January 7, 2025 ⢠35 mins
In this episode of Butternomics, host Brandon Butler sits down with Scotty ATL to unpack how he turned a side hustle into a cultural movement. What started as a side hustle has grown into a cultural phenomenon, blending music, entrepreneurship, and the art of custom grillz. Scotty takes us behind the scenes of his journey, from opening a new store on Edgewood to expanding to LA, all while dropping music like Couch Potato.
We dive into his hustle, the challenges of balancing creativity with business, and how he’s turned gold teeth into a global statement. Whether you’re here for the grind, the music, or the culture, this episode is a masterclass in building a brand that shines just as bright as the grillz.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I wanted to focus more on being wealthy than being rich.
So I look at riches, is you got a lot
of money. Yeah, when you're wealthy, you have time. And
so even now I'm still trying to adjust to it,
right because business is still able to function. I have
my team on, my employees that are there every day,
they working, but I still want to be there, right.
(00:21):
This is the rich in me still wants to do
the work versus allowing the team to do the work.
And so in our culture, I feel like we emphasize
grinding so much that we want to work until we die.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Well, I might look at different culture. They are playing golf,
you know what I'm saying, Like, I ain't worried about
some of the stuff we worried about. And so I'm
trying to adjust still to this day, to being able
to be wealthy, being able to trust the team, and
then relaxed. I feel uncomfortable sometime watching TV.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Everybody, Welcome to another episode of Button Nomics. I'm your host,
Brandon Butler found in sy O Butter atl And Today, y'all,
we got a special guest up in here, the homie
from the east Side. Yeah, mister Scotty at l himself. Scotty,
how you feeling.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I'm feeling good, man? How are you?
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Man?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I'm happy to see you, bro, I'm telling you now, Man,
I saw you you had some experiences going on.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Glad to see you first and foremost, since my mom
always says it's better to be seen, not viewed, and
so it's good to see you, brother.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Okay, for sure, I like that quote too, you know
what I'm saying. Yeah, Man, look dropped it on your
next on your next project. Cool, Scotty. What's been going on? Man?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
First of all, Man, how you feeling? We know you
had an accident a couple of months ago. You like
you've been healing up?
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Man?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
How you feeling? First of all?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Bro? I feel good mentally, you know, spiritually, I feel good.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I feel like myself. Physically, I'm still getting there.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I'm not all the way one hundred percent. My leg
is still broken, but I had a stomach hernia, traumatic
hernia in my stomach and I had a broken wish
too at first. So my leg is still healing up.
It's still broken up, but it was shit actually, So
I'm still in the wheelchair moving around trying to use
(02:05):
the crutches every now and then. But for the most part,
I feel good.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I love it, man.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And you know what I love about it too, is
even through this whole process, because again I've been seen
on social media and I'll be shooting your text like, yo, bro,
hope you're doing good. You know, it seems like even
though this has been a tough process, like it's helped you,
you know, I don't want to say like grow and mature,
but you've just you know, start to evolve a little
bit coming through this whole process.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Right, Yeah, yeah, no, dob.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I feel like, in general, the whole process has made
me enjoy and really appreciate life a lot more than
I did before. And I've always been the type person
to appreciate life. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, But
this accident really put a lot of things in perspective
for me on the business level, on a friendship level,
(02:49):
on a personal level, you know, with my kids and
my family, like just so many things. It's allowed me
to take it more seriously and cherish it more.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, yeah, man.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
And you know what's interesting too, is, like you said,
you looking at stuff a little bit differently. Now, you know,
you just came out with this new project called Couch Potatoes.
So it's even interesting to see how, you know, you
build it off of that, you know, setback and like
making it not like a comeback, but you're making something
out of it, right.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Right, right right?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
So yeah, I recorded a whole project on my couch.
It's called couch Potato. When I got injured, man, I
was in the hospital for like two and a half weeks,
and so writing music was just so.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Hard to do during that time.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Even when I got out, I was just still trying
to make sense of everything that was going on. And
so I was like, you know what, when I finally
got a chance to record, I started writing on the
couch in the living room, writing on the couch, crying,
you know, writing about my real experiences. Yeah, and so
I couldn't make it to the studio. So I brought
the studio to me and it was just a dope experience.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
One of my homies, Joe shout out to Joe helping
me name the project. I wanted it to be something
more serious, you know what I mean, But he was like, nah, man,
I think you should like have fun with it.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So that's how I came up with couch Potato, And
like I said, everything was recorded on the couch. I'm
loving the project. I've been getting real good feedback from it.
That is like one of my best projects that I
ever dropped.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, man, hey man, look we saw what happened to
two chains when he was in that wheelchair for a minute.
So again, man, this could be one of those interesting
inflection points. You never know exactly how it's gonna happen.
And most importantly, though, we glad you you healthy and everything,
but I think again to see you like building something
positive out this whole experience. This was probably the most
motivational thing. Have you got like a lot of good
feedback around that.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, I've been getting a lot of good feedback just
from continuing, you know, to move forward and push forward
just in general. And I've had to adjust my mind
frame because I'm so production driven. I always want to
be productive every day. I still made to do list
today even though I can't walk, you know what I'm saying.
But I'm also having to realize that you know, you
(04:58):
go through seasons in life, you know, for me, this
season is about inspiring people through what I'm going through,
and so sometimes the measuring stick is different than it
would have been before. Whereas before I would always measure
how productive I am by what I did during the
day or what I was able to accomplish. But with
(05:19):
what I'm going through now, I'm always inspiring people. Even
if I'm not accomplishing more than everybody is, I'm still
inspiring a lot of people through what I'm going through,
you know, people seeing me in person, people seeing my spirit,
my attitude, people seeing me online, different things I'm saying,
different places I'm at. You know, it's like I'm still
(05:42):
accomplishing or still living out my purpose.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
And you know what I got going on? Na, That's dope, man.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So again, I'm sure people know, but for those that
don't know, you know, Scotty also is the owner of
the world famous Grills by Scotty. You know, So Scotty,
just to folks on who are some of the amazing
and people that you've done grills for.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Megan is Stalling Glow, Real Love, the Atlanta Hoggs, t
I Big Boy Somemma Walker.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Ray for show.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I shouldn't say Easter Ray first, no cap, but yeah,
that's that's a few people. We've done so many grills nowadays,
it's just hard to remember everybody.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, you got your location out here in Atlanta, another
one in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Right, We's Hollywood. What's Hollywood? That's what it is? Yep.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So let me ask you, man, like, as you've been
you know, rebuilding everything and kind of readjusting while you've
been going through this process, one of the things you
talked about was kind of being away from stuff like
how is not being able to get out to the
stores as much and have to kind of work from home.
What if you kind of learned and how you work
on your business and how you run your business now
that you know you kind of have to adjust that
part of your life.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
So now I'm having to trust more on my team,
whereas before I will pop up, I could be everywhere.
I'm on the movie sets now. And it's funny because
before this experience happened, I keep talking about how much
I wanted to focus more on being wealthy than being rich.
You know, so I look at riches just you got
(07:08):
a lot of money. Yeah, when you're wealthy, you have time.
And so even now I'm still trying to adjust to it, right,
because business is still able to function. I have my
team on, my employees that are there every day, they
working both coasts, but I still want to be there, right.
This is the rich in me still wants to do
(07:29):
the work versus allowing the team to do the work.
