April 8, 2025 • 37 mins
On this episode, Butternomics host Brandon Butler sits down with Southside Ken, the mastermind behind Atlanta’s professional party scene, to unpack how he turned a single Facebook post into a movement that reshaped the city’s nightlife. From pitching restaurant owners on the Southside to packing out rooftops and opening his own restaurant, Ken breaks down the power of consistency, the importance of relationships over transactions, and why curating authentic experiences beats bottle service every time. If you’ve ever wanted to build something real from scratch—or just throw a party people never forget—this one’s a blueprint.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I think consistency is key. Consistency matters. You have to
kind of do it weekend and week out for it
to actually stick to people. I think there's even studies
that show people need to hear things well four or
five times for it sticks and things like that. Right, So,
you have to be consistent in when you're promoting so
that people know exactly what you're doing. You also should
be consistent in your brand, I think, so that people
(00:22):
know what to expect when you're having an event. They
know what type of people are going to be there,
they know what to expect from a vibe perspective, they
know how the music is going to be, and they
trust you that the venue is going to be at
a certain level. I think those are all things that
come from the consistency of your brand.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of butter Nomics. I'm
your host, Brandon Butler, found the CEO of Butter atl
and today we got somebody special in the building now, Ken,
mister kin al right south side. Ken, I ain't need
to say whole government out there, but you know people
know you about sl I'm gonna do something a little
bit different on this intro. We was over here talking
(01:04):
talking about ways, you know, spices up.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
So I asked, chat Cheapt, do you know who.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
South Side kN is in Atlanta?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
So this is how we're gonna do your introduction. I
want to read to you what chat cheapt said about you.
When I type this in, I'm nervous and you let
me know. Is it accurate? Is it missing? Anything?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Like?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
This is how we gonna do intros on nomics from
here on. Okay, So I asked who it said. Ken Albright,
known as south Side Ken or Rooftop Ken, is an
event organizer and promoter in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Originally from Fort Worth.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Texas, he studied computer science at Savannah State University and
now resides in Atlanta. Ken curates upscale events tailor for
professionals in their late twenties to forties, aiming to provide
enjoyable social experiences. One of his notable events, the Buckhead Social,
is described as neo soul in the sky, which offer
a sophisticated atmosphere for attendees. Ken maintains an active presence
(02:04):
on social media platforms, sharing updates and events and engaging
with the community. His Instagram profile under the handle south
Side Ken Thus south Side can showcases his commitment to
helping Atlanta's professionals unwind.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Wow, that thing is smart. I agree it is smart.
That's crazy that it pulled that up.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Man, I'm reading it right alow So, mister south Side
ken Ken Albright, how you doing?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Man? Welcome?
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Was chat GBC?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Was that an accurate description? What did it leave out?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Brother? So B?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I appreciate you for one. I appreciate you and you
I appreciate you having me here.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
That's crazy that it's so accurate like that, right like wow,
So no, it didn't leave anything out.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
Really, I am.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I feel like one of my duties right now is
to help Atlanta's professionals online. So I feel like it
was spot on. It went to it talked about the
upscale piece. I like that side of things. Of course,
I'm hoping you if you haven't been, everyone is coming
out to Spaceman on Wednesdays at some point. So I
appreciate it throwing that in. I need to tip uh
(03:07):
chat GPT. Let me get me give it a tip
real quick?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Hey man, hey man, Well look man, I appreciate you.
You know what I'm saying again, we were trying something
new I just wanted to see. I just want to
check because if not, you know, I can make a
phone call and like, YO, need to get this thing
to the CEO.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Yeah, man, you know I know how you do.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
So look, man, you've done it. You do a ton
of stuff in Atlanta and the night life scene.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
But even though you're not really from here, you're not
to start here, Like you said you from Fort Worth.
I know you went to Savannah State. Like how did
you get involved in like the Atlanta entertainment and night
life scene?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Good question, man, So, like you said, I wasn't from here.
Most of the promoters, uh and curators either went to
school here or they went to high school here or
something like that. Right, I really didn't, So I don't know, man,
it's kind of it's kind of crazy. Like I've always
seen these books about having the audacity to do something right,
the audac hope.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I think it was Barocks Brock. So, like, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
At the time, I had moved up here and I
was living on the south side of town, right, I
was in Henry County, and I had the audacity to say,
or to think to myself, I can create a professional
vibe on the south Side. Now, granted this is fifteen
years ago. South Side has way more restaurants and lounges
and stuff like that now, right, But fifteen years ago,
(04:27):
I don't know. I had a vision that kind of
came to my head, right, And so again, I've never
strayed from being who I was. I've always been like
a professional type guy. Again, went to HBCU, and so
I wanted to create more events for the professionals on
the South Side, and so I started doing it. I
literally I started going around to different restaurants and talking
(04:47):
to them about the idea that I had. You can't
go to like a spot that's like a non dress
code or more. I'll just say non dress code, a
non dress code spot and then try to make it
into dress code.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
You can't.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
So that's why I went to restaurants first, Right. So
I started going to restaurants, and like, after like a
month of pestering these people, one of them agreed and said, okay, fine, fine,
and so like basically what I did was I told
him my idea was you're closing at eleven. I just
want to start at ten. There's not a crowd here anyway,
and I'll go ten to two. I just need to
(05:21):
move a few chairs, create a dance floor, and I
want to create like a professional vibe where people can eat,
drink and dance. Technically, it's the same thing that's as
Spaceman right now, right technically. But I told him that's
what I wanted to do, and then he agreed and
we set a date for like a month from there.
The thing was, like you just said, I wasn't from here,
so I didn't know anybody like that. I just had
(05:43):
this vision, man. So what I did was, and you
can't even do this right now. I went to Facebook
and everybody on the south Side I friended. Is what
I did. I created a separate Facebook. And this is
how you learned to I know you've learned like marketing
and things over the years, right. I didn't even have
my face on it, which was very stupid and again
trialing error, man. And this is why they say just
(06:04):
do it, just you learn it, just go right. So
I created a Facebook. It said Ken Alpha. You know,
they didn't even have my real name, right, It said
Ken Alpha in a flyer on it, and I just
started friending everybody.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
For some reason, A few of the people hit me back.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
When they hit me back, I would friend their friends, right,
So now showing like at least some sort of mutual
connections with everybody.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
And then people started hitting me back.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Then again just over trial and error, I put my
face on not that I'm handsome, you look way better
than that, but like I put my face on it.
But that gave a connection as a real person. Like
you don't know if what I was at that point, right,
but that let people know that I was a real person,
and so more people started hitting me back. Next thing,
you know, I had like two thousand friends and it
was like, okay, showtime. I did the party. It was
(06:51):
pretty successful, and then I did another one there. Then
I went to like a different restaurant and did that,
and then I went to like this other little bar
on the South Side and did that, and then it.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Was on what was that first event? Like, like, what
do you remember about that first event?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I remember being very nervous. So actually the first DJ
was going to be E Class. It was one of
my best friends at this point, right, like, but it
was going to be DJ Class, but he ended up
having to go do something else, like corporate or something
like that. So getting this other d he got me
this other DJ. But dude, I was so nervous. I
didn't know what to expect that I don't know if
anybody's going to show up, Like, I had zero idea
(07:26):
what was about to happen, right, So the main thing
I remember is just being nervous.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
I thought I had everything planned out.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I'm kind of a planner like that, but who knew
what could happen? Right, I'm just very thankful, like ended
being like maybe two hundred people that night or something
like that, and they kind of kicked things into into gear.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So what do you remember when it was all over,
when the last person left, when you got in the
car to drive back home? You know, you all know,
did you have the music off or did you know
you had your favorite song go?
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Like?
Speaker 3 (07:55):
What do you remember about when it was over?
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Were I'm sure I was faded?
Speaker 6 (08:02):
Right, right?
Speaker 5 (08:02):
So I don't think I was driving. I was faded
for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
And no, definitely just a sign of relief, like, oh man,
I just did it. Yeah, you know, I mean that's
a huge leap of faith. I know we're just talking
about like a party. That's a huge leap of faith.
Though to like kind of put yourself out there like that, yere,
you're coming into play. And again I had no idea
what I was doing. I used to do our parties
back at Savannah State for my alpha chapter, but I
(08:27):
didn't know how to do it on this type of level.
And actually even at very first one, I had my
line brother with me anyway, so it was he and
I doing it together.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, okay, all right, Now you start doing these events,
you get something different, Like when did.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
You know you had something special?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
So from there again I did like maybe four to
six parties, and then I really was gonna stop it.
