Entrepreneurial Appetite
Entrepreneurial Appetite is a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism, and supporting Black businesses. This podcast will feature edited versions of Entrepreneurial Appetite’s Black book discussions, including live conversations between a virtual audience, authors, and Black entrepreneurs. In this community, we do not limit what it means to be an intellectual or entrepreneur. We recognize that the sisters and brothers who own and work in beauty salons or barbershops are intellectuals just as much as sisters and brothers who teach and research at universities. This podcast is unique because, as part of this community, you have the opportunity to participate in our monthly book discussion, suggest the book to be discussed, or even lead the conversation between the author and our community of intellectuals and entrepreneurs. For more information about participating in our monthly discussions, please follow Entrepreneurial_ Appetite on Instagram and Twitter. Please consider supporting the show as one of our Founding 55 patrons. For five dollars a month, you can access our live monthly conversations. See the link below:https://www.patreon.com/EA_BookClub
Entrepreneurial Appetite
International Podcast Month: Exploring Entrepreneurship and Creative Community Building with Ja'el Thompson
Ever wondered how a community of creatives can change a city's narrative? Unearthed from the core of San Antonio, we present Ja' el Thompson, the dynamic founder of The Down Market and CEO of Symbio Hush Creative Firm. He found a niche and filled it, promoting the city's vibrant creative community through the power of media. Get ready to dive into his inspiring entrepreneurial journey, the challenges He faced, and the strategies that brought her success.
Ja' el's unique approach to balancing the creative haven of The Down Market with the corporate needs of Symbio Hush is a masterclass in entrepreneurship. Explore the intriguing intersection of media, podcasting, and community building as he shares his strategies for leveraging social capital to make meaningful connections through events like the Creative Futures Brunch.
What's good everyone. I'm Langston Clark, founder and organizer of Entrepreneurial Appetite, a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism and supporting black businesses. Welcome to Entrepreneurial Appetite's special series about black folks in the podcasting industry. As part of International Podcast Month, we highlight black entrepreneurs leveraging podcasting to build community and tell stories. In this episode of Entrepreneurial Appetite, we feature a conversation with Jiel Thompson, founder of the down market and CEO of Simbio Hush Creative Firm. Listen as we discuss how Jiel cultivates community for creatives through entrepreneurship. Jiel is one of those people in the community that I live at is doing a lot of things to create spaces for creatives and for people who want to have an impact on the city who otherwise may not have a space to do so. Jiel, thank you for coming here. I know that I can't give your autobiography justice as well as you can, so just tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to be in these positions as CEO and founder in all of these creative spaces, making space for other folks.
Speaker 2:Thank you first. Thank you so much, langston, for having me. It's really truly an honor. I told a few people that I was going to do a podcast and they were like what you, You're actually like, do yourself out there.
Speaker 1:I was like, yeah, you know Langston, he's a good guy.
Speaker 2:So I was really, really excited to do this and be a part of this. But just to give you a little bit of history about what we do, honestly, I first started the down market back in 2017 while I was here in San Antonio. I was still here in San Antonio At the time. I was coming back and forth from Dallas to San Antonio going to school at UTSA. I finished UTSA. My goal was to leave San Antonio because I felt like there was nothing here to offer me. In general, I didn't really like being here. Especially when you live in a bigger city like Dallas, there's always something happening, something to do. So I still feel like that. I really found my community while I was here going to school. But one of my friends from Dallas who helped me co-find the general aspects of the down market told me you know, you should chill in San Antonio a little bit longer before you head over here. Dallas is like really saturated. There's a lot of things going on, and so you should probably hang out in San Antonio and just like kind of see what kind of vibe is going there and see if you can start building out your business there, because my goal was to go back to Dallas and start up a teacher company that I had originally started when I was way younger of a bunch of friends, called Sundown United. So the goal was like, yeah, I'm out of school now, I get to go back and print t-shirts and do my thing. But instead, what happened was I found a community here in San Antonio, which I was surprised and fell into this space of creatives and designers and artists over in the South Town area, because we went out and started shooting video. Because my goal was like well, before I start to sew t-shirt again, I want to get some promotion materials and talk to people here in San Antonio.
Speaker 2:What happened was I found a community and I found out there's a lot of people doing a lot of cool stuff and that they weren't getting the time or being showcased or getting the value, the recognition that they deserve, and so I was like you know what, let me keep on shooting videos and creating content when, especially in 2017, like everyone was barely just saying like, oh, yeah, content is king in regards to social media. So everyone was kind of like barely just starting to get video out there. Everyone was still doing pictures and stuff, and so I already knew right away like I'm going to go ahead and start doing vlogs and videos and just get ahead of the game. And we did and it was a huge success that we started basically just a vlog series of content which turned to like a little magazine, called it down to market.
