Podcasts about airwalk

Brain Drain Episode 48 with Toby Batchelor & Forde Brookfield

Ladies & gentlemen… it's with great honor, that I present one of our childhood heroes. none other, than skateboard LEGEND - @hyndmedia. After his standout debut in @hstreetskateboards “Shackle Me Not”(1989). The San Jose local soon became a household name, right alongside his peers. and, the rest is history.Tune in, as Carl talks growing up skating Northern California in the early-80s. Attending San Jose State with skateboard LEGEND- @jimthiebaud. Joe Lopes Ramp, the first wallride, 80's punk fashion- we discuss it all! The infamous Bobby G's Skate Camp, down to T-Mags rebuilt Airwalk soles. You really can't get anymore H-Street, or NorCal than this. Without further ado, thank you once again Carl! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/clyde-singleton/support

 On this week's episode, Chris and Todd talk about Pipe Masters Beef, Ski Only resorts, show and tell with the Slater Designs Slater and Dan Mann designed FRK, it's Thrasher SOTY season, Jamie Foy is the frontrunner, Bill Murray and Kelly Slater go golfing in Oceanside, Pacifico Surf Open Cerritos went off, Taro Watanabe is amazing, John John movie on STAB premium, will switchstance surfing ever matter,  Surfline cam talk, surf etiquette 101, Mick Fanning buying in to The Palm Valley Gold Coast Resort, Kai Mackenzie surfs again only months after getting his leg bitten off by a shark, Arto Saari episode of ‘Let It Kill You' is incredible, Zero Skateboards turned Adam Arunski pro, The New Polar Skate Co. Video "I Don't Even Know How To F****ing Airwalk" has a great title, a bunch of you tell us what you're thankful for, and so much more … this is a great episode. We're thankful for all of you who watch and listen.   Presented by: Mammoth Mountain @mammothmountain Sun Bum @sunbum Spy Optics @spyoptic Hansen Surfboards @hansensurf Bachan's Japanese BBQ Sauce @trybachans MachuPicchu Energy @machupicchu.energy Pannikin Coffee And Tea @pannikincoffeeandtea Bubs Naturals @bubsnatruals New Greens @newgreens Pedal Electric @pedal.electric Vesyl Shipping @vesylapp Mint Tours @minttours Die Cut Stickers @diecutstickersdotcom

Каждую субботу в 22.00 (Мск) радио-шоу о клубной электронике WeekenDance на MEGA RADIO. Первый час наполнен новинками из рекорд-бокса Сергея Барыбина, второй час гостевые селекции от актуальных диск-жокеев России. Телеграм-канал: t.me/sergeybaribyn Mix-1 01.MJ - Liberian Girl (Francisco Garcia Remix) 02.Adriatique & WhoMadeWho – Miracle 03.Ivan Pogrebniak - Ruby (Z.CITY Music label) 04.Anturage, KatyaGur, Catmoonk - Ancient Roots 05.Fairtone - We Move 06.Sam Shure – Deviated 07.WilyamDeLove, Gezin - In Tone 08.Kebin van Reeken - Hypnotize 09. Lubelski - Vowels (Renato Cohen Remix) 10.Tomcraft - Heartbreak City Mix-2 01.Maz (BR) & VXSION – Amana 02.UNKLE, Keinemusik, Miink, Wil Malone - Only You (&ME Remix) 03.Dyzen - She Likes 04.Pippi Ciez, Fraser x Luke Coulson - Release Yourself 05.THEUSS - Losing My Mind (Aaaron Remix) 06.Fahlberg, Jamek Ortega - Tirana Nights 07.Samer Soltan - Call Me Baby 08.Samer Soltan - Kiss Me 09.Santiago Garcia – Lie 10.Moeaike - Bo Bom 11.boys be kko - Airwalk vs. Lalala (Aera Mashup)

Каждую субботу в 22.00 (Мск) радио-шоу о клубной электронике WeekenDance на MEGA RADIO. Первый час наполнен новинками из рекорд-бокса Сергея Барыбина, второй час гостевые селекции от актуальных диск-жокеев России. Телеграм-канал: t.me/sergeybaribyn Mix-1 01.MJ - Liberian Girl (Francisco Garcia Remix) 02.Adriatique & WhoMadeWho – Miracle 03.Ivan Pogrebniak - Ruby (Z.CITY Music label) 04.Anturage, KatyaGur, Catmoonk - Ancient Roots 05.Fairtone - We Move 06.Sam Shure – Deviated 07.WilyamDeLove, Gezin - In Tone 08.Kebin van Reeken - Hypnotize 09. Lubelski - Vowels (Renato Cohen Remix) 10.Tomcraft - Heartbreak City Mix-2 01.Maz (BR) & VXSION – Amana 02.UNKLE, Keinemusik, Miink, Wil Malone - Only You (&ME Remix) 03.Dyzen - She Likes 04.Pippi Ciez, Fraser x Luke Coulson - Release Yourself 05.THEUSS - Losing My Mind (Aaaron Remix) 06.Fahlberg, Jamek Ortega - Tirana Nights 07.Samer Soltan - Call Me Baby 08.Samer Soltan - Kiss Me 09.Santiago Garcia – Lie 10.Moeaike - Bo Bom 11.boys be kko - Airwalk vs. Lalala (Aera Mashup)

Episode 19 of Spotlight on Tasmania hears Ken Stronach tell Tubes all about how Tahune Adventures is far more than just an airwalk. Kaz gets details of the upcoming agriCULTURED festival from General Manager, Sarah Blacklock. And, Dr Jessica Roydhouse from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at UTAS, details her research project looking to address the financial challenges associated with prostate cancer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scotty Lago has a path to pro snowboarding that's different than almost anyone I've interviewed. Most high school dropouts don't have Olympic Medals to go along with a grip of X Games and Dew Tour hardware, but that's what Scotty Lago did. Along the way, he was part of the legendary Frends Crew, he filmed with Grenade, he filmed with Travis Rice for the biggest movies in snowboard history, and he did it all while riding for Flow Snowboards. When all was said and done, Scotty didn't retire into the sunset; he's now following his other passion of hunting, and just like in his snowboard career, he's already a sponsored hunter, and who knows how bug that world can get for Scotty. This is a fun podcast with an unfiltered legend and former Flow TM, Andrew Mutty asks the Inappropriate Questions. Scotty Lago Show Notes: 5:00:  Hunting, Hew Hampshire, snowboarding, Green Mountain series, his unique schooling, Aerial Assault Tour, getting sponsored by Airwalk, then Billabong, and moving up in the contest world  19:30  Stanley:  Get up 60% off at Stanley1913.com Best Day Brewing:  All of the flavor of your favorite IPA or Kolsch, without the alcohol, the calories and sugar. Elan Skis:  Over 75 years of innovation that makes you better. 22:30:  Car sleeping and couch surfing, Frends, a little anti-Burton, US Open, and Rossignol to Flow 33:00:  Image, sponsors, and money, his first World Cup win, performing under pressure, and Shaun White 41:00:  Peter Glenn Ski and Sports:  Over 60 years of getting you out there.  Outdoor Research:  Click here for 25% off Outdoor Research products (not valid on sale items or pro products) 43:00:  Competition mindset, X-Games Gold, injuries to the Frends Crew, and the Olympics 55:00:  Once in a lifetime experiences, shooting with Grenade, Shooting with Travis Rice, and insurance 60:00:  Inappropriate Questions with Andrew Mutty

Alan Foster Podcast up next. Alan talks about moving to California, working at a bike shop, living at the POW house, riding Twin Palms, riding with Elf, TNT, Airwalk, Schwinn and Free Agent. We talk about Alan winning his first AA race at the ABA Del Mar Nationals in San Diego, being in the mid 90s when sponsorships and the industry caught a good wave, with magazines, company cars and plenty of opportunities as a pro rider. We also talk about training in the 90s, being race-smart and reading the race. Alan talks about transitioning into the business side of the industry with Airwalk while still racing, buying houses and schools and really setting himself up for his post-racing career and being wise with his money. We talk about current times, riding bikes, traveling, Dirty Fest and much more.

On this day in 1983, Michael Jackson performed the moonwalk for the first time at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Balance Numberic 2023 Year in Review, Marcello Campanello, Jante 9:19, Budget or Buttery, Damon byrd 1992 Union part, Jack Curtin on DGK, Josh Kalis killing his Home Park, Lucas Puig Adidas Skateboarding presents Machi Mockil, Yuri Facchini Shake Junt Part, Giorgi Armani's got a new trick, Feather by Felix Soto, Shocking Moments Caught on Video, Joseph Campos for Hockey and much more! Timestamps 00:00:00 Nine Club Live #33 00:01:52 Kelly blew his back out 00:05:00 Topics be dropping 00:06:20 throwaway clips? 00:08:00 Chris's Pretty Sweet Line 00:14:00 Superchat Appreciation give back!!! 00:16:50 Philip The Bucket is back, and ain't no trash can 00:21:00 New Balance Numberic 2023 Year in Review 00:29:00 Marcello Campanello 00:33:00 I'm Glad I'm not me shuv it skate vs Paul Rodriguez 00:36:00 Happy birthday Javier Nunez and Rick McCrank 00:38:00 Jeron went to the Baker has a deathwish part 2 premier 00:41:00 Jante 9:19 00:58:00 Us in a Bus 00:59:45 Budget or Buttery? 01:23:51 Chris's first board graphic Natas re-screened on Jason Lee? 01:28:00 Damon byrd 1992 Union part 01:32:00 Airwalk of past and current at walmart now 01:39:00 Jack Curtin on DGK and Josh Kalis killing his Home Park 01:46:00 Lucas Puig Adidas Skateboarding presents Machi Mockil and Mino Skateboards 01:56:00 Yuri Facchini Shake Junt Part 02:02:00 Giorgi Armani's got a new trick 02:08:00 Feather by Felix Soto 02:26:42 Is there a way to get your trick without escalating a situation with a security guard 02:35:00 Shout out to LMNT 02:39:00 Superchat Appreciation give back #2!!!! 02:43:00 Shocking Moments Caught on Video, Joseph Campos for Hockey 02:54:00 Wrap-up 02:56:00 Last minute SOTY board update!!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brain Drain Episode 20 with Toby Batchelor & Forde Brookfield

Elliot recaps his trip to JCPenney for shoes.

Episode 105 is an extended trip down memory lane. It's a hybrid episode, part list, part Back In the Day, with some embarrassing stories sprinkled in.Growing up we all have our differing opinions on what is considered 'cool.' Born in the 1970s I was a child of the 80s and a teenager of the 90s. There are a lot of cool things I saw, watched, listened to, wore, and ate. Some things have aged well. Some things have not aged well. You can be the judge as I break down what I thought was cool growing up. One caveat is that many of these things in this episode were things that I either saw the 'cool kids' use/have or were things I thought would make me appear cool in their eyes. So whether you're my age, enjoy nostalgia, or are just curious about what was considered cool in the 80s and 90s this episode will have something for everyone.Find more content on YouTube, support the podcast if you want, and Buy Me A Coffee!Helpful Links from this EpisodeThe Lady of the Dunes.comPurchase My New Book Cape Cod Beyond the Dunes!Kiwi's Kustoms - EtsyDJ Williams MusicKeeKee's Cape Cod KitchenChristopher Setterlund's YouTube ChannelChristopher Setterlund.comThe In My Footsteps Podcast BlogListen to Episode 104 here.Support the show

Brain Drain Episode 9 with Forde Brookfield and Toby Batchelor

Celebramos este episodio #100 con nuestro gran Invitado Max Barrera quien nos cuenta acerca de como cuida su salud para seguir patinando, sus principios en el skate, irse a vivir a Los Angeles, intentar Airwalk El Toro High School, empezar Max Barrera Academy……………. Eso y mas en Efecto Ollie

Leigh Ramsdell is the Sports Marketing Manager at Pacific Cycle or Mongoose to be more specific. Before his time at Mongoose Leigh had a career as a Professional BMX rider with legendary brands backing him like Wilkerson Airlines, Airwalk, Homeless Bikes, Blacken Clothing, and more. He competed at X-Games and even had his own clothing company called Useless Clothing. Leigh has been an announcer for BMX contests and showed up quite a bit in Props videos of the past. From the outside looking in, Leigh has had an amazing career in BMX. Let's chat with him about it! Episode with Video - https://youtu.be/k-8H45namyA T-Shirts & More! - https://moorebmx.myshopify.com/ Episodes with video - http://bit.ly/talkingbmx Thank you for choosing to spend your time listening! If you enjoyed it, share it with a friend. Consider Subscribing on Youtube - http://bit.ly/Brant_Moore If this helped you in some way, consider supporting the channel with my Join button for a membership or through my store! Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/brantmoore

Esta es la historia del jugador Shaquille O'Neall, sus zapatillas, el jugador de basket, la imagen de Reebok, Pepsi, videojuegos Electronic Arts, Pizzas Papa John's, cereales Kellogs... y del empresario de éxito con inversión en más de 200 empresas de entre las que figura como máximo accionista de Reebok, Airwalk y Vision entre otras… Cuidado, que vamos a romper la canasta!

Esta es la historia del jugador Shaquille O'Neall, sus zapatillas, el jugador de basket, la imagen de Reebok, Pepsi, videojuegos Electronic Arts, Pizzas Papa John's, cereales Kellogs... y del empresario de éxito con inversión en más de 200 empresas de entre las que figura como máximo accionista de Reebok, Airwalk y Vision entre otras… Cuidado, que vamos a romper la canasta!

I can't think of a better photo, that encapsulates both skateboarding & friendship.. look at these dudes, battling for that Airwalk. this, is what it's all about. These kinds of photos, put you in a definitive place & time. Honestly, you just had to be there. Skateboarding LEGEND- Charlie Thomas, was there. And, today he's gonna take us on a trip down memory lane here at the mighty, mighty WCRP on Skateboarding. Tune in as we take a deep-dive into hometown Mom & Pop shops of the 80's. His first ad for Toxic Skateboards. We discuss the grueling road, leading to the LEGENDARY NSA Finals contests. The insane progression of tricks in the late 80s. And, all things skateboarding.. For the culture, of course!- Clyde Singleton

"Now get off your couch and go skate!" Skateboardet har støvet ned på hylla.. Det er på tide å ta det frem igjen, og gjøre en 50-50 rail etterfulgt med Airwalk 720 og avslutte med en wall-ride og 20 meter lang manual! Håkon har fått besøk av Adrian Tanem fra Twin-Stick Gamers og Bøbben fra Bøbben & Yogi for å snakke om et av de beste skatespillene igjennom tidene, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2!     Enjoy!   Gjerne sjekk oss ut på: Discord: https://discord.gg/N7xHAwH Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lolbua (For tilgang til bonuspodcasten NachSpæll må du velge "NachSpæll" tieren") Facebook: Spæll (facebook-side) og Spæll Community (facebook-gruppe) Instagram: www.instagram.com/spaell.podcast   Vil du ha litt herlig Spæll merch? Sjekk ut Spreadshirt shoppen vår! https://spaell.myspreadshop.no/  

In this episode, Mike Poznansky chats with Steve “Stix” Nilsen, Vice President of Marketing at Liquid Death Mountain Water. Stix has had an illustrious career working with brands such as Airwalk, Red Bull, Pabst, and now Liquid Death Mountain Water. He shares more about his experience in cultivating strong relationships and creating relevant marketing campaigns. Stix also highlights the importance of learning from mistakes and moving on, and the differences he has observed between organizations like Red Bull that have large marketing budgets vs. more scrappy organizations like Pabst. Tune in to find out more about earning brand equity by actually impacting people's lives rather than trying to hack your way through performance, marketing, or growth by simply checking boxes.   This episode is hosted by Mike Poznansky, Founder & Managing Partner at Neato, a college and Gen Z-focused marketing agency that helps brands understand and connect with young people.

When we work on large projects each person filters the phrase based on their own unique experiences. Ron Brodie understands that whether his role is to write, direct, or produce a project, it is going to go through his filter and his experiences will influence the final product. He is an independent commercial director and cultural enthusiast. His perspective is inspired by his Jamaican-American heritage and world travels. His client list includes Facebook, Spotify, Google, and Airwalk. He's worked with several television networks such as MTV, VH1, BET, ABC, and HBO. He is the Head of Creative Development at 1st Avenue Machine. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/blackshutterpodcast/support

เปิดตำนาน AIRWALK ท่าดังค์เปลี่ยนโลกของ ไมเคิล จอร์แดน MAIN STAND

In this podcast episode, I interview Brian Sumner, a pastor/evangelist from Liverpool, England who moved to America when he was age 15 to pursue a career as a professional skateboarder. Brian turned professional at the age of 19 and skateboarded for some of the biggest companies like Birdhouse, Airwalk, Adio, Fender Guitars, Truth Soul Armor, and Reliance Skateboards. He spent many summers traveling the US with Tony Hawk's Gigantic skate park tour. He wrote, produced, directed, filmed and edited a skateboard video called, “The Tao of Skateboarding.” Brian has a fascinating story about how he came to follow Jesus and how he serves as a pastor/evangelist today.

Nick Lambesis is the Founder of The Lambesis Agency which has developed a disproportionately large number of long-running iconic international brands from 1987 to 2019. In his new role as Managing Partner of Tipping Point Inc he has partnered with La Mer Walker who he worked with at Lambesis and then headed up a creative team at BCDV--Boston Consulting Digital Ventures. They now focus on both traditional brand development as well as the future areas like NFT's and the Metaverse. Historically Lambesis is known for breakthrough work and the creation of blockbuster international brands, including five Coke Brands--Dasani bottled water, Gold Peak Tea, Honest Tea, Fuze and McCafe--Physicians Formula, Bebe, Campari, Grand Marnier, Fisker Automotive, Hitachi, Guess, Skyy, Charles David Shoes, and Tacori Fine Jewelry. The work The Lambesis Agency did for Airwalk and the method of primary research used became one of the central ideas behind the bestselling book, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell who dedicated and entire chapter Case History to this phenomenon. Gladwell began work on the book shortly after receiving tremendous response from his seminal 12-page article entitled "The Hunt for Cool" which ran in The New Yorker Magazine in 1997 which featured DeDe Gordon, the Lambesis Director of Research and Trends. The methods The Lambesis Agency used to research and brand clients pioneered many new developments in marketing, including the creation of buzz, viral marketing and the use of short films on the internet. A Forbes cover story featured another Lambesis client, Bebe Women's Clothing, and highlighted the role style-based marketing played in creating a “buzz” as Bebe Women's Clothing became the second hottest growth company in America. This same meteoric growth was the norm for all the brands Lambesis transformed into icons and took them to the top tier of their respective categories. The Lambesis Agency has also been a winner in the industry's top award shows, including the One Show (Silver and Bronze), and a Kelly Award finalist twice for creating one of the top 25 magazine campaigns in America. In 1995 Lambesis was one of two agencies honored in San Francisco as “Best Agency in the West.” The Lambesis Agency's work has been featured in four marketing textbooks, publicized extensively in trade publications, and featured in the Mel Gibson movie What Women Want.

Jamie Salter is one of the founders of Ride Snowboards along with Tim Pogue and Jason Ford. He is one of the key money guys of early snowboarding, rubbing shoulders with the founders of Burton, Sims, Kemper (Jamie's involvement in the early days of Kemper is huge!), Barfoot, Mervin, Nitro, and many more. In 1995 Ride Snowboards made headlines by going public, Jamie tells the story behind the hype and lets us in to a world of financial decisions that lead him to own a lot of companies. Today Jamie Salter's company ABG owns brands like Reabok, Above The Rim, Aeropostale, Airwalk, Elvis, Forever 21, IZOD, Juicy Couture, Nine West, Sports Illustrated, Tapout, Vision Street Wear, and Volcom.Support the show (https://paypal.me/fnradfoundation)

Mike Arzt has been behind the scenes in the snowboard industry since he was 16 years old.  He's been a shop grunt, salesman, buyer, Burton factory store employee, RED Sales and Marketing guy, athlete tech, Blue Torch Snow Director, Airwalk employee, freelancer and eventually, entrepreneur.  He's done everything and you've for sure seen some of his work….  Between the Red Bull Cold Rush like events, marketing and branding projects, Arzt has been humbly behind some game changing marketing. Mike Arzt Show Notes: 3:00:  Silverton takeover, a love for snow early, and curated luck 10:00:  Ryan's Ski Shop, being the snowboard guy, working with the Bruton Rep, and his first tradeshow 14:00:  Going to NZ after High School, setting goals of UVM and Burton and making both happen 20:30:  Stanley:  Get 30% off site wide with the code drinkfast Peter Glenn Ski and Sports:  Over 60 years of getting you out there 10 Barrel Brewery:  Buy their beers, they support action sports more than anyone 23:00:  RED Helmets, corporate presentations, money, being replaced and then getting the dream Burton job 30:00:  Olympics, leaving Burton for Blue Torch, and Airwalk 40:00:  Dragon:  Their glasses FLOAT, use the code Powell15 to save 15% Alpine Vans:  Upgrade your adventure, Upgrade your life Elan Skis:  They will make you a better skier...no bs 42:15:  T-Bag, the end of Airwalk, Head Snowboards, and Helly Hansen 52:00:  The Public Works, Battery 621, and the pandemic 63:00:  Inappropriate Questions with Steve “Stix” Nielson

On this episode of #DOD45 Tai chats with someone he has admired since his early days of #skateboarding in the late 1980s. Legendary pro skater, formerly of the original H-Street team, #RonAllen. Though he didn't necessarily know it at the time, Ron Allen paved the way for people of color in the world of skateboarding. By doing what he loved, Ron helped skateboarding become the diverse sport we recognize today, which made it's debut in the 2021 summer Olympics. Tai & Ron get right into the thick of it and talk about everything from music, to taking advantage of street skating without the presence of security guards during the pandemic, to continuing to be a pro skater well into his late 50s, as well as discussing some of the racism Ron faced as a skater. Ron talks about how he had to work off his debt to Thrasher Magazine, how being in cheer taught him to be more professional as a pro skater and how he was forced to choose between having dreadlocks or continuing cheer in college. They also speak on the difference between street skating vs. skate park riding and also competing against yourself. Ron Allen recently relaunched his skateboard company American Dream Inc. Skateboards and gets into why it's essential to support and be supported by your local skate shops. Be sure to frequent your local skate shop and while you're there look for or request the American Dream Inc brand to show your love to Ron and the good work he's doing with American Dream. You can follow Ron on instagram @RonAllenSk8 and his @MCIntellegence Instagram page for upcoming show information. Sophie's Choice questions from this episode include: Tony Magnusson or Tony Hawk? Killer Mike or Mike Vallely? Mike D or Mike Ternasky? The Six Million Dollar Man or Man From Uncle? Thrasher or Transworld? Santa Cruz or Santa Monica Airlines? Gleaming the Cube or Ice Cube? Spike Jonze or Spike Lee? G&S or Independent? Airwalk the trick or Airwalk the shoes? Prints of the Ron Allen Cat are available here Tai's shirt in this episode: Petey Pertinent links from the episode: Ride Channel H-Street Skateboards official American Dream Inc on Insta Become an ArtByTai collector Theme music by Nalei from her debut album "13" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artbytai/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artbytai/support