Just it was kind of up and down and like
and again, this is fifteen years ago, right, and so
most people that wanted something upscale, they were going to
drive to the city at that point, Like I remember
you having bed here, So at this point, by then,
you know, people are already driving to the city. You
(09:02):
didn't kind of stay in your own hoods back then, right,
people are already driving down to Midtown and Bucket and
all that, and so it just kind of it kind
of dawned to me, like, all right, most people are
probably going to go to the city, and I was
really going to stop.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
And then I was driving around and.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I passed this spot called the Skybox, and so I
went in and the GM ended up being from Texas.
He's from Dallas for worst matter of fact, right, and
so we just started talking and really after our conversation,
he was like, man, you should do something here. He's like,
I'm like, I'm even going to talk to the owner.
So he goes and talks to the owner. Now the
owners were Terry, rest in peace to Terry and Tory,
(09:39):
who now owns suite. So I ended up doing a
happy hour there and it was up and down, but
it did let me know like, man, I could really
kind of do this. At that point that I had
built up like a little bit of rapport with like
the area, I probably had three four thousand Facebook friends.
IG was just kind of coming up out things like that.
(10:01):
But I felt like, man, I really have something here.
And then the bigger break came when Jimmy Jones, especially
at that time, Jimmy was killing it, you know, Jimmy
shout out to Jimmy Jones, Man, I really appreciate Jimmy.
Jimmy asked my boy, my frat brother, AJ Productions, anyone
who partied in Buckhead in the early two k remembers
how AJ Productions was killing it, killing it, and so
(10:24):
Jimmy hit him to do a happy hour. He said,
I can't do it, but my love bro ken. Give
him a shot. Really, I was going to stop promoting
until that. And then when he asked me about that,
originally I said no. I probably called Jimmy back like maybe.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Two weeks later and said, so let's do it.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
It's like, you know, and I know you have that
that dog and you as well man, and so again
I was a little nervous because it's like the South
Side was like the G League.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
You want me to do something in downtown Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I'm like, whoa, you know, like Briannie James right now
or something. Man, I'm not ready, but yeah, the dog
kind of came out, man, and I just, uh, I
jumped out there. I packed it out. That one happy
hour literally took care of everything else. So and I said, Jimmy,
let me shout out Kevin there was too. I really
appreciate Kevin. Kevin was the owner of Indigo Bar at
(11:14):
the time, and then he bought Mingos. Literally the next
week we were on the phone talking about me doing
every Saturday at mingos and then it.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Was up, Yeah, what do you think like made those
events again? And all of a sudden it kind of
hit like, what was the difference? Was it just more
professional upscale event? Because I remember, you know, Atlanta back
in that stage, you know, back in the day, we thought,
you know, professional was a polo shirt.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
You know what I'm saying, that business casual.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
You know what I'm saying, Like they got a certain
point where they were like, you can't even wear stripey
polos here.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
It's gonna be a solid color.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Like, but like, what do you think was the differentiator
with the kind of stuff that you were doing, especially
bringing it to Atlanta?
Speaker 1 (11:51):
It's a trip because you say this is now I
know you said Spaceman earlier. I think it was a
social aspect. I've always kind of had this social aspect
of things and really pushed people's social and I was
never huge on VIP and stuff like that. I was
more about people all kind of coming together, and so
I think that was a huge thing that kind of
kind of separated me. Let me go back, matter of fact,
(12:11):
right when I did that happy hour Indigo Bar, and
this was a huge part of the social aspect of things.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Had you ever heard of meetup dot com?
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah, I'm a meet up so at the time I
created a meetup way back then, right end up becoming
at the time the largest professional meet up in Atlanta.
Meetup even emailed me because I had the most active
in the Southeast.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
At the time.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Okay, So but meetup is what really pushed my events
to be more social because everyone came there to network
and socialize, and so I think that was one difference
with like if I did a happy hour and someone
else just had a normal happy hour, to where you
walked in and sat down my happy hour. You may
walk in, you're greeted, you have someone saying, hey, how
you doing. Then oh, you're in this profession. Let me
(12:54):
introduce you to someone in that profession, and they kind
of went from there.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You talk a lot about too, like not burning bridges
like you did the work at Skybox, and then you know,
things come full circle, like what's your belief on just again,
how relationships evolve over the years?
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Man, I think relationships are everything again, even from the
social aspect of the events. Part of that is networking,
Like I believe in social networking as opposed to the
walk up. My name is Brandon, here's a business card, Like,
it's just not that effective to me. Whereas you and
I are just sitting there and just kind of talking
talking about basketball and baseball, like I know you used
(13:40):
to play.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
And then I said, hey, so Brandon, what do you do.
You're like, oh, man, I have a podcast and I'm
in marketing. Okay, I do events.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Now we already have a connection, you know, so I
think doing that in a relationship building. That's why it's
important to me, and that's how I end up kind
of fostering things together. And you just say that, right, like,
relationship kind of put me in the position that I
needed to be in. I knew aj he and I
were tight. Jimmy called him, he put me in contact
with AJ. I met Terry and Tory at Skybox and
(14:09):
did their stuff and we stayed tight. So when it
was time to continue to grow, it just so happens.
Terryan Tory bought Sweet Lounge.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Boom. Now we're at Sweet Lounge, right.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
So everything has always been kind of around relationship building.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, man, I mean you know again, I've been at
the events, I've seen how you move. One thing I
always kind of say too when it comes to relationships, right,
Like I look at relationships kind of like a math equation.
I always say, like relationships or a function of interactions
over time. So in other words, a stronger relationship is
because you've interacted with somebody multiple times over a long
period of time.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
So again, you talk about people that you used to
work with, whether it's Jimmy or Ajd's folks, you have
relationship with y'all had lots of interactions and you have
the time too, So that creates a stronger relationship. And
I think, yeah, a lot of times nowadays things are
so transactional, like people interact with you once and they
think you'll have a gree and all of a sudden
asking for something, right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
But again, like you kind of build up.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I see you at your eventure, moving around, You're hanging
out with the people, you're talking to, folks, building those
kind of like those real, those real, authentic, honest moments.
Like I think that's one of the differentiates for you too,
especially when you do your stuff versus other people.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
No, I appreciate you think that's accurate or you know, definitely,
and I don't get to as much as I used to,
Like I used to really be out there, and like
when I first started doing events, man, I almost tried
to remember every person's name at my event, and at
the time I gotten pretty good. I couldn't remember two
or three hundred, but at least seventy five eighty ninety
people and that was my first time meeting them, but
(15:35):
I remembered everybody's name at the time.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
Well, I think even Abe kind of spoke.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
This a little bit during the last podcast and just
the hospitality aspect of things, man, But yeah, that was
kind of my thing in the beginning.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Man, I love it. Man.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
What mistake do you think that a lot of organizers
and promoters make when it comes to, you know, keeping
them from growing and building something at last?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I think one, And not that I'm some guru, you know,
but I think consistency lacks for society, but for a
lot of people, especially in this side of things, right
you would think, again, you're just kind of throwing an
event or you're doing a party, but no, I think
consistency is key. Consistency matters. You have to kind of
(16:15):
do it week in and week out. For it to
actually stick to people. I think there's even studies that
show people need to hear things well four or five
times for it sticks and things like that. Right, So
you have to be consistent in when you're promoting so
that people know exactly what you're doing. You also should
be consistent in your brand, I think, and that's probably
a personal thing, right, but I feel like you should
(16:36):
be consistent in your brand so that people know what
to expect when you're having an event. They know what
type of people are going to be there, they know
what to expect from a vibe perspective, they know how
the music is going to be. Then they trust you
that the venue is going to be at a certain level.
I think those are all things that come from the
consistency of your brand.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
So yeah, I think, look, man, I agree with you.
I think consistency, honestly is one of the biggest superpowers
or biggest hacks that you can do be successful. Because
one thing about consistency is is it also makes you
appear a little bit bigger than you actually are because
people see it so much and they start again, it
kind of starts to associating their mind of just all right,
(17:12):
I'm constantly seeing it like it must be something out
of me, something, you know. Like you know again, I
remember in the early days of growing butter like I
kind of had. I always had that belief that, like,
we not only be consistent, but we got to show up.
So yeah, in the beginning, you know, we were coming
up with content three four times a day, seven days
a week, and I think that's what really showed up.
It was like, Wow, these folks are showing up. They're consistent.
Everything they're doing is always fun and interesting. And you know,
(17:34):
it wasn't okay, I'm a post one time today, another
time in three weeks, and then this was gonna be
about this. This is gonna be about something totally different, right,
Like you need to put up shots, you know, like
you need shots on goal, you know what I mean?