And so in our coach, I feel like we focus,
so we emphasize grinding so much that we want to
work until we die.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Well, I might look
at different culture.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
They are playing golf, you know what I'm saying, Like,
I ain't worried about some of the stuff we worried about,
and so I'm trying to adjust still to this day,
to being able to be wealthy, being able to.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Trust the team and then relax.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I feel uncomfortable sometime watching TV, you know what I'm saying,
because I want to do the work that's makes me
feel productive. Yeah, but it's been a real interesting process
just adjusting my mind, adjusting my daily activities, my schedule,
and being able to be more comfortable just trusting and
relying on others.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, I mean, it's that whole challenge I think a
lot of entrepreneurs go through, right of Like do you
want to work on the business or in the business, right,
And I think a lot of people will get trapped
into work and in the business. Yeah, And the problem
with that is that you know, when you step away,
you can't do it. The business stops. So you know,
first of all, congratulations that even when you had this
experience and you weren't able to be there, things were
(08:38):
able to keep running cause you had already kind of
start putting some of those things in place, like you
already started thinking about it from an ownership of a
wealth standpoint, like you kind of talk about you know,
now you're get a chance to kind of work on
the business more, right, So you're probably plus you're probably
see stuff a little bit more like fresh eyes, right,
you feel like a little bit away from it. You're like,
you know what, like when I was kind of in
the weeds and in it, I ain't really notice this,
But like now that I'm kind of you know, a
(08:59):
thousand feet away, ten thousand feet up, I'm kind of
seeing stuff different.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Have you had that experience?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, Well, now it's allowed me to focus on, like
you said, working on the business a lot more. Yeah,
So I'm working on expanding, I'm working on processes.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I'm working on just making sure the overall experience is right.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
I think for a minute, when we went so ester
Ray came and really just broke the whole.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
System, right, That's what usually happens, you know. You know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
When she got her grill, we had infrastructure, but I
wasn't really prepared to take on the client like Easter Ray,
because when she posted what she did about the customer
service being so great, my lines were flooded, my dms
were flooded, everything was flooded. So we had all these
different people who came and got grills, and then we
had an overload. So all of this has allowed me
(09:50):
now to kind of, like you said, step back and
work on how can I be the biggest I could
possibly be for myself, not just in the grill game,
but as a business in general. I don't like leaning
on black business per se. I like being just a
good business, you know. And so this has allowed me
to see things in a different light, like, Okay, if
(10:12):
I want ten of these stores, what do I need
to do different to survive and to thrive at the
highest level?
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Yeah, and so who do you work with?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Like when you're kind of going through those, you know,
when you're trying to kind of figure that stuff out. Right,
do you work with you know, consultants, do you have
you know, people like mentors, people that you reach out to, like,
how do you think through what it takes to kind
of go from two locations to ten locations and beyond.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I have a few friends that I can you know,
call that time. Me and you have had conversations about,
you know, expanding. Charles, who you introduced me to? You
know what I mean, it's somebody that I hit up
every now and then my boy Lamont yeaheah. It's like,
you know, I don't have the biggest business circle. But
then I also now I'm talking to people that Charles have.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Linked me up with over at Rice. Yeah, you know
that's that's shop the right J Bailey, We just had
him up here a couple of weeks ago, right, yeah,
invest in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So I'm connecting more with community resources, Whereas at first
I wasn't necessarily doing that. I was just hustling. Yeah,
as you know, coming from like being the street hustler. Like, man,
I'm just gonna get to it. I missed out on
all community resources, just trying to build a business at first.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah't an interesting man like you to your point, like
once you kind of get tapped in, like there's a
whole different circle of just people and conversations. A lot
of times, yeah, we get so caught up in just
the hustle you don't realize like there's people out here
with you know, it's other people's money that you can
use to build this stuff. It's other people's knowledge you
can use to build this stuff. Like what's been your
most surprising things? You've learned to kind of like work
with some of these other people that you probably wouldn't
(11:57):
necessarily have tapped into.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
On the other side, I think.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
One of the things that I've learned the most is
that there are resources out there for anything you want
to do. You know, if it's getting money, if it's
just knowledge, like you're saying, being able to tap in,
it's so powerful because you know, from the start of it,
I was doing a lot of it on my own.
I wasn't even I was just clueless that there were
(12:23):
even resources out there that.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Could help me.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
But at the same time, I felt like, again, there's
different seasons you know that should go through in life,
and so I feel like during those times it was
time for me to grind and hustle the way that
I did to have something to you know, show or
present when it was time like it is now. So
I'm grateful for all of it, you know, But I
(12:49):
do feel like I've learned so much just from the
investing Atlantas, from the rices, you know, right specifically now
talking to them about learning how they expand proper believe.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah. Dennis McKinley another yeah, yeah, you know, helping.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Me understand that, Like, entrepreneurship is great, but managing systems
is a lot better in some cases. Yeah, you know,
because everybody's running and trying to be an entrepreneur when
it takes so much. People don't really understand the amount
of work behind entrepreneurship, creating a business something that people
(13:29):
actually want and need on an everyday basis, and then
what you need to do after you've done all that
to expand it. A lot of times we're keeping our
head down working in the business and never putting our
head up to see the world that is there and
how to keep that business going once you created it.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yeah, I mean to your point, right, like it's you know,
like people don't scale well. Systems scale well like people
don't fail, you know, I mean people fail, systems don't.
And so putting those systems in processes in place, even
on the simple stuff, right and like an order comes in,
this is how we're going to take an order in, right,
And that way, it's not getting done at different time
every time somebody places it, and people are feeling a
consistent kind of customer spell. It's all these little things
(14:09):
that you know, once you kind of get out the
hustle mode element of business, you start thinking about, all, right, now,
how do I really make this thing, you know, be
able to replicate it, be able to scale it, and
most importantly not let it stressed me to hell out
exactly because everybody calling me.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
And it has stressed me out.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
You know. At one point there's been times in doing
this that I felt like, man, I was gonna lose
it all, you know. And I think that's another good
lesson that I've learned, is that you just got to
keep going no matter what.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Now, when I do.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
My research on other businesses, and just like successful business owners,
I noticed that they've all had these glimpses where it
seemed like at that time it was gonna all crash,
but they kept going and it ended up being more
successful than they thought it was going to be. And
so I try to keep that in mind too as
I'm going through this process because I'm not where I
(15:01):
want to be. I'm doing well, but I see myself
as being able to really expand this beyond anything that
the grill culture has ever seen.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, but what does that look like?
