Making Connections: How Two Southern Innovators are Saving the South Through Conversation

Why is Atlanta the innovation capital of the Southeast? The podcast series Might Could: Stories of Innovation in the ATL, from The Hatchery, Emory Center for Innovation, seeks to answer that question in conversation with innovation thought leaders and disruptors in nonprofits, higher education, and industry who are making Atlanta a city of the future.

On March 18, The Hatchery had the pleasure of welcoming special guests Chuck Reece and Stacey Shuker Reece, co-founders of Salvation South. Chuck was previously co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Bitter Southerner, which aimed to debunk stereotypes about our region by uncovering the American South in all its truth and complexity and is now editor-in-chief of Salvation South.  Stacy is President of Down South House & Home, which offers high quality Southern themed home goods with clean classic designs, and now co-founder and head of merchandise for Salvation South, which aims to do two things:

• Celebrate the unique Southern culture that unifies us all;
• Explore some of our current divisions in the hope that we can begin having civil conversations, perhaps not always agreeing with each other, but walking away as friends.

On the Salvation South website, Chuck explains that he’s not bitter anymore, but hopeful—hopeful because he and Stacy have met, and now have the opportunity to serve, so many people who want to “have conversations that might bring a little more peace into this world….  These days, stereotypes are the least of the South’s problems. Our region’s deepest problem is division. Southerners are divided from each other eight ways to Sunday. Salvation South will never stoke the fires of those divisions. It will be a place where people of good will can talk, where writers and photographers and filmmakers can bring us food for thought that we can talk about together.”

“Chuck was on the forefront of this business model,” Stacy said of her husband and business partner. When he started The Bitter Southerner in 2013, he kept the publication running by selling merchandise and memberships, an idea that was brand new to the industry. The brand gained fast traction on social media.

Through Salvation South, the Reeces are trying to get people to just talk to each other. “Everybody wants to defend their grandmother’s mac and cheese.” Chuck continued, “what we’ve tried to do with people is to look at those things and to get them in conversation with each other.” He said his old publication rarely ran fiction or poetry, yet Salvation South has done both, because of the freedom it allows for Southerners to speak in a different way and a different voice.

Stacy describes her work as a Southern innovator and entrepreneur as “a long and twisted road.” She added, “Failure is a part of it. Pretty much no one is watching anyway, so go ahead and fail.” Entrepreneurship allowed her to have a drive for success, in contrast with what she was taught a woman’s role should be in her formative years. She noted that she has always challenged that status quo, making her a rebel in her circles, but a natural entrepreneur and innovator.

“There are a lot of little niches that have grown up,” Stacy said of the innovation ecosystem in the city. She added this advice for innovators: “Find counsel that builds you up as opposed to tearing you down.” Chuck added, “Ignore the naysayers. It’s as simple as that.”

Chuck has run his own communications consulting firm and has worked for the Who’s Who of Georgia corporations and individuals, including The Coca-Cola Company, the Georgia Lottery, and for the state of Georgia as Director of Communications to Gov. Zell Miller.  He holds an ABJ in Journalism for The University of Georgia, where he served as the editor-in-chief of the UGA student newspaper, The Red & Black.

Prior to Down Home & South, Stacy served as President of Down South Innovation, her own business development firm where she created strategic relationships for clients in the Southeast; as Director, Partnership Development for Georgia Bio; and as Director, Center of Innovation for Life Sciences at the Georgia Department of Economic Development, where she worked to connect Georgia companies to academic and industry expertise, commercialization and technology resources, potential investors, and government agencies.  She holds a B.S. with Chemistry Focus from The University of Georgia, and a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University.

You can listen to the podcast on Spotify or Apple. You can also watch the recording here. To keep up with everything going on at The Hatchery, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter.