The Charleston Marketing Podcast

Charleston’s Media Engine, Explained, King & Columbus and Post and Courier's, Chase Heatherly

• Charleston AMA • Season 3

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A 200-year-old newsroom building a modern growth engine isn’t a story you hear every day. We sit down with King & Columbus president and Post and Courier CRO, Chase Heatherly, to explore how a legacy media brand built a nimble, independent agency that treats branding and performance like partners, not rivals. From a new printing press in North Charleston to high-velocity digital campaigns, the throughline is simple: meet audiences where they are and measure what matters.

We get practical about what actually works right now. Chase shares how the team uses paid social as a true conversion channel, why PPC remains resilient despite the AI noise, and how short-form vertical video travels across Reels, TikTok, and YouTube without losing the plot. We go deeper on first-party data strategies that survive cookie deprecation, the real role of AI in an agency (speed, not soul), and the reporting stack that turns UTMs and call tracking into clean, client-ready insights. Along the way, you’ll hear how an 18-person team spans media buying, PR, creative, video, and social—operating like a boutique shop with the backing of a statewide media organization.

If you’re a marketer hungry for ROI, a founder trying to balance awareness with acquisition, or a student looking for your first break, you’ll find a clear, candid roadmap here. We also talk mentorship, internships, and the Charleston community’s collaborative spirit—proof that competition and cooperation can coexist when there’s more than enough work to go around.

Enjoy the conversation, then connect with us: info@kingandcolumbus.com or kingandcolumbus.com. If this episode sparked an idea, share it with a colleague, leave a quick review, and hit follow so you never miss the next deep dive.

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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_05:

Hey guys, welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, powered by the Charleston American Marketing Institute. We're recording at the Charleston Media Solutions Studios, big supporters of Camel. We need to send a big shout out and a thank you to our podcast sponsor, SCRA. Let's not forget the talented Jerry feels good with the beats at the front and end of our show. Thanks to all our supporters.

SPEAKER_01:

We got a BJ sponsor, we got a we got SDRA, South Carolina Research Authority.

SPEAKER_05:

We're just crushing it. That's what I'm hearing. We're crushing it. All right, your friends. I'm Stephanie Barrow, the founder of Stephanie Barrow Consulting, a digital marketing strategy agency located here in Charleston, and one of your Camapast presidents. I'm joined with my friend and fellow boardman, board member. Member Member. What's up, Mike?

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, Mike Compton here. How are you? Good to be here. President of Roombo, also president of the Charleston American Marketing Association. Hi. Are we on uh are we live over there, Kelly? Kelly Morris is over there uh taking some photos for us and some videos. Thank you for coming today, Kelly.

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you, Kelly.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, right. Oh, hey, there's an unfamiliar voice, right? That's true. Did you hear that?

SPEAKER_04:

It was so much.

SPEAKER_05:

It looked great. I think you're made for radio. Oh god. Okay. But he also has a face for TV, so it kind of works more.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, now I know you're lying.

SPEAKER_05:

Nope, nope. There you go.

SPEAKER_02:

Jay Zatherly is in the house. He is the president of King and Columbus and Post and Courier. So help me out here. Like give me the real data here. What are you? President and CFO and what?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, so we're I actually the president of King Columbus. Um, but on the we are, of course, owned by the Post and Courier's parent company. So for that parent company, evening post publishing, I'm our chief revenue officer. So I oversee all revenue sale advertising sales, um, all that all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_05:

It's a big job.

SPEAKER_04:

It is, it's a fun job, yes. I'm actually um based out of our Columbia office, um, but I'm kind of all around the state with our different markets. Um but I do spend a lot of time time, a lot of my time leading the agency King Columbia State a day. So it's like it's been a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_05:

So I love Columb, uh Columbia. Where are you in Columbia?

SPEAKER_04:

So actually, our office is right there in downtown on Lady Street, and then I actually um my husband and I live in Earlwood off of Park Street, if you clear the area. I am clear.

SPEAKER_02:

Did you say you love Columbia?

SPEAKER_05:

I do.

SPEAKER_02:

Is that the first person to ever say I love Columbia?

SPEAKER_04:

Not to me, Mike. Not to me, Mike. Maybe to you. Actually, actually, the mixed bag.

SPEAKER_05:

So we'll go up, we'll go to the children's museum, we'll go to the zoo, we'll walk around downtown. Hey, they have a better live music scene sometimes, I think, than Charleston.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, I heard about the zoo, yeah, and I heard about that too. Yeah, they're I'm just poking fun at all. I love you in Columbia.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, they have a lot of good things for families, but if you're like me and like the nightlife, I see how it come to Charleston a good bit for that reason. Yes, yes, yes. You can't be that.

SPEAKER_01:

No.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, Charleston's our love story. I'm happy to have you. So yeah. I'm happy to be here. Yeah, Charleston's our love story. We we're here because of our love for Charleston. Yes. And in King and Columbus, the post and courier show a lot of love to Charleston, right?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yes. Obviously, you know, um, the post and courier really has expanded across the state of South Carolina, but Charleston is home base. It is our what we call our primary flagship market, and it's been home to us for more than 200 years. So it's very important.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, there's too much stuff out there. 200 years. Yeah. I want to talk about that, but I also want to talk about Post and Courier in general, like how it started. I'm a Kamiya. What am I getting into when I open up or read a post and courier? What is the post and courier for me?

SPEAKER_04:

So the post and courier, of course, Charleston is going to be your um daily newspaper, your daily source of local news. Um, and so the printed newspaper that you know we're probably most known for is obviously serving a portion of our readers. Obviously, a large portion of our readers now are reading us on um postingcurier.com, one of our newsletters, our e-paper, you know, our digital replica of the paper that we produce as well. Um and so we we do deliver to readers all across the Charleston DMA through all platforms. Um and of course, you know, the the Post and Courier are very fortunate we privately owned um out of Charleston, locally owned. And so our ownership has decided about five years ago to invest in the company and allow us to grow, expand across the say of South Carolina, which is really unique. A lot of traditional media companies are not expanding and growing, adding markets and people, and we are, and we're very excited about that because you know, we need journalism more than ever.

SPEAKER_05:

So and I like that you the posting career has specific newspapers for the different separate communities. Like for instance, I live in Mount Pleasant, so there's the Moultrie News. The Somerville one is called the journal scene. Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh my god, their best their best of party is so fun in Somerville, yes.

SPEAKER_05:

I love anything with a theme, and they throw a good party.