Like this again, we know we sell about basketball, like
I ain't worried about my shooting percentage.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
I just don't how to get shots up, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
And I think a lot of it is the same
thing again, like being consistent, you know, having people be
able to lie and say, you know what, even if
I can't make it this week, I know that next
week when I actually do have time off, I know
I'm gonna go and I know it's gonna be there
because they show up there, they do an amazing job,
and like I'm not even while I'm missing out on
this week, I know I'm gonna have a great time
next week too, because again, the experience is consistent, the
(18:14):
brand is consistent, the place is consistent. Like again, it's
not like you're showing up one place and then a
week later you're gone or you somewhere else, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You know, even any social media manager will tell you
have to be consistent in posting. Right, So it's the
same thing for events, right, you got to be consistent
in your posting.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
It's the same thing.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
And that's through sales, events or whatever. It is consistency.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Man, how do you get inspired for events? Like, again,
it's one thing to come up, you know, to come
up with stuff can be tough sometimes, Like where do
you get inspiration for for like the different kind of
events you want to do?
Speaker 1 (18:45):
So ironically, well maybe it's not ironically. I get visions
about stuff, it's kind of how it happens. So I
read up on I read up on how to focus
a long time ago, Like I used to only get creative.
I don't know if I should say this, man, But
it was in the shower. But I realized why I
was in the shower. It's because I wasn't thinking and
I just kind of let my mind go, right, So
(19:06):
I read I didn't know that until I read up
on how to focus. So now I can put myself
into like a creative state and I'll just sit back
and stuff will just start coming to me. Man, I'll
get visions about things, for instance, space. Man, I had
a vision. And so let me say, I love Atlanta
more than any other city, right. I feel like we're
the best sitting in the nation.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
I really do.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
But I had this vision of like this after work
crowd and it was like on a rooftop and you
had this sexy backdrop and things like that, and it
reminded me of New York the kind of what it
reminded me of, But it was people after work, and
you had a guy in a suit next to a
guy in a T shirt. If you go to my
very first Buckheat social post, it actually says this exact
(19:48):
thing that I'm saying. But like you had all walks
of life. But it was a fun time and it
was you said it earlier, it was a social time.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
So the music is at a good level, which is
the same exact thing bluckhead socialis right now. Right, the
music is high enough for you to hear it and
you can even dance and bop your head to it,
but it's not blasting in your ear, and you can
still have a full on conversation with the person right
across from you, right. And So I don't know, I
just have had a vision that came to my mind
like that, and then I start out to create it.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
That's dope, man, that's dope.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Now you've been doing events for a while, now you're
jumping into, you know, building out your own spaces, like,
you know, opening up I can I.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Say it, definitely, definitely, definitely opening up your own restaurant.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Now. Congratulations, I say that, you know what made you
decide that now is the time to kind of make
that jump.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
So I've always kind of been about providing something good
for the people. I don't know, I feel like that
sounds a little cliche, but it's kind of the true. Yeah,
And I felt like if I focused on people, the
money would come. And so this is like a second
leg or avenue of that to be able to provide
something else to our city, city that I love so much. Right,
(20:56):
So it's an upscale restaurant, but it's not like upscale
to where it's too bougie. If you have a good time,
I'm staying upscale, and the people and the music and
the dining is elevated, real cocktails, just a sexy vby
type atmosphere.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I think at this point most of us would rather
do something like that over again, some of us, you know,
some of us, not all of us, but some people
would rather kind of go out, be able to eat,
sit down, talk to your girls or talk to the fellas,
chill chill at the bar, have a real drink, those
types of things, right, And so that's kind of those
are some of the aspects.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
That we'll be providing. Man, So really excited about it.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
People. No, No, what's the name of the spot now?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
So the spot is called Midtown Social. It's going to
be in West Midtown. We'll be open pretty much seven
days a week, quick serve breakfast and lunch. You can
get in breakfast to everything. Man, we don't know every day,
every day, every day, So quick serve breakfast.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
Man.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
We actually already have a kias set up to where
you can order it yourself. You can walk up, put
your order in, it'll come straight out. Your in and
out in a matter of minutes. Man, You're in and
out is ours our goal, right, So they'll be quick
serve breakfast and lunch at nighttime we switch to more
dinner and top of style things like that. We have
different DJs throughout the week and stuff like that. Other
(22:16):
themes that will be going on as well, seasonal cocktails
that'll be that'll be added in. I don't want to
give all the c you know what I'm saying. But
and it also too man, like a brunch on the
weekends as well. Oh it's dope, man.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Now, when this idea came together, did you how did
this actually come together to this point? Because, like I said,
you're not in the restaurant space. Did you partner with somebody?
Like how did this whole thing evolve to this point?
Speaker 1 (22:40):
So and let me say this too, man, I know
we were talking about like what will we tell people?
And I know it's their consistency. I would also say,
don't give up, like I'm already like, there is no
successful person that hasn't failed, right, I've already done this
before and then it hadn't worked out, right, But this
seemed like the uh, the perfect opportunity. It was like
the perfect team put together. We all we all had
(23:01):
a similar vision, we had the same as that goal
at mine. It just kind of made sense, Like the
guys are that I'm on the team with all successful
entrepreneurs in their own right already, so that makes it
have that makes us have like a like an all
star team almost in this situation. So what happened was
one of my good friends, Sleepy Green, and sleep is
like the owner. He's part owner of Ember. He owns
(23:24):
like Milk and Honey. We had like four or five
Milk and honeys in the area already. So he's been
doing this thing. And he and I were talking one
day in relationship. We're back relationships again, right, We're talking
one day and I tell him I want to try
to do my own restaurant, is what I tell him.
And literally like two weeks later, he's like, man, I
actually just met with the realtor. I think we're gonna
(23:47):
end up doing a restaurant. Would you like to be
a part of the team. So that's actually kind of
how it happened.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
Yeah, relationships, What does this team look like?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Because I think again, I think people that understand and
one thing I talk about, or I've heard people talk
about in this podcast all the time is the importance
of a team. So, like, how do y'all you know,
from a team standpoint kind of structure, Like people focus
on different things like what's your focus and what are
some of the other focuses of the rest of your team.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
So we're kind of working some of that out now.
Of course we're not open yet, right, so we're writing
on like the final inspections and things of that nature.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
So we're kind of formulating.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Now, like the different roles that we'll all have. Clearly,
like myself and Sleep will be like more so than
hands on from a marketing perspective, and then some of
our other guys will handled certain certain things like the
back end of the fence and the back end of
the kitchen and things like that, right hiring and just
making sure supplies and process are in place. So we
have certain guys to work on that. And again, my
(24:50):
main focus for me will definitely be on the marketing side.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Okay, what's been your favorite part about this process? I mean,
even though the restaurant's not open yet, Like, what's been
your favorite part of this process?
Speaker 5 (25:00):
So it hasn't been paying out the money.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I'll tell you that it hasn't been that, nah, Man,
It's been seeing something that.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
That you kind of molded from nothing.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Like I made a post like a day or two ago,
and I wanted people to see, like, yeah, like what
I thought like was gonna be funny too. No, this
is a different one, man. It basically showed. So when
we took over the building that is now Midtown Social
it was it was previously a different breakfast spot called
(25:33):
Olympic Flame. And so if you look at I wanted
people to see, like the beginning to end, we literally
gutted the whole place out. We've changed the outside structure,
We've added a patio. It's like night and day from
what it was.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Man.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
So seeing this whole transformation from beginning to end, it's
been amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
How long is that whole process taken even just to
get to this point? Because this ain't an overnight thing.
And I don't want I don't want to sit here
thinking that this is something that you just go and
do right, like a renovation, and especially on a restaurant,
and making sure you have all the necessary stuff and
dealing with all the permits and everything takes a while.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
Like how long is this process even taking just to
get to this point?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
It takes a really long time, to be honest with you,
it's been at least nine months. Yeah, and that's going
kind of fast right in some of the stuff. Any
other thing too, Like he hasn't only been around the construction,
like just from a business perspective, and I don't want
to bore people, but you have to get all these
permits and certifications and things like that as well. So
that's happening. You may get delayed a little bit. You
(26:29):
may have to wait on disapproval things like that. Right,
So you have an architect that comes in, they start designing,
and they work with you to design the space with
the designer, and then you submit those plans and need
to be approved.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
That could take a while. You have to go back
and forth.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
So different things like that also kind of go into
the timeframe and duration. But it's been about eight or
nine months.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, Now you said that you've kind of done this
kind of you know, a restaurant kind of project before,
but so you've probably kind of experienced some of these things,
but like would have been some of the most surprising
or challenging moments, you know, through this process.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
I didn't realize how many approvals in like we're actually
kind of needed, right, There's been like certificates and certifications
and approvals for almost everything. Any the smallest of change
in architecture got to be reapproved, right, So that and
it's so many of the other little things that we've
had to kind of get, like getting the outside repaved.
(27:22):
I didn't even think of that at first. One of
our other partners thought about that. He's like, no, we
need to get this repaid. Things like that, or even
down to all the dish rags that you have to
have in trades to carry glass where shelving in the back.
