Community Highlights: Meet Bryant Palmer of Oh Hey Creative

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryant Palmer.

Hi Bryant, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I moved to Denver in 2015 to help open Stanley Marketplace. My title was chief storyteller. I launched Stanley’s social media channels, built an email marketing strategy, planned and hosted events during and after construction, coordinated internal communications with all the project’s business owners, developed and managed strategic partnerships with groups like Denver Center for the Performing Arts and CherryArts — a little bit of everything. That was a great introduction to different creative communities in Denver. Oh Hey Creative grew out of that work.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I never said, “I’m going to start my own business,” or, “I’m going to launch a PR agency.” People seemed to like the work I did for Stanley, and that led to similar work for other projects. By the end of 2019 I had eight or nine different clients and felt like a pretty successful solopreneur, if you will. Then the pandemic arrived at the start of 2020, and I lost all of my clients except for Stanley in, like, two days. I didn’t have time to think much about that, because helping 50 businesses at Stanley figure out how to survive months of closure took all my attention. After a year or so, a few things happened that brought me, and Oh Hey Creative, to a turning point. I left Stanley—this project that was very much associated with me and with my work in Colorado. I didn’t know what my business would look like without this keystone project. I’d never had to seek out clients before. Within days of publicly announcing my departure from Stanley, though, other F&B operators around town started reaching out to see if I’d be interested in working with them. I remember the day I got a call from the team at Cart-Driver, which has been one of my favorite restaurants since I moved to Denver. I realized Oh Hey was going to be okay. Better than okay, actually.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Oh Hey is a PR and content marketing shop that specializes in food and beverage businesses, arts organizations, and real estate. For some clients we lead PR, for others we handle social media marketing and email marketing, for some we spearhead all their marketing and communications. We love strategic partnerships, too. One of my favorite things is developing creative collaborations for our clients that benefit everyone involved. We’re probably most known for PR in the arts world and for social media in the F&B world. We’re small enough to be really nimble. And I like to think we bring a sense of joy and playfulness to most of our projects.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Right after college I spent several summers working as a camp counselor at The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, in Ashford, Connecticut. The actor and philanthropist Paul Newman founded that camp to serve kids with serious blood disorders. It was a magical place. And Mr. Newman used to talk about luck a lot — how it can be so random. Some kids are perfectly healthy. And others get diagnosed with cancer, or a rare blood disorder. I think about that randomness a lot. And I try not to take anything for granted. I’m super grateful that I had a mom who prioritized my education, who pushed me to work hard and taught me to hold myself to a pretty high standard. I grew up in Alabama. My husband grew up in Philadelphia. And yet somehow we found one another in this big and chaotic world. That feels like the best piece of luck to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ohheycreative.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ohheycreative
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ohheycreative

Image Credits
Joe Friend, Nikki Rae, Deyan Christakiev