The Charleston Marketing Podcast

From Pez Dispensers To Power Moves: Angel Holmes On Building Community, Festivals, And Women’s Leadership

• Charleston AMA • Season 3

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Big ideas rarely arrive fully formed—they grow from a single conversation, a brave email, and a room full of the right people. That’s the heartbeat of this episode with Angel Holmes, a Charleston native whose fingerprints are on the city’s culinary rise, women’s leadership networks, and a new purpose-driven hospitality venture.

We unpack the origin of Charleston Wine & Food, from a sustainable seafood initiative and chef coalitions to building a nonprofit and borrowing best practices from festivals like South Beach and Aspen. Angel is candid about the unglamorous parts too: the mud-slicked year two, oversold zones, and why skimping on security, bathrooms, and flooring is the fastest way to break trust. If you’re in event marketing, sponsorships, or community building, her blueprint is a field guide—ask for help, design for experience, and plan for failure so attendees don’t feel it.

Angel’s story is also about brand and belonging. She shares the Home Team Communications origin that later echoed through Home Team BBQ’s culture, plus a delightfully specific Pez collection that proves memorable details make messages stick. We explore Charleston’s growth, her family’s civic legacy, and how neighborhoods still connect on porches, at driveway cookouts, and through local institutions that welcome newcomers while honoring roots.

Today, Angel is steering two high-impact projects. As editor of Charleston Women, she’s shifting the magazine from advertorial to a platform that elevates real work and real wins. And through the Brighter Side Society, she’s helping ambitious women turn ideas into outcomes with accountability, milestones, and shared tools—podcasts launched, businesses built, and dreams shipped. Then there’s the audacious next chapter: the Homestead Bar & Retreat in the Caribbean, a non–hurricane-zone, airport-accessible venue th

The East Cooper Student News team serves both Lucy Beckham High School and Wando High School communities. Your sponsorships will help our staff pay for field trips, competition fees, and equipment throughout the school year. Our staff publishes linear broadcast content in the form of our flagship newsmagazine East Cooper Student News, our sports talk show Rivalry Report, and announcement show Tribe Time, which serves Wando High School. 

Support the show

Title Sponsor: Charleston American Marketing Association

Presenting Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions

Sponsor: ‪SCRA; South Carolina Research Authority

Cohosts: Stephanie Barrow, Mike Compton, Rachel Backal, Tom Keppeler

Produced and edited: RMBO Advertising

Photographer | Co-host: Kelli Morse

Art Director: Taylor Ion

Score by: The Strawberry Entrée; Jerry Feels Good, CURRYSAUCE, DBLCRWN, DJ DollaMenu
Studio Engineer: Brian Cleary and Mathew Chase

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, brought to you by the Charleston AMA and broadcasting from our friends at Charleston Media Solutions Studios. Thanks to our awesome sponsors at CMS, we get to chat with the cool folks making waves in Charleston. From business and art to hospitality and tech. These movers and shakers choose to call the low country home. They live here, work here, and make a difference here. So what's their story? Let's find out together.

SPEAKER_01:

First thing in the morning, I was like, clearly that was not the truth.

SPEAKER_06:

Like storm rain. Which I was curious if it was flooding near you, Mike, where you are by switch yards, because everywhere in downtown's like different.

SPEAKER_02:

I got there. I did not have to float there.

SPEAKER_01:

Um it's changing rapidly though. I believe it.

SPEAKER_02:

I believe it. Uh it's it, you know, if it drizzles. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

And then the traffic. Oh, 52. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02:

You just drive. It's raining.

SPEAKER_01:

No, they can't. They can't. They don't know how to. But you're from here. Yeah. So you're part of this. No, I am not. I am a I'm a good I'm a skilled driver.

SPEAKER_02:

I heard you're a really good driver. Get off of the road. Excellent driver.

SPEAKER_01:

Take me there. On Sunday's an excellent driver. I am really good. I want to I just want to be teleported everywhere.

SPEAKER_02:

Like I know, right? Yes. Take me. Yes. Well, my wife's a passenger princess, so it's just kind of like, you know. You're not?

SPEAKER_01:

Pastor Princess. Yeah. What is that?

SPEAKER_02:

Do you make your husband drive? Yes. Do you make Brian drive everywhere? Yes, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pastor Princess.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that name. That's your new title. No, and actually, I don't like he'll make me drink. Drive if he's drinking. No, like and I it we'll go out. He'll be like, I'll drive there and you drive home. I'm like, oh babe. I always like to drive even if I don't drink. Like, no.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, right. Exactly. Let's get right into it, eh? Are we rolling?

SPEAKER_06:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh. Oh, we got. Oh, my goodness. Yes. Please share some of that. That's your princess. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast. This is Mike Compton. I'll be your host with Rachel Bacall. Hello. Say hello, Rachel.

SPEAKER_06:

Good to be back.

SPEAKER_02:

I am your current president of the American Advertising. Nope. Nope. That was back in 07. Current president of the American Marketing Association and president of Roombo Advertising. Rachel, where do you what do you do again? You're on the board.

SPEAKER_06:

Yes. I am on the board with Amanda. We are running the committee for marketing and communication.

SPEAKER_02:

So marketing, the Marcom co-chair. Yeah. Yeah. So you can thank her for all the cool videos that you see on social. She's crushing it. Her and Amanda both. Thank you very much, by the way.

SPEAKER_06:

I appreciate it. Yes, we are.

SPEAKER_02:

I've got a badass. We have a badass on the show today. Super excited to have. Yes, exactly. Super excited to have Angel Holmes.

SPEAKER_01:

Holmes.

SPEAKER_02:

Holmes.

SPEAKER_01:

Holmes. Am I saying that right?

SPEAKER_02:

Is it like Pam with an N type of thing?

SPEAKER_01:

Homes. The L is silent. Yeah, L'L is silent. Yes. The L is silent. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

There we go. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

I I go by many names though. So okay.

SPEAKER_02:

What other names you could have?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I my maiden name was Passeleg. Like Pasteleg of Chicken. Wow. And then I was married before, and I was Postel, so a lot of people call me Postel still. They call it like and my nickname was Postelli, so I still get a call pasteli. Wow. And now I'm homes.

SPEAKER_02:

This is great. Thank you. Does anybody else know that? I mean, I feel like that might be first.

SPEAKER_01:

It might be first. I think so.

SPEAKER_02:

Only here on the Charleston Marketing Podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I get I'll give you all the skits. I'll tell you all the gits. I love it.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, we really want to talk about you, uh, to be honest. Um talk about the Charleston Wine and Food Fest, because that's a hot topic, and you have something to do with that, I heard. Um, but really, like, are you from here? Like Yes. Yes. Nobody's from here.

SPEAKER_01:

They're we're very rare. And my husband's actually from here. So to have a couple Mary from here is pretty special.

SPEAKER_02:

So you bring up Brian. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I love it. You bring up Brian. I'm so happy.

SPEAKER_02:

You got to Brian. You gotta find yourself a partner that looks at Angel the way Brian looks at Angel. Oh, that's so cute. So I caught the episode uh of his birthday. When's his birthday?

