August 21, 2025 ⢠53 mins
On this episode of Butternomics, our host, Brandon Butler, sits down with media powerhouse Dawn Montgomery to discuss how she's mastered the elusive art of going viral. Dawn shares her journey from modeling to journalism, revealing the intentional strategies and authenticity behind her most talked-about moments. From valuing her work and pivoting careers to leveraging cultural insights, Dawn breaks down exactly what it takes to turn buzz into lasting business success.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
When people don't want to pivot, they find themselves in
very low places. So then you start making certain decisions
that would not align with anything that you're trying to
do in the future. Right Also, mentally, you will find
yourself in some of the lowest places that if you
had just made an adjustment, or if you had to
just made a pivot, or if you had to just
(00:21):
rebrand it, or if you had to just gave it up,
like just that's not gonna work.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
It's time to move on.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
You have to really be able to let go.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Here, everybody, welcome to another episode of butter NOx. I'm
your host, Brandon Butler found the CEO of Butter atl
And today and we got one of my favorite people
in the building.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
We go.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
We gotta look, y'all, we got a superstar abuilding. This
is like the most viral person I know.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I mean, I agree on that, one of.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
The most amazing people I know, the one the only
Miss Don Montgomery. Don, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I'm amazing. I'm glad to be here. I feel like
I made it.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Girl does the person with like TV shows and all
this other kind of stuff. I feel like I made it.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Ah, Yes, well, well Don.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Look, man, you know, before we get into this, you
know a lot of folks they say, tell me about
yourself for the audience. We do a little bit different
here on. But or now that one of the things
that I like to do is I like to use
my friend chat GPT and I asked chat GBT. You've
seen this effort to write me a bio about my guests,
and so I'm gonna read about you and I want
(01:31):
you to tell me is it all? Is it all?
We need to make a call, you know what I mean?
So you ready to hear this? Have you ever done
this performance?
Speaker 4 (01:38):
No?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I have not, and I know you've told me to
do it. Let me admit that I know you have
told me to do that. But no, So this is
going to be shocking.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
So this is what chet chat GIBT says. Don Montgomery
is a dynamic journalist, media strategist, and cultural voice based
in Atlanta, known for bridging storytelling with strategic insight. Originally
from Mississippi, dawn of her career career, You're in Atlanta
versus a model during an iconic of featuring iconic campaigns
like tis Who clothing brand for transitioning into journalism and
(02:07):
sports media with outlets including The Atlanta Voice. She gave
national attention for her unfiltered authenticity, viral social media commentary,
and the ability to successfully pivot across media industries. Donald's
also founded and sold a portion of her sports media company,
showcasing her entrepreneurial acumen. M Currently, she's leveraging her extensive
expertise as a media consultant, advocate, and podcasts host, amplifying
(02:32):
both business narratives and cultural conversations from Atlanta to New York.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Who just ain't bad, That's not bad. That's that girl.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
That's what Chat said. Good job me, you know, that's
what Chat said.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Man oh, I appreciate that. Chat GPT. You know, I
might have to, you know, play with you a little bit,
you know, so.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Let me ask you, Let me ask you. Look again,
Like like Chat just said, you've done everything You've done, modeling,
You've done journalism, sports media businesses. Like when you kind
of look back, like when did you realize you could
really start to like connect this creativity with business and
like build something special for yourself.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
I think it was when I had down times to
really think, Like when you think about the hustle and
the grind that people put themselves on, especially when you're
like on a career path, like you go to school,
you have this major, you decide you're going to do something.
A lot of times people aren't ready for the pivot.
And I love a pivot. I actually look for a pivot.
I'm like looking within five to seven years of me
(03:29):
doing something consistently and I'm like, Okay, do I stay
here or am I ready to move on? And I
think moving along the lines of like modeling, especially the
type of modeling that I did around here, me being
able to pivot and say, y'all know, I was like
je beuty the week and my goal really was to
be a journalist. Like I said, I wanted to be
a writer. So now I need to intentionally do those things.
(03:50):
And I took some time off a modeling to kind
of like pivot and transition into that. And the beauty
of that was that I was able to hone in
on what my voice would be, because as you model,
you don't really have a voice. You're always seen not heard, right.
But I think one of the beautiful, beautiful things from
my experience in working with Ti has a cup clothing
and shouts out to Hannah King, was when I kind
of actually went viral for a billboard and I think
(04:14):
it was Jersey and representative. Oh no, he wasn't representative.
I think it was mayor at the time, Corey Booker.
He's a rep now. He literally like slammed the billboard
and talked about how you know, it's women like me
that are fatherless that shouldn't be able to, you know,
do these things and represent our community. I mean, I
think I'm doing pretty damn good now, Like look at me, sir, Like, so,
(04:38):
I you know you just a lot of times, a
lot of people think they know people because they see them. Yeah,
but I think there's so many layers to me that
I think when people do get an opportunity to see
me work as a business person or bring me into
like brain brainstorming like ideations or like trying to do
strategy and things like that, they're like, wait a minute,
you're actually smart.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And I'm like, I mean I am. Yeah. Yeah, So
that's all.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's been a plus for me to being able to
understand when I can bridge those things and do it.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yeah. Absolutely, And just kind of go back on that
for a second, like how did you first get started
in modelings.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Again.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
People that don't know man, let me tell you, Like,
Don's on everything. She's been in magazines, TV videos all day. Yeah,
how did you get involved in that stuff?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I think it started when I came out to Atlanta
during a downtime.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Honestly, I was at the time.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I had left Fort Valley State University after my freshman
year shouts out to the Wildcats, and I had went
home for a little while to take care of my grandmother.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
She had breast cancer.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
And you know, when you're being a caregiver, sometimes you're
blessed with someone who will look at you and be like, hey,
you're too young to be doing this, Like I need
you to go and go enjoy yourself. So my aunt
lived in Roswelle at the time, so off a Holmbridge
shouts out to the Hooters out there.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
That's where I literally got my start.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And there was a photographer from Mississippi who actually saw
me in Hooters and was like, hey, I would like
to take some pictures of you, and you know, it.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Was very very like what do you mean?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And at the time, I trusted him showed up. My
aunt went with me, like she was like, oh, I
like this whole setup like it was makeup artists, hairstylist, stylists,
all the things. And then it was like, oh wow,
this is this is literally like a job, like this
is something that I can get paid for, and he
paid me for it, like my very first A lot
of people aren't gonna say that their very first shoot
they got paid a couple of thousand dollars to actually shoot.
(06:23):
Because most times you could do like okay, let me
barter with you. You do these shots with me, I'll
just give you all the edits and you can build
your portfolio. No, this man literally built my portfolio from
ground up as well as his.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
But he paid me for it. And that's when I knew.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And anything that I do, if someone comes to me,
even if they're like work, wanting to you know, go
through strategy or like some sessions of consulting and stuff
like that, I can charge for that because you're talking
to me, we're working through these things, and I can
walk away from this and you can figure out if
you know how to do it. But literally, that was
my moment in knowing, Okay, I can do this, so
what else can I do? And I was just ready
to do more from there.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, let me ask you know, it's always interesting when
you meet people that again like they get paid for us,
say like creative services, just do what they do. Like
how did you learn how to value for a number?
Cause again the day look Georgia power, you know they're
not taking they not taking up to tell.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
You something them bills, they will give you the number,
Like that's the baseline. Like I think because for me,
one of the beautiful things that I've always learned and
I learned this from my grandmother. She was a pastor
of two churches, and her thing was is that no
matter what someone did for her, she found a way
(07:34):
to pay them.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
If you didn't give her a price, she gave you one.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
And then it was like if she continued to do
services with you or work with you, she made you
raise your prices. So me seeing her communicate that to us,
knowing that eventually later on in life, I'm going to
realize that a lot of people do undervalue black women
and our ability to do things that we do and
how we show up. And it was like, oh no,
I'm raising my price every time.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I think.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
There's times when I'm online and I go viral when
I say, especially on Twitter, Yeah, I gotta raise my
prices again, and like people are realized, like they'll go
through you know how you can go through somebody's timeline
to see when the last time they said something based
on keywords, and they'll they'll literally go and look, you
just did that like three months ago. Yeah, I'm realizing
that for something that I just did, I could have
(08:19):
charged double that and it's okay. But at the end
of the day, for me, it's like I'm always gonna
find that number. I'm gonna keep going, I'm gonna keep
raising it. And it's a beautiful thing too, because it's
like when you do get paid, somebody pays it up front,
they don't question it. Yeah, you're like, shit, I should
have been doing that this whole time, you know, like
I could have been reaching for the stars. But but
I think that's also another thing for black women just
(08:42):
in general, we feel like we're like it's we kind
of feel guilty sometimes, you know, when we want to
charge people, especially people we know, and I'm like, no,
you're gonna I'm charging YouTube Like I'm charging you too.
So yeah, that's that's been trusting my intuition and trusting
my numbers. My numbers generally come from like I said,
(09:04):
the bills start with the bills. Then I'm incorporating my kids.
I am a single mother, and I love co parenting
with their father. But at the end of the day,
I always think along these lines, like if he wasn't here,
how would I manage? And that has always been like
a guiding light, not to like you don't get rid
of him, because he's a great dad and he's a
great man, but it's more so like you know, a
(09:24):
lot of people will like depend upon that support and
I actually don't. So that's been the beauty of how
I can raise my prices or I can kind of
push myself to you know, you did this successfully, you
got this return. Now the next line, you actually can
raise your rate immediately just because of this success story.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Do you ever get nervous when it comes to that part, Yeah,
because I think a lot of folks like it's to
your point, especially if you just don't know when you're
trying to put there, like scared the ass the number,
And I say, if you're scared ass, like, you're probably
close to what the actual value is. And hell, you know,
people don't understand too. It's an exchange on both sides,
and like I always kind of tell people one of
the biggest things you need it as an advocate kind
of on the other side too, the kind of understands
(10:02):
because a lot of these folks when they get scared,
but when you start to realize they're they're usually not
even playing with their own money. What I mean by
that is like, if you're dealing with a company, like
the person who you're talking to, they don't get to
keep the money.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
They don't want to there, yeah, but you're giving You're
actually a lot of times I have to push people
to tell me what their budget is, right because I
don't want to low boll myself initially, and I think
asking that I ask questions immediately when I'm talking to people,
You're not coming to interview me for so like it's
just I'm going to be interviewing you back right, And
in the midst of me asking that question, then I'm
(10:35):
knowing that I can actually raise it another maybe doubl
of grand you know, just because like they could be
low balling me period, you know, just to save off top.
And so I've learned in those moments that a lot
of companies and clients and people even when I was
in sports media, they appreciated that because they did see
my work, they did see my connection to alumni or
(10:58):
players or whomever, or they did see my connection to
their audiences, and they loved that. So they were like, yes,
this was the investment that we needed to make to
kind of get to this next thing.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Absolutely. Now, how do you start to pivot? I know
you said you always kind of want to be in
journalism and doing in my life. How did you start
to make that pivot?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
That pivot was so difficult because I think a lot
of people think that my modeling career was just you know,
you're dealing with men majority of the time. You're on
sets or you're doing these commercial shoots, and it's very difficult,
I think gaining the respect coming in because I mean,
I look good, I get it. I'm fine as hell,
I get it. But I'm smart as fuck, right, So
(11:36):
it's like you get a little bit of both, like
you know, and it's when you can appreciate the fact
that someone like me can come in the room and
really not necessarily downplay myself but actually sit in the
room and listen. And then I'm literally like Okay, here's
what you're missing, And in those moments, people will look
beyond what they see and they're like, Okay, we need
(11:57):
to know more about what you do. We need to
know more about how you're doing that and gaining like
people's respect and trust. Like I think also too, coming
from modeling, My first full jump into journalism was dealing
with sports media. I should have went another way, like
I should have started with like working with local newspaper
(12:19):
like I did, but at the time, I had so
many connections to so many different universities in their alumni groups,
and these people were hiring me to host parties or
host tailgates, and I was like, oh shoot, they're paying
me to show up talk about my experience like I'll
never forget, you know. One of my first people to
(12:40):
do this was Halward Hughes. He used to have Bandwagon
Bandwagon fan club, but he is an alpha who was
at Clemson, and then he used to see me all
up and down the timeline, you know, covering like college
game day and stuff like that, and at one point,
like he gave my information to like another one of
his brothers and they hired me to come out to
(13:01):
host a tailgate.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
From then on, their tailgates were packed.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
And then it was like every season I had to
dedicate at least two games to going and hosting something
there and they paid me well, and it was like, Oh,
I can do this with y'all. I'm going to Ohio State.
