Three Brown Girls

Unencumbered by traditional conventions, these highly connected, entrepreneurial women are taking Atlanta's special events scene by storm. They've even coined a name for their concept: Ultra-tainment.

by Kate Yandoh

December 1, 2005

W alking a Washington, D.C., red carpet packed with power players, dreaming up a supper club where Elton John rubs elbows with Usher and Denzel Washington, and continuously flipping the script on everything that the business world expects: it's all in a day's - or night's - work for the Three Brown Girls (3bg). With an urban-cool name that aptly describes three of the coolest women in Atlanta, the Three Brown Girls (Nicole Cooke-Johnson, Kim Porter and Eboni Elektra) didn't just start a business, they created a whole new category. High-energy, high fashion and highly-connected, these three entrepreneurs decided to fuse their friendship with their enterprising natures to provide what they call "Ultra-tainment" to brands, companies and a range of non-profits - including their own.

Nicole Cooke-Johnson, affectionately dubbed the group's Donald Trump, explains: "People talk a lot about entertainment marketing and branding. But, to us, that's already yesteryear. What we do is bring together our separate strengths to produce, envision and enhance events and projects in a way that is an unexpected and effective form of lifestyle marketing."

One recent triumph, a fundraiser for the Congressional Black Caucus Spouses Education Scholarship Fund, had "been done more or less the same way for years," according to Kim Porter, model, socialite and 3bg's head A-Lister. "They came to us to get some excitement back." So they threw out the staid, and introduced a new type of culture, flavored with celebrities, style makers and musicians. Eboni Elektra, radio and television entertainment reporter, served as the evening's host and proudly reports, "This event set a new record for the organization in terms of the revenue it generated. It was amazing to revive what people were used to seeing and get that kind of response and excitement."

It's hard to imagine these women not getting an attentive response - even if you skip over the power of their striking looks. They got to know each other after Porter moved from New York to Atlanta and found a void. "Atlanta is such a great city, but there's no stamp on it. There's so much music, for example, but nothing about our city brings that out to the rest of the world," says Porter. "The three of us really admired each other," adds Cooke-Johnson, "and we knew that with our intelligence and experience, we could get things done and serve as examples to young girls." Elektra fills in where Cooke-Johnson left off, "... Not just doing business, but creating a movement!"

Movement, of the continuous variety, appears to be another constant in the life of a Brown girl. Porter, long known for her on-again, off-again relationship with Sean "Diddy" Combs, left Columbus, Ga, for New York to model and work in the record industry, then branched out to the catwalks and magazine covers of Europe. Yet, she tempers the jet-set perks of her high-profile lifestyle with Southern politeness. ("When I work with someone, I always send them a handwritten thank you note," she says.) Elektra, who grew up in Brooklyn and Atlanta, showed an early flair for snagging interviews with celebrity guests. She's owned her own all-female promotion team, carved out a niche in Atlanta radio and has been called the next Oprah - by O herself. Cooke-Johnson, the granddaughter of soul legend Sam Cooke, grew up in a "Los Angeles entertainment family," she says, and became the youngest (and one of the only female) club owners in Atlanta when she opened Platinum House at the age of 21. Cooke-Johnson then founded and still runs celebrity style agency Ledom, with a client list including Pink, Ciara, Tyra Banks and Mary J. Blige.

3bg Gives Back To The Community
In addition to their more star-studded pursuits, each of the Three Brown Girls has set up her own nonprofit organization, gathered under the umbrella of RACE (Reaching A Child Everyday). The name is also symbolic of what Cooke-Johnson describes as racing against time. "As Jesse Jackson said, 'Kids of today are the first generation that's in danger of accomplishing less than the one before.'" True to their individual styles, each organization reflects its founder's particular passion.

Elektra (her birth name) drew on her own youth to inspire her initiative: Etiquette and Exposure - two invaluable elements her mother made sure to provide. "Even though we grew up in southwest Atlanta, she sent me to school in Buckhead, which meant mingling with many different kinds of people. And she took the time to teach us how to act in public, how a table is set and we traveled to as many different places as possible." By partnering with businesses including top restaurants and airlines, Etiquette and Exposure provides disadvantaged youth with a chance to have the experiences that will "give them confidence and strength they can draw on as adult businesspeople," says Elekra.

Family roots also underpin Cooke-Johnson's Sam Cooke Foundation, created to provide business education to young people aspiring to arts and entertainment careers. Cooke-Johnson explains that her grandfather was not only a pioneering artist, but also a groundbreaking music capitalist, with his own record label, music publishing company and management firm. "In his short life, he really understood and was successful on the business side, an element that's completely overlooked in arts education today. I want to provide formal training for the artists of the future, ideally going into schools and eventually becoming an independent facility."

