything is changing.
Some people in New York is probably doing things differently
in Atlanta, which they are. I went on a brand
trip with some creators to where.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Did we go?
Speaker 1 (21:04):
We went to Saint Kitts, Saint Kitts and Nevi's, and
I had a creator. She was from New York. She
has I want to say, fifty thousand to one hundred
thousand followers less than me, but on a consistent level,
she's making seven thousand to ten thousand dollars a month.
She's knocking deals out while she's literally on vacation. You
get what I'm saying. So it's just like I had
(21:25):
to learn to just talk to other creators and just
really just breaking that barrier. This is where we have
like a trust, we're open how communication, Like, how was
it for you when you first started? How much were
you getting when you first started? How do you feel
about charging this or how do you feel about this
deal structure? So I really learned from just communicating with
other creators that's like the best way. And then when
you kind of start noticing how the deals are structured
(21:47):
and you kind of know the ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
That's when you.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Kind of know what is your value and what is
your worth because end of the day, it's really what
you choose to charge, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
But my biggest thing was just talking to.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Other creators and where they went wrong, understanding like where
you can charge, where you can't charge things that you
used to accept for free and just go work to
because it's good for your portfolio. Everything is variable, man,
But I would say just networking and talking to the
other other creators was like the biggest thing for me man.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
And I mean again, like for the folks that don't know,
like you do this full time, Like this is your job,
Like how did you make that transition?
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Like at what point were you? Like you know what,
Like I'm good.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I could do this and I could take care of
my stuff, I could pay these bills and I could
really focus on this full time, Like when did that happen?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
So I had two brands that hit me up early on,
and both of the brands were for like five thousand
plus and it was in the same week, and so
that gave me like a cushion to pay my bills,
you know for because at the time I was just
getting a new a permenad at the three months free. Yeah,
so you know, when I had that cushion to say
that three months of rent, I was like, Okay, now
I got this savings, I possibly can start transitioning to
(22:55):
full time, but I just want to make sure I
had this certain numbers saved up. When those two hit
me up and they both paid five thousand, that's when
I able to have that cushion to say, you know what,
now I have the time to just say, you know,
I'm gonna just take that leaf and take a full time.
When I took it full time, I was working for
the GSA at the time, General Service Administration with the government,
and I was kind of like in this training phase
(23:16):
of where when I started working, there was no way
I was going to be able to keep up with
content as well as work this job because I was
already going to grad school, trying to finish grad school,
working for the GSA, and out every other day trying
to grow this page. And you know what I'm saying,
editing all those stuff. So at the time I'm not sleeping,
I'm probably getting two three hours of sleep. So when
it got to the point where I'm getting collapsed, that's
(23:38):
paying me two to three times more than when I'm
getting paid in the GSA in the same month, it
was Okay, let's see what's gonna happen. I didn't think
it through. I was just like, Okay, let's just see
what happens. The worst case, the worst thing that can happen.
I can just go back to the GSA. Yeah, and
go back into this government job. But once I've seen
that it worked and it keeps working, it was no
(23:58):
turning back.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
And say it was all downhill from there, Like it
was like I'm locked in. One of the things you
also talked about when we were kind of talking offline
was you know, reading is a big thing and creating
goals and all that stuff, Like how does that work
into your process?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
So that's another thing too that happened to it during COVID.
That was like my first time I really like had
no choice but to sit still. It was kind of
like a dark place for me too, because it was
like a lot of uncertainty, like I didn't really understand
like the COVID situation with everybody like shutting down, and
like I literally felt to myself, like, bro, you did
everything right, and now you get to the point where
(24:33):
it's just like you have no options. I was kind
of mad at myself for even being in that situation.
So like, when everything happened, I just wanted to make
sure I took full advantage of everything that I was
taking place. Yeah, I just went after everything relentlessly. But
all that mindset happened when I started reading during lockdown.
(24:53):
I started reading books more. I started getting like a
deeper understanding of like how life actually works. But mental
health was like the biggest thing for me. Like I
started meditating for the first time during COVID. I read
this book. It was called Becoming Supernatural. It kind of
teaches you why you get mad, Like the difference of like,
right now, we're chilling right like we would do, but
(25:14):
if somebody come into the room and hit you in
the face or something, your whole body reacts differently. So
it kind of taught me on the basis of meditating
staying calm. It also taught me how to write things
down for what you genuinely would want, not really like
the materialistic things, but also with just how you want
to feel, So like for my job and I wrote
this down it was for my dream job. It was like,
(25:37):
what was my elevated emotions. I wanted to feel. I
wanted to be happy. I wanted to be in love
with life. I wanted to be traveling. I wanted to
be able to travel anywhere I wanted to travel in
the world. I wanted to feel like life was the vacation.
I didn't need to take vacation like I wanted to
feel differently, and so in order to do it, I
had to actually act like it already happened, you know
what I mean. So even when all the bad stuff
(25:58):
was going on, I came into Atlanta with a new
mentality of like, yo, you're in like everything that you
prayed for. And I felt like that kind of helped
my creative journey as well, because it's just like I
already felt like I was already here, Like I don't
feel no different than when I felt when I first
moved here.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
I already felt.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Like like life is just like that vacation where you
just don't need like everything, like everything is fun, everything
is where you want, Like you're exactly where you need
to be. Like That's just how I felt when I
came into it, and I felt like reading was like
the big foundation for building that in me.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
I mean, I think again, a lot of people, you know, Atlanta,
we always say like Atlanta's not a real place, and
you know, I think a lot of people, especially when
you kind of grow up here, you from here, you
just think this is normal. But to your point, like
I said, when you come in from outside and you
see the opportunities, a lot of people just don't even
notice because they don't see that perspective, right, I think
that's what happened, is right. You came here from a
different place, a different perspective, and you're like, wait a minute,
(26:53):
all this is out here, I can tap into all
this stuff, and you know where the average like Atlan
as we call it, we just see it like, oh yeah,
that's just normal.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
That's just it.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
You know.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
It seems like you were like leaned in and saw
those opportunities. Other people just didn't notice and just missed
all the way out.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
And not even just that. It's something about this city
where like people just are so down to.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Work with you.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
They don't they won't know anything about you, but they'll
see some potential in you and they literally would just say,
you know what, like I see what you do. Let
me let's just work together, because us working together is
better than.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Working the part.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying, Like, I see that
like a lot in a lot of different industries in Atlanta,
and it's contagious.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Man. Like it's beautiful out here.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Like you literally can meet somebody you don't know them
from a can of paint, but like they just see
something in you and believe in you, and you can
turn it into something big. A lot of the reasons
why I feel like my platform is big the way
that is because of the collaborations and the people taking
chances on me, you know what I'm saying. So that's
another thing I want to say. I appreciate the city
(27:49):
for that.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Yeah, man, I mean Atlanta. You know, I always tell
people like if you if you come to Atlanta with
good intentions and you build, especially in public, you know,
you build something in public and you do good work,
you know what I mean, the city will support you.
There are a lot of people that just come here
and just take you know what I'm saying. But like
for the folks that kind of pour back in, do
good work, build good relationships. The city will one hundred
percent kind of get behind you and support you, and
it seems like that's what you've really kind of done.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
I remember.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
One of the things you also said is like you
also just create content for brands. It's not always on
your page too, right, Like you actually have brands to
hit you up like yo, will you just make this
for us? So it's almost like kind of an agency
side of your business as well, to where they kind
of reach out and you can be like yo, like
this isn't necessarily for the vibes page, but we just
need content, and you still do that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Oh yeah, So it's really working with smaller businesses in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Sometimes I'll get UGC deals from brands.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
But there's a lot of money that I realized in
grad school between business to business versus business and consumer,
like a lot more money, a lot more guaranteed money
as well.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
So one of the things right now is that we're
going through like this transition with a lot of these
businesses where you can make money with a lot of
these smaller businesses by helping them improve in certain certain ways.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
My thing is content, but I use AI for my content.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
So I can take a business's picture, like all their
pictures from their page, and I can make a real
in three seconds something that it would probably take them
two three hours to do. And right now, the biggest
thing that I see is that there's a lot of restaurants,
there's a lot of allowments in Atlanta. There's a lot
of people in Atlanta with businesses, small businesses. You know
what everybody needs right now? Content whether you're a doctor,
(29:26):
a lawyer, a plumber, well that's not really a doctor,
but a doctor with our own practice, a lawyer, a plumber,
a dentist office. Everybody needs contents across all industries. So
the best thing for me was just to see, like, Okay,
if this is a need for you, how can I
put myself in this place to make money from this
doing what I love and helping out all these different industries.
