Butternomics the Business of Culture

On 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 t...

On 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...

On 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...

On 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...

Most 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 d...

David 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 podcas...

Simone 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...

Atlanta 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 cra...

Steve 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...

Mandii B pulled up to Butternomics and broke down the real podcast money blueprint. Most creators chase a network deal thinking it means marketing, studio time, production help, and guest booking handled for them. None of that is guaranteed. A network deal is really just you licensing your content so they can sell ads against it. The expenses, the editing, the booking, the studio, all still on you...

Tendernism didn't start on the internet. It started 50 years ago in a kitchen in Robbins, Illinois, with a young Walter Johnson cutting wingtips off chicken wings for his brother's restaurant. 50 years. 50+ states. Casino kitchens, backyard cookouts, and every Southern state he could get to so he could learn what the old folks knew about a pinch of this and a pinch of that. By the time the camera...

It costs $300,000 to $400,000 a year just to protect voting rights in Georgia. The SAVE Act would charge you $33 to $130 for a new ID just to vote. DEI rollbacks are cutting off SBA loans and grant funding to Black businesses right now. Attorney Gerald Griggs sat down with Butternomics and unpacked the economics of civil rights, how legislation is quietly hitting Black wealth, and why Georgia has...

Walter Johnson cooked for 50 years across 50 states before a single camera found him. He started cutting wingtips off chicken in his brother's restaurant in Robbins, Illinois. He worked casinos, restaurants, and backyard cookouts across the South, collecting seasonings and techniques from every state he passed through. Then a video went viral and the world learned his name. Forbes wrote about him....

On this episode of Butternomics, Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant sits down with host Brandon Butler to break his silence on the Target Fast and reveals exactly how 40 days of strategic economic pressure stripped $12 billion from Target's valuation. From a 9.7% drop in foot traffic to forcing the first-ever HBCU business pipeline, Bryant pulls back the curtain on the full strategy, the demands, the negotiati...

The average non-technical founder loses $50,000 and years of their life trying to build an app. Amanda Spann knows because she's coached thousands of them. Her first app cost $40,000 and took 18 months. Her sixth one took weeks. The difference was a framework she built after documenting every mistake, every bottleneck, and every dollar wasted. She sat down with Butternomics and broke down why most...

On this episode of Butternomics, Mayor Andre Dickens pulls back the curtain on how Atlanta really runs. With the World Cup bringing 4.5 billion eyes to the A and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Act reshaping the south and west sides of the city, the 61st Mayor of Atlanta delivers a masterclass on how to tap in before the world shows up. He breaks down the low-interest city loans most entrepreneurs d...

Pastor Troy has been independent for over 25 years. He signed with Universal, watched them hand Nelly $5 million on a $90 million return, and made a decision: if he ever came back, it would be as a label, not just an artist. He left by choice. His first independent album after the deal sold 60,000 to 70,000 copies at $8 each. He sold his master to the bootlegger for $25,000 before the album even d...

Jai Ferrell is the first Black woman CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta in over 100 years. She walked into a $25 million business with 125 employees, three properties, horses, and 2,000 acres of land. Before this, she was managing billion-dollar portfolios at the busiest airport in the world. In this conversation, she breaks down the real enterprise behind the cookie, why women and girls re...

On this episode of Butternomics, Brandon Butler sits down with Mali Wilson, a music industry veteran who spent 15 years running Tree Sound Studios in Atlanta, one of the most iconic recording spaces in hip hop history. Lil Wayne was loyal to that building for over a decade. Drake, J. Cole, Big Sean, Wiz Khalifa, 2 Chainz — they all came through her doors, many of them before the world even k...

On this episode of Butternomics, Brandon Butler sits down with Onaje Henderson, co-owner of Zucot Gallery, one of the largest Black owned art galleries in the Southeast. Onaje grew up watching his father, a Tuskegee trained engineer turned full-time painter, create in the family garage every single day. That upbringing sparked a 15 year mission to build a space where Black art, Black artists, and...

On this episode of Butternomics, Brandon Butler sits down with Courtney English, Chief of Staff and Chief Policy Officer for the City of Atlanta under Mayor Andre Dickens. Courtney is a born-and-raised Atlanta native, a product of Southwest Atlanta, Douglas High School, and Morehouse College, who got elected to the Atlanta Board of Education at just 24 years old, became the youngest board chair in...

This episode of Butternomics, hosted by Brandon Butler, sits down with Tasha Belle Cyril, founder of J'ouvert Caribbean Kitchen and Bar and co-founder of Apartment 4B, a hospitality entrepreneur and service strategist with over 15 years of experience building restaurants across Atlanta, New York City, Jamaica and Saint Lucia. Tasha gets real about what it actually takes to survive in the restauran...

On this episode of Butternomics, our host, Brandon Butler, sits down with Omar Ali to break down how commercial real estate actually creates long term wealth. Omar shares the mindset shift most people miss when they think about property, including why patience, scale, and structure matter more than quick wins. They talk through capital access, government programs, and the quiet mechanics behind de...

Most people leave the military with a thank you and a handshake. Aristole left with a million dollars. On this episode on Butternomics hosted by Brandon Butler, we sit down with Aristole Investments, the Atlanta-raised financial educator who went from cutting hair in the barracks to teaching thousands of soldiers how to build wealth through the stock market. At 18, he joined the Army with no plan...

On this episode of Butternomics, host Brandon Butler sits down with Greg Mike—the artist who turned painted soda cans into a global brand and a 500 square foot studio into ABV Gallery, one of Atlanta's most influential creative houses. Greg Mike's signature character, Larry Loudmouth, is everywhere from the Beltline to the Swiss Alps. But his story isn't about overnight success. It's about s...