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Like?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
How do you expand this? Is?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Again, like you know grill I mean, I would definitely
say man like you and a couple other folks. I
think when people think about grills in general, you know,
you probably you know in the top, you know, a
couple of names that come off the top of their head, right,
But like, what do you think the evolution that kind
of starts to look like over time?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
I think that, you know, now we are all I've
literally seen the evolution with my own eyes as I've
been doing it.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
So I've been making grills for ten years. I've had
my own store for five years. When I got into it, Like,
the people that I saw were Paul Wall, Johnny Dain
Eddies were two of the biggest names that I've seen
in the grill industry. I love doctor Jefferies, right, he's
in Atlanta legend, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
But they took it so far.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
It's really been almost every twenty years that it's been
somebody different. So since I've started, I've seen companies like
Nike get involved with grills, Puma, like I said, the
Atlanta Hawks, We've been associated with the Falcons. We've done
commercials with Carmacs. It's becoming a lot more acceptable in
(16:26):
today's world, like tattoos, where at one point you couldn't
have tattoos and get a good job.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
They would turn you away. You know.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Now you could have tattoos on your neck, your face,
it don't matter, you know. I see people, man, I
was at the restaurant last night. It was an old lady,
she had to be sixty somethings. She got tattoos all
on her arm, you know. So now gold teeth are
becoming more of an expression that is acceptable in the
workplace too, And that's one of the ways that it
(16:57):
has already evolved. The Olympics was another example, wearing it
on the red carpet. So many different things that I
think it's going to become even more like just wildly
available for people.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
And just you know, how did you get in the
grill business in the first place.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
A friend of mine wanted to do grills. I was
leaving the grill shop. This guy wanted me to help
him out. I always loved to do marketing, always been
involving that kind of stuff since I was a kid.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I had My first brand was Cool Club.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yeah, well I had t shirts and sweaters and hoodies
that people were rocking all the time. And so I
was doing tours and whatnot, going on tour. I was
on tour with Bob Ace hood big boy. This god
saw what I was doing. He said, man, come and
check out my grill shop. I checked it out. After
leaving his grill shop, I went to the strip club
(17:50):
in the daytime. Ran into my homeboy and he had
just lost his job. He was a dinner assistant and
I said, man, what you gonna do now? He said,
I want to do grills. I said, we can go
up here right now. I just left this dude, and
we did. And that's how I got started.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
But how do you start like you couldn't talk to
the guy like they became your supplier. You bought them
out like no.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
When I first when I went and talked to the guy,
I introduced it to them. Initially, when I started out,
I was just gonna do the business part to it.
So I'm like, okay, I put the contrast together. I'm
like talking through different marketing ideas. I started getting this
on the radio. We will go and do radio grills
with Jay Nixon the Dirty Boys Live on the air.
(18:33):
Then I'd be at Streets ninety four or five. I
start just really getting it to a lot of my
celebrity friends, Rich Homi Kwan, Trouble Jah Quez, and then
we started learning how to make the grills from this guy.
His name was Paul, and so he taught us how
to do it. I really wasn't even even interested in
(18:53):
all of that. I just wanted to do the business part.
But I figured, like, I need to learn all of
this just in case, you know, somebody try to screw me.
I understand what's going on, how to do it, et.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
And so that's how I got started, you know, from
the beginning. Then it didn't work out with him, so
me and me and my homie took the knowledge and
then we started being like, Okay, we can get different
teams to help us, because doing the grills takes so
much work and it takes so long. Let's put together
a different team that maybe can do this while we
get out in the streets and work it.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
And so I did that.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
For a while, and then me and my homie fell out,
and then I was back in the saddle of making
the grills. And then I had me and one other
guy was a Korean guy that I was working with,
and so that's you know, it's only and on and on,
but that's how I got into it.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
How do you balance all that with the music?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
You know what I'm saying, Because you're entrepreneur, you're artists,
you know, how do you you balance all these things
you do? And how do you find inspiration for the
kind of music you make?
Speaker 2 (20:04):
You know? How does that all tie in?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I feel like the music and the grills go hand
in hand. It's like a seesaw almost. The music opened
the door for me to be able to have so
many relationships and do grills and for people to be
able to trust me from what.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I've done with the Cool Club brand.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Music wise, people have worked with me, so they know Okay,
this is a calible person I'm dealing with when it
comes to doing grills. So I do the music now
more like spare time. The grills. It takes presidents, and
I do that every day like a nine to five job.
But when I first started doing the grills, I remember
(20:45):
just thinking like, man, you know, I just want to
make money every day. We may have a grill or
two a week, you know, during that time, but I
just kept thinking, Okay, let me try to just make
a little money every day. And that started out twenty
five dollars, fifty dollars, you know, like what can I
make every day? And the mindset changed because at first
(21:06):
I was so focused on just being creative as an
artist that I wasn't focused on the money. I thought,
like most artists think, the more you in the studio,
the more money you'll make, which is not necessarily true.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
No, man, that's dope. Man.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
So you've evolved in that you're doing more of the
music stuff now. But like, how is Atlanta and being
from Atlanta and being from the East Side all these
like how does this stuff influence?
Speaker 4 (21:30):
You know?
Speaker 3 (21:30):
I mean, hell, it's your name, right, Scotty atl right right?
How does that influence you and what motivates you around
that stuff?
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Being from Atlanta is one of the biggest motivators because
this is like the city of grind and hustle. You
from Atlanta, like, you can feel the energy when you
I lived in La for like two years when we
were like working in the Mailroad's location.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, and it's so laid back, it's so chill. I
love it. Don't get me wrong. Now I love La. Like,
go to La, you don't want to leave.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
It's the truth, right, But when you come back to Atlanta,
as soon as you get off the plane, you could
feel the atmosphere is different. Everybody's trying to sell something.
Everybody's got a hustle. Everybody hey hey, hey hey. It's
like almost like New York but in the South. You
know what I'm saying. It used to be saying that
(22:20):
if you can make it in New York, you can
make it anywhere. And I feel like, now that's Atlanta.
If you can make it in Atlanta, you can make
it anywhere. But the grind and the culture, I mean, man,
we had to stop. Like you know, the other day,
I'm watching the guy throw up. Oh he's juggling at
the light. You know what I'm saying, to prove nowing
(22:43):
he got man bowling pins. I don't know what they was.
He was juggling something made the light. I gave him
a dollar though, you know what I'm saying, just because
I was like, damn, man, that's that's pretty cool. You
ain't just asking for a dollar. You actually creating something
now where it's entertainment, you know what I'm saying. So
I always think of Atlanta in that respect, like you
(23:05):
could do anything here. If you people sell a plate
side the house, people come up with drinks.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
You could be nothing, you don't know nobody and just
create some and have a whole business.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
No.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Man, that's the beautiful thing about it. I told somebody before.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
It's like in Atlanta, if you build something authentically, if
you build it in public and you do good business,
you know Atlanta will support you, right because you know,
we know this is a small city, bro. I mean
like we know you know. You do you do the
wrong person wrong, you're doing bad business. It will spread
around real quickly. But the ability to like build something
and like again build something, that's kind of become a
(23:42):
cultural staple, which is one of the things you've done
shows kind of the kind of business that you're working on.
Who would you want to do with grill for? Like,
who's your dream person to do with grill for? If
you could do one for anybody? Oprah Winfrey, he said
that quick you thought about this?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Pans down?
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, yeah, Oprah Winfrey, because for me, it's not just
about you know, although we do a lot of celebrity grills,
it's not just about doing grills for celebrities. For me,
it's about expanding and changing the culture. And I think
people who look like me sometimes get a different rap,
(24:18):
you know, from who we really are inside. And I
want to show people that you don't have to look
a certain way to express how you feel on the
inside by your teeth jury like tattoos, you know. And
so Oprah Winfrey is a great example, you know for
me to be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Now that that would be monumental.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
You know, I was gonna say, like Barack Obama or
somebody like that now came out, but Oprah is a okay.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, Oprah Winfred. Can I can see it right now
in my mind?
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Yeah, that's that crossover moment too, man, Like you do
grill for Oprah, you gonna have middle aged white women
and it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
A hitting you up. It's gonna happen, Man, one day.
I can see it now.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I can see it coming together. Man, I can see
it now. How do you find like inspiration for all
the different kind of stuff you're working on right, like,
whether it's music or you know, a different kind of grill,
you know what I mean? Like, is it just you know,
you just kind of follow your hunches or are you
building off of like what you're seeing around? Like what
inspires you for that stuff?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
I read books, That's that's one thing that I do,
and I'm really just inspired by life, you know daily.