I don't even like Michigan, I'm going to them. I'm
thinking of all the top alumnick groups around Atlanta, because again,
their alumni groups here, they have budgets, they have money.
(13:25):
A lot of them can't get some of their former
players to come back and kind of host certain things.
So who do they know locally that's going to pull
some of the fans in or at least be exciting
enough to where they want to see them and participate.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
And that started there.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
But then when I realized that I could build a
company off of that while also writing about that, that's
when the process of getting credentialing started. Because now I'm
not just there for tailgating in good times. I actually
need to be on the sideline, or I need to
be in the press box. I need to really be
in the room with other people who they're writing these
(14:00):
game day stories and they're doing it for their outlets.
But for someone like me, I could take that, put
that on my website, and now I've got like people
like vivid Seats reaching out to me because now they
want to run something, you know, based off of my
experience in a particular stadium where they're trying to get
their sales up. And that ended up being a proof
of concept for any other school that I ended up
working with. And one of the first schools that credentialed
(14:22):
me was Georgia State. I'm always give credit to Georgia State.
I was there from the inception of the football program
and it was one of the most beautiful things I've
ever experienced, and like, to me, that was bigger than
Super Bowls that I covered.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Like it was to see a program from talk.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
To actual launch to you see the actual product and
then they had they had a couple of winning streaks
of what have you.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
And to be a part of that, it was a
good ride.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
It was a good ride, you know, shot to Georgia State.
Man deal, that's that's that's a good friend of mine.
He was in one hundred black men class. You know. Now,
I did go to the real g issue, which is
in states who conversation we're not gonna go there.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Now.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
You talked about your sports media companies that also is
that the same company that you sold?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yes, so I saw a portion of it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And I actually explained this the other day because I
had some followers who didn't really.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
So I'm learning. I'm gaining new followers almost every week.
I'm sure to be honest with you.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And the funny thing is is I'm having to remind
them if I have a perspective about something, especially in
relation to sports, I actually have the experience to talk
about that, and so me in general, like the way
that I feel about.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Selling my company.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
It was during it was a little bit after the
racial reckoning that summer twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Or what have you, and I just saw a lot.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Of companies and people investors looking to invest in like
black owned a black woman owned businesses, and you know,
people were grabbing that money. You know, kudos to everybody,
But I think in my mind, I was just like,
even if someone gave me something right now, my plan
beyond this right now does not actually include this company.
So how can I make a return off of this?
(16:03):
How much I've invested in a couple Like I think
I'm gonna be did like eight to nine years in it.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So again that's seven to ten.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Year window where I'm now realizing I'm getting ready to
make a pivot, but I want my money back, Like
this is the one time that I can probably pitch
this to somebody and they would pay for it. And
luckily I run across two guys who have been following me,
an Asian guy and a white guy.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
And I'm very specific on that.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I can't say names, of course because of the contract
and stuff, but I'm very specific in that just because
they genuinely came up to me and were like, we
don't want to buy your whole company, but there's something
about the data that we feel like you may have
that we need to launch what we have going on.
And they're one of the top like sports related businesses
right now, Like I can't even name them, but they're
(16:49):
doing a damn good job with the foundation that I
was able to pass to them. I mean, they pay
for it, but again they took it and they ran
with it, and by all means, I'm like, that's dope
to me.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Like that's super dope to me.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
And it gave me the freedom to kind of like
take care of some personal things that I had at
the time, and I took care of, you know, some
of my team that at the time that was working
with me, and then beyond that, it was.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Just like, okay, so what's next, what's next?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
So yeah, what did you learn most in that process?
Because again, like I've had people that have come on
and talked about like selling a business and you know,
like making sure they had things, but like, what were
(17:36):
some of the main things you learned in the process
of selling a portion of that business?
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Listening you end up finding out who's what their real
intentions are for what you have just by listening, because
I know I can come in and I can be like,
I want five hundred thousand dollars, I want on a
million dollars before I give you this, and not necessarily.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I didn't go in the door with the number.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I went in the door with an open ear right
because it was like you guys came to me and granted,
there were other companies that were looking to invest in
my company, and they were wanting to invest more money.
But when I learned their idea, I learned what they
were trying to do. They showed me proof of concept
and all of the things they like. We literally went
through about a nine month process before I actually agreed
(18:20):
to start negotiations to start talking about the money. And
I think that that was a beautiful thing because most
people wouldn't take that long, like it's like, okay, you
don't let us have this or not, you know, but
they were genuinely like, Okay, I understand why she's holding
his clothes, because during this time, it does look very
performative that people like us are coming and wanting to
(18:40):
buy something or poor or and invest in something poor
into these companies, when necessarily I'm not looking to take
the culture part of it. We want numbers, we want information,
We want certain things that we don't already have and
we have. They had no from the from the backgrounds
that they had, they had no contacts, they had nothing.
So literally they needed that and they couldn't find anybody else.
(19:02):
So I could prolong that process until I feel comfortable,
and then I ended up asking for the very number
that I wanted and they said yes on the spot,
like we didn't have to go back and forth on numbers.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Okay, Okay, now look Donald, this, this this is one
of the real reasons why I wanted to bring you
on here. I'm about to ask, Oh, God, you are
one of the queens at going viral. Yeah, what's the
science behind that? Like, how is it that you're able
to just continueously just show up and find those things
just cause conversations and just you know, get people, get
(19:36):
people talking.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
I am me.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's literally me. I've gone around and you've heard me
say this before. I've gone around and I said that
there's no strategy to it. When I really sat down
and I thought about it, and I was like, actually,
there is. And it's generally when people in this day
and age want to see someone who is transparent, who
is actually authentic, doesn't say that they are, but you
(19:59):
can go to their pay you can see consistently they
don't give a damn.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I don't like.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I want people to really realize, like journalists like me
or former models like me, we still are human.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I'm a mom, i am a mentor, I am a
community advocate. I am all of these things, and I'm
going to share certain parts of that. I've gotten to
a point where I don't share my kids a whole
lot no more. But for me, it's been me.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
It's been literally like people are looking for something from me,
or this topic is happening, or this is trending online.
I will wake up and by the time I've gone
through most of my day in the morning, by the
time I do jump online, I've already been tagged in
things that people want me to comment on. So it's
almost literally like the demand is there and I am
literally the product, or I am literally the person that
(20:50):
people are Like. Organizations are coming to me now because
they realize that I've actually worked with various social justice
groups like you know, I've worked with off Rep New
Georgia Project, I've worked with Advancement Project, and I've worked
in these various spaces, and when they learned that I've
done those things, they're like, Okay, wait, we need to
get you in the room because what did you do there?
(21:12):
Like part of what things were you a part of?
And my biggest get a part of me being the
actual product, is my ability to connect people in getting
media coverage. Me and you were just talking about this
earlier about some things with Morris Brown and how I
feel like there's so many great things happening over there,
but I would love to see more visibility about that,
(21:33):
right and that being shared and someone like me popping
up and saying, oh my god, did y'all see what
happened at Morris Brown or X, Y and Z. People
will look at that and people will want to know
more because it's me. So it's literally I haven't I
don't have it down to a science per se. But
(21:54):
a part of the strategy is what feels good to me,
what do I need to respond to and then also
is it something that I can amplify to put more
eyes on it? And that's why brands and networks are
now reaching out to me now in this stage of
my life because they're like, Okay, she's not attached to
anybody right now, she's like she's she's basically free lass
and she's able to move around. So how can we
(22:16):
work with her to create narratives around certain things or
get more eyes on the campaigns or things that we
have going on?
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah? Absolutely? And then I mean talking about strategy too, right,
Like you work with these brands and you know you
understand media strategy, Like where do you think the biggest
gap is between like what these brands kind of understand
when it comes to media strategy and like, actually, you
know how things work in the real world.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Have black people in the room, Like, if I'm honest, Brandon,
and I'm pretty sure you know this as well. Having
someone and I don't even mean one person, You're gonna
need multiple with different backgrounds, someone that has a lived
experience to where when you get to the table, they're like,
that's not gonna fly, and let me tell you why.
(22:59):
And then you need to listen to them because that's
going to save you crisis comms situations, right, Like, it's like,
because at the end of the day, you want to
go through that and you're thinking bad press is all
good press or whatever. To me, that doesn't exist. Bad
press is bad press because people are going to remember that.
So for me, it's mostly every time that I have
(23:19):
been called in certain situations, even when there's like black
lead companies and things like that, there are some people
that aren't in those rooms that have said lead experience,
lived experience to where they can come in and they
can shift your strategy, but you have to be able
to listen to them, right. I think that's partly another
reason why I do a lot of work outside of Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
I've done a lot here.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
You know this, and I've been in some rooms where
I haven't publicly said that I was a part of
whatever was going on, and that's intentionally just because I
respect my relationships. But beyond that, when those people start talking,
there are people out of the city who are now like, oh,
we need to get you here, like you know, we
need to get you over here with what we got
going on, and I'm gonna go. You gotta check, I'm
(24:02):
gonna go. But for me, it's more so really having
us in the room, having those of us who have
lived experiences that vary from the people that are already
at the table, and then actually listening like why can't
you hear us, Like why can't you understand that we
know a little bit more than you? And it's beyond
the whole Oh, I went to school for colm strategy.
(24:24):
I went to school for marketing and strategy. Have you Okay,
that's great, but have you applied this in the real world?
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, it's no. It's interesting. Like I you know, I
always kind of say, like, at the end of the day,
brands want to land in culture, right, but like if
you look around the room and the people that are
in the room don't reflect the culture you're trying to
land in, like, how can you authentically do it right?
I've been in a lot of rooms from a marketing standpoint.
Like one of my favorite stories I love to tell
(24:50):
is there was a there's a Fried Chicken brand, Fried
Chicken company out here who always has bad cust from
the service every time you go into one of their restaurants.
I remember I was in a we were doing a
campaign with them a long time ago. I was at
the radio station and it was around football season, and
(25:12):
I looked around and I was the only person looked
like me in the room and chicken. Let me tell you,
let me, let me tell you what they try to do.
Let me tell you they try to do. They said
they want to do it. They want to they want
to bring in a gospel choir, and they wanted the
choir to be basically holding the chicken. And the tagline
they came up with was if football is your religion,
(25:35):
chicken is ours.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
And then they might as well just throwing some seated
watermelon and just called.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
It a day. What are we doing?
Speaker 3 (25:44):
And then I promise you, one of the guys in
the room, who was one of the senior people singing executives.
He looked at me and he said, Brandon, we gotta,
we gotta what's that thing black people like to drink?
