Podcast
Butternomics the Business of Culture
Hosted by iHeartPodcasts · EN
Butternomics: The Business of Culture takes a deep dive into the intersection of business and culture, showing how brands, entrepreneurs, and tastemakers use culture level up. Join serial entrepreneur, thought leader, and CEO of Butter.ATL, Brandon Butler (@mrsuperbran), as he brings you exclusive interviews, trends, insights, and more. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned pro, Butternomics is for you.
40episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
How Two Different Worlds Built One Atlanta Brand With Big Block and Ralph Sorrentino
Today00:47:19Tap to summarizeOn this episode of Butternomics, our host, Brandon Butler, talks with Big Block, the East Side Chevy rider and founder of Block Entertainment, and Ralph Sorrentino, VP of Operations for the Jim Ellis Automotive Group, about what happens when the music business and the car business come together to build something Atlanta hasn’t seen before. Block breaks down his run from Tupac and Bad Boy to building his own label, and why ownership is the only real way to scale. Ralph pulls back the curtain on how the largest privately owned dealership group in Georgia actually makes money, and why every business needs fans, not customers. Together they get into treating every vehicle like an artist, the Teachers Keep Us Moving program giving back to local schools, and why your neighborhood car dealership does more for the community than you realize. Follow Big Block at @bigblockesc and find Ralph at any Jim Ellis dealership in Atlanta.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Being Yourself Is The Whole Strategy With Fred Blankenship
5d ago00:44:15Tap to summarizeOn this episode of Butternomics, our host, Brandon Butler, talks with Fred Blankenship, morning anchor of Channel 2 Action News This Morning on WSB-TV, the voice waking up Atlanta since 2007. Fred takes us from a 12-year-old kid in Harbor City, California who wanted to be the guy inside the TV, to the biggest decision of his career: when New York’s number one market offered him the job but told him to change his name, he said no and kept Blankenship. Brandon and Fred get into building a personal brand inside a legacy institution, why authenticity became the whole strategy, using energy and 90s hip hop to connect with a city at 4:30 in the morning, protecting your peace in a heavy business, and how Atlanta made him who he is.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →How To Use AI To Teach Kids About Wealth with William Cross
1w ago00:37:09Tap to summarizeOn this episode of Butternomics, our host, Brandon Butler, talks with entrepreneur and financial educator William Cross about how to teach the next generation what most of us had to learn late. William, founder of Wealthi AI, grew up in Tampa without ever hearing about 529s, trusts, or estate planning, then built a company to close that exact gap for kids. He opens up about going from a long Word document to a book that sold over 5,000 copies, turning that book into a 10-hour curriculum, and building Wealthi AI into what he calls the Duolingo for financial literacy. He also gets honest about what it really costs to build an app, why $500 won’t get it done, and why vibe coding gets non-technical founders in trouble. If you want to put real money skills in a kid’s hands, this conversation is the blueprint.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →How Nonprofits Actually Work With Cicley Gay
2w ago00:45:08Tap to summarizeOn this episode of Butternomics, our host, Brandon Butler, talks with philanthropic leader Cicley Gay about how nonprofits actually work and why so many people get it wrong. Cicley, board chairwoman of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation and founder of The Amplifiers, breaks down why a nonprofit is a $1.5 trillion industry that runs like a business, why no money doesn’t mean no money, and why a nonprofit is supposed to solve the problem and go away. She explains the difference between a nonprofit and a foundation, what funders are really looking for when they read your grant, and why only 2.9% of donations go to Black-led organizations. She also gets honest about leading with love, why she calls bankruptcy a financial tool, and what it takes to build a foundation that lasts. If you have an idea for a nonprofit or you want to understand where the money really goes, this conversation is the blueprint.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →The $2.5 Billion NIL Boom Nobody In Our Community Is Talking About With Latavius Powell.
