"What the heck is going on?"

Do you ever find yourself saying that when you look at your social media feed? You post something you know is great. It’s funny. It’s interesting. It’s intriguing. It’s sexy. It’s original. It’s got everything to make a popular post – in fact it’s so dang good it could even go viral and get hundreds of thousands of views.

But you’re staring at your feed in disbelief. You’ve gotten 12 views and 3 likes. And two of those are family members. That’s frustrating enough when you just want some attention for your cat or your sourdough bread that’s like the greatest loaf you ever baked – but if it’s your business you’re trying to promote on social media, and you’re failing time after time to get any traction – well that’s a far more serious situation.

Maybe you’ve tried using AI to get some tips on getting your business found on social media, and that hasn’t worked either. So, what does work, exactly? That’s what we find out on this edition of Out to Lunch.

Aerial Payne is the owner of Maranta Copy Co, a social media marketing company here in The Panhandle.You’ve probably heard that these days you can go online and hire an expert social media manager from anywhere - someone who has specialist expertise in getting small and medium-sized businesses outsize attention on social media. Well, Aerial Payne is one of those people.

At Maranta Copy Co, Aerial has around 20 employees and she could, if she wanted, live in LA, New York or Silicon Valley, but she’s a Panama City native and chooses to live here.

If you have a small business, you’re kind of conditioned these days to believe that the only way you can promote yourself is social media. The truth is, though, you have choices. For example, TV.

Yes, there are still people watching TV! And if you have a small business, the answer to your next thought is also “yes” – you’re right, you probably can’t afford to get a TV commercial shot by a production company and placed on a network TV station.

But you can afford to get a commercial shot by 30A Media and played on 30A TV.

30A Media is a production company and 30A TV is an independent network of 20-plus channels distributed on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, smart TVs, and iOS and Android devices — with syndication now reaching major cities. Both the production company and the network are owned by Paul Vizard.

Entrepreneur Of The Week

Our Out to Lunch Entrepreur of the Week is Ryan Eaton.

Along with his wife, Jenn, Ryan is Co-Founder and Co-owner of Big jerk Soda Company, a soda company in Pensacola that makes healthy, carbonated drinks – and you can find them at a bunch of stores up and down The Panhandle, including over 60 Circle K’s from Destin to Panama City.

Big Jerk Soda is made from real fruit with no artificial colors, dyes, preservatives or caffeine. There’s Ginger Beer, Lavender Lemonade, Blueberry Peach, Cherry Limeade, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, and Crystal Clear Root Beer. What hot, thirsty person looking at that lineup in a cold refrigerator in a store would say, “er, no” and pick out a can of Coke instead? Ryan explains the mental machinations of the soda purchaser and mechanical literal machinations of the soda manufacturer.

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Farm & Fire restaurant on Highway 331. Farm & Fire is one of Chef Jim Shirley’s family of fine restaurants. It’s open from 4pm, 6 days a week, and from 11am for brunch on Sundays.

You can find photos from this show by Brandan Babineaux at outtolunchemeraldcoast.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Around 75,000 people live in Walton County. That’s the same number of people who live in a beachside city in France, called Cannes.

There are 85 other cities in France the same size as Cannes, but you probably couldn’t name them. You know about Cannes because it’s home to the world’s most prestigious film festival.

It costs Cannes around $6m a year to stage the festival. Its economic impact to the city is around $200 million. And the festival generates around one billion dollars worth of film industry business.

What if we had a film festival here? That’s the question Kevin Elliot asked. Kevin is a film maker and the owner of film production company, Wewa Films. And he’s the founder of the Redfish Film Festival: a festival of documentary films in Panama City that had its world premiere in 2024.

The reason a lot of us love living in this part of the world is the natural beauty of the place. And the advantage of living in a community that’s small enough to navigate, without the stresses of big city living. On the other hand, when the sun goes down we’d like to be able to enjoy the kind of nightlife that typically comes with a larger population. For example, comedy clubs.

Jason Hedden has solved the population vs comedy club conundrum by having no comedy club and a whole bunch of comedy clubs at the same time. Jason’s comedy company, Panama City Comedy, produces standup comedy shows, not at a single comedy club but at a wide range of different locations up and down the panhandle.

You got a pizza restaurant? A bar? A theater? An oyster shack? You want Panama City Comedy to stage a show at your location? No problem. This business model has been making people laugh, and making Jason money, since 2019.

Entrepreneur of the Week

This week's Out to Lunch Entrepreneur of the Week is Daniel Henderson. Daniel lives in Panama City and he’s the co-owner of a company called BFG Productions.

BFG stands for Boogie Funk Groove and was originally a band. Now it’s much more than that. Now BFG books gigs for other bands and for DJ’s, and arranges all kinds of entertainment. Daniel describes himself as a secret weapon in the local entertainment business, working quietly behind the scenes to make events happen.

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Farm & Fire restaurant on Highway 331, overlooking Choctawhatchee Bay. Farm & Fire is one of Chef Jim Shirley’s family of fine restaurants. It’s open from 4pm, 6 days a week, and from 11am for brunch on Sundays.

You can find photos from this show by Brandan Babineaux at outtolunchemeraldcoast.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you live in a small community and you have big ideas, you have two choices. You can move to a city with a population large enough to support your dreams. Or you can stay home and try and make the impossible happen.

If you're a theater actor and you'd like to appear in a Broadway musical or a professional production of playwrights like William Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams, you could move to New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. Or you could do what Nathanael and Anna Fisher did and found the Emerald Coast Theatre Company.

In 2013 Nathanael and Anna had a traveling troupe, performing wherever they could find a suitable empty space. Then in 2016 they moved into their now permanent home, on Grand Boulevard in Miramar Beach. Today Anna is Emerald Coast Theatre Company’s Associate Artistic Director, and Nathanael is the company’s Producing Artistic Director.

If you love music - from classical to jazz and funk to punk - and you want to go to a record store like you’d find in the East Village in Manhattan, on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, or the French Quarter in New Orleans, you could pack a bag and go traveling. Or, you could do what Tom King did.

Following the blue-sky “Field of Dreams” business model –“Build it and they will come” - Tom opened Central Square Records in a space above Sundog Books in Seaside. That was 2003. Today, Central Square Records is a destination for music lovers who visit here from places like Los Angeles, New Orleans and New York.

Our Out to Lunch Entrepreneur of the Week is Connie Prather.

Connie was a CPA – otherwise known as an accountant - for large companies and corporations before she decided to walk away from doing the books for big business and focus on clients with small businesses. Today she has a one-person accounting and bookkeeping business based in Panama City Beach called Coastal Accounting.

We all have great ideas. How many times have you been sitting around with friends or family and one of you says, “You know what somebody ought to do?...” The difference between successful people and the rest of us is, successful people follow through on a crazy idea and actually do it.

Nathanael didn’t sit around waiting for someone else to start a theater company. Tom didn’t sit around waiting for someone else to start a record store. And Connie didn’t sit around waiting for someone to offer her a job that suited her better. They're all examples of the contention that one person can make a difference.

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Farm & Fire restaurant on Highway 331, overlooking Choctawhatchee Bay. Farm & Fire is one of Chef Jim Shirley’s family of fine restaurants. It’s open from 4pm, 6 days a week, and from 11am for brunch on Sundays.

You can find photos from this show by Brandan Babineaux at outtolunchemeraldcoast.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.