(29:47):
So yeah, it was just finding out that need and
just using what I know to monetize.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
You make a good point, man, I think a lot
of people can call up with me kind of called
B two C, which is business a consumer but man
like business, the business is huge.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
It's different because you got.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Big companies selling to other companies, And that's a whole
different conversation ball game, right, Like you get out there
and get in, Like how do you you just like
reach out to these brands, Like how do you even
find these companies just reach out that they find you?
Like I think again, like a lot of people probably
wonder it's like how do these opportunities come in? And
there's always cold outreach, but again, sometimes you actually got
to hit these people up directly, so like how do
you get those opportunities?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Man?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Honestly, for me, my work is just speaking for itself,
whether it be having good relationships in the marketing industry
on the corporate side, and people are just so willing.
They love my work and they love how I did
things to where they'll just refer me or they'll just
see my content and say, hey, we I like what
you do. Can do the same thing for me and
make it, you know what I'm saying, like my own way.
(30:56):
So a lot of my stuff has either been word
of mouth. A lot of my stuff has been word
of mouth. I actually, yes, a lot of my stuff
is in word of mouth because in the four years
that I've been doing content, I think I've only pitched
five to six times like that, that's all. So a
lot of my stuff has really been word of mouth
or just being referred by other people in the industry.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
And now y'all doing events and stuff too, right, man.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I ain't gonna lie.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
I used to beg and ask people like can I
work with them? I'm going to their events. The videos
are going viral. People are always asking me what am
I doing next, like every time I go to an event.
So the craziest thing is when we started doing these events,
I told them I didn't want to be like the face.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I didn't want to tell people that I was a
part of it.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I just want to add like I was just going,
you know what I'm saying, Like I have this thing
and I don't know if it's just from me growing
up or whatever, but I always felt like people will support.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
You more when they realize it's not your stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yeah, it's real, Like, I feel like people will support
you more when they realize it's not your stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
So we did a r and.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
You most of the festival, and we started like two
years two years ago, yeah, two years ago. And I
literally made a flyer on Canva and I was like, yo,
this is gonna be like, this is gonna sell out.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Watch this.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
And this is at the time where it's like people
are getting more comfortable with going back out, Like you know,
we had to lockdowns and then people were kind of
kind of afraid with the smaller variants of COVID still
going around, But this is at the time where people
are transitioning to going back out and getting used to
being back out in big events and big concerts and
stuff that we used to miss back in twenty twenty
and twenty twenty one. So when we dropped the flyer,
(32:32):
we had everything already organized, the event was paid for.
All we had to do was just drop the flyer
and sell the tickets. I think I dropped the flyer.
We sold like five hundred tickets in that same day.
Next thing, you know, I dropped the real say hey,
I'm there's this a festival coming up. I'm gonna be
going to it. Hope y'all go to it too. Literally
sold out in one post. Oh wow, one hundred thousand
(32:53):
dollars in sales in one post like that was from
my page, and I actually was able to see it
from my page. Once I seen that, I actually seen
how much value I actually have because this is not
only just a festival. This is something that I actually
have equity in. Yeah, like there's three partners in it
when it comes to the festival. But it just made
me realize like how much I was giving away and
(33:13):
begging people to do this same exact thing for them,
and they would still tell me no. So once I
realized that my druma an NBA dropout, only thing I'm
thinking about is Okay, how can I do this? But
times ten? Right, I didn't really want to. I don't
really get comfortable. I used to be in the military.
I'm used to moving around too much, so I don't
really get comfortable with staying in the same place or
being the same person. You have to always elevate. I
always have to move around, or I always have to
(33:35):
do better than I did last year. Like it's just
for them. Five years I was in the military. It
was built in me. So I just thought to myself, Okay,
you just did this once, but how can we do
this times ten? So we did another one two months later.
I posted it twice. It sold out in two posts
and we did two We did two sessions that time.
We did two sessions at that time, So we did
(33:56):
two hundred and forty thousand dollars in sales with two posts.
So it's just like seeing this happen and it's not
really like not even like a money grab. We actually
cared about the event. The first event that happened, the
line was so long. It happened at Underground, and I
think we were like one of the first ones.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
That was doing events to where we brought them back.
But it happened.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
It honestly scared me how much the demand was because
there were people waiting in line for like two hours,
three hours, like as if Drake was performing or something,
you know what I'm saying. So it's just like seeing
that it happened so fast, it was like, yo, we
gotta capitalize. We got to get these processes right. And
I had to learn all over again. I had to
learn something like completely different from what I'm already used to.
(34:36):
I kept telling myself, like, are you crazy, Like you
have this thing where you could just go out, you
have no responsibilities, no overhead, no care, you could just
go out, make your money and come back home no words.
Now you're about to bring on something where it does
make you money. But it also brings you a lot
of headache, It brings you a lot of sleep.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Is nice. When we first at the festival, I threw up.
Everything went right, everything went well.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
But I could not go just because I wanted to
make sure everybody was happy, everybody like if you was
waiting in line long. I felt like crap because I
felt like, that's not what represents me.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
You feel what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
But with me not telling people that it was my festival,
it also helped me be able to work on things
behind the scenes or work with people to work on
things behind the scenes to make things one hundred percent
better without getting any scrutiny. So as I was able
to keep putting it out getting making it better and
better every single year. So in the past two years
we did like a million dollars in sales from the
(35:32):
festival tickets. It happened so fast where we're just coming
out with concepts and just doing out different things, like
I'm still learning till this day. Like right now, we
got two events. We got two events coming up in
different cities. This is the first time we're actually doing
the city. This is my first year doing a tour
with festivals. And we have over ten cities that we're doing.
(35:53):
So it's like in three years, we're going from trying
to take over Atlanta to try to take over the
country and we're learning as going. The events have been
going good, we've been selling out every city that we've
been to. But it's just like how fast everything goes.
On top of keeping up with content, on top of
keeping up with the brand deals, on top of keeping
up with the page, on top of keeping up with things.
(36:13):
I'm challenging myself. Man, it's different right now. Like it's honestly,
I'm at like a different season of my life where
I'm going from being a content creator to learning how
to be a CEO. Yeah, time management, respecting people's time,
understanding understanding just of where to put your focus on
your mind on things that actually matter. Still trying to
(36:35):
make an impact in the community, making the difference in
different ways. Like I'm just it's like a different transition
from me right now. Like it's easy to be a hustle,
it's harder to be a CEO.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Yeah, you know, it's a different level of game, you
know what I mean Again, Like it's like you hit
one level all of a sudden you want to try
something different, and I think a lot of to your point,
a lot of people don't always see the value they
have and the power they have with their voice.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
I know that's all. It's fun, but it's scary.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
It's scary at because and I've been on the same
side of that where yeah, you put something out and
all of a sudden you're watching. You know, I got
the Shopify app installed on my phone, you know what
I'm saying, and so there are things and I posted
it. It goes live all of a sudden, it just it
starts being like, man, this is just a money printer,
you know. But at the same time, though you care.