在 2008 年有滑板鞋品牌正式进入中国市场之前，国内滑手的滑板鞋都是哪里来的呢？这期请来青岛的滑板外贸鞋之王，老滑手李津春跟大家讲讲这个市场正规化之前的外贸滑板鞋的故事。00:30 2008 年中国才开始有“滑板鞋”。那之前，这些滑手的滑板鞋从哪来的？本期嘉宾——“外贸鞋之王”，青岛热街滑板店主理人，李一鸣的父亲——李金春。03:30 “外贸滑板鞋”到底是什么来头？04:37 90 年代看到农村种地，修自行车的大爷穿着 Airwalk 滑板鞋。06:23 早期市面上的滑板鞋五花八门：除去 vans nike adidas cons还有 dc lakai fallen dvs actiones emerica etnies vox ipath08:03 袁飞，管牧，李金春的第一双“外贸滑板鞋”。11:48 外贸鞋为什么没有发去国外，反而在中国大卖？这些货全都是次品吗？14:25 最早怎么开始拥有“货源”的？鞋贩子和鞋厂工人都直接上门推销？！17:30 标着韩国造的鞋，可能也都是在中国生产的。20:20 北京滑手第一批 都是从青岛来的；Vision 一开始卖得特别好，一天二三十岁。22:30 袁飞在工厂购买“A 货”的经历：同一个品牌，但鞋底和鞋面是不同款式。26:00 有的工人论斤称鞋，自己在家组装。31:00 袁飞曾经也是“鞋狗”，在家收藏滑板鞋，Koston 1 - 5 代全都有。37:35 最抢手的外贸鞋，都赢在了“外貌”。43:20 外贸鞋为什么到后来都没了？45:00 国产滑板鞋先驱 Raysys，开创了签约滑手的历程。46:20 现在的外贸鞋也是应有尽有，但是专门造假。KickerRadio 是 KickerClub.com 制作播出的中国第一个滑板网络电台。追溯中国滑板历史，聚焦核心滑手故事，关注滑板社群的不断扩大与成长。滑板不是为了改变世界而是为了不被这个世界所改变。

在 2008 年有滑板鞋品牌正式进入中国市场之前，国内滑手的滑板鞋都是哪里来的呢？这期请来青岛的滑板外贸鞋之王，老滑手李津春跟大家讲讲这个市场正规化之前的外贸滑板鞋的故事。 00:30 2008 年中国才开始有“滑板鞋”。 那之前，这些滑手的滑板鞋从哪来的？ 本期嘉宾——“外贸鞋之王”，青岛热街滑板店主理人， 李一鸣的父亲——李金春。 03:30 “外贸滑板鞋”到底是什么来头？ 04:37 90 年代看到农村种地，修自行车的大爷穿着 Airwalk 滑板鞋。 06:23 早期市面上的滑板鞋五花八门： 除去 vans nike adidas cons 还有 dc lakai fallen dvs action es emerica etnies vox ipath 08:03 袁飞，管牧，李金春的第一双“外贸滑板鞋”。 11:48 外贸鞋为什么没有发去国外，反而在中国大卖？ 这些货全都是次品吗？ 14:25 最早怎么开始拥有“货源”的？ 鞋贩子和鞋厂工人都直接上门推销？！ 17:30 标着韩国造的鞋，可能也都是在中国生产的。 20:20 北京滑手第一批 都是从青岛来的； Vision 一开始卖得特别好，一天二三十岁。 22:30 袁飞在工厂购买“A 货”的经历： 同一个品牌，但鞋底和鞋面是不同款式。 26:00 有的工人论斤称鞋，自己在家组装。 31:00 袁飞曾经也是“鞋狗”，在家收藏滑板鞋， Koston 1 - 5 代全都有。 37:35 最抢手的外贸鞋，都赢在了“外貌”。 43:20 外贸鞋为什么到后来都没了？ 45:00 国产滑板鞋先驱 Raysys，开创了签约滑手的历程。 46:20 现在的外贸鞋也是应有尽有，但是专门造假。 ​ KickerRadio 是 KickerClub 制作播出的中国第一个滑板网络电台。 追溯中国滑板历史，聚焦核心滑手故事，关注滑板社群的不断扩大与成长。 滑板不是为了改变世界而是为了不被这个世界所改变。​

在 2008 年有滑板鞋品牌正式进入中国市场之前，国内滑手的滑板鞋都是哪里来的呢？这期请来青岛的滑板外贸鞋之王，老滑手李津春跟大家讲讲这个市场正规化之前的外贸滑板鞋的故事。00:30 2008 年中国才开始有“滑板鞋”。那之前，这些滑手的滑板鞋从哪来的？本期嘉宾——“外贸鞋之王”，青岛热街滑板店主理人，李一鸣的父亲——李金春。03:30 “外贸滑板鞋”到底是什么来头？04:37 90 年代看到农村种地，修自行车的大爷穿着 Airwalk 滑板鞋。06:23 早期市面上的滑板鞋五花八门：除去 vans nike adidas cons还有 dc lakai fallen dvs actiones emerica etnies vox ipath08:03 袁飞，管牧，李金春的第一双“外贸滑板鞋”。11:48 外贸鞋为什么没有发去国外，反而在中国大卖？这些货全都是次品吗？14:25 最早怎么开始拥有“货源”的？鞋贩子和鞋厂工人都直接上门推销？！17:30 标着韩国造的鞋，可能也都是在中国生产的。20:20 北京滑手第一批 都是从青岛来的；Vision 一开始卖得特别好，一天二三十岁。22:30 袁飞在工厂购买“A 货”的经历：同一个品牌，但鞋底和鞋面是不同款式。26:00 有的工人论斤称鞋，自己在家组装。31:00 袁飞曾经也是“鞋狗”，在家收藏滑板鞋，Koston 1 - 5 代全都有。37:35 最抢手的外贸鞋，都赢在了“外貌”。43:20 外贸鞋为什么到后来都没了？45:00 国产滑板鞋先驱 Raysys，开创了签约滑手的历程。46:20 现在的外贸鞋也是应有尽有，但是专门造假。KickerRadio 是 KickerClub.com 制作播出的中国第一个滑板网络电台。追溯中国滑板历史，聚焦核心滑手故事，关注滑板社群的不断扩大与成长。滑板不是为了改变世界而是为了不被这个世界所改变。

Robert Wallace is VP of Growth at Tallwave which works with companies like PayPal, Banner Health, and Lumin Digital on their products and customer experiences. Robert has 20+ years of experience in branding, marketing and communications programs to help drive the company's growth.   Questions   Could you share with us a little bit about your journey, even though we did read a very short description of where you are now and what you're doing? We always like to ask our guests if they could share with us a little bit about their journey in their own words, and how they got to where they are today. Your current organization is a customer experience design company and we are going through a global pandemic, how have you been able to navigate in this space as an organization? And have you found it difficult to get the strategy or the design across to your clients, or even to your own employees to relate to your clients, especially during this environment that we're operating? Customer experience design from a product based perspective versus service based perspective, what are maybe one or two things that you think organizations really need to consider to really be above the rest as it relates to customer experience design. Could you share with us what's the one app, tool or website that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? Could you share with us what is the one thing that's going on in your life right now - something that you're really excited about, it could be something that you're working on to develop yourself or your people. Could you also share with us maybe one or two books that you have read, that have had the biggest impact on you, it could be a book that you read a very long time ago, or maybe even one that you read recently, but it really has just stayed with you. Where can listeners find you online? Do you have a quote or saying that during times of adversity or challenge, you tend to revert to this quote, it kind of helps to get you back on track and get you refocused. Do you have one of those?   Highlights   Robert’s Journey   Robert shared that at the moment, he’s based in Scottsdale, Arizona, where his company Tallwave is located. But he’s from Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh and that is where he spent a lot of his formative years before he went to college and graduate school.   And after that, he started his professional career, jumped right into a fast growth company called Airwalk. Airwalk was a head to toe action sports manufacturer, they did everything from skateboarding shoes to head to toe snowboarding equipment, to BMX shoes, etc. And that's where he really got his first taste of what magic it is when a customer base and a brand really merge together and make that emotional bond because Airwalk had that bond at that time and they had seen some pretty meteoric growth as a consequence of that. And when he was there, he ran retail marketing.   So anything that happened at the point of sale, at the retail point of sale, and then he also put his toe in the water, he’s dating himself now but he opened up the Airwalk’s online store, which at the time was not an easy feat and was a very controversial endeavour as well, because this is back in later 90s when eCommerce wasn't as ubiquitous and there was a lot of worry about cannibalization and those type of things. But he ran all of the operations of the online business for Airwalk. And that's really how he sort of backed into to the technology world.   From there, he moved out to Boston and work for a couple startups. One was a very large eCommerce site called FarmandCountry.com where he really started his product and product meant side of his background.   And so, he ran the product there at FarmandCountry.com. And then he took that experience to a startup coming out of MIT called Afanova. They were, how would I call it, they used evolutionary algorithms that came out of MIT and they use that evolutionary algorithms to do high throughput consumer testing for brand packaging, logos, product designs, those type of things.   So think of it as an incredibly efficient, a marketing research and feedback tool. He was there early on and helped commercialize the product and the technology itself, taking it and pointing it at different markets, but the one that was particularly worthwhile at that point was the consumer packaging goods industry. So they sold into Procter and Gamble, Coca Cola, Johnson and Johnson, Conagra, you name it, Nestle, the big CPG companies.   And from there he moved to Arizona and that's when he was early on in Tallwave - they’re a customer experience design company. And he was brought on early on to stand up the services side of the business, which has now grown, that was about 10 years ago. So it has grown to a much larger company where now and like as you mentioned, they work with companies as big as Amex and JP Morgan Chase all the way to well-funded startups and great up and coming companies like Lumin Digital, let's see, Emailage, Algolia, those type of startups that you may have heard of.   What he would say is the common thread in his career, he has done footwear, he has done farm equipment, he has done tech, and he has done crazy technology out of MIT and now he’s in a business that works with all sorts of companies.   But he would say the one common thread is a great brand doesn't really care about what industry you're in, it's about making that kind of emotional connection between the customer and the company itself.   And you do that by having an amazing experience from the beginning, you have a need as a customer all the way through, you bought product, use the product, maybe had to get some customer service from that company, all the way through being a repeat customer.   So thinking about all the touch points in there is a huge part of what excites him about brand experience and customer experience, which he’ll tip his hand in his bias, he thinks those two things are very close to the same thing, if not the same thing. But understanding the customer experience and what its impact can be is what he would say the common thread is through his marketing, branding and product management career so far.   Navigating Through the Customer Experience Design Space   Me: A very fullsome journey that has taken you to different industries and different touch points so you have a very diverse approach as it relates to these different industries. So, you span quite a few industries as you indicated in explaining your journey. I know you said your current organization is a customer experience design company and we are going through a global pandemic, how have you been able to navigate in this space as an organization? And have you found it difficult to get the strategy or the design across to your clients, or even to your own employees to relate to your clients, especially during this environment that we're operating?   Robert shared that they've been very fortunate, and the nature of their work, which is creative designers, marketers, consultants, those type of people, it wasn't a huge stretch for them to work remotely, so they were very fortunate in that regard.   And they were also very fortunate because they had a broad variety of clients and some were impacted more fundamentally than others during the pandemic, so that helped them as well. But they definitely have faced the customer experience situation both from their own standpoint, but also their clients. And if you think about, if you think customer experience broadly, they've almost become more acutely aware of the customer’s experience and the individuals customers experience more acutely than they ever have before because of the pandemic. So, companies have had no choice but to take a long, hard look at how they service and provide value to their customer base. And depending on the industry, of course, you've had to adjust accordingly. But he believes it hits all industries.   So they've seen what has happened in retail, for example, that everything that probably was on the customer experience roadmap so to speak, curb side pickup, buy online, pick up in store, touch less flooring, all of those things were probably on the roadmap already but the pandemic pushed it all forward by 5 years or so.   So, he thinks that's an easy one and a pretty straightforward one. But anytime you've had to think about how your customers are interacting with you, he thinks every company, and almost every person in that company has had to rethink how we do that effectively and how we provide value and where the value actually lies, versus necessarily just in person interactions.   Robert stated that Yanique had mentioned how do they actually deliver some of their work, like he said, it lends itself pretty well to a virtual world. They're able to shift a lot of their workshops online and there are some pretty cool tools that they've been using in order to do that. But he will say that that everybody's itching to have a little bit more human interaction.    Customer Experience Design From a Product Based Perspective Versus Service Based Perspective     Me: So tell us a little bit about customer experience design from a product based perspective versus service based perspective, could you share with us maybe one or two things that as a company, whether you're a big organization like let's say, a PayPal an Amazon versus a small company, because we do have quite a range of listeners that listen to this podcast, some of them hold very big positions in these large organizations and some of them who run their own business so they wear the hat on product development, marketing, social media, all of the different things. So if we were to look on it from that perspective, what are maybe one or two things that you think they really need to consider to really be above the rest as it relates to customer experience design.   Robert stated that the one thing that he would recommend regardless of whether you're a product company or a service company, and regardless of how big or small your company is, he thinks he would highly recommend that all companies look at and be very diligent and honest about what the actual customer journey is.   That is from the point that the customer realizes they have a need, and every step all the way through purchase, use, service, and repurchase, hopefully. So, every single touch point and then making sure that you understand who those user personas are that would be going through that journey.   And that's actually not demographic, per se at all, it's more behavioural when he says persona. So who are the types of people that are using your products or services, once you have really a good deal of empathy for who those personas are, and what they go through in terms of every step of the process around their customer journey, which may or may not have to do with your company specifically, but what is actually their journey as a customer.   He thinks from there, you're in a great position to see where the opportunities are, the opportunities might be, “Wow, there's a gap in the market in terms of how they are accessing our product and using it.” And in that case, you can do a lot of user experience exploration and redesign and see if you can remap how that looks in order to make the product part of that experience more seamless, easier to use, and generally more delightful for the customer.   Or if you're a services-based business, you may have a look at it and say, “Okay, how are we going to actually support all these interactions with our customers.” And knowing how they interact and the pains they're feeling, you can start to tailor what services you might provide to them, how you might provide to them, etc. So, speaking for Tallwave even so, he would say that the customer journey is the core component, the starting point he would say for any kind of company product or service.   App, Website or Tool that Robert Absolutely Can’t Live Without in Him Business    When asked about an online resource that he cannot live without in his business, Robert shared that there are a few that their company uses. But he’ll mention two and he would say that they're less do or die for him personally, but certainly for customer experience type work and the kind of work that their team does so well.   The first one is InVision, which is a design tool to make high fidelity mock ups and present them and interact with them with their clients. So they do a tonne of work in software and mobile app development and then they also do some web work as well and laying those out in InVision and then being able to show something that's high fidelity and in some cases even clickable to their clients and to even perhaps some validation work really helps them understand if they're on the right track and making sure that they're building a product that meets the market need.   The other one that he would say has really become pretty invaluable this year is a company called Miro. And that company, their tool allows them to do a whole plethora of interactive activities, from whiteboarding sessions to mind mapping to post it note work, where they put up business model canvases and interact. But it allows everybody to interact in the tool simultaneously as if they were in the room together doing that with physical post it notes and whiteboards like they used to pre pandemic.   So, every time he uses Miro, he’s very impressed with how well they've taken into consideration the users of that tool and the people that use whiteboards and workshopping and those types of things so often, like a lot of agency folks, design folks, consulting folks, that's a great example of a company that has really listened to who the personas are, what behaviour do they take place in, and then what is the journey that we go through to implement that, and they've built that into the product. So, he thinks they're actually a good example of what he was describing before.    What Robert is Really Excited About Now!    Robert shared that on a personal level, the more and more of the world keeps getting vaccinated, and he’s halfway home, meaning he got one of the two shots, so he'll soon be fully vaccinated and that is a relief, he’s sure to everybody that gets it for themselves and their loved one. So the things that come with that are more time and more quality time with family and friends. And so, that's probably his number one personal item.   On a professional level, he thinks it is when we all go through times like this, and the pandemic was unlike any other. He thinks when we come out of the other side, we've all transformed a little bit and he’s excited by what that transformation, as painful as it might have been, that transformation has opened up a lot of opportunities for all of us, especially in the business world.   Books That Have Had the Greatest Impact on Robert   When asked about books that have had the biggest impact, Robert shared that one he has read about 4 years ago, 5 years ago maybe, it's called Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. And he found it to be very useful and worthwhile for both his personal and professional life and it's really about identifying what really is adding value to the time that you're spending on something and when to say no, and why and being very deliberate about that. And in very simple terms, because he thinks most of us, at least at some point struggle with saying no, and being a little overburdened, but what really is important now is something that Essentialism definitely has taught him. So that's sort of a both a professional book.   And then he’s also reading a book that he’s finding fascinating, it's called Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts by Annie Duke as in gambling bets, and it's written by a former professional poker player. And it's not at all about poker, it is about decision making, processes and using the mind-set that a professional poker player or gambler that they use and the processes they use in order to evaluate what they're doing. There's a lot of them that are very cool ways to think about the decision making we have to do in our professional lives day to day.    Where Can We Find Robert Online   Website – www.tallwave.com LinkedIn – wallacera Twitter - @Tallwave Instagram - @tallwave LinkedIn - Tallwave   Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Robert Uses   When asked about a quote or saying that he tends to revert to, Robert shared that it's a little long can I read it. It’s called The Man in the Arena by Teddy Roosevelt, one of their former Presidents. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”   Please connect with us on Twitter @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest   Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners    Links   Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts by Annie Duke   The ABC’s of a Fantastic Customer Experience   Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC’s of a Fantastic Customer Experience.”   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!

Eat at the Rockin' G' Grill and Food Truck On this Episode Medea & Phix hit me with a gang of questions...and I throw some back at them. They ask about/we discuss...my music taste in high school, my craziest exes, favorite meals as a kid, high school haters, Airwalk shoes, how in high school you're still cookin', Dress Code Violations, differences in being a Freshman vs Senior, the girls missing out on "prom", what our favorite place to live was, BATHROOM TALK, waterbeds, and DAD JOKES. Music by Tom Tierney: imadethisinmycloset.bandcamp.com @death_r0b0t on Instagram

Guest: Mike Arzt is the founder of The Public Works and has been a force of the winter sports industry for over nineteen years, helping shape an industry close to his heart. Mike grew up snowboarding the mountains of Vermont, where he decided to take his passion for the mountains, the snow and the sport and turn it into a career. Today, thanks to many years at some of the top names in the industry, Mike has an in-depth business knowledge of branding, development, athletes, and imagery that helped form The Public Works. Not to mention several passport stamps in search of the world's best snow. The Public Works is a full-service project management firm with expertise from industrial design, engineering, and fabrication, through creative and marketing deliverables. The power of strong relationships built on integrity and soul and shared passion for brand stimulation makes The Public Works one of a kind. Their Colorado facility, which is solar-powered, heated from downed beetle-kill wood, and utilizes biodiesel made from used fryer oil to power their fleet, is a fully equipped fabrication/manufacturing shop and photography studio. Mike is a big supporter of the First Descents, an inspiring and highly recognized leader in outdoor experiential programming. Through outdoor adventures, skills development, and local adventure communities, FD improves the long-term survivorship of young adults impacted by cancer and other severe health conditions. Their participants experience free outdoor adventure programs that empower them to climb, paddle, and surf beyond their diagnosis, reclaim their lives and connect with others doing the same. Episode in a Tweet: Be a leader who lives audaciously, gives back and builds a brand that makes an impact. And never stop searching for deep snow on steep mountains. Quick Background: I met Mike at a First Descents fundraiser ski trip in Silverton, Colorado. We flew in a helicopter, searching for fresh powder, steep lines, and a bit of adrenaline. Inspired by Mike's love of snow, perspective on the outdoor industry, and his laid-back leadership style, I invited him to join me on Reflect Forward to talk about his passions: photography, snow, the First Descents, and being a leader worth following. Mike shares what he's learned working from some of the world's biggest outdoor brands such as Burton, Airwalk, and Helly Hanson and why there is nothing more freeing than ripping on a snowboard in some of the world's most remote mountains. Mike tells about his inspiring involvement with First Descents and how it changed his life forever. We talk about why brands need to take a stand, support a cause, and make an impact. Mike is a very cool cat, and I can't wait for our next ski trip…British Columbia 2022! You can find Mike on Linkedin and at The Public Works.