Speaker 2:It became so popular that local stations here in San Antonio would start copying our style and start I started creating their own like narrative, and it's so funny because we found out that I started watching it and I told my friend who was helping me shoot videos for all this. Like they're I think they're literally just watching our videos and going out to the same places and shooting that because after we would shoot like one specific, let's say, local restaurant or a local artist, they would shoot it literally the next week, which I didn't care because, like, okay, well, the goal was to get these people, the people that were getting video of their time no one was showcasing them or recognizing them, as you know, here in San Antonio, so to see, like local news just following us and regurgitating everything that we're doing but still bringing a lot of people to the space.
Speaker 2:I was like, well, we're doing our job. That was the whole goal. But the second phase of all that, as we started doing it, we had a specific style, we had a certain look, and so we started getting companies and businesses that wanted to pay us for it, and so the down market started to grow into this multimedia company that you know provides services and photos and video. And so, since I didn't want to mix the bag, because the down market is more of a passion project of like culture, creativity and community I just end this the work that we're doing was becoming more corporate, more specific for like nonprofits and small businesses and tech companies. That I was like you know what I want? To make sure there's a clear, a clear definition of these two entities the down markets for the culture, that's just straight. Like it's for the cultures, for the people. As for those who are, like you know, looking to do more but they're not getting a chance in the down market, what we've done and done so well, on the down market, we're always able to identify, like who's next and who is coming, and you can see that with some of the people who are literally in these spaces now doing big things, like Box Street Social they're like one of the biggest brunch shops here in San Antonio. You see Pitch Boil House. You see different creatives, like Orange Noir people that we've like connected with Cassidy Fritz are like on this come up and we recognize that, yeah, the down market is a free platform that we showcase for the culture, by the culture, so we can uplift and inspire ourselves. So I want to keep that separate and so we create another company.
Speaker 2:Well, I created another company called Simi Hush that would help and provide the services for the companies who really want to work with us understood our goals.
Speaker 2:We understood their goals, so we started to like again, we added a few bits and pieces of the down market into Simi Hush by really again, our motto is culture for brands, so for us, culture means people and so when we approach, when our clients approach us, we're like we're not going to just create a video for you or we're not going to just get photos. We have to really go into a deep dive of who you are and who you're serving and what is your purpose, and it should be for the people that work for you and also for those who are hopefully listening to to provide a premium service. So we always dive into this very like realm of brand strategy, conceptuals like that, before we even even try to create a video or create an event or develop out anything, because we want to make sure that we dive into the culture first and see if it's, if we're the right fit for them, and generally that's allowed us to really find some really amazing clientele that have believed in us and we've believed in them too.
Speaker 2:So it's a little bit different than the down market, but it's definitely a lot more not corporate but a lot more.
Speaker 2:You know business and not giving you all the down markets definitely a business itself, but it's more of a passion project are in. But to overall the down market is a culture media startup and its mission is to amplify and elevate the voices of diverse you know people, communities and experiences here in the Southwest region. And for SimuHush SimuHush is what I love about SimuHush and everything that we do SimuHush Our goal at SimuHush, like I said, culture for brands are. It makes me feel like our goal is to like turn cultural value into company value for our partner businesses. So, overall, I feel like in the past, we started down market back in 2017, so almost like six to seven years ago and SimuHush we started maybe about we started three years ago. I feel like we've been doing a really good job hope, creating a new specific market that allows brands and companies and small businesses to really create an image for themselves through us. So that's really that's been really fun.
Speaker 1:So, you know, before we start, I was like give me your autobiography and then we'll get into the historical stuff with the businesses. It's still intertwined, right, and so, yeah, yeah, I was sorry, yeah, it's very, yeah, yeah, so I think that that's. I think it's interesting the evolution as an outsider right, someone who's familiar with your businesses, but I don't work in your businesses yeah, I think it's interesting how it appears as if the down markets is front facing but SimuHush is more back facing, maybe business to business. So I think, talk about being, talk about being in those spaces, right, because a lot of times when you hear the business podcast or you know videos or business video podcasts, whatever they're talking about B2B being separate in something that's for a broader consumer base. Interesting how you have found a way for those two things to exist symbiotically. Even though they're different businesses, they still one evolved into the other one. So talk about how you're able to balance that in that unique space that you're in.
Speaker 2:It's not easy. Honestly, Balancing the down market in SimuHush is definitely not a cakewalk, the way I would say. Right now, my focus has been on SimuHush, but some things will probably by the time this podcast airs things will have changed where I would like to hopefully be able to put more work into the down market right now. For us, you know, SimuHush definitely like this would be completely transparent on us, helps, pays the bills, but then also places and places with unique challenges that the down market doesn't do. So I always tell people in both spaces I'm truly am a creative and a creative director, and I know there's always stuff that people about like what a creative is.
