How Bob Mackey Balances Art, Invention, and a Mission to Uplift Youth
Bob Mackey’s journey is one of relentless innovation, creative passion, and an unwavering commitment to empowering the next generation. As the CEO of Boys & Girls Club of North Central Georgia, Mackey has dedicated his career to providing youth with the tools and mentorship they need to thrive. But his influence doesn’t stop there. Based in Atlanta, Mackey is also an accomplished portrait, fashion, and event photographer, who shot AcknowledgeMINT’s winter ‘25 magazine cover with mixed media artist Andrea McKenzie. Recently, his entrepreneurial spirit took center stage when he secured a deal with Daymond John on Shark Tank, cementing his status as both an inventor and a business mogul.
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AcknowledgeMINT: You have such a unique business portfolio when it comes to photography and the great work you’re doing with the youth at the Boys & Girls Club. We’re so curious to know what it was like to not only make it on the show with your YONO Clip suction hanger invention, but you actually secured a deal with Daymond John.
Bob Mackey: Man, it’s crazy. When you think about that episode, all the sharks going out, and Daymond’s the last one, and he always jokes like, ‘Ah, man, you know I can’t go back to the hood with letting y’all go with this good idea. I’m gonna have to go ahead and come in,’ which is a sense of community, right? This is one of those cool things about having a diverse panel of sharks.
So what was it like for you and your partner, Michael Green, seeing and pitching the Shanks in person? You also had a great combination of Shanks on the show that day.
Most people have a guest shark, we had all the original sharks. When I figured out what was what and who was who, I was like, Mike, we’re in. Because of this lineup, that means our performance had to be something for the world to see.
It most definitely was! What are some of the ways that Daymond’s partnership was able to immediately impact your business?
Daymond taught us to utilize our resources, and that you physically don’t have to be somewhere to make an impact. And then there’s a back office of product development that was so amazing to see.
What were some of the early challenges Daymond and his team helped you get through?
One of the things I really didn’t understand was the Chinese National Day. When they shut down, they shut down, whether you have your material or not. You could be in mid-production, and if you don’t have that final run by the Chinese National Day, they shut everything down for a week.
What are some of the other fundamental things about business that you guys weren’t aware of going in?
We learned about cargo, freight, the business behind shipping, and what it takes to actually get a product from A to B, and we’re not talking about UPS and FedEx we’re talking about international carriers. We’re talking about five or six different vendors to make one piece of a product. Those are the things that we had to understand and learn.
Were you a FUBU fan growing up? Is Daymond as cool as he seems? And are these deals real or for TV?
I used to hear about FUBU, and I could only afford a $17 shirt, but that was me investing in his dream. For him to turn around and invest in our dream was that’s crazy because you know the deals are real. That due diligence is six months to a year, so if the deal is finalized, he deal is finalized.
