Inspiring, real, intriguing, uplifting randomness, vulnerable, raw, experimental, hilarious. That’s how the hosts and founders describe the conversations they are having in their new web series called OKAY SO!. Season 2 is set to begin tomorrow – Saturday, June 1 – with more interesting conversations from hosts Eric Upchurch and Shoana Cachelle.
“We have a lot of chemistry on camera. We vibe well. We have similar values and we care about the community and building other people up,” Upchurch tells Madison365, speaking of his and Cachelle’s show. “OKAY SO is aimed at different people’s goals and inspirations and the nuggets that we are gaining ourselves.”
Upchurch met Cachelle through her salon business. “She owned a salon in Africa and owns a salon here in the states. I was getting my hair done and having conversations talking about our businesses, talking about branding, talking about our consulting work,” Upchurch remembers. “We started talking about relationship stuff and regular life stuff just during these appointments. We thought, ‘Hey, these [conversations] would be a really good podcast. This would be a really good show.’”
Upchurch says that the title came from the times you are just sitting around and something random comes to mind. Before you begin to discuss it, you say, “OK, so…..”
https://www.facebook.com/OKAYSOUSA/videos/337146127036180/
Season 1 featured episodes tackling issues like building relationships as an adult, dating in the age of social media, work-life balance, and single parenting.
“Season 1 was more about us vetting topics through the community and seeing what topics people want to talk about,” Upchurch says. “We want it to be a viewers’ show where we can have a conversation about whatever the viewers want to talk about and learn about and grow from. We noticed that people really gravitate towards the relationship talk.”
That first season was really about getting out there and producing some good content. The second season will expand upon that. (Check out the sneak preview below).
https://www.facebook.com/OKAYSOUSA/videos/389210231685156/
“This season and the next season we’re changing things up and making the format of the shows less edit-heavy so that we can produce more. The format of season 2 is much different,” Upchurch says. “It’s not as much of a free conversation between Shoana and I, it’s more of a conversation to people who are responding to our posts on social media. We are shouting out folks and sharing the spotlight with people who are contributing to the show.”
Originally from Liberia, Shoana Cachelle is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, motivational speaker, and international photographer. Upchurch is a well-known entrepreneur here in Madison known for his work with Young Black & Gifted and as founder and Chief Visionary of Opportunity Inc.
“Shoana’s audience is Liberia and different parts of Africa. Through Opportunity Inc. we’re getting viewers from Madison and Milwaukee, too, and all over the state of Wisconsin because of the marketing we do here,” Upchurch says. “We are putting it out there for anybody who resonates with the content, but because of who we are, we hope that it is naturally something that black folks can be inspired by.”
Facebook is where OKAY SO gets the most traffic. Upchurch says that they have over 100,000 views between all of the shows they’ve put out.
“YouTube, Twitter, Instagram … people can connect with the show through any of our social media,” he says. “It’s a social media things now but it will eventually become a community that folks can join and really contribute to a more robust show.”
Upchurch has big goals for this web series that he says “elevates everyday insights for everyday people.”
“We’ll be pursuing sponsors soon as the seasons drop and we’ll be solidifying a plan for sponsorships,” he says. “Organizations and local businesses will have an opportunity to reach our audiences and we hope that it empowers and inspires people even more to be able to connect with great businesses.
“There’s also the community aspect that we hope to grow where we are creating a space for people to continue these conversations and to get even more content and more tools to help build their relationships in different ways,” he adds.