This week we talk to Alphonso Rawls — former pro skater and a leader in skate shoe design. While he was riding for brands like Airwalk, Etnies, Droors, Duff's, among others, he began designing shoes for many of those companies, and others, before becoming head of footwear design for DC. There he designed the Court model, which has been DC's biggest-selling shoe to this day. More recently, Alf launched his own lines: Everybody Skates: A skate / streetwear brand that borrows heavily from pop culture (https://everybodyskates.com) Savale: A luxury sneaker brand making limited-edition skate shoes that you can actually skate in if you have money like that (https://www.savalefootwear.com) We get a little deep on the details of sneaker design. Geek out on that if you're interested, and there are a couple of BIG lessons for everyone building a brand or a career: 1. Make sure you know why people are buying your product. It can be the best in the world but if it doesn't meet the emotional and functional needs of your customer, it isn't going to work. 2. Hear how Alf is involving his audience in the creative process. That kind of transparency and engagement is exactly what consumers are coming to expect from their brands. Go buy some fits and kicks while you listen to this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kasey and Joe thrash out; Shelley Duvall, feet, Kasey's cubital and carpal tunnel surgery, Joe's tonsils, Charo @kaseyplaysbass @whatupcuzshow youtube.com/whatupcuzshow instagram.com/whatupcuzshow whatupcuzshow.com

Episode Highlights: After in-person events were cancelled in 2020, SIA names tradeshow and event veteran, Brian Stephenson Director of Snowbound Festivals What changes can consumer trade shows like Snowbound make to minimize the negative environmental impact of such large in-person events? Hear how offering educational and relevant content year-round through SIA’s membership portal creates a barrier-free entry point for newcomers to the sports and bridges the gap between experts and novices  Description: In the summer of 2020 and in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brian Stephenson was named Director of the Snowbound Festival, an event that many of us have always considered the kick off for the winter season. Brian was hired by SIA and brings with him an extensive background in consumer events like Comicon, Star Wars Celebration with Disney and Lucasfilm, and many others.  The cancellation of in-person events was our reality over the past year, and though we can’t say for certain what the next year will bring, developing a whole new ecosystem and expanding on the concept and community facet of an event like Snowbound is what Brian will bring to the table.  A membership site is a platform we haven’t discussed here much on Channel Mastery, but our consumers are continuing to evolve and become even hungrier for our content. Similar to email lists, memberships create an audience willingly engaging in what we have to say and offer a community. SIA and Snowbound are widening the portal for the newcomer to winter sports, bridging the gap between an expert and a novice and bringing all of these components together under one portal and then the literal, roof, of the consumer shows. Also on the minds of so many of our evolving consumers is sustainability and how their favorite brands, businesses and organizations are aligning their practices with that of the consumers. Brian shares what Snowbound Festivals of the future are doing to ensure they’re practicing what they preach and keeping the environment and sustainability at top of mind. Brian Stephenson is the Director of Snowbound, the new consumer platform of Snowsports Industries of America (SIA). Brian started his career in the winter division of Airwalk and then became the Sports Marketing Manager for SoBe Beverages at PepsiCo and oversaw the partnership with Burton Snowboards including the US Open of Snowboarding and the winter athlete program. After leaving Pepsi, Brian helped create a new consumer pop culture event division at Reed Exhibitions called Reedpop. Reedpop runs some of the largest consumer events in the world including New York Comic Con, Star Wars Celebration, ComplexCon, PAX, Emerald City Comic Con, and many more. While at Reedpop Brian built and maintained relationships with global partners including CBS, Crunchyroll, Disney, DC Entertainment, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Microsoft, Warner Bros, and many others. Brian joined the SIA team in 2020 and is bringing his multi-faceted brand and event experience together with his love of Snowsports to build the new Snowbound Festivals.

Don Szabo is a Pro Snowboarder from southern California who rode for Nectar, Airwalk, Life's Beach, Lamar, Blackfly's and a handful of other companies in the 90's. Don was integral to creating the modern day snowboard pro career. Don Szabo could be seen in Transworld, Snowboarder, The Creatures of Habit movies, gracing the pages with his freestyle snowboarding and comical shenanigans. I was stoked to catch up with Don and I'm sure we will be talking again at some point as we only scratched the surface of his snowboarding career in this episode.Support the show (https://paypal.me/fnradfoundation)

Alan Foster never dreamed of becoming one of the top and most respected bmx pro racers, but that's exactly what happened. Growing up on the east coast transitioned into a move to the west coast, leading to a 10 year career that helped him invest in many properties. In this episode he shares those stories and influencers that helped him along the way. 

