Can a social media influencer get this man to branch out?

In this episode of 87.9, we’re joined in the studio by Sade Young, the real-life go-getter behind @sadeinthecities! Sade chats with Glenn about life as a social media influencer in the Twin Cities and tries to convince Glenn to branch out beyond Applebee’s. Tune in for some great conversation that includes...

• How Sade got her start in the Minneapolis/St. Paul food scene
• Sade’s community-oriented goals as a food influencer
• Glenn realizing why he’s not doing so well in the dating scene

If you like food, live in the Twin Cities, both, or neither, this is an episode you shouldn’t miss. 

Produced by Propellant Films Starring: MJ Mattheson as Glenn Sheen and Sade Young.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I have to marry Smasher Pass five men.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

I didn't think about it that way, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:05

I like where this is going. Good.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

It's K Who Radio 87.9. We've got Shade Young here in the studio, who is an influencer. You may know her as her handle, Sade in the Cities. Sade, welcome to the studio. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Thank you for having me, Glenn.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

It's a pleasure to have you here. And I'm saying it right, Sade?

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Okay, cool. Because I know it's spelled S-A-D-E.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

And so I have been saying Sade all day until until my producer told me multiple times it's Sade.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Everyone else does that too. It's not just me.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Well, unless you're like 60 plus.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Okay, cool. And you know the singer Sade. Well, which I do, which I did, but I also used to call her Sade as well. Oh. Which is probably why I never got when I would request it from DJs. They wouldn't play it, you know. But I'd be like, Can I hear Smooth Operator by Sade? And I think now it's because I was saying the wrong name. You were. They weren't saying they didn't have it. They said I don't deserve it. So I I similarly, uh my name is Glenn, but with two N's. Oh. So similarly, people people mistakenly call me Glenn, but it's Glenn. Glenn. Yeah, well, that was a three A, that was three N's. Um, it's don't be sorry, you're wonderful. Uh that's great. No, I mean, okay. I mean, so but I mean it's very similar, you know, to your situation.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah, it's really similar.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

You are a intensely and amazingly successful influencer. Thank you. Yeah. Based out of the Twin Cities in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Uh, do you love both of them equally? Oh, there it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Um, I've loved both, and I love both of them in their own ways.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

You've loved both in their own ways. It sounds like they're both exes that you maybe are still seeing.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Like I used to- I've never thought of it that way.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

You're like, yeah, I mean, St. Paul and I were like a thing, and now I hang out at Minneapolis more, but St. Paul and I are still a thing, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

That is kind of how it is.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Like Minneapolis and I were first, and then I left Minneapolis. Sure. Shopped around.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Sure. You were like Hopkins, no. Adina? No. But St. Paul.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

We had a little thing.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Well, they're twins, so it makes sense you'd be attracted to both of them.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

They're twins. Yeah. Yeah. When you say influencer, what does that mean?

SPEAKER_02 2:24

There's the perception of what people think an influencer is, where all they do is just post and it's hashtag ad and they're building a following, and it's just more superficial. Sure. But for me, it's more community building. So my page is meant to be a space of like full belonging and like community support. And if I'm um promoting an event, like my goal is to bring people together to those events, so and making people feel welcome to my page as well as like the places that I go.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

That's so beautiful. I thought you were gonna be like, uh, you know, wear this thing and drink this thing, and now they're influenced.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Well, there is like a layer of that.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Um, so like if I do work with like a THC brand or like a liquor, oh hey now. We party, we love to party.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Amen to that. Your food tastes even better after both of those things.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Yes, that is my favorite thing, is THC and then my favorite foods.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

So you're able to influence people to get together, yes, and maybe go to places they've never been before.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Yes, but also like tell stories. So if I'm working with a specific brand, um, I like to kind of tell the story of what that brand does or where they came from.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Kind of a storyteller as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Sade. Yes. Was there a moment in your life, maybe in your childhood, that um you can think back on that led you to the life you live now?

SPEAKER_02 4:02

On like the food side of things, I've always loved food. I grew up in the suburbs, so I'd like to take me to Red Lobster and Bay Biscuits. Yes, still crack to me. This is my favorite thing ever. Even as a kid, I would never order off the kids' menu. Ooh, like that never interested me. Like chicken fingers.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

I always wanted like half cup of macaroni.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

No, no, I wanted like a full rack of ribs at the age of six.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

My dad would just let it happen.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Oh, that's a good man right there.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

And so, like, I remember tremendous 12 at Perkins. They're like, get it to her.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Here's all 12 items for you, ma'am.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Literally, like, I love food that much. So that was just like where my foodie, like my love of food started. And then there was a point where my parents were like, you should be a doctor. And I was like, no. And I was very more into like aesthetic y things. So like I knew there was a lane for me. I just didn't know what that was.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

And now you're making your own lane. So you started with the love of food.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

And that love of food brought you to expressing it more on or telling people about good food.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Yeah. Um, the first like piece of content that I made was um while eating brunch. So this was in like 2017.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Wow. Does the internet go back that far?