Speaker 2:For me, creative is. It's really quite simple no matter what anyone, probably the artists or designer or whatever creatives are problem solvers. So there's two different specific problem solving. So when I go into SimuHush, there's always a specific, unique problem, especially when it comes from B2B or even from B2C. I'm always intrigued and always excited to be a part of it because, really, when someone calls SimuHush or asking for our assistance, they're looking to do something outside the box and so and that's our model too, like you know, creativity over compromise.
Speaker 2:We ask our clients to really like nail down what we're trying to say there when we say creativity over compromise, meaning like what else have we not seen in this picture that can help make an impact for this company? And that's how SimuHush is going to be able to really partner and provide and the resources and help the need, either through video or through media production, through creative strategy or brand strategy or through experiences, and how we balance that out. I feel like sometimes the down market is kind of like our, like you said, front facing, is kind of like our training playing ground that we are always able to what we learned from the down market and be able to finally execute with our B2B clients. And perfect example is San Antonio Star Week. I was nervous for us.
Speaker 2:They're like, oh, you've never done a conference before blah blah and I was like, well, no, but we've been training ourselves to these smaller events and for us, small events is like 600 people which have come out of their events before 600 people.
Speaker 1:That's not small to me, because mine is like have like 100 people, 7,500 people, 600 is not small.
Speaker 2:Right. So yeah, for sure. And so so, like we're like, well, we've done events and we've marketed things for ourselves and we know how to do those touch points. So actually, when period, like oh, are you tired, are you nervous? Like now, like we're, we're made to do this because we've been practicing at this for a while through the down market.
Speaker 2:So a lot of stuff that we use to a down market that's the balancing act that we be we're able to perform really well is that we are practicing constantly with new concepts, new ideas in regards to marketing creativity, you know, designing even creative futures, you know the branch series. Those are all concepts that we take from, like brand strategy, like how is this going to work and who's it for to? Okay, what's the media look like. Like how's everyone going to see it, how's everyone going to participate? And then, of course, like the experience side is like, okay, how do we make people feel invited to, like they're safe, it's inclusive? You know we do that almost every day in a down market. So when we do these projects for clients, that's the balance and that we're able to just, you know, overhaul those experiences into our client and really just allows us to really just do one specific thing really great, which is the relationship that we built and we make sure that our clients are really, really we're very we're in, we are very high communicators we.
Speaker 2:It was a hard thing for us at the very beginning because we're so used to doing these one-offs projects, you know. But now what we're seeing, especially with these B2B relationships, that has helped us balance. I think it's a wow was that they're much longer. We have projects now that at first, especially with the video of photography, it's like one day right Now, like we have campaigns that are like seven months and so we had to like really learn how to balance that. Like okay, we're on the 10 or seven months. This is not just a flash in the pen, a type of video shoot to get them going. Sometimes it is, it's part of the project, but that's one side of it. So, to continue to ask you a question, it would be like we place a lot of our development and content through the down market, so it'd be fine tune and then we're able to execute on the B2B side with Sibio Hush.
Speaker 1:The first thing you said when I asked how are you managing juggling the front facing the down markets and more of the background B2B stuff with Sibio Hush, like man, you were like it's really difficult. And I think that's a bit set way into a few concepts I want to address with you. One is like building your team, or teams right, because you have two companies who are leading and so we talk about how do you, how do you build your team? How did you find the people in the community of people who are supporting you?
Speaker 2:So that's a great question. So you know, for the past five years we've built such. I think that's what also makes the down market so unique. For the past five years, through the teams that we've, who've come and gone, who are still here, we've built a large network of creatives, of designers, and we met them where they are. First Some were in school, some were still in college or high school, some people were just barely starting their hamburger business and now, like five years later, they're in a space where they've learned to and they've experienced things too, and we're all usually are able to come together through either some of the events or just having conversations. You know, we stay in contact.
Speaker 2:We, we were able to build and hold on to a network that has grown as well, and so some, at one point, you know we were all coming out of, like you know, college at entry level. Now we're at mid management, some people are at senior level. Again, it's like putting and keeping those relationships for so long and being of service to those relationships. Again, the down market doesn't. We don't charge for our videos, the experiences that we do. We try to make sure that it doesn't cost very much to come in for that because we want to build a relationship, and so we've done a lot of things. That was not for free, but it was an opportunity for a lot of people on both sides, an opportunity for them to shoot video or an opportunity for them to just experience something.
Speaker 1:So to answer your question.