I've always been an ambitious and driven person since I
was a kid. You know, I wanted to have something
to talk about, have a story.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
I've been through a lot, you know, coming up, and I.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Know that the only way people listen to you is
if you have something to say or you've proven something
to a certain extent. Yeah, you know, And I saw
that early on as a kid, you know, watching superstars
like Beyonce. You know what I'm saying, Like, Man, they
really listen to this person because of what she's accomplished,
of what she's done, and so I'm really inspired to
(25:58):
help people. That's I feel like, that's my mission in
life is to inspire the world. And so it's a
daily thing, whether I'm you know, on camera, off camera,
I'm inspiring people. Man, just walking on the street, you know,
telling people how they did a good job at work.
That's just something that I feel like I was born
to do.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
How do you You know a lot of times people
throw around the word culture, and we've used it a lot,
even this conversation, like what's your definition of culture?
Speaker 2 (26:23):
My definition of culture is.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
The vibe of what people are saying and doing together
without them even knowing it. There's like, for example, there's
a culture moment that's happening right now in the world
in regards.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
To the Kamalah.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, you know, that was a culture moment I feel
like where people were together for something as black people.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
But culture, I feel like it's not just black.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
You know, culture is it's urban, it's how society moving,
is what people are paying attention to, what people are doing,
what people are wearing. And it's not necessarily something that's
spoken is just being done.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah. You know.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
One of my favorite definitions of culture comes from you know,
an author I always read, always talks about, you know,
culture is people like us do things like this. Okay,
so it's kind of like what you just said, right,
and I think about it, and that's like, honestly, even
one of the reasons why you know, I started butter
atl is because for a long time, from a culture standpoint,
I got tired of people coming from outside of the culture,
(27:34):
you know, giving us permission to talk about our culture,
Like why do we need somebody from.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
New York RelA coming down to Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
And being like, so, tell us about waffle house, right,
you know, what is the limp pepper wings y'all eating
like and then they go take it back IM like,
so in Atlanta, this is what they do. It's like,
how come we can't talk? What can't we tell our
own stories? And I think we need you know, more
people like that coming out here and saying, you know,
Atlanta can speak for itself. There was very much a
time and which you know, we needed to lean on
(28:01):
these other like you know, media outlets and media cities
and stuff like that to kind of give us permission.
But with all the amazing stuff that's happened in Atlanta
from music and entertainment and sports and business and all
these other elements, like we've earned the right to be
able to talk about what we do ourselves. We don't
need permission from anybody else, you know. And again you
do that same kind of stuff and everything you work on. Man, Now,
(28:22):
I guess for the next thing is like what are
you gonna do next? Like what's next? Like are you franchising?
You're gonna grow this thing out? Like what's you doing next?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Man?
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Well, I got a couple of things on working on
Live on Edgewood TV.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Okay, tell us about that.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
So that's a new TV series that I have created
with eighty five South On the producer on that TV show,
New Faces a part of it.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Erica Dutchess is a part of it.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
I love it because again, this is like another pivotal moment.
I feel like I'm creating or helping to usher in
where it's not just podcasts, it's TV shows.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
This is my opportunity to inspire people through other stories
that I feel like are really great stories. So I
have all type of different people on there, big crit
being on there, Terry Jyvon, I've had some porn, you
know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, But I'm flipping the script.
So it's not just about their accomplishments. It's about what
(29:27):
they've been through, how they got there, what inspires them,
and their why. You know, a lot of it is
about their why behind who they are, and so I'm
really excited about it. We're just now wrapping up the
first season.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Congratulations on that, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
And my goal is to long term be like a
eighty five South where I can tour and take this
show on the road to different places. Yeah, as far
as grills about Scottie Goes, I do plan to have
I have more locations all over the world at some point.
Right now, I'm just taking baby steps to get all
(30:08):
my things together, you know, so that I can be
as whole and healthy as a store and as a
location as we need to be.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
So that's what I'm working on on that perspective, and
on the music tip, I recently just signed with a
new distribution company called Cwe shout out to them, and
this will be my first time really taking on actual
I would say like help where they're helping me in
ways that I haven't had help as an artist or
(30:39):
as a musician. This entire time, I really just been
trapping out the trunk, if you will. Yeah, you know,
so I'm looking forward to that and getting the music
out to the masses and just inspiring people through the
music too.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
As both an entrepreneur and an artist, what is one
thing you wish you would have done sooner? On both
of those sides.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
As an entrepreneur, I wish that I would have tapped
into a lot more of the resources a lot sooner.
I wish I would have known more about systems and
how to manage systems starting out. I think if anybody
hasn't started their business yet, that's definitely something to look into,
(31:22):
you know, managing systems, because that's a big part of
you being successful as an artist. What I wish I
would have done started out was probably, you know, man,
the artist's question is a little tricky because, you know,
at times I think I wish I would have maybe
(31:42):
taken like deals you know that I didn't take. I've
seen some of my peers take deals and blow up
and have a lot of success. But I also think
that not taking some of those deals wouldn't have led
me to grills by Scotti and who I'm known as
today and what I've been able to accomplish. So you know, yeah,
(32:06):
I would have maybe taken more situations, but I'm I'm
kind of glad I didn't too.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Man, again, you can only connect to dots looking backwards,
right and again, like you're totally right, like maybe passing
up on a certain deal or on a certain situation,
you know, open up the door, you know, down the
road a little bit for another situation, right, So it
all ends up working itself out in some weird ways sometimes, yeah,
you know, even though sometimes in the moment you're like, man,
what the hell is going on?
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Exactly exactly, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
But because I've had I've watched a lot of my
friends just blow up right standing right next to him, Trinner,
Dad James, watched k Camp blow up, and a lot
of other a lot of other people. But now I'm
in the position where I feel like, when I look
at my peers, I can compare myself to them and
what they've been able to do on the national level
(32:56):
with music. But I know that a few of my
peers also may compare themselves to me and what I've
been able to accomplish as an entrepreneur, And so it's
all it's all about being grateful for what you have,
for what you've been able to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
That's how I look at it now.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
No, for sure, man, Look before we get out of here, man,
One question I love to ask everybody is if there
was a Scotty at L billboard.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
So I being a.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Scotty you know, okay, So if you was put up
a new Scotty ETL billboard, what would you put on it?
Put a message or you know, a note like, what
would you tell people on Scotty Etail?
Speaker 1 (33:37):
To be honest, if I put up a billboard today,
it's gonna have grills by Scottie on you for sure.
But you know, just on the you know, to to
everybody out there in the world. Yeah, I would love
to leave people with a message, you know, and and
and that message is to enjoy this life. You know,
(33:58):
control what you can control, and for everything that you
can't control, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
It's gonna work out.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
No man, I love it, man, Scotty. Look, man, before
we get out of here. How can people support you?
How can they support Grills by Scotty? How can they
get more information?
Speaker 1 (34:12):
You can support me by following me at Scotty at
L S c O T T Y A T L.
Grills by Scotty, Grills with the Z, Scotty with the S.
Make sure you stop by the new store on Edgewood
if you're in LA, make sure you tap in for
the private location, and make sure you download cows Potato.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
It's out right now on all platforms.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Blood on My Ice is one of my favorite songs
on the project. And make sure you watch live on
Edgewood TV.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Yeah man, well, Scotty Man, glad to see you out here, man,
healing up, being healthy, still building again. We go back
bro for sure and you know I'm so happy for
you and you know, can't wait to see what happens
next my guy.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
No doubt man, Thank you and thank you for having
me on the show too. Amen for shure.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Absolutely and that's the pod we out You've been listing
the button nomics and I'm your host, Brandon Butler comments feedback.