SPEAKER_04:

Somerville does a good job of that, yes.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, they do. So that's I love I love that. I actually was downtown having dinner the other day with my husband, and I walked by and I saw like the post and courier building was like demolished.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, they are. Um we moved out of the building a couple years ago, and um so when we moved out of the building a couple years ago, obviously we were still printing right there on King Street. Right. Um King King Columbus, which is actually where the agency's name came from, that intersection. And so um we kind of broke it into and moved and purchased a new printing press and moved that printing press to North Charleston to the World Trade Center. Because that's where how some of our staff are there. We print and produce all of our products there, and then our business staff are off of Meeting Street. Um Willeman, kind of right near home team off Meeting Street for our business offices now. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02:

I love the fact that you're printing in North Charleston.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, printing for everybody, for all of our properties, and plus we obviously other newspaper companies will pay us what we call commercial printing, they'll pay us to print their papers as well. I want to see that. Oh, can I go to the manufacturing? Yeah, we tour. We do tours all the time, yeah. Um, you been to Kelly? Yeah, it's a really cool experience. And you know, you have any video?

SPEAKER_02:

Send some video over. We can't.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Well we're always happy to have the group come and do a tour. Seriously, it's a lot of fun. Our chief operations officer stays up there and can do great tours. Um, you can see the press running. Right. And it is really great. You know, we bought this press a couple years ago, and so we kind of upgrade that technology, and it's been it's been great.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow. That's just really cool.

SPEAKER_04:

We're just crazy bold enough to do it, I think. Yeah. And it's working, right? Well, that's it that's what makes us so interesting as a company is you know, uh most traditional newspaper companies have just kind of, I think, thrown the towel in on print. Right. Because that's not what the majority of audiences are anymore, right? And so they they have gone all in on digital, the digital side of news delivery, which is great. We try to do both, right? We're fortunate enough to be able to try to maintain print, grow it where we can, because it's still a very engaged audience. Still a very profitable venture for us. And then of course we are trying to invest on the digital side as well. And so the agents usually a part of that, more on the B2B side. Right on. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

I love all that.

SPEAKER_02:

Um okay, so you got Post and Courier, 200 years old. That's nuts. That's crazy. Even to think I can't wrap my head around that, which is really, really cool. And and that's why Charles's so cool, right? Yeah. I mean, uh the the history here is amazing. So that's a whole other podcast right there. Yeah. Now enter King and Columbus. What are we talking about? What is this? This is an agency?

SPEAKER_04:

It is, yes, it is an agency. Um, it was built to be a full service marketing agency that really stands alone as an independent brand from the Posting Courier and the other newspaper brands like Old Tree. Yeah. Um and so, you know, it started back in 2016, so we're almost on our tenure mark. Okay. And um, you know, it's gone through a couple iterations, admittedly. Um, but I think one thing we've kind of recognized is that the Posting Courier is a great partner to local businesses. We have a lot of great marketing solutions, but uh traditional media companies are very much at as vendors, right? You purchase a service or two from them, right? Whereas agencies, the the partnership and the integration into the business's day-to-day operation is just an extension, they're extensions of the marketing arm of an organization, right? And so we felt like adding this agency would allow us to build those deeper relationships with clients, whether they be posting career clients, or we were actually hoping they were other clients we we didn't have in roads or relationships with, right? And so it kind of started from there. Um, and it started off, you know, most of the clients of King Columbus were in Charleston, but as the posting career grew across the state, as did King Columbus. And so we have about 18 staff now and we're spread across the state. Um I was gonna ask, some yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

So you so people can come and work remotely for you potentially.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, actually, yeah. We have uh uh graphic designer remotely in Nashville, we have a social strategist in um Charlotte, and then but most of our staffs, most of our King Columbus staff is gonna be based in our Columbia office or our Charleston office. Got it.

SPEAKER_05:

So most of your clients that probably come on board are people who don't have in-house marketing, so they come to you to be the all-in-house and solution. Brilliant.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I mean, digital marketing obviously is our is our bread and butter, um, but we have really moved full service. So we've added um quite a bit, you know, of resources on the social organic social side, design, creative services, videography, um, PR media buying, traditional traditional media buying. So we really would do want to be full service, and we've kind of built that side out. But digital marketing of all sorts is our bread and butter. Um, and I think that's just kind of natural for a lot of media companies that have invested in that way. What has kind of evolved is that King Columbus is unique in that we we operate like an independent agency, but we also do manage all these digital marketing campaigns that the newspaper team sells. So Posting Career Rep sells you have paid social campaigns. I love the package. We actually are the ones handling it. Yeah, we're actually handling it. So people would give that, get those kind of results an agency can get, but you can actually continue to work with your posting career account executive or whoever it is you work with. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_05:

But do you do PPC and Google ads and meta ads?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, we do meta ads.

SPEAKER_05:

Geofencing and all of the digital aspects of the internet.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, all that streaming, streaming TV, streaming audio, a lot of targeting the markets.

SPEAKER_05:

P PC is huge right now.

SPEAKER_04:

It is, it is. So all these things obviously, you know, a lot of folks can offer. You know, we know it's a competitive space, and you know, we don't look at it like that, we look at it as services that businesses really need. Yeah. What eight out of every ten dollars of marketing now is spent in that space. Right. Yeah. So it's like one of those things that it's it's a crowded field because it is so it doesn't m move a business forward in so many ways, right? It's so beneficial to a local system.

SPEAKER_05:

I was I've over the last four years of owning my own business, I've kind of transitioned away from doing a lot of social media to doing more like like this digital marketing where the ROI is almost immediate. You you know, you're a home services client and you need someone to come and find a planner. You're you're Googling and immediately someone is getting served an ad. So I think that that's really important when you're educating clients to say, okay, let's have a diversified marketing plan. And a lot of the budget should really be towards the digital strategy.

SPEAKER_04:

Absolutely, it always should be. And we're always happy to share that with clients. But you know, I mean, and it's it's interesting because here we are saying this invest in paid search, invest in streaming TV, target email, but we also have our own f more branding products, print, newsletters on the on the our on the post and career side. And so, you know, it's interesting.

SPEAKER_05:

Um it all works in tandem.

SPEAKER_04:

It does, and that's why the full funnel marketing strategy is so important. We still do believe there's value in the branding side of marketing.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

You're playing the long game with the branding.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, but it's just it's just gonna, I think, continue to be a smaller portion of the budget for a business.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, and especially in a community where you're it's locally owned and operated, a lot of these businesses, really being a household name is you gotta we gotta play the branding play.

