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BETTER TOGETHER

The husband and wife team of Shelly and Mark Wilson have created more than one company that reached elevated levels of success. Two of their businesses employed several thousand people and had offices from California to Alabama.

However, running a successful enterprise wasn’t the main objective in their lives. Both describe their roles as husband and wife as being more important than any of the titles assigned to them. Shelly’s degree in microbiology brought a level of organization and analytical skills to the enterprises while Mark contributed a level-headed approach to being a CEO. He pulled skills he developed after working as an executive for Dun and Bradstreet for more than 17 years. His industry reputation was so strong that, when he and Shelly branched off to start their own company, they immediately attracted a dream list of Fortune 10 and 15 companies - without a sales team. Global brand names such as Verizon Wireless, Google, Apple, Bank of America, Visa and AT&T were all clients.

The Wilsons operated two main companies during their time as entrepreneurs. RyLa Teleservices operated for approximately ten years. Chime Solutions, their second call service company, ran for eight years. Their home offices were in several metro Atlanta locations. They started in Woodstock, GA and moved to Kennesaw. Chime was headquartered on the south side of town in Morrow. It actually evolved from a venture capital purchase of a company called E-Verifle which Mark and Shelly closed to found Chime Solutions.

The success of their endeavors isn't the only reason to listen to this podcast. Mark and Shelly's motivations for going into business are also interesting. Neither had a business background. Mark’s first job was shining shoes in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Shelly is the daughter of an AME, African Methodist Episcopal, minister from Dayton, Ohio, who had planned to be a scientist.

The information Shelly and Mark Wilson share actually could provide the outline of a master class in how people can use the tools given to them through the experiences of their lives. What you'll learn from this podcast is that Shelly and Mark took their tools and built something much bigger than anyone would have thought possible. The bonus is their accomplishments also influenced the business achievements of the second generation of their family.

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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.