Want to be a part of the show, Send us
an email today at Hello at Butterdomics dot com butter
Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by Ramsey,
with marketing support from Queen and Nike. Music provided by
mister Hanky. If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button
(35:16):
and never missed an episode, and be sure to follow
us on all our social platforms at butter dot atl
Listen to button Nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
I wanted to focus more on being wealthy than being rich.
So I look at riches, is you got a lot
of money. Yeah, when you're wealthy, you have time. And
so even now I'm still trying to adjust to it,
right because business is still able to function. I have
my team on, my employees that are there every day,
they working, but I still want to be there, right.
(00:21):
This is the rich in me still wants to do
the work versus allowing the team to do the work.
And so in our culture, I feel like we emphasize
grinding so much that we want to work until we die.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Well, I might look at different culture. They are playing golf,
you know what I'm saying, Like, I ain't worried about
some of the stuff we worried about. And so I'm
trying to adjust still to this day, to being able
to be wealthy, being able to trust the team, and
then relaxed. I feel uncomfortable sometime watching TV.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Everybody, Welcome to another episode of Button Nomics. I'm your host,
Brandon Butler found in sy O Butter atl And Today, y'all,
we got a special guest up in here, the homie
from the east Side. Yeah, mister Scotty at l himself. Scotty,
how you feeling.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I'm feeling good, man? How are you?
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Man?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I'm happy to see you, bro, I'm telling you now, Man,
I saw you you had some experiences going on.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Glad to see you first and foremost, since my mom
always says it's better to be seen, not viewed, and
so it's good to see you, brother.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Okay, for sure, I like that quote too, you know
what I'm saying. Yeah, Man, look dropped it on your
next on your next project. Cool, Scotty. What's been going on? Man?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
First of all, Man, how you feeling? We know you
had an accident a couple of months ago. You like
you've been healing up?
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Man?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
How you feeling? First of all?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Bro? I feel good mentally, you know, spiritually, I feel good.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I feel like myself. Physically, I'm still getting there.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I'm not all the way one hundred percent. My leg
is still broken, but I had a stomach hernia, traumatic
hernia in my stomach and I had a broken wish
too at first. So my leg is still healing up.
It's still broken up, but it was shit actually, So
I'm still in the wheelchair moving around trying to use
(02:05):
the crutches every now and then. But for the most part,
I feel good.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I love it, man.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And you know what I love about it too, is
even through this whole process, because again I've been seen
on social media and I'll be shooting your text like, yo, bro,
hope you're doing good. You know, it seems like even
though this has been a tough process, like it's helped you,
you know, I don't want to say like grow and mature,
but you've just you know, start to evolve a little
bit coming through this whole process.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Right, Yeah, yeah, no, dob.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I feel like, in general, the whole process has made
me enjoy and really appreciate life a lot more than
I did before. And I've always been the type person
to appreciate life. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, But
this accident really put a lot of things in perspective
for me on the business level, on a friendship level,
(02:49):
on a personal level, you know, with my kids and
my family, like just so many things. It's allowed me
to take it more seriously and cherish it more.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, yeah, man.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
And you know what's interesting too, is, like you said,
you looking at stuff a little bit differently. Now, you know,
you just came out with this new project called Couch Potatoes.
So it's even interesting to see how, you know, you
build it off of that, you know, setback and like
making it not like a comeback, but you're making something
out of it, right.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Right, right right?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
So yeah, I recorded a whole project on my couch.
It's called couch Potato. When I got injured, man, I
was in the hospital for like two and a half weeks,
and so writing music was just so.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Hard to do during that time.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Even when I got out, I was just still trying
to make sense of everything that was going on. And
so I was like, you know what, when I finally
got a chance to record, I started writing on the
couch in the living room, writing on the couch, crying,
you know, writing about my real experiences. Yeah, and so
I couldn't make it to the studio. So I brought
the studio to me and it was just a dope experience.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
One of my homies, Joe shout out to Joe helping
me name the project. I wanted it to be something
more serious, you know what I mean, But he was like, nah, man,
I think you should like have fun with it.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So that's how I came up with couch Potato, And
like I said, everything was recorded on the couch. I'm
loving the project. I've been getting real good feedback from it.
That is like one of my best projects that I
ever dropped.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, man, hey man, look we saw what happened to
two chains when he was in that wheelchair for a minute.
So again, man, this could be one of those interesting
inflection points. You never know exactly how it's gonna happen.
And most importantly, though, we glad you you healthy and everything,
but I think again to see you like building something
positive out this whole experience. This was probably the most
motivational thing. Have you got like a lot of good
feedback around that.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, I've been getting a lot of good feedback just
from continuing, you know, to move forward and push forward
just in general. And I've had to adjust my mind
frame because I'm so production driven. I always want to
be productive every day. I still made to do list
today even though I can't walk, you know what I'm saying.
But I'm also having to realize that you know, you
(04:58):
go through seasons in life, you know, for me, this
season is about inspiring people through what I'm going through,
and so sometimes the measuring stick is different than it
would have been before. Whereas before I would always measure
how productive I am by what I did during the
day or what I was able to accomplish. But with
(05:19):
what I'm going through now, I'm always inspiring people. Even
if I'm not accomplishing more than everybody is, I'm still
inspiring a lot of people through what I'm going through,
you know, people seeing me in person, people seeing my spirit,
my attitude, people seeing me online, different things I'm saying,
different places I'm at. You know, it's like I'm still
(05:42):
accomplishing or still living out my purpose.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
And you know what I got going on? Na, That's dope, man.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So again, I'm sure people know, but for those that
don't know, you know, Scotty also is the owner of
the world famous Grills by Scotty. You know, So Scotty,
just to folks on who are some of the amazing
and people that you've done grills for.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Megan is Stalling Glow, Real Love, the Atlanta Hoggs, t
I Big Boy Somemma Walker.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Ray for show.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I shouldn't say Easter Ray first, no cap, but yeah,
that's that's a few people. We've done so many grills nowadays,
it's just hard to remember everybody.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, you got your location out here in Atlanta, another
one in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Right, We's Hollywood. What's Hollywood? That's what it is? Yep.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So let me ask you, man, like, as you've been
you know, rebuilding everything and kind of readjusting while you've
been going through this process, one of the things you
talked about was kind of being away from stuff like
how is not being able to get out to the
stores as much and have to kind of work from home.
What if you kind of learned and how you work
on your business and how you run your business now
that you know you kind of have to adjust that
part of your life.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
So now I'm having to trust more on my team,
whereas before I will pop up, I could be everywhere.
I'm on the movie sets now. And it's funny because
before this experience happened, I keep talking about how much
I wanted to focus more on being wealthy than being rich.
You know, so I look at riches just you got
(07:08):
a lot of money. Yeah, when you're wealthy, you have time.
And so even now I'm still trying to adjust to it, right,
because business is still able to function. I have my
team on, my employees that are there every day, they
working both coasts, but I still want to be there, right.
This is the rich in me still wants to do
(07:29):
the work versus allowing the team to do the work.
