Learning to run a virtual film festival with drive-in movies too, for the first time isn’t easy? The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is back and better than ever! Karl Barham and Rico Figliolini are joined by Sari Earl, the vice president of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival board. For years the AJFF has been bringing great films to Metro Atlanta and on this episode listen in to explore how they’re doing a film festival in a pandemic and socially distanced environment.
Timestamp: [00:00:30] – Intro [00:03:17] – About Sari [00:07:10] – Changing Perceptions [00:13:20] – Going Virtual [00:18:09] – Ideas to Take into the Future [00:22:33] – How Films are Selected [00:24:35] – Cost of Films [00:26:53] – Getting Involved [00:27:58] – Film Recommendations [00:32:11] – Closing
“I have always been drawn to the mission of the film festival, which is the bridge building. Bringing people together, digging into a topic, and then unpacking it together with a guest speaker. To me that’s really exciting, but it’s the first time where I really think, art is more than art. Art is human and it’s a human connection. And it really spoke to me. It was great.”
Sari Earl
Podcast Transcript
Karl: [00:00:30] Welcome to the Capitalist Sage podcast. We’re here to bring you advice and tips from seasoned pros and experts to help you improve your business. I’m Karl Barham with Transworld Business Advisors, and my co-host is Rico Figliolini with Mighty Rockets Digital Marketing, and the publisher of the Peachtree Corners magazine. Hey Rico, how are you doing? Rico: [00:00:48] Good, Karl. How are you? Karl: [00:00:50] I’m doing well. I’m excited. This is one of my favorite times of years, film festival time. And today we are going to have a great discussion with Sari Earl, the vice president of the Atlanta Jewish film festival board. And we’re going to talk about some of the exciting things that’s coming this year to Atlanta and the film festival. So I look forward to having that chat. Sari: [00:01:15] Thanks for having me, Karl. Thanks Rico. I really appreciate you having me. You have a great show and I’m glad to be here. Karl: [00:01:21] Awesome. Why don’t we introduce our sponsor before we get into our conversation with Sari today? Rico: [00:01:27] Sure. Our sponsor is Hargray Fiber. They’ve been a sponsor of both Peachtree Corners magazine, and for the family of podcasts that we do. And this year they are the, they introduced the Hargray Economic Stimulus Plan. Just like the federal government has one, Hargray has one. They’re an internet cable company that provides fiber optic, fast internet connection and business solutions for not only small businesses, but enterprise sized businesses. So the economic stimulus plan, real simple it’s one year free of business, internet, and phone service for those that qualify. So check them out there at Hargray.com/business/economic-stimulus, and find that website, check them out. Look at what they’re doing. They’re here in Peachtree Corners. They’re all over the Southeast. They’re not like the cable guy. They’re really committed to the communities that they’re in. So check them out, Hargray Fiber. Karl: [00:02:32] There isn’t a business today that should not have great internet speed, making sure that their fiber optics is working and they’re able to communicate. Whether they’re working from home or they want to keep that speed up at their place of work. So I’m really grateful to Hargray Fiber for all they’re doing in the community and helping businesses with this great stimulus package. Rico: [00:02:53] Absolutely. So I just also want to say one other thing. We are a sponsor of the Atlanta Jewish film festival with the Peachtree Corners magazine and the latest issue that came out. So I just want to let everyone know that, you know. And I’ll tell them how great the website is when we get to it. But it’s a great film festival. So I’m excited to have Sari on. Karl: [00:03:17] Well today’s guest, Sari Earl is the vice president of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival board. And for years they’ve been bringing great films to the Metro Atlanta and beyond community. And today we get to talk about this year’s film festival, some of the interesting things they’re doing. And even get to explore how we’re doing this in this pandemic environment, this socially distanced environment. Lots of great options for you to get out and see some films. So we’d like to welcome Sari to the podcast. How are you doing today? Sari: [00:03:52] I’m great. Thanks for having me. Karl: [00:03:54] Why don’t you tell us a little bit, start off by telling us a little bit about yourself. What do you do when you’re not enjoying great films and tell us how you made it to Atlanta? Sari: [00:04:03] I’m originally from Brooklyn, just like Rico. And moved down here to attend Emory law school. I stayed and got my master’s in laws and taxation. And then I worked at Delta as in-house counsel. I worked for another trade association. And ultimately turned to writing. And I’ve been a professional writer ever since. I’ve published about 10 books, some fiction, some non-fiction. I love to try new ways of writing. I’ve written a screenplay and I got involved with the festival a number of years ago. Mostly through the community building. The American Jewish committee created the film festival originally, and they have a black Jewish dialogue, a Baptist Jewish coalition. They have just amazing events and programming, but it’s really about the interconnecting of our communities. And so the film festival was a program that was so successful at bringing people together. That we kind of outgrew our founder and partner American Jewish committee, and we became our own non-profit. And once we did that, like the partnership with American Jewish committee is so strong and it’s a huge balance. Because yes, we’re a film festival, but we are focused on our community and our wider community. We conversed over Jewish films, but the topics are wide ranging and a large percentage of our audience is not Jewish. And we love that. So typically on a typical year, non COVID year, I go to the film festival with my friends. As an example, I have a friend who’s an atheist, one who’s in Hindu and one who’s Catholic. I am Jewish. We all go together, we pick certain films and then afterwards we debrief about how we process them. And it’s that kind of magical experience that we’ve done year after year. We love it. As soon as the program guide comes out, people start circling what they want. I get emails from people I’m going to this one, I’m going to that one. But also the other thing that really gets me excited about it, are the Q and A’s. We bring in these guests and we get guests that you’re really not going to hear somewhere else. One of my earliest guests that I remember so clearly was, it was a film about a Mossad agent, an Israeli spy who went to go work in Egypt to try to uncover nuclear ambitions in Egypt. And he had a family in Israel and then he had a family for his undercover work. And the film was about what happened to him. Great story. At the end of the film, we got to talk to his son about the impact of his father being a Massad spy on his life. It was fascinating, fascinating. So we get really good conversations going. Karl: [00:07:10] I think in particular this past year, if there was a time where people needed to one, be distracted from the day-to-day through film and through art. And at the same time, bring people together through shared experiences and seeing artists’ stories and visions and seeing how it’s received. It’s been this year. And I think, you know, I think many people I talk to have missed films on a mass scale. And especially the independent ones that are story-driven plot driven, performance driven stories. We all love the Marvel big, fantastic. But those quieter, that’s where a lot of people learn about other cultures. And I think the work that you’re doing and the film festival does to bring that together is amazing. So I’m curious, you know, and do you have a favorite film that you’ve seen over the past few years that brought a different insight to something that you may not have, the film fundamentally changed the way you perceived a person or people or culture or something of significance? Sari: [00:08:28] Absolutely. The first one that pops into my mind is why culture, why art? And I remember watching, it was a documentary about the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust and how people were starving in the streets. People were suffering such indignities by the Nazis. And during that time they chose to put on theater productions. And I’m thinking, this is the worst of times, you’re in the worst of places. Who’s thinking about putting on a show? And something clicked. What was happening is they wanted to keep their sense of joy and play and culture. And so they put on Yiddish theater in the middle of a Holocaust. And for me, I have always