3w ago00:43:20Tap to summarizeOn this episode of Butternomics, our host, Brandon Butler, talks with entrepreneur and financial planner Latavius Powell about the $2.5 billion NIL boom and what it’s really doing to young athletes. Latavius, CEO of CSG Wealth Management, breaks down why these million dollar checks are 1099 income, how the IRS becomes the worst loan shark a young person can face, and how athletes go rags to riches to rags without the right plan. He shares the building blocks of generational wealth, why schools put contracts in front of teenagers with no lawyer in the room, and what it takes to bring that money back to the community. If you have a young athlete in your life, this conversation will save you from costly mistakes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →The Multimillion Dollar Brand Mistake Most Companies Keep Making
3w ago01:00:25Tap to summarizeMost companies are still spending millions on beautiful, polished content that almost nobody cares about. Shannon Watkins has sat at the top of the brands that figured this out and the ones that didn't. Former CMO of Aflac, global CMO of Jordan Brand, and former global CMO at Fiserv, she's spent her whole career at the intersection of brand and culture, and she pulled up to Butternomics to break down what's really changing in how brands win. We get into the multimillion dollar mistake brands keep repeating, why people stopped trusting brand voices and started trusting people instead, and what brands are actually buying when they pay a creator. Shannon breaks down the difference between brand, marketing, and advertising, why the agency model is getting disrupted in real time, and the earnings report move every creator should be using before they pitch a single brand. She also takes us through the road that got her here. The pre-med plan she walked away from at Fisk. The worst assignment at Kraft that taught her the foundation of business. The Powerade campaign built around Derrick Rose and a Tupac poem. The Teyana Taylor partnership at Jordan Brand that changed how she saw creators forever. And now Watkins Brand Advisors, where she's helping CEOs, nonprofits, and creators figure out the problem behind the problem. This one's for the founders, the creators, and anybody trying to build something real around their creativity. Shannon doesn't hold back. Watch the full episode and let us know what hit hardest. Connect with Shannon Watkins on LinkedIn and Instagram, and check out Watkins Brand Advisors. #Butternomics #ShannonWatkins #BrandStrategy #CreatorEconomy #Marketing #Atlanta #BlackEntrepreneursSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →The Podcast Formula That Turns Your Listeners Into Buyers with David Shands
4w ago00:44:44Tap to summarizeDavid Shands started a podcast without knowing what a podcast was. He was selling t-shirts out of a kiosk in Cumberland Mall, running a conference where the tickets moved slow, so he interviewed his speakers to sell seats. That hustle turned into the Social Proof Podcast, two studios, a national summit tour, and over 500 episodes. In this one he breaks down the part most people get wrong. A podcast is a marketing arm for a business, not the business itself. Content needs a business model. He walks through how to cultivate an audience of buyers, why a community of 10,000 paying $2 a month beats chasing ad money, and how he uses AI to script topic episodes when the interviews aren't enough. He also gets honest about the climb. It took him 54 episodes before one hit, and the one that finally blew up rerouted traffic to an old episode nobody watched. He talks the dad guilt, losing $250K on a summit in Miami, and why he moved the whole thing to Atlanta, the Mecca for Black stories and Black wealth. If you're sitting at 200 views thinking about quitting, this is the episode you need. Catch David at Podcast Summit, July 2nd and 3rd. Use code BUTTER for a discount.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →How To Raise $30 Million For Communities Everyone Else Ignores Ft Simone Hardiman-Jones
4w ago00:34:02Tap to summarizeSimone Hardeman-Jones flew into ATL to break down how she's reimagining what philanthropy actually looks like. As executive director of Green Light Fund Twin Cities, she walks into rooms full of wealthy people and convinces them to invest in the communities everybody else overlooks. We get into the Minnesota paradox. It's ranked number one in quality of life and dead last in the income gap between Black and white residents. Same state. Two completely different realities depending on who you are. Simone shares how Green Light Fund finds high-impact programs that don't exist yet in a community, brings them in, and backs them with $600K in seed funding over four years. We talk about the maternal health crisis where 95% of Black maternal deaths were preventable, the food logistics problem hiding behind 9 million food shelf visits, and why she stopped selling her community as a problem to fix. She also gets into what it means to be a Black woman asking for money in rooms that weren't built to welcome her, the difference between deciding for a community versus with it, and the fifth-grade letter-writing campaign that started it all. Learn more about Green Light Fund at greenlightfund.org Subscribe for more conversations on the business of culture.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →How To Build An Atlanta That Works For Everybody With Nathaniel Smith
Jun 900:52:49Tap to summarizeAtlanta calls itself the Black Mecca. But ask who actually owns the city, who gets pushed out when the money moves, and who benefits from all this growth, and the answer gets complicated. Nathaniel Smith has spent his life on that question. He's the Founder and Chief Equity Officer of the Partnership for Southern Equity, and he grew up in Kirkwood watching the Olympics, gentrification, and the crack era reshape the neighborhoods he loved. He started with one $500 check and built a 16-year movement. In this episode, Brandon Butler sits down with Nathaniel to break down what equity really means, why the Beltline put people in position to fund their own displacement, and how Atlanta built its Black wealth in the first place. They get into tax allocation districts, why organized people matter as much as organized money, and why he believes Atlanta is the place that has to get it right. This one is for anybody who loves this city and wants to see it work for everybody in it. So goes Atlanta, so goes the South. So goes the South, so goes the nation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →How Steve Canal Turns Culture Into Brand Deals Most People Can't Get
Jun 300:48:44Tap to summarizeSteve Canal builds the thing most people can't: culture that actually pays. On this episode of Butternomics, Brandon Butler sits down with Steve Canal, co-founder of One Venture Group and part of the team behind ONE Musicfest and TwoGether Land, to talk about how Atlanta actually works. The city moves on relationships, and Steve has spent his whole career proving it. He breaks down how he built by leading with one question: how can I help? He explains why trust compounds when you show up for people before you need anything, why the door in this city opens when somebody vouches for you, and how he turned that into real brand partnerships and real money. The conversation gets into what it takes to align big brands with cultural moments that feel authentic, why reading culture is a skill most people never develop, and how Steve picks the partnerships worth saying yes to. He's a two-time bestselling author who has been recognized by the Ebony Power 100 and the Inc. 5000, and he keeps it direct about the work behind all of it. If you're building something in culture, this one will save you years.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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