And so in our coach, I feel like we focus,
so we emphasize grinding so much that we want to
work until we die.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Well, I might look
at different culture.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
They are playing golf, you know what I'm saying, Like,
I ain't worried about some of the stuff we worried about,
and so I'm trying to adjust still to this day,
to being able to be wealthy, being able to.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Trust the team and then relax.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I feel uncomfortable sometime watching TV, you know what I'm saying,
because I want to do the work that's makes me
feel productive. Yeah, but it's been a real interesting process
just adjusting my mind, adjusting my daily activities, my schedule,
and being able to be more comfortable just trusting and
relying on others.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, I mean, it's that whole challenge I think a
lot of entrepreneurs go through, right of Like do you
want to work on the business or in the business, right,
And I think a lot of people will get trapped
into work and in the business. Yeah, And the problem
with that is that you know, when you step away,
you can't do it. The business stops. So you know,
first of all, congratulations that even when you had this
experience and you weren't able to be there, things were
(08:38):
able to keep running cause you had already kind of
start putting some of those things in place, like you
already started thinking about it from an ownership of a
wealth standpoint, like you kind of talk about you know,
now you're get a chance to kind of work on
the business more, right, So you're probably plus you're probably
see stuff a little bit more like fresh eyes, right,
you feel like a little bit away from it. You're like,
you know what, like when I was kind of in
the weeds and in it, I ain't really notice this,
But like now that I'm kind of you know, a
(08:59):
thousand feet away, ten thousand feet up, I'm kind of
seeing stuff different.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Have you had that experience?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, Well, now it's allowed me to focus on, like
you said, working on the business a lot more. Yeah,
So I'm working on expanding, I'm working on processes.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I'm working on just making sure the overall experience is right.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
I think for a minute, when we went so ester
Ray came and really just broke the whole.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
System, right, That's what usually happens, you know. You know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
When she got her grill, we had infrastructure, but I
wasn't really prepared to take on the client like Easter Ray,
because when she posted what she did about the customer
service being so great, my lines were flooded, my dms
were flooded, everything was flooded. So we had all these
different people who came and got grills, and then we
had an overload. So all of this has allowed me
(09:50):
now to kind of, like you said, step back and
work on how can I be the biggest I could
possibly be for myself, not just in the grill game,
but as a business in general. I don't like leaning
on black business per se. I like being just a
good business, you know. And so this has allowed me
to see things in a different light, like, Okay, if
(10:12):
I want ten of these stores, what do I need
to do different to survive and to thrive at the
highest level?
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Yeah, and so who do you work with?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Like when you're kind of going through those, you know,
when you're trying to kind of figure that stuff out. Right,
do you work with you know, consultants, do you have
you know, people like mentors, people that you reach out to, like,
how do you think through what it takes to kind
of go from two locations to ten locations and beyond.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I have a few friends that I can you know,
call that time. Me and you have had conversations about,
you know, expanding. Charles, who you introduced me to? You
know what I mean, it's somebody that I hit up
every now and then my boy Lamont yeaheah. It's like,
you know, I don't have the biggest business circle. But
then I also now I'm talking to people that Charles have.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Linked me up with over at Rice. Yeah, you know
that's that's shop the right J Bailey, We just had
him up here a couple of weeks ago, right, yeah,
invest in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So I'm connecting more with community resources, Whereas at first
I wasn't necessarily doing that. I was just hustling. Yeah,
as you know, coming from like being the street hustler. Like, man,
I'm just gonna get to it. I missed out on
all community resources, just trying to build a business at first.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah't an interesting man like you to your point, like
once you kind of get tapped in, like there's a
whole different circle of just people and conversations. A lot
of times, yeah, we get so caught up in just
the hustle you don't realize like there's people out here
with you know, it's other people's money that you can
use to build this stuff. It's other people's knowledge you
can use to build this stuff. Like what's been your
most surprising things? You've learned to kind of like work
with some of these other people that you probably wouldn't
(11:57):
necessarily have tapped into.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
On the other side, I think.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
One of the things that I've learned the most is
that there are resources out there for anything you want
to do. You know, if it's getting money, if it's
just knowledge, like you're saying, being able to tap in,
it's so powerful because you know, from the start of it,
I was doing a lot of it on my own.
I wasn't even I was just clueless that there were
(12:23):
even resources out there that.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Could help me.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
But at the same time, I felt like, again, there's
different seasons you know that should go through in life,
and so I feel like during those times it was
time for me to grind and hustle the way that
I did to have something to you know, show or
present when it was time like it is now. So
I'm grateful for all of it, you know, But I
(12:49):
do feel like I've learned so much just from the
investing Atlantas, from the rices, you know, right specifically now
talking to them about learning how they expand proper believe.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah. Dennis McKinley another yeah, yeah, you know, helping.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Me understand that, Like, entrepreneurship is great, but managing systems
is a lot better in some cases. Yeah, you know,
because everybody's running and trying to be an entrepreneur when
it takes so much. People don't really understand the amount
of work behind entrepreneurship, creating a business something that people
(13:29):
actually want and need on an everyday basis, and then
what you need to do after you've done all that
to expand it. A lot of times we're keeping our
head down working in the business and never putting our
head up to see the world that is there and
how to keep that business going once you created it.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yeah, I mean to your point, right, like it's you know,
like people don't scale well. Systems scale well like people
don't fail, you know, I mean people fail, systems don't.
And so putting those systems in processes in place, even
on the simple stuff, right and like an order comes in,
this is how we're going to take an order in, right,
And that way, it's not getting done at different time
every time somebody places it, and people are feeling a
consistent kind of customer spell. It's all these little things
(14:09):
that you know, once you kind of get out the
hustle mode element of business, you start thinking about, all, right, now,
how do I really make this thing, you know, be
able to replicate it, be able to scale it, and
most importantly not let it stressed me to hell out
exactly because everybody calling me.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
And it has stressed me out.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
You know. At one point there's been times in doing
this that I felt like, man, I was gonna lose
it all, you know. And I think that's another good
lesson that I've learned, is that you just got to
keep going no matter what.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Now, when I do.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
My research on other businesses, and just like successful business owners,
I noticed that they've all had these glimpses where it
seemed like at that time it was gonna all crash,
but they kept going and it ended up being more
successful than they thought it was going to be. And
so I try to keep that in mind too as
I'm going through this process because I'm not where I
(15:01):
want to be. I'm doing well, but I see myself
as being able to really expand this beyond anything that
the grill culture has ever seen.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, but what does that look like?
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Like?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
How do you expand this? Is?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Again, like you know grill I mean, I would definitely
say man like you and a couple other folks. I
think when people think about grills in general, you know,
you probably you know in the top, you know, a
couple of names that come off the top of their head, right,
But like, what do you think the evolution that kind
of starts to look like over time?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
I think that, you know, now we are all I've
literally seen the evolution with my own eyes as I've
been doing it.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
So I've been making grills for ten years. I've had
my own store for five years. When I got into it, Like,
the people that I saw were Paul Wall, Johnny Dain
Eddies were two of the biggest names that I've seen
in the grill industry. I love doctor Jefferies, right, he's
in Atlanta legend, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
But they took it so far.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
It's really been almost every twenty years that it's been
somebody different. So since I've started, I've seen companies like
Nike get involved with grills, Puma, like I said, the
Atlanta Hawks, We've been associated with the Falcons. We've done
commercials with Carmacs. It's becoming a lot more acceptable in
(16:26):
today's world, like tattoos, where at one point you couldn't
have tattoos and get a good job.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
They would turn you away. You know.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Now you could have tattoos on your neck, your face,
it don't matter, you know. I see people, man, I
was at the restaurant last night. It was an old lady,
she had to be sixty somethings. She got tattoos all
on her arm, you know. So now gold teeth are
becoming more of an expression that is acceptable in the
workplace too, And that's one of the ways that it
(16:57):
has already evolved. The Olympics was another example, wearing it
on the red carpet. So many different things that I
think it's going to become even more like just wildly
available for people.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
And just you know, how did you get in the
grill business in the first place.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
A friend of mine wanted to do grills. I was
leaving the grill shop. This guy wanted me to help
him out. I always loved to do marketing, always been
involving that kind of stuff since I was a kid.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I had My first brand was Cool Club.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yeah, well I had t shirts and sweaters and hoodies
that people were rocking all the time. And so I
was doing tours and whatnot, going on tour. I was
on tour with Bob Ace hood big boy. This god
saw what I was doing. He said, man, come and
check out my grill shop. I checked it out. After
leaving his grill shop, I went to the strip club
(17:50):
in the daytime. Ran into my homeboy and he had
just lost his job. He was a dinner assistant and
I said, man, what you gonna do now? He said,
I want to do grills. I said, we can go
up here right now. I just left this dude, and
we did. And that's how I got started.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
But how do you start like you couldn't talk to
the guy like they became your supplier. You bought them
out like no.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
When I first when I went and talked to the guy,
I introduced it to them. Initially, when I started out,
I was just gonna do the business part to it.
