Haute Living Executive Q&A: The Joseph Family, Nashville’s Big Plan Holdings (BPH)

Haute Living: How has Nashville in your view navigated the uncertainties of COVID 19?  

Josh Joseph: Nashville happens to be a rather unique city and locale in the State of Tennessee; we have a significant amount of progressive thinkers in many, many ways here, who have continued to frequent Nashville over the last many years, as the city has grown. So throughout the pandemic, while we saw that there were certainly restrictions in place during its heights, they varied from the restrictions that we saw when coming from Chicago.

While people weren’t necessarily flying, people were driving here and visiting during COVID-19, because bars and restaurants were still open, albeit with State appropriate social distancing restrictions in place. You were still able to listen to live music in the Honky-Tonks, in the bars, and you had that opportunity.

The economic engine that is Nashville continued to run – Construction sites never stopped once, which blew me away. It was constant. If you came to Nashville, there were more cranes in the sky than probably in any other city.

Tara Joseph: Nashville has been interesting to watch during this pandemic. Coming from Illinois, it definitely was like living in two completely different worlds as far as COVID goes. Our music industry was hit the hardest, and there were clear, opposing views about live performances, mask mandates, and touring. I can’t really say if Nashville has done a good or bad job throughout this pandemic because I feel that everyone individually is trying to navigate this new norm as best possible.

Sophie Joseph: Even from Kentucky, just one state over, COVID-19 was handled completely differently. Nashville navigated the uncertainties of COVID-19 with an eye on their individual freedoms.

Sydni Joseph: And so with music and tourism being core to Nashville’s economy, for their tourism and things like that, opening up again was bound to be a political issue.

Haute Living: How has Big Plan Holdings then sought to realize the potential of Nashville as a leading American cosmopolitan business destination, be it through opportunities in commercial real estate, entertainment, or even through the industry of cannabis?  

Josh Joseph: When we came to Nashville, we saw an opportunity. We saw a city that just continues to grow. I first came to Nashville for commercial real estate work back in 2004. So, I’ve been coming down here ever since, both professionally, as well as personally. And what I’ve continued to see develop here is that this has become a real American destination, not just for old-school country music, which, by the way, I love and my family loves, but this has become a hotbed over the years of real culture.

I mean, this is a real food town all of a sudden. It’s a real hotel city, all of a sudden. It’s a real professional sports city, all of a sudden.

We as a family took into consideration what was about to happen from such continued growth.

You started seeing corporations being headquartered here. You started seeing the Amazons, and the Oracles, the latter just announced that they’re investing about 1.5 billion over the next three or four or five years to host a massive Oracle campus here in Nashville.

A leading financial advisory firm, AllianceBernstein, which has a massive U.S. platform, just moved its national headquarters from New York City to Nashville, pre-pandemic. They have 1,250 employees here in Nashville now, many of them having relocated from New York.

Big Plan Holdings was established in Nashville to activate a number of different categories, including commercial real estate, music and entertainment, hospitality and fashion, sports, and indeed the cannabis industry centered in Nashville but with countrywide and yes, global reach.

Tennessee does not have a cannabis program and they probably won’t have a cannabis program for another one or two years, is my guess. But immersing ourselves alongside the folks that are pushing for a cannabis program, the folks that are certainly out there and have a voice, we want to serve as a proponent of that kind of socioeconomic change.

Tara Joseph: Yes. Nashville is, I would say, quite like the ‘New LA’, in becoming a hub for the entertainment industry and anything and everything in the music industry.

But Nashville still hosts the best of both worlds, by the way. It’s a country music town and is one of America’s leading hubs for growth.

However, Nashville is behind regarding its cannabis industry, unfortunately. And that’s what we’re trying to change within this world of Nashville; we’re really trying to bring cannabis education and really trying to help with the legalization of cannabis down here. Because the cannabis industry in itself, not only does it bring health and wellness to people that are in need, but also the money that comes in from cannabis would be so wonderful to help the economy in Nashville.

And that’s what Big Plan Holdings is trying to do – We really are trying to bring cannabis education and market access to the forefront for Nashville.

Haute Living: How do each of you like to spend your downtime when you’re not hard at work?  