Speaker 2:Our network has grown with us and with that network they've met some amazing people themselves in the same industry either it be in the service industry, in the design, architectural industry and so we just have a good group of people that know, another group of people that are that they trust. And so it's like Sean Wynne from pinch telling me hey, I know a great photographer that might be helpful. I'm going to be like bet, like bring him this way, you know, because I trust Sean. I've known Sean for five years and I know he's hardworking. He also has a level excellence in glasses, food that he makes, the concepts he builds. So if he said that, I'm like cool. But then also recently we've been experimenting, going through a few cohorts like students plus startups, to find some great talent too, and that's been very, very helpful as well.
Speaker 2:So growing our network and growing our teams it hasn't been easy either.
Speaker 2:What has happened is we've we have a high level of work that we do.
Speaker 2:Sometimes people have not been, don't have that professionalism or our business sense, and we try to work and push that and and build that with the teams that we create, and most of the people that come through the down market are already pretty much highly creative. What we try to do on the symbiosis side when they come into our, into our business and work with us, either as a contractor or someone that is like part-time or full-time in our business, we teach them how to be organized. We teach them how to be efficient with their time Everyone has a toggle account that they track all their time and we actually sit down them and be like we see that it's taking you like two hours to edit a video like can walk us through your process. You know, because we believe that this project we step on all of our projects, the timeline we're like as a novice, this might take you an hour and a half. As a professional, this should take you 30 minutes and if it took someone like four hours, we're like okay walk us through your process.
Speaker 2:Let's like talk through this and see where we can be a lot more efficient. And as a creative director, that's where I've kind of started to fall in line with. Especially growing our talent is starting to be creative and teaching others how to be more efficient, more organized and understanding the bottom line when it comes to business. And so when we find the people in our network and the people we look for the idea of them, hoping we know they're talented. You know we're just hoping, not hoping. We ask and we work with them to see if they're willing to be open to learn too. So if that is not something that you want to do, you think you're just cool and you can do whatever you want to, then you're definitely not going to be with us very long.
Speaker 1:So it's interesting that you go there. I have a good friend who is in my one of my group chats and he was like I had to fire somebody for the first time today. Yeah, talk about I don't know if you've had this experience yet, but talk about what it is if you've had it how do you go through the process of demonstrating leadership when it comes time to not just build your team but to prune it? The first time you fire somebody. What's that like?
Speaker 2:Oh man, so I'm a Pisces. I'm always super emotional, I'm always super so, if never something you want to do, and I'm also not great at we kind of conflict like that, so I had to really learn and practice. You know how to express and communicate what expectations and and it's been and it's hard, it's definitely hard, that's hard too, like especially you don't want because you believe in that person, you give them chances and you want to walk them through the process and after a while I had to.
Speaker 2:Let me take a step back here. I really want to answer this question. It's really important because I've had to go through a few times and it's been. It was a challenge and so I guess I'll say this. So, when you have to definitely keep your emotions out of it and I think that's what I've had to learn, like when I first started downmarket, we really looked at the idea.
Speaker 2:You know, this is a family business. It's all Vin Diesel style Like. You know, I live my life one quarter at a time and we're a family. You get into that space and then, as you get more into the business, you look at more of the like. You know this person is costing you money, or this person is being a Ruto client, or this person is not. You know, supporting a team. You make the decisions that's best for your team and your company.
Speaker 2:Because what happened was I had to learn and I had some really great mentors walk me through this. Philip Hernandez, for Geekdom, he's a COO there. He really, like, really helped me with that. We had a team. We treated each other like family. But one of the things that he taught me and showed me was a book called Traction. And that book Traction is, when you read it, it's much like a manual. It's to build out some, it's to build out teams, to build out vision, to build out goals and those deliverables look like. And so he showed me that book, he kind of mentored me through a lot of these tough conversations. But he's like hey, like you're running a business and this is not about family, this is. And he kind of I had to teach myself and he taught me, like you know, you have to treat this like a team. You have your first draft picks, you have your All Stars. Sometimes you got to trade people and sometimes, because you're trying to create a team that's trying to win the championship every year, you know it's not a family. You need to be able to have the best people on board so you can win every time, because that's the business that you're in. You're there to create high level concepts for clients and if a team, one person, is lacking, it just affects the rest of the team.
Speaker 2:So I always tell people this I know it's hard to fire, it's hard to let people go, but the sooner you do it, the better that you will be off, and also that person too, you know, if you kept them there, you knew they're not doing the work, they're dragging their feet. They're not, you know, or they're not just being competent to the goals or, you know, to that that's needed. Let them go as soon as. That's my biggest advice. Let them go as soon as possible, you know, explain why, of course, and put yourself in a space to continue the win, because and hopefully they understand where you're coming from, because it probably that's what they're waiting for. They know they probably don't want to be there.