SPEAKER_01:

It was September last week. Yeah. Well, no, September September 27th. Mine's the 17th. Okay. Okay, my kids are 22nd.

SPEAKER_02:

So um yeah, it was uh they were having fun on camera. So it was cute the way you guys were interacting.

SPEAKER_01:

I got bored, but I was just saying like I said, you'll probably get bored watching this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were making cocktails. How'd you get bored? You can learn how to make cocktails.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, he lost me at when he put more sugar in the cheer line. Like, I was like, wait, what? You got me at like old fashions. I'm a I love a good old fashioned. And then and then how we like I'm sure it tastes great.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, it I it was he's doing a great job. It's gotten much better. But you should watch the very first episode of us. It is hilarious. Um, and if his nickname is director of no fun, yeah. So we love it. Anytime I can pick on him, I will. So a good time. I mean, oh he's he's and he's actually really fun, which is funny that we it's really a name my kids gave him cheap with a lot of rules and no fun.

SPEAKER_02:

You gotta have the two parents, right? The parents that are a little more strict and the parents that are, you know, I get that. Yeah, it balances out, you know, it's important. Well, yeah, yeah. You'll you'll see, Rach.

SPEAKER_06:

I'm hoping to be like the fun one. Young pup over there.

SPEAKER_02:

See, you can say fiance, right? We can't say fiance anymore. You only get a certain amount of time to say fiance. No, I know.

SPEAKER_06:

Yeah, and we just hit um like uh last week was like our year for being engaged, like when he proposed, and we only get one of them, so we went out and we celebrated. He's like, Do you have to celebrate that? I was like, yes. Yeah, you're only a fiance for so long.

SPEAKER_02:

Do you just call him fiance to his face or does he have a name?

SPEAKER_06:

No, I call his name's Cole, but I call him Coley.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay, that's cute. I love that. When do you get when do you get married?

SPEAKER_06:

We're getting married um this upcoming Memorial Day, so May 24th.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_06:

And we're doing it at the Cedar Room, like at the old cigar factory. Yes, nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So well, Brian and I actually lead marriage ministry for newly engaged couples. So you might need to look into that. Okay. Yes. We we teach, we say what not to do. You guys were both married before, obviously. And um, like wide open into this idea here, guys.

SPEAKER_02:

Talk more about it. Talk more about it.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, it's a eight-week program that you learn all the tools to have a great, sustainable marriage. And it is amazing. We uh took the course, we were married, our anniversary was this week, seven years. Congratulations. We took the course, we loved it so much that we decided we wanted to lead it. And we really do share what not to do because we don't want anyone to go through divorces, but um, but now we're doing it the right way. So we we try to share that. It's a it's a national program that these um professionals put together, not me.

SPEAKER_06:

And is it mostly like engaged couples or is it married couples too?

SPEAKER_01:

It's only engaged and some of them are not engaged to see if they want to be engaged. And if you're a if you've been married less than a year. Okay. Okay. Look into that. Okay, I will. Apply Katie Walters over at Seacoast as the one. Look into that.

SPEAKER_02:

I didn't even know that was connect that, right? We had no idea she had another thing going on. I do. Another thing going on.

SPEAKER_01:

I do. Just add something more.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, let's start from the beginning before we get to that. I love that though. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_06:

Um I do think we have to congratulate her.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, shh, that's right. Yes.

SPEAKER_06:

That's right. So Angel Here was nominated, or not nominated, won the award for 50 most influential people in Charleston. Top 50. Top 50 since 1975, was it? And the funny thing is, she didn't even know that she won the award until she saw a LinkedIn post.

SPEAKER_01:

From Amanda. Yeah. From our Amanda. So Charleston magazine, yep, did a did a 50 most most influential people and had no idea. And so Amanda posted this. I was like, oh, I love looking at these lists. And I was scrolling through, and all of a sudden I was like, and I said I did cuss. I was like, holy uh. Yeah. I was like, that is me. That's awesome. What is going on? It's a big deal. Very honored. Very honored.

SPEAKER_02:

Why did you get it, Angel? Do you even know?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it does say that um Mark Collins and I got it for starting the Charleston Wine and Food Festival.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh. Yeah. Okay. When when did that start?

SPEAKER_01:

So we started pulling it together in 2004. The first one was in 2006.

SPEAKER_03:

Why?

SPEAKER_01:

So we met for a year and a half. So I actually um was at the aquarium be a couple of years before that doing PR and events and stuff. And I started a program called the Sustainable Seafood Project in Charleston. This is really when there were not many chefs. So at the time there was like Peninsula Grill, Fig was not around, it was like McCrady's, like really limited restaurants. And I went to all these restaurants and said, Hey, I'm starting the sustainable seafood program. Can you not serve certain fish on your menu? And they all said, No, we're gonna serve that. Like, but they said you should get this is a long story, sorry. Oh, okay. We love to dig in. So the one of the chefs, I think Mike Lotto was like opening or something here, and he was like, if you can go get Ken Fedrinsky, who was at the time at a place called Woodlands in Somerville, to sign up, all these chefs will come on board and sign up. Okay. So, and he did tell me to wear a short skirt. I did not wear a short skirt. Whatever. Okay. I did not wear a short skirt, but I did go out there. And I did bat my eyelashes and I was pretty young. I had a boyfriend or something. I don't know. Anyway, Ken signed up, and you know what? All these chefs signed up after. I was like, okay, I understand the game. I understand the game. So I started doing more with chefs with this program. And Mark Collins was at circa 1886. He went to a food and wine festival in Texas. There were there was just a few food and wine festivals at the time. Um and he came back and he said, Hey Angel, you're really good at planning events and that sort of thing. Why don't we do one of these? And I was at the aquarium. Um, so I Googled it and I was like, the aquarium has no money. They're not gonna do a food and wine festival. This is crazy. And so I said, the city really needs to put this on. And then I then I started working for Ken on the side, doing his PR, making more money than I was making at the aquarium. So I eventually was like, okay, I need to just leave the aquarium and do this and make more money.

SPEAKER_05:

Nice.

SPEAKER_01:

And I did that, and Mark called me. That was 2004. Mark called me and said, Okay, now that you're on your own, can you can you work on this putting this together? And I said, Well, I will send out an email to people I know and see if they're interested and see what happens from there. And I emailed like PR people, like I would have just like random people, and none of them showed up, but the mayor showed up, like every restaurateur showed up, every chef showed up. It was like the room was with all the right people, and I looked around and said, Oh my gosh, this is gonna happen. I just knew it. So for a year and a half after that, we um I got a committee together, we started meeting, we put the f the nonprofit together, started pulling all the things together, and then um it then it came together.

SPEAKER_06:

And when did you go to make because if it started as a nonprofit, was it membership based right off? Because I believe my fiance's parents are members of Food and Wine. So like I love the friends.