SPEAKER_04:

I agree, I agree. Because that's the thing is people don't realize if you if you get down to the search process and you start searching for a he and air company in Charleston, there's so many big conglomerates that have come in as angel investors to buy these things, they're based somewhere else.

SPEAKER_05:

I want to hire someone, I want someone to come into my house that I recognize because they're they're in my community.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, but if if you were familiar with one in advance because of well strong branding, then you wouldn't need to search for it. Exactly. You would know to call. So it all works in tandem. It really does.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, because I'm sure you got different packages that you have to per you know the budget, the small budgets versus the bigger budgets versus you know, different funnels. That's great. Holy cow, that's a lot. So going back, since we're talking King Columbus, we're talking agency world right now. We're gonna put posting on the side. Two ideas. Like I said, that's a whole other podcast.

SPEAKER_04:

Happy to come back.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, please. Uh oh, that's great. Hey, we win. Um so what my question is is how big is your team at King and Columbus?

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, I would say um our King Columbus staff, the pro what I call King Columbus proper 18 full-time staff, okay, plus some contractors, yeah. Some contracts.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm sorry. 18. 18.

SPEAKER_04:

18, sorry, 18 full-time staff with some contractors. Um, and then, you know, obviously the posting career advertising division is separate from all of that. Yeah, who when we look at the King Columbus payroll, it's 18 FTEs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

It's a small team.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, it is. It really is. Um again, most of those folks are gonna be digital strategists of some sort or employees. I specialize in certain things.

SPEAKER_05:

You've got to collaborate on all the aspects of this.

SPEAKER_04:

But we have a full-time graph designer, full-time videographer. Um recently made a hire for a PR elite, a director of media and content. Okay. Um, Carrie, who's sitting right over there in our with us. Very well known naming Charleston Carrie. Well, it's just been great having her on our team. She obviously brings a lot of agency experience, so it's been nice to have her just to you know help guide us as an agency as we grow.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, Carrie and I met before this podcast, and that's how we got to get to get here. And and what she was telling me is just was blowing my mind. So I'm like, well, we need to get somebody over here and chat with you. And and she's like, no, you need to talk to Chase.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm like, this is great.

SPEAKER_05:

He's like, well, let me dust my shoulders off.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, what Carrie has on her plate was blowing my mind in general, just on her multiple hats that she wears, and then and then she's like, Oh, you're the CF C R O and then this. I'm like, oh my god. Well, we hard care. What careers do we have going?

SPEAKER_04:

I know. Well, actually when we hire carry asked the carry, this is a honest, I was like, Carrie, this is a new role that we're hiring you for. We're a growing agency. I can't tell you exactly what this role is gonna look like day to day, but just just go with me. Just like give it a shot. And I I hope she's I hope Carrie's having a good time. Uh, we've been very fortunate to have her on the team. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. Yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_05:

I feel like finding leaders who are you know immersed in this agency life and taking them on is is like pretty much a game changer. Because everyone is from somewhere else. So the fact that she's been here for a minute has been great.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. So, Chase, where are you from? Uh, I'm actually originally from the Anderson area in the upstate. Um Williamson, yeah, Anderson. I'm an upstate guy. Williamston technically Anderson County. Yes, it's definitely southern. I'm like, I love that. I'm married to a southern with an accent, so I'm not sure. Southern accent talk very fast. Um so yeah, I spent most of uh my time in the upstate until 2017 when I moved to Columbia um to work for the posting couriers company. I actually was hired to be our publisher of our Columbia paper. Um so I started there in 2017. Oh, 2017, okay. Yeah, and then have been based there ever since, but have kind of moved into the CR role and now kind of spending more time with the agency.

SPEAKER_02:

You're doing something right over there, hey?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh yeah, I guess. Yeah, I mean, I think it's just we've been the company's been great. Um, they really invest in our employees, and it's just been great to see that. Um and so I think it's one of those things if you you know have an idea or passion you want to pursue, they're they're good about letting you chase it down.

SPEAKER_02:

And it's that and it's the culture fit too, right?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, definitely. It always matters, yeah, for sure. It always matters.

SPEAKER_02:

It's crazy. It's crazy to find a group that you like to work with, people that you want to even hang out with, you know, pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, yeah. That's all I love about the marketing world in general, is you meet some in the marketing agency world, you meet some of the coolest people. Yeah, 100%. So inspired every day.

SPEAKER_02:

And you want to work with who you want like. Yeah. You like if you you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And everybody we're all in marketing because we're the most fun, you know. I mean, like we're the ones who want to go out and have a good time. Right. That's true. Most of us are eye personalities in the discussion.

SPEAKER_05:

You should cover the spark awards because when you get us all together, there's a lot of dancing happening.

SPEAKER_02:

So I love that. Uh this is gonna be launching here soon, but I don't know what I want to talk about anyways. We're we're combining, you know what the Addies are? Yeah, oh yeah, of course. We're combining our Spark Awards and we're combining the Addy Awards. We're gonna have one awards gala ceremony here. And posting courier is gonna sponsor it. I just I just thought of it. Absolutely happy to yes, let's talk about it. I would love to participate if we need to participate for sure. So Jenna Shellnut is the president of AAF, her and her team and us and our team are getting together. It's gonna be in March. Perfect. And we're doing a collab where we, you know, we have to we have a lot of things we need to iron out, you know, and I'm also looking for leaders to help with that, by the way. Podcasters, we can run Kelly. Wait, Kelly, you know what? Yeah, yeah. Um, so, anyways, that's gonna be in March. We're still working out the details, but the idea is to you know keep true to our local roots, but then your local Spark award could also move on to districts and then move on to nationals. I don't know if you're aware of that on the Addi side of things, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so don't tell nationals.

SPEAKER_05:

Don't tell nationals.

SPEAKER_02:

Don't tell the American Advertising Federation or the American Marketing Association that we'll be.

SPEAKER_05:

Super popular. Hope you're listening to AMA nationals. That's funny.

SPEAKER_04:

Secret is safe with me. I don't think we need to call it.

SPEAKER_02:

Maybe they want to know, maybe they don't. I'm gonna have the party anyways, we'll figure it out. I think it's great.

SPEAKER_04:

Like the cycle that happened. We'll love that. We love a good um a good a good time. We love to sponsor a good event. So yes, please let us know.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I didn't even script that out. That just came right out of nowhere there. Well, yeah, you gotta pitch something. Right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Um I cannot believe, by the way, that it's already like November and I'm already thinking about like the new year.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah. And uh well, I had the sweater because you know it was 30 degrees yesterday two days ago.