If you didn't care, it'd be one thing you just
throw out whatever, right, But like when you care, you have.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Real events different. Yeah, I mean, like.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah, like we did the four or four d A
Parade this year, and like I was the same, aybro,
I was terrified, you know, cause I'm sitting here. We
had three thousand people signed up the walk. We had families, kids,
and a lot of people don't realize, like about a
week or two before that parade happened, is when that
incident happened in New Orleans where the guy took the
car and drove down Bourbon Street and hit a bunch
of people. And so literally I'm like, I'm planning the
parade and now all of a sudden, I'm calling companies
(37:46):
like yo, I need insurance for the spectators. And the
whole time, I was like, I just want everybody to
get safely from point A to point B. That's all
I kept on say, I just want you all to
get safely from point A to point Because it was
already we already.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Had too much invested in it.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
We couldn't turn back, we couldn't cancel.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
But like you start seeing stuff like that and you're like, man,
I just want everybody to be safe, That's all it is.
And so to your point, you care because you know
how powerful your voice is. You do, and you know
that if I put this out here, I got to
stand on it, and if it goes left, people gonna
come looking at me, you know what I'm saying. And so,
like I said, a lot of people don't always care.
But you know, again, when you understand, like, what's been
one skill that you've kind of developed through this whole
(38:21):
content creation journey that has kind of surprised you.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
One skill that I always say that has surprised me
learning patience. I have to be patient with myself. I
have to be patient with my time. I have to
be patient with my processes. I have to be patient
with the deals that I work with. I'm in a
position now where I can make money every single day,
but do I have to know I have to be
patient with myself and I've to be patient with how
(38:46):
I roll out things. I have to be patient with messaging,
being patient with marketing. Also just learning that perception is
reality and it sucks, but it's just like being mindful
that I am a bigger platform than what I perceive
in my head and that what I say people resonate
(39:07):
with it and it actually affects them. So I always
want to make sure that I'm mindful and patient with
myself to not do anything that burns anybody, even if
it's like a reco restaurant recommendation. If it's something where
I know it's like a money grab and they're just
trying to pay me to go, I'm not going to go,
you know what I'm saying. So just being patient with
myself to understand, like, you can't do everything. You can't
(39:27):
tell everybody yes, and you can't tell everybody no. So
just being patient and being unders and understanding, like you
really have to use your what's that.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
One word everybody says, it's like.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
When you have to think to be more intentional about intentional,
it's using your people in church say it all the time. Discernment.
Oh yeah, using your discernment. So yeah, using your discernment.
So yeah, that's one skill I would say, using my
discernment a lot more. And understanding, like when things are right,
do it when they're not right and you understand they're
(39:59):
not right. Patient, wait on it, this is not the
right time right now?
Speaker 4 (40:02):
What's still?
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Man?
Speaker 3 (40:03):
So what are your goals now? Like what's your end game? Like,
where do you see this whole thing going?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
My endgame? I really want to make an impact.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
I really want to be like the platform that just
I don't take more than not give, you know what
I'm saying, Like, I really like want to be like
the person to where it's just like if I plant
this seed, it's not just gonna grow one tree, It's
gonna grow like ten to twenty.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Yeah, you know what I mean. So that's my biggest
thing is like what impact am I making?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Now? I made the money? Like what impact are you making?
How are you helping this community? Or like how are
you helping this business or how are you helping this
single family, or how are you helping these teenagers?
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Like I really want to make an impact.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
It may not happen now, but when it happens, IA
be really excited for that. Yeah, the scaling thing, the
hustling getting the money, that's easy, but like making an impact,
making sure that you're doing things where it's just like
it's more intentional and it's actually beneficial for the whole community.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
That's another thing.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
So it's dope. Man. Well, look, man, Jarvis has been good.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Man.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
I hear the authenticity, the intentionality, the humility and your
voice and you know what I mean, You've built something amazing.
So congratulations and all this success before we get out
of here, man, Like, what's one piece of advice you
would just give a consecrator that wants to get started
and wants to do something similar.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Anything you are entertained by is a form of business.
Do not let that go over your head. And you
cannot go anywhere without being consistent. First, the hardest part
about this thing is starting. So as long as you start,
you're gonna be fine. And when you start, don't try
to get one hundred percent of the things right. Only Actually,
I'm not gonna say, don't try to go for one
hundred percent. Try to work for thirty percent. You can't
(41:39):
get a one hundred percent right, Go for thirty. And
once you go for thirty, try to make it seventy.
And once you get to seventy, try to make it
one hundred. The biggest thing is just starting being consistent
and believing in yourself.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Hey, man, I love it well Man again, Jarvers Vibes
and atl congratulations for all the success.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
Man.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
Can't wait to see what y'all do next.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
Y'all killing it with the events, with the content, Bro,
You've built something amazing.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
Man. You should be proud of that. Bro.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
I appreciate it. Man, Thank you for having.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
Me absolutely Man. With that said, that's the pod. Y'all
be out.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
You've been listening to button Nomics and I'm your host,
Brandon Butler. Got comments feedback? Want to be on the show.
Send us an email today at hello at butternomics dot com.
Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by
Ksey Pegram with marketing support from Queen and Nikki.
Speaker 4 (42:20):
Music provided by mister Hanky.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button and never
missed an episode, and be sure to follow us on
all our social platforms at butter dot Atl. Listen to
buttteron nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts
Because he's getting able to talk and resonate with the audience.
It's more of a connection.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It used to be.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Social media used to be like a show off type
of thing, but now social media is getting back to
what it needs to be, being social, talking to the camera,
to that one person, face to face. And that's why
he's growing way faster than me. I avoid the camera
through my edits and my tricks and stuff like that,
but I know that if I started getting into the
camera more where it's more face to face, I will
(00:27):
see more growth and more resonation with my brand.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Everybody've hooked another episode of butter Nomics. I'm the host,
Brandon Butler, founda CEO butter ATL and today got somebody
special in the building. My man, the one and only
mister Jarvis, George Jarvis vives at ATL. How you doing, bro,
I'm going, good man? How you If I was any better,
I'd be you brother.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
You know what I'm saying. That was life treating you.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Everything good man, Everything keep going.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So I'm blessed us to have the to be in
a position and I'm man, so everything good on my end.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It's dope. Man.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Well, look, man, you know you're one of the biggest
content creators here in Atlanta. I'm definitely a fan of
your work. That's why I've reached out in the past.
We've done stuff you put up to the creators, a
color conference that stayed farm, all these other things.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
And man, look, bro, you're killing it on social media.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Dog, you out here killing it, and you're also doing
this thing at a level I don't think a lot
of people are doing that. So that's why I feel
like this'd be a good conversation to have you in on.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Brother.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
No, I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
So for those that don't know, man, who is Jarvis Georgie?
Somebody had to ask you who you are, what you do?
What is vibes and atl How would you describe it?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I'm a Navy veteran turn content creator. I'm an MBA
dropout that just likes to have fun. I like to
make money, and I like to make money with my
friends while I'm doing it. Oh, I also like to
make an impact. So just a regular guy that just
likes to enjoy himself, enjoy the things that he do
and just take things one day at a time.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Oh for sure, man, for sure. Man, So how did
you start your brand, How did you get How did
Vibes and atl get started?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
All?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Right, So the crazy backstory behind this. I graduated from
UCF in twenty twenty. Right before I graduated, was in
the military. After I got out of the military, I
went to UCF, went to school for business. I did
everything right now I was supposed to do slow route.
When I graduated, literally all the businesses shut down. Nobody
(02:12):
was really hiring the biggest jobs you can get in
Orlando when you graduate UCF or Universal, Disney, Lockey Martin
and all of them were reducing staff.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
It wasn't a lot of people hiring during COVID. Right,
this is during COVID.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So when COVID happened, you know, we had the lockdowns,
I had time to really just like sit down and
sit still for a second. One of the big things
I was going off with social media YouTube. You're starting
to see a lot more people make content. It started
to become like a creative boom. So for me, during
those times I was in lockdown, Like I won't say
like those three months, I want to say, I was
trying to look for the next city that would help
(02:47):
me from my financial career. As well as just where
I would love, like I wanted to be in the
city where I would love to be there every single day. Yeah,
like if I wanted to take a vacation, I didn't
need to because I love the city that I'm in.