been drawn to the mission of the film festival, which is the bridge building. Bringing people together, digging into a topic, and then unpacking it together with a guest speaker. To me that’s really exciting, but it’s the first time where I really think, art is more than art. Art is human and it’s a human connection. And it really spoke to me. It was great. Karl: [00:09:46] Absolutely. I remember watching a film some years ago. And I think it was about Indian culture, this particular one. Have you heard of the ones that follow water? I think earth, fire. I remember watching them. They’re just great films and they’re based on books, great films. But it gave you an insight into a culture that you didn’t see every day. But I remember it made me reach out to people and want to get to know them and their culture and experience more of that. And I think the film festivals like this that brings those types of elements together is going to be the way that a lot of young people are going to really get to learn about people that are different from them, or grew up differently from them which might make them curious to go meet more people and get to understand more people. Which is a lot of what we could probably use now after the past year. People got disconnected, socially distanced. And how do we start bringing them back together. Rico: [00:10:45] No, it’s interesting. Go ahead. Sari: [00:10:48] Sorry Rico. It is really interesting. I mean, the film festival has a lot of films that are international. We have films from Israel, you know, I have the list here, but it’s a huge list. We usually have a German films, a lot of German films. Spanish films, Japanese films. So we’ve had the directors come in. It’s been really exciting, but what I like about it is that I would not otherwise watch a foreign film, just not my cup of tea. And here through the Atlanta Jewish film festival, it’s been curated for me then I know it’s good. I know it’s interesting. I know it’s something where I’m going to learn something about another culture and I love it. So during the film festival, I’m watching international films. And you’re right, Karl, it makes me feel more connected and understand these other countries and the people living in them so much better. And I don’t know that I would do that otherwise. Rico: [00:11:46] You know what’s more about that too, is that because it’s other countries and people think Judaism or Jewish people are Israel or the United States. And they’re not understanding there are Egyptians that are Jewish. There are Brazilians that are Jewish. There are Japanese that are Jewish. And that culture of Judaism mixed in with the other culture that they grew up in or country they grew up in, right? Just makes it so much different and it adds so much to that fabric of what’s going on in their life because they might be Japanese, but they’re also celebrating Judaism in that country, right? Sari: [00:12:26] Yeah. That’s an interesting point. There’s a film this year in the film festival, which I’m really excited about. I’m going to try to see if I can find the page in this beautiful program guide, that we love. It’s our Bible for the festival. It’s called They Ain’t Ready For Me. And it is about an African-American rabbinic student who decides to help save the people of Chicago’s South side. I mean, it looks so exciting. And the fact that’s something else that’s been really interesting is learning more about the, not everybody’s just one thing. One color, one culture, one country. We’re all, you know, a mix of everything and to explore all the different corners of how different people can intersect those different identities is really fun and opens us up. Rico: [00:13:20] I noticed that you circled within that directory your movie. I’ve done the same thing. But then I’ve gone to the website, which by the way, I’ve got to give you props for. That website is phenomenal. It’s easy, you can register for the movies. You register yourself, you register for the movies you want to see. You can go back and check the times and stuff. And as you’re looking at the videos and actually you can look at trailers on the site too, or a description. It’s rare that you see a website works so well. To be able to keep you informed and in the ease of use. So it’s intuitive. You don’t see that even on corporate websites, they’d probably spend a lot of money. So on a nonprofit side, I’m just totally impressed. So I’ve just got to tell you that. Sari: [00:14:09] Thank you. I have to give kudos to the staff. Kenny Blank is a phenomenal leader. The staff is amazing. They’ve worked so hard on the ease of use and I was also impressed, like everything’s new this year. So going virtual, like we’re on Apple TV. We’re on Roku. You can find us. You can find us on all of our Q and A’s are going to be posted on YouTube so you don’t even have to buy tickets to the film. And yet you can access those amazing question and answers where we have these phenomenal people talking about their films and their journeys. And we’re really trying to make it as accessible as possible. And I’ve got to tell you, the staff really has out done themselves. Rico: [00:14:52] And as a former film production manager, when I was in school and I used to publish a fanzine back in Brooklyn for movies. I went to the Star Wars premiere and sat next to Rex Reed, who was wondering who these kids were. I was with my siblings reviewing the movie for the fanzine. Just to be able to see the Q and A part and understand how that movie was made. Where people think, Oh, that’s easy, or they have a predetermined a way that it was done or something. And you realize, wow, that was an accident? That happened on set? That was just improv when it looked like it was organic or something. So the sweet spots of seeing how a movie is made. Karl: [00:15:37] Today, they have all those extras on films. If you go on Netflix, you’ll be able to see the extra director’s cut, directors comments, and so on. Well, you know, 20 years ago they didn’t have those things. And if you went to a film festival, you get to hear some of those insights, those questions. You know, was that luck or was that planned and how did they think through making a film? Which I’m pretty sure that those folks ended up being this generation of filmmakers. And so for young kids out there right now and their families, if they’ve enjoyed film, going on that website, and I think doing, circle the films that you want to take a look at and sign up, get tickets and enjoy with your family. Make it a family experience. And listen to the Q and A, and then have that discussion with your family about what you interpreted from the film. Whether it’s the technical, how it was made, or maybe it was the story of the plot, or questions. That’s a great COVID socially distant activity to do with the family that, you know, in years past, you may not have been able to do as easily if you had to go out. But I got a couple of kind of… Sari: [00:16:47] Before we leave this topic, it’s a really good point. The things that are made easier by going virtual in the past, you had to be in your seat for the seven o’clock showing, and then wait afterwards for the setup to have the guests. This year, it’s seamless and you have a window. So the film festival is February 17th to February 28th. And during that time period, tickets are on sale now AJFF.org. Which is, thank you for complimenting our website, that was great. But you have a window now, so you don’t have to watch it at a certain time at night. You might be a morning person. You might want to watch it while you’re working out. You might want to watch it, you know, with other people, as you were saying, Karl. So there’s a window within which you can now screen it. And that really opens it up. And then the Q and A’s will be there for you. Rico: [00:17:39] And not only that you can watch more than what you may have done before. So last year before COVID, maybe you got to three of these movies, maybe you did the midnight show. Which I’m going to watch that midnight horror movie, right? The Vigil. That’s going to be cool. I’m going to watch that I’ve been dying because that’s the time to watch it. But this time I can watch a half a dozen or a dozen if I want. I mean, it’s so different than before. It’s probably opening it up to a wider audience than could otherwise have made the festival. Karl: [00:18:09] And that was actually where, where I was going to ask, of the things that have changed because of COVID. What are some of the things that just, you know, maybe might’ve surprised the team and or blessings that, you know, things that you’d like to figure out and incorporate and keep around, even beyond this period that everyone’s socially distant. Sari: [00:18:30] That’s a great question. So when everything first hit, the real conundrum was, do we hibernate or do we innovate? And we went with innovate. So we spent a lot of time searching web platforms, figuring out what a virtual film festival