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DECEMBER 3, 2009
JOHNNY CUPCAKES
One year ago today, I made a trip out to Fort Collins, Colorado to seek some much needed inspiration and advice from one of, if not THE gold standards of T-shirt brands / branding today, Johnny Cupcakes...
I planned on flying out to Massachusetts to see Johnny lecture at Babson College, but plane tickets were ridicuously expensive, so after some research, some phone calls and some emails, I found out that Johnny would also be lecturing at Colorado State University a few weeks later. A good thing about that was that plane tickets were 3 times cheaper! Anyways, here are some phone numbers...
...and here are some emails...
While on the plane, I remember writing down my game plan for the day:
When I landed at Denver International, I rented a car and drove an hour or so to a cruddy (but not terrifying like this one) hotel right on the CSU campus. There, I ordered some pizza, watched Mrs. Doubtfire and took a nap...
After I woke up, I drove to the campus grounds, parked and walked about abazillion miles in the snowy Colorado cold trying to find out just where the F the Lory Student Center was. When I finally found it, I came to realize that I arrived early, so I killed some time by taking another nap, taking a dump and checking out some awesome art by Bob Schneider at an exhibit that was going on...
I'm not sure if you can really tell, but the fine details in these pieces were INCREDIBLE.
AH! Finally, the lecture was about to begin...
When the lecture was over I was incomplete awe. It was AMAZING! I barely even needed to take any notes because, unlike boringass work meetings and school classes, this was something I actually wanted to listen to! I remember when the lecture was over, I said to myself..."I guess it's time to go home now." So as I walked out of the lecture, down the stairs and pass the doors ready to face the cold again, I then said to myself..."F THIS! I didn't make all of those phone calls / emails, fly out to Denver, rent a car, drive an hour through unfamiliar territory, stay at a cruddy hotel and walk abazillion miles in this coldass weather to just mother Fing listen and then go home!" So I tore this poster (below) off a bulletin board and turned right back around. What was I gonna say to Johnny? I had no clue, but the least I could do was try and get an autograph...
...and I did! When I met Johnny, I just told him..."Yea, I flew out from Dallas." He then said..."Oh! So you're the one from Dallas!" turns out that the student association that I called and emailed before the trip had informed Johnny that someone from Dallas was coming! Johnny then said..."Me and the student association are gonna grab some dinner, would you care to join us?" then I said..."Hell yea!"
Me, Johnny and Brennan (one of the student association guys) rode together to some Mexican restuarant. On the way we talked about my gloves, Jordans, Basketball, the new Kanye (808's & Heartbreak), Penis castles (we were talking about that Little Mermaid cover), Mega Man 9, the Morning Star whip from Castlevania, Phil Collins and Bone Thugs Home collab and a whole mess of just random shit! The randomness spewed over into dinner coupled along with abunch of stupid jokes, Back to the Future, Mrs. Doubtfire (Johnny also watched it before his lecture!), business moves / decisions and some of Johnny's favorite brands. Though his lecture blew me away, hanging out with him and finding out that he was just a regualr dude blew me away even more!
I offered to drive Johnny to the airport the next morning, read on...
So there you have it, I am officially a student of the Johnny Cupcakes branding / marketing class! I advise EVERYONE wanting to start their own business, no matter what you plan on starting to go and check out Johnny's Lecture Series!
All year long, I've been learning and gathering advice from tons of other brands, store owners, kids, my screen printers, other vendors, my friends and family to make sure that I'm creating, planning, branding and marketing Fur Face Boy, not their way, but my way! And now that you've read this post you can pretty much sum up that if you stick to your ideas and your planning that, YES! you can achieve! I don't have everything figured out, but I believe that if I keep at it then I definately WILL accomplish what I intend to accomplish.
Be sure to check in tomorrow to see a special something I created just for Johnny as a Thank you for giving me that extra motivational push. See you tomorrow!
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