So my top cities were Washington, DC Atlanta, And what
was my thing really It was just those two Washington,
DC and Atlanta. So when I didn't get into grad
(03:08):
school in Washington, DC, I got into grad school last
minute for Georgia State. And mind you, me, being a veteran,
when I go to grad school since nobody's hiring, that's
my way I can get money with my GI bill,
you know, they'll pay you to go to school.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
That was giving me like a little bit of.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Leeway to, you know, still try to figure things out
while the tragedy's happening with COVID and everybody's not hiring
and stuff. So ended up moving to Atlanta. Got into
Georgia State super last minute, and when I got here,
I just told myself, I was like, man, you were
in the city where it's just like I'm not saying
it's easier to blow up here, but from what I saw,
it was like there's a strategy that you can do
(03:44):
and you can blow up big in Atlanta. So for me,
it was just like, Okay, you've had Instagram for years
on end when you were on lockdown, You've seen people
fifty years old, thirty years old, twenty one years old
make money from social media. You literally saw it in
that time and watch them on a day. What would
happen when you moved to this new city and you
was more intentional with social media? Like, what would happen
(04:05):
like if you ever tried it? That's what I was
thinking to myself, So I actually like just tried it.
So as soon as I moved here, everything wasn't together
for me. I had to get a roommate off Facebook marketplace,
I got enrolled into grad school, I got rolled into
my classes, I got my basis for like just exploring
the city and stuff like that. But once I started
to save money, I was able to get my apartment.
As soon as I got my new apartment, that's when
(04:26):
I started making content and just being consistent with it,
and literally it was like everything that I loved about Atlanta,
Like I literally was trying to figure out like what
my niche would be, and a lot of people said,
your niche is anything that you genuinely just.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Enjoy and you don't really you would never get tired
of it.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
The reason I moved to Atlanta is because when I
get off of work at five o'clock, I got a
lounge I can go to that can make me feel
like I'm at a club on a Tuesday. I got
mallains that I can go to and make me feel
like I'm on a vacation on a random Wednesday. I
got Creaks, I got good Weather, I got four seasons,
and as somebody from Florida, it's something different from me.
It's all a whole different experience. Every season is different
(05:02):
from me because I'm used to being hot, humid, not
a lot going on, not a lot of people look
like me. But Atlanta was just like my playground. So
when I moved here, I just want to just keep filming,
keep recorded, really just documented my experiences. But then it
got to the point where I'm going into grad school,
I'm taking these classes, and I'm starting to see, like
the the ways I can make money from it. So
(05:25):
one of the craziest things that happened to me was
I got hit up by his restaurant and this is
like my first time. They were like, yo, we really
love your videos. We see what you're doing. I think
I'm about like two months in being consistent. They're like,
we want to pay you to go to come here
and get some food. I'm like, wait, y'all want to
pay me to get some food? Like y'all don't want
to just y'all. Y'all gonna give me food and then
you're gonna pay me as well. I think at the
(05:46):
time it was like seventy five dollars. So I'm like, man,
I'm about to skip class. Hey, y'all fin to go.
So I get there, and mind you, I'm still new.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I don't really know everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
There's other creators that are there in the parking lot,
and so they were like, oh, we seen your page.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
We love it page, we love what you do.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
And I'm like, oh wow, like dang, like y'all really
are noticing me, Like my page is really getting traction.
So when this happens, they're like, oh, you're here for
a collab too. I'm like, what do you mean. They're like, oh,
like they paid us to come here. I was like,
well for real, I was like, man, this is crazy.
I never even knew this was like a thing, mind you,
first time being on the internet, first time seeing like
how you can monetize from it. Yeah, when they told
(06:22):
me that they got paid, I was like, I was
being nosy. I was like, how much did y'all actually
get paid? They told me they got paid like three
hundred dollars to five hundred dollars. Mind you, I got
paid seventy five dollars. I'm happy as I don't know
what because they're finna give me free food and they're paying.
But once I realized that there was a bigger opportunity
and people are getting paid more to do the same
things that I was doing, it made me start to realize, Okay,
(06:42):
how can I do what I'm doing now, but scale
on a bigger level? What is the biggest level? Mindjum
in grad school at the time too. So it's just
like the biggest quote I ever got while on Lockdown,
before I even became a creator, was this one thing,
and it was from this dude named Rashad Balau. Anything
that you were entertained by is a form of business.
So when I got to Atlanta, I always kept that
(07:03):
mindset of there's a lot of people out here that's
making money doing what they love to do, like literally
point bank period. They're not hating it. They literally get
to wake up and go do what they love to do.
You don't really know who they are. You're not gonna
run into them. But that could also be you because
you're in that same city. You have the same resource,
and you have the same like, you have the same
playing field. The Internet is open to anybody. It's a
(07:25):
low barrier entry market. It's a low barrier entry thing
that you can do. So once I just started learning
the ecosystems a bit of having a niche the things
that you can monetize from, I kind of started going
back to my NBA classes and talking to my professors
about it. We end up having a project where they
where we had to start like a whole business from scratch,
(07:46):
and you have to make like a business plan, forecast everything,
and from that one time getting paid from going to
eat some wings, I made like a business plan and forecast. Okay,
let's say I've bumped my rate to three hundred dollars
and I got paid from different brands or I sold
other restaurants. Content how much money could I make in
a month. How much money if I kept this consistent
(08:07):
and I only had three new customers a week, how
much can I make in two months, three months? And
when I started seeing the numbers, I started looking at everything.
I was like, man, I can make like a lot
of money doing this. And then I started looking on
YouTube and learning like Okay, you can get brand deals
and you can do this or you can do that.
So yeah, I answer your question.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Man.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Everything kind of happened fast, but the first two months
out of being consistent, that's when everything started opening up.
But the biggest thing that helped me was going to
grad school making that business plan and literally actually like
writing it down and like seeing the forecast and the projections.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Like yeah, I would say grad school really opened up
everything from me. Man. It made me realize like how
big it can go do man?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
When you got started, Like like how large was your
platform when you've got that first deal. I think a
lot of people feel like you have to have millions
of followers, right, like even with that first brand deal,
Like do you remember how large y'all were back then?
Speaker 1 (08:58):
I want to say I probably had ten to twelve
okay followers at the time on TikTok. I didn't really
have a lot of followers on Instagram. I was really
more focused on TikTok at the time. And mind you,
I had started my page from zero followers just because
I wanted to feel comfortable posting, and I felt more
comfortable when I had nobody following me or people I felt.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Like didn't know me, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
As a male, I feel like a lot of us
were I'm not going to say we camera shot, but
a lot of us don't care to be in front
of the camera like that, you know what I'm saying.
So that was just my way of getting out my
comfort zone and being able to manage putting out content
because I didn't feel like people who knew me would
judge me because I'm talking to a whole bunch of
random people that I'll never meet, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
So, how do you look at the difference between TikTok
and instagrams. I mean, you have large platforms on both
of them, Like, do you see a difference or do
you kind of just feel like you use the same
content on both platforms and they'll be successful.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
So everything changes.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Man.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
At first, TikTok was about exposure it was about with
nowadays everything is about death. People want to stick to you,
they want to relate to you, they want to grow
with you. Back in the day, we're not even back
in the dawn tripping in twenty twenty, it was about
with you post something nine times out of tendance, it's
going to go viral just because now it's more so like,
(10:09):
where's the value coming from this video? And that's how
this video is going to get shared. At first, TikTok
was that place you can go to where you can
put something out and somebody's gonna feel it and it's
gonna get exposure.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Instagram wasn't like that.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Now Instagram is acting like TikTok to where it gives
you that mass exposure as well, and it's performing sometimes
better than TikTok, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So it changes, it really changes. Right now. I favor
None of the companies are listening to this, but I.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Favor TikTok over Instagram only because it's more organic, I
feel like, and you kind of can find like your
people easier on TikTok versus Instagram, and people can find
you easier on TikTok versus Instagram.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I feel like, yeah, now, how did you like how
did you like find your voice? Because again, like you
had to probably try out like different kinds of content,
Like how did you feel even when you knew your niche?