Like there's all these other things that I don't know.
I didn't technically fathom at the time, but because I've
always kind of focused on the marketing side, right, So no,
(27:44):
seeing all of that has been a huge surprise.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
Man. So learning experience, I've been learning the entire time.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, again, I think a lot of people don't really understand.
I mean, and you know, it's really funny too when
you think about because I mean, I've been in the
restaurant project before and I've seen a lot of that stuff.
But you know what's crazy is like these folks do
these goes kitchens. They don't need nothing. You literally get
somebody on DoorDash or burats and they can fire up
a ghost titching. I saw a TikTok where a guy
just decided one day that he was going to start
(28:10):
a ghost kitchen and his girl like was recording. He
was like at home just like that, and he just
caught up door to ash and was like, yeah, I'm
selling sandwiches, and like they literally delivered a tablet.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
He like started going like buying.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
You know, like a food, you know, like junk food
and stuff like that, like basically reselling it.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
No inspections, inspections.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Nobody came to look at the kitchen. Meanwhile, they out
here stressing y'all out about permits and all this kind
of stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
And it's just so interesting when you think about just
all the nuances of this game and kind of building things.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
And I would say, and and I was funny with
with the guy, but we also wanted to make sure
that we were doing everything the right way right, so
we all like we've all gotten like we've done the
safety certifications as well, like we've been going through every
nook and cranny of what's needed from a safety perspective.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
We've been doing that this entire time.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
So do you see an opportunity to do something different
or you know, more unique with your events once the
space is built.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
I'll always continue to be unique.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I kind of like creating and I like giving the
city different things, you know, So I.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Mean, will things stay exactly the same with me? Never?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I always like to kind of give some sort of nuance, right,
so like you know, having a spaceman on Wednesdays and
then I started this whole series, or bring it back
the dance party at District, So you go from a
rooftop vibe after work type atmosphere to a full on
back in the day dance party right to where everybody's
in there dancing too. It's kind of it's kind of
(29:38):
cool to see. So I'll always continue to kind of
innovate and do new things. Like that's kind of a
I can't help but do that.
Speaker 5 (29:44):
To be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, I mean, well, look on one thing that you've
innovated on that I always see and I just I
just love seeing it. Just these line dance classes too.
But you know what I mean again, you're doing the events.
You are here teaching people how to do the to
me dance and all these different unique things. And I
think again that also just makes people have more fun
at you at your events than they kind of come in.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
You know what made you start doing that?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
So when winter hits, people either go out less or
they may go out later. And I thought it was
there was an opportunity for me to do something early
on for people that for one, that would get people
out earlier, right, But for two, it gave you something extra,
like a little bit of extra fun and a reason
to get out a little bit earlier. And so we
(30:26):
know our whole community like, you got to know how
to do it to me at this point, right, or
you have to sit down every time it's played. And
so I thought it was kind of like a fun
thing to do. And there's actually a video that a
friend of mine, Shari, she's an amazing attorney. She came
out last week and she just did a reel about it.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Doesn't want to.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Repost, but it kind of shows behind the scenes a
little bit because like we go when everybody comes in,
everyone kind of grabs a drink up at Spaceman. Spaceman
is on the fifteenth level of the central hotel. We
go down to another level that has actually this huge ballroom,
and so we learned in private with just like whoever's
trying to learn it right, and it almost becomes like
(31:04):
a family community type thing. Man, It's it's just a
super fun time. People are tripping everywhere, but we're doing
it together. Everybody's doing it together, and we're kind of
just laughing. And then around thirty forty five minutes later
we all go back up and then we hit that
to me, you know, so I know people.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Have a good time.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Again, if it feels like you said, you give people
like you know, when people work on something together, they
learn something together, they start off as not experts in it,
and they get better. There's just a natural kind of
bond that happens, right, And I think again that probably
even just carries into the event, like it just brings
a whole new vibe and energy up and plus a
set on the same time. Now you got folks dancing, yeah,
you know, we got you know, in Atlanta, we love
(31:43):
a good section. We love a good section in Atlanta,
you know what I'm saying. But to be able to
actually have a space people moving around on the dance
for and everything, man, it dopely just brings like a
whole different vibe to it.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
Man, it does.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Man, It's funny you say that because I actually went
a couple of years ago. I don't know why I
had to. I just had the mindset to go opposite
of the section culture. And that was another reason why
I started as spaceman, Like I wanted to go away
from sections and just have everybody socializing. Everyone is VIP.
Let's just all have a good time. Don't get me wrong.
Like like, for instance, that district, I can do a
reserve section if needed.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
It's just not the focus of the product, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Man, you know what again, You've always focused on just
like creating spaces for people and professionals to feel welcome. Like,
what do you want people to take away from that
whole perspective on how you put together events and curate
experiences of people.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
That's a good question, man, I would say that I
actually try to provide an experience for them, you know,
like I'm not just rolling out music here or rolling
it out there. I do care about the people that
are coming. I care about who's coming. I want to
make sure you have the consistency of the right crowd
(32:52):
that you want to be around.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
I try to plan out.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
I plan like an event planner, which can be a
lot for some people, to be honest with you, that's
just what it is, though, right. But I like to
make sure like everything's in order. I'm typically booking DJs
a month in advance, like I don't really kind of
go week to week. I have like a schedule of
at least a month out of everybody that's already booked
(33:16):
with the venue. If I'm doing anything different, we're meeting
two to three times way before that date even comes.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
So now does it always work out? Of course, not
know right things are You're going to always have pitfalls
and stuff like that. But I want people to know
like I do try to do my best to plan accordingly.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
Just to provide the best experience. Fore that's two.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
That's dope.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
Man.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Well, look man, before we get out of here, you know,
we start off this interview with the definition of chat
GPT about you and that's cool. Now I'm gonna give
you a chance to put something out there so I
can always tell people, or always ask people, if there
was a south Side Ken billboard somewhere in the city
of Atlanta and you could put a message on it
something you believe, something you just want to tell people
(33:59):
besides go to MIT on social and support that. You
know what I'm saying. But like, what would the south
side Kim billboard? Like, you know, we'll get the old.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
So soft social at the bottom. Yeah, Like, what would
the south side Kim billboard? What message would you put
on it for the people you know to see when
they when they drive by. So two things I think
for one is and I think we've all seen the
whole Let me again. I don't want to ask like
I'm some better than now type person. I feel like
(34:28):
upscale and non upscale both are needed for entertainment. I
feel like they're all needed. I want to be very
clear with that, right, I feel like they're both needed.
It's even like this little funny thing I have with DJs.
They know I don't really like sex you red, We'll
throw it on still though here and there.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
You know, it can be a.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Little bit, it's kind of ivy. It gets people going,
But I do feel like both sides are needed. I
just choose to do upscale, professional stuff. But there was
so you know you've all heard, we've all heard the
saying of classy is the new black. I would put
classy as always has been black.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Okay, I like that, Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Well, look, man, before we get out of here, ken,
how can how can people find you? How can they
support you? How can they learn about the events, like,
you know, let them know where to go?
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Can I say one other thing too? Absolutely, I just
want to make sure I hit on a few people
who really really helped me to even get to this point.
So again I said Terry and Tory R. I p
to Terry, Kevin Edwards, Jimmy. I didn't mention ab earlier,
but shout out to AB too. I learned a lot
from Aid, like I used to do Fridays at a
rose bar, and I learned.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
A lot, a lot, a lot a lot from eight.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
So shout out to all of them, Shout to them, man,
give them the flowers man.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
Definitely, definitely all helped me. They all helped me.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Man, So I g is the south Side can. TikTok
is south Side can. Although I haven't used that a
lot lately, I need to get with you on that, man.
I feel I feel like you'd be pretty good at
the TikTok.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Let me know, I don't do a lot on TikTok.
I know how to use it. You need I need
to do.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
I need to do more on myself.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I definitely do more on it, but that's the main
thing for me. It's just the South Side Can. All
of my information is on that ig page, including the
link to Midtown Social, but the exact page for Midtown
Social is Midtown Social atl Okay, So well, yo, Man,
the south Side can my man as defined by chat,
GPT and everything else.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Brother.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
We appreciate you pulling up, Congratulations on everything, love the events,
keep growing. Can't wait to see Midtown Social launch, and
can't wait to see where you go from there.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Man.
Speaker 5 (36:28):
I appreciate you, man, and thanks for having me too. Man. Truly,
this is truly an honor. Seriously, I appreciate your brother.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Like I said, Man, I always love to see people.
Speaker 5 (36:34):
Doing good things.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
You do good work.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
You've always been good every time we've interacted with each other. Man,
so I appreciate you pulling up. Thank you, brother, and yo,
y'all we out.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
That's the pod. Later.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
You've been listening to button Nomics and I'm your host,
Brandon Butler. Got comments, feedback? Want to be on the show.