Speaker 2:So I always tell people, like, when it comes to those spaces, when you have to let go of people they're not performing, just do it as quickly as possible. Don't try to drag out the situation, especially if you already gave them their all the automations like, hey, you're going to do these three tasks to get to where we need you to. If you can't do those things, then hey, I'll be there to help you. Walk out the door, you know, and just be very, very just. Trust me, you're going to be doing yourself a huge favor and you'll be doing them a huge favor too, because you might be stopping them from doing whatever amazing thing that they should be doing, because apparently it's not going to be with you.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that's, that's good. Hey everyone, thank you again for your support of entrepreneurial appetite. Beginning this season, we are inviting our listeners to support the show through our Patreon website. The founding 55 patrons will get live access to our monthly discussions for only $5 a month. Your support will help us hire an intern or freelancer to help with the production of the show. Of course, you can also support us by giving us five stars, leaving a positive comment or sharing the show with a few friends. Thank you for your continued support. So, Jial, one of the things that I see you do that is really beautiful in our community you mentioned it earlier are these brunches. Can you talk about building community through media and podcasting? How are you doing that in San Antonio and what's, what's your vision for that?
Speaker 2:My vision for that was because it was kind of like a shorter campaign stop for me. There's another book that's great that you need to pick up. It's called Brands Don't Win. So I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's one of my favorite books and it talks about, you know, taking brands into spaces that are more like political campaigns. You're trying to get the message across and they bring up several what's some of the most iconic campaigns that we know of this era, which is Obama's campaign, and they bring up Trump's campaign.
Speaker 2:They both cater to a specific category of people to raise a narrative that galvanized and polarized, you know, a larger segment of the country, and so it goes into a lot of like case scenarios and case studies and how companies and others can not so much build your brand in regards to the market, that is, but to help transcend it. It's one thing to be a disrupter you hear so often startups and business is like, oh, how do we disrupt industry? It's one thing to be a disrupter and then the same old mechanism it's even greater to be someone that's trend as transcended out of it. You've seen it so many times, you've seen it so much. You know, with Starbucks. You've seen it with Amazon. They took a constantly, they took themselves out of the race and they created their own race and forced everyone else to play into it. So now they own the track and are creating the race. So it's a great book to read on.
Speaker 2:And so I mentioned that because the Cranfutures branch is our campaign of a bigger concept that we want to put together, which is called the Creative Futures Conference. And so the Creative Futures Conference and basically the Creative Futures brunch, versus an activation, a smaller activation for a larger entity that we call Creative Futures Conference, but overall, the same goal is the same, which is the event aims to create a collaborative and a supportive and innovative space for startups, creative professionals, that can connect, because, as a creative and as a business professional, there's always a disconnect. There's always a disconnect with creative and sales and marketing and business. Creative wants to do these big ideas and marketing and business how much is it going to cost us and what's the bottom line? Type of stuff and so there's sometimes this disconnect between creatives and businesses. So when I created Creative Futures brunch, the idea was let's create a space where creatives are creating the space and we're getting an opportunity to talk to marketing business, innovation, architects, all these people to come into one place this is a network and learn from each other. And so, because for Creative Futures, the conference is the overall encompassing idea is to amplify the business of creativity, and now that we live in a space where everyone wants to be creative, everyone wants to be able to think outside the box and do really cool stuff.
Speaker 2:The brunch was an opportunity for us to start to build on that concept that the conference that we want to do next year in April of 2024. But overall, on the micro level of all this, the brunch was really just a space where I wanted to get some good quality people to sit down, talk about issues and talk about ideas that really had some relevance and that everyone was has the opportunity to have a say and talk about it. And so the Creative Futures brunch really starts off how all great things should start off breaking bread and having a drink with a friend. So one of the biggest things for us, for me, is I love coffee, I love brunch and I love a good conversation, and so I was thinking we've done videos and we've done events called the Eat Meat Socials and we've done the Poetry and the Patty Oaks thing, like how do I bring that all together? And then how everyone can sit down, have a good meal but then literally sit down again and have a great talk. So the Creative Futures brunch with the podcast I've just been so in love with podcasts for so long that I was like I have to find a way to finally infuse this concept that we've been wanting to do, called the Downmarket Podcast Lab.
Speaker 2:So when you go into Creative Futures brunch, you come into Geekdom, which is a space for startups and business, and also it's a place where you don't see a lot of creativity, and so I want to definitely invade the space and I let people know that creativity, creatives and creative professionals and designers are business people too that need just as much of the resources that Geekdom has to provide. And also Geekdom has also always been trying to pass the wider net in this realm of other entrepreneurs and startups. So it's here at Geekdom we at from 8.30 to 10.30, everyone comes out We've had a great crowd of different markets that I never thought would come out connecting, and what happens is and again the reason why it's so hard to kind of talk about it, because it goes beyond what I ever imagined. You see so many diverse people from politics to community building, to business professionals, coming together and just having an opportunity to not network but just to have a conversation. And those conversations have led the. I guess if there was a goal, if there was some success raiseness.