So I'm like, okay, I put the contrast together. I'm
like talking through different marketing ideas. I started getting this
on the radio. We will go and do radio grills
with Jay Nixon the Dirty Boys Live on the air.
(18:33):
Then I'd be at Streets ninety four or five. I
start just really getting it to a lot of my
celebrity friends, Rich Homi Kwan, Trouble Jah Quez, and then
we started learning how to make the grills from this guy.
His name was Paul, and so he taught us how
to do it. I really wasn't even even interested in
(18:53):
all of that. I just wanted to do the business part.
But I figured, like, I need to learn all of
this just in case, you know, somebody try to screw me.
I understand what's going on, how to do it, et.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
And so that's how I got started, you know, from
the beginning. Then it didn't work out with him, so
me and me and my homie took the knowledge and
then we started being like, Okay, we can get different
teams to help us, because doing the grills takes so
much work and it takes so long. Let's put together
a different team that maybe can do this while we
get out in the streets and work it.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
And so I did that.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
For a while, and then me and my homie fell out,
and then I was back in the saddle of making
the grills. And then I had me and one other
guy was a Korean guy that I was working with,
and so that's you know, it's only and on and on,
but that's how I got into it.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
How do you balance all that with the music?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
You know what I'm saying, Because you're entrepreneur, you're artists,
you know, how do you you balance all these things
you do? And how do you find inspiration for the
kind of music you make?
Speaker 2 (20:04):
You know? How does that all tie in?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I feel like the music and the grills go hand
in hand. It's like a seesaw almost. The music opened
the door for me to be able to have so
many relationships and do grills and for people to be
able to trust me from what.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I've done with the Cool Club brand.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Music wise, people have worked with me, so they know Okay,
this is a calible person I'm dealing with when it
comes to doing grills. So I do the music now
more like spare time. The grills. It takes presidents, and
I do that every day like a nine to five job.
But when I first started doing the grills, I remember
(20:45):
just thinking like, man, you know, I just want to
make money every day. We may have a grill or
two a week, you know, during that time, but I
just kept thinking, Okay, let me try to just make
a little money every day. And that started out twenty
five dollars, fifty dollars, you know, like what can I
make every day? And the mindset changed because at first
(21:06):
I was so focused on just being creative as an
artist that I wasn't focused on the money. I thought,
like most artists think, the more you in the studio,
the more money you'll make, which is not necessarily true.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
No, man, that's dope. Man.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
So you've evolved in that you're doing more of the
music stuff now. But like, how is Atlanta and being
from Atlanta and being from the East Side all these
like how does this stuff influence?
Speaker 4 (21:30):
You know?
Speaker 3 (21:30):
I mean, hell, it's your name, right, Scotty atl right right?
How does that influence you and what motivates you around
that stuff?
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Being from Atlanta is one of the biggest motivators because
this is like the city of grind and hustle. You
from Atlanta, like, you can feel the energy when you
I lived in La for like two years when we
were like working in the Mailroad's location.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, and it's so laid back, it's so chill. I
love it. Don't get me wrong. Now I love La. Like,
go to La, you don't want to leave.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
It's the truth, right, But when you come back to Atlanta,
as soon as you get off the plane, you could
feel the atmosphere is different. Everybody's trying to sell something.
Everybody's got a hustle. Everybody hey hey, hey hey. It's
like almost like New York but in the South. You
know what I'm saying. It used to be saying that
(22:20):
if you can make it in New York, you can
make it anywhere. And I feel like, now that's Atlanta.
If you can make it in Atlanta, you can make
it anywhere. But the grind and the culture, I mean, man,
we had to stop. Like you know, the other day,
I'm watching the guy throw up. Oh he's juggling at
the light. You know what I'm saying, to prove nowing
(22:43):
he got man bowling pins. I don't know what they was.
He was juggling something made the light. I gave him
a dollar though, you know what I'm saying, just because
I was like, damn, man, that's that's pretty cool. You
ain't just asking for a dollar. You actually creating something
now where it's entertainment, you know what I'm saying. So
I always think of Atlanta in that respect, like you
(23:05):
could do anything here. If you people sell a plate
side the house, people come up with drinks.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
You could be nothing, you don't know nobody and just
create some and have a whole business.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
No.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Man, that's the beautiful thing about it. I told somebody before.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
It's like in Atlanta, if you build something authentically, if
you build it in public and you do good business,
you know Atlanta will support you, right because you know,
we know this is a small city, bro. I mean
like we know you know. You do you do the
wrong person wrong, you're doing bad business. It will spread
around real quickly. But the ability to like build something
and like again build something, that's kind of become a
(23:42):
cultural staple, which is one of the things you've done
shows kind of the kind of business that you're working on.
Who would you want to do with grill for? Like,
who's your dream person to do with grill for? If
you could do one for anybody? Oprah Winfrey, he said
that quick you thought about this?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Pans down?
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, yeah, Oprah Winfrey, because for me, it's not just
about you know, although we do a lot of celebrity grills,
it's not just about doing grills for celebrities. For me,
it's about expanding and changing the culture. And I think
people who look like me sometimes get a different rap,
(24:18):
you know, from who we really are inside. And I
want to show people that you don't have to look
a certain way to express how you feel on the
inside by your teeth jury like tattoos, you know. And
so Oprah Winfrey is a great example, you know for
me to be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Now that that would be monumental.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
You know, I was gonna say, like Barack Obama or
somebody like that now came out, but Oprah is a okay.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, Oprah Winfred. Can I can see it right now
in my mind?
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Yeah, that's that crossover moment too, man, Like you do
grill for Oprah, you gonna have middle aged white women
and it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
A hitting you up. It's gonna happen, Man, one day.
I can see it now.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I can see it coming together. Man, I can see
it now. How do you find like inspiration for all
the different kind of stuff you're working on right, like,
whether it's music or you know, a different kind of grill,
you know what I mean? Like, is it just you know,
you just kind of follow your hunches or are you
building off of like what you're seeing around? Like what
inspires you for that stuff?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
I read books, That's that's one thing that I do,
and I'm really just inspired by life, you know daily.
I've always been an ambitious and driven person since I
was a kid. You know, I wanted to have something
to talk about, have a story.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
I've been through a lot, you know, coming up, and I.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Know that the only way people listen to you is
if you have something to say or you've proven something
to a certain extent. Yeah, you know, And I saw
that early on as a kid, you know, watching superstars
like Beyonce. You know what I'm saying, Like, Man, they
really listen to this person because of what she's accomplished,
of what she's done, and so I'm really inspired to
(25:58):
help people. That's I feel like, that's my mission in
life is to inspire the world. And so it's a
daily thing, whether I'm you know, on camera, off camera,
I'm inspiring people. Man, just walking on the street, you know,
telling people how they did a good job at work.