SPEAKER_05:

We're both wearing brown and feeling very fall. Yeah, so that's that's exciting. Now, are you guys already in like in the throes of planning with your clients that like their planned strategy for 2026?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, we are with several of ours, yes. Um, and it kind of depends on the business. A lot of our um clients, you know, that with publicly you know funded companies are you know, we're they're in the middle of their fiscal years right now. But for some of our private sector companies, yes, they're we were working on renewing contracts and scoping out work for 2026. So it's always a lot of fun, right? Um it is a lot of fun. Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_05:

I love the brainstorming, like you bring in the good energy to the new year. You're like, let's put it throw all the ideas out. Yeah. Let's see what sticks.

SPEAKER_04:

And as we layer in more services, you know, we're able to kind of deepen those relationships with our clients. So they may be a lot of them might be doing digital marketing with us, but okay, you know, have we talked about producing video content? Have we looked at, you know, us working with you on your organic social strategy? So those sorts of things, like we're kind of trying to add services in there and deepen that relationship as much as we can.

SPEAKER_02:

How many strategists do you have on your team? I feel like that's almost important.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, um organic social three. Um and then like paid social digital marketing. I'd I think it's gonna be six. Right. One of the eighteen. So yeah, that's almost like that. That's a good minute. That's a good idea. Yeah, that's where it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_05:

The paid social is a different level of responsibility.

SPEAKER_04:

It is. We I think we have um we have one of the best paid social strategists, I think, in in this in that space. Um, she's fantastic. Her name's Megan Llewellyn. She's based on Charleston here. Um Megan. Hey Megan, if you're watching watching. Um, but she really you know understands that paid social done well can be as good of a conversion driver or better than paid search, right? So I mean, it's just it's all about you know looking at it that way and saying, okay, how can I tie my paid social as much to attribution and conversions as possible?

SPEAKER_05:

And that I like the fact that you can basically bring the audience back to your website, back to your own socials. With with paid search like Google Ads, sometimes it's it just it they pick up the phone and they call you, which is great.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Which is great for analytics and you can track it and everything like that. But uh ultimately, like my home base is my website. I want people to come to my home base.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, and we and we talked about earlier about you know conversion, low funnel stuff, and branding being separate. I actually think PaySocial does a good job of kind of combining both. You can really see, you can really experience the company's brand while also you know being having this really low funnel tactic.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I'm a big believer in tracking numbers, tracking fitly links, tracking phone numbers, um, you know, tracking ROI, so at the end of the day, you can prove that you're you know you're doing your job. Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_02:

Speaking of that, what are any trends that you see or or you can tell us uh for the next year that you know could be something that could be useful for our audience?

SPEAKER_04:

Oh yeah. Uh trends and marketing. Wow.

SPEAKER_02:

Um and then think Martech too, right? And talk about how you're probably leaning into the Martech scene and what you're using uh on the AI.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, absolutely. Um so it's a great question. I think they're it's just like He came up with that all in his time to like process, I think, of what I'm about to say here. Um really great question. Oh, you say it's everybody. I see. Yeah. Um no, I think um I think on the AI side, you know, I think that our agency, like most, um, are really understanding AI and how like it's been it's been like a fun practice, I call it a practice round. I call 2024, 2025 a practice round. Okay. Right? You know, it's like how can you enhance your production with it or enhance your output or enhance quality of the work you're doing? But it hasn't really been hasn't really been additive in terms of like process or procedure, I can tell. Um on the posting career side, there's a lot of work around how do journalists leverage AI without actually AI producing the content. That's what they're dealing with on the posting courier side. On our side, it's how do we make ourselves more efficient um and how do we use this program to you know talk strategy and think strategy through with clients. So I really pushed our team a lot to think about um how we leverage AI around branded content, which we're doing some. Obviously, you know, nothing goes out of our agency that's not edited by one of our staff, but you know, there's the AI can really help in that space. And then secondly, I would say that you know, just reporting and insights around reporting um and kind of in this dot slash.

SPEAKER_05:

Reporting is the death of me. So if I can pull analytics through Chat GPT or what another resource, yeah, I'm all down for that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, but you've got some other um data touch points that aren't digital.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, of course, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02:

So, how are you entering all of that into a dashboard or are you or not? Like in terms of reporting, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, traditional media, I mean, yeah, there's there's only so much you really can share out with that, right? You can share audience and uh and you know, estimated views or estimated impressions or whatever you can try to translate.

SPEAKER_02:

Do you get like a CSV? Do you get some sort of data from it?

SPEAKER_04:

It depends on the vendor. I mean, I think it depends on the vendor. I mean, it traditionally traditional media, you don't get a lot of reporting. You get proof of performance, maybe. You know, whether it be a proof of performance of a outdoor or something like that.

SPEAKER_05:

How many different zip codes it was sent to, you have estimated audience data points that you can use, or you can put in, once again, tracking numbers for that specific, you know, if you if you put an ad in Charleston magazine, you can track that one phone number in your in your CRM or what have you. Okay. So that's the honestly, I feel like the best way to do it is that any different marketing aspect, any piece that you're working with, that has its own separate identity.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I think we tried, I think we try to QR codes a lot in print marketing. I don't I don't see it really taking off. I think that'll kind of phase out. Yeah. Somebody put it on a billboard one time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, what in the world?

SPEAKER_04:

I actually did see that. I was like, are you asking people to like have a car accident? Like it was the craziest thing. Yeah, I know. Um, I think other trends, obviously, like short form video, like vertical video of all platforms you can possibly squeeze it into is huge. Um TikTok?

SPEAKER_02:

Are you posting Curry big into TikTok?

SPEAKER_04:

We're getting there. I like that. We're getting there. Yeah. Um, we are not doing much organic TikTok management yet. Um, we are doing more paid TikTok campaigns. Sure. Is that more content that Carrie's got to figure out? Uh no, we we can let her we let her bypass social and she's so grateful. Oh yeah, social is not a good idea. Never mind, I don't feel so bad for it anymore. Yeah. Um it can be a grind, we know. But yeah, it's one of those things like I I think there's a lot of conversation around. It's like, oh my gosh, like we need to be on that space because the audience is there, right? And and the future is there. Yeah, that's what And's not the only game in town anymore. And so you really have to kind of diversify what your social schedule looks like amongst these different platforms. But what's so interesting is I feel like it's just it's not hitting all cylinders yet. It's kind of like we we're not feeling the effectiveness of it as much as you do like a meta campaign. And so I think it'll evaluate.