And I said, I said, I said water like I
don't know what's something about. He said, crystal. We need
to put some.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Crystal crystyle and chicken is wild.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
That's a time out, y'all. I don't think this is
gonna work at all, gonna work And like, get to
your point, right, if I hadn't been in there.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
They would have ran it, would that because to him
that sounded like the move, that sounded like the thing,
and quite as this kept, he would have reached a
certain demographic right.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
But the thing about.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
That is is immediately those of us who can recognize
the gimmick around that, that can recognize you stereotyping around that,
it's like we're about to call you out. No, you
can't do that, like you know, and then you're gonna
have to pull that. And now you've done all this
advice marketing by like, you've done all of these things,
and you've wasted all this money because you didn't have
(26:47):
somebody like you in their own.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
And people don't understand. Another buddy of mine the other
day because Target reached out to him and they were
basically trying to get his brand. They had offered to
pay him I on know, like twenty thirty grand and
they were looking for like eight They were looking for
black owned businesses that were started by people that were
meeting HBCUs wow, and they wanted to kind of go around.
(27:09):
It was funny when he told me about it. He
was like, man, let me tell you about this statement.
It's this company hitting me up and they want to
do this and this. He's like, you never guess who
it is. I said, Oh, it's.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Target based off of what they're.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Looking to his target I know for it.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
He was like, they know the culture and then they
get in there.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
But like I told him, I said's a couple things
you got to realize. Like one, if you go back
to your HBCU with a big target logo, good luck
above you. You know what I'm saying. I said, you
don't have a whole other set Like a lot of people.
You talked about crisis comms earlier, Like when I was
at Edleman, I was on the crisis team, Like these
people don't understand, like we build two and a half
three times our rate on crisis work is very lucrative, right,
(27:44):
and that's why I was telling him. I was like, bro,
like all money ain't good.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Money at that part.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Here you can take that check, but like what it's
going to do for your brand for you locally, Like
when you go back.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
From the ground up, so people trust you.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
So when you do attach yourself to someone that they're
not trusting right now, it's like it's wrong with you,
Like are you really the person that we've been supporting
all this time? You know, and you get you feel
jaded when you see people do that. I mean people
are jumping about that with Ky Sannatt right now. I
mean me personally. I had to have an extensive conversation
(28:18):
with my fourteen year old who just because he's all
you know that iteration, they know all things about streaming,
And he's like, wait, he got him and his homeboys on,
And I say, him and his homeboys are actually kind
of dumb unless they do these things right. Because again,
even if he didn't know up front, I think if
he was, if he pays attention to the critique and
(28:39):
all of the response from it, and he makes some
adjustments to where it includes the community, and then he
gets them to the table with the people who have
been leading the boycott and having those conversations, then by
all means I will bow down to Coystannatt. But if
it doesn't lead to something like that where you're getting
a check, bro, and I no longer have any respect
(29:00):
for you, because you've done so that everybody out because
you're trying to make your bottom dollar. Yeah, and technically
he doesn't have to do that.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Yeah, Like lord, I told my friend. I was like, man,
I said, honestly, if I was of you, what I
would do is I would go back to them and
I would say, look, I would do this, but y'all
need to not only y'all need to donate a million
dollars boom to our school boom or better of fact,
I said, even better, I said, because there's a thing
like at the end of the day, two, no matter
how much money, even if they donate, it's not gonna
(29:29):
be enough. Like somebody's gonna say something. Correct, So if
you get a million, somebody that's a that's a twenty
billion dollar company, they should have gave y'all like it's
always going to be. They could have done more, I said,
But I think what you have the ability to do now,
which you have the ability to go back to them
and say, look like we'll do this campaign with you
on these terms. Yes, and the terms is I need
you you know, or I said them, I said, look,
or give them to donate ten million dollars and go
(29:50):
to ten different HBCUs. There you go around and like
do this whole thing.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
And then including you know, like understanding that they have
to come out and say they understand why people were
boycotting them, and them not realizing that they should have
sat in their own boardrooms and brought people to the
table before they made a grand announcement that they were
divesting in DEI like all of those things. Those things
are super important right now, and I just think people
(30:15):
have to understand when companies are divesting, find the ones
who are still investing, like, let's pull our support over there,
and then anyway we're supposed to be supporting each other
in the first fucking place. So it's like, there's ways
that you can find ways to not deal with Target,
because the consistent thing that I still see to this
day is people are still going to Target for certain
things because they don't know where else to go get it,
(30:36):
And I'm like, what the hell.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Are you buying there that you can't buy somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Trust me, you can find a website for the product
or the brand they're there because n was out of ten.
If you were in Target, you had to have a website.
So it's like, don't use it as an excuse. So
I'm not excusing any of that unless you are doing
what you say, making sure that they're investing in us
in some capacity. And it's a grand gesture as not
(31:02):
to like just jump into the culture, but more so
saying we know we were wrong, We're trying to make
it right. Here's what we are trying to do, and
then people can make their own judgments on whether or
not they want to continue to shop with.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You or deal with you.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Yeah, like it's interesting man. Like me, it was just
like talking about talking to different folks about it. Like
that's one things I've kind of said too, is I
wonder if and you know, we're not going to have
a whole conversation will tell you good, But like I
kind of wonder sometimes if it would even make more
sense to instead of just flat out boycotting them, to say,
you know what, let's organize everybody. I want you to
go buy every single black product there is in Target
(31:35):
and those shelves out.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
So and you know, I've heard that, especially through our
black press coverage with all of the black newspapers across
the country, and doctor Benchaves had been a huge leader
and working with like you know, repping doctor Jamal Bryant
and all of them, and as well as the original
people who created the boycott in Minnesota. Minneapolis actually and
to me in that coverage of seeing that, my response
(31:59):
to that was, I'm sorry, I'm still not physically going
into that building. Yeah, you know, I'm because even my purchase,
like if you think about the tax or you're thinking
about the other things that they incorporate into the price,
that still benefits the whole corporation versus not just paying
for the product per se. So that's why for me,
it's always been that's almost been a telltale conversation for
(32:21):
me with some people. I'm like, if I hear you
say that you still shopping at Target, yeah, stay over there,
stay over there, because if you don't have the the like,
the critical thinking skills to say they're doing this thing.
A lot of people disagree with that, and I should
be in that pool. But and I need to realize
that I can go and go support another business that
(32:42):
has the same products, or I can support that business
directly by going to their website.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Then me and you can't.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Talk and like it'sially black holes. They made it. A
part of it was tar you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
We created a culture around Target, like the tiktoks around
Target shopping and.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Ya, but that was us. Yeah, that was us.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
So the fact that you say that you're removing this thing,
and yes, I even had like a couple of like
marketing people in legal folks in the legal field, you know,
kind of break down with it actually meant for them
to say that out loud. I was like, but it
was still wrong. You know, you have to break that down.
It doesn't mean that we're getting rid of the products
in here. That doesn't mean that we're stopping contracts that
(33:22):
we have with black owned businesses.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
This is what it actually means.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
You say that they didn't do that, so therefore now
they're still in crisis.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Mode, right, And yeah, theydn't throw all theF I just
you know, I think that we're again we're getting ready
to come up on back to school time soon. I
think we can hold on through back to school. We
don't have some real leverage.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
That'd be the way.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I'm like, Okay, are we really boycott Dollar Tree and
Family Dollar and Dollar General?
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Because where where I'm gonna get the paper from? Where
I'm gonna get the pencils?
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Like, it's no like And you know, the funny thing
is is I've seen at local gas stations, especially because
I've been traveling a lot, I've been seen at local
gas station is where there are certain products in there
that I've never seen before. So maybe these gas stations
are waking up to being like, okay, if they're not
going here, which we know is a huge store in
our city or area, then maybe we can contact some
(34:12):
of these companies and have this stuff in here. I've
seen I seen a loosely paper and in a gas station,
I've never seen that. I'm just gonna be honest with you,
I've never seen that. I grabbed like five pass you
know you did, right, and a bucket of chicken. All right,
so we good so, But in general, for me, it's
like this is this is a major opportunity for people
to really create lists where people can go to get
(34:33):
said supplies and things like that and support them.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Okay, this is why. And you know what, I've been
saying this for years. I'm gonna start me a trash
bad company and people just laugh at me when I
say that, but I'm like, love.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
I always laugh and it's like the third type of
person said.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
I'm like, but let me tell you. Let me tell you,
like y'all don't care about glad and heifty don't and
a black I have me a black I'm you know
what I've been looking I'm going to start this black
old trash.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Back you do it, and I'm gonna find out I've
been looking for the the who who does wholesale for
like recycled bands and trash beds, and we'll go into
business together.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Like I'm telling you, man, I'm telling you know.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
So again obviously with this this, you know you've got
a big strong stance on advocacy. You've had some experiences
that revolt you know, like how is that like impacted
you know, your your ability to just kind of navigate
the media world and opportunities. Is that had any backlashes
kind of worked out for you? Like always stand in
your business.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Citing bro like the death threats I got off of
people not really knowing how much I.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Actually got paid to do that podcast.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I was like, if you knew how much I got paid,
you would get somewhere and sit down.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
That was a drop in the bucket.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
That was a major opportunity that was brought to me
by a good friend of mine who used to he
was He's from Mississippi. Shout out to doctor because she
made this connection. She had a whole dinner was a
bunch of us that are transplants here in the state
of I mean in Georgia in Atlanta, and Darius was
at that table, and Darius, after hearing my story because
we all got to share what we do and all
(36:12):
the things. Mike was there and some other people and
it was like, yo, he was like, I might need
to get you on this show. And I saw it
as a major opportunity. Hits why I was willing to
take you know, whatever how much I was getting paid
and the opportunity itself. But I think a lot of
people also have to remember when you're in those type
of spaces, you're not an actual employee who said company.
(36:33):
You're a contractor so nonsense. That team, you might not
have to deal with one of the main people.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
But my my.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Pushback on that was me knowing certain things that I knew,
and then me being a survivor. If it were me
and I had someone I actually supported or listened to
on the podcast network and that person still showed up
to go to work, or still showed up to do
another season, or still did whatever they wanted to do,
(37:01):
how would that make me feel?