would look like. Going to drive ins, which was really fun. We got to test different drive-ins and for the first time ever, we’re having drive-ins at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. They’re going to be at the Mercedes-Benz stadium and the Home Depot backyard. And we’re going to have three films. Shivah baby, Spaceballs, we always bring back some great films that we love, and Little Shop of Horrors. And we’re having food trucks. We’re having a donut truck. We’re having giveaway bags. I mean, we’re trying to really bring the festival and the festivity into this experience. So that’s definitely something different than I really had fun with. But there’s something else that happened that we realized during COVID. First, we have hundreds of volunteers and they really wanted us to stay on track. They wanted us to keep our schedule. They wanted to keep working in the film evaluation and get the films curated for this upcoming festival. And doing all of our meetings on Zoom, we not only became more accessible to new volunteers who otherwise couldn’t have gotten into our building. I never want to lose that voice at the table. Someone who maybe had an accessibility issue or some kind of an issue that made it so that they could not be there in person. Now they can participate. I never want to lose those voices. Those people who are fresh to the table and let us see things from a different point of view. We’ve had a number of new volunteers come on, who otherwise never could have been able to attend and participate. And I don’t want that to ever go away. It’s been phenomenal. The other thing that we did is we took our entire collection of every film that we’ve shown at the film festivals in years past. And we uploaded it onto a platform on the internet. It’s at AJFFRecommends.org, brand new website. I’m particularly excited for the educational pieces. We have a lot of school partners, great schools that are exposing their students to, like you said, Karl, these different viewpoints, different countries, different cultures and then want to unpack it. And so we can recommend films to them that they can get off the platform and help them unpack and create a way to connect these students to the story on the screen. And then the final thing, which I’m so excited about, is we created a filmmaker fund to help filmmakers struggling to help them get their films to audiences. And we have our first film ever that has benefited from the filmmaker fund. And it’s premiering, it’s world premiere is that the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. And it’s about the city of Atlanta. It’s called The City Too Busy to Hate. It’s a great film and it’s produced by three local filmmakers who are phenomenal people and the film shows you things you would not have otherwise seen. I got to see a few snippets of it and it was showing Holocaust survivors being brought together during COVID, spatially distanced to listen to a concert. You know, the things people did to really open their hearts and try to find ways for other people to be connected. Because Atlanta is pretty awesome. The greater Atlanta is a pretty unique place and they, this film explores different pockets of the community and how they tackled with COVID, but also how they came together under COVID. Very exciting. And the filmmaker is going to keep going. I love it. Karl: [00:22:33] We always talk about innovating. When something external challenge is brought in the organizations that thrive are the ones that figure out how to innovate. And some of the best, you know, things that we see today comes out of hardship, where people have to figure out a way. And I think you might’ve missed, you solved the one other really important challenge that people have in enjoying film festival. You solved the babysitting challenge. Now today instead of having to get that babysitter and go out there and see a film you could put the kids to bed, you could put the kids in front of Disney. You can still enjoy the film in so many different ways that’s going to be important. You mentioned volunteers, hundreds of volunteers. Why don’t you give a little insight on the process to get the films selected and featured into the festival each year. Sari: [00:23:32] So I think this year we had about 500 films submitted. You can go on our website if you want to submit a film. And then it goes to the film evaluation committee. And I have served on the film evaluation committee and I did it one term and I was done. Because you have to see a lot of really bad films to get to the good ones. And I want my film experience to be curated. That’s why I like the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. These hundreds of volunteers having thousands and thousands of reviews that they post online. And then they discuss them. They come together and they discuss the films. And are they good enough as far as production value? Is it a relevant story, is it timely, is it Jewish? That question comes up a lot. And then they curate those films and they propose a list of films that they recommend for the festival. And then that’s what we weed through to get you the best of the best. So you don’t have to be digging through a bunch of different platforms. It’s curated for you. Karl: [00:24:35] Then I’m curious, the other part is the cost now. So the traditional model where you buy a ticket and you show up and so on. How would the cost of the film and what are the options for people to enjoy these films this year? Sari: [00:24:50] Well, the great thing about the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival this year is that when you buy a ticket, it’s for whoever’s in your house. So the ticket could be for five people. It could be for ten people. It’s whoever’s in your pod can get it. You get a code and the code gives you entrance into the film. The drive-in, you pay per car. And once you pay per car, you can have as many people in your car as you want. You can show up for that screening. So the prices are actually pretty good. And then the Q and A’s are free. Anyone can watch a Q and A, even if they haven’t seen the film. Rico: [00:25:27] Let me ask you something on the drive in part. If someone comes in with a pickup truck and lays down the back and puts the all the blankets down, is that a good, is that good? Sari: [00:25:38] Don’t make me laugh. You’re making me laugh. That’s good. I think we said any vehicle, any vehicle. Karl: [00:25:50] I can see school buses rolling in, people in school buses. Sari: [00:25:54] Hey there is a donut truck coming with hot cocoa. So a school bus would be very appropriate. But, yeah, so we tried to make it accessible. And, but we’re also a nonprofit. I mean, we’re not making a profit off this. We’re providing a service, we’re part of our community. And that’s the thing that was amazing about this year. People wanted to support us. They said, we don’t want you to just survive. We want you to thrive. And it’s been really beautiful to see how many supporters came up and said, you’re important to our experience of living in Atlanta. You’re important to our experience of being in Atlanta, Jewish and non-Jewish. And it’s been really exciting. And heartwarming, I guess, is the best word heartwarming to have so many sponsors and supporters really care about us and volunteers who are willing to give their time. I mean, we’re a volunteer nonprofit and we have some of the most talented and amazing people coming to help us. We’re very, very lucky and we really appreciate it. Karl: [00:26:53] We want to help continue that. So if people are out there watching this and they want to get involved, whether it’s through sponsorship and donations, whether it’s through volunteering their time, what are the ways that people could get involved? How do they reach the organization? Sari: [00:27:09] Well we are on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. AJFF Atlanta is our hashtag, AJFF Atlanta. So Atlanta Jewish films. But more importantly, I would go to the website. We have one of our best committees is called community engagement. And it brings a cross section of people, different religions, different races, different identities, different socioeconomic backgrounds. And we come together to talk movies and how to bring people to films. I love that committee, highly recommend it. We have a guest programming committee also, that’s really fun. A lot of celebrities because we pick who gets to introduce films, who gets to do the Q and A’s. So I would go to our website and check it out. Please volunteer, AJFF.org. Karl: [00:27:58] That’s fabulous. Well, I mean, we could talk about films forever. Are there any that you have on your watch list? For folks that are new, you might suggest that they take a look at? Give me one or two recommendations that I can put on. Sari: [00:28:14] Okay, alright. So we have some phenomenal guests. If you guys seen the show Unorthodox on Netflix, the actress who stared in it is brilliant. And we have