SPEAKER_01:

We did not do the friends right away. Um that came on a little bit later. But we yeah, we set the nonprofit and um and then it you know, we were hired, and so how I got on staff because I eventually started running it, I wanted to be the head volunteer and enjoy it. I was like, okay, I had a very successful PR agency, I had a staff, I had a lot of clients, but we hired a company to take it on and they couldn't figure out how to do it. They were like just they were bogged down in the details of the last two years because we've been planning for a year and a half or what or whatever. Um, and they were not we need to raise money, we need to get going. So the board said to me, Hey, would you take this on as a project with your business? And that was kind of a conflict. So I gave my business to a friend of mine, Annie Bird, who opened Bird House PR, which is a really successful PR firm now. Um, and she so she went on to do that. I just did the festival as like a it was a client project as their director. And then they after it happened the first year, they asked me to be the director, and I was like, Oh, that was fun, okay, I'll do it. So that's kind of how it all rolled in. And I ran there for eight years.

SPEAKER_04:

Eight years.

SPEAKER_06:

And did you attend like any Charleston food and wine festivals anywhere else before like running with the idea?

SPEAKER_01:

So I went to Aspen. Um the board sent me to well, actually, they sent me there after the first one. And no, I didn't go before the first one, but I went to I went to several afternoon. To see what you're doing, if you didn't know what you can do about it, sponsors, all of it. It was we would go once a year to something.

SPEAKER_06:

So and does it like create a community where other cities that do that where you can communicate with them? Oh yeah, okay. That's nice.

SPEAKER_01:

Definitely. There's a group, those directors were awesome. And uh I will say South Beach, um, because that was one of the biggest ones at the time, it still is. The um person who started that, they actually brought him here. He met with us before the festival even came about, and that was instrumental. And he would tell me, like, here's who we use for ticketing, here's who we use for signage. Like, it was so many good resources. Um Lee Schrager, he was amazing. So you have to. I mean, yeah. To get ideas. Nothing's original, right? No. So now exactly. You kind of just put your own spin on it. Nothing is original. Yeah, you put your spin on it, you're not gonna be able to do it. You're on a marketing place.

SPEAKER_02:

You were original, you were one of a kind, but everything else is really some sort of um you've so you were born and raised here, so you've seen a lot of good and bad, right? Um you were even obviously here during the Hugo. Right? Yes. How talk about the growth factor and and if you're in love with that, or do you hate it, or do you like the kamias?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, uh you seem to embrace it pretty well, especially with the festival.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I, you know, I'm uh in the mindset I love I uh there's some things I don't love, but I do love that Charleston has evolved to where it is. Growing up here, especially my dad was, you know, a famous politician. Everyone knew everything about me, and I couldn't go anywhere without everyone knowing my business.

SPEAKER_02:

Is that right? Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

I was always on the radio because my dad was So yeah, talk about Ernie. So Ernie, get a shout at my dad. Um, he was actually a CPA as a profession, and he loved baseball. Him and some buddies went in and they they purchased the Charleston Royals at the time. That's the baseball team at the day. It was in College Park, which is now um it's by Pandem Park. It's Citadel took it over. They don't use it. But anyway, he they bought that. They changed it to the Rainbows. So my dad was part of that name change. Um my sister actually helped with the logo. My brother was a mascot. I I was in charge of player relations. I got to tap the keg and get put out the nachos. I love that. Baseball player, by the way. That was I was and I was in middle school. I think you were in heaven.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I love all of you. Like, I'll keep this job. Love that. Love that. And then it plus more nachos. I know it was more tapping beer. I am literally 13 tapping beer in the dugout. It was great. I was already running the events, right? Um, and so that's really how I got into events is my dad. But um, so then Mayor Riley was huge into baseball. He convinced my dad to run for office, which uh and he ran for office the first time he lost, and he won, and he was a state senator for 13 years, went on to run for governor, he lost that race. Um, and then he, you know, him and Arthur and um Glenn McConnell and so many did so much to to just they got the money to Charleston. That's what they did. They got the money to Charleston before they were a powerhouse in the Senate, all the money was going to upstate, and he really was part of that group that brought the money here. So that was amazing. The bridge, there's so many things. So then for he was super into numbers with being a CPA, so he started our state lottery, and then he went on to start the Arkansas State Lottery. Starting a lottery. Starting a lottery. We were talking, I was like, Wow. How do you start a lot? I didn't even do that. Like it's kind of like the festival. You just start researching others and you figure out what works and you put your twist on it and you make it into what it is. Talk to the right people. So yeah, talk to the right people. And so, yeah. So growing up, I don't even know what your question was, but something about the change of shallow. Change, yeah. No, I don't know. It's it's really grown, and I so it's no longer a small town. Like, right? I can go out and nobody knows who I am, and it's amazing, and I love that.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I do love just you know, just different perspectives and so much. I mean, like obviously the chefs and all the culinary community that have come about after the especially after the one in food festival, that really was impetus of that and making it what what it is now.

SPEAKER_02:

And um So the food festival came first, and then the food came after that.

SPEAKER_01:

We had a handful of restaurants, but at the time there was a handful. Like there was nothing that they're I mean, even like King Street was not Upper King was not a thing. It was it was crazy how different it was. Um, and so if you talk to some of the OG food and beverage people, they will definitely credit the festival for making Charleston what it is today, which is probably why I'm on the list of the 50th most influential. There we go. It definitely had an impact. Um, I don't like the traffic at all.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, nobody likes it.

SPEAKER_01:

And I really I don't I wish there people don't say they're not like as personable, I feel like. There's a lot of I lived in Park West. I moved from there. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm in Planners, so I know. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But I just felt like they were just, I don't know. I don't know if it sets up north. People stay indoors a lot, but we go like to go outside and like say hi. Yeah. Like to have perch parties and all. Oh my god. So the front porch thing is a thing, right? So I'm from Detroit.

SPEAKER_02:

I did Tampa for 18 years, but I'm from Detroit. So I understand where your challenge is. We're not we're backyard people, right? We have barbecues in our backyard. So when I moved here in 2019, uh I I saw the the guys grill and use their grills in their front yard.

SPEAKER_06:

Wow.

SPEAKER_02:

And I'm like, oh, okay. I don't think I see a grill in the front yard. Wow. So now I have mine in my garage. I bring it out and I use it, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

There you go. You cook stuff in the driveway. So it's like a whole like a potluck. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

My neighbors are from Mount Pleasant, uh, at least he is, uh, Steve. And and they've they have they boil peanuts. Yes. They wash them, they do the whole thing. It's a whole day. I go next door, I'm like, this is the most southern thing I've ever done. And I loved it, and the peanuts are great. You know what I mean? You just have to kind of enjoy where you live and kind of adjust to the culture a little bit, even these little ways. Yeah, even like a moment of barbecue in the front yard versus the backyard. I would say parents were like, What are you doing? I'm like, Southern now.

SPEAKER_06:

Yeah, I'm in the south. I would say I had a similar experience when we had our first Halloween here, like in our house, and we're used to people coming up to the doors, right? And knocking on the doors to get candy and the kids in their costumes, and I just see everybody start bringing out their like porch chairs. And I'm like, wait, no one's knocking on our door. What's going on? I have this huge bag of candy that I got from Costco. I went all out. And I was like, I think the kids are scared of us. Like maybe the decorations aren't working. And then I'm going to northern the I go outside and we and all of our neighbors are like, just pull up a chair. It's probably the one of the best Halloween I've had ever. Because it was just so much fun with the community. Yep. And you know, everybody brings their brings the food out, like jello shots out. It was it was quite an experience, and I'm looking forward to this Halloween now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. I know it's a good idea. Oh my gosh. So fun. So fun.