Speaker 2:The past two or now three that we've had, we've seen startups who need investors meet their investors At the yeah, literally they came there just to say hi and hang out for a little bit and they found their investors to raise enough, like 30 million. That's good, yeah, like yeah. And then we've met marketing companies that have come through with their teams just to show them, to take them to one of the podcasts that we had a few designers talk about equity center design. We have two marketing companies come out to that to kind of just like learn more. So they're using the branch as an opportunity to teach their young entry level employees about these subjects that they felt, that we felt, they felt coming from us, from the down market, simeo Hush.
Speaker 2:But then also we found a few people in the past two branches start their business with each other. They met each other. They started talking yo, let's start this non-vegan ice cream joint that we want to do, let's do a media company, and so it's starting to build a community that I'd never imagined. So the creative futures branches organically has had to build a community. But then what's great about the creative futures branch in the podcast side of all this is that it talks about real stuff. I was about to curse, but real stuff, you guys are cursed.
Speaker 1:You guys are talking about real shit.
Speaker 2:Like we talk about inequality and equity, we talk about sexism, we talk about opportunity, and again it opens a window to how do we come together to really start to problem solve and, like I said, as a creative, a creative is here to problem solve and there's a lot of problems to be solved, not just in a mundane space. I think creatives come in to help solve high-level problems that we face every day that we are always sometimes afraid to go after. And so the creative futures branch and the podcast has been a real joy to put together and I'm glad that you've come to two of them so far. But those are the goals for the creative futures branches it's to continue to build a community. It's still to amplify the business creativity and also be able to lead a space where creatives are able to talk about real issues that can make us a better community.
Speaker 1:And for the audience. For context, geekdom is the incubator it's like the most popular and prominent incubator for businesses here in San Antonio. So it's the place where a lot of people are going to figure out how to start their businesses, how to launch their businesses, how to be a startup, how to get connected to that world. It's a great place and a great strategy that you implement it to go there to do what it is that you're doing in terms of building community.
Speaker 2:I was going to say yeah, and we all get a little angsty like, oh, I get a little feisty, Like we didn't ask to come and geek them, Geek them out, so I have to come here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they asked us to bring culture, creativity and community here Because this was in the realm of 2020. Course, they're dealing with the pandemic. No one's coming into the co-working space and they are already shifting their ideology of who and what they were, and so I think for them, they thought, like this will be like you know, we're just going to bring in this young group from the West Side of San Antonio and maybe they can do some videos for us and maybe they can like you know, like we just need to have some space filled. But once we start good going here, start like graffiti all the walls, they're like oh, these guys have something going and they're building community for us. What is this about? So Geek them has been a great partner and I think they're happy to have us here, but I also think they're pleasantly surprised that, like we've grown so much Because we've grown a lot with Geek them, they've definitely supported us throughout several changes and iterations of severe hush in the damn market, so we appreciate them a lot.
Speaker 1:You mentioned talking about real shit that's happening in the community. Yeah, last creative brunch I went to those three brothers there who were talking about how difficult it was to establish themselves here in the community in San Antonio, and I imagine this is something that happens in other cities. I have a perspective on that. One of my biggest disappointments is that the Black elders haven't done much to strategically invest in the uplift of you know, I don't even want to say young people, because I'm almost 40. And so that has been a struggle. But I think, even beyond just Black communities, one of the things I realized by going to the creative brunch is that man, everybody like 50 and under, is struggling to kind of break through and get into faces where we can scale change at a level that we see is needed in our community, and so I want you to talk a little bit about how are you navigating the no zone and the barriers that maybe are in our head and the barriers that maybe, like, really exist in terms of getting things done?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this is where I always had a very rebellious streak. I know I have. I have a very, very activist mindset. I'm very— what's the word? I like to push people and to do more. You know, sometimes it works sometimes and then also like to push people out the way if they're like hindering me and by doing a way that is not aggressive as such, like, oh, like, if you don't do this for us, like then you're not with but no, I'm like. You know what?
Speaker 2:There was something that the gentleman remember, Darby, who was there speaking during that conversation about the exact question you're asking. He made a good point and he mentioned that you know, like you know, find the right people who you want to, you know, chill with and see if they want you to see and see if they're down to do what you want to do. If they're not, then you know, don't mess with them. And that's where we've always, I've always been. I've never taken, I've never taken San Antonio seriously when it comes to the intentionality of doing something bigger and more. And it's just, I've just never seen it. You know, living here, even in Dallas, and stuff that I've never seen them like try to do real big things. I think they talk about it. They always chasing other cities in our town and stuff that like Austin and Dallas and stuff. But I think overall I think I'll take a little bit of a step back here I think how I've been able to navigate a lot of the knows are I just don't even ask.
