104: Corey Smale (SUPERGIANTWORLD)

Corey Smale on Innovation City

“If you’re going to go into business for yourself, you need to go into business for other people too.” — Corey Smale

Welcome to Innovation City—powered by Venture Cafe—where Tyler Kelley and Michael Johnson, Co-Founders of SLAM! Agency, interview innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.

Created and produced by SLAM! Agency in cooperation with Venture Cafe St. Louis and Venture Cafe Miami, Innovation City gives you an inside look at how rapidly business and culture are changing thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community. Venture Cafe is the largest combined gathering of entrepreneurs and innovators anywhere in the world. Events are held every Thursday in St. Louis, Miami, and other leading innovation cities around the globe.

Today’s guest is Corey Smale, Owner of SUPERGIANTWORLD. With a copywriting background in advertising, Corey has been able to successfully launch two St. Louis restaurants, Strange Donuts and Good Fortune, that have helped to put him on the map in St. Louis’ marketing elite. Corey sits down with the team to discuss his advertising background, how he started Strange Donuts, the importance of consistency and authenticity in brands, St. Louis’ struggle to intersect its communities, giving back through his nonprofit, and much more!

They discuss:

• Being a self-starter
• Everything is about perspective and taking new experiences with you to each new project or venture
• His advertising background
• How he started Strange Donuts
  • Saw a void in the marketplace
  • Started a kickstarter campaign
  • Started a social media campaign
• He creates businesses to be catalysts for marketing
• The importance of seeing both success and failure in your career
• Consistency and authenticity is how brands really win
• The importance of the execution and roll out of new brands and businesses
• St. Louis particularly resonates with a “from the ground up” new venture
• The difference between St. Louis in 2013 and St. Louis in 2019
• There is an exciting energy in St. Louis for entrepreneurs
• St. Louis needs to find more ways to intersect it’s communities
  • Specifically more physical spaces for people to connect
• The competitive food industry in St. Louis
• New restaurants are constantly evolving because the demands and trends of food are always evolving
• Social media is less exciting now because it’s more necessary
• His nonprofit, Strange Cares
• Charity it not an option or something to think about for him anymore- it’s just automatic
• Working with Food Outreach
• Currently working with Stag Beer as their brand manager
• Follow Corey’s journey on social media @SUPERGIANTWORLD