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Again, this comes back to me and how I feel.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
And literally my intuition was just like, Okay, let them
people know that you're thinking about, you know, leaving, or
that you want to hear something from leadership and give
them a little time before you make a decision. And
when I didn't hear anything, I was just like, Okay,
I'm gone, and I get it. You know, that's not
a major loss to them in a sense, but to me,
I literally had to make a decision that I would
(37:27):
be proud of. I wanted to actually have a series
of episodes on the next season of that podcast that
talked about sexual abuse, manipulation, coersion, things like that of
that nature, like literally around that survivor conversation because we
had women previously on that podcast who were survivors and
(37:48):
had turned that into something else.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
You get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
So it's like, oh, let's go a little deeper in that,
because I feel like everybody has a story and they
have something that they can share, but how do you
get past that? And that was something that I felt
would have been beneficial to the audience, But when that happened,
it was like, how can you carry that out? Knowing
that this is happening and leadership is not saying anything
directly at the moment, because again, I think they were
(38:12):
somewhat blindsided themselves, especially for some of the people that
I can remember that were in position or what have you.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
And then go from there. But I literally had.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Some dark days dealing with that because it was like
me making that decision then like my full time job
at the time, realized that I was working on a podcast,
God forbid, somebody need some extra money on the side
and they want.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
To work in the evening.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Then it was a.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Matter of like at the time, I was somewhat dating
this guy and when he saw my tweet, he was like,
you don't even know if he's guilty, And I'm like, bro,
you actually know my story, so for you to be like, like,
(39:01):
give me tens, give me a tens.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
No, I can't.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
And then when video came out, that's when I got
a text message from him because I shut it off again.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
You know me, if I don't deal with you, I
just don't deal with you.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
But when the video came out, he was one of
the first people to apologize to me. He was like,
no matter what transpire or what is in those court documents,
you read that first before you made.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Your decision, and you gave them time.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
So I respect you for even doing that because most
people would have just made an impulse decision. And it
wasn't an impulse decision. It was very calculated. I talked
to my therapist three or four times before I made
a decision. I talked to my entire family. My mom
is a pastor. I talked to her because I felt like,
you know, if I did go viral yet again, which
is what I did, and I was like, I didn't
think nobody was paying attention to me at that time.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
You know.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
That it would raise eyes. And I know people know her.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
I know people know my family, especially in Mississippi and
all the things, and so It was one of those
things where I generally, for those any viral moments that
I've ever had in general, outside of Black Revolt, my fai,
I've always had to let my family like, hey, I
might go viral for this, or hey, I'm about to
post something sometime. We got a whole group chat. Y'all
(40:14):
be thinking I'll be thirstrapping. My family probably don't seen
it before I posted it, you know what I'm saying,
because I'm just making sure everybody's good. But it taught
me that I have learned, even at such a young
age when I had to testify against my father who
sexually abused me and saw him go to jail. He
pleaded guilty, all he changed his plea after my testimony,
(40:35):
and me knowing the power of my voice no matter
what in my life, I have grown into that. So
for me to be this at this big age, you know,
to really say we don't need.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
That, you know, let me move on.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
And I moved on, and yeah, people question it, and
I wanted to raise my voice to kind of say,
this is why I did it, this is where I'm
coming from. And you know, Daris supposed to producer of
that show. He has been one of the most supportive
men during that entire time, and I respect him so
heartily for that because he didn't have to do that.
He has his own podcast while while black, you know,
all the things, and it's he was just.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Very supportive and I needed that.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
And I think even just having that one person, like
you said, always having like that one person that advocates
for you. You've been that person, you know, solo at
ninety four point five. It has been that person streets
ninety four point five, And I just think I've just
always been blessed to be around certain people that really
want to see me win. And they might not understand
the decisions that I make or the shit I post,
but at the end of the day, if they know
(41:32):
that they need to cause somebody like me to come
in to kind of talk to their clients or talk
to interns, or talk to their employees or you know,
be a part of campaigns, they know to call me.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Yeah. Now, obviously, again, through your career, you've had a
lot of changes.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
One thing you've talked about is like change and pivoting
is like very empowering.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Yeah, I love a good pivot.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
You know, Like, what do you say that like the
creative entrepreneur, the things that a pivot is a failure,
like instead of seeing it as an opportunity for success
or just like recreate themselve.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
So to me, when people don't want to pivot, they
find themselves in very low places. So then you start
making certain decisions that would not align with anything that
you're trying to do in the future. Right also mentally,
because I'm a big advocate of mental health, you will
find yourself in some of the lowest places that if
you had just made an adjustment, or if you had
(42:22):
to just made a pivot, or if you had to
just rebrand it, or if you had to just gave
it up, like just that's not gonna work, it's time
to move on. To me, it's just you have to
really be able to let go. And I think the
beauty in what I've consistently done in anybody that has
followed me, from when I was a blogger to model too, journalists,
(42:46):
to all the things y'all know, when I'm not satisfied
or if i don't feel like i'm doing or i'm
living up to my best potential in something that I'm doing,
whatever role position, this can be in any aspect of life.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
I will leave as my age husband, like.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
I will leave, And that's not to disrespect him, it's
just more so like he didn't believe it until I
did it.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
You get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
And I think that that's such an empowering thing because
when you decide to leave, yes you do have to
start over, or yes you might have some pieces that
you can take with you to build a point. But
to me, I love a good lego moment like now
got bare pieces?
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Now what can I build from that? Right?
Speaker 1 (43:29):
And I think a lot of people don't really think
that I'm going through those things just because I'm showing
a very human and fun side of my life, just
because I'm in a really good place in my life
right now and I'm over forty.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
You can agree to this.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
We are very happy to be here.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
Happy.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
We are very happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
So when I say if there's a pivot moment, I
don't even think twice about it. I might question it,
I might give it a minute, like a day or two,
but if I need to make a change, it's done.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Like I'm not move on.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
And I think as creatives, you stunt your growth when
you don't do that, like you don't You don't even
understand that there's another opportunity waiting on you, right, Yeah,
And I know it's difficult, but baby, find find a therapist.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
That's that's one of my first things. Find somebody.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Find a therapist and find somebody that can be like
your accountability partner. Those two people, you're gonna get through
that one.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
One of my one of my favorite calls I tell
people all the time is you don't have to keep
making a mistake because you took a long time to
make it.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Ooh, I don't think i've ever heard you say that.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Some bars bar that is a bar.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Why don't you make I need a bar book? But
that's really good.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
That's that's a good point because if you look at
that too, if you're if you remove professional right, think
about personal. You'll be in a relationship knowing that she
ain't working out. You're being a marriage knowing that she's
not working out. But the second of the kids or
the relationship we've been together since college, I don't give
a damn is no longer working and it's okay.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
You can move on.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
And I think that's the beauty of like even with
me bringing up my ex husband.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
You know I we co.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Parent very well and we respect each other, and I'm like, shit, that's.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
All I want it, Like it's like da you know,
how come I can get that there? And you know
we could have been best friends, you know, like, but
we're good. We're good, and I'm proud of that.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Like even my oldest son's father, that's one of my
best friends. Like he's one of the first people. He
was one of the first people to call me when
I made the decision, and he sorry, go viral, I'm
thinking of you.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
What do you need?
Speaker 1 (45:29):
You know, we love you over here. He has a
whole ass wife, you know what I'm saying, And she
was cool. She sent me a text message. She was
at work, she's locked in, but she's like, hey, I
know he gave you a call. Like I'm we're proud
of you, like we love that. And so to know
that I actually have people support in real life. The
moments that I go viral or get dragged or drugged
or talked about online, that does not amount to that.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
And it could easily be three people over here amongst
thousands of people online. But no, I'm not worried about that.
I'm not worried about that at all.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
Before we wrap up, Donald, just want to ask, like,
you know, you've done all kinds of stuff, but like,
what's something that you've done that you're really proud of
professionally that maybe like hasn't gotten the spotlight, but it's
really kind of shaped to the who you've become as
a person.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Me right now, what I'm doing right now with Okay
Player my podcast, To be clear, I'm so fucking proud
of that. Like it's it's almost like, how did I
say this. I've always had doubts. I've always had doubts
about being upfront. You know this, Me and you have
talked about this. Visibility does scare me. For me to
be that viral all the time, the visibility does scare me.
(46:48):
But I think I've done a lot of things where
I was a co host, or I was a producer
behind the scenes, or I was doing all the things.
You remember when I was at the Atlanta Voice, I
was doing fifty million jobs and still making sure that
things were executed correctly. You know what I'm saying. But
for me to really say to myself at this time,
you're leaving this full time job. You just walked away
(47:10):
from this other podcast, and you have these various networks
reaching out to you that want to work with you,
and they want to center a show around you. Why
are you doubting yourself in this moment? It's time for
you to step up? And literally, you know. I know
people say that they hear God and all the things,
and I've only heard him a couple of times in
my life and every time I've listened, But this time
it was like, when you do it, I have you.
(47:32):
When you do it, I have you. Sorry, excuse me
what I'm jumping, you know, And that process was literally
I want to say all of that went down with
Revolt what November twenty twenty three in a sense, I
want to say the next phone the last phone call
that I took from a network was Okay Player. And
(47:52):
one of the first things that I should say, the
CEO of Okay Players said to me on that call.
She said, Hey, before we get started, I want to
know how you're doing. Everybody else. We want you to
be on our network because we can see blah blah
blahlah blah.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
In my mind, I'm like, you don't.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Realize that I actually see that you were trying to
jump off of the momentum of me leaving this network
and you wanting to gain that and all the things,
not realizing that I'm a person and here it is
this black woman says, how are you doing? I was like,
I'm sold what y'all want me to do? Like use me,
you know what I'm saying. And it started with December
(48:34):
twenty twenty three and we did like auditions for a
co host. They trusted me on that. We had like
twelve applicants for that. We got to the fourth one
that was Freddie BTV and I loved him energy, chemistry,
like we didn't have to fake nothing, we didn't have
to figure stuff out. And I was like, stop the auditions.
I want him, like he has to be it. Me
(48:55):
and him stayed in touch. We ended up learning that
we had mutuals. Come to find out he went I
went to school with eToro you know what I'm saying
at Tennessee State and Marshall restis so Marsha Lattimore.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
And it's just a beautiful thing that.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
I'm just so proud of myself that I decided to
bet on myself again that I am growing into it.
And I took time from December twenty twenty three to
May twentieth of twenty twenty five this year to say,
this is my thing.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
I'm executive producer. Had I created this show.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
I basically like, if I wanted to walk away from
all of this, I can go with a proof of
concept because look at the damn views on this shit, right, Like,
look at the engagement that it gets on okay players
like social channels. A lot of people were so like
this is weird because it's different programming for them, But
now they're like coming back. They want more, they want
(49:49):
to see more guests. They're not realizing that I know
a lot of the people that I'm bringing on the show,
Like tell I think I've told you before where people
are very shocked that I know certain people you know,
and that's just in any industry. And I'm like, that's
just because I'm not always taking a picture with these people.
When I'm with them, I trust my relationship. So I'm
extremely glad and proud of myself that I've gotten to
(50:11):
this point and that I've done the work to get here.
Everything was leading up to this, and even if this
stops its season one and I've got to pivot to
go to something else.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
I'm damn proud. Like it's like I can.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Walk away and be like, oh shit, you gonna find
me something else, you know, And it is what it
is because again it started with me. It begins with
me all the things, and it's gonna end with me,
like I'm the product.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
It's me.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
And beyond that, like understanding that sometimes when you're down,
when things are just you, you have to have other things
that you have going on that brings in different sources
of income. So for me, it's like, even if this
one thing stops, I have these other things coming in
or other things that I'm doing because I'm also working
in other spaces.
Speaker 2 (50:56):
So it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (50:58):
Well look, Don, congratulations all this says you know, as always,
you're killing it. You one of my favorite people out here.
Very proud of you. Before we get out of here, Please,
how can people find you? Follow you, support you, give
them all the things.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
Not that y'all need to find me, because y'all probably
know where I am, but if in case I am
new to you, you can find me on Twitter because
I call it Twitter, not X at Underscore Don Montgomery,
and that's don d A w N because a lot
of people d o N.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
Excuse me.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
I'm on Instagram. I am also on Blue Sky's same
name as well. I'm on I just got on Facebook
just for the show. It's stressful over there. I am
on spil as well every now and then. But outside
of that, I mean, I also have, like in my
link tree on Instagram, ways that people can email me
(51:49):
or book a strategy session with me. I can talk
strategy about anything, literally because I have certifications and a
lot of things.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
So I'm here absolutely, absolutely with Don. We appreciate you. Congratulations,
keep on going here killing it. You know, I appreciate you.
You know, let's always say I appreciate y'all, you know,
stopping the PJ for a second and stopping by before
you go.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
I haven't gotten to the PJ. See my tweet last
about a week ago. I need more friends with PJ.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
It's like, if you got a private jet, come talk
to me, like we can barter.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
I will work for free, like I'm not kidding, but no.
Speaker 3 (52:26):
But no, thank you so much for pulling up Don.
