Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.193 | feat. Keith Brown

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

Spotlighting Utica’s Small Businesses with Keith Brown (Community Lens Media & Love Living Local 315) Matt Masur of Click Stream Studios interviews Utica-area marketer and content creator Keith Brown about his work promoting positive stories and small businesses through Community Lens Media and Love Living Local 315. Brown explains how he helps mom-and-pop shops—especially local food spots without big marketing budgets—gain visibility by sharing their stories, and how he teaches a monthly “smartphone toolkit” content creation class at Mohawk Valley Community College. He describes starting during COVID by filming simple phone videos highlighting open restaurants, learning editing through “YouTube University,” and growing into a broader network that spotlights people, places, and events, including his “Coach’s Corner” segment. They discuss Utica foods like chicken riggies, the value of collaboration and networking, and where to find Brown on social platforms. 00:00 Welcome and Setup 00:35 Meet Keith Brown 02:19 Helping Small Businesses 03:17 Utica Food Talk 03:46 Riggis Favorites and Origins 06:08 Love Living Local 315 07:20 Started During COVID 09:30 Positive Content Mission 11:57 Community Lens Media 13:27 Collaboration and Networking 16:49 Where to Find Keith 17:37 Wrap Up and Goodbye

Hey guys, welcome back to Good News York. I'm Matt Major from Clickstream Studios. I'm very excited to interview this gentleman. This is a fella who I think it's fair to say that we've been kind of keeping tabs on each other for a little while now. Absolutely. Mutual admiration. Exchanging a lot of great encouraging comments and things like that. Go ahead and introduce you. Let's jump right in.

Go ahead and introduce yourself. Tell people who you are what you do. So my name's Keith Brown, and I am a marketer. I do a lot of different media stuff locally in Utica, New York in the greater Utica area, create content for small business owners to help kind of give them more visibility and exposure. Yeah. I teach content creation of students once a month at Mohawk Valley Community College. Oh, that's awesome.

And it's very at the basic level. I call it the smartphone toolkit. So I basically teach them everything I learned with my smartphone. Yeah. And really started all during COVID is when I really started doing everything. But yeah, so now I'm just kind of building, help building a platform to actually my personal platform, community lens media, and then I'm a part of another platform, Love Living Local 315. And basically what we do is we spotlight, showcase all the positive stuff going on in the greater Utica area and really the 315 and shed a light on what doesn't normally get a light shut on. But that's pretty much what we do.

We do a lot of networking, a lot of connecting and building and growing. Yeah. We got something good going in the greater Utica area. I love it. I love to see it. I've been watching for a long time, obviously. And you have obviously very similar goals here because, you know, as you know, that's kind of our point of good news York as well, is to kind of just help spread those positive messages about our area. People, unfortunately, the locals are worst critic.

For sure. You know, we tend to beat up on ourselves excessively here. we need to remember how awesome this place is that we all live in. Absolutely. And I love to see you guys highlighting that and helping other businesses. For sure. That's awesome, man. Keith, tell me, what types of businesses do you work with?

Do you work with all kinds? What do you find most common? So for the most part, we like to work with the small mom-and-pop shop, you know, small business owners, food places, pizza places, places that normally wouldn't have like a marketing budget or a big marketing budget. We try and help those places out and kind of put a spotlight on them, share their stories, share their recipes, share what they got going on in their world. And that's who we normally target because those are the people who we feel like need the spotlight. Yeah.

So those are generally the ones we spotlight and we target just to build community. Sure. I feel like it's the type of thing, too, that people really respond to a lot. right? Like there's a lot of interesting things, but you've got to eat every day. And so when you see these, here's a new joint, I didn't even know about down the street. They love that, you know?

It's great, and it's fun, right? You get to sample some incredible food in the process. A lot of it started with the pizza places, because we live in an area where there's so many different varieties of pizza. Especially in Utica specifically, probably in Syracuse, too. But there's so many different styles of pizza. And we really wanted to share that.

Well, not even just pizza. It's a melting pot of food places. And I, and And I think we wanted to share that in a way that's cool and resonated with people. Yeah. And obviously the food's good, too. Yeah. For sure. That's the one thing we always knew how to do when Utica's eat.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I got, so this might be controversial, but you got to tell me, Keith, what is of all the classic Utica foods, Riggies, greens, half moons, what's your favorite Utica meal? So mine, out of the ones you just named, I'm a big riggy guy. I love the chicken riggies. I love it all, though. I love the Utica greens, but the riggies is really what stands out. I'm a pasta guy.