BGBS 058: Kris Fry | Smartwool | It's an Experiment Kris Fry is a brand pro in love with the magic of ideation and storytelling, armed with the awareness that nothing is more powerful than a well-planned strategy. He is currently the Global Creative director at Smartwool, but has had the opportunity to lead concept, design, and experience for incredible brands like Oakley, Wheel Pros, HEAD, SCOTT Sports, Coors, Eddie Bauer, Punch Bowl Social, and The North Face. As you'll hear in the episode, Kris is fascinated by finding the connection points between consumers and branding in order to find the right brand message that inspires consumers beyond just purchase, to join a community. Our interest in where it all began lead Kris down the path of explaining a world of self-expression, liberation, and rave-style jeans—otherwise known as skateboarding culture—which was pivotal for introducing him to brand expression and has remained an underlying current of inspiration to this day. We go along with the journey that enthralled Kris with the blend of visual language and storytelling, eventually leading him to an opportunity with Smartwool that he wears proudly today. Quotes [10:07] That balance of branding and consumers and how they interact is one of the greatest sociology experiments that I just love and nerd out on and I find it fascinating, like it's an experiment—this interaction and this back and forth. Sometimes breaking out a little bit of a crystal ball and doing some guesswork, having some data to throw in there. [Those] foundational elements help guide the creative to come up with that brand-right message that just connects with people and hopefully inspires them beyond just purchase. It inspires them to join a community. [10:49] One of our main goals is to get people outside. It's not about what you do outside or how well you do it, we just think there's this beautiful inherent thing about nature. [12:02] There's just so many powerful elements that I think brands have a responsibility to really drive with consumers. I think there's a lot of brands doing some really cool stuff and activating in cool ways and opening up conversations and exposing communities to things they've never seen before. I think brands are inspiring. [14:06] I think skateboarding and finding skateboarding and that community for me, essentially changed my life and made me really recognize brands—what they stood for. And I started to kind of badge and, with the little money I had, could adopt these brands, because they meant something and they said something about me. And so I might not have recognized the power of them then, or that I would want to pursue that as a career, but art has always been a part of it. [18:17] Another thing that I've always loved about skateboarding is they always find a way to get back underground and come back out with a new look, feel that's unique to the culture in that moment, and I can't think of another sport activity or movement that has been able to do that decade over decade over decade. Resources Instagram: @kfrydesign LinkedIn: Kris Fry Kris Fry: Smartwool Website: smartwool.com Podcast Transcript Kris Fry 0:02 Every generation a parent's right is trying to just not do what their parents did them. And I think for me, I've come to a place where I haven't felt that shame in a long time. That a lot of that is who you surround yourself with and things that you do that make you happy and build confidence in who you are as a person. And that's kind of been me like I've had to find a sense of worth and confidence in myself and value in myself that you know how to use quite a bit to get out of that kind of shameful feeling. But, you know, design and art and those things, music, especially like, those are all things that I think have really helped me figure out who I am. And you know where I want to go. Marc Gutman 0:52 Podcasting from Boulder, Colorado. This is the Baby Got Backstory Podcast, where we dive into the story behind the story of today's most inspiring storytellers, creators and entrepreneurs. I like big back stories and I cannot lie. I am your host, Marc Gutman, Marc Gutman, and on today's episode of Baby got backstory. We are talking to Kris Fry, global creative director. It's Smartwool. And before we get into my conversation with Kris, if you like and enjoy the show, please take a minute or two to rate review us over at Apple podcasts or Spotify, Apple and Spotify use these ratings as part of the algorithm that determines ratings on their charts. Better yet, please recommend this show to at least one friend who you think will like it. It may be even one enemy who will like it. It's time we bring the world together over the common love of the baby got backstory podcast. Today's guest is Kris Fry global creative director at Smartwool. And I'm gonna let you know right now, we don't talk a whole lot about Smartwool. That's because Kris took the conversation in a wonderfully raw and fascinating direction. Kris has had the opportunity to lead concept design and experience for some incredible brands like Oakley, wheel pros, head, Scott sports cores, Eddie Bauer, Punchbowl, social and the North Face. He is currently the global creative director at Smartwool, which is part of the Vf Corporation. And as you'll hear, he describes himself as a freelancer, a failure startup and an agency executive. He's worked brand side agency side, and more often than not somewhere in between. Kris says in his words. I'm in love with the magic of ideation and storytelling, but also believe that nothing is more powerful than a well planned strategy. This is a brand pro and marketer after my own heart. I've known Kris for years, we've worked together in the past. And I didn't know about 95% of what he shares in this episode. In this is his story. I am here with Kris Fry, the global creative director at Smartwool. Thanks for joining us, Kris. Really appreciate it. And as we get into the episode here, like what is a global creative director, it's Smartwool. Like what does that mean? Kris Fry 3:49 Thanks for having me. Great question. Well, essentially, I am a creative director at Smartwool. So I essentially drive all of the marketing materials, marketing materials, storytelling efforts, branding, really kind of drive the purpose and values of the brand globally. As you know, our brand is mostly us focused and based, you know, we are growing in some key markets, specifically Canada, Europe, em EA. And so my job globally, is to make sure that the brand is not only consistent, but compelling in all of those regions, and work with kind of different marketing teams within the regions to kind of help them you know, keep consistent and make sure that kind of those brand values and that purpose for the brand is really driven home at every communication point. Marc Gutman 4:40 Yeah, and just so our listeners know, and I'm sure about 99.9% of them are familiar with Smartwool but in case they're not, I want you to give us a little kind of blurb on who and what Smartwool is. Kris Fry 4:55 Awesome. Yeah, so Smartwool is a apparel company. So started in the sock business, they were the first ones to make merino wool based performance socks in steamboat, Colorado. And for 26 years, they have been kind of crafting and re crafting and kind of growing into other spaces like apparel and accessories, and really kind of taking this merino wool expertise and this knitting expertise that came from socks. And then growing that across many categories, base layer, mid layer, finding every kind of which way you can twist and knit wool. Marc Gutman 5:35 Yeah, and you know, that makes me feel dated, because I remember when Smartwool was like a new novel thing, you know, and Brian, Marina Marino sport socks were like, this, this crazy new concept. And now here we are 26 laters, I haven't realized it's, it's been that long. And let's get back a little bit to this description of global creative director. Because before we move past that, I really want to define that a little more like, what's your What are your days? Like? I mean, are you sitting around? Is that the way that I like to imagine the fantasy that you're in some studio? And you're splashing paint? And you're ripping up paper? And you're, you know, mocking up things? Or is it? Is it something completely different than that? Kris Fry 6:17 Well, I'm gonna be honest, some days are like that, for sure. You know, ideating generating ideas comes from all kinds of different spots, right? Whether that be gathering inspiration from books, but my main objective is to lead a team and inspire them. And to help them solve larger brand problems. I also worked very closely with the head of global marketing, to really kind of define the strategies, that kind of, you know, the strategies that essentially kind of define only the campaign's but you know, all of the kind of go to market product stories that we're going to tell seasonally. And so I work quite a bit with the product development team, as well, as our design directors suggests who really runs kind of the product design program, she's essentially kind of my, my peer and partner in crime to really kind of, at every angle, make sure that the aesthetic of the brand is coming through storytelling, those kind of bigger product thematics, and consumer insights, how they're kind of really driven into the product, as well as into all of our marketing efforts. And then, yeah, so a day like today, you know, I'll start off with a, you know, kind of a team leadership meeting, I guess, with, you know, a group of folks that I brought on to kind of help work on the team in a different way. So writers or directors, designers, and then you know, might slide into a strategy meeting, to really kind of define how we're going to be brief certain projects, and, and then I still take a pretty hands on approach to the work. So sometimes I'm, you know, blocking out a couple hours on the calendar to, as you say, like, rip up paper, get creative, get inspired. And then yeah, sometimes, you know, it's a larger leadership things. Right now, we have some kind of fundamental brand things that we're developing, specifically around kind of identifying our design target, who they are, what motivates them, and really kind of trying to drive this idea of being consumer and digital first, for smartwatches. Right? Smartwool is a brand that has largely been wholesale driven, and just with the changes, you know, even before COVID, right, the world of wholesale is changing. And so we're trying to identify ways to really support our wholesale and specialty partners, make sure the brand and that brand love is being generated and resonated from those partners, as well as taking an active look at strategically, you know, how we, how we bring more digital activations to life so we can really grow our brand and bring, you know, new consumers to it. Marc Gutman 9:03 And so you and I have talked about this before, you've mentioned it several times, just in that last, that last reply, talking about brand and brand aesthetics, and storytelling, and so you know, that those are all topics that are near and dear to my heart, like, like, what why is it important that your almost entire focus is is on that, like, why does that matter? Kris Fry 9:23 I think there's, for me a bunch of different reasons, like I think, I don't know, I think brands have an opportunity to, to do some pretty powerful and meaningful things beyond just selling products, right? I think there's opportunity, especially with, you know, culturally, the sea change that is happening, for brands to have a point of view, right, and I think to to become more than just kind of valuable products, right, and, and stories are really kind of the key driver for the for identifying kind of those connections. points with consumers, right. But I do think it's, you know, for me, I don't know the brand, that balance of branding and consumers and how they interact, I think is like one of the greatest, like sociology experiments that I just like, love and nerd out on. And I don't know why. But I find it fascinating, right? Like, it's an experiment like this interaction and this back and forth. And sometimes breaking out a little bit of a crystal ball and doing some guesswork, having some data to throw in there that's, you know, foundational elements to help guide the creative, to come up with that brand right message that just connects with people, and hopefully inspires them beyond just purchase, right inspires them to, to join a community and for smart goals, specifically, right, it's one of our main goals is to get people outside, right? It's, it's not about what you do outside or how well you do it, we just think there's this beautiful inherent thing about nature. And our products, you know, not only provide protection, but they also provide comfort. And hopefully those things, you know, are we like to say like, our main job is essentially to ignite transformative moments for consumers, right. And that come through in product and our communication. And to me, that's why branding is important, because it sets a path and a tone that everybody can rally behind. And hopefully, our customers and consumers feel that, you know, there's nothing like throwing on a snappy new pair of socks. And you know, when you pull that toe over, and you snap that Smartwool logo over the toes, that to me is a transformative moment, right? You, you feel all of the innovation that went into the sock that you may not be able to see, you feel the power of natural materials. And, you know, that should give you this sense of you're taking really good care of your feet by making you know, this purchase from this fun loving brand. Right? So very long winded answer to your question, as usual. But I don't know, there's just so many powerful elements that I think brands have a responsibility to really drive with, with consumers. And, and I think there's a lot of brands doing some really cool stuff and activating a cool ways and opening up conversations and exposing communities the things they've never seen before. I think brands are inspiring. Marc Gutman 12:23 And I couldn't agree more. I mean, you describe yourself as nerding out on brand and the social experiment. I agree. I think it's just this incredible dance, it's always changing. It sometimes is maddening. It's so fickle. But that's what I think also keeps us coming back for more. You know, it's never it's never static. And so where did you grow up? Kris Fry 12:43 I actually grew up in Littleton Colorado, not too far from home. Yeah. Marc Gutman 12:48 Colorado native, we don't we don't encounter those very often, not just on the baby gun, podcast, but just in, in real life, except this next generation, like all our kids will be the Colorado natives. But as you're growing up there in Littleton, Colorado, I mean, did you know that you were gonna be drawn to this, this idea of branding, and even in a broader sphere, being a creative? Kris Fry 13:12 I don't think I knew about, you know, or wasn't, I wasn't really attracted to brands or branding, until maybe, I'd say high school, junior high school level, right? Like before that, you know, didn't matter. It was just whatever I could throw on and go ride my bike, and get outside. But being a creative for sure. I was always into art, and drawing and painting, you know, in junior high moment was like, I always mean, my buddies always talk about like, junior high, I feel like is used to be this defining moment where you're either going to be go down a good path, or a bad path, right, and start experimenting a little bit like that seventh to eighth grade. And I chose, you know, to try some some things in my life at that moment, right. But I was also introduced to a totally different world that took, you know, drawing and painting to another level of expression, right? music changed, art changed. And I think skateboarding and finding skateboarding and that community for me, essentially changed my life, and made me really recognize brands, what they stood for. And, you know, I started to kind of badge and, you know, with the little money I had, right could can adopt these brands, because they meant something and they said something about me. And so I might not have recognized the power of them then, or that I would want to pursue you know that as a career, but art has always been a part of it. Being creative has always been a part of it. You know, Music has always, you know, been a key part of my life. I'm a failed musician many times over, right? Like, I would love to be able to play the guitar. I've tried many times and failed, right? But it's something that's always been like a underlying current and powerful inspiration point. forever. Marc Gutman 15:01 Well, and you and I share that in common. I have multiple guitars that I've purchased throughout the years that I've, you know, that I've started playing never successfully as well. And I've got a nice little collection. So we got that going. And as well, and I don't know if this is my bias, I don't know if it's who I tend to No, but there really does seem to be this interesting thread through the creatives that have been on this show that have all have gotten to a really great point in their careers where they were really inspired and informed by skateboarding. And then, you know, in another layer of that being music, that's come up a lot, too. But I mean, what do you think it is about that skate culture that lends itself to being this this foundational, either community or just inspiration for for creatives, especially those, you know, if our generation? Kris Fry 15:57 Yeah, I mean, for me, it was this idea of self expression. And just, I don't know, being a totally unique individual, like I felt that come through with, you know, every one of my favorite skateboarders, every one of the skateboard brands, right from the artists, they chose to do the graphics to the colors to the way they treated the logos, right. And that attitude was something that me and my group of friends tried to personify in our own way, you know, everybody had, like, intentionally was, you know, trying to cut their, their own style, right, like I came up in like the early 90s version of skateboarding, which was very much like, cut off ultra baggy jeans or going to thrift stores or buying, you know, 40 size pants when I was like a 28 waist, and they're massive, but I would cut off the bell bottoms, it wasn't quite like Genco like jinko level, you know, like the rave style jeans, but there was a DIY customization like, self expression, like, thing that just was artistic and kind of weird. And, and I think that also kind of alliance of the punk rock scene and DIY spirit of carving your own way, and having a voice and not being afraid to, to express yourself at that was very liberating, right? For me. And I don't know, it was just super influential. I think part of it too, was also, you know, what the environment I grew up in. Skateboarding was this pivotal thing that happened, and I got to experience and that was mine. And that was just a very different than what I had at home. Right. It was an escape for me, too. And I think, for me, that's what it was, I know, for my group of friends at the time, right? Like, that's what it was for them to. We had our we had our own community that we made, right, we could do, and talk and be ourselves and that little bubble, and it felt like a safe space. That was our stone, which I I really, you know, think is because of skateboarding. You know, I don't know if that was ever anybody's intent that got a skateboard, but they've been reinventing it and doing it for decades, right, like, and that's another thing that I've always loved about skateboarding is they always find a way to get back underground and come back out with a new look feel that's unique to the culture in that moment, you know, and that I can't think of another sport activity, you know, or movement that has been able to do that decade over decade over a decade, you know. Marc Gutman 18:41 Yeah, neither can I. And so, then at that age, in addition to skateboarding, like how was school going for you? Were you a good student? Or did you have any sense of where you were going with yourself? Kris Fry 18:55 Not at all. I was a terrible student. Some of it by choice, some of it by Yeah, most of it by choice, right? Like, uh, I gotta pick the things in the moments that I wanted to pay attention to. And you know, in high school in high school, kind of had my core group of friends and you know, we we were all into skateboarding and we kind of did our thing and I wasn't very good at math or you know, proper English I'm still terrible with grammar thank God for copywriters. But um, you know, I think those are the things I just didn't love and appreciate and I didn't put a value set to them. But art I did write I took every photo photography class, every drawing class, and I did really well in those classes. Like my dad used to always be like, You're like a half straight A student right? Like because I get perfect grades and all the art classes and then every other thing I was failing out of but you know, that was that. It was This was like, what I glommed on to, and I loved and again, I think a lot of it just felt like a, an avenue of expression for me more than anything, right. And I had some really supportive teachers in my high school that, you know, saw some talented me and nurtured it and supported it. And I just kind of kept on this art train. And, you know, I had another very influential high school teacher. His name is Bill stout. He's, he was just a rad Dude, I had him freshman year for I forget the name of the class, but English 101 or whatever. And, and he was so cool, because he got us into creative writing, in a very cool way, right? We'd have to write in journals. And at the beginning, it was like, Oh, God, here you go first. 10 minutes of class, right? You got to write in your journal and, and Mr. style was like, super into music as well. And so he'd always put on music. But it wasn't just like, Oh, I'm gonna put on, you know, some top 40 it was like, he was he was playing Pearl Jam, when like, Pearl Jam was new. He was like, and so every kid in the class was like, Fuck, yeah, this, this is amazing, right. And he's just was this cool, dude. And he, I learned a lot from him. And I actually had a chance my senior year, the only AP class I had was AP English. And Mr. style was like, I remember you from freshman year, even though you haven't been that successful. Like, I think, you know, this would be a good class for you. And I love that class. And he changed the rules. And that's what I loved about it, too, is it wasn't about curriculum, to him, it was about my goal is to make sure that you are expanding your brain as a young man. And so he'd be like, I, I want you to do the curriculum stuff, you're gonna get graded on it, for sure. He's like, but what I really want you to do is read. And he had this deal. If you read so many pages, essentially, it would, you know, take over what you didn't do in the curriculum. And so I was like, This is amazing. And so I, I adopted reading, and he, he would, you know, do these kind of book report interview style things, but the books he was given me were insane books, like catch 22, Catcher in the Rye, you know, those kind of standard ones that are like coming of age, great stories, but then it got into like, I don't know, cosmic Bandidos and some weird shit. And then he got me into the Basketball Diaries, and just some counterculture stories that were very real and gritty and raw, like, it was super inspiring to me. And it opened my mind up to like, things I had no idea existed, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know if you've read the gym, like Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll. But like, they made a movie of it with Leonardo DiCaprio. But if you ever get a chance, go on Amazon order the book. It's fucking astounding, like, what was happening in New York and his artistry and who Jim Carroll became like, it's just like, I don't know, it's a period piece that is just iconic and resonates with me. But I don't know, I think maybe that ultimately helped me craft this love of Art and Design and the visual language with storytelling, right like that. I would have never found that without Mr. Stout. Marc Gutman 23:18 Yeah. And so at that time, I mean, did you have a sense of what was next? I mean, were was Mr. stau. And your parents were they like, Oh, hey, like, you should go with him? Or were they saying or what was your thought were we gonna do after high school? Kris Fry 23:33 Yeah, I mean, Mr. Stout. He was the kind of guy that was like, he was kind of, like, I'll support you with whatever you want to do, right. And I really had no idea that I wanted to pursue anything and kind of the, you know, advertising marketing, branding world. And all I knew art was something I was talented at, and wanted to pursue. I, you know, I ended up, you know, wanting to go to art school. My parents on the other hand, right, like they, I come from a pretty religious, strict religious background, that I grew up as a Jehovah's Witness, essentially, until about my junior year in high school, and I decided I wanted to smoke weed and date girls and have friends outside of the church. And, you know, that didn't vibe with my parents, too well, and so, you know, by that senior year, I was a bit at odds with them. And I had found all these really cool things and was starting to figure out who I wanted to be personally right outside of the parameters that have had essentially contained me since I was, you know, a young child. And, and so I felt like art school is like my thing, and they were supportive, for sure. Right. They were glad I had chosen something. They wanted me to, you know, apply my art to the larger church group and help the church group lunch. You know, what's their goal for everything and I wanted out, I was like, I gotta get the fuck out of here. So I applied to a ton of art schools, I ended up getting accepted to a few of them, including the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, and spent a summer went up there visited the campus, it was awesome. Like, I remember just being, you know, high school kid and walking through this campus and going down the stairwells, and they were filled with graffiti, and they're like, Oh, yeah, this is like, the graffiti one on one class. And I was like, Oh, fuck this, like, this is this is it, you know, I mean, and I was there with my dad. And, and he was super into it. And I had, I had gotten a scholarship to go there and international students scholarship. And so I was primed and ready. But, you know, I was also not a very I wasn't very good at the details when it came to that stuff. And so I applied, got the scholarship, and I essentially messed up my visas, and my applications for the visas. And right before I was going to go there, I was informed that I had lost my scholarship. And, and I could apply again next year for the same scholarship and they would kind of happy and right now, I was pretty heartbroken at that point. And so I don't know, do you want me to keep laughing? But yeah, I think at that moment, my biggest goals were to somehow find a way to make art as a job. And also, part two of that big goal was to get as far away from Littleton Colorado as possible, which Canada had all the right things. Marc Gutman 26:44 So we're gonna come right back to that, but I want to talk a little bit, I want to just learn a little bit more like you, you use the, the phrase or the term the description to Hovis witness. And, like, I'm sitting here thinking, like, I don't really think I know, a fish, like, I couldn't tell you, I couldn't describe that back to you. And so if you could like, like, just kind of give me the one on one, like, what is that? And and how did that affect you is in your upbringing, and I also find it interesting as you as you describe this, that, you know, you spent some time talking about describing, being involved in the skate culture and, and, and getting into music, all these things, but yet you have this other influence from from your upbringing. And so yeah, if you could just kind of give us the one on one on Jehovah's Witness and, and what it was like, for you growing up in that environment? Kris Fry 27:32 Yeah, for sure. What's the best way to describe it? It's a, it's a Christian based religion. And it's a it's a, you know, it's a pretty large and growing religion, but essentially, the way most people would know by, you know, Saturday and Sunday mornings, you hear the kind of knock on your door, and somebody is, you know, trying to get you involved in reading the Bible, or having a study group or, you know, try to kind of get you involved in that religion, right. That's the most common thing. And you've probably seen it Saturday Night Live, all kinds of, you know, any comedic effort, right. Like, that's always the, the joke around Jehovah's Witnesses. But, you know, that wasn't, you know, I grew up, I was kind of born into it, essentially, I had the opportunity to celebrate my first birthday. But one of the big belief systems that the Jehovah's Witnesses have is around making sure that all of your kind of focus and energy is around paying tribute to, to God, that includes, you know, not worshiping yourself. So there was no birthdays, all common holidays were not celebrated. And, let's see, yeah, it was it was essentially, it was cult like, in the sense, I don't want to call it that, right, because I don't really believe that. I think the people there, my dad is still participating, right? Like, they're very kind of Christian based folks. And I think that they just are very disciplined in their belief system. Right. And for a long time, you know, was at odds with my dad, because I just didn't understand it, you know, but for him, it was, it was his truth. And it didn't work out for everybody else in my family, essentially. And I was kind of the catalyst for that change. But for him, it's it's what he believes in and he loves and I've come to, you know, to terms with that, and we kind of have a agree to disagree, right. I think the the fundamentals of that religion are rooted in, you know, truly the teachings of the Bible, in the sense of kindness and taking care of your fellow man. And their approach is to try and bring as many people into that, you know, you know, into their community as possible. They do that by knocking on doors. But, you know, for me, it was always so restrictive. It was, I mean, we we would go, you know, knocking on doors Saturdays on Sundays, Sundays we'd be at church, we also would have church Tuesday evenings and Thursday evenings. And then mixed in there were, you know, Bible studies, and it was just, it was always, such as Groundhog Day, I'll just call it right. Like, it was Groundhog Day, every day. But all based on on the same ideals and the same belief system. And as I was, you know, getting into skateboarding, and all of those things, and developing friendships, right, those are all, no no's inside of the church, right, you're supposed to hang with your community, because everybody else outside of that has different views that potentially will drive you away from the church. And for me, that was always like, a weird thing. And it always, like, rubbed me the wrong way to a point that it created a created defiance in me, right. And it was a was a perfect storm of me, being at that age, and pushing back against whatever all the normal things you're supposed to push back as a teenager, but also having this like, Governor on your life, your whole life, right. And I wanted to experience life, I, I wanted to experience friendships and adventures, and art, and music and culture and skateboarding and all of these things, you know, and they were the exact opposite of what my father's house was supposed to be. And so for a majority of my high school life, I would probably say that I lived a double life, you know, I'd go to school, and I'd be one person with my friends and, and then I'd come home, and, you know, I would tamp all of that stuff down, you know, and it was hard. And I remember, you know, we'd always dress up in suits and ties on Saturdays. And that was always like, the hardest day for me to remember, because my dad would be like, Okay, well, you know, let's go get our community hours in and, and, you know, do right by the religion, and try and go knock on some doors. And it was a gut wrenching feeling for me to go into a neighborhood where I knew my friends lived, and to be there next to my dad knocking on their door. And I just remember being so anxious, right, like, just waiting, waiting for that moment where I make eye contact with somebody I knew from school. And then just thinking in my head the whole time of like, the, the teenage terrorism that was about to take place that on when I got back on Monday. And anyways, long story short, that I think that had a lot to do with. I don't know, my, my love of, you know, skateboarding and the idea of a counterculture. And the idea of breaking free. Like, I don't know, that's why I like what I do now, because it's on adulterated freedom. And I think there's power in that, you know, sorry, I just took a deep. That was great. That Marc Gutman 33:06 It must've, thank you for sharing that. I mean, it must have been really hard living with that, that secret that at any moment, like, you could get busted, I can only imagine it would even be intensified by being like, Hey, I'm this cool. Skate counterculture guy. And that's a big contrast. Right? Kris Fry 33:24 Yeah, totally. I mean, I think that was it, you know, and I was never, at that age, you know, I kind of took it to the limit, I can take it to you. Right, like, definitely identified as a skateboarder identified with a certain group of kids. But, you know, there's no way I was, you know, bleaching my hair, or no way I was, you know, getting anything pierced or, or going to, you know, a level of extremism, I guess, at that time. Um, there's just no way there's no way my I could handle the consequences that when I got back to the, to the house, and also the jig would be up, right. Like, it was one thing to wear baggy pants and a skateboard t that I picked up at BC surfing sport, that whatever had a funny character on it that, you know, my mom thought was cute. It's another thing to come in guns blazing. And, and not have, you know, a job not not my dad would ever have kicked me out. But I, you know, I grew up as you did in that generation where, you know, corporal punishment and spankings were real deal. You know what I mean? Like, at the backside of mini wooden spoons and leather belts. And at that age, like, I was just trying to find my way. And so I was trying to find the best way I could survive to a point, you know, you know, it always bubbles up at one point, right? Like the, it always comes out, you know, and it took a while, you know, until I had some real freedoms in my own right. Like I was driving, if I could, I had a job I could spend my money the way I wanted to spend it. And that's when the the That's also when cowboys from hell by Pantera was out and like, full aggression just was like, boiling inside of me. And that's where, you know, the kind of first set of my push to my own kind of set of values and freedoms really, you know, came at odds with my dad's point of view, you know, and my dad was a, he's a very kind man still is to this day, right? And I can only imagine the torture, I put him through, right, because I think he was just like, man, I just wanna, I just wanna love you. And this is why I'm doing this for you and not blasting Pantera every night when I get home, and, you know, bring girls over and smoking weed and like, sure, fucking whatever, not a proud moment, but it was my moment. But eventually, it essentially caused the collapse of, you know, my tenure as a job as witness, they have this thing in the religion where, you know, essentially, they call it being disfellowshipped. And so essentially, if you, whatever break the rules of the community, or if you're identified as somebody that is, you know, not living up to the standards of their religion, and they just associate you, which is a weird thing as a 16 year old to think about, but that was disassociated, essentially, like, you're allowed to come to the, to the church as much as you want and pray and work on being a better Christian. But nobody's allowed to talk to you can't can't convene, you're kind of the like, you know, the people, the higher ups are allowed to kind of talk to you, but it's mostly about, you know, how you're coming back to the, to the religion outside of that, like, I wasn't invited to anybody's family, barbecues or I was, I was at home, and you know, my family would go do that without me, which was fine by me at the time, to be honest. , Marc Gutman 36:57 Well it sounds a little heavy. I mean, was that was it fine? Or was there like some shame involved in that? Kris Fry 37:04 I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure there's some deep rooted shame in me, right. But I don't know. Like, I think I've now that I'm kind of in my 40s, I feel like I have a sense of who I am and what I want to be right. I have my own kids. And I think that shame as has helped me actually, you know, hopefully not fuck them up and protect them from making sure that you know, that they don't feel that same level of shame, right? I think that's, I mean, it's probably, it's cliche to say, but it's cliche, because it's true that every generation of parents, right, is trying to just not do what their parents did to them. And I think for me, I've come to a place for, you know, I haven't felt that shame, in a long time, that a lot of that is who you surround yourself with, and things that you do that make you happy and build confidence in who you are as a person. And, and, yeah, and I think that's kind of been me, like I've, I've had to find a sense of worth and confidence in myself and value in myself that, you know, had to use quite a bit to get out of that kind of shameful feeling. But, you know, design and art and all those things, music, especially like, those are all things that I think have really helped me figure out who I am. And you know, where I want to go, you know, to me? Marc Gutman 38:35 Absolutely, again, you know, thank you so much for sharing that. I think that, you know, I was gonna say, you're worried about not fucking up your kids. It's like, Hey, you know, newsflash, we're all we're all messing up our kids. So it's how much and so we try to try to minimize that. So we're doing our best we can, but Kris Fry 38:49 At least it won't be shame that I got them up another way, but Marc Gutman 38:54 Give him a different emotion. This episode brought to you by Wildstory. Wait, isn't that your company? It is. And without the generous support of Wildstory, this show would not be possible. Brand isn't a logo or a tagline, or even your product or brand is a person's gut feeling about a product service or company. It's what people say about you when you're not in the room. Wildstory helps progressive founders and savvy marketers build purpose driven brands that connect their business goals with the customers they want to serve, so that both the business and the customer needs are met. And this results in crazy, happy, loyal customers that purchase again and again. And this is great for business. And that sounds like something you and your team might want to learn more about. Reach out @ www.wildstory.com and we'd be happy to tell you more. Now back to our show. You know, kind of coming back to Calgary. So in Alberta School of Art, you'd missed your deadline, you'd missed the scholarship. Did you end up getting to go there the following year? or What happened? Kris Fry 40:12 No, I did not. So I decided All right, cool. Well, I'll come back to Littleton and, you know, I'll get a job for the summer, and then I'll essentially reapply for school and go back to school. Well, that kind of didn't work out because I started waiting tables. And I don't know, like, if anybody's ever seen that movie waiting with Ryan Reynolds, but like, every fucking moment in that movie is 100%. accurate. And I worked in multiple restaurants. And it's literally the exact like, it's, it's so true, the characters are so true. But go watch Ryan Reynolds waiting. And that'll kind of describe the next kind of year and a half of my life, right was waiting tables. And, and then, you know, my mom happened to actually work. She was working at the energy group, back before they were owned by Omnicom. And they were essentially like, had two clients. And it was, who was it cooler, like, well, they had coolers at the time that they had, I forget another kind of client, right. But they were kind of this, you know, advertising agency that was originally built out of Coors Brewing. And then they kind of broke off and became a manager and their, their biggest client was coolers and my mom worked in the merchandising department, which is essentially like the crew that comes up with all the RAD ideas that are the giveaway stuff. So like, the inflatable couch that you got, after buying, you know, so many packs of Coors Light, like, so. My mom was like, she was really creative. And it was awesome. And, you know, this was kind of her first, I guess, like, after having kids and kids going through school like job, right. So first, like a full time corporate kind of cool job, right. And so it was cool. So my mom actually got me a job at imager. And my first job at imager is they just built a new studio that was on the back of their building. And it was kind of separate from the main hub. And so they had all the art directors, writers, and kind of conceptual people on one side of the building, count people share that building. And then the studio folks that were doing all the, you know, CG stuff and all that kind of stuff. We're in this back building. And this is my favorite thing. There was it was maybe 50 yards across the parking lot. But they had decided that it was really complicated for people to run job jackets, this will date me a little bit, but job jackets, like in the advertising world, they're these huge plastic jackets that essentially had the brief in the front sleeve. And then at this, at this time, everything was printed, right? So you'd have every round of revisions, all the notes, all the copy editing notes, and they're all bundled together in this pocket of this like giant blue. I remember them being like powder, blue folders. And so my job, they gave me a pager, which was cool at the time, they would page me. And I would call and they'd be like, hey, it's such and such art director, can you run this job jacket over the studio? And essentially, that was my job. But I ran job jackets all day back and forth between our directors and the essentially studio design team. But that's when I found it. That's when I was like, so like, I don't know, like maybe one day in between a lot of pages. I was like looking around, and I was like, wait a minute. Like, what do you guys do here? Like, what what's going on here? And, and I saw like, and met and have a lot of people that were just super cool and nice. There's a dude, Jason wedekind. I think everybody knows me. Like, these are rad dude. But he owns this print shop called gagis current design for him. Jason's like, awesome, but he he worked there. When I was there, and he was like, one of the dudes that was like, always down to just chat me up, right? Like, I'm 18 something like that. Yeah. 1718 anyways, Jason was like, cool, dude. And he was he was doing he would do freelance projects for all these up and coming breweries and be like, yo, don't tell anyone and like, I'd go to the printer and help him like, grab the whole product. Maybe now it's been so long, he's not getting fired again. So, but Jason was rad but he exposed me to this really cool world of design and at that point, it was kind of still in its in like the starting phase. Right? Like we're talking about Photoshop and illustrators, like, not very high on the version list, right? Like we're definitely far from Creative Cloud like but, you know, watching I used to just sit in his cube and other folks, you And just rap and watch them design and watch them be able to like take their drawing or their concept or their idea and mold it and sculpt it and then use type and like, build cool shit like labels and advertisements. And I was like, Damn, this is badass. I, I had found my thing. And yeah, I was still like waiting tables at night. And then like running job jackets back and forth. But it was at this kind of integer group that I really and this is back, like, when integer was still pretty small. And that was very different. It still had a bit of that Mad, Mad Men culture, right? Like it was also my biggest client was beer. And so they'd have these rad parties and like, big announcements, and it was just a bunch of really cool people. And that was kind of when it all clicked in. And I was like, I want to have a job. You know, as an art director, I want I want to do what these guys are doing. There's some really cool people that really helped me get there. Tom pounders was another dude, legendary art director in Denver. And he was like, super old school ad guy didn't really know how to use all of the computer stuff. He was drawing, right. And all of his concepts were illustrated and like, but he had really cool ideas. And I just remember sitting in his office and like, he just like blow my mind. And another dude, Matt Holly, who was like, killer designer typographers, or, like, I don't know, things. Like, there was just a ton of really good people that had no problem, helping me, Excel, teaching me the programs, showing me how things come together. I guess I was kind of like, whatever. The orphan of integer studios, right? And they would like all help me and teach me things. And it was really cool. And that's what I decided that I wanted to do. And as I kind of moved up within the studio, right, like, they asked me to start doing, you know, studio production work, which at that time, they were still doing presentations on kind of black boards, right. So my job was essentially to take the stuff out of the printer and build their presentations before they go pitch a client, right? So I got very handy with an exacto blade and a ruler and perfectly mounting all these artboards and then turned into like building mock ups. So hey, can you make us a 3d version of this, whatever? beard in dial display, right. And so I build it out of paper, and they take it to a presentation and, and then they started kind of giving me some projects to work on, like Junior art director level projects. And yeah, I did a lot of work on the zema brand, if you remember zema. Oh, yeah, totally. How could you not iconic, right. And I remember like, at that time, Shepard Fairey was like, all the rage in the skateboarding world. And I straight ripped off. Not a pixel for pixel. But I essentially have ripped off the idea of using stencils, right to create these zema out of home boards. And there was another woman there, Monique van Asch, who actually has a really cool studio in Denver now. And she was also like, so rad at like helping me but she used to give me projects to like, Hey, you want to do a flyer for this event going on? It's Coors Light sponsored, and, and she'd be like, here's your inspiration. So she'd give me these, like mini briefs for these small projects that were just fun to work on. Because it was like, oh, cool, make a, you know, five by seven flyer, and you can use any style you want. And then she critique it. And I was just a really, at that time, it was a really cool place to like, learn from these, like, really talented people that were totally open arms in teaching me anything I wanted to know. And the only Crux was, you know, I didn't have a college education. And I remember, they were like, well, you should just put your book together from all the projects that you've done over the years. And I was like, Oh, cool. So I put it together my book and I went and talked to at that time, I forget what his title was. But, you know, Chief Creative Officer, I guess it'd be the contemporary title right now. But I sat down with a gentleman and he was super cool, super positive about my work, he loved everything. And essentially, he was like, I can't hire you. You need to have you know, I think you need some formal training and you know, foundational elements of design and, and, and art theory and all these other kind of things. And I was like, Oh, shit, I was heartbroken brain so sorry, I'm just talking Marc, so you're gonna have to just tell me to shut up. Marc Gutman 49:51 Never keep going and so what happened and you go to school, or did you tell that guy to to go pound sand? Kris Fry 49:58 Well, I did tell him No, I didn't. about pounds sand I was thankful for, you know, his critique and he kind of helped me lay out a clear path. And so I pivoted from there and was like, Okay, I'm gonna go back to school. And so I had some friends that were already enrolled in Montana State University in Bozeman. And I had some family in Billings, and my cousin went to MSU. And well, essentially, like, some of my best friends from high school are there and I, you know, I, I kind of was flying by the seat of my pants, because I was like, I just need to get a college degree so that I can get a job, you know, doing this thing that I love, right. And I didn't really look too hard at the, you know, the programs that they had at MSU lucked out, and you know, they had a really awesome art program. And so I kind of enrolled and was, you know, starting to pursue a degree in Fine Arts. And it was going really well. I was living in Bozeman and taking advantage of all the cool outdoor things that Bozeman has to offer, right, like ripping Bridger bowl and riding bikes. And essentially, it was like, there was, I think there's six of us living in a three or four bedroom house and I since I was the last one to join, lived in the tuff shed, in the back of the house had a full size Malamute, and two large space heaters that got me through winters. And it was awesome because I, I built like a little loft in there and did art and worked on my stuff. And then as much as I could, you know, when snowboarding or hiking or was just outside, right, like Bozeman, at this time, Bozeman was still pretty small college town. Now it's blown up and a little bit different, but it was it was a really cool place. And then one Christmas break, I came home, and I started working over the holiday break to make some extra money. And back to integer. So the studio manager, Studer shoemakers awesome. reached out to me, I was like, like, you want to do work part time while you're home from school and like you can whatever help us with some studio projects. And I was like, Yeah, totally. And I just got super into it. I was like doing cool projects again. And like, I don't know, I really loved Bozeman, but I just like had this burning desire to just like, jump as hard and as fast as I could into learning what I wanted to do. And so I just never went back to school. I went back that summer, to see my roommates. And I essentially pack up my tuff shed. And my dad actually had a trailer so you don't meet trailer at all back. And that was like living back at home and working editor and Marc Gutman 52:55 Did they ever hire you full time there? Kris Fry 52:58 They did kind of studio production manager. And so kind of that job evolved into actual need, right? And so they had a lot more projects that they needed copying and mounting and building. And so I kind of turned it like they turned it into a job essentially, based on the needs. And at that time, they had been bought by Omnicom. I think my mom was still working the time around. Yeah, my mom was still working there. She'd been there a while. And anyways, like it was cool. I like was working in this hub of essentially, like art directors Central. And I was like, 21 Yeah, 21 I'd have to be and he was about that age, right. And so now I can actually take advantage of all those parties that I couldn't before. And I was younger. And so it's like this whole world, another whole world opened up. And then at that time, when I came back integer had landed on airwalk as a client. And Matt Holly was kind of the lead our director and then they had this new dude that had just moved to Denver named Jeffrey Bice. He moved from California and he was like this. It's hard to describe like he is just this fucking infectious, awesome, design focused. Dude from California that just like, kind of came in, it was a bit of a wrecking ball integer, right, like they were kind of developing this corporate structure. And he was this dude that was just like, like blow through barriers. He was selling these amazing campaigns for all these beer brands that were like lightyears ahead of other work that was being done. And anyways, for me, I really was just like, oh my god, Jeff, and I headed off and he asked me to do a bunch of projects for airwalk. And so I started doing a bunch of stuff for airwalk specifically on like the genetic skate brand, which is like a sub brand they had built at that time and Like, you know, Matt and Jeff kind of really encouraged me and I was really authentic to that culture and knew it really well and could help kind of bridge the gap from that, like, agency world to, to that airwalk endemic world and, and then, yeah, and then that's when I met, you know, critical characters in my life that you know, as well. And anyways, so that thing happened anyways, that relation dissolved dissolved tre, like the airwalk couldn't pay their bills to the agency, and so they essentially got fired by an agency. But that also created an opportunity. Jeff, who I mentioned before, was asked to move in house to airwalk he offered me a job and I jumped at it. And yeah, at this time, airwalk was in Genesee, and I was the kind of in house graphic designer for airwalk and started working on all kinds of fun projects that were right in my wheelhouse and passion center, right, like airwalk, you know, at that time was not the iconic brand at once was but it was definitely picking up steam. They, you know, have brought on some critical players that became, you know, critical pieces of my life from that moment on, right. Mike Artz, one of them shared mutual friend of ours, right, like arts was the snowboard marketing manager at the time. My other really good friend Randy Kleiner, who was kind of the charge of snowboard boot and board development. And so that's kind of where I started as a graphic designer was like, in this really cool, kind of fading iconic skates or skate surf snow, culture, brand lifestyle brand, right. And I was embedded in the brand world in a very cool way. Marc Gutman 56:48 Yeah, then we know that, you know, Airwalk had a little bit of an untimely demise or a sudden demise. And so, you know, after that, where'd you go? Kris Fry 56:57 Well, that, that untimely demise, I lived through that. I mean, essentially, a lot of folks unfortunately got laid off. And they essentially kept 10 of us to kind of push the business into a licensing model where they were essentially licensing The, the rights of the brand out and that's where I really kind of developed a relationship with Randy Kleiner. And from there, you know, as we're working on this licensing structure became collective licensing, which is another company which owned a ton of different brands, some snowboards a ton of different kind of Lamar snowboards. They're just buying up these really iconic action sports brands and then licensing them. But that's where I met Randy, and a few other great folks, Mark Vitaly. And Jeff Bice was still there. And at this time, we were doing a ton of like consumer insights as a licensing brand. So we're trying to identify trends that were happening in the marketplace around footwear, specifically sneakers, and so part of our job was to essentially do trend reporting. So they would fly us to Miami, San Francisco, New York, LA at this time, you know, sneaker culture was this very kind of small counter subculture that was just starting to brew, right. I remember the first time I went to New York and went to a life Rivington club, it was the small, no signage, place where you bring a doorbell somebody like flies over a curtain looks you up and down, checks your sneakers. And then they let you into this like amazingly crazy boutique selling retro Jordans. And then there were some other ones that were there like Dave's quality meats and some of the iconic kind of ones. But there was a small bud of a culture that was happening on the coasts, essentially, that we were kind of influenced by and driving some of those things that were happening on the coast into these trend reports for all of our licensees in different countries to be able to say, Hey, you know, these kind of materials, these colors, this, this tone from an advertising perspective, is going to be a hit for you as you look at the whatever spring line of product and as you design for your audience, right. So that was really cool, too, because it helped me really understand, you know, taking what consumers were doing, and how they were adopting things through products and retail, and then being able to take that and then break out a bit of a crystal ball and, and use it as a way to inform other designers on how to develop product and communications. And so from that came an idea as we kept coming back to Denver, that Denver might be ready for its own sneaker boutique. And so Randy Kleiner and I left, excuse me, airwalk and we started a little boutique here in Denver. all based around sneaker culture and marketing and design. And so we started off 10th and bannock. And it was intentionally this kind of off the beaten path, like up and coming neighborhood, in the golden triangle of Denver, and we were gonna sell a limited edition sneakers and create, essentially a culture around sneakers in Denver. That was fucking awesome. It was like the best time of my life, it was amazing. You know, it was hard. from a business standpoint, like Nike didn't even have a rep in Denver at this time, right? Like I was selling the type of sneakers that we wanted to have, and to be able to sell and to build this community around. But we have some other really cool brands. And we created this really cool cultural thing in Denver, you know, and we had really awesome friendships with like minded people, and that we're also have kind of all these small businesses. And, you know, we used to throw parties, and we used to have an art gallery out front, which was really critical kind of marketing strategy for us, right, it was this idea of, well, we're part of this first Friday movement in Denver, people are out looking at art, like, let's bring this kind of lowbrow art style, to this sneaker culture. And let's expose some of our, you know, some of the Denver artists that we love to our new store, and vice versa, the audience that is following them, well know that we're here and probably find some sneakers that they want to pick up. So we used to have these incredible art shows with, you know, some really fun, awesome artists and made some insane relationships and felt like, you know, we were contributing to a new culture in Denver. And it was probably the funnest five years of my life. Marc Gutman 1:01:59 Yeah, but it also sounds like you didn't make any money or didn't make enough money. So what happened to that business? You had to wind it down? Kris Fry 1:02:09 Yeah, I mean, we actually were successful grew the business. It was, it was good. I mean, I think, you know, for Randy and I, we were paying ourselves what we needed to survive, which is enough, because, you know, we have faith in what we're doing. And eventually, it was gonna, you know, keep getting bigger, and we opened, you know, a couple different shops in different neighborhoods of Denver, specifically, I guess, I don't know what it's called now, but essentially, where the Rambo hotel is right now. Like 32nd on walnut. Anyways, that were that Billy's hot dog is that used to be the second 400 locations were there, I don't know, five years before that neighborhood fucking blew up. But it was cool. So we opened that neighborhood, we had a hole or we opened up that shop, we had a whole different style of sneakers there. And then we ended up closing down two stores and going to build a store off 15th and plat. This whole time, we were also doing, you know, tons of design work and marketing work and consumer research work, right. So essentially, our business attracted like the most exclusive social set in the Denver community. And so we had brands that would come to us and be like, Hey, can we do some, you know, product shopping with your crew? Can we ask them, like they used essentially, as a laboratory for them to gain consumer insights based on you know, this, you know, new consumer type and this new trend in limited edition sneakers and streetwear. And it was awesome. So we're doing all these insanely fun freeing projects and had this really cool business. But yeah, I mean, the economy took a dive, right? This was when the, the, I guess the ever the whole thing kind of went out. And, you know, Denver, you know, was just a beginning marketplace for this kind of, you know, limited edition culture. And so, you know, we, you know, weren't able to convince people that they needed to buy $200 pair of shoes instead of pay their rent. And so we made a choice to kind of, kind of close it down. We, you know, at this time, I think I was about to have my second kid Sam. And, you know, we didn't have an insurance, I had no adult things in my life at all outside of my children. That was the only thing that qualified me as an adult. And so Randy, and I, you know, bittersweet Lee, you know, like, I had to kind of close her down, and I would say, you know, Randy took, took the brunt of it right as the kind of head business owner and majority owner and, you know, I thank him a lot for that. I mean, but he was also he's older than me. So, you know, as my big brother, he, whatever helped guide that situation, and I believe it or not, when took a job at imager again. 30 time around. And let's see how short Do you need me to be here? Mark? tighten it up. Marc Gutman 1:05:06 Yeah, we do need to tighten it up. Yeah, you can just kind of bring me bring me up to speed. Kris Fry 1:05:11 Alright, so here's I went to integer for eight months, didn't really love the culture didn't feel like I was fueling ideas, the way I wanted to that time, I was kind of super corporate. And so at that time, you know, I got a call from my buddy Josh wills, and Steve Whittier at factory design labs. And so they asked me to come work at factory design labs, which was awesome, I was there. Six years worked on a ton of really iconic fun brands that became kind of the foundation of my portfolio and my knowledge set, specifically, you know, in the outdoor space, you know, the north face, we did a couple little projects for vans, but my main focus was working on the Oakley account. And, you know, from there, like, I went from, you know, a senior art director to a VP, creative director, and that six year span and did some really fun iconic work with some really awesome people, you know, Scott sports, and then, you know, factory less like airwalk, he kind of went and had some issues and ended up closing down. And at that point, you know, after kind of running, running, you know, six years of laughs at factory, I was toasted, and didn't want to, you know, work necessarily in advertising. And I was going to just freelance and so I freelanced in my basement for a bit, which was rewarding, but hard, and was also kind of working with capital goods as creative director on a few accounts, and that was, you know, about eight months, and I was still so burnt out, like, what happened at factory was really shitty for me, like I had to layoff a lot of people that I cared for deeply and valued. And being put in kind of this VP, creative director role, just the stress and the amount of like, things I was exposed to, from, like the pressure standpoint, at that age, and at the same time being like, Oh, well, we didn't get enough new business or whatever, we just this other thing happened, right, like having that, at that level. For me, it was difficult. And that shame thing, this actually might be where it comes full circle is really hard for me when it came to laying off my friends. You know, like, saying goodbye to people that I really respected for all the wrong reasons, right? That wasn't their fault. And it was like a weekly thing. And it became this like thing that just like, poisoned me for a little