Speaker 2:I don't ask because I don't think they would know are they would know how to position me to succeed. One, there might be a space where one they don't want to. Two, I don't think they have the capacity or the ability to do so. Like, just just just working with so many people and being in spaces now, Langston, that I've been in these boardrooms, you know, and they're coming to us or coming to me about like, oh, we want to do these cool, great things about blah, like we want to elevate, you know, the space. So, if you know, be more inclusive. These people have no ideas. They have no ideas and usually, sometimes, sometimes I'm always like how did you get to this position? Like how did you get here? Like you should not be doing this job.
Speaker 1:You're president of what, and I'll keep that to myself.
Speaker 2:But like when I've been into a few of these rooms where I was like, oh my God, this and I now I don't often go into them, I'm lucky enough that I'll start to have someone else be able to take care of those type of business transactions, because it's so, so boring and so like the same thing, like, oh, how do we tell our story? Blah, blah, blah. I was like I've told them, like the best way to tell your story is to tell the truth. And the truth is there's from the Alamo to the West Side, the East Side and I get this also from Houston and Dallas. I always get people saying like, yeah, we, you know we need to switch up and, you know, explain our narrative, you know. And how do we tell our story? I was like, well, you can start by, you know, adding people of color in it, because if you whitewash so much of it already, it'll be best for you to be able to add everyone, including everyone, in the story like it was told, as it should be told.
Speaker 2:And so for me, I've always just tried to navigate in a space where I can be, even though someone were to tell me no, if I want to pick a good idea, it doesn't faze me, because I'm like, oh, that's fine, I really didn't even want to ask you because I'm just going to do it on my own. I haven't worked with such limited resources before. They wouldn't be anything different. Also, what I've learned is that there's other outside sources that would be willing to invest and have invested some of the products that we've done. That sometimes the city communities here are businesses here don't want to, because sometimes it's not, sometimes they just don't get it, and then you're just like well, it's really simple. It's something to bring people together and something to build equity or to create a moment where people can feel like they're, they're seeing, and so those words and those concepts, they have no clue what you're talking about. It's bringing people together and making people feel seen and inspired, and creativity and art does that. And so for me, I've just never took no, as I answer honestly, and also, for me, I don't give them a chance to even give me the, give them the option, for instance, the creative futures branch.
Speaker 2:I was like hey guys, you know I want to put this event together. I know you guys are looking to create, get more members. I generally try to find what, again, the client of the person needs and, for instance, geetha was looking for more members and I've been telling them like it's not just you need more members, you need the right type of members, and I think you guys are not chasing the right type of demographic, which, again, I told them we've talked about with them before. It's like you guys have a woman problem, like there's a lot of dynamic, amazing people of color black, brown, specifically you're in Dallas, are doing dynamic things and they're women and they're amazing, these amazing startups and stuff like that, and you guys are not catering to them or not even trying.
Speaker 2:And I get it, maybe you don't know how to and I was like saying like hey, well, I'm going to put together events. And like the first very intentional one which you saw you saw Brea, you saw Hallease, you saw Sarah these are pillars and so funny, like Geetha had no clue who they were and I was like how can that be? How can you not know? These people are like one of the YouTube star that's interviewed, you know Hollywood stars in the middle of France, the Cannes Film Festival. That's unfortunate. And so I always just try to. When people say no to me, I try to find an alternative yes without asking. And so when Atluso, the creative futures branch was really born from specifically that. Because I just it just doesn't make sense to me sometimes Thanks to why it's right in front of your face and Santono, specifically, has a hard time seeing beyond the spurs. The riverwalk, the Alamo, those are great institutions.
Speaker 2:I mean there's a problem that some of them are but they're fine, those concepts are fine, but the people who are working in them, people who are, you know, doing big things around them, those are people that, like a lot of us, should be showcasing, and so that's why I try to work right usually and to finally answer your question. The best way I always get people to say yes, I don't ever ask the top person to make that decision. I make his people that work for him, make that decision for him. So usually I go to the people, the people who are consuming that person's product are in the space, before I go to the exec, like, hey, your people are eating it up, your people are already watching it, your people are already in the space, you're the one that's left out, you're the one that's not. You know, on this new shit, what are we going to do? So usually I galvanize their people first before I even take it to the head.
Speaker 1:Boss, that piece of strategy is legit because sometimes we want to bypass the people and go straight to the boss and the boss has those people there as a deflector. So sometimes the boss is automatically like default is no, because you're not supposed to be asking me this question anyway. So I appreciate that piece of advice.