Send us an email today at hello at butternomics dot com.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Butter Nomics is produced.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
In Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by Casey Pegram, with marketing
support from Queen and Nikki Music for 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 at l. Listen to better Nomics
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts
I think consistency is key. Consistency matters. You have to
kind of do it weekend and week out for it
to actually stick to people. I think there's even studies
that show people need to hear things well four or
five times for it sticks and things like that. Right, So,
you have to be consistent in when you're promoting so
that people know exactly what you're doing. You also should
be consistent in your brand, I think, so that people
(00:22):
know what to expect when you're having an event. They
know what type of people are going to be there,
they know what to expect from a vibe perspective, they
know how the music is going to be, and they
trust you that the venue is going to be at
a certain level. I think those are all things that
come from the consistency of your brand.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of butter Nomics. I'm
your host, Brandon Butler, found the CEO of Butter atl
and today we got somebody special in the building now, Ken,
mister kin al right south side. Ken, I ain't need
to say whole government out there, but you know people
know you about sl I'm gonna do something a little
bit different on this intro. We was over here talking
(01:04):
talking about ways, you know, spices up.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
So I asked, chat Cheapt, do you know who.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
South Side kN is in Atlanta?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
So this is how we're gonna do your introduction. I
want to read to you what chat cheapt said about you.
When I type this in, I'm nervous and you let
me know. Is it accurate? Is it missing? Anything?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Like?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
This is how we gonna do intros on nomics from
here on. Okay, So I asked who it said. Ken Albright,
known as south Side Ken or Rooftop Ken, is an
event organizer and promoter in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Originally from Fort Worth.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Texas, he studied computer science at Savannah State University and
now resides in Atlanta. Ken curates upscale events tailor for
professionals in their late twenties to forties, aiming to provide
enjoyable social experiences. One of his notable events, the Buckhead Social,
is described as neo soul in the sky, which offer
a sophisticated atmosphere for attendees. Ken maintains an active presence
(02:04):
on social media platforms, sharing updates and events and engaging
with the community. His Instagram profile under the handle south
Side Ken Thus south Side can showcases his commitment to
helping Atlanta's professionals unwind.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Wow, that thing is smart. I agree it is smart.
That's crazy that it pulled that up.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Man, I'm reading it right alow So, mister south Side
ken Ken Albright, how you doing?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Man? Welcome?
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Was chat GBC?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Was that an accurate description? What did it leave out?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Brother? So B?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I appreciate you for one. I appreciate you and you
I appreciate you having me here.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
That's crazy that it's so accurate like that, right like wow,
So no, it didn't leave anything out.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
Really, I am.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I feel like one of my duties right now is
to help Atlanta's professionals online. So I feel like it
was spot on. It went to it talked about the
upscale piece. I like that side of things. Of course,
I'm hoping you if you haven't been, everyone is coming
out to Spaceman on Wednesdays at some point. So I
appreciate it throwing that in. I need to tip uh
(03:07):
chat GPT. Let me get me give it a tip
real quick?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Hey man, hey man, Well look man, I appreciate you.
You know what I'm saying again, we were trying something
new I just wanted to see. I just want to
check because if not, you know, I can make a
phone call and like, YO, need to get this thing
to the CEO.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Yeah, man, you know I know how you do.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
So look, man, you've done it. You do a ton
of stuff in Atlanta and the night life scene.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
But even though you're not really from here, you're not
to start here, Like you said you from Fort Worth.
I know you went to Savannah State. Like how did
you get involved in like the Atlanta entertainment and night
life scene?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Good question, man, So, like you said, I wasn't from here.
Most of the promoters, uh and curators either went to
school here or they went to high school here or
something like that. Right, I really didn't, So I don't know, man,
it's kind of it's kind of crazy. Like I've always
seen these books about having the audacity to do something right,
the audac hope.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I think it was Barocks Brock. So, like, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
At the time, I had moved up here and I
was living on the south side of town, right, I
was in Henry County, and I had the audacity to say,
or to think to myself, I can create a professional
vibe on the south Side. Now, granted this is fifteen
years ago. South Side has way more restaurants and lounges
and stuff like that now, right, But fifteen years ago,
(04:27):
I don't know. I had a vision that kind of
came to my head, right, And so again, I've never
strayed from being who I was. I've always been like
a professional type guy. Again, went to HBCU, and so
I wanted to create more events for the professionals on
the South Side, and so I started doing it. I
literally I started going around to different restaurants and talking
(04:47):
to them about the idea that I had. You can't
go to like a spot that's like a non dress
code or more. I'll just say non dress code, a
non dress code spot and then try to make it
into dress code.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
You can't.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
So that's why I went to restaurants first, Right. So
I started going to restaurants, and like, after like a
month of pestering these people, one of them agreed and said, okay, fine, fine,
and so like basically what I did was I told
him my idea was you're closing at eleven. I just
want to start at ten. There's not a crowd here anyway,
and I'll go ten to two. I just need to
(05:21):
move a few chairs, create a dance floor, and I
want to create like a professional vibe where people can eat,
drink and dance. Technically, it's the same thing that's as
Spaceman right now, right technically. But I told him that's
what I wanted to do, and then he agreed and
we set a date for like a month from there.
The thing was, like you just said, I wasn't from here,
so I didn't know anybody like that. I just had
(05:43):
this vision, man. So what I did was, and you
can't even do this right now. I went to Facebook
and everybody on the south Side I friended. Is what
I did. I created a separate Facebook. And this is
how you learned to I know you've learned like marketing
and things over the years, right. I didn't even have
my face on it, which was very stupid and again
trialing error, man. And this is why they say just
(06:04):
do it, just you learn it, just go right. So
I created a Facebook. It said Ken Alpha. You know,
they didn't even have my real name, right, It said
Ken Alpha in a flyer on it, and I just
started friending everybody.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
For some reason, A few of the people hit me back.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
When they hit me back, I would friend their friends, right,
So now showing like at least some sort of mutual
connections with everybody.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
And then people started hitting me back.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Then again just over trial and error, I put my
face on not that I'm handsome, you look way better
than that, but like I put my face on it.
But that gave a connection as a real person. Like
you don't know if what I was at that point, right,
but that let people know that I was a real person,
and so more people started hitting me back. Next thing,
you know, I had like two thousand friends and it
was like, okay, showtime. I did the party. It was
(06:51):
pretty successful, and then I did another one there. Then
I went to like a different restaurant and did that,
and then I went to like this other little bar
on the South Side and did that, and then it.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Was on what was that first event? Like, like, what
do you remember about that first event?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I remember being very nervous. So actually the first DJ
was going to be E Class. It was one of
my best friends at this point, right, like, but it
was going to be DJ Class, but he ended up
having to go do something else, like corporate or something
like that. So getting this other d he got me
this other DJ. But dude, I was so nervous. I
didn't know what to expect that I don't know if
anybody's going to show up, Like, I had zero idea
(07:26):
what was about to happen, right, So the main thing
I remember is just being nervous.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
I thought I had everything planned out.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I'm kind of a planner like that, but who knew
what could happen? Right, I'm just very thankful, like ended
being like maybe two hundred people that night or something
like that, and they kind of kicked things into into gear.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So what do you remember when it was all over,
when the last person left, when you got in the
car to drive back home? You know, you all know,
did you have the music off or did you know
you had your favorite song go?
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Like?
Speaker 3 (07:55):
What do you remember about when it was over?
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Were I'm sure I was faded?
Speaker 6 (08:02):
Right, right?
Speaker 5 (08:02):
So I don't think I was driving. I was faded
for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
And no, definitely just a sign of relief, like, oh man,
I just did it. Yeah, you know, I mean that's
a huge leap of faith. I know we're just talking
about like a party. That's a huge leap of faith.
Though to like kind of put yourself out there like that, yere,
you're coming into play. And again I had no idea
what I was doing. I used to do our parties
back at Savannah State for my alpha chapter, but I
(08:27):
didn't know how to do it on this type of level.
And actually even at very first one, I had my
line brother with me anyway, so it was he and
I doing it together.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, okay, all right, Now you start doing these events,
you get something different, Like when did.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
You know you had something special?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
So from there again I did like maybe four to
six parties, and then I really was gonna stop it.
Just it was kind of up and down and like
and again, this is fifteen years ago, right, and so
most people that wanted something upscale, they were going to
drive to the city at that point, Like I remember
you having bed here, So at this point, by then,
you know, people are already driving to the city. You
(09:02):
didn't kind of stay in your own hoods back then, right,
people are already driving down to Midtown and Bucket and
all that, and so it just kind of it kind
of dawned to me, like, all right, most people are
probably going to go to the city, and I was
really going to stop.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
And then I was driving around and.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I passed this spot called the Skybox, and so I
went in and the GM ended up being from Texas.