BGBS 056: Tamer Kattan | Comedian | Listening Is the Cost of Being Heard Tamer Kattan is an internationally touring stand-up comedian who performed for U.N. Troops in Afghanistan, for protestors at the American University in Cairo (during the Egyptian revolution) and for the really dangerous crowds at The Edinburgh Fringe in Scotland. He's won many comedy accolades over the years, has TV & radio credits on the BBC, SkyTV, Fox, HULU, Netflix, Amazon, and truTV, and was even featured on Seth Rogen's Hilarity for charity event with Todd Glass and Hannibal Bures. Tamer is currently the co-host of Nice2MarryU on Youtube and you'll learn in this episode that before it all, he began his career in advertising and worked with past guest Shawn Parr from Bulldog Drummond as a brand strategist. Tamer is an Egyptian-born American with a Muslim dad and a Jewish mom. Always bearing many identities, Tamer has considered himself a “hyphenate” and finds solace in being neither part this nor part that, but a complete thing in the middle—although it wasn't always that way. Growing up in Southern California, Tamer needed to address how people treated him for being different, and comedy was his tool to do so. He finds the connection between comedy and branding is human nature, which can only be tapped through aggressive listening and captivating storytelling. That same humanity and emotional intelligence are what motivated Tamer to write his resume on a foam butt, pop it in a donut box, and rocket launch his advertising career until he found his way back to his roots in comedy. Above all, Tamer teaches us the power of making other's feel heard, which bears the question, how will you listen more aggressively today? Quotes [10:59] I'm not American. I'm not Egyptian. I'm this thing in the middle, and being an Egyptian American is very much another thing. It's a thing into its own. I'm not half of this or half of that, I'm a complete thing, and it happens to consist of two halves. [14:51] It's not like I wanted to be funny, it was just a thing that happened. Inevitably it ended up becoming a tool against bullies, but I didn't realize it until this kid came up to me—it was a bully that bullied me every day—and finally, one day, I had enough and I started making fun of him because he had pretty big ears. Apparently, he was sensitive because he said, “Hey, if you stop making fun of me, I'll stop beating you up.” And that's why I went, “Oh, wow. Comedy is powerful. It can be powerful.” [49:36] I think being a good listener makes you a better storyteller. And I love being able to listen aggressively until I hear things and see things that other people don't see. Like in my comedy, the thing that brings me the most joy is not when people laugh, it's when people say “Oh my god, that's so true.” That's my favorite. [54:07] I think that's what it means to be a human being. We're parts of multiple tribes and multiple groups. And I think if you break the ridiculous stereotypes, people become people again. Resources LinkedIn: Tamer Kattan Instagram: @tamerkat Twitter: Tamer Kattan Youtube: Tamer Kattan – Nice2MarryU Website: tamerkattan.com Podcast Transcript Tamer Kattan 0:02 I wrote a resume through a typical template. And I looked at it I'm like, This is absurd. I just have skate shop and surf shop experience. Why am I even setting this to an ad agency? So I said, Well, if I can't show my creativity through the experience that I've had, maybe I can shoot show it, and how I express that experience. So because it was around Halloween, I went into this Halloween shop and they had those foam butts that you could tie around your waist and make it look like you have a naked butt. And I wrote my resume across the butt cheeks. And I wrote Cal Poly senior willing to work as a software internship. And then I went to a donut store and bought a pink box for $1 it was such a ripoff. And then I put it in the box and I mailed it to Shai a day. And three days later, they called me and asked me and I heard that the HR lady kept the butt on her wall for like a year. Marc Gutman 1:00 Podcasting from Boulder, Colorado, this is the Baby Got Backstory Podcast, where we dive into the story behind the story of today's most inspiring storytellers, creators and entrepreneurs. I like big backstories and I cannot lie. I am your host, Marc Gutman, Marc Gutman, and on today's episode of Baby got backstory on how an Egyptian American immigrant climbed to the top of the advertising agency world only to quit 40 become a successful stand up comedian. Today we are talking with Tamer Kattan. Before we get into my conversation with Tamer, If you like and enjoy the show, please take a minute or two to rate and review us over at Apple podcasts or Spotify and apple and Spotify use these ratings as part of the algorithm that determines ratings on their charts. Better yet, please recommend the show to at least one friend you think will like it, and maybe one enemy will like it too. And cross the aisle in a bipartisan effort to bring all podcast listeners together via the Baby Got Back story podcast. Today's guest is Tamer Kattan. Tamer is an internationally touring stand up comedian, who performed for UN troops in Afghanistan for protesters at the American University in Cairo during the Egyptian revolution. And for the really dangerous crowds at the Edinburgh Fringe in Scotland, where he received three four star reviews from international press. He was most recently featured on Seth Rogan's hilarity for charity event with pod glass and Hannibal Burress won the World Series of comedy, comedy knockout on true TV, best of fest at big pine Comedy Festival, and three weeks later won the Portland Comedy Festival. He is the co host of Nice 2 Marry You YouTube, and has TV and radio credits on the BBC and sky TV in the UK as well as in the US on Fox, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, and Tru TV. He's also worked as a strategist at some of the world's biggest and best advertising agencies in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. And what you're going to hear today is there's probably not a whole lot that Tamer really can't do or isn't good at. And I was connected to Tamer via a previous guest on the show, Shawn Parr of Bulldog Drummond, and no disrespect to Shawn, but I wasn't clear on why he thought I should talk with Tamer. Well, Shawn's a smart guy, and Tamer, Well, I'm going to save that for today's show. What I will say is I'm crushing hard on Tamer. He's smart. He's worked at the coolest agencies on the biggest brands in the world. He left it all behind to pursue what really made him happy. Stand up comedy. Tamer drops all sorts of insight and wisdom in this episode, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Oh, it makes sure to listen for the your dog is sticky story. I loved it. I'm excited to introduce you to Tamer Kattan. And this is his story. I am here with Tamer Kattan. Tamer actually happens to be in Spain and I'm in Colorado and even though we've been doing this for decades, at this point talking over the internet, I'm still amazed that this works in real time and that we can do this it's like still blows my mind, but that's true. Tambor, welcome. Welcome to the Baby Got Backstory Podcast. It's, it's great to have you. Tamer Kattan 4:45 Thanks for having me, Marc. It's nice to be chatting with you. It's nice to see an American face. Marc Gutman 4:51 Sometimes, right. It's been a tough week here in America, so maybe, maybe not so much. But at tamp. Tamer is an internationally touring stand up comedian. He's perfect. For him at the UN, with before troops in Afghanistan, for protesters at the American University in Cairo during the Egyptian revolution, we'd love to hear about that. And that's not how we know each other. You know, I'm a big fan of comedy. I love comedy, but I was actually introduced to Tamer through a, another brand professional. Shawn Parr over at Bulldog Drummond. And interesting enough, Tamer got his start as a brand strategist. And so, Tamed, I'd love to get into that a little bit. But like, more than that, I want to know, you know, when you were young was little Tamer, were you like, was it like almost like the two you know, the two little angel devil on the shoulder was like one of brand strategists and one a stand up comedian or like, would you want to be when you were a kid? Like, like, like, did you do you think you'd end up here? Tamer Kattan 5:53 Oh, man. Bipolar would be easy. I mean, I've been I've been divided for a long time. And I have a Muslim dad, a Jewish mom. So like, the whole I like, I've always just been a mixed up kid, I had people telling me I wasn't a real American, I wasn't really Egyptian. I wasn't a real Jew, I wasn't a real Muslim. So like, I've always kind of been a hyphenate as a type. As a person. I've always been comfortable being a hyphenate. And for me, quite honestly, like when I look at, I've always tried to sort of anticipate the direction of things. And I think even when I first got into advertising, I didn't get into it, because I loved commercials. I got into it, because I love storytelling. And I see the big umbrella is storytelling, and I see brand strategy and, and comedy, both fitting under that larger umbrella. So for me, it wasn't that different. You know, it's like being a wrestler that becomes a UFC fighter. It sounds like two different things, but they're kind of related. Marc Gutman 6:48 Well, absolutely. And I agree but I think you articulated very well that, that storytelling is a broad umbrella. I think a lot of people run around talking about being storytellers. But you still have to have that specific discipline, whether it be advertising, whether you're telling stories through comedy, whether you're telling, you know, different channels. And so I know myself, I made that mistake early in my career, I was run around telling everyone I was a storyteller because I was but then it becomes really hard to find work because no one knows where you fit. But where did you grow up? Like what was what was childhood like? For you mentioned that you had this bifurcated family? And you never really fit what we're we're where'd you grow up? And what was that like? Like what your parents do and stuff like that? Tamer Kattan 7:34 Um, well, we were in Egypt when I was a kid. And my dad left first and he came to America, he went to Southern California, Santa Monica. Although initially, it was easier to get a visa in colder weather states back then. So he originally got a visa for Utah. And, and then we were in Egypt. And you know, we're talking about technology right now, how blown away we are, about how great it is to be able to speak across the world. And when my dad first immigrated to the States, I had these very vivid picture of my mom tracing my hand on a piece of paper to show my dad how fast I was growing. Like it was, it was wild. And it was also a strange thing, because at a very early age, it was kind of the reverse of an animal priming on something you know, like when it when a cat gets adopted by a Labrador. It was like I got unglued from my dad for almost a year and a half where he was in the States. And my mom and I were in Cairo. So I was I was born in Cairo. And when I was around six, my dad left the states. And at eight years old, we reconnected in Los Angeles. So I grew up for the most part in Southern California. And the first place we live was a very Mexican neighborhood in East LA, which was the best place an immigrant could start in America, because they were very accepting. And they said, Hey, you look like one of us. You got pyramids, we got pyramids, youre in. They accepted me. And then from there, you know, it's really strange being an immigrant, sometimes you get to experience society in a different way. Because you you start at maybe a lower socio economic class than you're used to in your home country. And then you kind of move pretty quickly, vertically up sometimes, maybe, maybe do more jumps than you would have if you're a native born person. So we had a pretty interesting view of America at a pretty early age. Marc Gutman 9:27 Yeah. And was it all positive? Or was it tough? I mean, one thing I can share with you is, you know, I grew up in Detroit, and I have a Jewish father and a Christian mother and, and I had a lot of those same challenges that I never really felt like I fit and I never felt like I was really accepted by the Jewish side of the family or the other side. And, you know, you know, I was always kind of using like shape shifting a little bit and code shifting code switching as I say to my advantage, but there's also a lot of disadvantages. I remember being like I'm not Jewish and like hiding, you know, like From fights and stuff like that, and but that, you know, that didn't matter to the to the the kids that wanted to brand me with that label. I mean, was it hard for you like being irreverent and also just trying to figure out what your identity was? I mean, I think it's cool now to be like, yeah, I'm like, that was split. That was awesome. But at the time was a hard. Tamer Kattan 10:20 Oh, definitely. I mean, it was I had so many times I remember uttering the phrase, I just want to be normal, which is like, as an adult, that's the last thing I want to be. But as a kid, I just kept feeling like I'm, I'm abnormal, you know, even even the word they give immigrants is alien. So I always felt like I was kind of floating in space, you know, but just like, you know, emotions are just like physical pain, sometimes, like it hurt. I think I was. So I took so much emotional abuse, that I finally built a callus, which I welcomed with open arms. And once that callus was there, then I learned to embrace the fact that Yeah, I'm not American, I'm not Egyptian, I'm this thing in the middle. And being an Egyptian American is very much another thing, it's a thing into its own. I'm not half of this, or half of that I'm a complete thing. And it happens to consist of two halves. But it took it took a lot of a lot of crappy things heard a lot of racism a lot of, and not just from Americans, from other Egyptians, from Jewish people from from everybody. So it was a it was a wild experience. Marc Gutman 11:28 Yeah, I mean, I remember as a kid coming home crying because I just I wanted to have a communion Catholic communion. Because that's what all the kids, the kids are, do. And I was like, why can't I have? Besides, I was like, thinking a lot of money. That's cool. But like, really more than that, like, I was like, they're all doing it. And I want to be like, just those normal kids. And so I can totally relate where you're coming from. Did you like was there a big Egyptian community in Southern California? Were there I mean, I, I spent a lot of time, you know, I lived in Santa Monica for a while and things like that. And I just don't, I don't ever remember it. So like, and I could just be because it's just, you know, something I'm not looking for. But was there? Was there a big Egyptian community when you were there? Tamer Kattan 12:10 I think there is. But it's funny, you know, a lot of these communities start to form, especially these immigrant communities start to form and they're usually based on spirituality or religion. And so there's definitely an Egyptian community, but it's kind of forked. And on one side, there's the Muslim Egyptians all kind of have the mosque as sort of the home base of their social life. And then you've got the Coptic Christian Egyptians. And for us, we didn't fit into either. So even though I was aware of an Egyptian community, I was very much an outsider to it. Marc Gutman 12:44 And so what was life like for you as a kid in terms of school, like were you into? Did you know from an early age that you were going to be a storyteller of sorts? Tamer Kattan 12:56 You know, it's funny that you say that, because it's not it wasn't conscious at all. I, you know, I spend a lot of time alone. And, you know, back in the 80s, it was really cool. You know, I was a latchkey kid, I was one of those kids, you know, that had the house key tied, you know, the string around my neck, and my parents both had to work two jobs. So there were times where I'd wake up in the morning, and to an empty house. And I'd come home from school to an empty house. So I had a lot of time just to think. And I think that's that was the foundation of becoming a storyteller was just having a lot of time to yourself and to thinking. I really got into Dungeons and Dragons at a really early age. So my, my, my vocabulary of weapons, and monsters and mythology grew. And when we started writing, for this creative writing class that I had in elementary school, the teacher called my parents at home and said, Hey, I need you to come in, we have to talk about Tamer and about the stories that he's writing. And they came in, they say, and he said, Look, I love these stories, but they're a little bit violent. And I'm, I'm either gonna see his name on the front of a paper at the end of a movie, and I wanted to make sure that it's the ladder. And but he didn't know about Dungeons and Dragons, and that's why I knew so much about weapons is because that's silly game. Marc Gutman 14:11 You knew everything and nothing about weapons, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. about what you do from Dungeons and Dragons. But were you a funny kid. At that time? Are you? Are you leaning into humor? And you know, and I've talked to a lot of people and who either have tough childhoods, they don't feel like they fit they've been maybe sometimes bullied. And humor is typically the defense mechanism. It's what they use to Yeah, you know, keep people on their heels or just survive a bit. I mean, it was that it was that something for you? Or was it something different? Tamer Kattan 14:41 Yeah, in a very big way. And again, it's just so bizarre because because I am kind of a control freak, I think at times, and there was no design. It's not like I wanted to be funny. I desire to be fun. It was just a thing that happened. It was just something where they said oh, you're just like your grandfather and Inevitably it ended up becoming a tool against bullies. And but I didn't realize it until this one day when this kid came up to me. And he said, it was a bully that bullied me every day. And finally, one day, I had enough and I started making fun of him because he had pretty big ears. And, and apparently, he was sensitive because he said, Hey, if you stop making fun of me, I'll stop beating you up. And that's why I went, Oh, wow. comedy is powerful. It can be powerful. Marc Gutman 15:25 words have power. And so yeah, I mean, were you doing stand up routines in high school? Like, were you at the talent show? And are we getting into this early? Tamer Kattan 15:34 No, not at all, we had this really interesting thing. There's a, there's actually Detroit made this famous and Eminems movie Eight Mile, battle rapping came from a thing called playing the dozens, and playing the dozens just you just make fun of each other, back and forth. And it came from slavery, when they used to sell slaves one at a time unless there was something wrong with them. And then they would sell them as a dozen in a cage. And those dozen slaves would make fun of each other. And that's where all those jokes like your mama jokes came from. And like, it was really harsh, almost like, you know, even if we look at roast battles like that, that environment was the foundation for that. So in the neighborhood I lived in, we had Hello cat, there's my cat in the background. We had, we played the dozens. So it was a pretty poor school. And we had a 10 minute break before lunch called nutrition, where the government would give you milk and trail mix. And I was always just people would jump on me during those sessions and start just making fun of me and sort of attack me with words. And you know, just like with any other type of battling, the more you get beat up, the better you get on the offensive. So I just naturally became pretty good with words. Marc Gutman 16:49 And were you a good student? Tamer Kattan 16:50 I was Yeah, it was funny. There was some cultural things I had to I had to stop doing like I was in the habit of raising my hand to answer a question then standing up to answer it. And that usually ended with me getting beat up at recess. Marc Gutman 17:06 You learn quickly not to do that. And then So, I mean, what did your parents hoped for you? I mean, they're working their butts off. They're doing two jobs. They're immigrants. I mean, I have to imagine, it's a bit of that American dream that they're hoping for a better life. They're hoping for something great for you. And what was that? Tamer Kattan 17:25 Well, for it's really interesting, because my dad, because he was the one who felt like he was absorbing most of the risk. And the one who probably out of all of us, he's probably the one that felt like he was, you know, walking a wire without a net, because we were in America without a family without friends. And I think he felt like you always had to have a job. And that job was what protected you from homelessness or, like a terrible life. So he didn't care what I liked. He just wanted me to do what was safe. So in his mind, the ultimate job was doctor, lawyer, engineer that that was the three but I didn't want to do any of those things. I I ended up going to university for kinesiology for it, I didn't even know what I was going to do with it. I was like a strength and conditioning coach or something like that. But I basically took those classes just so my dad thought that I was doing pre med, but I wasn't. And it was my my junior year where I, I interned as a strength and conditioning coach, and I'm like, Oh my god, I'm not gonna wear these polyester shorts for the rest of my life. And a friend of mine said, Hey, you know, I'm a marketing major. And this ad agency is coming to Cal Poly, and they're going to show their commercial real. And I heard that it's really great. These are the guys that invented the Energizer Bunny. And so I'm like, Oh, that sounds cool. So I went with him. I watched the reel, and there was so many funny commercials. And you know, and she kept talking about the woman, Nancy Ali, I still remember her name. so crazy. Nancy Ali said that comedy was most disruptive form of storytelling, because you didn't need to know anything. You could watch a stranger fall down. And it's funny. But if you're trying to do a drama in 15 seconds, good luck. So I watched that reel. And I was impressed by it. And I thought to myself, Oh, wow, here's where to get paid for being funny. And I went up to her and I spoke to her and I said, you know, my major is not marketing she was doesn't matter. I recommend you buy this book called inventing desire. And it was a book where a journalist actually lived in the offices of Shai a day, at the time was just one office, but it's an amazing office. And I literally borrowed four more dollars, so I could buy the book that night. And I read it in one night and fell in love with the idea of working in an ad agency. Marc Gutman 19:39 What about that book spoke to you? Tamer Kattan 19:42 The honesty. I was I always thought that, you know, when you work in a corporate environment that you couldn't be yourself anymore. I felt like it was constrained. And in the book, she was sort of showing the type of conversations people had and they were cussing. And I think as a kid, I was like, Oh, well These adults are cussing. And it was just real and they were passionate. And they were creating something. They're creating stories. And so I got really excited. And I remember I did the craziest thing, it was around Halloween. And I heard that they got something like 400 resumes a day for internships, and I wrote a resume through a typical template. And I looked at it, I'm like, This is absurd. I just have skate shop and surf shop experience. Why am I even setting this to an ad agency? So I said, Well, if I can't show my creativity through the experience that I've had, maybe I can shoot show it, and how I expressed that experience. So because it was around Halloween, I went into this Halloween shop and they had those foam butts that you could tie around your waist to make it look like you have a naked butt. And I wrote my resume across the butt cheeks. And I wrote Cal Poly Sr. willing to work as asof for internship. And then I went to a donut store and bought a pink box for $1. It was such a ripoff. And then I put it in the box and I mailed it to Shai a day. And three days later, they called me and asked me and I heard that the HR lady kept the butt on her wall for like a year. Marc Gutman 21:10 Did you end up getting the internship? Tamer Kattan 21:12 Yeah, I got the job. Yeah, Marc Gutman 21:13 That's amazing. Tamer Kattan 21:14 And it turned into a job too. Marc Gutman 21:16 Oh, that's amazing. And so how long did you work for Shai day, what was forget that let's back up a second, like, so you're a young kid, you're like, I'm gonna go to the preeminent advertising firm in the world, you you impress them, you do a great job. And that's one of the things I do love about advertising, marketing, branding, it's like talent speaks, you know, and so you you got their attention and that and so like, I was the first day like, Tamer Kattan 21:42 It was funny, and to underpin your point, the people who worked, and they told me, Listen, we don't have an opening and creative, but we have an opening and broadcast. And the people there liked my resume so much, because everything else, they seemed like they were bored of the other resumes they were getting. So they they primed me to interview with Richard O'Neill, who is the executive producer on like, the George Orwell spot, 1984. And I guess, he said, I refuse to accept an intern here who's not in film school. And so they basically told me, you're gonna lie, you're gonna say that you're in film school. And I remember like, being like, Oh, my God, I can't lie. I was a kid. And I'm like, Can I lie to this man, but they told me you're gonna lie. And if you have to go to film school aid, and we'll send you to film classes at night, but we want you here, you want to be here. This is the this is the last gatekeeper. And we're going to tell you what you need to do to get the job. And yeah, it was pretty wild. Marc Gutman 22:40 And so you walked in, and I mean, what was it? Like? I mean, was it cuz I remember when I was in California, passing the building in Venice, and it had the big, kind of like, binoculars, binoculars, right? Yeah, giant binoculars out fry. It just seemed like, I never went in and it just seemed like the place where really cool things happened. You know, we're really cool things were created. And I had this like Mystique in order to me. I wasn't even in the advertising business. I was in the film business. I was like, that looks really really cool. Yeah, like, what was it? Like, when you got in there? I mean, like, like, a certain, Tamer Kattan 23:15 You know, that song? Eye of the tiger from the 80s? Yeah, it was like walking into that song. Like, everything, I just my heart rate just started going up. You know, we went in, I remember my first little tour. And as you know, they they welcomed interns, just like real employees. And we got like, a tour of the place. And they gave us a coffee mug that said, innovate or die, you know. And then they had like, and then added another, that was the coffee mug and a T shirt said who wants to be an effing ad agency. And just the logo was like a skull and crossbones. And it was, you know, all about disruptive thinking and breaking conventions. And it was, it was just sexy, you know, a really sexy thinking and really sexy ideas. And they had punching bags in the office that have management heads, on screen printed on the punching bags. See? And I'm like, this place is so cool. It was it was like nothing I'd seen before. And I felt like I was home. Marc Gutman 24:13 Yeah, and rock and roll culture. But yeah, so the culture is cool. And you're looking around, but like, what about the work? Like, what was going on? Like, what did you get to work on? And what were some of your first experiences? I mean, Tamer Kattan 24:25 I was greatly intimidated when I started. And you know, the work Initially, I was just a broadcast assistant. Actually, I was an intern at first. And what was happening is it was really interesting when you're an intern at a place like that, because there's so many interns and, and so many of them go in and out that a lot of times people don't spend a lot of time getting to know you. So I did very menial tasks in the beginning but I went out of my way to show that I wanted more than that. So you know, I would do all the typical things like get coffee, pick up food, photocopies back when that was the thing to do. Do But then I'd go up to the the guy who was the video editor at the time it was on an avid system, you know? And I'd say, Hey, can I go to lunch with you? And can I buy a piece of pizza because it's all I could afford, you know, and, and ask you about editing? And I think that they were, it's so funny because it's such a simple thing. And I remember as a kid looking at this grown man, and going, Oh, he, it brought him joy, that I took a real interest in what he was really passionate about. And I remember feeling off balance a little bit, that I was this young guy that kind of touched this older person, it was sort of a role reversal. In my mind, I thought, so I think I didn't have the sexiest job, but because I kept because I stayed passionate the whole time, because I didn't let the menial labor, get me down. And I ended up getting hired after the internship was over. And then, you know, I immediately was working on Nissan Gatorade, you know, zema at the time, really big stuff, like really big, high profile accounts. And even though I was, you know, the tiniest, the tiniest part of the totem pole, it still felt great to see my fingerprint, you know, on on these things. Marc Gutman 26:15 Yeah. And it's, you know, even talking about the avid editing machines, I remember those, they were like, it was like the dawn of like, nonlinear editing. And it was such a big deal. And they were like, yeah, you know, $100,000 or $60,000 for a machine. And I just remember, you know, you had a bay of them. And I just remember thinking, like, who could ever only the craziest people could ever edit on a computer, you know, like, how, yeah, how does that happen? And then in the process of transferring the film, the digital was something that was my first job, actually, I would drive the film to the processing studio. And so I knew a lot about it, but it was just crazy. And so but I also, you know, I had a similar experience. And then I was a young person living in Santa Monica and living in California. And it was tough. You know, it was expensive. It was competitive. Like, how did you fare like, I mean, you loved it, and you're working on these accounts, but like, how are you getting by? Because I'm guessing they're not paying yet? Tamer Kattan 27:11 Yeah, I mean, I think it was 18,000. That was my first salary. And then they gave me like an American Express corporate card. I don't think I understood how to use that card. So I would use it not realizing, oh, shit, I gotta pay this immediately. You know, I wasn't very smart. You know, I was I lived on electric Avenue in Venice, when Venice was still I mean, Venice. To this day, there's a coffee shop that has kind of the unofficial slogan of Venice Beach, which is where art meets crime. And, and that's what Venice was like, I lived on electric Avenue. And there was, you know, there's a lot of crime, you hear gunshots at night, I live not too far from Shai day, but it was scary at night. And, you know, it was my first time living on my own. And I struggled for sure to, you know, figure out how to pay bills and how to be organized. But I love going to work. And so if there was one part of me that was acting like an adult, it was the part that went to work. Marc Gutman 