Sophie Joseph: I love horses, I am a horse girl at heart. Not only do I have my own rescue horse (she’s everything to me) but truly I love horses in general. So not only is she part of my life, but also just horses in general.

I also love to drive –  I will oftentimes find myself driving down a lot of back roads, in either Lexington or in Nashville as well.

Sydni Joseph: In my downtime, I really do enjoy working out. I love to go to the gym, taking group fitness classes, for example. I love going for walks and see that as a deliberate separation between me and my computer and cell phone. I think that disconnect is important to address now and then.

And I enjoy spending time with my family more than anything, but as we work as a family business, it does get difficult to separate work and family life. And so when we do get the chance to do that, it’s a big blessing. 

Tara Joseph: I love to personally get lost around the Nashville area and explore.

I try to set aside time for mental care by doing things that I love, such as getting a massage or a facial, shopping, and listening to music.

Music always ties our family together.

So, Nashville clearly has so much to offer, from the small, quaint avenues to the crazy, busy city – It’s the best of both worlds for me. And I like the idea of being able to get lost in the backroads, coming down to the city and going to listen to music.

I love The Twelve Thirty Club, I love the L.A. Jackson Rooftop, which is phenomenal – What a great vibe! It’s one of my favorite rooftops in the city. I also love Bourbon Steak and a restaurant that we have personally invested in, the Sundae Club.

Josh Joseph: Most of my downtime was originally supposed to be spent in Nashville when we were visiting from Chicago! Now with little downtime, when we do get away we like to explore the State of Tennessee, go hiking, go to the gym, and in vacation mode, probably travel to our home in Florida on the Gulf of Mexico. Decompressing is important!

Haute Living: Tell our readers about The Joseph Family Foundation, its mission, and its reach both in Nashville and beyond the borders of Tennessee…

Sophie Joseph: The Joseph Family Foundation is a 501(C)3 philanthropic organization, rooted in the city of Nashville, Tennessee, and it does branch out to border communities outside of just the State, including throughout Illinois. We are steadily branching out our organization abroad, engaging with folks who do incredible work in different African countries and then rural communities within them.

Our main goal is to essentially understand and respect the differences in charities and the differences in work that people do throughout this world and offer a tangible, positive, hands-on change in all of the projects which we undertake.

We have four spheres of action – Living Aid, which touches on anything from addressing homelessness to helping an individual struggling with their mortgage. It’s a broad spectrum of support. The next sphere would be Education Aid, essentially trying to ensure prosperity, safety, and a positive environment for students and teachers within a school’s walls.

There’s also Underrepresented Aid, working to ensure the prosperity for people or animals that are oftentimes not necessarily given the representation that they either rightfully deserve. So this could mean initiatives in support of the LGBTQ+ community or even shelter or rescue work. 

And then finally, it’s Health and Wellness Aid, which is kind of what it sounds like; ensuring that people from any walk of life receive the mental, emotional, or physical health benefits that they may need, undertaken through grant proposal work, help at fundraising events, etc.

Tara Joseph: It’s not just about raising money and giving it away and then never seeing that organization or person again – We really do want to participate and watch and see our partners thrive. So that’s super important to us; it’s what separates our Foundation from so many others.

Josh Joseph: We held a wonderful event and a partnership if you will, forged with the Susan G. Komen Foundation last year, under the banner of The Joseph Family Foundation; a tremendous event here in Nashville, the first of what we hope to be many. Dolly Parton was our headliner and a number of other great artists also participated. We held a  tremendous silent auction and had a tremendous turnout, with attendees coming from Nashville, but also from around the country. 

The Joseph Family Foundation was kind of the catalyst for that fundraising event, ‘Kiss Breast Cancer Goodbye’ taking place. And that stemmed through different relationships that get activated through our areas of business regularly; music and entertainment, sports, real estate, and cannabis, the industries we spearhead from within our walls.

Haute Living: Can we talk a little about Edgehill Music Publishing and its role as a fully diversified music and entertainment investment company? If you can divulge a little bit about what the industry-related opportunities that are presently offered.

Josh Joseph: We’re coming up on our three-year anniversary for Edgehill Music Publishing, a music publishing company. We have signed to date on our roster, eight songwriters and artists, and we are tremendous advocates of the publishing world and its limitless opportunities in 2022 and beyond.