Speaker 2:I really do, yeah that's one of the main way I've learned through the down market that we're able to get the people involved first before eating. Business or CEO can say no to us or yes to us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so can you talk about being black in a multicultural space? San Antonio is very multicultural, dallas is too, but not in the same way that San Antonio is. Yeah, a natural part of the conversation at the beginning.
Speaker 2:And I'll tell you I don't tell a lot of people and I'll be glad to talk about this I mean, I was raised in Dallas but I was born in the real grand area, so more on the border of Mexico and a lot of people they even ask or even think of.
Speaker 2:but I'm definitely Afro-Latino. My mom is Indigenous and Hispanic herself, and then my dad is from San Antonio, but I live most of my life in Dallas, there, I think. So it's like I have a little bit of both worlds. I think I've like talked to a lot of different people around the world. I also live in border areas of France and Spain. There's this, I think border kids or border people have. They're able to um to code switch really well.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, because you can do so many different textures, cultures and communities that you can just like shift when you need to survive or thrive, or so.
Speaker 1:So the last question I want to ask during COVID-19, we shifted to becoming a book club and, as I told you, like we get, sometimes we get the authors to come on to these books. So I know you haven't written your book yet, but I'm wondering you mentioned two books already, right? Can you suggest some books that you've read to help you strategize or inspired you in your work? Two of them.
Speaker 2:And I always have two. I always have my interns. Actually, at the beginning of the year I had my team read these two books and these are the best. And these books were given to me by an amazing gentleman, david Jones from DJ Law. He's an attorney here at Geekdom. He was a law small business nonprofit and some of the books that he's always recommended he recommended me and that is blowing my mind is the Go-Giver. Have you read or heard of that book? Never. It's an amazing book. It's a great book about, yeah, the reverse skate of a go-getter Like a go-giver is everything kind of like I learned to live my life by without even before reading a book.
Speaker 2:It was funny. It was nice to read a book that I was like oh shit, I'm doing this.
Speaker 2:And apparently I'm doing it right, because sometimes you're like, oh, like, why am I, you know, like to say yes to things, or why am I, like you know, giving that? I should have charged for that, but no, I want to be nice and give it. So the book is all about like just paying it forward, forward, like just doing like the good stuff first, about trying to make it in more of a transaction. So it's a great book Go-Giver. You have to read it. It's a great story. It reads like a novel. So, yeah, check that one out. And then, right now, my favorite book, and it's not a hard read. The chapters are just kind of like sometimes mangled, sometimes they're really short, sometimes they're very long, so sometimes you're not sure Like I need. I need chapters to help me pace myself, and so this book can be everywhere, but it's called Art of the Gathering.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, that book is fantastic. Right, listen, listen. I know we had time, but listen, this, this, this is one thing that I have on my vision board in my mind. It's not a real vision board. That's up yet. I'm gonna meet what's it? Is it prior or pre-aparkar?
Speaker 2:Pre-aparkar yeah, I'm gonna meet.
Speaker 1:Pre-aparkar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it might be prior, but no, I will. I want to get prior or pre-aparkar to my creative futures conference. I want to try and gear down with San Antonio. Because, yes, I will. I maybe try to get San Antonio Book Festival like bring her down here or something. But yes, I would love to meet her too, please look that book.
Speaker 1:To me, that book, that book changed the way I think about doing gathering. It really did yeah. Yeah, I didn't know we had so much. I didn't know we was like here like that, I had no idea.
Speaker 2:But you see, like how you see, how like the creative future brothers put together right. So I mean it's intentional in that way, like yeah, we, we read that book.
Speaker 1:I mean I was, we were already doing it. The Poetry of the Patty and other other events and again, like I read that book okay.
Speaker 2:I'm already doing those things, but this is a great insight to see, like, okay, I'm not doing it wrong or I'm not crazy, you know, but yeah, that's a great book.
Speaker 1:It's such a great book. Definitely One of my favorite books that I read in I think it's this year, in 2023 is one of my top, top, top three books in terms of actually something I can do with strategy books is top three this year. Yeah, I read a lot of books, so yeah, it's a fun.
Speaker 2:It's a fun book and again, just get you thinking about like you know how we like like a society and how we gather and how we create relationships and I just I want to meet her and say like, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, definitely. Yeah, all right, gile, thank you for taking the time to meet with us today to share your story, to talk a little bit about your strategies for success, to learn about how you're leveraging media and podcasting to to build community and listen. I want to say.
Speaker 2:I really appreciate you and thank you so much for the opportunity Again. I do these podcasts made like once every three years, and when you asked me I was like oh man, about the honor. So I really appreciate you even asking and thank you. This has been a great experience and I appreciate you and I appreciate it.
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