got her attending our festival and speaking to us, she’s throwing in a film called Asia. And it’s ASIA, and I’ll see if I can find it. But it’s a phenomenal film about a woman and her daughter and their relationship which can be really challenging. The other films I’m really excited about, Howie Mendell is our closing night. He is coming to our festival via Zoom. We’re interviewing him and he’s great, and funny, fun, fantastic. Who else is fun? There are so many, I mean, the one I mentioned to you earlier They Ain’t Ready for Me. Can’t wait to see this, very excited. Okay, the horror movie is called the Vigil. And the Vigil is having a midnight showing. And then of course we have a window to watch it afterwards. If midnight is not your cup of tea. And I heard it’s phenomenal. In Judaism, when someone passes away, there’s a tradition to have someone sit with the body. And the film takes that experience and creates a horror film out of it. And I heard it was fantastic. We have a film critic who’s on our film, who chairs our film evaluation committee. He said this film was fantastic. And Karl, to your point about the children and the babysitter problem, there’s a film I don’t know if you can see it, it’s called the Crossing. And it’s about children who have to cross over a wilderness during World War II in Norway, and it’s great. Great films. So there are films that are child-friendly including the drive-ins. I mean, the drive-ins are a great opportunity to get out with your kids in a safe space. Karl: [00:30:16] Oh yeah, Spaceballs is a classic. Sari: [00:30:19] Spaceballs is a classic. I mean, it’s the best and you know, our kids haven’t seen these movies. Our kids haven’t seen Little Shop of Horrors and it’s an event and you’re out and I’ve been to the Home Depot backyard at Mercedes Events theater. It’s phenomenal. It’s a great space. It’s open, it’s, I felt really safe when I was there. I’m excited for the food trucks. We’re doing giveaways. We’re making it festive because we want people to enjoy this and have some fun. Rico: [00:30:47] I think I would go for the food trucks too, you know? Kosher food, a couple of knishes. I mean, it’s just like, I’m just missing a few things from New York. Sari: [00:30:58] Oh yeah. I wish, but there’s no knish, but there are donuts. That’s another thing that we’ve added for the festival this year. We have home delivery of some gourmet meals, with your movies. So when you order your tickets, it’ll pop up and say, would you like a meal delivered to your house? And if you buy opening night tickets, this is an insider tip. If you buy tickets for opening night, you will get a free festival in a box delivered to your home. And inside the box are treats, we want to support our restaurant partners who’ve been great to us for so many years. I mean, we really want to make this fun and festive. So opening night festival in a box drive in we’re going to have some giveaways and some swag and lots of food and fun. And we’re really trying to make this an event. And so far, the audience is clamoring for this. We’ve had an amazing response from our sponsors, amazing response from our audience saying, we want you to, we want the show to go on. The show must go on. So AJFF this year has reinvented, re-imagined. But we’ll be here February 17th till 28th, and it’s going to be a lot of fun. So join us, please. Karl: [00:32:11] Well I want to thank you so much for sharing about the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival and all the ways that you bring people together through film and continuing the tradition and innovating it in a lot of different ways. Sari, you have been excellent and a great ambassador for the program that’s coming up. And again, why don’t you tell us the dates of the film festival? Sari: [00:32:38] Sure. It starts February 17th. Tickets are on sale now at our website, AJFF.org. We are a nonprofit. And our closing night is February 28th. The opening night film Kiss Me Kosher has gotten rave reviews, and we picked a comedy. We said, we must start with a comedy this year. We need to lighten up. And then we end with a comedian, with Howie Mendell. And he’s coming in as a guest for the Atlanta Jewish film festival. So it’s going to be great. Karl: [00:33:11] Fabulous. Well, thank you so much. Sari Earl, vice president of the Atlanta Jewish film festival board. And you know, this year we need laughs. We need distractions. We need to get out. And the film festival is giving us all of that this year for folks to be able to enjoy. And so I definitely want to give two notes that I made for myself. This sounds like the ideal Valentine’s gift for folks. And the beauty of this is you could send this Valentine across the country. People could enjoy it anywhere. So just through the realities of being virtual, people could enjoy this from anywhere in the country, really. So really great idea for a gift. So thank you so much for sharing everything you have today. Sari: [00:34:00] Thanks for having me. Some of the films, just so you know, are geo blocked. So they’re only available in Georgia. A lot of the films are available anywhere in the United States of America. So you just have to go to the website and check it out. But there are plenty of films. And like I said, they’ve been curated. Like someone else, hundreds of times have viewed this to make sure it was good and worth my time. So it’s worth checking out. Karl: [00:34:24] Fabulous. Well, thank you again. Thank you so much. Well I wanna say thanks. Thanks everyone, the sponsor, Hargray Fiber for continuing to support the Capitalist Sage and the other family of podcasts that we have. I’m Karl Barham with Transworld Business Advisors of Atlanta Peachtree. Our business advisors are available to consult on your business, whether you’re looking to improve it or grow it, whether you’re looking to exit your business. You can contact myself or any one of our advisors to help to guide you through that path. Now’s a great time. The SBA is offering great rates and programs for people acquiring businesses. So if you want to be your own boss, so you can watch more films at the time that you want give us a call. And we could help you find the right business that fits what you’re doing. Rico, why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you’ve got coming up. Rico: [00:35:18] Sure, we just got our latest issue out of Peachtree Corners magazine. I showed you guys that before. Faith and sports is the cover story. Lots of stuff in here, a lot of good stories. The roller hockey Ogden rink, and the association along with stories about, from education to summer camp, to the new redevelopment authority that the city has started, to aging well resource guide. So that there’s a bunch of good things in here. You can find all of it almost online now at LivinginPeachtreeCorners.com. There’s an article in here, a short piece on the on the film festival as well. And we’re going to be doing more of these types of stories coming out over the next few weeks. If you want to find out a little bit more beyond what I do at MightyRockets.com. That’s content, marketing, marketing social media, and creative work, creative services. Check that out. If you need me, you can find me on LinkedIn, Rico Figliolini. If you can’t spell that, just go to the website and you’ll see it and you can find me almost anywhere. So yeah, and from, and it’s amazing that the three of us let’s put us back on here, three of us are all from Brooklyn or New York. Karl: [00:36:31] Yeah. Absolutely, Brooklyn spreads out all over the country, right? They seem like 30 something percent of folks in the United States came through Brooklyn. So here we are reunited in Georgia. Rico: [00:36:44] Right. Good to have you on Sari. Oh well, hold on. Can’t hear you for some reason. Sari: [00:36:50] Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. I had a lot of fun talking with you guys. It was great. Really appreciate you hosting us and the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Thank you. Karl: [00:37:00] Our pleasure. Well everyone, go get your tickets. February 17 through 28, check out the website. Get those tickets, send them out as gifts and support the local community and just help bring people together. This is the Capitalist Sage podcast. Again, bringing you great guests from the community here in all aspects of business, whether it’s for-profit or non-profit. We do not discriminate. We want to talk to everyone and share what people are doing to help innovate and bring value to the community. So thank you everybody. And thank you, Sari, for all you are doing for the community Rico: [00:37:36] Take care guys.
Join UrbanEBB host Rico Figliolini for a conversation with Gabrielle Mills, co-founder and CEO of Sourced, a full-service back-office firm supporting small to mid-market businesses. She shares how she and her mother built a company that provides accounting, marketing, HR, staffing, and administrative support—all under one brand.