You want to kind of explain it spor Atlanta because
like one thing I to your point of like not
necessarily want to be on camera all the time. Like
one thing I really like about your stuff too, is
it kind of comes like a first person POV perspective,
But like did you grow into that or did you
(11:11):
goin to start like that?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Like how did you kind of get to that?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Okay, this is how I'm gonna kind of you know,
this time, I'm going to appear and create my content.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Okay, So when I first started making content, I was
doing like the day of my life content. You're coming
me to school, coming me to grad school, coming to
me work in the city, and stuff like that. In
mys I was like the new hype Williams, I'm making
a music video of my life, except for I don't
have to make my own music. I could use other
people music and I could make my own videos that's
tailored to me my regular life and if nobody feel
(11:39):
it that's cool.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I feel it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
But then another thing started happening when my friends started
wanting to come and visit me in Atlanta. Some things
that I really wanted to do was they would always
be like, oh, where should I go?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Bro?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Like you be out everywhere. I'd be like, Bro, you
know what, look at my page. I made a video
about every place and what the specials that they got.
Because my thing was happy hours. My thing still is
happy hours. At five o'clock, seven o'clock, I'm calling my
friends up. Y'all off work, come on, let's go link
up in the city. So my thing was I was
making videos from my friends just to have a reference
(12:10):
to form when they come to Atlanta. Whether you come
two months from now, three months from now, six months
from now, these are all the spots. Don't call me
to ask no questions, just let me know which one
you want to go to and I'll meet you there.
But I didn't know that solving that problem for my
friends made it me solving a problem for other people
in the city.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Whether they're new here, they've.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Been living here, they just don't have the urge to
figure out where to go. You know what I'm saying,
Like I solved like a bigger problem than I thought
it actually was. And you know, to create a business,
the first thing you got to do is figure out
how does that business solve a problem?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
So no, it's dope, man. Now when it comes to
creating content, Like what's your process? Because, like I said,
I see you shoot your stuff yourself, Like, like what's that?
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Like you go in, you shoot it. Do you have
like you create shot lists? Again?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Like, and I asked this because I know there's a
lot of people that probably want to do content creation.
They want to kind of figure out like how you
do this stuff? So again, like do you have a
playbook in you here? Like all right, I'm gonna ahead
and do this thing. Is just like organic and you
just like shoot everything and then figure it out later,
Like how'd you kind of create your process to create content?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I look at my content as like a PowerPoint. You
got a beginning, you gotta middle, and you gotta end.
So like let's say, if I'm going out of town
or if I want to go out of town, it
all depends on what I want at the time. If
I want to work with like a certain brand, like
for me. My thing is travel. I love to travel,
Don't get me wrong. I love the food in Atlanta.
I love like making events and doing all these other
(13:29):
different things. But if I want to attract like a
certain brand, it's a bait and switch. To get that
brand to come in, you have to put the content
out to get it. So for me, like let's say
I'm traveling, I'll go to a hotel in another city.
I'll scale the hotel just to see what I like,
see what catches my eye, and then I'll just break
it down on some Okay, what would be the beginning
of the video. Okay, let's capture the entrance, Let's capture
(13:51):
the check in process, Let's capture with the hotel process.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
It's like, what is the middle of the video.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
The middle of the video is me actually using the hotel,
maybe unpacking my things, maybe going down to getting some food,
going to get a drink, like just the main things
you want to see. What does the gym look like?
The pool of like the amenities. Okay, the end of
the video, how did you utilize the hotel? How can
this work with the brand? Or how can you portray
yourself to where people can see themselves marketing through you.
(14:17):
So that's the way I do different things. If I
want to work with like a certain restaurant or a
type of restaurant niche, I would just put out that
content heavy to where they would want to come back
and work with me. A lot of times is bait
and switch. Like a lot of people think that I
probably get paid from a lot of restaurants and stuff.
I'll just do pop ups and I'll pay my own money.
I won't even tell people I'm my influence and I'll
just go do it. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
(14:39):
But I know with me, just go doing that is
going to bait in a brand, or it's going to
bait in an actual brand that's going to be worth
trying to pay me my rate and stuff like that,
you know. So it really just all depends on how
I want to go into it. If I'm not trying
to do a bait and switch, then I'm just gonna
just do it organically just so people can feel me
and feel my content in death. But at the same time,
it's going to be something with a beginning, a middle
(15:00):
in the end, and I gotta add value.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Whether the value is.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Breaking down where the place is at where you can
park the specials that they have, or the value is
telling people about a certain hotel and why you should
visit or the best time to visit. You always got
to add value, and you always gott to have a
structure where it's a beginning, a middle, and an end.
And I always try to make sure I keep attention spanned.
In mind, a video can't be thirty seconds long if
(15:24):
you don't have a story to tell them for thirty seconds.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
So it's all different scenarios, but the biggest thing I'll
say is keep it like a power point. You got
a beginning, you got a middle, you gotta end. You
got pictures, you got text you got different things you
can put in there. But as long as you get
that storyline right, you good.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
A friend of mine, Maddie James, talks about kind of
a similar concept, right like, in order to get brand
deals and certain stuff, you have to put out the
content first.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
And that attracts And I.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Think a lot of people get that flip flop right.
They think you just sit back and wait. But to
your point, if you want to work with restaurants, go
do restaurant content, Go shoot it so that they know
what they know that when they're searching they see it's like,
oh okay, this guy does it, like I can tap in.
You want to do travel stuff, go travel like capture
that content and then put it back out there and
again that's how you attract those brands.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
That's really a smart way to kind of go about
doing it. Like when you shoot all this stuff, Like
what tools do you use? Do you do all the editing?
Like are you using like tools?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Like again, like I see you got your Osmo Pro
you know what I'm saying, your Pocket three? Like you know,
are you using AI, chat, CHIPTD LP? You write scripts?
Like which kind of you your stack of tools you
used when you do stuff?
Speaker 1 (16:39):
All right, So this is the funniest thing in the world.
I actually have every tool you can think of, and
I don't use none of them. I don't use I
barely use my Ozma Pocket three. I probably got one
YouTube video and I've had this for like a year.
I have the Sony A seven R five and all
the fancy cameras. I use my cell phone for the
most part. I'm probably gonna use my cell phone even
(17:01):
for like editing and stuff. I have the MacBook, I
have the Mini Mac Pro and the desktop set up.
I edit on my cell phone still only because I'm
so used to it and it's just so much easier
in the I don't want to say, like maybe a
year ago, two years ago, all the fancy tricks and
the camera qualities, all that stuff used to matter. But
now that I'm starting to realize like what people actually
(17:22):
care for, I realize that you don't really need all
the fancy camera tricks.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
You don't even need the fanciest camera. What is your.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Story, how are you resonating, or how you add in value?
Those are the biggest things that matter. The camera really
doesn't matter. Even like my editing tricks and stuff, it
doesn't matter. And I'll give you like a perfect example.
There's food bloggers out here that they don't do all
the fancy editing or anything, but they just keep the
camera still and they talk to the camera. They grow
faster than me, They grow faster than me and followers,
(17:49):
and they also grow faster than me and resonating with people.
Like for instance, I name one food blogger like in Atlanta,
people like they literally was smiling, like yo, that's my guy.