28:09 Yeah, it's so interesting to see Venice today and how it how it's changed. I mean, my first my first apartment was on Navy street in Venice, right on the border. And I was so excited cuz I had this like, I'm not kidding. You like a two inch sliver view to the ocean. You know, being a kid for Michigan. I was like, I'm on the ocean or whatever. But I mean, it was Yeah, awful place. And it was super tiny. Like a studio I shared with somebody, but I was like, No, you'd be in Venice. And once the sun went down, I'd be I'd be scared. So I get it. And it's tough. And so you're you're working to shut it down. I mean, is this, you think this is it your future? This is all you're gonna do for the rest of your life? What's where do you go from here? Tamer Kattan 28:48 No, you know, it's funny. I I'd never worked like that before. So and I didn't really pace myself. I felt like Shia Day was a marathon and I sprinted as fast as I could. And I'd say about a year and a half in, I'd had enough. And I kind of, I heard a friend of mine, started an outrigger canoe school in Hawaii. And I was like, boy, Does that sound good. And he invited me to work with him. And I remember the day I quit, there was a woman named Elaine Hinton, who is the vice president of broadcast I'm not sure she's still there. And she was an amazing woman. And she basically looked at me and said, Are you crazy? What are you doing? And I said, I'm going to Hawaii. She goes, you're leaving shy, dare to go to Hawaii to paddle canoes. And I go, you know, I gained weight. I was sitting in these cold editing rooms. It just, and I wasn't I didn't know how to pace myself. You know, so I burned out. And I left I went to Hawaii, and she tried her best to, to put some wisdom in me. But it was it was the right thing for me at the time. I ended up working at Shai de two more times in the in the future. So I always went back. I still I just spoke to rob Schwartz the other day, who's the chief creative officer at Shai day in New York. Well, Ashley is the first creative that became a CEO of Shai day. And, you know, we still talk, you know, and he, I retweeted a post and he said something like, once a pirate, always a pirate, you know, and it felt great, you know, because shy it was more than an agency for me, it became a part of my identity, you know, as did Bulldog Drummond when I worked with Shawn, you know, he was definitely another sticker that I had in my suitcase, a big one. Marc Gutman 30:30 Yeah. And so you're in Hawaii, you anything major come of this. canoe school, outrigger canoe school. Tamer Kattan 30:38 The biggest thing was boredom. Oh, my God. It was so I didn't realize what Island living was like until I remember going shopping and seeing this cool shirt, you know, and I'm like, oh the shirts great. And I was excited about wearing it to a nightclub and meeting a girl. And I went into the nightclub under like six other guys with the same shirt. And I'm like, I'm getting out of here. This is Marc Gutman 30:59 Not a lot of choice on the island, right? Tamer Kattan 31:03 I lasted about six months in Hawaii. Marc Gutman 31:05 That's awesome. You came back to California? Tamer Kattan 31:08 Came back to California. I ended up I did a little bit of a left turn where I worked in the fashion industry for a little bit my family. On on the Jewish center garmentos, talk about a cliche, right? And so I ended up working for this big fashion trade show called Magic was the men's apparel guild in California. And I learned a lot about the fashion industry. But I always still identified as an ad person as someone who understood brand. And always thought, Oh, that's going to hurt the brand. You can't do that. You know, whenever we talked about sales versus sales goals versus communication goals, I'd always be the person who's trying to do my best to protect the brand. So even when I was at these other industries, I still felt a pull back towards working at the brand level. Marc Gutman 31:52 Is that when you got back, went back to ChiatDay? Tamer Kattan 31:54 Yeah, I ended up going back to back to ChiatDay years later. I worked at Deutsche at Chiat, young and Rubicam. So I kind of did a little tour. I even worked at Leo Burnett in Chicago and also in Dubai. Marc Gutman 32:07 I mean, is there any a list agency you didn't work at? Tamer Kattan 32:11 Yes, Saatchi and Saatchi is the one I haven't worked at. Marc Gutman 32:15 Love marks is that there is that their book? Love marks. Tamer Kattan 32:19 Yeah, I love it's funny too, because I love that book. And I remember reading that book and going, Oh, I really want to work at Saatchi. But you know that the timing wasn't right. And I always had, you know, other things popping up. So I No, I've never worked at Saatchi. Yeah. Marc Gutman 32:32 Yeah, there's still time. There's still time. But like, at what point did you become what you would consider a brand strategist? Tamer Kattan 32:41 I think, you know, it's funny because I got the label of brand strategist when I first started working with Shawn. And it was because there was two ways into brand strategy, I thought at an early age, which was, I always knew I wanted to get into brand strategy, but I was I was pretty young at the time. And I noticed that a lot of them either had British accents, or Ivy League educations. And so I said, Alright, I don't have experience as a strategist. So this is me going back to the type of thinking I had when I gave them the foam butt right, where I said, I have to start thinking about what they want, what's gonna disrupt their thinking, What's going to be different. And so when I was approaching Shawn, I said, I don't want to approach the client approach him and say, Hey, I can be a strategy for the clients you have now. I'd rather say, Okay, I'm not a strategist, yet. I don't have experience as a strategist. But what I do have is a tremendous amount of experience and action sports. And so even though I'm not a strategist, I have the type of instincts and understanding of the culture that drives these categories that you're I don't care how British the strategist is. I don't care if he went to Harvard. He doesn't know more about skateboards and surfboards and the community than I do. And that's the way that I positioned myself. And Shawn ended up hiring me to pitch Airwalk. And at the time, Airwalk was pretty big business. And I remember when we wrote one that pitch, there was an article that came out and they referred to us as you know, David and Goliath, the little agency that beat all the big agencies. Marc Gutman 34:13 Was it boulder ball Bulldog drummond at the time? Yeah. So I have two very good friends who both appeared on this podcast who were principals in the marketing at Airwalk. On the snow side, one guy by the name of Steve Nilsen, who goes by Stix. I don't know if he ever ran Tamer Kattan 34:29 Oh, yeah, I remember Stix. Oh, my god! Marc Gutman 34:32 you know, he was on the podcast now. He actually works. He's doing marketing with liquid death, the water company. I don't know if Tamer Kattan 34:39 it's fun. I just saw them on LinkedIn the other day and I was I was checking out the brand. That's as soon as you said Stix, it clicked Marc Gutman 34:45 And Mike Artz and it literally he was right before this call texting me about Linda Nilander and who you may have worked with as well and airwalk who was a marketing principal, but anyways, That's crazy. That's crazy. So, Tamer Kattan 35:02 Yeah, Marc Gutman 35:02 you went you got airwalk and I think weren't they doing a lot of work out here in Colorado? Weren't they like they were, Tamer Kattan 35:08 We were in evergreen almost every week. And at one point I was living in, in Denver. Okay. And commuting to was evergreen or? Yeah, I think was evergreen. Marc Gutman 35:18 Yeah. Genesee right like, I think it was, it was technically Genesee wood right next to evergreen. But yeah, we're the office was. Yeah, that's, uh, that's crazy. And so. So that's how you got got on Shawn's radar? Tamer Kattan 35:33 Yeah, kind of and I knew, you know, I, I started reading a lot of books I At first I thought, Oh, the way to be a strategy is to to get mentored at an agency. And it was, it was tough to find a mentorship strategy side. So I ended up just reading tons of books lovemarks was was one of them. Me, the pirate inside, there are a lot of books that really kind of steered my thinking. And ø Marc Gutman 36:40 And any other books that influenced your thinking at that time that you remember, Tamer Kattan 36:45 oh, yeah, there was a book on archetypes that just, I remember just blew my mind open. I think it was the outlaw, cowboy and outlaw or something like that. And it was about, you know, the 13 different archetypes and storytelling. And yeah, it was it was a lot of those things. And what I ended up doing as well, as you know, I noticed agencies of the time, it was really popular to put case studies on their websites. And even when they filled up filled out case studies for effectiveness awards. And as you know, a lot of people ignore these, but what a great education to read, how different agencies deconstruct their pitches and how they found their insight. And what the insight was that they found whether it was quantitatively or qualitatively. So I just started digging into entries for competitions from different ad agencies and digging into case studies of different ad agency websites. I've always been a big fan of sort of macgyvering knowledge, you know, and figuring out smart ways of gaining information quickly. Marc Gutman 37:49 This episode brought to you by Wildstory. Wait, isn't that your company? It is. And without the generous support of Wildstory, this show would not be possible. If a brand isn't a logo, or a tagline, or even your product or a brand is a person's gut feeling about a product service or company. It's what people say about you, when you're not in the room. Wildstory helps progressive founders and savvy marketers build purpose driven brands that connect their business goals with the customers they want to serve. So that both the business and the customer needs are met. And this results in crazy, happy, loyal customers that purchase again and again. And this is great for business. That sounds like something you and your team might want to learn more about. Reach out @ www.wildstory.com. And we'd be happy to tell you more. Now back to our show. And then So at what point, you know, you mentioned that you were bestowed the title and I have a very similar I remember, like, my very first jobs, I was a story editor and you know, to studio, it's a really big job. But when you're a production company, it means a lot of different things. And I was way over my head, you know, I was doing, you know, script analysis, but also picking up dry cleaning as well. And, you know, at what point did you actually feel like you were a brand strategist, you know, versus having that title, Tamer Kattan 39:18 I think, I mean, there was one moment where I felt like I wasn't trying to prove I was a strategist but I actually brought something that was different. I brought I felt like I was a very good strategist. And it was a moment when we were I was moderating a focus group. Actually, no, I take that back. Somebody else was moderating. I was behind the glass. And sometimes I think a lot of agency people at times will get bored. It's it is it's tedious work to watch someone else moderate a focus group. And it was for Mitsubishi at the time, I think. And we're watching all these SUV people that were intending to buy an SUV Within six months, or within a year, and you know, there's a typical discussion guide, which is so full of questions that it actually doesn't create a discussion. It's just question answer. And there's a moment during focus groups where moderators come into the room and ask the people behind the glass, do you have any more questions you want to ask? And when the moderator came back, I kept watching the people, because I was interested. And when I was watching them, I noticed people showing each other pictures, and they were pictures of their dogs. So I said to the moderator, Hey, can you ask how many of them are dog owners? And he looked at me and said, What? And I'm like, I'm just curious, the number of people that buy SUVs, I'm curious if they're dog owners, so he went in and asked me was something like seven out of 10. And we were like, Whoa, that's a pretty big percentage. The next group was only five. But then the next two groups were like eight and nine out of 10. So then we did it. It was like a survey monkey thing where we quantified it and said, Well, we have something there's something really interesting about there's definitely a correlation between people who buy SUVs and people who are dog owners. So we approached Mitsubishi and said, Hey, you know, you've got competition with all your competition when they create packages for the various SUVs, they've got technology packages, they've got luxury packages, they've got all these different sort of pack, but nobody has a dog package. And and there were these Japanese business guys are pretty intimidating to pitch to. And they started clapping. And it just, it made me it just tickled me man, I was just in one of them gave us this Hunter S. Thompson quote, he said, I don't believe the truth is ever told between the hours of nine and five is what people connect between nine and five was certain things in common. But the things after five o'clock are stickier. So and your dog is very sticky. And it's more sticky than these other things. And I was like when you had the guy on the brand side, convincing his own team of the inside. I was like, Okay, I'm proud of myself. I get myself pat on the back on that one. Marc Gutman 41:59 That's so awesome. That's great. And so, during this time, it sounds like your career is going pretty great. And you're you're making a way for yourself. Are you practicing comedy at all? Or is that something that's yet to come up? Tamer Kattan 42:13 No, actually, you know, it's funny, it's, uh, it went a little. It was a little dark period. For me to be honest. Like, you know, Robin Williams used to always say, cocaine is God's way of telling you, you're making too much money. And I was like a single guy making a lot of money. And I just started partying a lot and going out with friends. And I kind of slipped after I reached a point where I'm like, yeah, I'm proud of myself. I'm a great strategist. And then I just became the worst strategist for about three years. And I, all of a sudden, I think the worst thing, the worst label they've ever given strategist is the smartest guy in the room. I think it's detrimental to have people think that that's what they have to live up to. And I didn't ask as many questions because I got a little bit of a little arrogant, and I stopped being happy with advertising I wasn't is as excited anymore. And then my dad passed away. And when my dad passed away, I had this really weird moment where I realized everything that I was doing was to try to make my dad proud of me. And it was the first time where I said, Well, what makes you happy. And I'd never really done that. And I sort of had this big cleansing period where I stopped drinking, I started, I learned how to learn Transcendental Meditation. I just kind of grabbed the steering wheel back. And, and I was, you know, I was shocked that, you know, 3940 years old, I'd never really known what makes me happy. What was the driver for me? And so I ended up saying, hey, I've always wanted to do comedy. And, but I was afraid to do it, to be honest, because comedy for me was an identity. You know, and I really didn't have that I was always not fully Egyptian, not fully American, not fully Jewish, not fully Arab. But I was funny, and everyone agreed I was funny. So I was afraid to try to be a comedian. Because what if they told me Oh, you know what, we are also not funny. And then I would have just been floating in space. So I didn't know what I was going to do. But I had a friend of mine who ended up marrying Dick Van Dyke. Believe it or not, she's a girl. She was my girlfriend in high school, and then fell in love with Dick vandyke. And now they're married couple, and there's, they're amazing together. But her brother and I were both the funny guys in high school. And she bumped into me at a supermarket and said, Hey, john is doing stand up. Do you want to go see him? And I'm like, Oh, my God, are you kidding me? And I remember getting really excited at the thought of someone so close to me performing stand up comedy. And not only was he good at the show, he blew every other comic away. And at that point, I thought to myself, well, if john is that much better than everyone else, and john and i were the funny guy In high school, if I could just be a little bit if I could be even close to as good as he is, I, you know, this will be fun. And I didn't think it was gonna turn into anything else. I thought it was just going to take one class and get on stage once and have it be a bucket list thing that then professional comedians started approaching me and saying, Hey, you got something. And I did the Edinburgh Fringe in Scotland. And I won Best New International act under two years and had a manager assigned me and I came back to the states and quit my job and advertising and sold my house and sold my car and moved to England and lived in a box for four years doing stand up. Marc Gutman 45:38 And how, like, how was that? Was that great? Tamer Kattan 45:40 Or was it it was the best. I went from driving a fancy car living in a house in the Hollywood Hills with a view of the Hollywood sign to literally living in an apartment with no windows, right. It was owned by the comedy club. When we showered It was me and another comedian that live there. Whenever we showered, we had to open a skylight so that the house wouldn't turn into a sauna. Like it was terrible. And we live behind a chicken shop with a really high fence. So people thought behind the fence was a dumpster. So every night I'd come home, there'd be a bag of chicken bones at my doorstep. So I mean, I went from top of the world to bottom of the world in terms of residents, but I was the happiest I've ever been. Marc Gutman 46:19 What? You know, it's so crazy. Like, how did you have an find the courage to make that decision? I mean, you said you're like 3940 years old things are going good. I mean, it's got to be scary to enter into. I mean, I can't believe there was one and I've done stand up. I can't believe there's one stand up comedian that said, Hey, kid, this is easy. This is an easy life, right? This is both easy business and an easy life. I know. It's hard. Like, like, Where did you find that strength to pursue that dream? Tamer Kattan 46:49 You know, this is gonna sound so silly. But it you know how I said, when I was a kid, I didn't even know what made me funny. Just something that kind of happened. I think I've always just been drawn to that I think we're all supposed to do something. And I didn't want to give up looking for it, you know, and I felt like advertising was very, very close to it. And I still I still love advertising, I still actively read about ads and case studies, I think it's brilliant. Like, it's literally To me, it's our version of carving hieroglyphics on a pyramid. It's the digital version of doing that. And I think it's a privilege to work with some brands for sure. But for me, I think I was at a point where I didn't have much to lose, I was single, I didn't think I was going to get married I I was, you know, I wasn't happy. At my advertising job. I was in a situation that was tough for everyone, it was a digital ad agency that wanted to go full service, which is everybody in advertising knows is one of the toughest Growing Pains culturally, for an agency to go from just digital to, to full service. Even if it's digitally lead, it was really hard for them to embrace strategy. So it was a hard job there. Especially as you know, you get the title of change agent change agent. And you think it's nice, but people don't like change. And so I had a tough time going into an office where I felt like a lot of people didn't like me, and then going onstage at night. And I had people coming up to me and hugging me and saying, Hey, you know, your joke about child abuse, my dad beat me too. And then I get a hug from a guy that looked like he was in Sons of Anarchy. And I'm like, Hey, this is really spiritually spiritually fulfilling. And so it was a pretty easy decision at the end. Marc Gutman 48:33 So what's funny about brand strategy and advertising. Tamer Kattan 48:38 It's you It's it's the human nature. You know, like, I feel like I said this to one of my friends. And he always asked me about religion. I go, No, we don't know why we're here. It's like we're on level one of an escape room. And instead of working together to figure out how to get to level two, we all just started fighting in the escape room. So I like figuring things out. I like I, I love using my emotional intelligence, especially because I feel like that's something that us men have an it's an underdeveloped thing in us. You know, like, I think women have always been told to, to grab on to intuition. And men have been told that we don't have that. And women grow up with these impossible physical standards. And then men are told things like, boys don't cry. So we have impossible emotional standards. And I think I saw how much that hurt me when I was younger, to not talk about problems to not, it feels. I like being an observer. I think being a good listener makes you a better storyteller. And I love being able to listen so aggressively, to listen aggressively. Until I hear things and see things that other people don't see. Like I in my comedy. The thing that brings me the most joy is not when people laugh. It's when people say oh my god, that's so true. That's my favorite. Marc Gutman 49:58 So speaking of that, do you have Or can you recall a joke and you don't have to do line for line? Maybe it's the kind of the premise that you just love and you think is so insightful, but others don't. Tamer Kattan 50:11 Oh, yeah, I had a, you know what, I love the joke that kind of changes people's minds a little bit and gives them perspective. And so I said, I was in Little Rock, Arkansas, and I'm an Arabic comedian, you know, and Little Rock, Arkansas while Trump was running. And some somebody yelled out, he's Arab. That name is Arab. And I go, Oh, yeah, but you don't be afraid of me. I should be afraid of you. All, because cowboy hats for me are like turbans for you. I'm old, and this room is full of a bunch of cowboy hats. And I go, and let's be honest, he ha is just white people for Allah Akbar. And then they all started laughing. And once I said that, they all started laughing man. And it was it was really nice. And it was it showed the power of comedy, you know? And as a boy, its hooks got me after that. Marc Gutman 51:05 I mean, do you do you face that a lot? Do you face a lot of racism and a lot of people heckling you while you're on stage, because you're ever. Tamer Kattan 51:15 I mean, I'm pretty lucky. I have a pretty high number of laughs per minute. I'm a pretty punchy comic. And I think sometimes that helps you manage hecklers. And too, you know, I was a comic in New York for a long time. And people are pretty vocal in New York. So I'm pretty good at managing hecklers. But the number of people that come up to me after the show, when Trump was running, I got three death threats. And that was shocking. That's the first time that's ever happened. So it was it was scary. It was a little bit scary. When that happened. I didn't, I didn't expect it. But then there were. It also taught me a lot about human beings. You know, like, I thought I really understood America because I worked at these ad agencies in New York and Chicago and Miami and LA. And I'm like, Oh, I know America. And I didn't, until I became a comedian and started going to Little Rock, and and you know, Wichita, Kansas, and, and then I started doing America. But it's, I also realized, I remember going on stage one night and getting booed really badly, because I was introduced as an Arab comedian. And then I thought to myself, you know, and the owner of the club said, Listen, I'm really sorry, we have good people here. We have bad people here. But sometimes we get bad people. And I understand if you don't, if you want to leave early, and I'll pay you for tonight, and I'll I'll feel the other night. And I, he goes, I'll let you think about it. And I said, Okay, and I went home, and I said, No, I'm not, I'm not gonna quit, because that's not right. And I said, I don't like the way I was introduced. So let me manage this. Right. And I remember my grandfather used to say this thing that I had above my desk at my ad agency, which was listening is the cost of being heard. And so I needed to show them that I would, that I listened I needed to show them. And if they think that I'm on their side, then I'm going to be different than the Arab that they perceived. So I told the guy don't say I'm an Arab, just introduced me as a guy from LA. So he did. And when I went up on stage, I said, Hey, this is my first time in Oklahoma, Oklahoma City. I'm on site. This is a really beautiful place. It's really pretty here. And I didn't know because people in LA talk a lot of crap about you guys. Did you guys know that? And they're like, yup, yup. And they started agreeing with me. And I'm like, That's crazy. How could they talk? And this guy said to me, You, if you're gonna go to Oklahoma, you better watch out. They're really racist over there. And I'm like, you mean, they're gonna judge me without even knowing me? And he goes, Yeah, I'm like, wow, you ever been to Oklahoma? And he goes, No. And I'm like, What an asshole. And the whole audience laughed, and they all clap their hands. And at that point, they owed me. I stood up for them when they were the minority. I was in the big city, defending a small town from big city people. So then when I became an Arab in front of them, they started managing themselves. When somebody tried to heckle me, it was another person at a table next to him to say, Hey, man, shut up, let him finish. It was great. And I think I think that's what it means to be a human being. We're parts of multiple tribes and multiple groups. And I think if you if you break the ridiculous stereotypes, people become people again. Marc Gutman 54:17 Now what an amazing example of how to connect with someone that is different from you that might have different beliefs might even be against you upon first first impression and how to bridge that. That's just, I love that story. , Tamer Kattan 54:32 Oh thank you. Marc Gutman 54:33 Yeah, it's it's really great. Thank you for sharing that. I'm a little speechless, which doesn't happen often. timer, where can people learn more about you and your comedy, we're might be able to see you. Tamer Kattan 54:44 Well, until COVID. Right. But you know, I do a lot of zoom shows. Now. My Websites a great place, which is TamerKattan.com. And then I also have a YouTube series with my wife that we do every week. It's sort of a marriage. social experiment. We got married on the day we met. And, and so we do that that comes out every Wednesday. And that's a great place to follow. Follow us on Instagram to Marc Gutman 55:11 really quickly let's talk about that. Like, can you tell that story quickly about like getting married the day you met. That's, that's, that's awesome. Tamer Kattan 55:17 For sure. I mean, when I was a kid, I, I've always loved traveling. But when I didn't have money, I would use the internet to travel, like with videos and pictures and things like that. And so when quarantines started, I really miss traveling. So I found out that Bumble, the dating app had this feature called passport, where you could be in another city. And so I was in Spain. And I didn't think anything of it because it was you know, so far away, but I met this amazing Swedish woman. And we had so much in common, I was blown away and almost frustrated too, because I was like, God, we have all this stuff in common. And she lives 1000s of miles away. And what happened was, because she was so far away, we were almost like playing a game of chicken with honesty, and just being really brutally honest with each other about our flaws. Like even my profile was like, oh, I've been single this long, because I'm selfish. I used to have a drinking problem. I miss on that I basically did the opposite of what everybody else did in their profile. And then she sent me an email back that mimicked what I'd written about all of her flaws, and it became like a game with us. And so then I fell in love. And the laws had changed in Barcelona, and I already had COVID in March, and I had papers saying I had the antibodies. So I had this window to fly to Barcelona. So I flew in. And then when I got there, they changed the law when I was in the air, and they put me in jail in the airport, and I had to spend the night in jail. And she was 500 feet away from me. And we didn't meet and they flew me back to America. And I'm like, I'm not giving up. And then we did a bunch of research and we found out about Gibraltar, just tiny country that's on Spanish soil, that kind of UK property sort of, and they were allowing Americans in and it was also like the Las Vegas of Europe. And so I flew in there we met there, and I brought a ring and asked her to marry me that first time I saw her and she said Yeah, we got married. It's been six months and now we're in Barcelona until COVID zoning we'll figure out what we'll do next. Marc Gutman 57:21 Yeah, and that's an incredible incredible story and I can't wait to start watching your your YouTube show cuz like no, I really curious you set the timer. Yeah, Tamer. I mean, as we come to a close here, I mean, if you ran into that young Tamer, who is Tamer? I'm sorry that Tamer who was like nine years old and kind of figuring things out and obsessed with dungeons and dragons and being a latchkey kid, like, like, if he saw you today, what do you think he'd say, Tamer Kattan 57:51 oh, man, you're so insightful for saying that. Like I always. When people ask me, why did you start doing comedy at 40? I go, I didn't. I started at nine. Like, I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it for him. You know, like, I think he'd be proud of me. It feels weird to say that, like I complimented myself. I think he would I think he'd be proud of me. I think the older version thinks I'm a silly and immature. But I think the little kid version of me thinks I'm like a male Pippi Longstocking and he digs it. Marc Gutman 58:23 In that is Tamer Kattan could have listened to Tamer stories for hours. And I'm glad he saved his story about marrying his wife. The day he met her till the very end. Tamer story really is one of the American dream that maybe we should be calling it the human dream. Because Tamer's ability to connect and empathize with people, even those who are initially out to get him or condemn him is admirable. And I think at this time in our country, we can all learn a lot from the Egyptian American kid from Los Angeles, who is now living in Spain, telling jokes for a living maybe we should just be a little bit more like Tamer. A big thank you to Tamer Kattan and Shawn Parr for the intro. I'm sure it comes as no surprise, but I'm a huge Tamer fan. And I'm guessing by this point, you are too We will link to all things Tamer Kattan, his website his YouTube show his socials in the show notes. And if you know of a guest who should appear on our show, please drop me a line at podcast at wild story calm. Our best guests like Tamer come from referrals from past guests and our listeners. Well, that's the show. Until next time, make sure to visit our website www.wildstory.com where you can subscribe to the show in iTunes, Stitcher or via RSS so you'll never miss an episode. A lot big stories and I cannot lie to you other storytellers can't deny