Learn about the challenges entrepreneurs face with business operations and how outsourcing can provide the help they need. Gabrielle also discusses:
A $12M business that never checked its financials
The importance of trust in outsourcing key business functions
The balance between people, technology, and business success
Sourced’s commitment to giving back to local charities
Timestamp: 00:02:20 – Sourcing Solutions for Entrepreneurs 00:07:26 – Building Trust and Expertise to Serve Clients 00:14:53 – Fixing Broken Books for Business Owners 00:18:18 – Encouraging Diversity in Talent Acquisition 00:19:57 – Embracing Mistakes and Developing Processes 00:23:12 – Giving Back to Local Charities 00:25:34 – Leveraging Technology to Enhance People-Centric Services
Podcast Transcript:
00:00:01 – Rico Figliolini
Hey, everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of UrbanEbb here based in Peachtree Corners, Georgia. I appreciate you joining us. We’re a little smart city just north of Atlanta. I have a great guest here, Gabrielle Mills. She’s the founder and CEO of Sourced. Hey, Gabrielle. Thanks for joining us.
00:00:20 – Gabrielle Mills
Hi, good morning. Thanks for having me.
00:00:22 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah, no, I appreciate you being here. We’re going to learn a lot from you, I’m sure, this morning. And this is one of those freezing mornings here in Georgia that really never happens, like down to 20.
00:00:32 – Gabrielle Mills
It is so cold. I’m very cranky about it.
00:00:36 – Rico Figliolini
Yes, it’s amazing. But it’ll warm up in a week. But before we get to our interview, I just want to say thank you to two sponsors we have that have been with us. Appreciate the support of our journalism, these podcasts, of the magazines as well. One of them is EV Remodeling, Inc. They’re a company that has done work from design to build. whole house renovation, as well as just redoing your kitchen, your bathrooms and such. They’ve worked with over 260 families. They’re based in Peachtree Corners. Eli, the owner of the company, is a really great guy. I think you should check out their website. You could do a virtual consultation with them as well and check out their portfolio. So go to evremodelinginc.com and find out a little bit more about them. Also, our second sponsor is Vox Pop Uli, also based here at Peachtree Corners. They’re a company that takes your brand and brings it to life, essentially. They’re a family business, father, son, other family members in there, another daughter in there handling marketing. And even members of their employees are considered part of the family. It’s just a great, well-run company. We just did a podcast with them recently. You should check that out. But they try to bring your brand awareness out there. They can do anything from truck wraps to print on any object, just come to them, give them a challenge, and they will actually step up to that challenge. You might think they can’t print on it, but God knows they’ll find a way to do what you need to bring to that trade show and to make your business stand out as a retail operation or whatever. So check them out, vox-pop-uli.com, and it’s V-O-X-P-O-P-U-L-I.com. So now that we’ve gotten our sponsorships out of the way, Gabrielle, appreciate you staying with me like that. So tell us a little bit about how you started the business, why you chose the word sourced, and what the business is.
00:02:39 – Gabrielle Mills
Good morning. Thank you so much for having me. So I can’t tell you the answer to that question without acknowledging my business partner, Chrissy Strohmeyer, who is also my mother. So we are a mom and daughter team. We have just enjoyed the heck out of building this company together, but really my stories are her stories and vice versa. We started the business because we wanted to be entrepreneurs and we wanted to help other businesses grow and be successful. We think entrepreneurs are the salt of the earth people. They’re the reason for our economy. They create jobs. They’ve got so many great ideas. And they are the last people that get a helping hand because they don’t always have enough cash, right? That’s why we started Sourced. We actually went to business owners and asked them, because we didn’t have this idea. We asked business owners what they need, where they were underserved and how, if they were to do it all over again, kind of what they would do. And we put all of their answers up on a whiteboard that’s currently in our office. In fact, you saw it when you came over to our office the other day. If that whiteboard could talk, man. And we looked at all of their problems, all of their suggestions, all of the things they were struggling with. And our services came out of that. So Sourced is a back office services company serving small to mid-market companies. And the easiest way to describe what it is that we do is we basically have five businesses under one brand name. So on the fractional side of our business, we are a full accounting firm, full service accounting firm, a full service marketing agency, outsourced HR, administrative support. And then not fractionally, we do direct hire full time placement. So all of those ideas came from entrepreneurs that we spoke to that they needed help. And we said, we’ll do it.
00:04:38 – Rico Figliolini
It’s amazing. All under one roof.
00:04:42 – Gabrielle Mills
Well, we didn’t mean exactly to create five businesses at the same time. That was more of God’s plan. But, you know, here we are.
00:04:51 – Rico Figliolini
No, no, I can appreciate that. I’ve come across a lot of people in different businesses doing different things. So you do look at where your services can expand into. So it makes sense for where you guys are coming from.
00:05:04 – Gabrielle Mills
So you asked me where the name comes from. And I don’t get that question a lot. And it’s actually a really funny story. When I was working my big girl corporate job at IHG, Intercontinental Hotels Group, I had a relative that worked in the company. And she was the only person that knew that I was thinking about leaving and starting my own thing. So I floated the concept to her. And she loved the concept. At this time, we didn’t have talent acquisition. We only had a fractional client or fractional services. And our name was the Atlanta Assistance Group. And we were going to go by TAAG, T-A-A-G. And she was in branding for IHG. And she goes, I have to tell you, that name isn’t scalable. It’s easily forgettable. And you also have TAG, the Technology Association.
00:05:57 – Rico Figliolini
That’s right.
00:05:58 – Gabrielle Mills
And she’s like, I really think that you need to rethink your name. This was seven days before I was going to quit my job and do this and tell them I was going out. In which case they would want to know what the company is, what our name is, all the things. And so the next seven days, Chrissy and I were just on fire trying to think of everything. The amount of hours we spent digging through the thesaurus was crazy. And one day we were, I was driving and I was playing around with the word outsourced, resource, I was trying to come up with a play on words there and Sourced just came about and I called her and I was like, what do you think of this? And she’s like, I love it. And I think we came up with it two days before I quit.
00:06:48 – Rico Figliolini
Wow. And I love the website name though, getsourced.com. I mean, it just like makes sense to be able to do that. So, you know, you’ve been dealing with a lot of businesses, helping them and stuff. Sourcing is an issue sometimes, especially if you’re doing financial fractional work like that. And small business owners, maybe the larger ones like 10 million plus different, or even let’s say 5 million plus different, right? And I’m not sure what your sweet spot is, but the trust process to get a business to trust you to do their work because they’re sourcing it out to you. You’re not in the office. How do you do that? How do you gain traction with that? How do you gain their confidence to be able to provide the services that will make their business better?