SPEAKER_05:

And meta's changed their parameters recently, so you can have longer videos, which is great, because it used to be like a minute, minute and a half. Now you can, you know, have longer videos. So I think that and I still I'm a big believer in YouTube for the organic search properties, like putting stuff on YouTube, putting it on YouTube shorts, um, bringing it once again back to the home base of your website. So it's gonna 2026 is gonna be interesting.

SPEAKER_04:

It is. Yeah, the last thing I would say that's interesting, I think, is this whole you know, cookie going away is first party data is becoming more and more relevant. And we've been saying that for how many years now? Like how many years have we been saying first cookies are going away?

SPEAKER_05:

Cookies are going away.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, we always say that. So I just say I I say that to say that as an agency we're trying to we're trying to move more into the CR and management and you know space and really work with businesses on their first party data and collecting that data in the right way on the front end and leveraging it. I think that's so important. Well that's it. Just in case the cookie thing ever does actually come to fruition. You know, I'm not sure if it maybe can be a conspiracy theory. A lot of people do, but like it's still I mean, I I don't know about you all, but I feel like in our campaigns we're seeing on the display side some of those things, like the results are still strong. Okay. Well yeah. And the other thing we're seeing is I mean, there's a lot of conversation about you know AI really implement negatively impacting paid search, but I haven't really seen a lot of negative re like trends in paid search reporting either. So I don't know. It's just we'll see how we'll sweat, you'll see it's I think it's all a little early, but I think most things you will find it eventually. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

But it it is and I say it is early, but it's still late. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like if you're not, you know, it's the training.

SPEAKER_05:

Like once again, like someone calls your office and you can't pick it up, they'll talk to someone that sounds like WorkforceWave.com. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So do you kind of agree with me on some of those things for 2026?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I I definitely do. And I think you know, we're gonna just be leaning more into um I think Chat GPT and all these different platforms are gonna be smarter and because they've they've been receiving so many lawsuits about having data from two or three years ago. I think they're probably working behind the scenes to really refine and help our tools, the toolbase, which is I think is gonna be great. Um for me, I use it for analytics and you know, I've written a press release, I need someone to look at the grammar or they restructure this. But I've written it, I upload it, and you know, someone gives me a little bit of a feedback. Um I I think that I I really lean into AI. I don't use it as a I use it as a tool, I don't use it as a replacement for me because I have my own voice and I have a own brand voice for all the people that I write for. But I think it's gonna be interesting and I think it's gonna be refined and I think it's gonna we're gonna see a better output in general. Because I I over the last couple years there's definitely been some hiccups where um you know AI was used inappropriately and for young kids and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, there's a lot of that going on.

SPEAKER_05:

A lot of that going on, so I think they're gonna tighten the reins, but in the best way possible.

SPEAKER_02:

We have to. We have to tighten the reins. We have to be the ones speaking up and learning.

SPEAKER_05:

Having these relationships with AI people and stuff, all that's so strange, especially for like young, freshable like middle schoolers. Like so, I hope that some of that like gets reined in and it's regulated in in some ways.

SPEAKER_04:

But I mean it gets again it's continuing to grow and evolve, I think. Oh, for sure. The only thing I would say we use AI for though it's just a good tidbit is for RFPs. You know, RFPs are a bear. Right. So not only so obviously crafting responses, RFPs, AI is great for that, but also there's a great tool we use called justwin.ai. Um and it's a very affordable software, and it basically um searches for searches through um government RFPs and matches which ones they think would be a good fit with your agency. I love that. And it really like truncates this 90-page RFP down to like a page of here's what you need to know in order to submit for this, here's what you need to put in here. Well, that's great called justwin.ai. Just win. So we use that as kind of our um one of our biz dev tools to try to find RFPs that really make sense for us as an agency. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Unfortunately, it's something like that for nonprofits for grant writing.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, my God, that would be yeah, huge. Maybe there is.

SPEAKER_05:

Maybe there is, but if not, if not, that's your idea. That's your entrepreneurial idea.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, that's your side hustle right there.

SPEAKER_02:

We know some coders, so we can do that. We do.

SPEAKER_05:

I think that I think that would be very helpful for nonprofits.

SPEAKER_02:

It's crazy how fast these products are getting turned around now. I know. Like if you have an idea, we can code it within weeks. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_04:

My my crazy entrepreneurial idea, if I can, if marketing doesn't ever work out for me, is if you're familiar with like rent the runway and what are some newly and some of these other things, uh like rent renting clothes family. What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_05:

I don't think there's like a it's like so you don't want to spend five hundred dollars on a ball gown. I can rent one for like 75 bucks. That's like a thousand dollar gown.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, okay. If you never be in the same outfit twice, you just rent it and then send it back. Copy. I don't think there's a version of that for men. And while the knee's probably not as high, I'm like, you know what? Someone's gotta get in that space.

SPEAKER_05:

Like I you totally should. My husband would do that. I think we're gonna have to do that.

SPEAKER_04:

I want to rent a really cool blazer for this hot for this holiday event, but I want to go buy one. You can tux rentals, yeah. But it's like the casual, like you I want to wear like a velvet red you know, blazer. We're gonna wear a blackish tie that's green and red. I'm never gonna wear it again. I'm gonna go buy it. Yes.

SPEAKER_05:

We have a lot of that in our house. Like, oh what kind of purchase?

SPEAKER_02:

Pretty sure there's something out there, maybe. Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_04:

So if anyone tries to get that idea on this podcast, I don't know. If there is someone he's telling me because I need I need to start subscribing.

SPEAKER_02:

What's the high-end um store downtown, Sons? Oh, Suns.

SPEAKER_05:

Personal shoppers for men. They have rent clothes for men.

SPEAKER_02:

Dumas and Sons. They they would be a good You should partner with them partner to do like a yeah, like a delivery.

SPEAKER_05:

Boardroom stylist for special events just for men.

SPEAKER_04:

You definitely like the clothing subscriptions, where they'll send you like a box a month. That's what I mean I need that. I literally need somebody to tell me what to wear. Yeah, what I need in the moment is I'm gonna build a game.

SPEAKER_05:

I like special event clothes, and I have so much of it, and then I just don't know what to do with it later.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, me too. I didn't even put us down to hint it there. I just gotta tell you that's kidding. So two good business ideas here that we need to chase down.

SPEAKER_05:

I love it.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, that's what it's all about. That's what it's all about collision.