No fancy camera tricks, no edit, Just get in front
of the camera with his cell phone, talk, tell you
what it is, get off nothing else. You ever heard
a food stalker, Yeah, that's me, boy. But that's the
perfect example. I want to say. Me and food Start
(18:11):
are kind of made content around the same time. But
I notice over the years his page grows way more
rapidly and more fast than mine. Mind you, I do
all the camera tricks, the edits, the flips, the voiceovers
and everything. He just does steal shots, get in front
of the camera and talk. You understand why because he's
getting able to talk and resonate with the audience. It's
(18:32):
more of a connection. It used to be social media
used to be like a show off type of thing,
but now social media is getting back to what it
needs to be, being social, talking to the camera, to
that one person, face to face. And that's why he's
growing way faster than me. I avoid the camera through
my edits and my tricks and stuff like that, but
(18:52):
I know that if I started getting into the camera
more whereas more face to face, I will see more
growth and more resonation with my brand. It's just hard
to get out when you know you get comfortable with
your ways on how you do things.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
No, I understand that. You know.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
One thing I always talk about, too mean, even when
we built button our platform is there's always like moments
I see, there's like infliction points, like what were some
of the specific videos or specific moments, So it's like
you did a thing and all of a sudden, like
you actually saw like wow, like I did this and
like this massive growth happened or something.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Those moments like jump out.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
For me, yeah, or was it kind of just like
a slow stream over time.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Honestly, I'm not gonna lie man Like for me, I
had like this relentless tenacity of I'm gonna make this work.
It wasn't really like a like I had a moment
like oh my god, I can't believe this worked out,
like I honestly, like I was so intentional with this,
Like literally, mine was straight strategy.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Honestly, I have to put out good content. But it's
just like once I learned how to make good content,
it was all about being consistent.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
The biggest thing I got from this was it doesn't
matter what influence were IVE been and I went to.
It doesn't matter what party I went to or who
hands I shook. It doesn't matter who knows those who
are who I know like that does now they don't
get me wrong, But the basis of it all is
sitting my tail down in the house and getting that
content out consistently and showing up, if not every day,
(20:11):
three times a week, four times a week for two
months straight, three months straight, four a year straight.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
That's the basis of this whole thing.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
If you don't get that out, don't expect a lot
of good things to come to you. Yeah, like you
may get like one or two rare occasions where somebody
meets you they like your page and you're connected. But
for the most part, the biggest thing out is getting
in front of that camera or getting that camera out,
getting that content edited and putting it out to the world.
That's what brought me the biggest opportunities.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
How'd you figure out how to start charging these brands? Again,
you said you noticed that the first one page you
seventy five, You heard these people getting three to five hundred.
Now you're doing bigger deals. Like, how did you figure out?
Was it just like learning?
Speaker 2 (20:46):
You know, as you you got to make friends and
talk like that's the biggest thing.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
You can't just go into an industry thinking you know everything,
because you're never going to know everything. Everything is changing.
Some people in New York is probably doing things differently
in Atlanta, which they are. I went on a brand
trip with some creators to where.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Did we go?
Speaker 1 (21:04):
We went to Saint Kitts, Saint Kitts and Nevi's, and
I had a creator. She was from New York. She
has I want to say, fifty thousand to one hundred
thousand followers less than me, but on a consistent level,
she's making seven thousand to ten thousand dollars a month.
She's knocking deals out while she's literally on vacation. You
get what I'm saying. So it's just like I had
(21:25):
to learn to just talk to other creators and just
really just breaking that barrier. This is where we have
like a trust, we're open how communication, Like, how was
it for you when you first started? How much were
you getting when you first started? How do you feel
about charging this or how do you feel about this
deal structure? So I really learned from just communicating with
other creators that's like the best way. And then when
you kind of start noticing how the deals are structured
(21:47):
and you kind of know the ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
That's when you.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Kind of know what is your value and what is
your worth because end of the day, it's really what
you choose to charge, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
But my biggest thing was just talking to.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Other creators and where they went wrong, understanding like where
you can charge, where you can't charge things that you
used to accept for free and just go work to
because it's good for your portfolio. Everything is variable, man,
But I would say just networking and talking to the
other other creators was like the biggest thing for me man.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
And I mean again, like for the folks that don't know,
like you do this full time, Like this is your job,
Like how did you make that transition?
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Like at what point were you? Like you know what,
Like I'm good.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I could do this and I could take care of
my stuff, I could pay these bills and I could
really focus on this full time, Like when did that happen?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
So I had two brands that hit me up early on,
and both of the brands were for like five thousand
plus and it was in the same week, and so
that gave me like a cushion to pay my bills,
you know for because at the time I was just
getting a new a permenad at the three months free. Yeah,
so you know, when I had that cushion to say
that three months of rent, I was like, Okay, now
I got this savings, I possibly can start transitioning to
(22:55):
full time, but I just want to make sure I
had this certain numbers saved up. When those two hit
me up and they both paid five thousand, that's when
I able to have that cushion to say, you know what,
now I have the time to just say, you know,
I'm gonna just take that leaf and take a full time.
When I took it full time, I was working for
the GSA at the time, General Service Administration with the government,
and I was kind of like in this training phase
(23:16):
of where when I started working, there was no way
I was going to be able to keep up with
content as well as work this job because I was
already going to grad school, trying to finish grad school,
working for the GSA, and out every other day trying
to grow this page. And you know what I'm saying,
editing all those stuff. So at the time I'm not sleeping,
I'm probably getting two three hours of sleep. So when
it got to the point where I'm getting collapsed, that's
(23:38):
paying me two to three times more than when I'm
getting paid in the GSA in the same month, it
was Okay, let's see what's gonna happen. I didn't think
it through. I was just like, Okay, let's just see
what happens. The worst case, the worst thing that can happen.
I can just go back to the GSA. Yeah, and
go back into this government job. But once I've seen
that it worked and it keeps working, it was no
(23:58):
turning back.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
And say it was all downhill from there, Like it
was like I'm locked in. One of the things you
also talked about when we were kind of talking offline
was you know, reading is a big thing and creating
goals and all that stuff, Like how does that work
into your process?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
So that's another thing too that happened to it during COVID.
That was like my first time I really like had
no choice but to sit still. It was kind of
like a dark place for me too, because it was
like a lot of uncertainty, like I didn't really understand
like the COVID situation with everybody like shutting down, and
like I literally felt to myself, like, bro, you did
everything right, and now you get to the point where
(24:33):
it's just like you have no options. I was kind
of mad at myself for even being in that situation.
So like, when everything happened, I just wanted to make
sure I took full advantage of everything that I was
taking place. Yeah, I just went after everything relentlessly. But
all that mindset happened when I started reading during lockdown.
(24:53):
I started reading books more. I started getting like a
deeper understanding of like how life actually works. But mental
health was like the biggest thing for me. Like I
started meditating for the first time during COVID. I read
this book. It was called Becoming Supernatural. It kind of
teaches you why you get mad, Like the difference of like,
right now, we're chilling right like we would do, but
(25:14):
if somebody come into the room and hit you in
the face or something, your whole body reacts differently. So
it kind of taught me on the basis of meditating
staying calm. It also taught me how to write things
down for what you genuinely would want, not really like
the materialistic things, but also with just how you want
to feel, So like for my job and I wrote
this down it was for my dream job. It was like,
(25:37):
what was my elevated emotions. I wanted to feel. I
wanted to be happy. I wanted to be in love
with life. I wanted to be traveling. I wanted to
be able to travel anywhere I wanted to travel in
the world. I wanted to feel like life was the vacation.