SPEAKER_02:

Um so bringing it back to the marketing side of things. Um man, where I mean, you you so you grew, you were talking about your PR company. You said you had a bunch of employees there and a successful PR company. What was it called? How many employees did you have? And what got you into marketing?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, this is a good story. Love a good story. Yes. So I moved back to Charleston in 2000. I worked for the aquarium. I actually worked for the Convention and Visitors Bureau for six months and then um got recruited to the aquarium, worked there for two and a half years, three years. Um, and when I re- So I had a PR firm in Florida for a little while um in Jacksonville when I was there. And I called it my name, and I didn't like that. I was like, I don't want to be this be my name. It was past the communications. I was like, this is stupid. So I was married, I got married, and my husband um was part of Home Team. Now, I know you probably think about the barbecue, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06:

That's what I was thinking.

SPEAKER_01:

So Home Team is actually a group of guys that are part of this group called the Home Team. And you see there's block sticker. This is great marketing. Block stickers that say home team. That actually has nothing to do with home team barbecue. However, Aaron Siegel is a member of Home Team. So Home Team is a group of guys that were mostly in Athens, Georgia, who followed widespread panic around. And what happened, and this is back in the day when widespread was really small and small venues, and these people would go all over the country to see them, and what they would do is they'd end up in like Denver and they'd see, they'd start recognizing each other because it was a small group of people. So they started calling each other the home team. So wherever they were playing, it was part of the home team, and your home teamer, you can crash on the floor, you can get it will feed you. It's like this game, it was so cool. So they have this whole mantra that you will see in home team barbecue. So I loved it. I thought that was the best guerrilla marketing. Um, my husband was part of the home team, and they just took care of each other. So I was like, I was like, Arnold, this is my husband before Brian, but I was like, hey, I would love to name my company Home Team Communications. And he was like, okay, we have to call Gene, who's the president of Home Team, he's in Florida, and ask him. So I called Gene and he was like, Absolutely. Yes, yes, they do. But you have to offer anybody who wants any home teamer that wants to hire you, you have to offer them your services at a really good rate. So Aaron Siegel was opening Home Team Barbecue about six months later. He had not opened yet. I had home team first, so I credit I had home team first. And um he called me and said, Okay, Gene said you gotta hook up a home teamer. Yeah. So I did Aaron's PR for West Ashley with bar I did barbecue trade for all my parties and did all I didn't charge him anything. So smart. Amazing. So it was home team communications.

SPEAKER_02:

Um and then built-in clients right there.

SPEAKER_01:

Built in, oh yeah. So Aaron, I mean it was amazing, and I kept that name for a while until I worked for the festival. And then after I left the festival, I was doing more with beverages. Um I started a beverage conference, and so I that's when I came up with the name Sippendipity, which I became more about it, still PR, but it was a lot of events too, and a beverage conference. So sippendipity was kind of like the thing. But I'm a home teamer. I told Aaron it's 20 years for the festival next year, and for home team barbecue. I'm like, and I'm doing an event with the festival. I'm like, I really want to do help you with your party. So widespread wait, hold on.

SPEAKER_02:

Widespread panic.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. And they will wear home team um t-shirts. Like merch.

SPEAKER_02:

So so a group of guys liked home liked widespread panic that much that anywhere they would go, they follow them like groupies, but instead of calling a groupie, you're home team.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you're part of the home team.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

You're part of the home team.

SPEAKER_02:

Then then now it's the same guys. Same guys that started the barbecue joint called home team. And that's weird, because if you go to the bathroom, you see this mantra type thing that they've got going on, and it doesn't make any sense until just makes a little sense. Now you got it. I'm like, what does this have to do with barbecue? Yes. Like they're great wings. The game changer is a game changer, by the way.

SPEAKER_06:

I think I like their coffee. They're Irish coffee. Yeah, my Irish coffee.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, wait, yeah, Amanda, here, hold on. Uh-huh. So people now Amanda's talking about how people across the country are home teamers through widespread widespread panic. And they is there any other home team barbecues in the other than Charleston?

SPEAKER_01:

They have it, yeah. They have one in Aspen. They have it in Columbia. I don't think I don't think they I don't know Greenville. I talked to Aaron about this recently.

SPEAKER_02:

But listeners, I had no idea that we were gonna learn about this. Yeah. This is great. This is good outside.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and those guys are so great. I love I love Home Team. And I actually, so when I left the festival and reopened my company, Aaron was one of the first people that called me. I went back. He was a client of mine. I helped them open Sullivan's and downtown. Um, so yeah, it's and they were somewhere out, they were in the alley. I helped them open.

SPEAKER_04:

Sure.

SPEAKER_01:

I've been all over with those guys, they're awesome.

SPEAKER_06:

I mean, the home team in itself is like we live in um north Mount Pleasant as well, so we're right behind the new home team, and it is packed. There's like so much community. I mean, obviously, sports bring people together, but I feel like I meet the coolest people at home teams.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's coolest people. Oh, really? Yeah, not my direct neighbor, three doors down, Jason's his name. Yeah, he he's a chef over at your Mount Pleasant. Yeah, yeah, shut up. Speaking of Halloween, he gives out fifty dollar gift cards.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, I'm gonna have that. I'm gonna dress the case. I'm gonna kid this here.

SPEAKER_01:

I want the address to Jason. I am gonna dress him as a kid and I love you, Dyson. Wow. Wow. That's pretty impressive.

SPEAKER_06:

He's got like a line down the block.

SPEAKER_02:

So we talked about Brian. We talked about Ernie. Gosh. I need to, you know, and we talked about the Charles and Wine of Food Fest, right? There's a couple of things I still want to talk about. Um, obviously, you're you're you're what you're doing now with sip and dipity, right? And and your women um directed leadership focused thing. We'll we'll get to that. Can we talk about your Pets collection real quick? Why is there a Pets collection?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh, I love it. Oh, do you know how many I have I I don't know? This is why I'm asking. It's about 350 of them. But I think there are more. And I did I so I'm on a, I'm on a, I can't buy any more because so I so in in college, my sister gave me a few of them to take with me to school because I went down to Florida.

SPEAKER_05:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And before I knew it, people started bringing me me Pez. I did not know anything about Pez. I was like, oh, these are cute. I like colorful things. Yeah. Before I knew it, I had a collection of like 25 on my desk. And then I started seeing them and going, oh, I should buy it. I should buy it and buy it. And then I had more and more, and my and then later in life, my brother-in-law bought me a collecting book, and I was like, Yeah, I should learn more about this. I had been throwing away Pez because I was like, I already have Santa, I already have this. No, I didn't realize they make different Santas. I probably threw away so many Pez that were valuable in my life. But I found a guy that made these um custom display cases. He's out of California, have those, and then he stopped making them. I have asked carpenters, I have so I am on a I cannot get any more pez until somebody can make me PES stands. Because I I they're like, so if anybody that listens to this gate 2020, get me a Pez PES shelf, I am all for it. Because I have more PES because I should have.

SPEAKER_02:

So there's this shout out to Brooks custom woodwork in Sullivan's Island. Okay, right underneath Mex one. Okay, yeah. He is awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, I'm looking into you, Brooks, because I have been I've been asking. I've been looking.

