Welcome to Operations Unfiltered, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of influencer and talent management. I'm your host, Zaina. Today is a super special episode. I have a repeat guest, one of my favorite influencers and content creators in the Baltimore area and the DMV. I'm joined by Simone Phillips, also known as Charm City Table.
We talked about what's on the horizon for Charm City Table, a few unflattering social media encounters with some business owners, and she gave some tips and tricks for how you can succeed as a content creator or as a business owner who's interested in working with creators. So without further ado, let's get into this week's episode of Operations Unfiltered. So how have you been? I can't believe it's been. How many months I, the last time I talked to you on Operations Unfiltered was in August.
So I've been keeping up with all the things, but give me the rundown. What have you been up to? How have you been? It's been crazy. Yeah. Good things have been a little
crazy. I don't know. Things are just right now they're insanely busy. 'cause the summer's coming up. There's a lot of festival planning and all of that crazy stuff going on, but. you know, it's just, it's been insane. I feel like I'm losing it right now, but.
I honestly feel the same as a, as black woman in this, country. Yes. That's what I wanted to start off with. How are you doing mentally, emotionally, especially in the world of content creation where so much of your life is public and it's a lot, so how are you doing there mentally?
I feel like I try to be very Intentional about the things that I share and the things that I don't. So I try to keep, my private life is still very much private. I mean, if I was to reveal that, it'd be a totally different but the, you know, the food stuff and the event stuff and it just going around with my husband who's, you know, mostly like my go-to person for going out. That's, that part is going great.
Like I said, it's just, it's just like managing it all lately, which is great 'cause it means things are going well successful. And like at the beginning of the year, I feel like. I had, well, end of the year, beginning of the year, I had some very intentional goals mm-hmm. In terms of, really driving up the business side of Yeah. Table. So I feel like we're on the right track.
Like when I'm not, you know, me being the goal oriented sometimes perfectionist person these days, I was not always like that. Feels like I'm behind, but like when I take time and like look back and look at my to-do list, look at all the things that I've accomplished, look at my quarter one goals, like those are all on track. So you
know what I love when you're using this project management language. 'cause you know I'm a corporate project manager, so when you say things like we're on track. I'm a corporate girly. So when you say things like on track, like my heart, because I love hearing creators talk like that.
A plan. You need a plan, I get it. But I feel like, yeah, that's half of it. Like taking your. From a hobby on a Instagram, you know, regular Instagram. So
truly making it a business and that's why I have to commend you so much. And I wanted to pick your brain about all the things, 'cause you mentioned event planning and that's definitely something that I wanted to tap into because like I said, I've been following all along on Instagram and I've seen, yeah, involvement with CIAA weekend and all the different restaurants in and around Baltimore, downtown partnership of Baltimore, I've seen. Seeing you partner with them.
So what's on the horizon for Charm City table? I heard you mentioned festival season is coming up. So how are you and Charm City table gonna embed your expertise into that, to that realm? Let us know.
yeah, I think it's, it's just more of, more of the same, I feel like, except. Bigger and better. We love it bigger and better. Yes. Yes. Yeah, I've do, I've been trying to do a lot of work with some of the local Baltimore organizations and those kind of, that's been an interesting path 'cause I've been working with.
Some of them for as long as I've had my platform or maybe like a year or two in, and I'm starting to like think about ways we can work together, like I said, bigger and better, like think ways that we can work together differently that doesn't feel like copy paste or like the same thing that we've been doing in the past with the same thing even other creators are doing. I feel like. You have all these creative minds in the city we should be creating and coming up with through and exciting.
So I'm rethinking a lot of the way those things are going. But as far as like event curation and mm-hmm you know, now is like I'm in a space where I know a lot of the business owners, I know a lot of the small businesses I've worked alongside them or with them for something particular. So I'm like trying to use all of that, just to make the city look great, to help these businesses look great. To make sure everybody is, is paid fairly. I love that. Listen, we.