Yeah. So I love a good riggy sauce, a lot of flavor, the red and green bell peppers, all that stuff. And that's another thing, just like the pizza. Every single place kind of does it a little different. Yep. Put their own little twist on it. And it's one of those things, man. You talk to any Utican.

They'll probably give you a different description of who they love or this place. But luckily, we have more than enough. options to choose from. But riggies are definitely my go-to. Do you remember what place it was that introduced you to riggies? What was the first bowl of riggies you ever ate? The first place I had rigies was probably, it doesn't exist anymore. It's Tom Cavalows. Okay. That was one of the best. Yeah. And they just recently, he just gave it up probably about a year or two ago after like 40 or 50 years in the business. Absolutely. And they're really known for the wings too. Yes. But the riggies is where where I really got introduced there at Cavalos.

But again, everywhere in Ginko. See, I go back a little farther. Yeah. I started in the days of McGills. And I don't know if you... McGills. McGills is a heading in a gym. Going way back. And actually, if you want to go real far back before that, he had Rendez.

Mark Brandy, who owns McGills. I know Mark. It was on Main Street in Herkimer. That's crazy. Where Glory Days eventually was and is now the building's gone. But, yeah, back when I was a little kid, we were going way back. I didn't know that history. Yeah.

And I won't go so far as to say he was the first, but he was one of the first that really made that dish. And, man, it was just the most incredible thing you ever had, you know. It's funny you say McGills, too, because McGills is one of those places you can go get a huge portion size of the riggies for like $10. That was it. You could take it and feed your family for under $20. We would. My dad used to pick it up on his way home from work. He'd get one order, and we split it for the whole family and have leftovers.

You know, it was incredible. That's a good call on McGills. That's crazy new McGills. They're known for their portion sizes and their food for sure. Yeah. Yeah, with some incredible stuff. But, Keith, tell me about some of these other adventures. Tell me a little bit about Living Local and what that's all about.

So Love Living Local kind of started with a mentor of mine, Scott Grates, and a friend of my John Spina. They kind of wanted to spotlight again, all the places and people and events that normally didn't get recognition. And it started off small, and it kind of took on a life. of its own to where people are reaching out because they wanted the exposure, they wanted to visibility, they wanted to talk to us in a setting like this and kind of tell their stories. And now it's kind of grown into different segments, a part of the network.

I actually have my own segment. It's called Coach's Corner where I talk to different local coaches, tenured coaches in the area. They have a cool story and a cool tie locally. But even that's growing. Now I've got different sports. I mean, I got different schools, all these different districts, like reaching out because They want to get an interview now. And like now it's like a full-blown network.

You know, we're kind of growing it where it started off small, but now we've kind of garnered the support and people love it. People love it. And it's one of those things where we really enjoy what we're producing and what we're putting out there. That's awesome, man. That's really neat. What, you know, I think you mentioned earlier you kind of got started with this during COVID,

but what really got you into this kind of modern marketing digital world? Absolutely. So quick story. I don't know if you remember during COVID, there was very limited to do. And there weren't very many places to go eat. Yeah. So me and my buddies were like, bro, let's just go highlight the spots that were actually open. And it was two or three different places.

And we literally just started with our phones doing selfie videos. Like here, we're at this place. It's Meatloaf Monday. Come try it out. And what started as like 20 to 30 views each week it would grow. 30 to 100 to 1,000. And then next thing you know, once COVID opened, all these restaurants are reaching out to us. So then we're thinking like, maybe we got something here.

Maybe it's not just a fun little thing we're doing. Sure. Maybe we actually, because people love the banter we had. They love the way we talked about the food. And what started as just a fun thing we were doing with my friends kind of just built into a full-blown content creation thing. And that's when we started learning how to edit. And we started learning how to deliver our message on camera and be more like mindful of what we're saying and how it resonates with people. And it really just, it was bred out of COVID, man, just being bored.