Stix otherwise known as Steve Nilsen is the Vice President of Lifestyle Marketing at Liquid Death Mountain Water.Stix started his career off in the world of action sports at Airwalk as a Snowboard Boot Developer then Snow Division Manager. He then went on to be Sports Marketing Manager at Red Bull followed by creating the Lifestyle Marketing program for Pabst Brewing Company pushing the limits on creative branding. He is now VP Lifestyle Marketing Liquid Death canned water taking the drink to the action sports, music and lifestyle segments. Liquid Death Water is canned water from the Austrian Alps that debuted January of 2019. With savvy marketing campaigns they have gone full throttle in the CPG space and beyond.Tune in to find out how Stix started his career in action sports, his journey in marketing and what future projects he has in the mix.Enjoy and get rad!The Rad Season Action Sports and Adventure Show goes live every week on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Every Monday, the Show drops as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Like what you hear? Read more by following this link: radseason.com

Greg Woodman's entrepreneurial spirit goes back to college when he recognized the depth of Penn State fandom and created products for those who bled blue & white. He'd go on to sell cardboard cut-outs of legendary coach Joe Paterno, start publications that endure to this day and head up marketing efforts for action sports brand Airwalk. He's currently the CEO of marketing firm Affinity Connection, and publishes the Happy Valley Industry email newsletter. Hear how you can generate ideas, learn from your customers and build excitement around a brand.This episode's "Hear My Hustle" is from Rachel Braun of the "Braun & Brains" podcast. ▶️ MAKE your podcasting dreams happen with hosting from Buzzsprout.Make sure you always Hear The Hustle: Web: https://www.billzhustle.com/podcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HappyValleyHustle/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/billzhustle Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/billzhustle/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billfzimmerman/

What does Go Snowboarding! mean?     In our first episode we follow along as Mark and Dustin ask themselves what it really means "to go snowboarding" and along the way way they end up convincing Jeff Pensiero and Mike Arzt to join them as co hosts for an exciting new winter exploring the do it yourself spirit that exists across all of snowboarding.    Jake Aaronson (@east.bumfucc) has a phone call with Mark about rope tows which ends up helping to inspire this new podcast.   Mike Chantry recounts snowboarding in 1965 and working with Tom Sims to bring freestyle to snowboarding in the 1980s - and how Craig Kelly was always too tech,   On the search for more answers on what it means to "Go Snowboarding" they turn to Jeff Pensiero and Mike Arzt.   Jeff founded the Baldface Lodge, a backcountry mecca for snowboarders in B.C. Mike used to work for Burton and Airwalk before founding his own creative agency and fabrication studio in Denver with his partner Frank.     Soon after hearing their histories and asking what going snowboarding means to them Mark and Dustin realize they are the perfect mentors for a new generation of DIY snowboarders.   Starring:   Mike Arzt Jeff Pensiero Mike Chantry Jake Aaronson Mark Sullivan Dustin H James Mike Basich   Did you like hearing the stories from Pensiero, Arzt, and Chantry? Then check out their full episodes at www.plnk.to/thesnowboardproject   This episode is sponsored by companies that love snowboarding:   Cardiff Snowcraft  @cardiffsnow www.cardiffsnow.com Coupon Code: “THESNOWBOARDPROJECT15” {15% off at their website)    Tow Pro Lifts @towprolifts www.towpro-lifts.com   United Shapes @unitedshapes www.unitedshapes.us   Check them out!   Subscribe to us on YouTube for video content {including Real Talk} www.youtube.com/c/thesnowboardproject   Please support The Snowboard Project: www.patreon.com/thesnowboardproject   Go Snowboarding! is produced by: Mark Sullivan Dustin H. James   Business Development:  Dustin H James dustin@thesnowboardproject.com      

Steve Nilsen, better known as Stix to everyone but his family, is a legend in the world of cans.  While his career started with Airwalk in the days when it competed with Nike and Reebok, Steve then went on to have incredible jobs at Red Bull and PBR. Now, he’s now championing Liquid Death and on the podcast we talk the rad road he traveled to get his dream jobs Steve “Stix” Nilsen Show Notes: 3:00:  Minnesota, Hawaii, and surf culture 9:00:  Skateboarding, Punk Rock, and sports 18:00: College, Australia, and figuring out life plans 25:30:  Stanley:  Get 30% off site wide with the code drinkfast 10 Barrel Brewery:  Buy their beers, they support action sports more than anyone 27:30:  Life changing Warped Tour, SIA, and Airwalk 35:00:  Airwalk, merchandising, development, and marketing, 44:00:  Peter Glenn Ski and Sport 45:00:  The demise of Airwalk, getting his job with Red Bull 54:00: The business of Red Bull, creating Red Bull sized ideas, and athletes 62:00:  Red Bull changing, getting his job with PBR and marketing beer 72:00:  Liquid Death 75:00:  Inappropriate Questions with James Clifford and LP Paul Crandell