You know, it feels like everybody's getting something out of the the deal or out of the collaboration or whatever it might be. So I think, like I said, more of the same, bigger and better as far as the local organizations. Then I'm also extending outward to like national organizations. Yeah, some very corporate organizations. To, you know, because I was gonna pick
your brain about that too, because I know that your rise is really due to you focusing on Baltimore Charm City table is your Instagram name. But I wonder, do you ever sometimes feel stuck or sometimes do you feel like maybe I shouldn't focus on this national brand because that's why I started Charm City Table? Or to that point, do you feel like, Hey I've, I've done what I can do in Charm City. Not that I'm done, but I wanna break. Yeah. Out and focus out. What are your thoughts there?
I think it's, it's a thing to figure out for sure. Yeah. Uh, yeah. I, it's been such a trip just kind of figuring out, so when I feel like when I first started, yeah. I wanted to stay very hyperlocal. Yeah. And then things got very busy, like all, like, lots of businesses wanted me to come out and check out their restaurant and give advice or talk about how to get more people and, and whatever. So then I was like.
Well, this has to make money and you know, a lot of these businesses don't have the livable wage money to be paying me and possibly other folks, to come do this. So I was like, okay, let's start doing some brand partnerships. So I was doing those, but then I'm like. To, if I'm promoting so many local coffee, which I, I, I'm gonna say dunking, I do love working with Dunking. I do still, still work with them, but I'm like, yeah, how many Dunking ads do I wanna be putting up, you know?
With the calendar year, if I'm also promoting local coffee shops, so, right. You know, we still do things together, just not as frequently. So I was like, oh, sometimes doing these larger food partnerships might not. Just frequently might not necessarily work for what I'm trying to do.
So then I got really into, for a while, especially after George Floyd and all that stuff, a lot of the, now they're of them, a lot of the bigger organizations were like, okay, here's some money to promote black owned businesses. Some of them were Latino owned business, like minority owned businesses. And so then I was doing a lot of that. And, that worked out pretty well. But now that money is like, all right.
And now they're re restructuring things now and I'm wondering Yes. No more. It's no more. And how is that impacting you directly? You spoke a little bit to it, um, briefly, yeah. But I wanted to know if you've noticed a, a drastic shift and how is it I can,
you know, things I feel like it, maybe it's because I have to plan ahead. Yeah. Or maybe it's just like the piece of my brain that's a little bit of a visionary. I kind of always, I saw that drying up maybe like a year ago, like maybe two years ago. the deals weren't as frequent. You know, then you had to start doing the whole elevated thing. Upscale, upscale, upscale. And I'm just like, well, you know. People, I'm thinking about connecting these brands with people.
It's kind of like a silent recession right now. Like people don't have as much. disposable income, um, you know, upscales, nice date night, whatever. But that's not always what people are trying to do. Um, and I, yeah, people's
pockets are not, are not running and I wanna have diversity on my
page. I've never wanted it to be, to lean to a certain genre or type of mood all the time. I want to show the range and the diversity. So yeah, I would say about a year or two, I kind of saw that. A little bit and I get them here and there and this still happens, but like now I'm more comfortable. And like I said, I was just always, I really want the focus to be, small businesses, small restaurants like. Where my passion lies.
I feel like if I get too far away from that, I will be like this, this sucks. Um, but
yeah.
But now I
feel like, and honestly I have to commend you for that because you've done some great work. I saw what you did, the, campaign with the vegan ice cream, shop that you were part of that. I absolutely love that. I actually needed to go visit them, but That's why I love your page is because you are I feel like you're like a community connector. Yeah. Exactly. That's what I'm, that's
kind of the point. That's the whole point. But now I feel like I'm more comfortable with, you know, I've had different meetings with different big corporations, Pepsi, Amazon, you know, these big companies, and I'm sort of thinking about the way that that money can come into Baltimore, come into to help these small businesses can help me pay myself. And all of, those things. And there are lots of cool ways to make that happen.
So I'm spending a lot of my time looking in that direction for, God support and collaboration where it's not, I. Necessarily a direct competitor to the restaurants I'm trying to promote. But like I, Verizon was one I worked with a couple times last year, Comcast. And, working alongside those folks, if they have some sort of initiative, whether it be something like a brand deal, whether it be like, oh, promoting the internet, or, you know, a grocery store or whatever.