He's from Dallas for worst matter of fact, right, and
so we just started talking and really after our conversation,
he was like, man, you should do something here. He's like,
I'm like, I'm even going to talk to the owner.
So he goes and talks to the owner. Now the
owners were Terry, rest in peace to Terry and Tory,
(09:39):
who now owns suite. So I ended up doing a
happy hour there and it was up and down, but
it did let me know like, man, I could really
kind of do this. At that point that I had
built up like a little bit of rapport with like
the area, I probably had three four thousand Facebook friends.
IG was just kind of coming up out things like that.
(10:01):
But I felt like, man, I really have something here.
And then the bigger break came when Jimmy Jones, especially
at that time, Jimmy was killing it, you know, Jimmy
shout out to Jimmy Jones, Man, I really appreciate Jimmy.
Jimmy asked my boy, my frat brother, AJ Productions, anyone
who partied in Buckhead in the early two k remembers
how AJ Productions was killing it, killing it, and so
(10:24):
Jimmy hit him to do a happy hour. He said,
I can't do it, but my love bro ken. Give
him a shot. Really, I was going to stop promoting
until that. And then when he asked me about that,
originally I said no. I probably called Jimmy back like maybe.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Two weeks later and said, so let's do it.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
It's like, you know, and I know you have that
that dog and you as well man, and so again
I was a little nervous because it's like the South
Side was like the G League.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
You want me to do something in downtown Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I'm like, whoa, you know, like Briannie James right now
or something. Man, I'm not ready, but yeah, the dog
kind of came out, man, and I just, uh, I
jumped out there. I packed it out. That one happy
hour literally took care of everything else. So and I said, Jimmy,
let me shout out Kevin there was too. I really
appreciate Kevin. Kevin was the owner of Indigo Bar at
(11:14):
the time, and then he bought Mingos. Literally the next
week we were on the phone talking about me doing
every Saturday at mingos and then it.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Was up, Yeah, what do you think like made those
events again? And all of a sudden it kind of
hit like, what was the difference? Was it just more
professional upscale event? Because I remember, you know, Atlanta back
in that stage, you know, back in the day, we thought,
you know, professional was a polo shirt.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
You know what I'm saying, that business casual.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
You know what I'm saying, Like they got a certain
point where they were like, you can't even wear stripey
polos here.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
It's gonna be a solid color.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Like, but like, what do you think was the differentiator
with the kind of stuff that you were doing, especially
bringing it to Atlanta?
Speaker 1 (11:51):
It's a trip because you say this is now I
know you said Spaceman earlier. I think it was a
social aspect. I've always kind of had this social aspect
of things and really pushed people's social and I was
never huge on VIP and stuff like that. I was
more about people all kind of coming together, and so
I think that was a huge thing that kind of
kind of separated me. Let me go back, matter of fact,
(12:11):
right when I did that happy hour Indigo Bar, and
this was a huge part of the social aspect of things.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Had you ever heard of meetup dot com?
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah, I'm a meet up so at the time I
created a meetup way back then, right end up becoming
at the time the largest professional meet up in Atlanta.
Meetup even emailed me because I had the most active
in the Southeast.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
At the time.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Okay, So but meetup is what really pushed my events
to be more social because everyone came there to network
and socialize, and so I think that was one difference
with like if I did a happy hour and someone
else just had a normal happy hour, to where you
walked in and sat down my happy hour. You may
walk in, you're greeted, you have someone saying, hey, how
you doing. Then oh, you're in this profession. Let me
(12:54):
introduce you to someone in that profession, and they kind
of went from there.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You talk a lot about too, like not burning bridges
like you did the work at Skybox, and then you know,
things come full circle, like what's your belief on just again,
how relationships evolve over the years?
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Man, I think relationships are everything again, even from the
social aspect of the events. Part of that is networking,
Like I believe in social networking as opposed to the
walk up. My name is Brandon, here's a business card, Like,
it's just not that effective to me. Whereas you and
I are just sitting there and just kind of talking
talking about basketball and baseball, like I know you used
(13:40):
to play.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
And then I said, hey, so Brandon, what do you do.
You're like, oh, man, I have a podcast and I'm
in marketing. Okay, I do events.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Now we already have a connection, you know, so I
think doing that in a relationship building. That's why it's
important to me, and that's how I end up kind
of fostering things together. And you just say that, right, like,
relationship kind of put me in the position that I
needed to be in. I knew aj he and I
were tight. Jimmy called him, he put me in contact
with AJ. I met Terry and Tory at Skybox and
(14:09):
did their stuff and we stayed tight. So when it
was time to continue to grow, it just so happens.
Terryan Tory bought Sweet Lounge.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Boom. Now we're at Sweet Lounge, right.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
So everything has always been kind of around relationship building.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, man, I mean you know again, I've been at
the events, I've seen how you move. One thing I
always kind of say too when it comes to relationships, right,
Like I look at relationships kind of like a math equation.
I always say, like relationships or a function of interactions
over time. So in other words, a stronger relationship is
because you've interacted with somebody multiple times over a long
period of time.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
So again, you talk about people that you used to
work with, whether it's Jimmy or Ajd's folks, you have
relationship with y'all had lots of interactions and you have
the time too, So that creates a stronger relationship. And
I think, yeah, a lot of times nowadays things are
so transactional, like people interact with you once and they
think you'll have a gree and all of a sudden
asking for something, right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
But again, like you kind of build up.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I see you at your eventure, moving around, You're hanging
out with the people, you're talking to, folks, building those
kind of like those real, those real, authentic, honest moments.
Like I think that's one of the differentiates for you too,
especially when you do your stuff versus other people.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
No, I appreciate you think that's accurate or you know, definitely,
and I don't get to as much as I used to,
Like I used to really be out there, and like
when I first started doing events, man, I almost tried
to remember every person's name at my event, and at
the time I gotten pretty good. I couldn't remember two
or three hundred, but at least seventy five eighty ninety
people and that was my first time meeting them, but
(15:35):
I remembered everybody's name at the time.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
Well, I think even Abe kind of spoke.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
This a little bit during the last podcast and just
the hospitality aspect of things, man, But yeah, that was
kind of my thing in the beginning.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Man, I love it. Man.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
What mistake do you think that a lot of organizers
and promoters make when it comes to, you know, keeping
them from growing and building something at last?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I think one, And not that I'm some guru, you know,
but I think consistency lacks for society, but for a
lot of people, especially in this side of things, right
you would think, again, you're just kind of throwing an
event or you're doing a party, but no, I think
consistency is key. Consistency matters. You have to kind of
(16:15):
do it week in and week out. For it to
actually stick to people. I think there's even studies that
show people need to hear things well four or five
times for it sticks and things like that. Right, So
you have to be consistent in when you're promoting so
that people know exactly what you're doing. You also should
be consistent in your brand, I think, and that's probably
a personal thing, right, but I feel like you should
(16:36):
be consistent in your brand so that people know what
to expect when you're having an event. They know what
type of people are going to be there, they know
what to expect from a vibe perspective, they know how
the music is going to be. Then they trust you
that the venue is going to be at a certain level.
I think those are all things that come from the
consistency of your brand.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
So yeah, I think, look, man, I agree with you.
I think consistency, honestly is one of the biggest superpowers
or biggest hacks that you can do be successful. Because
one thing about consistency is is it also makes you
appear a little bit bigger than you actually are because
people see it so much and they start again, it
kind of starts to associating their mind of just all right,
(17:12):
I'm constantly seeing it like it must be something out
of me, something, you know. Like you know again, I
remember in the early days of growing butter like I
kind of had. I always had that belief that, like,
we not only be consistent, but we got to show up.
So yeah, in the beginning, you know, we were coming
up with content three four times a day, seven days
a week, and I think that's what really showed up.
It was like, Wow, these folks are showing up. They're consistent.
Everything they're doing is always fun and interesting. And you know,
(17:34):
it wasn't okay, I'm a post one time today, another
time in three weeks, and then this was gonna be
about this. This is gonna be about something totally different, right,
Like you need to put up shots, you know, like
you need shots on goal, you know what I mean?
Like this again, we know we sell about basketball, like
I ain't worried about my shooting percentage.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
I just don't how to get shots up, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
And I think a lot of it is the same
thing again, like being consistent, you know, having people be
able to lie and say, you know what, even if
I can't make it this week, I know that next
week when I actually do have time off, I know
I'm gonna go and I know it's gonna be there
because they show up there, they do an amazing job,
and like I'm not even while I'm missing out on
this week, I know I'm gonna have a great time
next week too, because again, the experience is consistent, the
(18:14):
brand is consistent, the place is consistent. Like again, it's
not like you're showing up one place and then a
week later you're gone or you somewhere else, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You know, even any social media manager will tell you
have to be consistent in posting. Right, So it's the
same thing for events, right, you got to be consistent
in your posting.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
It's the same thing.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
And that's through sales, events or whatever. It is consistency.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Man, how do you get inspired for events? Like, again,
it's one thing to come up, you know, to come
up with stuff can be tough sometimes, Like where do
you get inspiration for for like the different kind of
events you want to do?