00:07:37 – Gabrielle Mills
I think there’s a lot of ways that we do that naturally. First and most importantly, we have an amazing, amazing team of people and they really do the selling for us. Most of our business comes from word of mouth and referral because the people that work with us have such a great experience with our team and our people that that trust is kind of transferred already over because the referrer has had a great experience. That helps. Chrissy and I are involved in every single sale at this point before we pass it off to our team. We obviously have been through the entrepreneurial journey. We’re in our ninth year. We’ve done all the bumps and bruises, made all the mistakes. We’ve seen a lot of other people’s mistakes. We can kind of provide a lot of guidance during the sales process. So I think that builds trust. And not to be understated, the processes and the standards that we’ve built over time, we know how to fall back to the level of our training, regardless of the situation at hand. So we really lean into that when we’re talking to clients or prospects because they want to know how things are going to go. You can have a really good person who’s really friendly, but they may not know what they’re doing. That’s where the processes and our training comes in. We don’t have to do a lot of training because our people are already very experienced. But the way that we do things, we want that to be standardized. So we train on how the Sourced way is. So the client is experiencing something consistent.
00:09:14 – Rico Figliolini
So when you’re training, obviously, that’s an internal thing that you’re doing. There’s always industry trends, right? I mean, taxes is one thing where there’s always an update every year, different things going on. God knows probably this year will be a lot of things going on, accounting and stuff. But how do you keep ahead of some of the trends then or adapting to the needs of the entrepreneurs that you’re reaching out to? Because I’m sure that changes and evolves too.
00:09:42 – Gabrielle Mills
It does. I mean, you keep up with current events. We listen to our clients. Our clients know a lot. Our clients are very, very smart and we’re industry agnostic. So we get the benefit of seeing lots of different things from lots of different people and lots of different industries. So we just kind of like by osmosis learn things. But I think any good leader, regardless of if you own the business or you’re just working in the business or you have some kind of your stakeholder somewhere, I think anybody that is worth their salt is kind of always keeping up with. What’s going on and how does the business need to adapt and how does my department need to adapt and how do we grow and how do we improve? And I think just by having a regular practice like that, where you’re always kind of investigating it and looking at ways of improving, it’s more natural than it is forced to grow and change as the world changes.
00:10:37 – Rico Figliolini
Do you find going through the things you’re going through that, I mean, obviously, The day-to-day work is never-ending, right? It’s a process. Some days, some weeks, it’ll be the same as other weeks. But every once in a while, you get a challenge. You find something that you have to overcome within a business maybe, within your own business. Do you have any success stories that you can share that relates to that?
00:11:06 – Gabrielle Mills
Yes, I’ll tell you my favorite one. And it’s one of the more recent ones too. In our nine years of business, we have seen a lot come through our doors. We always tell people, especially those coming in for accounting. Accounting and talent acquisition are our two most popular services. And we started in accounting. That’s kind of our bread and butter. And people are always very vulnerable about like, oh, my books are bad. I had a bad accountant. I don’t know what I’m doing. We always tell them we’re like doctors. We just want to, give us the real, real, we’ll fix it. Like accounting is not a human body. So like we can actually fix it because it’s just numbers. But we’ve seen a lot of horror stories. You cannot scare us. You cannot surprise us. We’ve seen a lot in nine years. Recently, I think this client came on board early last year. And it was a $12 million construction client. And they have been in business for like 20 years or something. And when we were working on, we got referred into this client and we went and we talked to them and they were having an issue with their accountant that was internal. And they wanted to let that person go, but she knew way too much in the business. So they were like, we need somebody that can fix the craziness that’s happening in the books. And you can imagine they’re large books, $12 million company. We need to create some kind of redundancy in a situation where we need to let somebody go and we can’t, we’re beholden to them. And we just don’t know anything about our books. We’ve never seen them. And the best part of that meeting was that Chrissy asked, or she was talking about the financials, the financial reports. And the client stops her and she goes, wait, why do I need to look at my financial reports? And our jaws just dropped because this is a $12 million company. They’ve been in business for like 20 years. They have done a phenomenal job building their company. They had no idea the importance of their numbers. They didn’t know what their, like how their money was transacting. They, I don’t know how they were running it. And so that was a lot to overcome. It was probably one of our longer onboarding processes, but we got that client off of QuickBooks desktop and onto QuickBooks online so they could see their numbers, right. Their books were done and I’m not blaming this person that ended up leaving. There was reasons why this was, but the books were entirely backwards. So where there were things that should have been a positive, they were showing a negative and a negative should have been a positive. So all their numbers were backwards and then nothing was set up properly. So we had to do a whole setup. We had to clean the whole thing and we just had a meeting with them yesterday just talking about our usual check-in, how things are going. We’re constantly looking at improving this account. And they were just saying they have never felt more secure in an accounting firm. They said, regardless of how our team changes, you guys are our people. You’ve taught us, you’ve changed everything, you’ve done everything. And we just, they were showering us with lovely things and it just warmed our hearts so much because this was one heck of a undertaking. But I also, give them a lot of credit too, because that one, it was not a cheap project. And two, that took a lot of trust in them too, to be like, I don’t know you guys and you have to fix all of these problems at once. And it was a lot of work that they had to do and we had to do. And so they put a lot into the relationship as well. And it was, they’re probably one of my favorite clients now. And it’s, will probably be my biggest success story for a while, just from the scale.
00:15:01 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah, no doubt. I mean, I have a friend, Karl Barham, who owns Transworld Business. He consults, he buys and sells business for people. And it’s constantly amazing how many, not just half a million dollar companies, but $10 million companies, sometimes their books are so bad that they have to like step away and say, you know what, let’s fix this up. You may have to wait a year before you can sell this business just because the books are so bad. You know, it’s just like, there’s that.
00:15:31 – Gabrielle Mills
We don’t like to see it. Obviously it breaks our hearts and we can, we can fix it. We have the, we can fix anything at this point. But it’s unfortunate because they didn’t get bad because of that person. They got bad because that person didn’t have the support that they needed. Likely that the entrepreneur was not an accountant. They shouldn’t be. They should be building their business, doing whatever it is that they’re doing. Accounting is important, but this is why we went into businesses. You need to go do your dream. We’ve got the stuff that, yes, you need to keep up with, but you don’t need to know how to do it. We can show you, but you don’t need to know how to do this. You just need to know what your numbers look like.
00:16:19 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah, I’m surprised that when their accountant did their work at the end of the year, I can’t imagine it was the same person doing it. It had to be someone else doing it. And no one figured it out.
00:16:33 – Gabrielle Mills
Well, with this particular client, there was a couple migrations in systems that caused that reversal. So they started on one system and moved to QuickBooks Desktop. which reversed everything. And then the person that was working in the office, she would do a lot of things right. But there’s a lot of different ways to do accounting right, quote unquote. But she continued the backwardness because that’s how it had to be done. It was very complicated.
00:17:02 – Rico Figliolini
And I’m sure. And sometimes you’re down a path and you don’t want to leave that path. You just keep going and just figure it’ll work itself out at some point.
00:17:11 – Gabrielle Mills
That happens in accounting of like, we just start fresh. Like right now we’re getting a lot of clients that need cleanups and we only have to go back a month and a half because it’s the 21st today. When we’re in July, we’re like, okay, how far back do you want to go? Or not July, but more like October. They’re like, we can clean up from January or we can just hold off and start fresh in the next January.