And with that said, out that's the pod, y'all you've
been listening to Button Nomics and I'm your hosts 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 producing in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by
Ksey Pegram, with marketing support Fromqueen and Nikki. Music provided
(52:46):
by mister Hanky. If you haven't already, hit that subscribe
button and never missed an episode, and be sure to
follow us on all our social platforms at butter dot
atl Listen to button Nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (53:00):
Bout bukutununt
When people don't want to pivot, they find themselves in
very low places. So then you start making certain decisions
that would not align with anything that you're trying to
do in the future. Right Also, mentally, you will find
yourself in some of the lowest places that if you
had just made an adjustment, or if you had to
just made a pivot, or if you had to just
(00:21):
rebrand it, or if you had to just gave it up,
like just that's not gonna work.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
It's time to move on.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
You have to really be able to let go.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Here, everybody, welcome to another episode of butter NOx. I'm
your host, Brandon Butler found the CEO of Butter atl
And today and we got one of my favorite people
in the building.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
We go.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
We gotta look, y'all, we got a superstar abuilding. This
is like the most viral person I know.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I mean, I agree on that, one of.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
The most amazing people I know, the one the only
Miss Don Montgomery. Don, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I'm amazing. I'm glad to be here. I feel like
I made it.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Girl does the person with like TV shows and all
this other kind of stuff. I feel like I made it.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Ah, Yes, well, well Don.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Look, man, you know, before we get into this, you
know a lot of folks they say, tell me about
yourself for the audience. We do a little bit different
here on. But or now that one of the things
that I like to do is I like to use
my friend chat GPT and I asked chat GBT. You've
seen this effort to write me a bio about my guests,
and so I'm gonna read about you and I want
(01:31):
you to tell me is it all? Is it all?
We need to make a call, you know what I mean?
So you ready to hear this? Have you ever done
this performance?
Speaker 4 (01:38):
No?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I have not, and I know you've told me to
do it. Let me admit that I know you have
told me to do that. But no, So this is
going to be shocking.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
So this is what chet chat GIBT says. Don Montgomery
is a dynamic journalist, media strategist, and cultural voice based
in Atlanta, known for bridging storytelling with strategic insight. Originally
from Mississippi, dawn of her career career, You're in Atlanta
versus a model during an iconic of featuring iconic campaigns
like tis Who clothing brand for transitioning into journalism and
(02:07):
sports media with outlets including The Atlanta Voice. She gave
national attention for her unfiltered authenticity, viral social media commentary,
and the ability to successfully pivot across media industries. Donald's
also founded and sold a portion of her sports media company,
showcasing her entrepreneurial acumen. M Currently, she's leveraging her extensive
expertise as a media consultant, advocate, and podcasts host, amplifying
(02:32):
both business narratives and cultural conversations from Atlanta to New York.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Who just ain't bad, That's not bad. That's that girl.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
That's what Chat said. Good job me, you know, that's
what Chat said.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Man oh, I appreciate that. Chat GPT. You know, I
might have to, you know, play with you a little bit,
you know, so.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Let me ask you, Let me ask you. Look again,
Like like Chat just said, you've done everything You've done, modeling,
You've done journalism, sports media businesses. Like when you kind
of look back, like when did you realize you could
really start to like connect this creativity with business and
like build something special for yourself.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
I think it was when I had down times to
really think, Like when you think about the hustle and
the grind that people put themselves on, especially when you're
like on a career path, like you go to school,
you have this major, you decide you're going to do something.
A lot of times people aren't ready for the pivot.
And I love a pivot. I actually look for a pivot.
I'm like looking within five to seven years of me
(03:29):
doing something consistently and I'm like, Okay, do I stay
here or am I ready to move on? And I
think moving along the lines of like modeling, especially the
type of modeling that I did around here, me being
able to pivot and say, y'all know, I was like
je beuty the week and my goal really was to
be a journalist. Like I said, I wanted to be
a writer. So now I need to intentionally do those things.
(03:50):
And I took some time off a modeling to kind
of like pivot and transition into that. And the beauty
of that was that I was able to hone in
on what my voice would be, because as you model,
you don't really have a voice. You're always seen not heard, right.
But I think one of the beautiful, beautiful things from
my experience in working with Ti has a cup clothing
and shouts out to Hannah King, was when I kind
of actually went viral for a billboard and I think
(04:14):
it was Jersey and representative. Oh no, he wasn't representative.
I think it was mayor at the time, Corey Booker.
He's a rep now. He literally like slammed the billboard
and talked about how you know, it's women like me
that are fatherless that shouldn't be able to, you know,
do these things and represent our community. I mean, I
think I'm doing pretty damn good now, Like look at me, sir, Like, so,
(04:38):
I you know you just a lot of times, a
lot of people think they know people because they see them. Yeah,
but I think there's so many layers to me that
I think when people do get an opportunity to see
me work as a business person or bring me into
like brain brainstorming like ideations or like trying to do
strategy and things like that, they're like, wait a minute,
you're actually smart.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And I'm like, I mean I am. Yeah. Yeah, So
that's all.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's been a plus for me to being able to
understand when I can bridge those things and do it.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yeah. Absolutely, And just kind of go back on that
for a second, like how did you first get started
in modelings.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Again.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
People that don't know man, let me tell you, Like,
Don's on everything. She's been in magazines, TV videos all day. Yeah,
how did you get involved in that stuff?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I think it started when I came out to Atlanta
during a downtime.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Honestly, I was at the time.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I had left Fort Valley State University after my freshman
year shouts out to the Wildcats, and I had went
home for a little while to take care of my grandmother.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
She had breast cancer.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
And you know, when you're being a caregiver, sometimes you're
blessed with someone who will look at you and be like, hey,
you're too young to be doing this, Like I need
you to go and go enjoy yourself. So my aunt
lived in Roswelle at the time, so off a Holmbridge
shouts out to the Hooters out there.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
That's where I literally got my start.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And there was a photographer from Mississippi who actually saw
me in Hooters and was like, hey, I would like
to take some pictures of you, and you know, it.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Was very very like what do you mean?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And at the time, I trusted him showed up. My
aunt went with me, like she was like, oh, I
like this whole setup like it was makeup artists, hairstylist, stylists,
all the things. And then it was like, oh wow,
this is this is literally like a job, like this
is something that I can get paid for, and he
paid me for it, like my very first A lot
of people aren't gonna say that their very first shoot
they got paid a couple of thousand dollars to actually shoot.
(06:23):
Because most times you could do like okay, let me
barter with you. You do these shots with me, I'll
just give you all the edits and you can build
your portfolio. No, this man literally built my portfolio from
ground up as well as his.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
But he paid me for it. And that's when I knew.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And anything that I do, if someone comes to me,
even if they're like work, wanting to you know, go
through strategy or like some sessions of consulting and stuff
like that, I can charge for that because you're talking
to me, we're working through these things, and I can
walk away from this and you can figure out if
you know how to do it. But literally, that was
my moment in knowing, Okay, I can do this, so
what else can I do? And I was just ready
to do more from there.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, let me ask you know, it's always interesting when
you meet people that again like they get paid for us,
say like creative services, just do what they do. Like
how did you learn how to value for a number?
Cause again the day look Georgia power, you know they're
not taking they not taking up to tell.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
You something them bills, they will give you the number,
Like that's the baseline. Like I think because for me,
one of the beautiful things that I've always learned and
I learned this from my grandmother. She was a pastor
of two churches, and her thing was is that no
matter what someone did for her, she found a way
(07:34):
to pay them.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
If you didn't give her a price, she gave you one.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
And then it was like if she continued to do
services with you or work with you, she made you
raise your prices. So me seeing her communicate that to us,
knowing that eventually later on in life, I'm going to
realize that a lot of people do undervalue black women
and our ability to do things that we do and
how we show up. And it was like, oh no,
I'm raising my price every time.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I think.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
There's times when I'm online and I go viral when
I say, especially on Twitter, Yeah, I gotta raise my
prices again, and like people are realized, like they'll go
through you know how you can go through somebody's timeline
to see when the last time they said something based
on keywords, and they'll they'll literally go and look, you
just did that like three months ago. Yeah, I'm realizing
that for something that I just did, I could have
(08:19):
charged double that and it's okay. But at the end
of the day, for me, it's like I'm always gonna
find that number. I'm gonna keep going, I'm gonna keep
raising it. And it's a beautiful thing too, because it's
like when you do get paid, somebody pays it up front,
they don't question it. Yeah, you're like, shit, I should
have been doing that this whole time, you know, like
I could have been reaching for the stars. But but
I think that's also another thing for black women just
(08:42):
in general, we feel like we're like it's we kind
of feel guilty sometimes, you know, when we want to
charge people, especially people we know, and I'm like, no,
you're gonna I'm charging YouTube Like I'm charging you too.
So yeah, that's that's been trusting my intuition and trusting
my numbers. My numbers generally come from like I said,
(09:04):
the bills start with the bills. Then I'm incorporating my kids.
I am a single mother, and I love co parenting
with their father. But at the end of the day,
I always think along these lines, like if he wasn't here,
how would I manage? And that has always been like
a guiding light, not to like you don't get rid
of him, because he's a great dad and he's a
great man, but it's more so like you know, a
(09:24):
lot of people will like depend upon that support and
I actually don't. So that's been the beauty of how
I can raise my prices or I can kind of
push myself to you know, you did this successfully, you
got this return. Now the next line, you actually can
raise your rate immediately just because of this success story.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Do you ever get nervous when it comes to that part, Yeah,
because I think a lot of folks like it's to
your point, especially if you just don't know when you're
trying to put there, like scared the ass the number,
And I say, if you're scared ass, like, you're probably
close to what the actual value is. And hell, you know,
people don't understand too. It's an exchange on both sides,
and like I always kind of tell people one of
the biggest things you need it as an advocate kind
of on the other side too, the kind of understands
(10:02):
because a lot of these folks when they get scared,
but when you start to realize they're they're usually not
even playing with their own money. What I mean by
that is like, if you're dealing with a company, like
the person who you're talking to, they don't get to
keep the money.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
They don't want to there, yeah, but you're giving You're
actually a lot of times I have to push people
to tell me what their budget is, right because I
don't want to low boll myself initially, and I think
asking that I ask questions immediately when I'm talking to people,
You're not coming to interview me for so like it's
just I'm going to be interviewing you back right, And
in the midst of me asking that question, then I'm
(10:35):
knowing that I can actually raise it another maybe doubl
of grand you know, just because like they could be
low balling me period, you know, just to save off top.
And so I've learned in those moments that a lot
of companies and clients and people even when I was
in sports media, they appreciated that because they did see
my work, they did see my connection to alumni or
(10:58):
players or whomever, or they did see my connection to
their audiences, and they loved that. So they were like, yes,
this was the investment that we needed to make to
kind of get to this next thing.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Absolutely. Now, how do you start to pivot? I know
you said you always kind of want to be in
journalism and doing in my life. How did you start
to make that pivot?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
That pivot was so difficult because I think a lot
of people think that my modeling career was just you know,
you're dealing with men majority of the time. You're on
sets or you're doing these commercial shoots, and it's very difficult,
I think gaining the respect coming in because I mean,
I look good, I get it. I'm fine as hell,
I get it. But I'm smart as fuck, right, So
(11:36):
it's like you get a little bit of both, like
you know, and it's when you can appreciate the fact
that someone like me can come in the room and
really not necessarily downplay myself but actually sit in the
room and listen. And then I'm literally like Okay, here's
what you're missing, And in those moments, people will look
beyond what they see and they're like, Okay, we need
(11:57):
to know more about what you do. We need to
know more about how you're doing that and gaining like
people's respect and trust. Like I think also too, coming
from modeling, My first full jump into journalism was dealing
with sports media. I should have went another way, like
I should have started with like working with local newspaper
(12:19):
like I did, but at the time, I had so
many connections to so many different universities in their alumni groups,
and these people were hiring me to host parties or
host tailgates, and I was like, oh shoot, they're paying
me to show up talk about my experience like I'll
never forget, you know. One of my first people to
(12:40):
do this was Halward Hughes. He used to have Bandwagon
Bandwagon fan club, but he is an alpha who was
at Clemson, and then he used to see me all
up and down the timeline, you know, covering like college
game day and stuff like that, and at one point,
like he gave my information to like another one of
his brothers and they hired me to come out to
(13:01):
host a tailgate.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
From then on, their tailgates were packed.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
And then it was like every season I had to
dedicate at least two games to going and hosting something
there and they paid me well, and it was like, Oh,
I can do this with y'all. I'm going to Ohio State.