Like Xfinity, they had a partnership where they had, it was like a grant. Where they small restaurants and small businesses could apply for grants. And so I did a collaboration with them to make that happen, like to make sure people were aware that that was going on. So it's thinking about more things like that, you know, that are direct competitors but are still big companies with a nice budget. Able to. Yeah. It sounds like you're able to find
the synergy, find the synergy between, you do well. Yeah. You gotta find the synergy. That's right. Exactly. And then a million other
things, like it's not just one thing. It's like we said, the event curation. It's doing those brand partnerships and you know, some of those behind the scenes collaborations and meetings, and sometimes it's event hosting, you know? Yeah. Taking the lead and putting something on. So, you know, it's just a little bit of a, it's
about It's ever evolving. It's ever evolving. Yeah. But I, the key piece that you're describing is that diversifying your income streams. And that's what I've always been harping to all of my creators. Mm-hmm. Any small business owners that I work with. Is that the power of diversifying your income streams? And I'm wondering how do you have the confidence. To step out on faith because you mean you started this as a content creator, sort of like a pseudo influencer.
Yeah. You're into all these different things. So how do you have that internal confidence to push yourself even when you know it's a saturated market or you've, I'm sure you've gotten a ton of nos. Imposter syndrome is so real, especially as a black woman in this industry. So just how do you push past that? And
I really, Ooh, that's a great question. Yeah. It's really a journey. I, I like, I keep saying, when I first started, I was, I was what, 20 17, 20 18. At this point I was posting photos and I wasn't showing my face. Yeah. And, sharing strictly my favorite dish. It just kept evolving. And as I took, as I could. Again, looking ahead as I could kind of see things shifting. Like for instance, when I started, it was Instagram, which was all photos.
You know, it was a photo app and Instagram popped over to reels and took people with TikTok and reels was a thing. So I'm like, I love my pictures. I worked so hard to figure out photography and like shooting with my iPhone, like I don't wanna have to do this. But then I. If you look back at those videos, they look absolutely insane, compared to what people, are putting out now. And even now, I'm looking like many movies now.
Yeah. I'm looking, I'm looking at ways to go just a little bit more cinematic mm-hmm. With, um, with my platform and that, but that's more like Q3, Q4, you know, I have so much to focus on Don taking, when I was doing, when I had started, and it started picking up a lot. More people started food blogging and Yeah, becoming a food influencer. Reviewing restaurants and like reviewers also were not a big thing when I first started, and then now reviews.
Eight outta 10, nine outta 10 people are just super popular these days. Yeah. So it was like, okay, how am I competing with that? You know? So people are still listening to me. I don't want my platform to be nine outta 10 because to me logically like it just. I get what people mean, but to me as someone who tastes a lot of food, yeah, that doesn't always make sense. Because I'm nine out of 10 is your personal enjoyability. It's subjective. Yeah. I
might like it a little bit more salty than
you. Right. And I'm like, what is a 9.2? Like, where does the 0.2 come from? So it's fun. Don't, don't hear this is me on it. I think it's so much fun. for me, I'm just like, where would I come up with that number? I just. It just wouldn't work for me. I think
of it as the equivalent of when someone says, I need something that's affordable. Well, what's afford? Yeah. Right. What's affordable is your I know, it's, it's like
kind of like, yeah, doing recommendations. Like if somebody inboxes me and is like, I wanna do a birthday celebration, I'm like, well, you know, you a hookah birthday person, so you, you know, just,
yes. That is a very different experience. Yeah, it's, and to that point, I think that's another reason why I wanted to reach out to you, because a while ago I saw on threads you had an not so flattering experience in the restaurant. Was that
pretty terrible? Yes. So
bad. And so I would love if you could speak a little bit more to that because you are such a community, networker and connector, and it's, it's, you know, offput sometimes to have those unpleasant experiences. So if you wanna give us, well, I think, I
think what we, when we touched on a little bit, the confidence, I feel yeah, it's just, it is a journey nowadays. That stuff really it's like annoying and like, yeah, come on. Like grow up. Um, so the story is for those who are who, dunno. Long story short, uh, I got, I was invited to a restaurant, and this is the thing, again, you're working with small businesses so not everybody understands entirely.