00:17:36 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah. Okay. Well, that’s a tough decision. You said before you’re agnostic business-wise a little bit, but are there types of businesses that may benefit most from what you all do or that you target or that you’d prefer working with? Or have strength in those industries.
00:17:53 – Gabrielle Mills
We have developed patterns of clients that tend to come to us. So on the accounting side, we do a lot of construction. That’s the example that I gave. We have a couple of YouTube clients, which is kind of neat. We do a lot of work for attorneys. Accounting for law is very specialized. So we do that. On the marketing side, they’re completely across the board. There is no consistency whatsoever. Same with administrative support. HR gets thrown into any monthly recurring service that we have. So again, there’s no consistency. On the talent acquisition side, we have quite a bit of consistency. Although there’s randomness throughout. We do a lot in, we still do a lot in law. We get a lot of financial roles. So we do anything from accountants, tax managers, tax seniors. We do a lot in IT, particularly in the cybersecurity market. A lot in finance, some in construction, not really all that much. Did I say finance? Property management in talent acquisition. Yeah, those are about the consistent ones in talent acquisition. But again, we kind of see it all. At this point in our business, we actually get really excited when we see a business or an industry that we’ve never worked in before. So for marketing, I was just pitching a client yesterday who’s opening a shooting sports facility and gun range. I have never done that before. And I was like, oh, this is different. This is unique. We’ve got research. Same with anything in our talent acquisition department. If it’s different, we’re like, okay, this is exciting. Because usually, I mean, we just see a lot of businesses come through here.
00:19:48 – Rico Figliolini
Well, that’s cool. Yeah, especially when you see a lot of different businesses like that. We talked about success stories. As a business person, I think any business person, if they’re honest with themselves, will say, yes, we make mistakes every once in a while. New situations arise that they’ve never seen before and it’s a problem that they have to overcome. Have there been any mistakes in your business journey or that you’ve seen in other businesses besides, obviously, the accounting issue? But anything that you’ve overcome as an entrepreneur, as a business person?
00:20:27 – Gabrielle Mills
No, Rico, we’re absolutely perfect. We’ve never made a mistake.
00:20:30 – Rico Figliolini
I could see that.
00:20:34 – Gabrielle Mills
Oh gosh no. I tell people, people ask me about our journey a lot. They’re just curious about our story and how we came to be. And we love telling it. I always tell people, Chrissy and I didn’t have experience in any of these things before we started. We just had a dream and wanted to be, help businesses and build a business ourselves. All of this we have learned from the ground up, having no experience with the exception of like general business acumen and general sales acumen. But we’re not accountants. We are not recruiters. I did start in marketing, but not tactically. So I always say that I went to the school of hard knocks, got a couple of degrees from there. And that’s how I got to where I’m at because we’ve made every mistake in the book. We’ve had clients that have trusted us and loved us through some mistakes that we’ve made to get us to where we are. I would say the biggest piece of advice or mistake that I made that I learned from was Chrissy came into the business from day one. And she was telling me and our director of account management, Maureen, she was like, we’ve got to focus on our processes. We’ve got to focus on our processes. Maureen and I were focused on the people and just serving the people. And in year three, which was our hardest year yet, we got so many different challenges and scenarios that were really, really difficult. And what Chrissy was telling us from day one finally got through to Maureen and I of like, oh, this is why we need processes and standards. This makes sense now. So it took a lot of heartache to really understand why those are important. But now it has been the secret sauce to our business because we know how to hire off of them. So if people aren’t already operating or have experience with that certain frame of mind, we know that they’re likely not a fit or they have to be at least willing to be coached into that direction. We’ve developed consistency because our process is our standard. We’re always making our processes better. We’re always looking to make them beefier. We never would have gotten there if we didn’t learn that lesson.
00:22:53 – Rico Figliolini
And sometimes you do. I mean, you have to learn your lesson. It’s like bringing up kids. They want to do their own mistakes. They don’t want to be told to watch out for that step. And they’ll do their own mistakes.
00:23:04 – Gabrielle Mills
She was a broken record there for a few years. And then the light bulb finally went off. And Maureen and I were like, oh, okay. Now it took us some tears to learn it. But we got there. Now we’re on there.
00:23:19 – Rico Figliolini
I’m sure. So you’re a local business. Obviously, coming out to meet with you and your mom and the rest of the team was nice to take a tour and find out what you’re doing there. You do give back. I know you’re good people. You’re giving back to the community. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about some of the local charities that you’ve given back to?
00:23:45 – Gabrielle Mills
So early in our business, we decided that we’re not in business, we’re in business for the joy of being in business. We’re not in business to make a gazillion dollars and cash out. While that would be lovely, we would totally not turn our noses up at that. We wanted to at least serve our clients and then serve people that never really came into contact with Sourced and use the business as an opportunity to give back because we believe that if we’re successful, we have been giving blessings and so we should be giving blessings out. So we committed from day one that we were going to donate 10% of our monthly profits to charity. And those charities would be selected by our team of people. So every year, in December, we put out a survey to our team. And our team can nominate a charity that is important to them. And we decided in January, up to three charities that we’re going to give to that year, and every quarter we look at each month that we’ve made profit, take that pool of money, cut it by, divide it out equally across however many charities we have that year and give them out. We have served, some of those have been large organizations, but our favorite ones are the ones that are smaller and local. We started the first couple of years working with an organization called Connections Homes, which is out of Suwanee. They help kids who are aging out of foster care really like with support to become adults, but also they’re not really adults. They’re 17, 18, 19, and they still don’t know how to do the world. That’s an organization that we’ve supported. We’ve supported an organization called Ignite Hope, which is another foster care association. We’ve done neighborhood cooperative ministries, which is a, for those who are local, you guys know that it’s a very large nominal nonprofit here in Norcross. And this year we’re partnering with an organization called Because One Matters, which ironically is another foster care organization. I just realized that there seems to be a pattern. So we tend to give to the kids.
00:26:08 – Rico Figliolini
No, I like that. I like the fact that you’re giving locally and it’s 10% of your profit each month is what you split up, which is great. It’s almost like tithing in a way.
00:26:18 – Gabrielle Mills
Yeah. And that’s how it came about. We wanted to tithe using the business. We give once a quarter based on the months because what we didn’t want to do is we would have one month go to one charity and that was a particularly good month. But then the next month maybe wasn’t that good of a month. So we wanted to balance it out. So we look at all the profits that come in from the quarter and then equally disperse it.
00:26:39 – Rico Figliolini
That is cool. Alright. We’ve gotten sort of to the end of our interview time, but I’m sure that there’s things that we could talk a lot more about. Is there anything that I’ve left out? Anything you’d like to share? Maybe services that you may be looking at expanding into the coming year or anything along those lines?
00:27:00 – Gabrielle Mills
So we’re likely not expanding into other services because we have five already and that’s enough. We are finding that there’s a lot of growth to be had in our talent acquisition department. So we’re eager to see what that ends up looking like through the year. What we really want to focus on in terms of like diversification or innovation, which I think is really where your question comes from, is how we utilize technology to make our services more streamlined and more advanced. We will never not have the support of our people. We are a people business. We will go under before computers take over our jobs. However, there’s a lot of really great technology that if you use it right and smartly, we can make profit margins better, save our clients money, be able to reach more people. So we’re going to try to figure out how we can lean into that a little bit.