I don't even like Michigan, I'm going to them. I'm
thinking of all the top alumnick groups around Atlanta, because again,
their alumni groups here, they have budgets, they have money.
(13:25):
A lot of them can't get some of their former
players to come back and kind of host certain things.
So who do they know locally that's going to pull
some of the fans in or at least be exciting
enough to where they want to see them and participate.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
And that started there.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
But then when I realized that I could build a
company off of that while also writing about that, that's
when the process of getting credentialing started. Because now I'm
not just there for tailgating in good times. I actually
need to be on the sideline, or I need to
be in the press box. I need to really be
in the room with other people who they're writing these
(14:00):
game day stories and they're doing it for their outlets.
But for someone like me, I could take that, put
that on my website, and now I've got like people
like vivid Seats reaching out to me because now they
want to run something, you know, based off of my
experience in a particular stadium where they're trying to get
their sales up. And that ended up being a proof
of concept for any other school that I ended up
working with. And one of the first schools that credentialed
(14:22):
me was Georgia State. I'm always give credit to Georgia State.
I was there from the inception of the football program
and it was one of the most beautiful things I've
ever experienced, and like, to me, that was bigger than
Super Bowls that I covered.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Like it was to see a program from talk.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
To actual launch to you see the actual product and
then they had they had a couple of winning streaks
of what have you.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
And to be a part of that, it was a
good ride.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
It was a good ride, you know, shot to Georgia State.
Man deal, that's that's that's a good friend of mine.
He was in one hundred black men class. You know. Now,
I did go to the real g issue, which is
in states who conversation we're not gonna go there.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Now.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
You talked about your sports media companies that also is
that the same company that you sold?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yes, so I saw a portion of it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And I actually explained this the other day because I
had some followers who didn't really.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
So I'm learning. I'm gaining new followers almost every week.
I'm sure to be honest with you.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And the funny thing is is I'm having to remind
them if I have a perspective about something, especially in
relation to sports, I actually have the experience to talk
about that, and so me in general, like the way
that I feel about.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Selling my company.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
It was during it was a little bit after the
racial reckoning that summer twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Or what have you, and I just saw a lot.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Of companies and people investors looking to invest in like
black owned a black woman owned businesses, and you know,
people were grabbing that money. You know, kudos to everybody,
But I think in my mind, I was just like,
even if someone gave me something right now, my plan
beyond this right now does not actually include this company.
So how can I make a return off of this?
(16:03):
How much I've invested in a couple Like I think
I'm gonna be did like eight to nine years in it.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So again that's seven to ten.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Year window where I'm now realizing I'm getting ready to
make a pivot, but I want my money back, Like
this is the one time that I can probably pitch
this to somebody and they would pay for it. And
luckily I run across two guys who have been following me,
an Asian guy and a white guy.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
And I'm very specific on that.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I can't say names, of course because of the contract
and stuff, but I'm very specific in that just because
they genuinely came up to me and were like, we
don't want to buy your whole company, but there's something
about the data that we feel like you may have
that we need to launch what we have going on.
And they're one of the top like sports related businesses
right now, Like I can't even name them, but they're
(16:49):
doing a damn good job with the foundation that I
was able to pass to them. I mean, they pay
for it, but again they took it and they ran
with it, and by all means, I'm like, that's dope
to me.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Like that's super dope to me.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
And it gave me the freedom to kind of like
take care of some personal things that I had at
the time, and I took care of, you know, some
of my team that at the time that was working
with me, and then beyond that, it was.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Just like, okay, so what's next, what's next?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
So yeah, what did you learn most in that process?
Because again, like I've had people that have come on
and talked about like selling a business and you know,
like making sure they had things, but like, what were
(17:36):
some of the main things you learned in the process
of selling a portion of that business?
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Listening you end up finding out who's what their real
intentions are for what you have just by listening, because
I know I can come in and I can be like,
I want five hundred thousand dollars, I want on a
million dollars before I give you this, and not necessarily.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I didn't go in the door with the number.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I went in the door with an open ear right
because it was like you guys came to me and granted,
there were other companies that were looking to invest in
my company, and they were wanting to invest more money.
But when I learned their idea, I learned what they
were trying to do. They showed me proof of concept
and all of the things they like. We literally went
through about a nine month process before I actually agreed
(18:20):
to start negotiations to start talking about the money. And
I think that that was a beautiful thing because most
people wouldn't take that long, like it's like, okay, you
don't let us have this or not, you know, but
they were genuinely like, Okay, I understand why she's holding
his clothes, because during this time, it does look very
performative that people like us are coming and wanting to
(18:40):
buy something or poor or and invest in something poor
into these companies, when necessarily I'm not looking to take
the culture part of it. We want numbers, we want information,
We want certain things that we don't already have and
we have. They had no from the from the backgrounds
that they had, they had no contacts, they had nothing.
So literally they needed that and they couldn't find anybody else.
(19:02):
So I could prolong that process until I feel comfortable,
and then I ended up asking for the very number
that I wanted and they said yes on the spot,
like we didn't have to go back and forth on numbers.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Okay, Okay, now look Donald, this, this this is one
of the real reasons why I wanted to bring you
on here. I'm about to ask, Oh, God, you are
one of the queens at going viral. Yeah, what's the
science behind that? Like, how is it that you're able
to just continueously just show up and find those things
just cause conversations and just you know, get people, get
(19:36):
people talking.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
I am me.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's literally me. I've gone around and you've heard me
say this before. I've gone around and I said that
there's no strategy to it. When I really sat down
and I thought about it, and I was like, actually,
there is. And it's generally when people in this day
and age want to see someone who is transparent, who
is actually authentic, doesn't say that they are, but you
(19:59):
can go to their pay you can see consistently they
don't give a damn.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I don't like.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I want people to really realize, like journalists like me
or former models like me, we still are human.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I'm a mom, i am a mentor, I am a
community advocate. I am all of these things, and I'm
going to share certain parts of that. I've gotten to
a point where I don't share my kids a whole
lot no more. But for me, it's been me.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
It's been literally like people are looking for something from me,
or this topic is happening, or this is trending online.
I will wake up and by the time I've gone
through most of my day in the morning, by the
time I do jump online, I've already been tagged in
things that people want me to comment on. So it's
almost literally like the demand is there and I am
literally the product, or I am literally the person that
(20:50):
people are Like. Organizations are coming to me now because
they realize that I've actually worked with various social justice
groups like you know, I've worked with off Rep New
Georgia Project, I've worked with Advancement Project, and I've worked
in these various spaces, and when they learned that I've
done those things, they're like, Okay, wait, we need to
get you in the room because what did you do there?
(21:12):
Like part of what things were you a part of?
And my biggest get a part of me being the
actual product, is my ability to connect people in getting
media coverage. Me and you were just talking about this
earlier about some things with Morris Brown and how I
feel like there's so many great things happening over there,
but I would love to see more visibility about that,
(21:33):
right and that being shared and someone like me popping
up and saying, oh my god, did y'all see what
happened at Morris Brown or X, Y and Z. People
will look at that and people will want to know
more because it's me. So it's literally I haven't I
don't have it down to a science per se. But
(21:54):
a part of the strategy is what feels good to me,
what do I need to respond to and then also
is it something that I can amplify to put more
eyes on it? And that's why brands and networks are
now reaching out to me now in this stage of
my life because they're like, Okay, she's not attached to
anybody right now, she's like she's she's basically free lass
and she's able to move around. So how can we
(22:16):
work with her to create narratives around certain things or
get more eyes on the campaigns or things that we
have going on?
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah? Absolutely? And then I mean talking about strategy too, right,
Like you work with these brands and you know you
understand media strategy, Like where do you think the biggest
gap is between like what these brands kind of understand
when it comes to media strategy and like, actually, you
know how things work in the real world.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Have black people in the room, Like, if I'm honest, Brandon,
and I'm pretty sure you know this as well. Having
someone and I don't even mean one person, You're gonna
need multiple with different backgrounds, someone that has a lived
experience to where when you get to the table, they're like,
that's not gonna fly, and let me tell you why.
(22:59):
And then you need to listen to them because that's
going to save you crisis comms situations, right, Like, it's like,
because at the end of the day, you want to
go through that and you're thinking bad press is all
good press or whatever. To me, that doesn't exist. Bad
press is bad press because people are going to remember that.
So for me, it's mostly every time that I have
(23:19):
been called in certain situations, even when there's like black
lead companies and things like that, there are some people
that aren't in those rooms that have said lead experience,
lived experience to where they can come in and they
can shift your strategy, but you have to be able
to listen to them, right. I think that's partly another
reason why I do a lot of work outside of Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
I've done a lot here.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
You know this, and I've been in some rooms where
I haven't publicly said that I was a part of
whatever was going on, and that's intentionally just because I
respect my relationships. But beyond that, when those people start talking,
there are people out of the city who are now like, oh,
we need to get you here, like you know, we
need to get you over here with what we got
going on, and I'm gonna go. You gotta check, I'm
(24:02):
gonna go. But for me, it's more so really having
us in the room, having those of us who have
lived experiences that vary from the people that are already
at the table, and then actually listening like why can't
you hear us, Like why can't you understand that we
know a little bit more than you? And it's beyond
the whole Oh, I went to school for colm strategy.
(24:24):
I went to school for marketing and strategy. Have you Okay,
that's great, but have you applied this in the real world?
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, it's no. It's interesting. Like I you know, I
always kind of say, like, at the end of the day,
brands want to land in culture, right, but like if
you look around the room and the people that are
in the room don't reflect the culture you're trying to
land in, like, how can you authentically do it right?
I've been in a lot of rooms from a marketing standpoint.
Like one of my favorite stories I love to tell
(24:50):
is there was a there's a Fried Chicken brand, Fried
Chicken company out here who always has bad cust from
the service every time you go into one of their restaurants.
I remember I was in a we were doing a
campaign with them a long time ago. I was at
the radio station and it was around football season, and
(25:12):
I looked around and I was the only person looked
like me in the room and chicken. Let me tell you,
let me, let me tell you what they try to do.
Let me tell you they try to do. They said
they want to do it. They want to they want
to bring in a gospel choir, and they wanted the
choir to be basically holding the chicken. And the tagline
they came up with was if football is your religion,
(25:35):
chicken is ours.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
And then they might as well just throwing some seated
watermelon and just called.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
It a day. What are we doing?
Speaker 3 (25:44):
And then I promise you, one of the guys in
the room, who was one of the senior people singing executives.
He looked at me and he said, Brandon, we gotta,
we gotta what's that thing black people like to drink?