How it works, especially with there different types of food content, restaurant, content creators, you know? Mm-hmm. It is a, it's different genres, you know, sub genres within Yeah. The whole restaurant. So not everybody understands how it works, and I totally get that now. I wish they did their own research, but heck yeah. So I was invited to a restaurant. When I'm invited to a restaurant, usually the, the owners cover the cost of the meal. I come in, I taste a few menu items.
I give my opinion. Usually I want to give it in person, but you, as you'll hear, they were very receptive to that. Um, give my feedback in person and then if the, the meal, the interaction is good, it's positive, then I'll create content around it. And I'll usually disclose when I'm invited in my caption so people know, okay, you know how to weigh it. You know, it's like, well, she's invited versus if she went by herself, she might have a different experience.
So, um, that's kind of how that works. So this restaurant invited me out. They offered to cover the cost of the meal. I come in with my mom and this. Restaurant. So our first dish comes out and it's not great. They're wings. And the chef and his wife kind of let me know. This is, these are award-winning. They won awards. Oh no. They were so confident and when I tasted them, oh no. And when my mom tasted 'em, I'm not the only one. We thought they were very freeze or burn.
And I don't know if you know. How many people are come like know how to fry chicken, but when you kind of fry it and don't thaw out all the way, you know, you can taste the whole
freezer. Yeah.
You could taste the whole freezer and then sometimes that bloodiness, like that marrow, whatever kind comes up to the surface. So the wing is like very dark red and just gritty and it just, you know, the bone is. Breaking off into not a pleasant experience. Yeah. Well it just wasn't a pleasure, texture experience. It did taste just like a freezer. Oh. With a sweet sticky sauce. So they asked, you know, they came back over and was like, oh, how? How was it?
And we were like, oh, well, you know, this is a little freezer. You know, we tried to. We be nice. It got the word out, you know, the words out. They were like, oh, well these are, and everybody else likes. And it was, it was kind of like that. So we like, oh, well, you like the sauce, you clean it up a little bit. So we, we were like, okay, like this guy, like a little sensitive, and his wife had gone in the back, so like maybe his wife is the one who, because that's the thing.
Um, I'll keep it brief, but like. I would say chefs especially are creatives. They're artists, you know, this is their creation. They can be very sensitive, like most artists, most creatives about their stuff. So I, that's not the first time you dealing with someone who's like a little bit overly sensitive. But at the second time, I'm like. If you're overly sensitive, if you're particular, you also need to come with the heat.
If your wings, you woke up this morning, your wings were frozen, it better
slap. They better slap. Go buy some
new wings. So you're not, you're like, oh crap, I forgot to haw these out. Like, lemme go. Lemme go to Giant. Lemme go. Especially if you were invited. You're invited. Caliber, your time to. Create a great first impression. I won't know. This is my first time. I'll have no idea. You wouldn't bought some last minute wings. Like I genuinely would not. Mm-hmm. Um, so we had a couple other dishes. They were all bad. The, you know, the restaurant itself wasn't the cleanest.
And again, it's a whole in new wall spot. So I'm try not to judge too hard off of that, but just the overall experience is bad. Getting kind of jumped back at. You know, when I tried to give feedback Exactly. Having a not so great meal, every dish coming out and just being either low quality or kind of old, it just tasted like old food. So yeah. When we left, I'm fortunate, uh, yeah. When we left, um, I was like, oh, I can't put that up. Like that's, I can't tell people Yeah. If I had old food.
Yeah. I wasn't putting their best foot forward. This was an invitation. I just don't feel comfortable putting that up. So I sent him an email. You know, it was constructive. It was professional. Yeah. In my opinion. I posted the screenshots on threads. You definitely did.