00:28:02 – Rico Figliolini
So that’s a great path to go down for a quick minute, maybe. Because AI technology is something that everyone, every business is tackling and using in a variety of ways, right? ChatGPT, Grok3, there’s a bunch of them. Claude, I mean, there’s a whole bunch. DeepSeek, I mean, you could just go on and on with these things. And every business, every industry is trying to figure out how they can use that, right? And some use it badly and others use it better. Sometimes it’s used for support or for research versus making decisions. So are you finding that you have to also look at that to augment or to add a complexity to the service you provide?
00:28:52 – Gabrielle Mills
So what stands out in your question to me is the have to. I think that nobody really has to, but I’m in an industry that if I don’t look at it, my industry will die because it is based on people. And if you don’t lean into the technology, you run the risk of the world thinking they don’t need people anymore. And then you’re obsolete. So we don’t have to do anything. But if we want to stay in business, we should be looking at how to utilize it better. The beauty of our business is these are things that people are always going to need. And computers can’t replace entirely. You always need a person overseeing or creating or some version of managing what the computer does. So we always have a people element to it. What we’re looking at with technology is how do we make ourselves and our processes and how we do things better and faster using technology and use the human brain where the human brain needs to interject.
00:30:01 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah. Okay. Great explanation. Well, we’ve reached the end of our time together. Where can people find out more about your company? Of course, we’ll have it in the show notes as well, but how can they reach out to you?
00:30:14 – Gabrielle Mills
Yeah. So if you’re local, just come and see us. We are off of Scientific Drive in Technology Park, down by the Forum. If you want to check us out online, we are at getsourced.com. We’re on all the socials under SourcedATL, or you can always just look at my name, Gabrielle Mills. Unfortunately, very easy to find out on the web.
00:30:39 – Rico Figliolini
I’m sure. Check her out on LinkedIn. It’d be easy to find her there. I want to say thank you again to EV Remodeling and to Vox Pop Uli for supporting us. Everyone else, you have comments, leave them in the comment section below, depending where you’re watching this, whether it’s Facebook, YouTube. If you’re listening to this on Apple or any of the audio podcast places, Spotify, leave a review, like, share. We’d love if you would support us that way. Gabrielle, thank you for being with us. Appreciate it.
The Peachtree Corners Business Association (PCBA) celebrated the opening of Fifth Third Bank’s new branch in Peachtree Corners with a ribbon cutting on February 20.
Located at 3210 Holcomb Bridge Road, the new location features lobby and drive-thru hours, regular banking, investment services, loans and more.
“We are growing [and] proud to open up our new financial center at Peachtree Corners,” said Randy Koporc, EVP, regional president GA/AL Fifth Third Bank. “Congratulations to Financial Center Manager Jasmine Youngblood and her team, Retail Executive Dewayne King and all involved in getting us to this day.”
photo credit: Keri Zampano; courtesy of Peachtree Corners Business Association
“Thank you, Lisa Proctor of the Peachtree Corners Business Association, for helping us celebrate at our ribbon cutting,” Koporc continued.
Fifth Third plans to build more than 60 financial centers in Georgia and Alabama over the next five years and looks forward to strengthening the communities that they join.
“We love welcoming new businesses into Peachtree Corners,” said Lisa Proctor, president of the Peachtree Corners Business Association. “Fifth Third Bank will be a great addition to our banking community. We can’t wait to watch them grow.”
photos: Keri Zampano; courtesy of Peachtree Corners Business Association
About Peachtree Corners Business Association
The Peachtree Corners Business Association (PCBA) is a business membership organization that focuses on innovative approaches, programs, shared resources, community outreach and opportunities for member businesses and professionals to connect, develop, grow, and prosper.
The PCBA is made up of businesses of all sizes and types who want to expand their reach and grow their business within Peachtree Corners and the greater metro-Atlanta area.
Sequel Coffee Co., a new specialty coffee brand, is set to open its flagship location in Peachtree Corners in the summer of 2025.
The new coffee shop will open alongside shared workspace provider, Roam, at Town Center and will feature a convenient drive-thru complemented by an inviting in-shop experience.
Premium coffee and locally sourced offerings
Committed to delivering an elevated coffee experience, Sequel Coffee Co. will serve freshly brewed coffee and handcrafted espresso beverages with responsibly sourced beans from Valor, a local metro Atlanta roaster.
Interior rendering courtesy of Sequel Coffee Co.
The food menu will feature a curated selection of locally sourced café favorites and convenient grab-and-go options from local vendors Two Chefs and A Seasonal Affair.
Guests can expect a variety of delicious offerings, including breakfast sandwiches, quiche and freshly baked pastries, as well as yogurt parfaits, homemade granola bars and protein-packed power bites for on-the-go fuel.
In addition, rotating seasonal flavors and limited-time menu items will offer new and exciting food and beverage options throughout the year.
Strengthening community connections in Peachtree Corners
A concept created by Roam, the hospitality-focused work and meeting space, Sequel Coffee Co. is built on the belief that coffee is more than just a morning ritual — it’s a catalyst for creativity, productivity, community and connection.
Image courtesy of Sequel Coffee Co.
Sequel’s tagline, “start your story strong,” reflects its mission to inspire the potential in every day by championing stories, embracing moments and thoughtfully crafting coffee.
Sequel seeks to become an integral part of the Peachtree Corners community by fostering meaningful interactions through hospitality-driven experiences. With a brand philosophy centered on people, purpose and belonging, the company aims to inspire customers through delicious coffee and intentional service.
Bringing Sequel Coffee Co. to you
Ahead of its brick-and-mortar opening this summer, Sequel Coffee Co. is currently serving the community through its mobile coffee cart, offering a full-service espresso bar and trained baristas for offsite events.
Ideal for corporate offices, networking events, school functions and private gatherings, the mobile cart provides an opportunity to enjoy Sequel’s signature coffee experience in any setting — before the shop even opens its doors.
Sequel is also currently hiring a Shop Manager to lead daily operations and cultivate an inviting experience for customers. Interested applicants can learn more about the position and apply at sequelcoffeeco.com/shop-manager-job-listing.
About Sequel Coffee Co.
Sequel Coffee Co. is dedicated to inspiring potential in every day through thoughtfully crafted coffee and warm hospitality.
Offering handcrafted espresso beverages, freshly brewed coffee and a curated menu of café favorites — along with a convenient drive-thru and cozy café space — Sequel aims to create a welcoming spot for guests to fuel their day and transform the daily coffee routine.
Roam is a comprehensive workplace solution offering co-working memberships, private offices and meeting space for professionals and businesses of sizes.
Opening in Peachtree Corners at 3847 Medlock Bridge Road in summer 2025, Roam provides flexible and inspiring environments to help individuals and teams accomplish their best work. Now leasing private offices and pre-booking meetings and events.
Food & Drink2 days ago