And I said, I said, I said water like I
don't know what's something about. He said, crystal. We need
to put some.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Crystal crystyle and chicken is wild.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
That's a time out, y'all. I don't think this is
gonna work at all, gonna work And like, get to
your point, right, if I hadn't been in there.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
They would have ran it, would that because to him
that sounded like the move, that sounded like the thing,
and quite as this kept, he would have reached a
certain demographic right.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
But the thing about.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
That is is immediately those of us who can recognize
the gimmick around that, that can recognize you stereotyping around that,
it's like we're about to call you out. No, you
can't do that, like you know, and then you're gonna
have to pull that. And now you've done all this
advice marketing by like, you've done all of these things,
and you've wasted all this money because you didn't have
(26:47):
somebody like you in their own.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
And people don't understand. Another buddy of mine the other
day because Target reached out to him and they were
basically trying to get his brand. They had offered to
pay him I on know, like twenty thirty grand and
they were looking for like eight They were looking for
black owned businesses that were started by people that were
meeting HBCUs wow, and they wanted to kind of go around.
(27:09):
It was funny when he told me about it. He
was like, man, let me tell you about this statement.
It's this company hitting me up and they want to
do this and this. He's like, you never guess who
it is. I said, Oh, it's.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Target based off of what they're.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Looking to his target I know for it.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
He was like, they know the culture and then they
get in there.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
But like I told him, I said's a couple things
you got to realize. Like one, if you go back
to your HBCU with a big target logo, good luck
above you. You know what I'm saying. I said, you
don't have a whole other set Like a lot of people.
You talked about crisis comms earlier, Like when I was
at Edleman, I was on the crisis team, Like these
people don't understand, like we build two and a half
three times our rate on crisis work is very lucrative, right,
(27:44):
and that's why I was telling him. I was like, bro,
like all money ain't good.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Money at that part.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Here you can take that check, but like what it's
going to do for your brand for you locally, Like
when you go back.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
From the ground up, so people trust you.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
So when you do attach yourself to someone that they're
not trusting right now, it's like it's wrong with you,
Like are you really the person that we've been supporting
all this time? You know, and you get you feel
jaded when you see people do that. I mean people
are jumping about that with Ky Sannatt right now. I
mean me personally. I had to have an extensive conversation
(28:18):
with my fourteen year old who just because he's all
you know that iteration, they know all things about streaming,
And he's like, wait, he got him and his homeboys on,
And I say, him and his homeboys are actually kind
of dumb unless they do these things right. Because again,
even if he didn't know up front, I think if
he was, if he pays attention to the critique and
(28:39):
all of the response from it, and he makes some
adjustments to where it includes the community, and then he
gets them to the table with the people who have
been leading the boycott and having those conversations, then by
all means I will bow down to Coystannatt. But if
it doesn't lead to something like that where you're getting
a check, bro, and I no longer have any respect
(29:00):
for you, because you've done so that everybody out because
you're trying to make your bottom dollar. Yeah, and technically
he doesn't have to do that.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Yeah, Like lord, I told my friend. I was like, man,
I said, honestly, if I was of you, what I
would do is I would go back to them and
I would say, look, I would do this, but y'all
need to not only y'all need to donate a million
dollars boom to our school boom or better of fact,
I said, even better, I said, because there's a thing
like at the end of the day, two, no matter
how much money, even if they donate, it's not gonna
(29:29):
be enough. Like somebody's gonna say something. Correct, So if
you get a million, somebody that's a that's a twenty
billion dollar company, they should have gave y'all like it's
always going to be. They could have done more, I said,
But I think what you have the ability to do now,
which you have the ability to go back to them
and say, look like we'll do this campaign with you
on these terms. Yes, and the terms is I need
you you know, or I said them, I said, look,
or give them to donate ten million dollars and go
(29:50):
to ten different HBCUs. There you go around and like
do this whole thing.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
And then including you know, like understanding that they have
to come out and say they understand why people were
boycotting them, and them not realizing that they should have
sat in their own boardrooms and brought people to the
table before they made a grand announcement that they were
divesting in DEI like all of those things. Those things
are super important right now, and I just think people
(30:15):
have to understand when companies are divesting, find the ones
who are still investing, like, let's pull our support over there,
and then anyway we're supposed to be supporting each other
in the first fucking place. So it's like, there's ways
that you can find ways to not deal with Target,
because the consistent thing that I still see to this
day is people are still going to Target for certain
things because they don't know where else to go get it,
(30:36):
And I'm like, what the hell.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Are you buying there that you can't buy somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Trust me, you can find a website for the product
or the brand they're there because n was out of ten.
If you were in Target, you had to have a website.
So it's like, don't use it as an excuse. So
I'm not excusing any of that unless you are doing
what you say, making sure that they're investing in us
in some capacity. And it's a grand gesture as not
(31:02):
to like just jump into the culture, but more so
saying we know we were wrong, We're trying to make
it right. Here's what we are trying to do, and
then people can make their own judgments on whether or
not they want to continue to shop with.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You or deal with you.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Yeah, like it's interesting man. Like me, it was just
like talking about talking to different folks about it. Like
that's one things I've kind of said too, is I
wonder if and you know, we're not going to have
a whole conversation will tell you good, But like I
kind of wonder sometimes if it would even make more
sense to instead of just flat out boycotting them, to say,
you know what, let's organize everybody. I want you to
go buy every single black product there is in Target
(31:35):
and those shelves out.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
So and you know, I've heard that, especially through our
black press coverage with all of the black newspapers across
the country, and doctor Benchaves had been a huge leader
and working with like you know, repping doctor Jamal Bryant
and all of them, and as well as the original
people who created the boycott in Minnesota. Minneapolis actually and
to me in that coverage of seeing that, my response
(31:59):
to that was, I'm sorry, I'm still not physically going
into that building. Yeah, you know, I'm because even my purchase,
like if you think about the tax or you're thinking
about the other things that they incorporate into the price,
that still benefits the whole corporation versus not just paying
for the product per se. So that's why for me,
it's always been that's almost been a telltale conversation for
(32:21):
me with some people. I'm like, if I hear you
say that you still shopping at Target, yeah, stay over there,
stay over there, because if you don't have the the like,
the critical thinking skills to say they're doing this thing.
A lot of people disagree with that, and I should
be in that pool. But and I need to realize
that I can go and go support another business that
(32:42):
has the same products, or I can support that business
directly by going to their website.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Then me and you can't.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Talk and like it'sially black holes. They made it. A
part of it was tar you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
We created a culture around Target, like the tiktoks around
Target shopping and.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Ya, but that was us. Yeah, that was us.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
So the fact that you say that you're removing this thing,
and yes, I even had like a couple of like
marketing people in legal folks in the legal field, you know,
kind of break down with it actually meant for them
to say that out loud. I was like, but it
was still wrong. You know, you have to break that down.
It doesn't mean that we're getting rid of the products
in here. That doesn't mean that we're stopping contracts that
(33:22):
we have with black owned businesses.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
This is what it actually means.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
You say that they didn't do that, so therefore now
they're still in crisis.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Mode, right, And yeah, theydn't throw all theF I just
you know, I think that we're again we're getting ready
to come up on back to school time soon. I
think we can hold on through back to school. We
don't have some real leverage.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
That'd be the way.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I'm like, Okay, are we really boycott Dollar Tree and
Family Dollar and Dollar General?
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Because where where I'm gonna get the paper from? Where
I'm gonna get the pencils?
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Like, it's no like And you know, the funny thing
is is I've seen at local gas stations, especially because
I've been traveling a lot, I've been seen at local
gas station is where there are certain products in there
that I've never seen before. So maybe these gas stations
are waking up to being like, okay, if they're not
going here, which we know is a huge store in
our city or area, then maybe we can contact some
(34:12):
of these companies and have this stuff in here. I've
seen I seen a loosely paper and in a gas station,
I've never seen that. I'm just gonna be honest with you,
I've never seen that. I grabbed like five pass you
know you did, right, and a bucket of chicken. All right,
so we good so, But in general, for me, it's
like this is this is a major opportunity for people
to really create lists where people can go to get
(34:33):
said supplies and things like that and support them.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Okay, this is why. And you know what, I've been
saying this for years. I'm gonna start me a trash
bad company and people just laugh at me when I
say that, but I'm like, love.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
I always laugh and it's like the third type of
person said.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
I'm like, but let me tell you. Let me tell you,
like y'all don't care about glad and heifty don't and
a black I have me a black I'm you know
what I've been looking I'm going to start this black
old trash.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Back you do it, and I'm gonna find out I've
been looking for the the who who does wholesale for
like recycled bands and trash beds, and we'll go into
business together.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Like I'm telling you, man, I'm telling you know.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
So again obviously with this this, you know you've got
a big strong stance on advocacy. You've had some experiences
that revolt you know, like how is that like impacted
you know, your your ability to just kind of navigate
the media world and opportunities. Is that had any backlashes
kind of worked out for you? Like always stand in
your business.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Citing bro like the death threats I got off of
people not really knowing how much I.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Actually got paid to do that podcast.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I was like, if you knew how much I got paid,
you would get somewhere and sit down.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
That was a drop in the bucket.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
That was a major opportunity that was brought to me
by a good friend of mine who used to he
was He's from Mississippi. Shout out to doctor because she
made this connection. She had a whole dinner was a
bunch of us that are transplants here in the state
of I mean in Georgia in Atlanta, and Darius was
at that table, and Darius, after hearing my story because
we all got to share what we do and all
(36:12):
the things. Mike was there and some other people and
it was like, yo, he was like, I might need
to get you on this show. And I saw it
as a major opportunity. Hits why I was willing to
take you know, whatever how much I was getting paid
and the opportunity itself. But I think a lot of
people also have to remember when you're in those type
of spaces, you're not an actual employee who said company.
(36:33):
You're a contractor so nonsense. That team, you might not
have to deal with one of the main people.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
But my my.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Pushback on that was me knowing certain things that I knew,
and then me being a survivor. If it were me
and I had someone I actually supported or listened to
on the podcast network and that person still showed up
to go to work, or still showed up to do
another season, or still did whatever they wanted to do,
(37:01):
how would that make me feel?
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Again, this comes back to me and how I feel.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
And literally my intuition was just like, Okay, let them
people know that you're thinking about, you know, leaving, or
that you want to hear something from leadership and give
them a little time before you make a decision. And
when I didn't hear anything, I was just like, Okay,
I'm gone, and I get it. You know, that's not
a major loss to them in a sense, but to me,
I literally had to make a decision that I would
(37:27):
be proud of. I wanted to actually have a series
of episodes on the next season of that podcast that
talked about sexual abuse, manipulation, coersion, things like that of
that nature, like literally around that survivor conversation because we
had women previously on that podcast who were survivors and
(37:48):
had turned that into something else.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
You get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
So it's like, oh, let's go a little deeper in that,
because I feel like everybody has a story and they
have something that they can share, but how do you
get past that? And that was something that I felt
would have been beneficial to the audience, But when that happened,
it was like, how can you carry that out? Knowing
that this is happening and leadership is not saying anything
directly at the moment, because again, I think they were
(38:12):
somewhat blindsided themselves, especially for some of the people that
I can remember that were in position or what have you.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
And then go from there. But I literally had.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Some dark days dealing with that because it was like
me making that decision then like my full time job
at the time, realized that I was working on a podcast,
God forbid, somebody need some extra money on the side
and they want.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
To work in the evening.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Then it was a.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Matter of like at the time, I was somewhat dating
this guy and when he saw my tweet, he was like,
you don't even know if he's guilty, And I'm like, bro,
you actually know my story, so for you to be like, like,
(39:01):
give me tens, give me a tens.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
No, I can't.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
And then when video came out, that's when I got
a text message from him because I shut it off again.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
You know me, if I don't deal with you, I
just don't deal with you.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
But when the video came out, he was one of
the first people to apologize to me. He was like,
no matter what transpire or what is in those court documents,
you read that first before you made.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Your decision, and you gave them time.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
So I respect you for even doing that because most
people would have just made an impulse decision. And it
wasn't an impulse decision. It was very calculated. I talked
to my therapist three or four times before I made
a decision. I talked to my entire family. My mom
is a pastor. I talked to her because I felt like,
you know, if I did go viral yet again, which
is what I did, and I was like, I didn't
think nobody was paying attention to me at that time.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
You know.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
That it would raise eyes. And I know people know her.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
I know people know my family, especially in Mississippi and
all the things, and so It was one of those
things where I generally, for those any viral moments that
I've ever had in general, outside of Black Revolt, my fai,
I've always had to let my family like, hey, I
might go viral for this, or hey, I'm about to
post something sometime. We got a whole group chat. Y'all
(40:14):
be thinking I'll be thirstrapping. My family probably don't seen
it before I posted it, you know what I'm saying,
because I'm just making sure everybody's good. But it taught
me that I have learned, even at such a young
age when I had to testify against my father who
sexually abused me and saw him go to jail. He
pleaded guilty, all he changed his plea after my testimony,
(40:35):
and me knowing the power of my voice no matter
what in my life, I have grown into that. So
for me to be this at this big age, you know,
to really say we don't need.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
That, you know, let me move on.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
And I moved on, and yeah, people question it, and
I wanted to raise my voice to kind of say,
this is why I did it, this is where I'm
coming from. And you know, Daris supposed to producer of
that show. He has been one of the most supportive
men during that entire time, and I respect him so
heartily for that because he didn't have to do that.