And the corporate girl in me was like, oh, this is really nice. Yeah, you actually sent way longer messages than I would have. So I wanted be
kind of, wanted to be constructive because it a sensitive topic. Yeah. I'm not posting the content. Yeah. And so they were very devastated. They just sent the nastiest messages. They were trying to talk about my looks and just yeah. It was not cute. If anyone, I don't know if it's still on thread. Very angry. Yeah. If it's still on
threads, I invite anyone. It's still on there. It was not cute. It was not.
cause after a couple of exchanges I was like, gosh, this is just so rude. And I just did not want. You know, a narrative out there because you don't, I don't know those people. That was my first time. Like I've talked to them online over the years a couple of times, but that was my first in person interaction with them. So I'm like, I don't know what they're gonna off and run, run. Somewhere on the internet. I tried. No, I
commend you completely because that whole interaction was too much. My chest was hurting, so they were, yes,
it was rude. It was a little disrespectful and you know, honestly, I hate to say it,
but that's not the first time, something like that. And that's why I was like, you have to give us the tea and, and how you dealt with it was so professional. Yeah, I could not imagine. Yeah. I think yes. Usually it
happens like that. Like at this point I'm like. People know my platform, you know, and people, it's so weird. 'cause again, Instagram and the whole landscape of social media changing, sometimes people think all positive or leaning positive can mean you're being phony or you're lying. Yeah. But you know, there's so much behind the scenes stuff that's going on, like having to tell someone you didn't enjoy the experience. Yeah. And so I also felt like sharing that helped people.
Who might follow it, might understand how it kind of works behind the scenes. Like it absolutely does. I don't post everything that goes. Yes,
and you really could have, and I'm, I'm wondering if the restaurant was, you know, receptive of the fact that if you posted that negative experience that could have yielded poor results. Yes, I could have yelled the poor results
bashing and I don't like. I also don't, you know, the internet is such a wacky place too. I don't wanna create a space for that. Like exactly where people just get on and let their steam, let that off in the review section of Constructive, say, enjoy. This is why. Fine. But. The attitude and the rage, like that's not what the page is. Oh, warranty. I
guess from that experience, what advice would you give to future restaurant owners who may have encountered a review that wasn't the best? What would you, what would you say to them?
Like, if somebody posts a negative review? I would just, with it being so popular, yeah. Feel like everybody's gonna have their own opinions. Reviewers, who just, you know, might go to a place and post just like any other feedback or review. If you're, don't react off of one negative review, if you're seeing hearing themes like, okay, this is, this is maybe something you wanna take back and have a meeting about and go back to the drawing board about. But if it's some one off.
I would just ignore it or thanks for coming. Or if it's something egregious, maybe message them on the side to see how you can, you know, treat it like a regular customer review. It's not, it's not that serious.
Tell the story. Let's have some decorum. Yeah. I, I feel like that's a lesson that we need to, yeah,
professionalism always wins, especially in. That's what professionalism is for. It's for when you don't know people like that and you keep a certain level of like decorum. Exactly. So nobody is freaking out or doing what those people just talked about did. The
nosy person in me wants to know, have they reached out to you since then?
No they haven't. No. The last message they sent when they were like going off, it was like the last exchange. I did block them on Instagram because I was just like, protect your, they were like still looking at stories and I'm like, why are you still following along? It's so strange. Get outta here. People are weird. That is, that is
definitely a troll.
Why? Oh my goodness.
Well, another topic that I wanted to pick your brain about was the different food scenes. I noticed a couple of your videos you'll say Baltimore City and Beyond, which I love, I love when you expand out. Yes. Mm-hmm. So, the debate that I've been seeing a lot, and I'm interested to see what your thoughts are, is the, the debate and the food scene between Baltimore City food scene, the d mm-hmm. Food scene, even Northern Virginia. Yeah. So I'm gonna ask a, a question. Who has the best food?
You're gonna say Baltimore City, but who? Yeah.