Porter's area of focus is one pivotal independent woman: the single mother. "The way things are going, it's the single moms who will make up the American family." A single mother herself and a child of a single mother, Porter's organization exists to provide networks of support, access to information and moments of self-esteem building relief for these women who are "so often overlooked, so often don't have someone to call, don't have access to information or even have someone to help with the little things." Porter continues, "I remember living in New York and getting so frustrated when I'd be trying to get a stroller and a diaper bag off thet rain, and nobody would stop to just help me up the five last steps. That's what I want to do, on different levels, for single moms everywhere, because you can't do it all alone."

The Three Brown Girls envision housing all three elements of RACE in "one large facility, like a campus," says Cooke-Johnson. "However it ends up, we want our nonprofit work to be just as effective and innovative as what we do for our business."


Back To Business
Their business runs on the Hollywood studio model, meaning their core team of 12 people outsources the necessary talent for each project and works with them through the completion of the project. When the group disbands they regroup and go into other business adventures. Their primary business rule is that all three have to be completely committed and enthusiastic about an assignment before they'll agree to take it on. "Anything that doesn't have our type of energy, we choose not to do it. If you stay honest with yourself and with the client, you get a much better outcome," maintains Elektra. Cooke-Johnson adds, "It has to be a collective choice. We are glad to take on challenges, but we don't want to get involved with things that we don't feel confident we can bring off to our standards."

The Next Big Thing
The next big thing the three are planning to bring off? Their own show on network television. Talks are under-way to finalize a TV show inspired by Lip Service, a weekly event 3bg designed to transform Justin's restaurant into a Sunday night supper club where unsigned musical talent, industry hotshots, local leaders and a steady stream of celebrities mix in an intimate setting. "There is so much talent here, and we wanted to create a forum for it," says Cooke-Johnson. "It was designed from the heart, for a purpose, by people who love music for music." A place where, according to Elektra, "You could come in with a song and possibly leave with your dream - several people have come away with record deals. Other big entertainment capitals have places you go to for that kind of exposure, but Atlanta didn't."

Lip Service (set to resume in January 2006) has maintained such a steady stream of appearances by big-name stars, including Usher, Bobby Brown, George Clinton and Diddy, that the media dubbed the Three Brown Girls "media magnets." Even so, Cooke-Johnson says they consciously kept the atmosphere comfortable. "Like everything we do, this event was not just for one type of person, for blacks or anyone else. Music is the ultimate icebreaker between races and ages, and our rooms welcome everyone across ages and cultures," she says.

Experienced in dealing with egos of all sizes, Porter says everyone they encounter is treated equally. "It's what keeps things free-flowing, puts people in a comfort zone no matter who they are. Even though people of our generation, the hip-hop generation, have a tag on them that says 'classless and rowdy,' we define our own culture within that culture, and bring in a different attitude and taste level."

Their own attitudes and tastes are not exactly what one might expect of national tastemakers with such glamorously filled Rolodexes and the nickname "collective mega force." "People do often think that we're super-size divas," laughs Cooke-Johnson, "then they meet us!"

Although they get more than the usual number of invitations to exclusive restaurants, the Girls prefer food of the down-home variety. "We love those family places that have been around 25 years," says Porter. "You know they're doing something right." In addition to carrying ultra-pricey bags from upscale retailers, you'll also find them bragging about thrift store finds and making Target runs, all with impeccable style. "We're chatty, the total opposite of prima donnas," maintains Elektra. "And we stay that way so we can keep reaching out to young girls who may look to us as examples. When we go out, we take our nieces with us a lot. People will say, 'Hey, there's the next generation of Brown Girls.' We love that!" Cooke-Johnson agrees, "We know what we are, and we want to share it. It's just the natural order of business for us."

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Behind The Scences With Three Brown Girls
  
Eboni Elektra
Started her first business at the age of 18, frequently found herself visualizing "leading a life of wealth and power ... then got to know what my purpose was and became focused on using my gifts of speech and communication to accomplish my early dreams and go beyond them."

Nicole Cooke-Johnson
In the midst of a rock-and-roll childhood, her dream was to own a candy-striping factory. "I knew a girl whose father worked in one of those places. I'd see the striped peppermints everywhere and think, 'Wow, I'd really like something nice and normal like that.'"

Kim Porter
Came up with the moniker "Three Brown Girls" while cleaning out the car with Elektra. "It definitely breaks the ice when people hear it. Yet it's not about color, but about three strong, intelligent women who respect each other, and, yes, really can get along!"