SPEAKER_05:

You just start spitting ideas at each other. I love it.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, speaking of ideas, we have a younger audience. Yeah. Um we're also big in Charlotte, by the way, too. I like it. Uh hello Charlotte. It's a great marketing. It's a great city. Uh, but we do have younger uh marketers in the house. And um I'd like to give them a little advice. So you didn't just come out the womb at Post and Courier. What happened before that? Yeah. Out of the womb. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, basically, yeah, I'm sorry, all the 25. Yeah. Um, no, I don't think so at all. Um so, you know, I actually started off my college career. I went to Anderson University in the upstate, which is a private uh Christian liberal art school. Um, and I started off as a secondary ed history major. I love history, and I was always gonna be a history teacher.

SPEAKER_05:

Um Yorktown, Virginia, where the bloodstained streets of the Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, I was I always say I was gonna be the one who I was gonna be the one.

SPEAKER_05:

I was not, but I have seen the ghosts in the in the houses of the bloodstained of the end of the Yorktown.

SPEAKER_04:

Anyways, your story changed. No, that's also a separate podcast. Um I always just say, like, I was always gonna be the socialist the history teacher that actually could get hired to teach, but could not get hired to coach. You know, because all the my history teachers were all co-coaches, and I just I never was a sports person. Um, but you know, so I went went to school, I obviously moved into marketing and and was in a marketing degree. And um, while I was in college, um, a lot of your newspaper companies or media companies will do like 20 under 40 or 25 under 35, like an announcing like recognizing young leaders.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And so I I won that award with the Anderson newspaper while I was in college, and so I met the publisher and she kind of became like a friend and a mentor to me while I was in college. Um and so I graduated, I had a couple of job offers, and she was like, Why don't you come, why don't you come work in sales? And I literally remember saying, like, I was a news guy, like I've subscribed to the paper digitally, like I've I always loved content and news and politics and stuff, but I literally remember saying, like, what does a person sell in a newspaper? Like, I don't really even know what that means. I never thought about selling advertising, it's like a marketing like a like a marketing career. And so it just kind of all started from there and went through the media side and now kind of more in the agency world.

SPEAKER_02:

So the lesson I'm hearing is meant. Find a mentor.

SPEAKER_05:

And he was already had a heart for what he was doing.

SPEAKER_04:

Sure. Yeah, mentors definitely help. And I I think just be open. You know, you rarely what you think you want to do ends up being where you want to where you end up being. You know, and it's never too late to change your mind and go a different direction. Um the thing I always tell our staff, we we have a f we have uh several younger staff members in the agency. Um some of our staff, this is in their first a job in agency or a job in marketing. Um and what I always tell all what I always try and instill in them is just trust your gut. You know, like what what these folks have that are in their 20s and 30s is that they grew up in this space. Yes, have they been, you know, have they done all these campaigns like on they've been in platform, have they done all this? No, but they understand subconsciously how digital marketing works because they have lived their lives in the middle of it. Good point. Um and so I always just tell them, I'm always just tell them, listen, you know, let's work on development and training, get you training resources, listen to every podcast you can, right? But at the end of the day, uh, you know, trust your trust your gut because you have often I feel like often our staff have such great ideas and great strategy suggestions for our clients, but it's the confidence to be able to speak up and say it. Exactly. You know, and so I always try to re it's really a confidence play with me for folks that come out of college with great marketing knowledge, but just need to be able to tell the confidence to go toe to toe with the clients.

SPEAKER_05:

I was gonna say I can't tell you how many people contact or meet I don't know if I have it to YouTube, Mike, but in LinkedIn, people will be like, I just moved to Charleston, I just graduated, I see that you're involved in AMA. Can you help me get a job? And I'm like, I will take you to coffee and I will give you advice and I will send you leads.

SPEAKER_02:

So if you're ever hiring, please contact us because we're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_04:

Internships and and junior we have interns um in all of our different markets, so yes, absolutely. Like we definitely need to connect on that front. And we do definitely have options.

SPEAKER_05:

We have a chapter at the um College of Charleston. Oh, yeah. So we work with them a lot and they're you know, they're all graduating at some point and looking for jobs, and they're all smart and go-getters, and it's great.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, we have a couple of positions open right now, so maybe we can all find about that afterwards. Yeah. Okay, great. Okay, we have a couple of positions we're hiring for now.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we have a collegiate um affairs what do you call them, chairperson. Yeah. Good old Jake.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, they do.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, and that I mean they're I mean, they're smart go-getters. Like they come to all of our stuff. They really are really.

SPEAKER_02:

We we had an event last night with them. I wasn't able to go, but it was at the college. Oh, yeah. So um that's it's huge. It's important for community. Yes, and that's what we're trying to build here in the you know, Charleston. That's one of the best things about the podcast. We're trying to build a marketing community.

SPEAKER_05:

About our city is that we all kind of look out for one one another.

SPEAKER_02:

That's the that's what we're trying to spread that around a little bit more. I guess it wasn't like that back in the day. We're trying to kind of like hey, we're all there's the sandbox is big enough for everybody, let's just help each other out. Let's there's a lot of agencies now that are collaborating with each other. Yes, yes, I love it.

SPEAKER_04:

And referring business back and forth. That's exactly the vibe we're trying to do. Yeah, you can't you can't be everyone, you can't be everything to everyone, you know. So I think I think agencies are figuring that out, whether it be certain verticals they're focused on or certain services they're focused on. Yeah. And so I think it's one of those things that, yeah, like I said earlier, it's a competitive space, but that's because there's enough business to go around.

SPEAKER_05:

So it sounds like your business is growing in the new year.

SPEAKER_04:

It is, yes. Um, you know, I am very upfront about the fact that, you know, we have grown double digits um the past couple of years and people continue to do so. Um, we feel really good about the growth we have seen and um we're hiring because we're adding um two new positions in the agency for the new year, um, which you know, on staff of 18 is not I mean, you know, two more positions will be helpful.

SPEAKER_05:

That's a big group of people for a lot of the marketing agencies in town are are small boutique agencies. Oh, that's true. Yeah, I think that's the best way to collaborate.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. But the good thing about us is you know, what what we're really what's really cool about us in fact and it it does it is make up for an interesting dynamic, but it's also I think a very positive thing is that we're this kind of nimble boutique agency, but we're owned by this much larger company. And so from like a you know, a culture like a you know, uh resource standpoint, benefit standpoint, those sorts of things, you're you're part of the bigger company, but also we try very hard to keep this very unique, like agency culture for King Col King and Columbus specifically. Yeah. Yeah. Business model is brilliant. Good work. It's very unique. Um and it and it ha you know, it's there's no real rule book for creating an agency up under a media company that has its own independence. And so it is very it's definitely something that we have, you know, gone through iterations and are trying different things, and some have worked, some have not. Um but at the end of the day, it it helps to have leadership and ownership that really believe in the agency, believe in King and Columbus, and that's made a lot of fun. What do you do in your spare time? Right. Is there a spare time? There is. Um, yeah, so I mean, not not a ton. Um I'm definitely a big believer in community involvement. So I'm I'm always on a board or two back in Columbia, um, usually around arts organizations or talent retention. Earlier point, I've been on a talent retention board for several years in Columbia.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, if you would like to be on the North Charleston Pops board, you'd let me know.