I'm way too biased to be, you know, but seriously, I do think it's, it's Baltimore and I will tell you all exactly why. It's because I feel like, you know, of course every food team has their strengths and weaknesses. Like I do think there are points. Where DC especially is a little bit stronger, um, than Baltimore in certain areas like volume. When it comes to volume, like fine dining for instance, there's a lot of Oh,
absolutely
you wanna do fine dining. If you wanna go upscale, you go to DC and there's like a thousand options versus Baltimore, there might be like 30. So, but I do feel like, Baltimore is the better one just because of the range, you know? Mm-hmm. When it comes to types of food, when it comes to price point. Affordability.
When it just comes to having a nice, even sometimes the more upscale, elevated in a casual like comfortable environment, nobody's trying to make you feel super duper uncomfortable, even when it comes to like dress codes and things like that. I, I, I feel like we're, we have a little bit more, down home, yes, we have a little bit more of a down home feel. And we still execute very well.
So Baltimore now is really coming up when it comes to getting the James Beard nominations and features in New York Times and Washington Post. We have a ton of award-winning restaurants at this point, and they really hold up to DC When I used to travel a lot from my previous job if I went full time. Mm-hmm. I did a lot of, San Francisco, did a lot of Boston. Yeah. And I just, I always, and I had to take clients out to dinner. That was the whole thing.
So yeah, I, I really did feel like, you know, the flavor was there, the execution was there, the quality is there, in Baltimore food team. And it's just easier to find when you think about popping in and grabbing a bite to eat, I feel like nine times outta 10 you're gonna have a positive experience. Yeah. Versus some of the other scenes where you have to. I feel like you don't need to know where to go in Baltimore to have a good meal. Yeah, that's so true. Very true. It's delicious. Yeah.
Yes. And I think the, the, the thing that you mentioned is that community feel. Mm-hmm. We are cultural city for a reason. It's, you know, that's the thing that I think gravitate and I'm from Houston, so. Mm-hmm. Of course that's like. Big city, food city. Yeah. But it's way different, a different vibe than Baltimore. So I totally get what you're saying there. Yeah. And that's why I love it so much. I, I absolutely love it. So now the fun part, you've been visiting some f fun restaurants lately.
I've been keeping track, but a lot of my listeners wanna know their work from home. Girlies there. Mm-hmm. Mompreneurs. What are some good coffee shops in Baltimore City and maybe even Baltimore County, your top two that you would recommend? Oh man. Well, I put you on the spot. Ooh, I'm sorry.
Uh, no, because I'm like, you know, the coffee shops that are great and have great coffee, but maybe not great hours. I feel like if you're working, you definitely want a place that is nine to five, especially. Um, so. I've personally, let me check their hours before I start hollering out things. I personally have really been enjoying Lama's Corner lately. It's in the Bolton Hill neighborhood and Oh,
that's my favorite area. One of my favorite little areas. Yeah, they're, oh
yeah, they're, they're shop, actually, they're open until some 7:30 AM to 8:00 PM What you Oh good. That's Monday through Friday and it's just a cute coffee shop. When I first went, when they first opened a couple years ago, maybe it was a year ago. Year or two ago, um, their coffee was fine. Like it wasn't, it was all right. I didn't care for it. I'm a big, I'm a bit of a coffee sno, but lately. Month or two, and their coffee is delicious. They have a wonderful barista now. I love that.
Does beautiful latte art, so you can sip a pretty drink. And have, are you a matcha girly now, or do you do matcha? Do they I do. I love matcha. I love tea. I love coffee, but I, I think I'm more of a, a coffee, more of a cappuccino drinker. I'm an espresso person, so I'll do lattes, but I like the, um. I like the cappuccino balance. I like a stronger coffee. I'm, yeah, I, I love that. I
would definitely take that recommended look, I'm writing it down now. I'm gonna take that. Yes, Lamas,
it's very good. It's in Bolton Hill and MCM Street. And then who else is a, is a good, oh, you know, uh, Addie's. Coffee roasters down in Phelps Point. They have good hours as well, and it's a larger space, so I feel like it does. I feel like that's a popular work from Home Spot. So it may get a little crowded, but they have great hours. Good coffee. Great wifi, so Yes.