SPEAKER_02:

Scott, I think is his first name. Brooks um they do all of the woodwork and tables for everybody on Sullivan's Island, and it's really great woodwork.

SPEAKER_06:

What would be your favorite one? Oh my gosh. Or maybe top three. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

People g are giving you peasas in college. Yes. You're freshman in college, you get these peasants. Yeah, yeah. And now you're like, oh, you know, you can get pezas in every gas station.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, you can get them everywhere. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, I it it became it has become more of a thing, but um I've I mean, I'll I I I thought it could be.

SPEAKER_02:

You just started collecting them, and then you're like, now I have all these things. Yes, they mean a lot to me.

SPEAKER_01:

They they do, they do. I'm hoping they'll be uh worth a lot for my kids to eventually. But I my favorite are I actually love I have peppermint patty, and I don't know why she was kind of harder to get her and Drippy Dog were like my two, like for some reason. But I have giant pez. Yeah, and those are so cool. Giant pez. Um, they they actually make noise. So we have an Elvis when he sings Elvis songs. Wow. We have Yoda, he does something cool. I can't remember. We have Darth Vader, and of course he's like breathing, you know. The Pez candy's still like what? Oh, yeah. And you and the giant pez, you fit the whole candy things in there. So as it opens up. I actually had a guy from the aquarium make us when I had my first child a giant Pez, um, like a it was like a um duck that dispense diapers. It was a big wig. Oh my wow. How cool is that? Wow, that is really cool. I don't have it anymore, but that was really cool. It was really cool. You look at me like it's cool. Okay, I'll go with it. I think it's really cool. It's super cool. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, that's amazing. I just saw that in your notes. I'm like Pez collection. Yeah, I love it. Or did you also collect like beanie babies as a kid? Like that type of thing.

SPEAKER_01:

No, but I I am a collector. I have a bunch of stuff. I like stuff. Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_02:

Cool, cool. I'm into it. I'm into it. Yeah, are you collecting an island?

SPEAKER_01:

Is that so I want this? I do want a Pez wall on the island. So, yes, my husband and I are working on opening a retreat and bar in the Caribbean in three years.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. As one does. As one does. As one obviously the next step, you know, might as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Might as well. An angel's life.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Give it give me some more. Give me some more.

SPEAKER_01:

So I can't until unless you sign an NDA.

SPEAKER_02:

Done. Where is it?

SPEAKER_01:

Listeners, the thing I can tell you is um it's gonna be called the Homestead Bar in Retreat, and we are narrowing down narrowing down our islands right now. Um we're gonna go down there in December to figure out which island we've got to that we're really in love with. Two, we're looking at land, we're talking to the governments, um, and we're hoping to open in 2028, and it will be a bar, a really cool bar concept. It will have many bungalows for retreats and some other little fun stuff. Um, and it will be a giving bar, so all the money after proceeds will go to two charities, disaster relief, and then the island we're on, we'll have a grant program that will fund projects down there. So we're working on setting up a nonprofit and that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02:

So that falls in line with your newlywed.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so if you were looking for a venue for your honeymoon or even your wedding, we want to do weddings, we want to do parking.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm not making this up. You already knew this. You already had this plan. Okay, good. Yeah, but it's just hitting me now, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You can do your you know, anniversary down there. That's so smart. I love that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so how many islands are available? And what are we talking about?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, well, you know, there's like 28 Caribbean islands, but we're looking at like Grenada down south. Pass that we don't want to be in the hurricane zone, so pass down, we want to be in this.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, there was a non-hurricane zone island.

SPEAKER_01:

There is. There's some that don't now they get them occasionally, but they're it's too far down that it doesn't really hit. Like it goes more up. We have an airport on our island. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Definitely get there. Miami. Miami's a hub to get there. So you get there from Miami. From Miami, typically.

SPEAKER_02:

How long will it take?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, how long do you take to get down there from Charleston? About four hours. Okay. That's not too bad at all. No.

SPEAKER_02:

I want to go. Can I am I invited?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, get on get on the uh the list.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't have a newly vote though. I mean, I'm not sure. No, it's gonna be open for anybody. Anybody. Yeah. It's one of the features.

SPEAKER_01:

One of the features will be retreats and events.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh I am excited for that. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So we've a we have an Instagram account, and then Brian and I, every month on the podcast, we will we talk about it. So we share our updates on there.

SPEAKER_02:

Cool. Now, automatically my mind goes to the Firefly Festival. Yeah, oh yeah. Think about how crappy that went. Wait, the fire, you mean the fire festify? Is it the fire, fire thing, firefly?

SPEAKER_06:

You're talking about the guy who ended up going to like jail because it wasn't.

SPEAKER_01:

The Bahamas event? Was that Bahamas?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it was a Bahamas. I don't know exactly where, but those are called train wrecks. Those are the best.

SPEAKER_01:

So as an event person, the person who does train wrecks on Netflix, I am obsessed. Like we watched, I mean, we watched the Woodstock ones. There was a one that just happened with um Travis Scott, his concert. And it's always about I as an event person, it is always about trying to save money where you shouldn't save money. Right. You should never chance on security and bathrooms and like the essentials. And that's where those festivals went right. And they oversell them.

SPEAKER_05:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

They've uh when people that's honestly with the Food and Wine Festival, a lot of my beef has been they oversell it, it's too many people, you don't get any food. And I know Alyssa's done a great job of bringing uh changing that where you don't walk away hungry and and thirsty. Um but you know, you can it it happens. You want to make money, you want to get people in there, and I get all of that of that, but I'd rather have quality people who are gonna come back every year and really have a good time and give the good word of mouth than overselling it by, you know, I just feel like that's like agreed, not I'm not saying the wine and food festival did that, but it's a great thing in general. Yeah, yeah. It's gotten really bad. Music festivals in general. I we just we were going to one in um Louisville, Urban and Beyond, and they oversold it by a hundred thousand people. Get out. Um, and they had like Zach Bryan, they had all the Tyler Childress, all these people. I felt like I was gonna die, and I was like, I'm never coming back. Like and we we were going, we were camping. It was like a whole thing. I was like, these guys are too gritty to do this.

SPEAKER_02:

Like, I just noticed See, that's a good takeaway for our event planners. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Don't chintz on don't toilets. You gotta have the toilets. Did you watch the poop cruise?

SPEAKER_06:

Oh no, I I couldn't. I train wreck.

SPEAKER_01:

That is the best series on Netflix. If you're an event person, especially.

SPEAKER_02:

But do you have like uh do you have a train wreck story?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh. Our year two, everything went wrong. Yeah. It was hard. Do you remember that, Amanda? Oh my gosh. Oh my god. So it rained um opening night, it rained, and we had no floor on Marion Square. I'm like looking at this, it this is where it was. Oh, this heaven. I know, but we had a statue there, you know, it was over here. Um, and um it's changed. True, true, but um, so we had no floor, and we were chintzy. No, we just didn't really have a budget and we didn't know any better.

SPEAKER_02:

It's year two.