That's just something that I feel like I was born
to do.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
How do you You know a lot of times people
throw around the word culture, and we've used it a lot,
even this conversation, like what's your definition of culture?
Speaker 2 (26:23):
My definition of culture is.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
The vibe of what people are saying and doing together
without them even knowing it. There's like, for example, there's
a culture moment that's happening right now in the world
in regards.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
To the Kamalah.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, you know, that was a culture moment I feel
like where people were together for something as black people.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
But culture, I feel like it's not just black.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
You know, culture is it's urban, it's how society moving,
is what people are paying attention to, what people are doing,
what people are wearing. And it's not necessarily something that's
spoken is just being done.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah. You know.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
One of my favorite definitions of culture comes from you know,
an author I always read, always talks about, you know,
culture is people like us do things like this. Okay,
so it's kind of like what you just said, right,
and I think about it, and that's like, honestly, even
one of the reasons why you know, I started butter
atl is because for a long time, from a culture standpoint,
I got tired of people coming from outside of the culture,
(27:34):
you know, giving us permission to talk about our culture,
Like why do we need somebody from.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
New York RelA coming down to Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
And being like, so, tell us about waffle house, right,
you know, what is the limp pepper wings y'all eating
like and then they go take it back IM like,
so in Atlanta, this is what they do. It's like,
how come we can't talk? What can't we tell our
own stories? And I think we need you know, more
people like that coming out here and saying, you know,
Atlanta can speak for itself. There was very much a
time and which you know, we needed to lean on
(28:01):
these other like you know, media outlets and media cities
and stuff like that to kind of give us permission.
But with all the amazing stuff that's happened in Atlanta
from music and entertainment and sports and business and all
these other elements, like we've earned the right to be
able to talk about what we do ourselves. We don't
need permission from anybody else, you know. And again you
do that same kind of stuff and everything you work on. Man, Now,
(28:22):
I guess for the next thing is like what are
you gonna do next? Like what's next? Like are you franchising?
You're gonna grow this thing out? Like what's you doing next?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Man?
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Well, I got a couple of things on working on
Live on Edgewood TV.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Okay, tell us about that.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
So that's a new TV series that I have created
with eighty five South On the producer on that TV show,
New Faces a part of it.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Erica Dutchess is a part of it.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
I love it because again, this is like another pivotal moment.
I feel like I'm creating or helping to usher in
where it's not just podcasts, it's TV shows.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
This is my opportunity to inspire people through other stories
that I feel like are really great stories. So I
have all type of different people on there, big crit
being on there, Terry Jyvon, I've had some porn, you
know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, But I'm flipping the script.
So it's not just about their accomplishments. It's about what
(29:27):
they've been through, how they got there, what inspires them,
and their why. You know, a lot of it is
about their why behind who they are, and so I'm
really excited about it. We're just now wrapping up the
first season.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Congratulations on that, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
And my goal is to long term be like a
eighty five South where I can tour and take this
show on the road to different places. Yeah, as far
as grills about Scottie Goes, I do plan to have
I have more locations all over the world at some point.
Right now, I'm just taking baby steps to get all
(30:08):
my things together, you know, so that I can be
as whole and healthy as a store and as a
location as we need to be.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
So that's what I'm working on on that perspective, and
on the music tip, I recently just signed with a
new distribution company called Cwe shout out to them, and
this will be my first time really taking on actual
I would say like help where they're helping me in
ways that I haven't had help as an artist or
(30:39):
as a musician. This entire time, I really just been
trapping out the trunk, if you will. Yeah, you know,
so I'm looking forward to that and getting the music
out to the masses and just inspiring people through the
music too.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
As both an entrepreneur and an artist, what is one
thing you wish you would have done sooner? On both
of those sides.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
As an entrepreneur, I wish that I would have tapped
into a lot more of the resources a lot sooner.
I wish I would have known more about systems and
how to manage systems starting out. I think if anybody
hasn't started their business yet, that's definitely something to look into,
(31:22):
you know, managing systems, because that's a big part of
you being successful as an artist. What I wish I
would have done started out was probably, you know, man,
the artist's question is a little tricky because, you know,
at times I think I wish I would have maybe
(31:42):
taken like deals you know that I didn't take. I've
seen some of my peers take deals and blow up
and have a lot of success. But I also think
that not taking some of those deals wouldn't have led
me to grills by Scotti and who I'm known as
today and what I've been able to accomplish. So you know, yeah,
(32:06):
I would have maybe taken more situations, but I'm I'm
kind of glad I didn't too.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Man, again, you can only connect to dots looking backwards,
right and again, like you're totally right, like maybe passing
up on a certain deal or on a certain situation,
you know, open up the door, you know, down the
road a little bit for another situation, right, So it
all ends up working itself out in some weird ways sometimes, yeah,
you know, even though sometimes in the moment you're like, man,
what the hell is going on?
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Exactly exactly, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
But because I've had I've watched a lot of my
friends just blow up right standing right next to him, Trinner,
Dad James, watched k Camp blow up, and a lot
of other a lot of other people. But now I'm
in the position where I feel like, when I look
at my peers, I can compare myself to them and
what they've been able to do on the national level
(32:56):
with music. But I know that a few of my
peers also may compare themselves to me and what I've
been able to accomplish as an entrepreneur, And so it's
all it's all about being grateful for what you have,
for what you've been able to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
That's how I look at it now.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
No, for sure, man, Look before we get out of here, man,
One question I love to ask everybody is if there
was a Scotty at L billboard.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
So I being a.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Scotty you know, okay, So if you was put up
a new Scotty ETL billboard, what would you put on it?
Put a message or you know, a note like, what
would you tell people on Scotty Etail?
Speaker 1 (33:37):
To be honest, if I put up a billboard today,
it's gonna have grills by Scottie on you for sure.
But you know, just on the you know, to to
everybody out there in the world. Yeah, I would love
to leave people with a message, you know, and and
and that message is to enjoy this life. You know,
(33:58):
control what you can control, and for everything that you
can't control, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
It's gonna work out.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
No man, I love it, man, Scotty. Look, man, before
we get out of here. How can people support you?
How can they support Grills by Scotty? How can they
get more information?
Speaker 1 (34:12):
You can support me by following me at Scotty at
L S c O T T Y A T L.
Grills by Scotty, Grills with the Z, Scotty with the S.
Make sure you stop by the new store on Edgewood
if you're in LA, make sure you tap in for
the private location, and make sure you download cows Potato.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
It's out right now on all platforms.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Blood on My Ice is one of my favorite songs
on the project. And make sure you watch live on
Edgewood TV.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Yeah man, well, Scotty Man, glad to see you out here, man,
healing up, being healthy, still building again. We go back
bro for sure and you know I'm so happy for
you and you know, can't wait to see what happens
next my guy.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
No doubt man, Thank you and thank you for having
me on the show too. Amen for shure.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Absolutely and that's the pod we out You've been listing
the button nomics and I'm your host, Brandon Butler comments feedback.
Want to be a part of the show, Send us
an email today at Hello at Butterdomics dot com butter
Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by Ramsey,
with marketing support from Queen and Nike. Music provided by
mister Hanky. If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button
(35:16):
and never missed an episode, and be sure to follow
us on all our social platforms at butter dot atl
Listen to button Nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Brandon Butler
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you wonât hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, youâve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.