I didn't need to take vacation like I wanted to
feel differently, and so in order to do it, I
had to actually act like it already happened, you know
what I mean. So even when all the bad stuff
(25:58):
was going on, I came into Atlanta with a new
mentality of like, yo, you're in like everything that you
prayed for. And I felt like that kind of helped
my creative journey as well, because it's just like I
already felt like I was already here, Like I don't
feel no different than when I felt when I first
moved here.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
I already felt.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Like like life is just like that vacation where you
just don't need like everything, like everything is fun, everything
is where you want, Like you're exactly where you need
to be. Like That's just how I felt when I
came into it, and I felt like reading was like
the big foundation for building that in me.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
I mean, I think again, a lot of people, you know, Atlanta,
we always say like Atlanta's not a real place, and
you know, I think a lot of people, especially when
you kind of grow up here, you from here, you
just think this is normal. But to your point, like
I said, when you come in from outside and you
see the opportunities, a lot of people just don't even
notice because they don't see that perspective, right, I think
that's what happened, is right. You came here from a
different place, a different perspective, and you're like, wait a minute,
(26:53):
all this is out here, I can tap into all
this stuff, and you know where the average like Atlan
as we call it, we just see it like, oh yeah,
that's just normal.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
That's just it.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
You know.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
It seems like you were like leaned in and saw
those opportunities. Other people just didn't notice and just missed
all the way out.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
And not even just that. It's something about this city
where like people just are so down to.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Work with you.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
They don't they won't know anything about you, but they'll
see some potential in you and they literally would just say,
you know what, like I see what you do. Let
me let's just work together, because us working together is
better than.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Working the part.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying, Like, I see that
like a lot in a lot of different industries in Atlanta,
and it's contagious.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Man. Like it's beautiful out here.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Like you literally can meet somebody you don't know them
from a can of paint, but like they just see
something in you and believe in you, and you can
turn it into something big. A lot of the reasons
why I feel like my platform is big the way
that is because of the collaborations and the people taking
chances on me, you know what I'm saying. So that's
another thing I want to say. I appreciate the city
(27:49):
for that.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Yeah, man, I mean Atlanta. You know, I always tell
people like if you if you come to Atlanta with
good intentions and you build, especially in public, you know,
you build something in public and you do good work,
you know what I mean, the city will support you.
There are a lot of people that just come here
and just take you know what I'm saying. But like
for the folks that kind of pour back in, do
good work, build good relationships. The city will one hundred
percent kind of get behind you and support you, and
it seems like that's what you've really kind of done.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
I remember.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
One of the things you also said is like you
also just create content for brands. It's not always on
your page too, right, Like you actually have brands to
hit you up like yo, will you just make this
for us? So it's almost like kind of an agency
side of your business as well, to where they kind
of reach out and you can be like yo, like
this isn't necessarily for the vibes page, but we just
need content, and you still do that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Oh yeah, So it's really working with smaller businesses in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Sometimes I'll get UGC deals from brands.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
But there's a lot of money that I realized in
grad school between business to business versus business and consumer,
like a lot more money, a lot more guaranteed money
as well.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
So one of the things right now is that we're
going through like this transition with a lot of these
businesses where you can make money with a lot of
these smaller businesses by helping them improve in certain certain ways.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
My thing is content, but I use AI for my content.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
So I can take a business's picture, like all their
pictures from their page, and I can make a real
in three seconds something that it would probably take them
two three hours to do. And right now, the biggest
thing that I see is that there's a lot of restaurants,
there's a lot of allowments in Atlanta. There's a lot
of people in Atlanta with businesses, small businesses. You know
what everybody needs right now? Content whether you're a doctor,
(29:26):
a lawyer, a plumber, well that's not really a doctor,
but a doctor with our own practice, a lawyer, a plumber,
a dentist office. Everybody needs contents across all industries. So
the best thing for me was just to see, like, Okay,
if this is a need for you, how can I
put myself in this place to make money from this
doing what I love and helping out all these different industries.
(29:47):
So yeah, it was just finding out that need and
just using what I know to monetize.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
You make a good point, man, I think a lot
of people can call up with me kind of called
B two C, which is business a consumer but man
like business, the business is huge.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
It's different because you got.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Big companies selling to other companies, And that's a whole
different conversation ball game, right, Like you get out there
and get in, Like how do you you just like
reach out to these brands, Like how do you even
find these companies just reach out that they find you?
Like I think again, like a lot of people probably
wonder it's like how do these opportunities come in? And
there's always cold outreach, but again, sometimes you actually got
to hit these people up directly, so like how do
you get those opportunities?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Man?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Honestly, for me, my work is just speaking for itself,
whether it be having good relationships in the marketing industry
on the corporate side, and people are just so willing.
They love my work and they love how I did
things to where they'll just refer me or they'll just
see my content and say, hey, we I like what
you do. Can do the same thing for me and
make it, you know what I'm saying, like my own way.
(30:56):
So a lot of my stuff has either been word
of mouth. A lot of my stuff has been word
of mouth. I actually, yes, a lot of my stuff
is in word of mouth because in the four years
that I've been doing content, I think I've only pitched
five to six times like that, that's all. So a
lot of my stuff has really been word of mouth
or just being referred by other people in the industry.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
And now y'all doing events and stuff too, right, man.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I ain't gonna lie.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
I used to beg and ask people like can I
work with them? I'm going to their events. The videos
are going viral. People are always asking me what am
I doing next, like every time I go to an event.
So the craziest thing is when we started doing these events,
I told them I didn't want to be like the face.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I didn't want to tell people that I was a
part of it.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I just want to add like I was just going,
you know what I'm saying, Like I have this thing
and I don't know if it's just from me growing
up or whatever, but I always felt like people will support.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
You more when they realize it's not your stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yeah, it's real, Like, I feel like people will support
you more when they realize it's not your stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
So we did a r and.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
You most of the festival, and we started like two
years two years ago, yeah, two years ago. And I
literally made a flyer on Canva and I was like, yo,
this is gonna be like, this is gonna sell out.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Watch this.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
And this is at the time where it's like people
are getting more comfortable with going back out, Like you know,
we had to lockdowns and then people were kind of
kind of afraid with the smaller variants of COVID still
going around, But this is at the time where people
are transitioning to going back out and getting used to
being back out in big events and big concerts and
stuff that we used to miss back in twenty twenty
and twenty twenty one. So when we dropped the flyer,
(32:32):
we had everything already organized, the event was paid for.
All we had to do was just drop the flyer
and sell the tickets. I think I dropped the flyer.
We sold like five hundred tickets in that same day.
Next thing, you know, I dropped the real say hey,
I'm there's this a festival coming up. I'm gonna be
going to it. Hope y'all go to it too. Literally
sold out in one post. Oh wow, one hundred thousand
(32:53):
dollars in sales in one post like that was from
my page, and I actually was able to see it
from my page. Once I seen that, I actually seen
how much value I actually have because this is not
only just a festival. This is something that I actually
have equity in. Yeah, like there's three partners in it
when it comes to the festival. But it just made
me realize like how much I was giving away and
(33:13):
begging people to do this same exact thing for them,
and they would still tell me no. So once I
realized that my druma an NBA dropout, only thing I'm
thinking about is Okay, how can I do this? But
times ten? Right, I didn't really want to. I don't
really get comfortable. I used to be in the military.
I'm used to moving around too much, so I don't
really get comfortable with staying in the same place or
being the same person. You have to always elevate. I
always have to move around, or I always have to
(33:35):
do better than I did last year. Like it's just
for them. Five years I was in the military. It
was built in me. So I just thought to myself, Okay,
you just did this once, but how can we do
this times ten? So we did another one two months later.
I posted it twice. It sold out in two posts
and we did two We did two sessions that time.
We did two sessions at that time, So we did
(33:56):
two hundred and forty thousand dollars in sales with two posts.
So it's just like seeing this happen and it's not
really like not even like a money grab. We actually
cared about the event. The first event that happened, the
line was so long. It happened at Underground, and I
think we were like one of the first ones.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
That was doing events to where we brought them back.
But it happened.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
It honestly scared me how much the demand was because
there were people waiting in line for like two hours,
three hours, like as if Drake was performing or something,
you know what I'm saying. So it's just like seeing
that it happened so fast, it was like, yo, we
gotta capitalize. We got to get these processes right. And
I had to learn all over again. I had to
learn something like completely different from what I'm already used to.
