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This podcast will help you understand why the name Julius Hollis needs to be included when anyone discusses business pioneers from Atlanta, GA.

Julius Hollis describes himself as a "proud product of Atlanta" but he's actually more than that. He's actually someone who understood what a person is supposed to do when he is the recipient of something priceless, like a legacy. Julius is one of those rare people who never took the people around him for granted.

Former Atlanta Mayor and United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young gave him his first full-time job and his relationship to the Black godfather of Hollywood was important enough that he was interviewed by Netflix in a documentary about Clarence Avant. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and considers himself mentored by the man who is credited with forming the intellectual foundation of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, Dr. Benjamin Mays.

However, most people think of him as a businessman or banker. Those are both accurate descriptions. He spent years working for the Export-Import Bank in Washington, D.C. before moving back to Atlanta to help his brother, Michael, make history by founding Air Atlanta. The airline was a bold endeavor that stopped flying in 1987. After it ended, the brothers went their separate ways.

But Julius took all of the experience and advice poured into him from his childhood, his family and his mentors and began sourcing mega-deals. Some were with power companies and brought stable access to utilities to people in the Caribbean. Others were in Africa and helped developing nations do a better job of standing independently. All showed his master negotiating skills and heart for underserved communities all over the world.

One true key to his success is his understanding of what it truly means to be interconnected and how effectively applying that civil rights concept to commerce can be life-changing.

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One of the greatest communication tools of the modern age has nothing to do with paper, pens, pencils, typewriters, computers or artificial intelligence. It’s photography and a picture is really worth a thousand words. Photos can speak to you whether you see them or take them; whether they’re in black and white or 21st color; blurred and damaged, unplanned or staged and professionally composed. Photos freeze time. Videos are able to record and replay history. But photos still have the power to create additional images in your mind.

So imagine the legacy of someone who has a collection of more than one million pictures. The photographer, Bud Smith can make this statement and his pictures include one-of-a-kind shots of people such as Mohammed Ali, Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, Maynard Jackson, Lionel Richie and the Commodores. He’s snapped shots of momentous events such as the funeral of legendary civil rights icon and former United States Congressman John Lewis. In addition, he also has photographed the homegoing ceremonies for almost every one of Lewis’s peers. This incredible accumulation of photos also has shots of Atlanta’s first ticker-tape parade, which was for Richard Nixon and sports photographs from the beginning days of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team and a five-year chronology of aerial photos showing how Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was built .

This edition of TELLING OUR STORY allows Bud to explain how his pictures live up to the title of this series. He has a lifetime of interactions with people whom most of us have only seen on big and small screens, in newspapers and magazines. Bud had the unique experience of actually providing the pictures we saw. He worked for the Atlanta Daily World which was a Black owned newspaper, owned by a Republican family. Johnson Publishing employed him for decades, as did individual record companies who had him follow big-name stars.

Bud’s stories in this episode chronicle both his life and the cultural development in the United States through photos taken of leaders, exceptional performing artists, once-in-a-lifetime events, sports and architecture. The insights he shares through his lens are the only thing more impressive than his memories of taking incredible pictures.

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This episode of the Atlanta Business League’s TELLING OUR STORY podcast was recorded in front of a live audience. It also honors the memory of a woman who helped establish the largest continuously operating conference for Black women business owners and professionals in the country. The woman who spearheaded the formation of that conference isn’t a household name. However, she was very well-known among decision makers at Atlanta City Hall. This edition of TELLING OUR STORY introduces you to Alice White Bussey as remembered by two very well-known names, former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and the Honorable Judge Penny Brown Reynolds.

Both explain why women like Alice, and others named in their discussion, make a difference when elected officials make choices.

Judge Penny and former Mayor Shirley also talk about their legacies in government and what they see for the future.

This live question and answer session is powerful, motivating and even dives into topics such as mental health stability and Shirley’s nine months of professional counseling. The five hundred people who heard this exchange at an Atlanta hotel ballroom during the 41st Annual Super Tuesday conference in October 2025 left feeling renewed. This podcast gives millions a chance to feel that way by listening to the deep insights shared by two friends who are also very wise women.