Daily Inspiration: Meet Maddie Bennett

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maddie Bennett.

Hi Maddie, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started a radio show at my college radio station while studying there, KDRU 98.1 FM, for a project in my radio activities class. The radio show was called Funky Fresh FM, where I would interview local musicians and play local music. The school project quickly became a passion I wanted to pursue. I began to love to aspect of documenting DIY scenes and the artists and bands in those types of scenes.

After graduating, I couldn’t see FunkyFresh completely ending, expecially with all of the support it got during KDRU, so I started to turn the radio show into a business platform where I book and document independent artists and bands. I did not want to do the business alone and also I wanted it to a collaborative business, so I added my friends to FunkyFresh.

The used-to-be radio show and now-business is a tight knit community where local musicians from any background can come together and connect through music. FunkyFresh consists of Carter Walker on photography (@roomtoreach.media on instagram), Jordan Aultman (@flacko.jordey on instagram) on videography and Eli Aye (@_eliaye_ on instagram) on sound during shows. it was easy to turn it into a collaborative business since all of us are either in bands or have been in the local music scene for awhile so we know the ropes of budgeting and booking shows.

We have been hosting and booking one to two shows every few months, welcoming and encouraging more people to be a part of the close-knit community. We have team members from STL and Springfield where we can book shows at those locations and interview artists and bands. We have another individual joining from Dallas, Texas, Alison (@al1film on instagram), who will photograph and interview musicians there.

The business grew so large that now we are booking bands and artists from NYC and Chicago. With so much artists and bands reaching out, I have decided to make a website that can be easier for booking and documenting. It will essentially be a “music hub” that will feature documentation and interviews with artists, live footage and audio from the shows, blog posts, ways to get involved and information on shows and booking. I hope to make this platform big to where bigger artists reach out to us and we can help book and interview them.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been a smooth road at all. While, I have been in the music scene for a while because of my college radio show, I started a business without knowing fully on how to manage and run a business. I have to thank Eli Aye for helping me along the way with how to manage this business. He has me helped me with answering questions with splitting budgets and running shows and I am greatly appreciative for all of his help.

I am not going to sugarcoat it, if you’re a young women with a passion and running a business, you are going to get hate. I got hate emails, posted on reddit, and instagram messages from people that just did not like the aspect of FunkyFresh and they thought they could run a business better or would give me unsolicited advice. Some started rumors about the business and me and they did not like how we ran the business even when I have never spoke a word to these individuals.

I started to think, if I was a man in the music business, would I be getting the same amount of hate or similar hate? You HAVE to switch your mindset to if these people think they can run a business, let them. But continue to do your own thing. If you are starting something ORIGINAL and NEW, there will be haters that mask their hate with jealousy and ego.

I know that FunkyFresh has touched many hearts. We do not get much in this business, we do it for the love and passion of the music scene. I love giving a stage and voice to indpendent artists and bands and that won’t change for quite awhile (or never). I want this business to be a inspiration for anyone that is afraid to jump into something without knowing everything about how to even run it.

I think the biggest struggle I have faced would be doubt, like imposter syndrome, I still have thoughts where I go “This is a silly business”, “Am I fit for this?” “Maybe I am not equipped to run a business”. YOU CAN do it and you have to keep your head down and eventually big things can happen. I would never have thought that a dear friend and musician I booked, Carson B. Davis, would suggest me for this “Hidden Gem” interview, but once you start to keep your head down and focus on improving and improving, eventually opportunities will arise for you.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am the founder of a DIY music business, FunkyFresh. The business is located in STL, Springfield, and Texas (we are expanding into Kansas and hopefully Chicago). I hope to expand this business so it can be a business that is located (almost) everywhere. I interview and report on bands and musicians within the business. I book the shows and arrange the social media postings. I also coordinate the communication and emails within the business.

Before I started the business, I was a radio host for three years at KDRU 98.1 FM at Drury University, that is where FunkyFresh began. I was a on-air radio host and reporter for KDRU on my radioshow, FunkyFresh. I also was a reporter at the same time, at KSMU Ozarks Public Radio on their arts and culture team, where I interviewed various musicians and bands in the music scene for the radio station. So I am very familiar and experienced with interviewing and music journalism expecially editing audio which I had to do as a intern at KSMU for their websites. I also was an annoucer and I helped manage and set schedules for the NPR hosts and shows at KSMU Ozarks Public Radio. I always wanted to work for NPR but with the recent defunding from the Trump administration, it has been hard to find a job in public media, as many jobs are being cut and reporters and radio hosts are being let go.

What sets me apart and what people do not know – is that I am a recent graduate (graduated this last December) with a Bachelors in Science and my degree is in Environmental Biology specializing in criminal justice. I have a passion for medicinal botany, animal care, climate change – and most importantly environmental advocacy. I am very into helping communities that need clean water, access to food that is nutritious, pollution, and necessary gardens that help flouish the communities. I am still job searching but just like public media, with the administration, it is difficult to find a job that is helping with climate change and advocacy.

I want to set up AT LEAST one tiny desk concert for NPR – ever since I was little I wanted to report for NPR and I got into broadcasting in college. I hope that NPR recognizes FunkyFresh and I am really inspired by “Rolling Stones” magazine, wishing that all of the hard work will pay off in the end. I am really proud of how much recognition FunkyFresh is now getting and astonished that a small college radio show project that I needed for a grade, is now being recognized in small towns and cities. Some of the team members, me included, get recognized here and there and I think that is so special. I think FunkyFresh is unique in that with the interviews, we really show you who the musician is as an individual and we dive deeper into their lives and how they are all connected into the DIY scene. FunkyFresh is really inspired by “THATGOODSHIT” on instagram and MTV, where we take footage that has the viewers thinking they are there at the shows in person. We book and explore the strangest, most peculiar, and most wonderful musicians and bands there is.

We want to encourage voices of the DIY scene to be heard and treated fairly.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
You can reach us on instagram funky_freshfm and our email is [email protected] (two h’s and two y’s). We are always looking for people to join our team! I know some folks have had questions, but with this being a starting business, we are looking for any and ALL talented photographers, journalists, videographers, artists, and graphic designers to join the FunkyFresh team. We are expanding, and even though we have a small team now, we are wanting to have people globally that can contribute to the team!

I want to shout out and thank our last FunkyFresh that helped with the transition and rebrand of the radio show to now-business. We had Arden Dickson (@ardengdickson on insta) – a New York Times-published photographer specializing in entertainment and documentary work. We had Noah Huettenmeyer (@nhuett_ on instagram) , who was our STL creative lead and brand designer and was a BIG HELP for creating the logos and designs that we use now for the business. We had Will Morris (@willworriston on instagram) who helped with creating and putting merch together for the business, that we have now. I am forever grateful for their help and I couldn’t be here without them. We also had many many talented photographers that helped document the business which I want to include: Ella Mauzey (@rufffmedia on instagram), Madi Brady (@madiibradyy on instagram), Liz Vanessa (@liz.vanessa_ on instagram), and DICE (dice.iso on instagram).

We have a website dropping soon too where you can reach out to us there.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: funky_freshfm
• Other: email – [email protected]