SPEAKER_01:

Big floor, it rained, and it rained, rained, rained, rained, and so everything turned into mud. And so you've had people dressed to the nines in expensive clothes. The front page of the paper the next day, everybody's covered in mud. Oh no. Like everybody. I was like, oh my gosh. And it's just oh yeah, and they were fine. We got very little complaints that night. There we go. But then it just kept on raining. We oversold our I was talking about oversold, we didn't realize, but we got to fire capacity in our culinary village, and Teresa Taylor, who was the food editor at the time, called the fire marshal, and they came and shut us down. That was not fun. I mean, it was like everything that could go wrong. There's been so many stories. Um, we did have a staff member that left the his car on, his rental car on all night long in the parking garage. Like it was like, oh, I we just got too big the second year. We didn't know it was so everyone wanted to come. We didn't know it's a party in Charleston, you know?

SPEAKER_05:

So we learned a lot.

SPEAKER_01:

We did a bunch of a bunch of um of conflict planning or crisis planning after that for sure. It was uh lessons. So yes, I've had some training.

SPEAKER_02:

Crisis planning is a thing, too. That's another lesson to be learned there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, weather is uh for your event events, is just such a horrible thing, too.

SPEAKER_02:

So last moment here on the Charleston Minor Food Fest, we had Ray Richardson on not too long ago. Uh she's the head of the branding. Yeah, what a beta she is.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Super uh talented, creative, um you know, mission-driven. Uh speaking of super focused, mission-driven women, you are also now the editor of Charleston Women magazine. Yes. Okay. How'd that happen? Yeah. How'd you get involved? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So I well, I lead a women's group and I'm really into ambitious helping ambitious women. I'm from Charleston, obviously. And a friend of mine was is working there, and she said they were looking for an editor. Would I be interested? And I said no. Because I just A had a lot going on.

SPEAKER_02:

And I didn't I would say no for you too, initially, too, as I look at your Yes, yeah. I had a lot going on.

SPEAKER_01:

A lot going on. But I and I honestly, it was an insert for Charles for Mount Pleasant magazine for so long that I just didn't love the look and feel of it. I didn't feel like it was representative women. Um, I thought it was a lot of advertorial, which I'm not a big fan of. So she's like, you know, just go and meet with them. And so I went and met with Bill and Stacey and loved I love that. You know, the team there is great. And I said, This is the deal. If you want me, this is what it's gonna take. We're gonna stop doing all advertorial, we're gonna redesign the whole thing, we're gonna really make it more uh really showcase the women of Charleston and all the they said yes to everything. And so this will be my second issue coming up, and it's been amazing. I have loved being able to share so many incredible stories and really want any women to reach out if they want to share what they're doing with the audience, because we'd love to do to do more of that. So it's been a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02:

Angela, why are there so many ambitious women in Charleston?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

Don't you feel like there's a lot of so I've been, you know, I'm from Detroit, Tampa, you know, and you go to other cities and you witness other cities and other people and you hear other stories. I've never heard so many empowerment female women-driven stories here. And I'm thankfully I get to do this podcast once a week, so I get to meet a new person once a week. And a lot of them are ambitious, strong women. And it's like it's very motivating. And you know, obviously I'm an ally. You know, I'm not yeah, uh-huh, 100%. But it's like you're from here, so do you have any thought behind that?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't. I you know it's one of the OGs. It's a beautiful place, and it's very I mean, men like it too, but yeah, it's a great place to live. The quality of life. I wish the pay were better for you know for people that are working. Um, but I don't know, I really don't know. But there are so many incredible, ambitious women. I'm blessed to have so many of them a part of what I do. And um, yeah, bring it on. Like, you know, just I'm really excited about it.

SPEAKER_02:

So you don't have any other things behind that? I don't know. There's no like breeding ground. There's no like farm somewhere that is.

SPEAKER_01:

I haven't heard about a farm.

SPEAKER_02:

No, you you would have known. You would have created the farm, you would have done the festival.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, there's definitely been some women, a lot of women who have done a lot of amazing things in Charleston. So maybe they, you know, like even um Jeanette um Jean Jeanette Alterman. Yeah. She Jeanette. She like with the Center of Women, like I remember now, oh my gosh, Skirt magazine. Nikki Harden was definitely the forefront of that whole of me, of everything when I got skirt, I was like, wow, this is so cool. So I think she they did a bunch of cool events that just brought women together and it's just kind of continued since then.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's amazing. Because if you look at like um if you go to our Charleston Marketing Podcast.com, there's woman after woman that is just like Jennings King. Yeah, uh she did a transformation with her business and her job and and turned it into a passion. Uh she's got a ton of likes and and comments and stuff like that. Adrian Grimes, who is from here as well, like she's the leading South Carolina research authority. Oh, that's cool. Uh at least on the marketing side. And there's just so many listen, listen, you are probably you're on top of this list. No, none of these other women here are top 50 since 1975. So here we are. There we are. Yeah, so I was just wondering about that. So speaking of that, then this is gonna be a good place for you to grow your next mission, right? Which is growing leadership in women, right? Can you talk a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I started um I felt I felt like uh during COVID, I lost all my business um and I had to start over and I had to pivot and do a bunch of different things.

SPEAKER_02:

What were you doing at the time?

SPEAKER_01:

Um I I was doing uh I was doing more event consulting, but I was I started an event in Asheville called Chow Chow, and I was going all around the country helping other events get better, basically. And I had all my year lined up, all of that, and then March of course hit, and I lost everything in a day. So I lost, you know, my six-figure income, everything that I had planned. Oh events happening. No events were happening, nobody was I mean, it was like done. So I had to pivot and do a bunch of different things, and I got really, you know, humble about it all. But I about a year and a half ago, I just felt the calling to do to do something again. I started doing social media because PR was really definitely changed significantly. And I was like, gosh, there's so many people doing social media, and I'm just doing this because I've always done it, and I am really good at it, but I really want to do something else. And so I was doing a lot of praying, a lot of soul searching, and just felt like I was putting this like you need to lead ambitious women, help ambitious women make big thing things happen with their life and their business. You've done it so many times for yourself, so many times for other people. Like, why don't you bring all your skill sets together? And I literally had a vision of um I was on a relief trip in Asheville with some friends and saw this big glowing cross, and I was like, I don't know, the brighter side just came to my head and I was like, I love the name, I love this, and it just kind of came together. So I created the Brighter Side Society, which is a group for ambitious women all over the world. We have members um in the US and Canada. I would love to go at globally, but we do have a strong group in Charleston, which I love. So we do in-person meetups, but it's online, and then we have on in-person um meetups where people ambitious women get together, they learn from each other, they grow from each other, we have accountability partners, we do really fun ways. We we teach all the things to really build anything in business in life and to get it happen. So often when you have a big dream, you might be working another job and you can't ever work on that dream. Right? So you're like, uh this group, you are your dream might be what you're working on every day, but often it's not. So it's teaching you how to do how to work that job or how to do your side hustle, whatever, and then build that dream and make it make it happen.