Yeah. Literally just being bored. And then literally YouTube University teaching us how to add, you know, kind of trial by fire, you know, learning on the fly. Yeah. I see YouTube almost like the Matrix, you know, on that thing where, you know, they're like, I need to learn how to fly a helicopter. Let me download it to you. YouTube, just slightly slower version of that. Like there's literally anything you want to learn how to do, you can pull up and watch 40 people.

So much information out there. Yeah. If you really want to educate yourself, not even just. just YouTube, just, there's so much out there to really, if you want to take the time and actually educate yourself, it's out there. It's out there. And that's kind of what we did. And it grew to where Love Living Local and Scott and John saw what we were doing. It was like, we want to bring these guys in. So they were doing it on a bigger scale. They were focused on people, places, and events. I was kind of focused just on the food. We kind of brought it together. And now you see what we're

doing. That's awesome. Now it's like full-blown, you know, just spotlighting and showcasing everything positive. Yeah. Aside from just the food. Sure. And that's the thing, too. Social media is such a dark, negative place. But if we want to pump as much positive content than we can, at least locally,

right. To the people that actually know us and make them smile, make them laugh. Yeah. And even compel them to share it and like it and maybe even, you know, kind of produce their own thing. You know, we, when we started Good News York, we were a little worried because, you know, we wanted to put positive content out there because there was such a lack of it. But then we thought, is there a lack of it because nobody will watch it? You know, and there was a little bit of that.

And I'm so glad that that didn't slow us down at all because there is. There's a huge appetite for it. And people love this and it's great to see. Absolutely. And, you know, the amount of comment, the amount of emails we get of, hey, we got a real positive story. It'd be great if you featured on there. And just like you said, it's great to show 100%. Absolutely.

Yeah. It's just, it's fun, you know, to show something. a different perspective. And, you know, I love highlighting. It's really neat if you see some of these creators from out of the area to come visit Central New York. And they make these videos. And it's always like, you know, the locals always wondered why we came here.

But this was the most incredible experience we've ever had, you know? And they show off so many things. And that's the type of thing that, like I said, we just want to put a lens on and share those stories and beat down that negativity. Because after a while, you realize it's only a small but loud. group that of and we can we can we can shout them down with positivity you know I I think anyway no no I agree I agree I agree and that that's kind of what drives me and it's funny you say that because I do there there was a I forgot what the

influencer's name was but he came locally tried one of our breakfast spots and it's actually a spot I patronized two or three times a week so I'm like I didn't really appreciate his review of our local spot so I actually went and did my own review to kind of yeah back them you know because I didn't like that he bashed us and And he's not a local guy. He doesn't. And I get that was his first impression. But for me, I actually see these people.

I talk to him. Yeah. I consume the food there and I could vouch for their quality. I wanted to go, you know, do my own little thing. And it actually helped. You know, the owner reached out to me. It was like, I appreciate you doing that. You're a real local.

You actually know us. You know exactly who we are as people. Right. And that's, that means something to me. Yeah. When people appreciate the content we create and a message we're trying to send and share with people. Yeah.

Keith, tell me just a little bit about this project of your own, the community lens. What is that all about? So community lens media, I kind of, I took what I learned with Eat Local, me and my buddies doing what we were doing during COVID, and then I took what I learned with Love Living Local, and I kind of brought it together to kind of build my own thing and have my own platform that I can kind of curate and control myself. It's pretty much on the same premise of what we were doing, Love Living and Local and Eat Local. But now I incorporated the content creation boot camps,

the one-day boot camps that I work with, like different youth or aspiring creators, and teach them my smartphone toolkit. Gotcha. You know, basic editing skills and free apps you can use to edit and different software you can use. So now it's kind of grown into a little mini version of what Love Living Local is,

but I hope to keep growing it and keep kind of expanding what I'm doing. But I have some local network partners that are working with me. I'm producing content for them. I'm doing some social media management. And it's growing. It's growing. It's growing organically.

And I'm having fun with it. Yeah. You know, and it's my own thing. You know, not that those two weren't my own thing, those two platforms, but I was just a part of them. Sure. This is actually my own baby that I hatched this egg. I can kind of watch grow.

So that's where I'm at with that. And I'm still a part of both eat local and a level of and local. But with this, this is more, again, just something I control and kind of. to groom, you know, this is my baby. Well, that's, you know, that's a neat thing. And a lot of people, I think, especially in a lot of different industries, might not necessarily understand this. When we talk about, you know, I got my own thing.