Which we love. Good. We love good wifi. Nice to stay connected. Yeah, exactly. So thank you for those suggestions. Um, the other thing that I wanted to tap into is my girl. I'm in my reading era. I'm in my era. I got my master's a long time ago and I swore off reading because I was just over. I'm tired. Tired? Yes. At your masters. I got my master's in communication, so I'm just, I'm the talking girl of Stevens University Gold Mustangs.
But what is a book that you've read or that you're currently reading? It could be an audio book,
you know. Yeah. I
just
finished up. I'm my, I did undergrad, in sociology and a minor in religious studies. And those are where, oh, you're in
a way different career.
I know, I know. Uh, sociology actually very much applies. That's true. That's true. So I feel like without, I would've probably crashed and burned without my sociology. I'm not even exaggerated. Because I just understand how human behavior, social systems, and how Victoria, I'm like, okay, this is what this is. So like, you know, you're right. Have the forest through the trees to sort of, I'm telling, getting there it, and like when I see people who are like longer here. Kind of psych them out.
So yeah. I am very much, that's kind of what I read is boring, stuff. Not necessarily boring. It's not boring me. It's
fine. I'm a case study girl. I'll read case studies. Just
funny. I read journals like academic Yeah. Town. So it's terrible. But Ey Coat The Message is the last, book that I read. And it's about his travels and, just, kind of unpacking social systems and things like that through his lens. And he goes to Israel and Gaza and all of that stuff, kind of documents his journey. And then he goes to the south, the American South. Talked about and kind of compares and contrasts those experiences. Um, oh,
I'm gonna have to add that to my list. Yeah. The message immediately.
Okay. Yeah, it's really good. Yeah.
Are you a podcast girl too? Do you switch between reading and podcasts or? I, I used to be such a podcast girly when I
did work corporate, but I don't listen to them. As often. But lately I've been listening to Kiki Palmer's podcast. On YouTube. YouTube. Oh, yes. I'm tapping.
I'm tapping. Yes. Hers is fun.
I like, she's such a great interviewer. I'm like, she asked the questions. She's,
she's like our homegirl. Yes.
She ask the questions that we're all thinking. I'm like, oh, that's exactly what I, and she's very intuitive. She can kind of read people really well. I love. Just the art of her, how she does her podcast. And then I've been listening to, GRS and Eggs podcast, which is one I found on TikTok, grs and Eggs. Yes. These, oh, they were gonna add that to this, these two guys. And they're hilarious.
They're very much kind of like if, if you dig, like at first people just be like, oh, this is just laughs. But if you dig a little bit deeper, they do talk a lot about, the black experience, from like their perspective. But it's, it's hilarious. It's funny. The name got, but then it also kind of gets a little revolutionary, like, wait a minute. Okay. They're preaching. You know what I mean? So like, it's like, oh, I, I like that. Yeah. It's a really good blend of that.
Like, I just, I feel like I, I usually listen to it in the morning because it wakes me up and it's so funny. Like they are hilarious to me.
Oh, I love that you gave a ratchet and righteous. Yeah. Like dichotomy. I love that.
Yeah. That's me in a nutshell. Yeah.
Well, you know what I, your online persona actually really matches like your, you're like a nice warm person and I'm sure your other Instagram cousins and Instagram friends, they probably wanna meet you touch the him. So do you have any events coming up where people can get, you know. Meet, learn from you. Um right now all of my
stuff is very much behind the scenes. I'm like up to my ears and like event curation and collecting all of these, small businesses and restaurants together for various events around the city. So I would say no. but like I'm at capacity be opportunities in the summer. I feel like hopefully we can do the movie nights again. Um, so we're, we're talking about that. And, um, and that's at the Baltimore Peninsula, right? That's at Baltimore Peninsula.
And then I'll be, I have been, I've done some of it this year, teaching people like the basics of becoming an influencer, like a one-on-one. So we either meet like coffee shop or we do online, like a Zoom meeting. And then I just kind of go over the basics on how, specifically how to monetize because I feel like, when I first went full time. I was studying and seeing what other people like big influences and micro influences. Everybody. Everybody in between.