He has his own podcast while while black, you know,
all the things, and it's he was just.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Very supportive and I needed that.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
And I think even just having that one person, like
you said, always having like that one person that advocates
for you. You've been that person, you know, solo at
ninety four point five. It has been that person streets
ninety four point five, And I just think I've just
always been blessed to be around certain people that really
want to see me win. And they might not understand
the decisions that I make or the shit I post,
but at the end of the day, if they know
(41:32):
that they need to cause somebody like me to come
in to kind of talk to their clients or talk
to interns, or talk to their employees or you know,
be a part of campaigns, they know to call me.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Yeah. Now, obviously, again, through your career, you've had a
lot of changes.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
One thing you've talked about is like change and pivoting
is like very empowering.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Yeah, I love a good pivot.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
You know, Like, what do you say that like the
creative entrepreneur, the things that a pivot is a failure,
like instead of seeing it as an opportunity for success
or just like recreate themselve.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
So to me, when people don't want to pivot, they
find themselves in very low places. So then you start
making certain decisions that would not align with anything that
you're trying to do in the future. Right also mentally,
because I'm a big advocate of mental health, you will
find yourself in some of the lowest places that if
you had just made an adjustment, or if you had
(42:22):
to just made a pivot, or if you had to
just rebrand it, or if you had to just gave
it up, like just that's not gonna work, it's time
to move on. To me, it's just you have to
really be able to let go. And I think the
beauty in what I've consistently done in anybody that has
followed me, from when I was a blogger to model too, journalists,
(42:46):
to all the things y'all know, when I'm not satisfied
or if i don't feel like i'm doing or i'm
living up to my best potential in something that I'm doing,
whatever role position, this can be in any aspect of life.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
I will leave as my age husband, like.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
I will leave, And that's not to disrespect him, it's
just more so like he didn't believe it until I
did it.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
You get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
And I think that that's such an empowering thing because
when you decide to leave, yes you do have to
start over, or yes you might have some pieces that
you can take with you to build a point. But
to me, I love a good lego moment like now
got bare pieces?
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Now what can I build from that? Right?
Speaker 1 (43:29):
And I think a lot of people don't really think
that I'm going through those things just because I'm showing
a very human and fun side of my life, just
because I'm in a really good place in my life
right now and I'm over forty.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
You can agree to this.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
We are very happy to be here.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
Happy.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
We are very happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
So when I say if there's a pivot moment, I
don't even think twice about it. I might question it,
I might give it a minute, like a day or two,
but if I need to make a change, it's done.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Like I'm not move on.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
And I think as creatives, you stunt your growth when
you don't do that, like you don't You don't even
understand that there's another opportunity waiting on you, right, Yeah,
And I know it's difficult, but baby, find find a therapist.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
That's that's one of my first things. Find somebody.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Find a therapist and find somebody that can be like
your accountability partner. Those two people, you're gonna get through
that one.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
One of my one of my favorite calls I tell
people all the time is you don't have to keep
making a mistake because you took a long time to
make it.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Ooh, I don't think i've ever heard you say that.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Some bars bar that is a bar.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Why don't you make I need a bar book? But
that's really good.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
That's that's a good point because if you look at
that too, if you're if you remove professional right, think
about personal. You'll be in a relationship knowing that she
ain't working out. You're being a marriage knowing that she's
not working out. But the second of the kids or
the relationship we've been together since college, I don't give
a damn is no longer working and it's okay.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
You can move on.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
And I think that's the beauty of like even with
me bringing up my ex husband.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
You know I we co.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Parent very well and we respect each other, and I'm like, shit, that's.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
All I want it, Like it's like da you know,
how come I can get that there? And you know
we could have been best friends, you know, like, but
we're good. We're good, and I'm proud of that.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Like even my oldest son's father, that's one of my
best friends. Like he's one of the first people. He
was one of the first people to call me when
I made the decision, and he sorry, go viral, I'm
thinking of you.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
What do you need?
Speaker 1 (45:29):
You know, we love you over here. He has a
whole ass wife, you know what I'm saying, And she
was cool. She sent me a text message. She was
at work, she's locked in, but she's like, hey, I
know he gave you a call. Like I'm we're proud
of you, like we love that. And so to know
that I actually have people support in real life. The
moments that I go viral or get dragged or drugged
or talked about online, that does not amount to that.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
And it could easily be three people over here amongst
thousands of people online. But no, I'm not worried about that.
I'm not worried about that at all.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
Before we wrap up, Donald, just want to ask, like,
you know, you've done all kinds of stuff, but like,
what's something that you've done that you're really proud of
professionally that maybe like hasn't gotten the spotlight, but it's
really kind of shaped to the who you've become as
a person.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Me right now, what I'm doing right now with Okay
Player my podcast, To be clear, I'm so fucking proud
of that. Like it's it's almost like, how did I
say this. I've always had doubts. I've always had doubts
about being upfront. You know this, Me and you have
talked about this. Visibility does scare me. For me to
be that viral all the time, the visibility does scare me.
(46:48):
But I think I've done a lot of things where
I was a co host, or I was a producer
behind the scenes, or I was doing all the things.
You remember when I was at the Atlanta Voice, I
was doing fifty million jobs and still making sure that
things were executed correctly. You know what I'm saying. But
for me to really say to myself at this time,
you're leaving this full time job. You just walked away
(47:10):
from this other podcast, and you have these various networks
reaching out to you that want to work with you,
and they want to center a show around you. Why
are you doubting yourself in this moment? It's time for
you to step up? And literally, you know. I know
people say that they hear God and all the things,
and I've only heard him a couple of times in
my life and every time I've listened, But this time
it was like, when you do it, I have you.
(47:32):
When you do it, I have you. Sorry, excuse me
what I'm jumping, you know, And that process was literally
I want to say all of that went down with
Revolt what November twenty twenty three in a sense, I
want to say the next phone the last phone call
that I took from a network was Okay Player. And
(47:52):
one of the first things that I should say, the
CEO of Okay Players said to me on that call.
She said, Hey, before we get started, I want to
know how you're doing. Everybody else. We want you to
be on our network because we can see blah blah
blahlah blah.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
In my mind, I'm like, you don't.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Realize that I actually see that you were trying to
jump off of the momentum of me leaving this network
and you wanting to gain that and all the things,
not realizing that I'm a person and here it is
this black woman says, how are you doing? I was like,
I'm sold what y'all want me to do? Like use me,
you know what I'm saying. And it started with December
(48:34):
twenty twenty three and we did like auditions for a
co host. They trusted me on that. We had like
twelve applicants for that. We got to the fourth one
that was Freddie BTV and I loved him energy, chemistry,
like we didn't have to fake nothing, we didn't have
to figure stuff out. And I was like, stop the auditions.
I want him, like he has to be it. Me
(48:55):
and him stayed in touch. We ended up learning that
we had mutuals. Come to find out he went I
went to school with eToro you know what I'm saying
at Tennessee State and Marshall restis so Marsha Lattimore.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
And it's just a beautiful thing that.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
I'm just so proud of myself that I decided to
bet on myself again that I am growing into it.
And I took time from December twenty twenty three to
May twentieth of twenty twenty five this year to say,
this is my thing.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
I'm executive producer. Had I created this show.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
I basically like, if I wanted to walk away from
all of this, I can go with a proof of
concept because look at the damn views on this shit, right, Like,
look at the engagement that it gets on okay players
like social channels. A lot of people were so like
this is weird because it's different programming for them, But
now they're like coming back. They want more, they want
(49:49):
to see more guests. They're not realizing that I know
a lot of the people that I'm bringing on the show,
Like tell I think I've told you before where people
are very shocked that I know certain people you know,
and that's just in any industry. And I'm like, that's
just because I'm not always taking a picture with these people.
When I'm with them, I trust my relationship. So I'm
extremely glad and proud of myself that I've gotten to
(50:11):
this point and that I've done the work to get here.
Everything was leading up to this, and even if this
stops its season one and I've got to pivot to
go to something else.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
I'm damn proud. Like it's like I can.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Walk away and be like, oh shit, you gonna find
me something else, you know, And it is what it
is because again it started with me. It begins with
me all the things, and it's gonna end with me,
like I'm the product.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
It's me.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
And beyond that, like understanding that sometimes when you're down,
when things are just you, you have to have other things
that you have going on that brings in different sources
of income. So for me, it's like, even if this
one thing stops, I have these other things coming in
or other things that I'm doing because I'm also working
in other spaces.
Speaker 2 (50:56):
So it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (50:58):
Well look, Don, congratulations all this says you know, as always,
you're killing it. You one of my favorite people out here.
Very proud of you. Before we get out of here, Please,
how can people find you? Follow you, support you, give
them all the things.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
Not that y'all need to find me, because y'all probably
know where I am, but if in case I am
new to you, you can find me on Twitter because
I call it Twitter, not X at Underscore Don Montgomery,
and that's don d A w N because a lot
of people d o N.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
Excuse me.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
I'm on Instagram. I am also on Blue Sky's same
name as well. I'm on I just got on Facebook
just for the show. It's stressful over there. I am
on spil as well every now and then. But outside
of that, I mean, I also have, like in my
link tree on Instagram, ways that people can email me
(51:49):
or book a strategy session with me. I can talk
strategy about anything, literally because I have certifications and a
lot of things.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
So I'm here absolutely, absolutely with Don. We appreciate you. Congratulations,
keep on going here killing it. You know, I appreciate you.
You know, let's always say I appreciate y'all, you know,
stopping the PJ for a second and stopping by before
you go.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
I haven't gotten to the PJ. See my tweet last
about a week ago. I need more friends with PJ.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
It's like, if you got a private jet, come talk
to me, like we can barter.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
I will work for free, like I'm not kidding, but no.
Speaker 3 (52:26):
But no, thank you so much for pulling up Don.
And with that said, out that's the pod, y'all you've
been listening to Button Nomics and I'm your hosts 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 producing in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by
Ksey Pegram, with marketing support Fromqueen and Nikki. Music provided
(52:46):
by mister Hanky. If you haven't already, hit that subscribe
button and never missed an episode, and be sure to
follow us on all our social platforms at butter dot
atl Listen to button Nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (53:00):
Bout bukutununt
Host
Brandon Butler
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