SPEAKER_02:

Sounds like you're putting accountability to the dream.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes. And it's really it's amazing to see there's been so many businesses that have launched, so many podcasts, so many, like so many women are doing so much more with their lives, um, and just forming so many deep relationships and connections. So I'm so excited. And I've and I my big dream that I'm working on in the group, because I'm part of the group is the homestead. So I have gifted all the members this year um what I'm calling the Friends of the Homestead membership. So they are part of the Friends Um of Homestead. So they get to be part of that experience. See that.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, where do I sign up for that?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you gotta be an ambitious woman. Oh, sorry.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I see.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I think just because we are, it's more than just a place to learn and grow. You are you're getting connected. You know, the problem is with ambitious women, everyone thinks we're crazy. We have wild ideas, we're we're have a million ideas. So it's a place to come and it's almost like your support group, because I want to say AA, but like a group like that where you can go and be like, hi, I'm Angel, and I'm ambitious, and I'm everyone calls me crazy, and I'm alone, and I feel like I'm the only one going through this. And everybody in our group feels the same way. So we are all like, we have each other. We're in the cool thing is too, it's such a diverse group. We have people just starting out in their career in their 20s to people like myself in their 50s and 60s, and we all help each other. We all grow from each other, we're all connected in this really cool way. Um, it's just amazing.

SPEAKER_06:

So is there like a is there like a price for membership or okay? Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

We have a monthly membership where you can join for a year.

SPEAKER_06:

Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, lovely. There's so many um thoughts I wanted to connect. Amanda, have you we connected her with Rise yet through the Mount Pleasant Chamber?

SPEAKER_01:

I know about Rise, thank you.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh good. Maybe you could connect with uh Kathy and maybe do like a talk over there. Yeah, I'd love to to kind of promote yourself. And then there's the Metro has one as well, don't they? They have a women's group. Yep, they have a women's group. Um and and then there's uh Charlotte Berger's got a marketing women's group, right?

SPEAKER_01:

She has um well, she's got her MPR firm, but um there's a how there's so so I did create a guide for entrepreneurs in Charleston where I list them all because there are several women's groups. So you you're good. You're on about connecting the if I'm missing anybody, let me know because I update that all the time. But I is where do you find that? Where's the code? It's on my website. It's a free download, and I can send it to you to share the listeners. Um and I want to print it, but I haven't gotten there yet. But it's just it's got everything from um events to groups to join to Facebook groups because there's all these great women's Facebook groups.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But yeah, so there's all these great groups, and I recommend to people find your group too, because it might, if you're not obviously if you're not ambitious, your group's not ours. You may be a mom, you might your stage might be your mom group. The lazy mom's group. I'm not saying you're lazy. Oh, there's not a lazy mom's group? I'm sure there is. There's all these groups. So you can join multiples, but find your place and really I did a podcast on this recently, and really get in deep in that group and really um make the most of it because you can't be everywhere, you can't be everything. So find your place. But there's so many great groups here. I've just loved everyone I've been a part of and go to and everything. So yeah.

SPEAKER_06:

What was like one of the first groups, I guess, that you joined?

SPEAKER_01:

I think PRSA was probably the first group I joined, just because it was directly related to my my and my business. Um, I was a member of AMA back in the day. Actively involved with Lee Dees was just here. I days, yeah. Helped her with some stuff. And um, gosh, I mean, I've been a member of I did Rotary, I've done so many things. Like I'm a joiner too.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. You name it. I have a lot of people. Right is a joiner, I can tell. Yeah. She joined AMA real quick.

SPEAKER_06:

Yay. I volunteer my time very easily. Yes, I love it.

SPEAKER_01:

I love it. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, amazing. Absolutely. Uh, what else can we talk about? So we talked about your island, the future.

SPEAKER_01:

My podcast.

SPEAKER_02:

Now that that's where I was headed. Um, can you give me the name of your podcast?

SPEAKER_01:

It's a never stop dreaming biggie podcast.

SPEAKER_02:

So I'm listening to that on the way here, and I'm like, I we need Rachel. We need and Stephanie, if you're listening, Amanda, we need something like that, right? Like she does it every time too. And it's the biggie. First of all, Biggie Smalls. Like, yeah, what where is he in your life right now?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, he's heaven. But yeah, wrapping down, Timmy. Yeah. No, I was gonna call the Never Stop Dreaming Big podcast. I'm like, that is so boring. Like, it's not me. I love Biggie Smalls. I I'm a Tupac Biggie girl. You're Gen X, eh? I I I am 52, whatever that is. Nice. Whatever that is. Congratulations. That's fantastic. Um, and I just I don't know. I just always I loved his like story of just being gritty and raw and real and um working his butt off and doing cool music. I mean, you know, I mean, before him I loved easy e, but you know, easy we can go.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, my last name's Compton. So I'm also Gen X. You got it. You got it.

SPEAKER_01:

I used to want to go to the Easy E parties when I was in high school. I was like, I'm gonna go out to LA and be the whatever those parties were called. They were not, they were not like the the Diddy parties.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, oh, the freak-offs? Why'd you say that? Freak offs.

SPEAKER_01:

That would have been so fun. That would have been legit. It would have been a little bit different back then with easy easy. Okay, anyway. So Biggie. I love Biggie Smalls. And yeah, so the show is about just again, it's not you don't have to be a woman to listen to it, but of course, my my people are typically ambitious women. Um, how to make anything big happen with your life. So I share um solo episodes on things that work that are working for me that I love and I want to help people with. I have a guest every month, and then Brian and I do our show every month to talk about the homestead. So it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02:

Very cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Very cool. I'm in like 32 episodes.

SPEAKER_06:

So and how and how has it been a year or two?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I started this year. So um that was a that was a brighter side thing. It was one of my um we have what we call dream trackers and milestones. It was one of my milestones, and that is a cool thing. We break things down so manageably that I was like, it happened. Like I was like, there it is.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's happening. Once you put it down and out in the universe and you have some people helping you and build a team around it. I mean, that's the team parts.

SPEAKER_01:

And I am working on a book, and then I'll say that. And I'll retire. Then you'll retire. Then I'll retire. Yeah. I will.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, so what's the book about?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, it's gonna be like a mixture of my life and lessons, but how people obviously I be each other to women. I do think it'll be faith-based, because faith is a really big important part of me. I I do incorporate that in my business, but you don't have to be a believer to be part of my world because I love all people, but I think just um my faith has been so important at an early age. So um, but just help giving tools and ways just to have a better your your biggest bet best life ever, basically.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, love that. Love that. No, and I saw um a piece for um your homestead, and you had a little cross on the bottom right there. And I'm like, hmm. Yeah. Okay. Is that gonna be part of the kind of the curriculum?

SPEAKER_01:

We do want to have, we do want to have, um, actually, that's a great question. We do want to, we don't we don't want to be a party bar. We will we will we're not gonna look at it.

SPEAKER_03:

I was confused. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

It's not I mean we will have some fun, but we do we don't want people, it's not a woo-hoo bar. I'm saying like it's not a woo-hoo bar. Um but we will on Sundays. We're planning on doing church service stuff. We want to have you know worship music.

SPEAKER_02:

You're an ordained minister, so you could hold us.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, exactly. I can. Thank you. Oh, you weren't aware of that already. I love that you know this. Do you know the story about that?

SPEAKER_02:

I I'm bringing it up.