(34:36):
I kept telling myself, like, are you crazy, Like you
have this thing where you could just go out, you
have no responsibilities, no overhead, no care, you could just
go out, make your money and come back home no words.
Now you're about to bring on something where it does
make you money. But it also brings you a lot
of headache, It brings you a lot of sleep.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Is nice. When we first at the festival, I threw up.
Everything went right, everything went well.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
But I could not go just because I wanted to
make sure everybody was happy, everybody like if you was
waiting in line long. I felt like crap because I
felt like, that's not what represents me.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
You feel what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
But with me not telling people that it was my festival,
it also helped me be able to work on things
behind the scenes or work with people to work on
things behind the scenes to make things one hundred percent
better without getting any scrutiny. So as I was able
to keep putting it out getting making it better and
better every single year. So in the past two years
we did like a million dollars in sales from the
(35:32):
festival tickets. It happened so fast where we're just coming
out with concepts and just doing out different things, like
I'm still learning till this day. Like right now, we
got two events. We got two events coming up in
different cities. This is the first time we're actually doing
the city. This is my first year doing a tour
with festivals. And we have over ten cities that we're doing.
(35:53):
So it's like in three years, we're going from trying
to take over Atlanta to try to take over the
country and we're learning as going. The events have been
going good, we've been selling out every city that we've
been to. But it's just like how fast everything goes.
On top of keeping up with content, on top of
keeping up with the brand deals, on top of keeping
up with the page, on top of keeping up with things.
(36:13):
I'm challenging myself. Man, it's different right now. Like it's honestly,
I'm at like a different season of my life where
I'm going from being a content creator to learning how
to be a CEO. Yeah, time management, respecting people's time,
understanding understanding just of where to put your focus on
your mind on things that actually matter. Still trying to
(36:35):
make an impact in the community, making the difference in
different ways. Like I'm just it's like a different transition
from me right now. Like it's easy to be a hustle,
it's harder to be a CEO.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Yeah, you know, it's a different level of game, you
know what I mean Again, Like it's like you hit
one level all of a sudden you want to try
something different, and I think a lot of to your point,
a lot of people don't always see the value they
have and the power they have with their voice.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
I know that's all. It's fun, but it's scary.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
It's scary at because and I've been on the same
side of that where yeah, you put something out and
all of a sudden you're watching. You know, I got
the Shopify app installed on my phone, you know what
I'm saying, and so there are things and I posted
it. It goes live all of a sudden, it just it
starts being like, man, this is just a money printer,
you know. But at the same time, though you care.
If you didn't care, it'd be one thing you just
throw out whatever, right, But like when you care, you have.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Real events different. Yeah, I mean, like.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah, like we did the four or four d A
Parade this year, and like I was the same, aybro,
I was terrified, you know, cause I'm sitting here. We
had three thousand people signed up the walk. We had families, kids,
and a lot of people don't realize, like about a
week or two before that parade happened, is when that
incident happened in New Orleans where the guy took the
car and drove down Bourbon Street and hit a bunch
of people. And so literally I'm like, I'm planning the
parade and now all of a sudden, I'm calling companies
(37:46):
like yo, I need insurance for the spectators. And the
whole time, I was like, I just want everybody to
get safely from point A to point B. That's all
I kept on say, I just want you all to
get safely from point A to point Because it was
already we already.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Had too much invested in it.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
We couldn't turn back, we couldn't cancel.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
But like you start seeing stuff like that and you're like, man,
I just want everybody to be safe, That's all it is.
And so to your point, you care because you know
how powerful your voice is. You do, and you know
that if I put this out here, I got to
stand on it, and if it goes left, people gonna
come looking at me, you know what I'm saying. And so,
like I said, a lot of people don't always care.
But you know, again, when you understand, like, what's been
one skill that you've kind of developed through this whole
(38:21):
content creation journey that has kind of surprised you.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
One skill that I always say that has surprised me
learning patience. I have to be patient with myself. I
have to be patient with my time. I have to
be patient with my processes. I have to be patient
with the deals that I work with. I'm in a
position now where I can make money every single day,
but do I have to know I have to be
patient with myself and I've to be patient with how
(38:46):
I roll out things. I have to be patient with messaging,
being patient with marketing. Also just learning that perception is
reality and it sucks, but it's just like being mindful
that I am a bigger platform than what I perceive
in my head and that what I say people resonate
(39:07):
with it and it actually affects them. So I always
want to make sure that I'm mindful and patient with
myself to not do anything that burns anybody, even if
it's like a reco restaurant recommendation. If it's something where
I know it's like a money grab and they're just
trying to pay me to go, I'm not going to go,
you know what I'm saying. So just being patient with
myself to understand, like, you can't do everything. You can't
(39:27):
tell everybody yes, and you can't tell everybody no. So
just being patient and being unders and understanding, like you
really have to use your what's that.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
One word everybody says, it's like.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
When you have to think to be more intentional about intentional,
it's using your people in church say it all the time. Discernment.
Oh yeah, using your discernment. So yeah, using your discernment.
So yeah, that's one skill I would say, using my
discernment a lot more. And understanding, like when things are right,
do it when they're not right and you understand they're
(39:59):
not right. Patient, wait on it, this is not the
right time right now?
Speaker 4 (40:02):
What's still?
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Man?
Speaker 3 (40:03):
So what are your goals now? Like what's your end game? Like,
where do you see this whole thing going?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
My endgame? I really want to make an impact.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
I really want to be like the platform that just
I don't take more than not give, you know what
I'm saying, Like, I really like want to be like
the person to where it's just like if I plant
this seed, it's not just gonna grow one tree, It's
gonna grow like ten to twenty.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Yeah, you know what I mean. So that's my biggest
thing is like what impact am I making?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Now? I made the money? Like what impact are you making?
How are you helping this community? Or like how are
you helping this business or how are you helping this
single family, or how are you helping these teenagers?
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Like I really want to make an impact.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
It may not happen now, but when it happens, IA
be really excited for that. Yeah, the scaling thing, the
hustling getting the money, that's easy, but like making an impact,
making sure that you're doing things where it's just like
it's more intentional and it's actually beneficial for the whole community.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
That's another thing.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
So it's dope. Man. Well, look, man, Jarvis has been good.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Man.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
I hear the authenticity, the intentionality, the humility and your
voice and you know what I mean, You've built something amazing.
So congratulations and all this success before we get out
of here, man, Like, what's one piece of advice you
would just give a consecrator that wants to get started
and wants to do something similar.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Anything you are entertained by is a form of business.
Do not let that go over your head. And you
cannot go anywhere without being consistent. First, the hardest part
about this thing is starting. So as long as you start,
you're gonna be fine. And when you start, don't try
to get one hundred percent of the things right. Only Actually,
I'm not gonna say, don't try to go for one
hundred percent. Try to work for thirty percent. You can't
(41:39):
get a one hundred percent right, Go for thirty. And
once you go for thirty, try to make it seventy.
And once you get to seventy, try to make it
one hundred. The biggest thing is just starting being consistent
and believing in yourself.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Hey, man, I love it well Man again, Jarvers Vibes
and atl congratulations for all the success.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
Man.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
Can't wait to see what y'all do next.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
Y'all killing it with the events, with the content, Bro,
You've built something amazing.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
Man. You should be proud of that. Bro.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
I appreciate it. Man, Thank you for having.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
Me absolutely Man. With that said, that's the pod. Y'all
be out.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
You've been listening to button Nomics and I'm your host,
Brandon Butler. Got comments feedback? Want to be on the show.
Send us an email today at hello at butternomics dot com.
Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by
Ksey Pegram with marketing support from Queen and Nikki.
Speaker 4 (42:20):
Music provided by mister Hanky.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button and never
missed an episode, and be sure to follow us on
all our social platforms at butter dot Atl. Listen to
buttteron nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts
Host
Brandon Butler
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