I was seeing what they were doing and the biggest thing that I noticed is everybody had a business, whether it was a product line, whether it was a service line, some people had, a lot of them had multiple businesses, and these are some of the people who are making, going to the Oscars, they getting these huge brand deals and I'm like, they still have businesses so they can get steady income.
So we talk about what, finding a vision for your platform and leaning into, coming up with like a business model to have like consistent.
I love that. Now, are these publicly advertised? Like Yeah, put them
on event,
right? Yeah. Come on now. Somebody follow her on Instagram and sign us
those. I try to do those once a quarter, so I don't, I haven't playing this. Upcoming one. But yeah, once that goes live, that'll be an opportunity. So I don't have a date for that yet, but we'll see.
Okay. Yeah, stay tuned. Now, you mentioned some other events. Can you announce them publicly or should we just stay tuned for? You should definitely
stay tuned for some of them. I'm like, let me see what, what can I, what can I talk about? I mean, come to all, all the Baltimore events. Anyway, Artscape is coming up, I'm doing, oh yes. And the opening
of the farmer's market. It now bad with that changing leadership, how do you think that's gonna impact? Or do you think it's gonna I have
no idea. I'm actually a little nervous about it, but it'll, you know, as long as, you know, I feel like when the great thing, or I won't even say great, but the interesting thing about working, um. Alongside a lot of these organizations is you can kind of see the underbelly of it and it's, yeah, nine times out, not that pretty. And as far as it can be chaotic and people are jumping in and jumping out and, you know, but as long as it comes.
Out to the consumer, to the everyday people as a well organized, thoughtful event. to me, that's all that matters. Yeah. Intent matters as well. Yeah. Matters.
I feel like if they're listening, they should really try to work with you because I feel like you are definitely a community connector. Like I can't, and so yeah, we, we, I feel like I work well
with these organizations. We work so well together. But it's just when you're dealing with humans, you know, some people have the vision, they want it one way, and then this person wants another way and it's like, wait, what is the viral? What is their, so it just kind of, it's just a lot of pushing. The waters get muddy. That's the waters definitely get muddy, but then usually it comes out of clean, nice, beautiful product. I feel like that horror of.
A lot of the, like lots of moving parts happen and then a video comes out and it,
the video does not look like what I went through. Exactly. Oh my gosh. Well this is so. I love talking with you because like I said, you truly give a new energy, a calming energy, and so talking to you is just the same. So I I'm glad that comes across. It does, it does. And the fun fact, we, I think we live in the same area. 'cause I feel like I've seen you a couple of times out and about, but I'm shy in person. I'm like, hmm. Oh my
gosh. Please say hi. Yes,
I do.
I have, I have
seen you out a couple of times, but I've seen a couple of influencers and I'm like, Ooh, I don't wanna say anything. Oh my
gosh, yes. The one thing about most influencers is they love lots of attention, so you should, if you scream out the window, I'm sure they love it. I
know for next. Time. I'll know for
next time. Yeah.
But how can everybody stay connected with you? What's your Instagram, TikTok website? If you have it, let us know all the details. Yes.
Yeah, follow me everywhere. Um, charm City table is, uh, mostly on Instagram. But then I'm also on TikTok. I'm on YouTube shorts, uh, charm city table.com. Yeah, those are all the places you can follow me. My name's Simone. So if you see Charm City table and then Simone Phillips, because there are a lot of Charm cities. There are Charm City. Foodie Charm City. Yeah. Charm City. That's Charm City Vet. So if you see Charm City table, we see Simone Phillips. Simone, that's me.
So yeah, we're talking all about restaurants. Fun events. Event curator connecting master net. Yeah. Yes. Don't call me a master networker. I know it's part of the job, but I'm like, I need to get That is a heavy
title. Oh my gosh. Well thank you so much. It's always a pleasure. Thank you.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode. It was a great conversation and I absolutely will be having Simone back But anyway, if you enjoy this episode, please like, subscribe, share with your network of friends. And as always, stay tuned for the next episode. I'll see you then.