SPEAKER_01:

Really quick, I got to ordain because friends of ours, Sarah Simmons, she's a chef in um Columbia. She wanted to get married during Wine and Food Festivals, the year I left.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01:

And I was working for Limehouse Produce, and I had these all these costumes made up of vegetables, and they were hanging in my bathroom. And Sarah was over, and she came out dressed as like corn of the cob and like strawberries. And this is like six months before she got married. So it was hilarious. So then she asked, she called me a couple months later, she's like, Hey, we want to get married during Wine and Food, will you marry us? And her name was like, oh my gosh, I have to I guess I guess I looked at that, got ordained, so I'm a minister of just you know, I can go, I knew weddings and funerals. Rich, are you do you have your name?

SPEAKER_02:

She's available.

SPEAKER_01:

The best part was, y'all, I was so, and she knew this, but the whole bridal party dressed up as vegetables. So I was a strawberry as I married them. It was the best.

SPEAKER_02:

What kind of crazy idea is that?

SPEAKER_01:

It was so great. And you should have seen the audience. It was like the who's who of food and beverage. Like you name it, they were there. It was really freaking. And they dressed up as a fruit or the wedding party dead. Oh, the wedding party. It was a wedding party. And most of them were guys.

SPEAKER_02:

No, it was their first marriage.

SPEAKER_01:

It was legit. And nobody, it was a surprise wedding. Nobody knew what they were coming to. We just threw a party downtown and they all came and it was amazing.

SPEAKER_02:

That brings up a just the thought I had because one of my friends who works in this building got married at the Wine and Food Fest last week.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02:

Nikki did.

SPEAKER_01:

At the festival. At the festival.

SPEAKER_02:

And my question to you was did you know if that's a common thing or people, because you just mentioned it, people getting married. That was only the second one. Yeah. How many years are we into this?

SPEAKER_01:

This will be 20 years. 20 years into us.

SPEAKER_02:

How many other people are getting married?

SPEAKER_01:

So I know I've got a lot of engagements. A ton of engagements. Okay.

SPEAKER_06:

That would be a cool like segment to do is like who got engaged. Where are they now?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes. Hopefully still together. Yeah. We did an event called Bubbles and Sweets, which I think they're bringing back this year because I met with a we're I'm helping them with the 20th year. And um, that would be fun. They should definitely promote that because a lot of people you would be in the middle of like Quentin Baxter would be playing in the middle of that, and then you see people getting engaged and getting engaged. You're like, oh my gosh, what is going on?

SPEAKER_02:

What a great love story that is.

SPEAKER_01:

It was.

SPEAKER_06:

Well, it must tell a lot about the event and how like community driven it is. Because to get engaged, right, in front of a lot of people, you must like feel like a real safe space. Yes, yes. It was cool. Or it has like something very symbolic to their relationship.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, probably I I would imagine probably they go a lot. You know, a lot of couples do go to things over and over. So that's so cute. Very cute.

SPEAKER_02:

What's next, Angel, other than the authorship and those islands and all that?

SPEAKER_01:

Like, you know, what uh you know, I I'm my kids are like I'm for me. My biggest goal in life is just to have a really great marriage and three thriving children. Perfect. And so focusing on them, two are in college, one's a junior in high school. He hopefully will be coming to the bar with us to help us down there instead of going to college. Um work experience. Yeah, yeah. And he's not really into school. We will be taking resumes. The majority of people we take. We'll have guest bartenders, but we will hire the majority of people down on the islands because we want to support the island. I mean, that's that's what a lot of people come down there.

SPEAKER_02:

We can do the podcast out there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I love it. Totally. Huh, Matthew? Are you in? Yeah, our engineer, our sound engineer. We would love to do podcasts. We'll do a whole podcast, I'll have a podcast. Yeah. We'll do our podcast.

SPEAKER_06:

Especially with all your like listeners being so close about what your vision is. It'd be cool to like do this is behind the scenes and this is how we created this. I want to see it 100%.

SPEAKER_02:

And I need to see it. Yeah, yeah. Like shoot video with your cell phone at the very least. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. When we went down, we went down the summer. We did podcasts live from there. We said there's a whole podcast on there, and we did a ton of footage and videos. And I am gonna start a YouTube channel for it, but not until it's a little bit closer.

SPEAKER_02:

The righteous gemstones.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Did you see their latest season? No, they built a place for kind of a religious place, an island. Yeah. Oh my god. You gotta watch the new season. You're living the righteous gemstones.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh. I have and everyone tells me I actually have not watched that show. And I uh one of my best friend's husband's brother is like one of the top guys for it. Oh, really? And they always say me, you know. No, it's one of his like we need to have Danny on.

SPEAKER_02:

Amanda, come on.

SPEAKER_01:

He was one of the top 50.

SPEAKER_02:

Danny McBride was one of the top. You were 39. What was he?

SPEAKER_01:

I think he's after me.

SPEAKER_02:

I can see that. You gotta do better.

SPEAKER_01:

Sorry. You gotta do better, McBride. The coolest thing is my kids could care less until I mentioned that Bill Murray was on the list. They just watch Stripes. I'm like, I don't know if that's really appropriate for you to be watching, but I was like, you know. He's in the list.

SPEAKER_05:

He's like, they're like, what? Oh my gosh.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

What a legend he is. We need to get him on the show.

SPEAKER_01:

He's really cool. He's a fun guy.

SPEAKER_02:

Fun guy. Uh you're a fun gal. How about that? Y'all are fun. Thank y'all so much for having me. Is there anything else that you can share with us? Like, good Lord, you shared everything.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I have a great newsletter you can send up for every week called The Scoop. You can go on sipanddippity.com. Follow me on Instagram. I have four accounts, but Angel P. Homes is my main one.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I have one for the brighter side, I have one for the homestead bar, and I have one for Never Shep Dream Piggy. So just follow it all. Um, but in the newsletter, I do share my podcast. We do share updates on the homestead. I do share fun stuff. Um a true joy.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you're a true joy to talk to. Thank you for coming on the show. Appreciate you and your time. Yes. Thank you. Good job. Thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Come do premarital. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So it's all about. Ooh, we got to thank our newest sponsor, the SCRA. Yeah. Awesome. Love sponsors. Yes. Uh South Carolina Regional Authority. Did I say that right? Research, yep. The South Carolina Research Authority.

SPEAKER_06:

Woo!

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, thanks to them for being our first official sponsor of the podcast. I love that. Yeah, ink isn't dry yet. Yeah. Now. It's October 9th. 2025, right?

SPEAKER_01:

We're plugging you away.

SPEAKER_02:

That's right. Oh, we already have. We share. We share. Yeah, we share everybody in the Mark Tech scene.

SPEAKER_06:

And if you're interested in, you know, sponsoring the podcast, feel free to reach out to Mike at Charlestonama.org.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. Info also at CharlestonAMAWorks.

SPEAKER_06:

Or drop a comment, send us a DM. We'll we'll get you in touch with the right people.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh my gosh. Great idea, Rachel. Thank you for bringing that up.

SPEAKER_06:

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_02:

And thanks for hosting. Nice to meet you. Good work. And we'll see you next time, fam.

unknown:

Bye.

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Mike Compton

Co-host
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Stephanie Barrow

Co-host