Speaker 1 (18:45):
So ironically, well maybe it's not ironically. I get visions
about stuff, it's kind of how it happens. So I
read up on I read up on how to focus
a long time ago, Like I used to only get creative.
I don't know if I should say this, man, But
it was in the shower. But I realized why I
was in the shower. It's because I wasn't thinking and
I just kind of let my mind go, right, So
(19:06):
I read I didn't know that until I read up
on how to focus. So now I can put myself
into like a creative state and I'll just sit back
and stuff will just start coming to me. Man, I'll
get visions about things, for instance, space. Man, I had
a vision. And so let me say, I love Atlanta
more than any other city, right. I feel like we're
the best sitting in the nation.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
I really do.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
But I had this vision of like this after work
crowd and it was like on a rooftop and you
had this sexy backdrop and things like that, and it
reminded me of New York the kind of what it
reminded me of, But it was people after work, and
you had a guy in a suit next to a
guy in a T shirt. If you go to my
very first Buckheat social post, it actually says this exact
(19:48):
thing that I'm saying. But like you had all walks
of life. But it was a fun time and it
was you said it earlier, it was a social time.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
So the music is at a good level, which is
the same exact thing bluckhead socialis right now. Right, the
music is high enough for you to hear it and
you can even dance and bop your head to it,
but it's not blasting in your ear, and you can
still have a full on conversation with the person right
across from you, right. And So I don't know, I
just have had a vision that came to my mind
like that, and then I start out to create it.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
That's dope, man, that's dope.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Now you've been doing events for a while, now you're
jumping into, you know, building out your own spaces, like,
you know, opening up I can I.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Say it, definitely, definitely, definitely opening up your own restaurant.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Now. Congratulations, I say that, you know what made you
decide that now is the time to kind of make
that jump.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
So I've always kind of been about providing something good
for the people. I don't know, I feel like that
sounds a little cliche, but it's kind of the true. Yeah,
And I felt like if I focused on people, the
money would come. And so this is like a second
leg or avenue of that to be able to provide
something else to our city, city that I love so much. Right,
(20:56):
So it's an upscale restaurant, but it's not like upscale
to where it's too bougie. If you have a good time,
I'm staying upscale, and the people and the music and
the dining is elevated, real cocktails, just a sexy vby
type atmosphere.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I think at this point most of us would rather
do something like that over again, some of us, you know,
some of us, not all of us, but some people
would rather kind of go out, be able to eat,
sit down, talk to your girls or talk to the fellas,
chill chill at the bar, have a real drink, those
types of things, right, And so that's kind of those
are some of the aspects.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
That we'll be providing. Man, So really excited about it.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
People. No, No, what's the name of the spot now?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
So the spot is called Midtown Social. It's going to
be in West Midtown. We'll be open pretty much seven
days a week, quick serve breakfast and lunch. You can
get in breakfast to everything. Man, we don't know every day,
every day, every day, So quick serve breakfast.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
Man.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
We actually already have a kias set up to where
you can order it yourself. You can walk up, put
your order in, it'll come straight out. Your in and
out in a matter of minutes. Man, You're in and
out is ours our goal, right, So they'll be quick
serve breakfast and lunch at nighttime we switch to more
dinner and top of style things like that. We have
different DJs throughout the week and stuff like that. Other
(22:16):
themes that will be going on as well, seasonal cocktails
that'll be that'll be added in. I don't want to
give all the c you know what I'm saying. But
and it also too man, like a brunch on the
weekends as well. Oh it's dope, man.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Now, when this idea came together, did you how did
this actually come together to this point? Because, like I said,
you're not in the restaurant space. Did you partner with somebody?
Like how did this whole thing evolve to this point?
Speaker 1 (22:40):
So and let me say this too, man, I know
we were talking about like what will we tell people?
And I know it's their consistency. I would also say,
don't give up, like I'm already like, there is no
successful person that hasn't failed, right, I've already done this
before and then it hadn't worked out, right, But this
seemed like the uh, the perfect opportunity. It was like
the perfect team put together. We all we all had
(23:01):
a similar vision, we had the same as that goal
at mine. It just kind of made sense, Like the
guys are that I'm on the team with all successful
entrepreneurs in their own right already, so that makes it
have that makes us have like a like an all
star team almost in this situation. So what happened was
one of my good friends, Sleepy Green, and sleep is
like the owner. He's part owner of Ember. He owns
(23:24):
like Milk and Honey. We had like four or five
Milk and honeys in the area already. So he's been
doing this thing. And he and I were talking one
day in relationship. We're back relationships again, right, We're talking
one day and I tell him I want to try
to do my own restaurant, is what I tell him.
And literally like two weeks later, he's like, man, I
actually just met with the realtor. I think we're gonna
(23:47):
end up doing a restaurant. Would you like to be
a part of the team. So that's actually kind of
how it happened.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
Yeah, relationships, What does this team look like?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Because I think again, I think people that understand and
one thing I talk about, or I've heard people talk
about in this podcast all the time is the importance
of a team. So, like, how do y'all you know,
from a team standpoint kind of structure, Like people focus
on different things like what's your focus and what are
some of the other focuses of the rest of your team.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
So we're kind of working some of that out now.
Of course we're not open yet, right, so we're writing
on like the final inspections and things of that nature.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
So we're kind of formulating.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Now, like the different roles that we'll all have. Clearly,
like myself and Sleep will be like more so than
hands on from a marketing perspective, and then some of
our other guys will handled certain certain things like the
back end of the fence and the back end of
the kitchen and things like that, right hiring and just
making sure supplies and process are in place. So we
have certain guys to work on that. And again, my
(24:50):
main focus for me will definitely be on the marketing side.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Okay, what's been your favorite part about this process? I mean,
even though the restaurant's not open yet, Like, what's been
your favorite part of this process?
Speaker 5 (25:00):
So it hasn't been paying out the money.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I'll tell you that it hasn't been that, nah, Man,
It's been seeing something that.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
That you kind of molded from nothing.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Like I made a post like a day or two ago,
and I wanted people to see, like, yeah, like what
I thought like was gonna be funny too. No, this
is a different one, man. It basically showed. So when
we took over the building that is now Midtown Social
it was it was previously a different breakfast spot called
(25:33):
Olympic Flame. And so if you look at I wanted
people to see, like the beginning to end, we literally
gutted the whole place out. We've changed the outside structure,
We've added a patio. It's like night and day from
what it was.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Man.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
So seeing this whole transformation from beginning to end, it's
been amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
How long is that whole process taken even just to
get to this point? Because this ain't an overnight thing.
And I don't want I don't want to sit here
thinking that this is something that you just go and
do right, like a renovation, and especially on a restaurant,
and making sure you have all the necessary stuff and
dealing with all the permits and everything takes a while.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
Like how long is this process even taking just to
get to this point?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
It takes a really long time, to be honest with you,
it's been at least nine months. Yeah, and that's going
kind of fast right in some of the stuff. Any
other thing too, Like he hasn't only been around the construction,
like just from a business perspective, and I don't want
to bore people, but you have to get all these
permits and certifications and things like that as well. So
that's happening. You may get delayed a little bit. You
(26:29):
may have to wait on disapproval things like that. Right,
So you have an architect that comes in, they start designing,
and they work with you to design the space with
the designer, and then you submit those plans and need
to be approved.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
That could take a while. You have to go back
and forth.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
So different things like that also kind of go into
the timeframe and duration. But it's been about eight or
nine months.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, Now you said that you've kind of done this
kind of you know, a restaurant kind of project before,
but so you've probably kind of experienced some of these things,
but like would have been some of the most surprising
or challenging moments, you know, through this process.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
I didn't realize how many approvals in like we're actually
kind of needed, right, There's been like certificates and certifications
and approvals for almost everything. Any the smallest of change
in architecture got to be reapproved, right, So that and
it's so many of the other little things that we've
had to kind of get, like getting the outside repaved.
(27:22):
I didn't even think of that at first. One of
our other partners thought about that. He's like, no, we
need to get this repaid. Things like that, or even
down to all the dish rags that you have to
have in trades to carry glass where shelving in the back.
Like there's all these other things that I don't know.
I didn't technically fathom at the time, but because I've
always kind of focused on the marketing side, right, So no,
(27:44):
seeing all of that has been a huge surprise.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
Man. So learning experience, I've been learning the entire time.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, again, I think a lot of people don't really understand.