The publishing business is one which is not for the weak of heart, from a financial standpoint, in the sense that a lot of folks come into a town like Nashville and they flash a bunch of money and they’re looking for a quick pop in the publishing business.

The publishing world is about the songwriters. It’s about who you have on your roster. It’s about piecing together great talent and finding that work ethic in people. There’s just so much talent and rich talent here in the city of Nashville. Nashville’s, no question, very much still well known for their songwriting – It’s a songwriter’s town.

We are trying to bring different genres here to Nashville in addition to country and give a little bit of a disruption to the kind of ‘old school’ way of country music being instilled here in the city of Nashville.

You’re seeing tremendous action in the music publishing business, and so we’re excited to be in the middle of it. It’s very, very cool to see and very unique to sit in a writer’s room, a songwriter’s room, or a producer’s room, and actually watch how songs are made and how music is made. It’s amazing. It’s an amazing process; where that song has to get to in order to be a number one hit is really mind-blowing; think of the relationships you need and the work ethic you need. So, yeah, we’re very excited about having Edgehill Music Publishing. It is also a wonderful connector for the songwriters and artists that work with us and our publishing company.

Tara Joseph:  Edgehill Music Publishing separates us from other publishing companies –  We’re completely a ‘mom & pop shop’ and really all of our decisions are made as a family. We are keeping it very small and unique. So when our artists come in, they have a place where they can come and hang, lay on a couch, get inspired, and go to dinners with us, all the while we’re still able to get the help behind them to try to create and try to build out their business.

We are partners in another business that is called Academy Fight Songs, which is also a music sync business; that ‘build-up music’ that you hear that gets you really excited when you’re watching a movie or a television show. We’re also shortly going to have our own production studios entirely in-house in Nashville.

Sydni Joseph: One of the main things that tie our family together is our excitement of music and concerts and new songs that come out, from the artists that we love and the artists we work with on a daily basis.

Haute Living: Where does each of you envision The Joseph Family Foundation and Big Plan Holdings as a brand in five years’ time? Where do you envision Nashville in the future, as one of the fastest-growing metropolitans of the nation in 2022?  

Sophie Joseph: Hopefully within the next five years, we want to build The Joseph Family Foundation into an organization helping to shape movements. I would like it to be a part of the puzzle towards a lot of different missions, a lot of different organizations working towards a greater goal, greater than our collective. Maintaining quality over quantity in our approach is paramount.

Tara Joseph: The one thing about our family that fills our bucket, is when we fill other people’s buckets. We actually truly enjoy being able to give back.

It’s ultimately the four of us, a family and that’s how we work, that’s how we’ve always worked. We truly get true happiness in being able to watch others succeed and being able to help others succeed. And we want to be able to do that throughout. 

As far as what we’re hoping our brand is going to be in five years, we want to continue operating with the authenticity that made us who we are, the family we are, and we want to bring that success to others and truly, it brings me pure enjoyment watching that happen.

Sydni Joseph: Over my father’s past 25 years in commercial real estate, he’s kind of been all over this country and he would tell you that too! He has been to 40+ states through the real estate market and various industries. We’ve learned how important it is, how critical it is to go out and to see what else is out there; to grow as an organization within your city, country, and beyond.

Josh Joseph: We’re currently building out a studio that will arguably be one of the top studios, production studios, and songwriter retreats, if you will; a songwriter destination,  right within our home office in the 12th South neighborhood of Nashville. That should be done and completed by Labor Day of this year. That will be a phenomenal feeding ground for talent here in Nashville. And also for the folks that are coming in from Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, even, who are now starting to come to Nashville. Our studio is going to be the talk of the city.

Big Plan Holdings will continue to evolve in Nashville and beyond doing stuff certainly here in Nashville, without question, and we will continue to evolve. I think that we’ll also see ourselves traveling outside of the Nashville metropolitan area while we expand within it, over the next five years.

In the next couple of years, I will still be very focused on the Nashville metropolitan area, without question. I think that cannabis will be legal here. There’ll be a medical program in the next couple of years. We’ll continue to forge strategic partnerships which bring about lasting change for Nashville, Tennessee, and beyond the borders of our state. And whether in cannabis, entertainment, or even the world of philanthropy, we’ll have a lead role to play.

Written in partnership with The Big Plan on Apple Podcasts