SPEAKER_02 5:30

It does.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

That's crazy. I know.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

Some people forgot about those days.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

I try to, yeah. Well, I I I try to let them go because it's when my wife was you know, still with me. Um she's she's alive, she's just not with me. Um, she's actually not my wife, she's my ex-wife. It's fine. Um, Shadow, oh, you don't have to feel bad.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

Does she like food?

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yeah, I remember her eating a lot.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Like, I mean, not a lot, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:56

I don't want to bring up.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

No, I brought her up. I brought her up. You know, it's hard. I I've been told again on these dates I'm going to, these single events, I've been told on the dates that I talk about her too much. Yeah. And I realized that they're probably right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

You should talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

I shouldn't talk about it right now on dates, especially. So just not at all. Because I feel like I have to bring it up. You are influencing even right now in person. You don't have to do it online. You can just be in person and you influence me. And that was a healthy piece of information. Yeah. We're gonna go ahead and cut to some ads. K Who heads, you stay around and listen to these ads, even though we know they're evil and we're killing the planet. But hey, stay tuned. I should try uh some of the spots you're recommending, honestly. Do you like chilies? Chilies? Yeah, they're fine. They're not Applebee's.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

You can't get a triple dipper at Applebee's.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

You can't, you know what? I don't know why I was closed. I I said show me more things. You showed me one. So not Applebee's all the time.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Yeah, switch it up a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

It just sounds spicy to me. Oh, sorry, we're coming back.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Oh, sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

You're new, perfect. This is one of those doing that you're doing so good. That's right, everybody. Uh K who 87.9. You just heard an ad for power juice. Reclaim your power with juice. Cool. Have you tried power juice before?

SPEAKER_02 7:18

No.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Oh, we're gonna get you some. So this first brunch, I want to hear about it. It was Victor's Victor's 1959 Cuban Cafe on the corner of Brand and 30.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Oh my gosh, you're like Google Maps.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

What did you have?

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Oh, I had some sort of pancake.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Oh my god. Do you have you had the corn pancake there or the mango pancake there?

SPEAKER_02 7:39

It was one of those. Amazing. In that family.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Yeah, in that corn mango family.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Yeah, exactly. Some type of delicious yellow thing we could add to to batter. Yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

I just wanted to like create a post about a place that I love. So we just ordered a bunch of food.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

I remember they'd like reposted it and I was so excited.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

That's got a good a good feeling, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:03

It's just cool. You know?

SPEAKER_01 8:04

It's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

And just from there, I just started posting and like just, I mean, it was an excuse to go out to eat, but just to like start building.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

So you're you're connecting communities uh to other communities.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

People are starting to kind of wake up and see that there's a bunch of really great restaurants.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

What was the was there a like a milestone moment for you at all?

SPEAKER_02 8:30

When I started, I didn't know where it would take me. It it really was just like a passion project. Um, so I was also working for an ad agency, but they they let me go in December.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

So you're kidding me.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Yeah, I wish I was, but I think that was my aha moment of okay, well, either I start, I look for new jobs or I just go all in on myself and shade, and that's kind of what's what we've been doing.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Well, okay. We do have a few moments left, Shade. If you wouldn't mind, we do have the K who questionnaire. So last little things are sent in by some of our listeners. Okay. Just a fun couple of questions here for you. If you're interested, um, are you ready to answer? Yes. You feel good? All right, I feel good. Let's go. What's a food that doesn't exist that you wish did exist?

SPEAKER_02 9:19

Well, okay, because I love Willy Wonk.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Oh, same, same, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

And I was gonna say like a gobstopper, but that is a thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

But like the one in the movie, though. The one is everlasting.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

One of my favorite restaurants here in the Twin Cities, Trevail, right now, they have a pop-up, a Willy Wonka pop-up. So I need to get over there to see like how they're bringing these things to light.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

I wonder if you can lick the walls. I would absolutely go lick some walls at Travail.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Yeah. Trevail.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

No, you said you love food. We have one little game like to play here.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Um, it's a it's a cleaner version of the version that people call it, but it's Mary, Smash, Pass. These three. Ronald McDonald, the Burger King, and the five guys.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

I have to marry Smash or Pass five men.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

I didn't think about it that way, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

I like where this is going. Okay. Well, we'll marry the five guys because five husbands taking care of me. I never have to work again.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

I think you deserve it. So I'll take that. Absolutely. And you don't even have to move to Utah for that.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Kill Ronald McDonald. He gives me the heebie jeebies.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

He does. Those are the heebs and the jeebs for sure. That leaves smashing the Burger King.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

That you'd literally smash the patriarchy.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

Ooh.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

That's even better.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah, it works out perfect.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

I like how your brain works.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

I don't like how my brain works usually, but talking with you today makes me like it a little more and it makes me like myself a little more. Sade, thank you so much for being here. K Who Heads out there, make sure you check out Sade in the Cities, available all across multiple platforms. Stay locked on to the station because we have an hour rock block coming up of Sade in honor of our guest, Sade. Stay tuned. Thanks for listening.