I mean, and you know, it's really funny too when
you think about because I mean, I've been in the
restaurant project before and I've seen a lot of that stuff.
But you know what's crazy is like these folks do
these goes kitchens. They don't need nothing. You literally get
somebody on DoorDash or burats and they can fire up
a ghost titching. I saw a TikTok where a guy
just decided one day that he was going to start
(28:10):
a ghost kitchen and his girl like was recording. He
was like at home just like that, and he just
caught up door to ash and was like, yeah, I'm
selling sandwiches, and like they literally delivered a tablet.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
He like started going like buying.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
You know, like a food, you know, like junk food
and stuff like that, like basically reselling it.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
No inspections, inspections.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Nobody came to look at the kitchen. Meanwhile, they out
here stressing y'all out about permits and all this kind
of stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
And it's just so interesting when you think about just
all the nuances of this game and kind of building things.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
And I would say, and and I was funny with
with the guy, but we also wanted to make sure
that we were doing everything the right way right, so
we all like we've all gotten like we've done the
safety certifications as well, like we've been going through every
nook and cranny of what's needed from a safety perspective.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
We've been doing that this entire time.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
So do you see an opportunity to do something different
or you know, more unique with your events once the
space is built.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
I'll always continue to be unique.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I kind of like creating and I like giving the
city different things, you know, So I.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Mean, will things stay exactly the same with me? Never?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I always like to kind of give some sort of nuance, right,
so like you know, having a spaceman on Wednesdays and
then I started this whole series, or bring it back
the dance party at District, So you go from a
rooftop vibe after work type atmosphere to a full on
back in the day dance party right to where everybody's
in there dancing too. It's kind of it's kind of
(29:38):
cool to see. So I'll always continue to kind of
innovate and do new things. Like that's kind of a
I can't help but do that.
Speaker 5 (29:44):
To be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, I mean, well, look on one thing that you've
innovated on that I always see and I just I
just love seeing it. Just these line dance classes too.
But you know what I mean again, you're doing the events.
You are here teaching people how to do the to
me dance and all these different unique things. And I
think again that also just makes people have more fun
at you at your events than they kind of come in.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
You know what made you start doing that?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
So when winter hits, people either go out less or
they may go out later. And I thought it was
there was an opportunity for me to do something early
on for people that for one, that would get people
out earlier, right, But for two, it gave you something extra,
like a little bit of extra fun and a reason
to get out a little bit earlier. And so we
(30:26):
know our whole community like, you got to know how
to do it to me at this point, right, or
you have to sit down every time it's played. And
so I thought it was kind of like a fun
thing to do. And there's actually a video that a
friend of mine, Shari, she's an amazing attorney. She came
out last week and she just did a reel about it.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Doesn't want to.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Repost, but it kind of shows behind the scenes a
little bit because like we go when everybody comes in,
everyone kind of grabs a drink up at Spaceman. Spaceman
is on the fifteenth level of the central hotel. We
go down to another level that has actually this huge ballroom,
and so we learned in private with just like whoever's
trying to learn it right, and it almost becomes like
(31:04):
a family community type thing. Man, It's it's just a
super fun time. People are tripping everywhere, but we're doing
it together. Everybody's doing it together, and we're kind of
just laughing. And then around thirty forty five minutes later
we all go back up and then we hit that
to me, you know, so I know people.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Have a good time.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Again, if it feels like you said, you give people
like you know, when people work on something together, they
learn something together, they start off as not experts in it,
and they get better. There's just a natural kind of
bond that happens, right, And I think again that probably
even just carries into the event, like it just brings
a whole new vibe and energy up and plus a
set on the same time. Now you got folks dancing, yeah,
you know, we got you know, in Atlanta, we love
(31:43):
a good section. We love a good section in Atlanta,
you know what I'm saying. But to be able to
actually have a space people moving around on the dance
for and everything, man, it dopely just brings like a
whole different vibe to it.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
Man, it does.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Man, It's funny you say that because I actually went
a couple of years ago. I don't know why I
had to. I just had the mindset to go opposite
of the section culture. And that was another reason why
I started as spaceman, Like I wanted to go away
from sections and just have everybody socializing. Everyone is VIP.
Let's just all have a good time. Don't get me wrong.
Like like, for instance, that district, I can do a
reserve section if needed.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
It's just not the focus of the product, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Man, you know what again, You've always focused on just
like creating spaces for people and professionals to feel welcome. Like,
what do you want people to take away from that
whole perspective on how you put together events and curate
experiences of people.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
That's a good question, man, I would say that I
actually try to provide an experience for them, you know,
like I'm not just rolling out music here or rolling
it out there. I do care about the people that
are coming. I care about who's coming. I want to
make sure you have the consistency of the right crowd
(32:52):
that you want to be around.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
I try to plan out.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
I plan like an event planner, which can be a
lot for some people, to be honest with you, that's
just what it is, though, right. But I like to
make sure like everything's in order. I'm typically booking DJs
a month in advance, like I don't really kind of
go week to week. I have like a schedule of
at least a month out of everybody that's already booked
(33:16):
with the venue. If I'm doing anything different, we're meeting
two to three times way before that date even comes.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
So now does it always work out? Of course, not
know right things are You're going to always have pitfalls
and stuff like that. But I want people to know
like I do try to do my best to plan accordingly.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
Just to provide the best experience. Fore that's two.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
That's dope.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
Man.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Well, look man, before we get out of here, you know,
we start off this interview with the definition of chat
GPT about you and that's cool. Now I'm gonna give
you a chance to put something out there so I
can always tell people, or always ask people, if there
was a south Side Ken billboard somewhere in the city
of Atlanta and you could put a message on it
something you believe, something you just want to tell people
(33:59):
besides go to MIT on social and support that. You
know what I'm saying. But like, what would the south
side Kim billboard? Like, you know, we'll get the old.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
So soft social at the bottom. Yeah, Like, what would
the south side Kim billboard? What message would you put
on it for the people you know to see when
they when they drive by. So two things I think
for one is and I think we've all seen the
whole Let me again. I don't want to ask like
I'm some better than now type person. I feel like
(34:28):
upscale and non upscale both are needed for entertainment. I
feel like they're all needed. I want to be very
clear with that, right, I feel like they're both needed.
It's even like this little funny thing I have with DJs.
They know I don't really like sex you red, We'll
throw it on still though here and there.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
You know, it can be a.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Little bit, it's kind of ivy. It gets people going,
But I do feel like both sides are needed. I
just choose to do upscale, professional stuff. But there was
so you know you've all heard, we've all heard the
saying of classy is the new black. I would put
classy as always has been black.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Okay, I like that, Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Well, look, man, before we get out of here, ken,
how can how can people find you? How can they
support you? How can they learn about the events, like,
you know, let them know where to go?
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Can I say one other thing too? Absolutely, I just
want to make sure I hit on a few people
who really really helped me to even get to this point.
So again I said Terry and Tory R. I p
to Terry, Kevin Edwards, Jimmy. I didn't mention ab earlier,
but shout out to AB too. I learned a lot
from Aid, like I used to do Fridays at a
rose bar, and I learned.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
A lot, a lot, a lot a lot from eight.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
So shout out to all of them, Shout to them, man,
give them the flowers man.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
Definitely, definitely all helped me. They all helped me.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Man, So I g is the south Side can. TikTok
is south Side can. Although I haven't used that a
lot lately, I need to get with you on that, man.
I feel I feel like you'd be pretty good at
the TikTok.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Let me know, I don't do a lot on TikTok.
I know how to use it. You need I need
to do.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
I need to do more on myself.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I definitely do more on it, but that's the main
thing for me. It's just the South Side Can. All
of my information is on that ig page, including the
link to Midtown Social, but the exact page for Midtown
Social is Midtown Social atl Okay, So well, yo, Man,
the south Side can my man as defined by chat,
GPT and everything else.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Brother.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
We appreciate you pulling up, Congratulations on everything, love the events,
keep growing. Can't wait to see Midtown Social launch, and
can't wait to see where you go from there.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Man.
Speaker 5 (36:28):
I appreciate you, man, and thanks for having me too. Man. Truly,
this is truly an honor. Seriously, I appreciate your brother.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Like I said, Man, I always love to see people.
Speaker 5 (36:34):
Doing good things.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
You do good work.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
You've always been good every time we've interacted with each other. Man,
so I appreciate you pulling up. Thank you, brother, and yo,
y'all we out.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
That's the pod. Later.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
You've been listening to button Nomics and I'm your host,
Brandon Butler. Got comments, feedback? Want to be on the show.
Send us an email today at hello at butternomics dot com.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Butter Nomics is produced.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
In Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by Casey Pegram, with marketing
support from Queen and Nikki Music for 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 at l. Listen to better Nomics
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts
Host
Brandon Butler
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