And I also work with these guys and those guys. This is such a work-together type of community, I feel like, you know? It has to be. And there's some folks, I think, around who might not necessarily feel that way. But I think the majority of us creators that are doing this, I think, A, we all realize that there's no competition. There's just a wide open field more than we could all take. For sure.

And so many of us are a better fit for different things. Exactly. And where we may specialize in one area, you specialize in another, and somebody else specializes in another, and we're able to serve these people the right way and collaborate and really do the best for our whole area, which is the end of the day what we're all here for. And that's my thing, too.

Collaboration. I always say it is a new currency. I think networking, connecting. with like-minded individuals, helping each other grow. Yeah. I think that should be the mission. Yeah. It's not divide and conquer.

It's come together and grow. Yeah. You know, more than anything. And I think that's my approach and my mission with this, is to network and connect with as many people and like-minded individuals as I can. I think it's a benefit. 100%. Even driving 40 minutes at Syracuse, for me, this is a privilege to do and connect with

someone like you doing what you're doing on this level and get to see this in real time. Sure. You know, this is this is inspiration for me. Yeah. It's a great opportunity. Appreciate it, man. Appreciate it. Yeah, that's, networking is everything.

And I've always believed that. You know, I have an IT business that was my first and foremost business. And that grew, I probably say 95% of that business was a result of networking. It's a result of me getting out and making relationships with people and things like that. You know, that's a type of business that you're not necessarily going to catch a ton of people with an advertisement. you know, it's not like sale today and they sign up, it's something that you've got to just be available when they need it. And, you know, a lot of this marketing is very much the same way.

And it's, you know, like you said, just building those relationships and having those networks and going, hey, I got somebody, you need that, you know. Absolutely. That's where it's at. And I love doing that in business. For sure. That's also what content creation lends itself so well to, right?

Absolutely. And that's what we tell our clients is a lot of the value here comes, even before anything hits the Internet, you know, It's these type of conversations that you get to have with folks that are interesting to you or our business prospects, especially in a lot of our B-to-B folks. We go, you know, who do you want to do business with? Interview. Exactly. And it's a unique thing.

And it becomes a really cool tool to, you know, build a relationship with somebody, aside from pitching, hey, you want to buy myself. For sure, for sure. You know, it's infinite referrals. Right. You know, infinite referrals. That's the goal. You know, you don't want to have to sell anyone. And, you know, I think word of mouth travels very fast.

And I think if you connect and resonate with people and your message resonates, I think that's all you need. Yeah. People, I think people respect genuine people. Right. I think you can tell. I mean, I can definitely. I mean, I have that discernment.

I can just, you can tell. Yeah. You know what I mean? Even us, we've never met before, but social media, you can tell. You know who your people are. Right. You know, if that makes sense. Yep.

100%. 100%. That's absolutely it. Well, Keith, listen, I, I, I don't want to take up too much more of your time, but we should let folks know all the places they can find you. What are the plugs? Where's the spot?

Yeah, absolutely. So, so majority of the content I do produce is on my personal page, Keith Brown. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram, but I also have my business page, Community Lins Media. And I'm also a part of Love Living Local 315,

which is on all platforms. Same thing with my personal name and Community Lins Media, all platforms. And, yeah, I mean, we're all over the Internet. You can connect with it. us pretty much anywhere. Yeah, that's, that's... I love it, man.

We're just trying to grow, man. We're trying to grow, trying to connect, trying to build, trying to create, and just put as much positive as we can out there into the world. I love it. I love it. I love it. I appreciate you. I appreciate you.

Well, we'll definitely have you back in any time, especially you got something big going on, or even you're just working with somebody out in Syracuse. Give us a shout. Stop in. Absolutely. I love to check in with it. I'll be back. I'm glad that we established this relationship because I love to come back and even,

maybe even utilize the space. Absolutely. I love you to. For sure. Once we're done off the air, I'll give you a little bit of a tour and tell you about some other exciting things we've got going on here.

I appreciate that, man. So it'll be cool. But with that, this is our man, Keith. I'm Matt. This is Good News, York. Absolutely. We'll see you next time.