SPEAKER_04:

I didn't even want to know more about that. You know, I just I'm looking for boards to join. I'm just begging to join more. I bet you are. Sarcasm, I think. No, I'm not. I actually do really enjoy it. I do feel like you know I'm not sarcastic. There's like a long list of things we need to talk about after this.

SPEAKER_05:

Have you been have you been to the Pop a Pops concert before?

SPEAKER_04:

I have not actually. No.

SPEAKER_05:

So it's basically an orchestra that does popular music. So we just had Wicked, uh, we had the Oscar night, it was next level. I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm a sucker for show tunes, so or classical music in general. So yes, that's how I mean up. I'm always the one like with our Philharmonic in Columbia does like, you know, Harry Potter, Star Wars, or even their classical stuff like that.

SPEAKER_05:

We did Star Wars last year.

SPEAKER_04:

I do all of them are so much fun. Um so I yeah, I obviously spend time just being involved in the community. Um my husband and I are big travelers, you know. We um love traveling. We um got engaged in Italy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and then did our honeymoon in Portugal and Spain. So you know we're big travelers. I know, yeah. We actually, the Italy trip, we started off like going to see Taylor Swift in Paris twice. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_05:

The heiress tour?

SPEAKER_04:

Yes.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, you're a swift, I want to be your friend so.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm a swifty, I'm a swifty at heart. Michael, my husband, because you just care less. Right. But I'm I love it.

SPEAKER_05:

Do you like the new album?

SPEAKER_04:

You know, I got asked that on this last podcast, the last podcast, too.

SPEAKER_05:

Um I didn't ask you about your bachelor party.

SPEAKER_04:

So I've been asking all the questions. Maybe you should I should ask you what you think about the album. Okay, I'll tell you. Um I do like the album. I do like um Life of a Showgirl a lot. Yeah. Um it was it was set up tough for me though, because Taylor herself positioned it as a kind of a combination of 1989 and um and I love 1989. And those are my two favorite albums, right? I was about to say about to say torture poet's part, but just a really weird combo. There's such a such a weird combo. I was like, okay, wait, if it's like kind of the vibes and the lyrics of uh folklore with like the bops of 1989, I'm gonna be all about it. I just I feel like that really kind of oversold it to me a little bit.

SPEAKER_05:

I can't listen to it because I have I have a 10-year-old daughter who loves Taylor and there's like so much cussing in this one, and she's all like I noticed that too.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, there's a clean version.

SPEAKER_05:

There's a clean version, okay. Well, but play that one for her.

SPEAKER_04:

But there's like yeah, like it's several words in each song were different. Yeah. Yeah. But there's a clean version. No, so I do like the album a lot, actually. So I listened to it. I did. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

And I can't imagine being so talented. She write every new song is a banger. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

It's powerful. Everything she does is brilliant.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05:

She's like a mensacry.

SPEAKER_02:

Some of these kind of sound or sound sound alike, but so is all of pop music, anyways. But but her writing is so freaking spot-off. Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

And I think I think also consumer cons like consumption of music now has changed so much. I feel like people come at music now willing to have an opinion about it. Right. So I always say, like, you know, if you watch like people digest music and then like like it better at the end, you know, whereas they kind of don't like it initially. I was that way with Sabrina Carpenter's new album. I was like, huh, that's okay. And then I know I really liked it a lot. I was like, oh yeah, I loved it.

SPEAKER_05:

So I think it came out at a hard time because it came out with with the K-pop demon hunters, which is awful of bangers if you haven't watched it.

SPEAKER_04:

I've not gotten into that, but I've heard everybody else died. Yes, okay. I've had that development.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, no, no, no, no. Be careful what you wish for. Don't just be stuck in your head all the time. What a name. I know. K-pop demon hunters.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, what a name. Um I know.

SPEAKER_05:

But you are a fun dude. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

No kidding. Is there anything we didn't catch?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh I'm on an adult kickball team. Oh.

SPEAKER_05:

Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I used to be on kickball teams. I've been playing kickball every Thursday for like seven and a half years. Like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_05:

Do you wear a headband? You're pronounced. Like a sweat headband.

SPEAKER_04:

Um I used to, but then I then we actually started being good at the teams. I had to like stop embarrassing everybody.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, there you go.

unknown:

There you go.

SPEAKER_02:

So you're winning championships then? Like, we do actually, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Once I gave up being the captain, we actually started winning. Oh, I swear to God, actually it's true. Like we were we would win the toilet bowl, which means like you'd won no games, you're at the bottom of the roster. So we would win the toilet bowl, maybe, but then when I stopped captaining, we started recruiting better. Um, because I don't have any athletic friends, I guess. So we started bringing in people I didn't know that were good. We started winning. It was amazing. It just goes to show recruitment's everything.

SPEAKER_02:

It's so much fun catching that big ball out on the outfield with my face or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. We did a couple seasons in Tampa.

SPEAKER_05:

I wish you'd moved to Charleston. We'd be best friends. Well, he's gonna be a good one.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm here a lot. I'm really here a lot. Okay, you have to get my number. Oh my gosh, I'm here a lot. Airtime Carrie's like texting me. Were you when you're coming down with a restaurant that I found? Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_05:

We're going to Chubby Fish tonight. I'm so excited. You've been there?

SPEAKER_04:

I have, it's so good.

SPEAKER_05:

It's so good. I love it. It's my favorite.

SPEAKER_04:

Um what are your favorite restaurants in Charleston? I don't get out enough.

SPEAKER_02:

My house, unfortunately, right now, but I can't. I don't think I can name Pier 41 down on corner of 41 and 17.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, I don't leave. Well, that's a blessing for the north pleasant. It's so sad. Okay, I'm pretty much here this way for this question. Yeah, yeah, please do.

SPEAKER_05:

Um, chubby fish is my favorite, for sure. Hands down. I still really like obstinate daughter. It's kind of old school, but it's very, very good. Um, Hall's husk, the old school ones are good. Uh, where have we been recently? Oh, I really like the Select, which is kind of a choice. And it's because I've got the pink and the flowers, but they had a really good steak fruits. Um, I also like the one that Craig Conover opened with the steak. By the way, is good. Oh, by the way, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

No, it's very good. By the way, and like it's great.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, there's a lot of great restaurants.

