How do you go from BBQ to Branding w/ Chris Do
Interview
March 27, 2023
Founder-First Strategy
In one of her most-viewed interviews, Phyllis Williams-Strawder joins Chris Do to trace her evolution from Mrs. Mista and a multimillion-dollar barbecue business to the Ghetto Country Brandmother®, showing how brand strategy helped her build around the person she had become.
Phyllis Williams-Strawder joined Chris Do on The Futur to discuss the journey from building Bigmista’s Barbecue to becoming the Ghetto Country Brandmother® and founder of Brandma’s House.
The conversation traces how a home-based barbecue operation grew into a multimillion-dollar business with two restaurants and a catering company. Williams-Strawder explains how her former personal brand, Mrs. Mista, supported that chapter—and what happened when she matured beyond the role the audience already knew.
Brand strategy gave her the structure to claim her Ghetto Country identity, develop a stronger professional voice, and build a business around the Founder she had become. The interview explores reinvention, personal-brand clarity, entrepreneurship, and the difference between inheriting a recognizable role and intentionally building the next one.