SPEAKER_02:

I didn't know he opened that.

SPEAKER_05:

When?

SPEAKER_02:

No, I didn't know he opened that card. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. The dude from um what is it called? Boston opened it.

SPEAKER_05:

And they're doing a really good job of marketing it and putting their faces in it. So good for that.

SPEAKER_02:

Are you hipped any of that? That you know, of course he is.

SPEAKER_04:

I yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, but uh for and posting courier, does any of that influencer marketing kind of come into play with you guys in post and courier, King and Club? A little bit.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, K and C will mess like you know, we'll we'll work with influencers and stuff, but yeah, posting courier not quite as much yet. Yeah, yeah. I think I think the media side hasn't really figured out how to work with influencers much. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, we gotta kind of figure that out a little bit. Um, because I think there's content and there's journalism, and it's like, and you can have both, but what does that look like? So I think that's a question that we'll uncover the next couple years. Oh, all right. Yeah, all of it.

SPEAKER_05:

See trending, all the new trends coming up in years. I love it. Well, you're awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Thanks for your time. It's been so fun. Um, yeah. Any other rapid fire questions you want to ask me?

SPEAKER_02:

I I'm I can't know how many hours in the day you work for. So there's that.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, that's care. You have to ask Gary that question. It's pretty it's pretty embarrassing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Is your husband also in marketing?

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, he is. He does marketing for Blue Cross Blue Shield.

SPEAKER_05:

That for him.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What with their one of their affiliates, National Alliance. Yeah, he's their marketing manager.

SPEAKER_05:

So I bet you'll have a fun house.

SPEAKER_04:

We really do. Um we attack marketing so differently. Yeah, you know, I'm more on like the sales biz dev side of client face of marketing. He's more on like the strategy creative side, you know? Right. So like so it's like we attack it very differently, but yeah, we make a good team. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that would be cool. My wife's a nurse, so we don't really mesh.

SPEAKER_05:

My husband's a civil engineer, but he's quite fun though. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Both really both really awesome professions though, but Mav, yeah, five like very different. We don't actually talk about work very much at home, but like so it's like side projects we get like work together right.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. Fun things. Or a shitty commercial that just went on. Well, hopefully you guys will come to the Spark Awards. And I'm serious, I would love that. That'll be so much fun. We'd like to do that. Yeah, I'll uh we'll send you the more information and talk about it.

SPEAKER_05:

She's writing down Spark Awards, Freds. I love that. Spark awards.

SPEAKER_04:

I didn't have Spark Well, I had added. I was like, I missed this and the other word. Yes. And I can't read my own handwriting because I yeah, it's terrible. So I love it.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, this has been really fun. Yeah. So how can everybody find out about you?

SPEAKER_04:

Um you can obviously add me on LinkedIn, Chase Heatherly, or follow me on Instagram. It's just at Chase Heatherly. Um those are really the two socials I'm on more. I don't really do much on Facebook, and I am I I I tried TikTok. I just I don't have the commitment. I can't I don't have the attention span for TikTok for me on TikTok. So to produce it now, watching it, consuming it, I will. I was gonna say don't put it on your phone. Making my own reels, I'm just like, or whatever, I can't do it. It's too much.

SPEAKER_05:

And if clients are hearing this the potential clients, they want to contact you probably through King Columbus website.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, um info at Kingandcolumbus.com versus Kingandcolumbus.com. They can there's a web form they can fill out, and myself or one of our um staff will reach out to them. But yeah, we'd love just to have conversations and then it you know it might be a potential new client, maybe just someone who wants to have coffee and just ask questions and just like have a like a kind of a theoretical strategy discussion. We're happy to always just have take me.

SPEAKER_05:

It's all about relationships. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, yeah, you never know what something will turn into. But yeah, it's we're not a hard pitch.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay. Yeah. I love it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, because interns, right? And then college students, they have trouble making that first step.

SPEAKER_04:

If you can make that first step easy, then uh Well I often think about you know, I mentioned our publisher who became my mentor, like if she had not like reached out to me and built a relationship with me while I was just a college kid who didn't know about it, you know, like what what would my career have been like? So I do try to think about that and pay that forward when it's on. Yeah, exactly. I mean, we need to do more, but I mean it's it is important, it really is. Awesome. Cool. Well, you got a fan here. Yeah, you guys are the best. Thank you, family. This has been so fun.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, good, and you're welcome back anytime.

SPEAKER_04:

All right, we'll do one about posting career one of these days. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Well we gotta dive into the because the history of Charleston is so cool. So I really do want to have that conversation about media uh and and technology and marketing in Charleston. Yep. Uh in 200 years of history. That's just it's awesome. And then I just had a conversation with somebody and they were talking about how technology here was in the early 90s. Right, but it was popping off here, and like they were doing like first of type technology, first of websites and that type of thing. Here in little old Charleston on the cobblestone streets. I love it.

SPEAKER_04:

You know, about South Carolina is we have been a leader in so many different fronts for so long. You know, really. Like you think about next year's America's 250th, right? Like Revolutionary War was largely won in South Carolina. You know, and there's just been like I feel like we've been a leader and I can have a trendsetter ever since in so many different areas.

SPEAKER_02:

You're gonna be the perfect guest for that because you're a history major too, anyway.

SPEAKER_04:

I do love history, yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, I do love history. To be determined, listeners. We'll we'll we'll launch that one there uh sometime in the past. In 2020.

SPEAKER_05:

There you go.

SPEAKER_04:

Thanks again, Chase. Definitely Mike, thank you both so much.

SPEAKER_05:

All right, Charleston, thanks for tuning in. Uh, we want to take a shout out one more time to our sponsors, SCRA and Charleston Media Solutions. Uh Mike, this has been fun.

SPEAKER_02:

Always fun. Steph, one of your last podcasts.

SPEAKER_05:

I've been on for like three years now, and I'm getting pretty busy with my work. But I'll come, I'll come back and guess whenever you want me. Yep. Yep. So you might hear some new voices here later. Yeah, some new voices in the coming year. But um, yeah, three years in, and it's been I love AMA. Yeah, past present. Don't make me cry. I didn't wear my waterproof. So, anyways.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, listeners, we love you. Talk to you next time.

SPEAKER_05:

Bye.

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Mike Compton

Co-host
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Stephanie Barrow

Co-host