Joining us today is Steve “Stix” Nilsen, the vice president of lifestyle marketing at Liquid Death Mountain Water. He has some bold strategies that have proven effects on branding, brand loyalty, marketing, and generating profits for Fortune 500 companies. When asked how he does it, he said “I do cool shit, with cool people, that makes people buy things.” You won't want to miss this fun and lively interview with a down to Earth guy that has some serious moxie! What we're talking about Epiphany on a Beach Tenacity and Forging His Own Path Trying New Things, But Knowing Your Boundaries  Epiphany on a Beach Steve grew up just outside Minneapolis, MN, but visited family in Hawaii over the summers. It was his summer fun that sparked his love for surfing. Even though he went to a private prep school and played traditional sports, he was also passionate about skateboarding and music. It was his love of discovering who he was that led him to try jobs in many different industries, from being a golf cart boy to construction to working in a bank. All the way to working for Northwest Airlines to indulge his love of travel! It was during one of his adventurous trips around the world, Stix had an epiphany. He was sitting on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia when he had a revelation. His career needed to be in action sports! Tenacity and Forging His Own Path  To obtain a career in action sports, Stix went about it his own way, by grabbing every action sports magazine and studying the brands he liked the most. He cold called companies. He took their existing ads, and redid their marketing with his own comic flair. Sending them back to the companies for review. His boldest move and big break came when he talked to the director of marketing at Airwalk. Her home had just burned to the ground and she had to be on a plane to Europe a few hours later. She was too busy to take his call, so he mailed a smoke detector to her home! It worked and he was hired. Trying New Things, But Knowing Your Boundaries Steve had worked hard to get his foot in the door, and he started working in merchandising. It was when he realized that they were doing it all wrong, and his advice fell on deaf ears, that he decided to learn everything up and down the ladder so he could make the decisions to best position the product.  Will you take your passion and make a career out of it? LINKS MENTIONED Steve Nilsen's LinkedIn Stix's Instagram Liquid Death Instagram Liquid Death Website SPONSOR Wildstory TIMESTAMPS 13:00 - 13:39 (39 sec MG) There really is this awesome idea that...be the person that you wanted to be. 100% 15:05 - 15:18 (13 sec SN) Let's not paint this picture that I'm...they all wore the same outfits. Costumes as I like to say. 27:40 - 27:58 (18 sec MG) Brands don't really own the brands...everyone is having their own conversations.  28:21 - 28:43 (22 sec) How did you start the process of...this is pre-internet. 52:58 - 53:22 (24 sec SN) When the light bulb went off...that is brand equity. 57:58 - 58:20 (22 sec SN) That's pretty tell tale when you have...you're gonna be the first guy who's gonna hit me up for swag. QUOTES I believe travel is so important for the growth of kids, if you can possibly do it, to see other cultures. See other things. It helps you figure out who you are. - SN To exist as a brand, you can't just go off your bros. You've got to bring in people that know what they're doing. - SN You don't just do “enough”. Don't check boxes. - SN I'm a great believer in luck. I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. - Unknown We're not a product. We're a brand. - SN Podcast Transcript Steve "Stix" Nilsen 0:02 All I remember is that they were they moved from Carlsbad, California to Pennsylvania. And I was just barraging her with letters and left and I call call cold call. And then I picked up the phone one day. And I said, hey, it's Steve Nilsen. Oh, it's cute kid. Because again, because Listen, kid, I don't have time to talk to you. My house just burned down. I gotta leave for Europe. And I was like, Alright, I gotta go. So I mailed her a smoke detector in the mail. And she called me like laughing. But two weeks, three weeks later says, Oh my god, you have balls kicked. Yeah, she flew me out and fast forward, I end up getting the job. Marc Gutman 0:41 Podcasting from Boulder, Colorado. This is the baby got backstory Podcast, where we dive into the story behind the story of today's most inspiring storytellers, creators and entrepreneurs. I like big back stories and I cannot lie. I am your host Marc Gutman. I'm Marc Gutman, and on today's episode of Baby got backstory, how a kid from Minnesota infatuated with skating and music was able to combine those two loves, and build a marketing career in the action sports industry with some of the world's biggest brands. Hey, now if you like and enjoy the show, please take a minute or two to rate and review us over at iTunes. iTunes uses these as part of the algorithm that determines ratings on the apple charts. And ratings help us to build an audience, which then helps us to continue to produce this show. I today's episode we're talking to Steve Nielsen. Man, that sounds weird because I know Steve as Styx STI x, and I'm not going to ruin the story of how he got that nickname for you. It's coming up early in the episode and he'll tell you all about it himself. Styx has built a career in the action sports Industry helping to build brands and marketing companies like air walk Red Bull paps. Yep, the Blue Ribbon beer. And now he is helping to build the brand of liquid death, which sounds like some weird cannabis brand, or a punk rock band. But it's canned water. Stix is one of those people who knows everyone and everyone knows him. He's a savvy marketer. And he found a way to marry the things he loved skate culture, in music, with marketing. stix. His story is one of vision, persistence and principles. Listen to the discipline he displays when talking about branding. He's always looking at the long game versus the quick game for the business. I could listen to stix of stories for hours and I loved his honest take on branding and what it takes to build a brand and this is his story. Alright, I am here with Steve Nilson of liquid death. And Steve, I think this might be the last time I call you Steve, because everybody calls you stix. How did you get that nickname? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 3:12 No, I honestly I was given it was 1998 around there. At the time I was building snowboard boots for airwatch and I was over in Asia and long story short is you know, when you're over there in these factories is roasting right and I would wear shorts to the factories because obviously it's super hot in Thailand or Taiwan or or Shanghai, China. And when I wear boots, you know if you guys have skinny legs, it looks like Jiminy Cricket with the boots on and one day my boss at the time who's still very close with me got super irritated about something he was not really me personally but what was going on in production. And we all got really loud. How do you balance them sticks because he's he's from frickin Boston. So stix stuck like that and coworkers are laughing by time I got like some in states camp so he felt that way to SPX and Stop, but it literally is because I've seen the lights. That's not very, you know, glamorous story. But literally, I did look like Jiminy Cricket. I just came across some photos I dug up the other day and I'm wearing snowboard boots and 100 degree factory. So Marc Gutman 4:14 well thanks for that context. Now we're gonna know why we're referring to stix going forward. And stix. You probably have the coolest bio of anyone that has ever been on the show so far. And I'm going to read it because it's very, very short and to the point, I do cool shit with cool people that makes people buy things. What's that mean? Yeah, what's that mean to you? Like how'd you how'd you come to that bio? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 4:40 You know, I think it's because I, you could cut and paste your resume or you could do liquid gas. I'm sorry. resume or you could go to LinkedIn rather, and just cut and paste things and there's not a whole lot of soul to that, I don't think and if you really want me to dumb it down, that's the best way because I'm always run, moving her miles now. And they always say there's quote unquote elevator speech. That was the best way to explain it to you, as he was about to drop it into skate park. If someone asked me what I did, that's what I'm telling you. I mean, it's quick to the point and then maybe pique their curiosity like it is you and it's really just, I'd like to think that my career like, I've had so much fun. And I think that I did all my life, I can look at it that way. I just, I'm not going to do something. If I'm not reading, my heart's not into it. Let's just put it that way. And so you sniff out in your life, brands, people situations, you want to be a part of and make it so you know, and that's really, again, it's probably being a little cryptic, but I hope that answers your question. Marc Gutman 5:36 Yeah, it's a great, it's a great, it's a great answer, stix. And you know, one thing that I know about you and you've touched on it, you dropped a bunch of clues right there talking about dropping into the skate park doing cool things, the cool brands, you know, why don't you tell me a little bit about what your young stix was like? I mean, where did you grow up? What were your interests? And how did that set the foundation for where you are today? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 5:58 Make a very long story short I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Specifically, it's called the Dinah, Minnesota, which we are known as cake eaters. It's a hockey reference to long strip, anyone can look it up enough cake eaters if you can Google it. Anyway, I have relatives in Hawaii, and I became absolutely infatuated with surf skate culture. I just thought it was the coolest cook back then. There was no packs on. There's no zoomies. There was no, you couldn't find the really cool clothes. Except if you go to the skate shops or shopper. Well, we obviously have a lot of that in Minnesota. So when I visited my relatives, I come back with Quicksilver and the different surf brands, billabong, Town and Country. And people are like, where'd you get the word you get the clothes? Where'd you get that? And it's it had made to mainland United States. Yeah, to me, I guess on the coast, but not on Minnesota. And I fast forward. You know, I really got into skateboarding. And snowboarding hadn't existed yet. And I love that but we could only do it a certain amount of time during the year and that wasn't particularly good. But I got Have some kids from this called Southwest High School, which kind of borders along with the suburb that I grew up in. And they were like the kids, I was just, I was fascinated with the fact that they were so into punk rock that they're the ones to tell me about First Avenue and Seventh Street entry, which is anyone has anyone played those venues as a kid like we're talking to a black flag, Jeff a circle jerks, like all these bands, you could go see him for like five bucks because they'd have a matinee show in the morning or midday and then they'd have the Id show at night they call them or whatever. 21 Plus, and that was really what I did. It's funny because I played traditional sports the whole time. But I just was something about that the music, the way people dress, all that really, like captivated me at a young age. And I think it has to do with the fact which is why I believe travel is so important for like the growth of kids if you possibly can do it, to see other cultures see other things. It helps you figure out who you are and for me by me going to experience what it was like in Honolulu and in Maui, and seeing these guys these cool you know, Massimo was actually a surfer and originally people don't know that. That brand And things like that I was just infatuated with it. So that so hope that kind of gives you a little snapshot that I kind of did both. It's like I played the traditional sports, but I love the punk rock skate side. It just was such a curiosity, but I just love how passionate people were. And you could kind of express yourself, you could just be you didn't have to follow on and I went to private school. So everyone kind of the same costume and not that we had to wear uniforms. But I was fascinated that, again, the music, the the activities of skateboarding, and then eventually snowboarding. It allowed you to be you like whatever that meant, and no one's gonna judge you in those circles. Yeah, it's Marc Gutman 8:38 so interesting. I mean, you and I have a very similar background in that, you know, I grew up in Midwest as well. I was super fascinated with skateboard culture. So much so that I used to just look at Thrasher magazine and dream about that lifestyle until the second I could go to California. I did move to Venice Beach and quickly realized that it wasn't quite like it wasn't the magazine at that time. But But like, you know, Really can relate to that. And so what was like, I mean, what was just so special for you and the one thing that was a little different was like, you know, I always thought like, some of the music that like all the skaters were listening to and I can thrash and all that was a little like, a little hard for me. You know, I was more of like a Detroit Detroit Rock City like heavy, you know, metal hairband, kind of kid, you know, what was it about that? That combination of skate and in music that really spoke to you and you talked a little bit it allowed you to, to self expression to like, why was that important? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 9:31 I think it is because I went to, you know, a very well renowned private school in Minneapolis. But the cool thing with this school, I will say from freshman year on in high school, they really had them really that the kids they're really like music, and I'm not saying about playing on a saxophone or a quarter or even though they were known for the choir. But you got to remember I grew up in the thick of the replacements, Cusco do early soul asylum and people would go to the shows and I would have a senior driving freshman to go see the violent felons, let's say. And I just started going to any show I could get my hands on, like you get a ride to but here the school I went to would be a preppy I guess is the term you'd use. But it was fun because we didn't have like any high school you're gonna have the guys little known fact, one of the founders of ice magazine was a year older than me. And we used to see each other punk shows all the time, you know? Think suroosh Alvi. And he's still there. And we would see each other all the time it was funny because then I yes, did I have clothes I guess you can probably but then I would maybe do a twist on it and go buy a pair of camel pants at the army surplus store. And then my mom would would hand them in or make them a little narrower. You don't need to be so baggy, and just like a fun little twist on stuff but we have very little to choose from back then. Not in a destitute way but in a way that we're pretty much had a few department stores to choose from. So the fact you could go do that so like I had a friend of my late friend morning almost. I bring him up because my one of my closest friends died in 911 100 fourth for the South Tower. He's actually the first person on the victims list. If you look at His last name is Ahmed. And he's one of my son's is named after him. But he was funny with Mr. Like, preppy guy, but be the first guy that one might make his own t shirt or want to go to a punk show. And then he wouldn't alter what he could still wear like, it was like a damn shirt to a punk show because he just no one really messed with the meter. It's kind of bigger guy, but he and I are totally online on music. You know, we'd love everything from the cure to again, replacements to Cusco do and then digging really really deep. Like I said the gfa is the world which word for it and we're even pit pihl public engineer limited, which is an offshoot, obviously the Sex Pistols, but we used to take a bus to downtown Minneapolis, the six plus and we would go to northern lights which was the record store and dig through crates for vinyl. And then there was this was owned by this Asian couple called sons su ns and they're the ones who have all the concert tees and you go on their wall and you look at these five screens printed in black, but you couldn't any of the bands you couldn't see you ever see like the Smiths I go into the Smith's work by seeing a T shirt. I bought the T shirt I have no idea meat is murder. What the Smith It was different. You walk down the street, you were like, what is meat is murder. You know, that's the name of the album. But that was kind of how it happened in Minneapolis. Fortunately again, though, it considered a cold destitute place. Otherwise, it had a really good art scene. My mother works for me, Apple sister of arts for decades, you know, had a really really good thriving theater slash music scene that you wouldn't find major metros, you know, and you needed to try it. But I'd argued right up there was Chicago, you know, they've got venues too, but just a smaller version. No, yeah. And I think Marc Gutman 12:31 it was really cool, like in those kind of smaller, mid major towns because Minneapolis isn't like a small town, but it's not Chicago. But when you get the bands that come into town, you get them to yourselves. And so in a way, it's almost better than when you're like trying to fight through a Chicago crowd or an LA crowd or New York crowd for both tickets, just proximity and that type of stuff. You'd be out on the town and you'd run into your favorite band or something like that, which was always so cool. And, and you touched on something and I don't want to get too existential here, but like There really is this awesome idea that, you know, when we align with brands and we, we display those brands, it really says a lot about who we are and you were able to really go out and perhaps and I don't know this to be true. I mean, was this sort of your first touch in realization of the power of brands and aligning with brands and also, not just that you aligned with one brand when what I really heard from you is that, you know, young stix who wasn't stix at the time was really this combination of many brands in order to kind of be the person that you wanted to be. Steve "Stix" Nilsen 13:38 Hundred percent you know, I can honestly this is, again, gonna sound cliche, Fast Times return Hi, I will completely 100% that movie. I went checker dance. But the funny thing is, you can find him in Minnesota. My sister was going to school in Arizona, I get a graduate degree, and they actually she was able to get a pair for me there. And I remember I wore those and they ain't Another thing is I didn't want to wear socks or anything but Korean socks. They were like a science experiment. I mean it was just was so those things were so right. My mom would meet people outside. But those were like a badge of honor walk around those vans because we didn't have them in Minnesota. Now they're solely to get their name bands and always been kind of mail order. Back then it wasn't FedEx, you know, maybe there was but like, I, you weren't gonna get your shoes overnight, right? You find the backup when you said Thrasher or Transworld or skateboarder and that was around, and you'd fill out it was 1799 for tear shoes, whatever it was back then. But those to me that and like camel pants and just a white t shirt. It's pretty cool kit, you know, 1984 you know, whatever it was, you know? I mean it was and so you're right and but you gotta remember that he we didn't have Abercrombie and Fitch, we didn't have, again, Pac son. He didn't have these places. You just like Okay, I'm gonna go to the department store. And then we think of fun ways to maybe monkey around with the clothes. I might not mean to designer I can't so to save my life. But maybe it alters a jacket completely. Obviously you're cut the sleeves off. If you want to. mean like you're just wrong. And by no means again, I wasn't. Let's not paint this picture and walk around like a guy. That's cool enough, but I always try as best I could with what little I had to work with, to tweak it a little bit. You know, I didn't want to be the same shirt, same things, everybody else because they all we all wear the same outfits with costumes, as I like to say, at the time. Marc Gutman 15:18 Yeah. What do you think that interests like in fashion and pop culture came? Because it certainly shows up later in your career. And we'll talk about that. But you know, where do you think that really came from? Where was one of your parents kind of into that stuff? Was it more your association with your friends? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 15:32 No friends, so I came from the most conservative household ever, you know, very Christian, amazing upbringing. I don't have a complaint in the world. It's just very, very conservative. You know, I mean, now the house is pretty much like I think those rooms I still never been in or have been their house, you know, but and that's no disrespect. But definitely I was there was one of my family was near punk rock. I don't know. I have three siblings. My oldest is my brother. And she did introduced me to a lot of bands that I got into late and like I'm talking about the last five years were way before I ever thought I would like it, you know, Fleetwood Mac, he would play jurnee. He would play Pablo Cruz, he would play. What's the one like Michael McDonald, Doobie Brothers, all these things, which at the time I didn't care for, as I've gotten older, like, I kind of dig it back. You know, I mean, it's some of the stuff which I never would have never. That's way too slow for me at the time. But now I've come to appreciate like journey. Like I just got journey's Greatest Hits for President. Are you kidding me? Like, if I know I played in my living room. Marc Gutman 16:33 So we went here that's exclusively with Mack and journey. All right, everybody. So like stix is a Fleetwood Mac journey efficient. Steve "Stix" Nilsen 16:40 I mean, I can't listen all the time. I wouldn't be able to sit still long enough. But the funny thing is, though, my brother did go to concerts a lot. So I kind of got caught. He told me some hilarious stories when this first arena shows me you know, I must have been five years old, and he's going to these and tell me when the house lights went off. The first time it's film that stadiums with North Stars played. He literally thought there was a power outage. You know, they do that. before they get on stage, and I forget who was going to see I think was, oh, Linda Skinner, something like that. And, you know, they cut the house lights, obviously for anyone and he just said how he almost urinated soiled himself because he thought the power was out, you know, but just explain what it's like to go to his first show. But he took me to see kiss. He was in college, and I was in middle school, whatever it was, and I got to see kids when they were in their heyday. This is 1979 or 80 or something like that. got like, that's first time ever smell weeks. I had no idea what the smoke was everywhere. And it just smelled funny, you know? But again, I taken my brother ticularly first kiss show again. That was the full original lineup. So I got to see that was pretty cool. Marc Gutman 17:36 Pretty great claim to fame. So here you are, you know, you're just finding out who you are. You're dabbling and skate culture and music and figuring things out. You know, like, what was your first real job and what was it in marketing or was it Steve "Stix" Nilsen 17:51 God? No. I my first look from a neighbor was he literally had a Chris craft boat where those goodies whether they're called you know the ones for eautiful Have to store that. But in the meet the same time, my brother at this point my brother has was in law school, whatever, but he'd worked for a local golf course. And I ended up because they liked my brother so much. They literally like, I got a job there. And it was awesome because I was in charge of the golf carts. So I go around, but I got to interact with everybody. You know, I mean, anytime you just wanted a cart, I'm going to bring it up in in the golf carts and really actually a really good golf course. So public course. But that was one where I was just, you got to, you know, really interact. A lot of people see different people for different walks of life, because again, it's a public course. Right? And that's where I was introduced to the Beastie Boys, because one of the guys that I worked with him cards, pull out this license, the L tape, and I was like, What is this and I was like, I think I melted the tape. We listen to it so much. And I just was so fascinated because I didn't know anything about hip hop or rap or anything like that. But I loved the Beastie Boys style those guys to me, if anyone has moved the needle culturally, with anywhere, this the Beastie Boys, I'm serious. Like I was So in fact, I'm thinking how could these dudes leave their from Brooklyn and you know, the fighter, right, all that stuff, but if you really outside of that hit that they had. So the subs, like amazing like Paul's boutique, I think is one of most underrated albums. Like, I put in the top 10 most underrated album, I mean, what those guys did. And it's ironic now there's this spike Jones documentary on it, but those guys just look at what they went through. I mean, I remember reading an article they were they bought ups, outfits to wear on on stage, but yet they had a big catalog out of like, retro champion where they were going to do who was doing that at the time, you know, I mean, just retro old school athletic wear, and they were making it cool, you know, and then I saw him play live and I was like, Okay, this is this is a whole nother thing, you know, but that was I roundabout way of saying how I was like, I got exposed to something else. You know, being at this public golf course. It's like, wow, Beastie Boys. What the hell is this? You know, I knew all about punk rock, but I didn't know and then that there became a crossover. Those guys originally. Were coming in, you know, not many people. I don't think That lookup I think it's probably walk stools are first of all up and look it up. Yeah. And Marc Gutman 20:04 so you know musics of throughput through your life where'd you go after the golf course, Steve "Stix" Nilsen 20:08 golf course my senior year and then I worked construction, which, again, great life lessons there. I learned to this day enough to be dangerous. It's Brian wall wiring plumbing. But it also made me realize I didn't want to do manual labor. It was a great experience. I got through with friends we a lot of laughs But I knew it was something that I didn't want to do. Second summer, I worked at a bank. And that was another huge learning experience because I'd have to go every morning I put on a tie go down downtown Minneapolis, and I remember calling my parents saying I'm going to be in college for 15 years. This is what the real world is like, because I can't it was just like, droids marching every day. The same thing was just a miserable experience on under artificial light in a cube. You were wearing a tie. I was wearing a tie. Yep. And I the funny part is I'd have to drive myself First Avenue to get to the where I worked. And I thought someone's gonna just pull me out of my jeep and just wild me for wearing a tie so close to sacred spot like that, right? Who would have thunk it years earlier, I'm waiting in line with all the other kids trying to get a ticket. And I drive by and wearing a tie. Right? And then I thought that the most the least painful thing to do would be to be a copywriter because I was originally an English major, and I didn't know what to do with that. I loved it. I got to work on the Harley Davidson account. I got to work on this thing called Skeeter Boats. I'm not kidding you. But it was like it was a cool environment. My boss was really cool. I got college credit for it, which is awesome. From there, I went to work for Northwest Airlines. And the reason I'm telling you that is the fact that I studied abroad in Australia for a bit and by that when I got this internship with united with Northwest Airlines, which became Delta, they just opened up the Australian market. So they actually ran everything by me to see if it was going to be authentic or not. And it was just something about travel once again. I'm like wow, this place I live in this earth. I got credit for it. And my payments was they gave me four tickets to go anywhere in the world. I wanted to go back paying cash. And then my last internship for credit was I work for a public relations for Minnesota North Stars, the hockey team. And I obviously did a great job for Dallas the next year. No, it really I just didn't realize I didn't want to work. It's not what it's cracked up to be to work for protein. But it's not okay. When you're in the bowels of the stadium, not not only the fun part was those I part of my job is to take players to go talk to schools. And that was, I will argue that not just because I play hockey, but professional hockey players are probably the coolest pro athletes will ever meet your life. They're so humble and self mocking and appreciative and because most of them did come from small towns in Canada or Europe or wherever, or or they went right into juniors and never really got finished high school. So for them, they're just happy go lucky and it was a great experience. So that's a long winded way of explaining kind of experiences I had. Marc Gutman 22:57 Yeah, where'd you go on those four free trips. Steve "Stix" Nilsen 23:00 Let's see I blew my knee out. So I went to see a friend in Maui who's a dive instructor. I'm a certified no Patty diving, whatever. And I would just because I couldn't move my leg, I think I could every day, which is diving groups. And I just tagged on behind the group. So I got to scuba dive every day for free for 10 days, where my leg was just dragged behind me in the water, and I did that. So I think I went to San Francisco but then I went back to Australia, because after I graduated college I got and that's where I had my epiphany for my career. That's where I was like, that's when the light bulb went off. I know the exact spot on Bondi Beach rather sitting having a beard like seeing that when there's a skate they used to have skate ramps, now their actual cement bowls, and I remember I want to be an actual sports. I was watching these guys surf and like I want to be this is this is like I would go into the surf shops and every corner I would always want to surf shops. There's this brand SNP that wasn't really a player for a while it actually sports business and that was bought by Riot snowboards and then it's just kind of like it's licensed out now. But that's a hot brand on Australia. The time is just fascinating. Everything about everything. Every little magazine I get my hands on. I was absolutely infatuated and funny thing is my job down there had nothing to do with music art or action sports. It looked I was writing copy for a nonprofit that I care because it gave me a tax ID to live there for a year and live on a beach. So that's really where I was like, This is what I do. Marc Gutman 24:19 Yeah, like, what was the will kind of take a little moment here, but like, what was the scene like that? I mean, was there really like an action sports industry at that time? Or is it more like these sort of like little brands, little skate shops, like what does it look like at that time? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 24:34 It's, you know, the one thing that was starting to take off at that point was snowboarding. Okay, this is 95 year of 95. And I lived in Australia, and I made my way over to New Zealand to ride it's called the remarkable mountains over there. I mean, I still have my first snowboard jacket that literally is a glorified flannel with like a Teflon pad on the bottom and it's funny, it's like dropped, which frankly is back in style, though. I should pass it on next year. But never it was just everything about it to me though black flies was like the hot sunglass brand and they made goggles my first goggles were black box okay, but it wasn't it were the really the final part. The final catalyst for me saying this is what I have to do is I got back to the states turned down some job offers were literally charity from like my buddy's parents You know, it just it was nothing I would have accelerated or really enjoyed. It doesn't matter what it was. I t just was not to me it's more corporate stuff right. And I went to my first work tour. And at that point was the second year of the tour. I missed the first year living in Australia but I saw it in a magazine and they had a couple bands so I just still to this day love orange nine millimeter quicksand l seven, some wine was a part of the first one. And I drove to Milwaukee Wisconsin with my girlfriend at the time. And that's where I saw a Warped Tour and I still have some photos of like me in the pit shooting with a 35 millimeter inside, penny wise and then the outside me shooting guy skating the skateboard and remember going this is what I want to be this What I've got to do like this is so me just just people having fun was punk rock. We're skaters. And then the brands that were part of that, you know, at the time it was billabong, and I think even though there's a thing called split, it was it was a clothing brand. They were part of it. But they had a little booth there. And, you know, I was a little kid in the candy store free stickers. I mean all that like I get it. You know, that was my first taste. But yeah, this is like marketing 101 or grassroots marketing, just get the brand in people's hands and let them decide for themselves where to put the stickers what to do what brands, you know what I mean? And that was that was my aha, like, Okay, I'm onto something here. Because there's no way there'd be a tour like this if this wasn't what yet. But you got to remember, this is before magic zoomies existed at that point. But before these was in the stores started, really, really being a little more prominent in cities more and more popping up and skateboards is something it had been in California, obviously in some pockets around the US. But I was sitting there going, Hey, how can I get in this business? And that was literally like that. I mean, I was like laser focus. Like how many The minute I got home, I started my long slog and try to get my foot in the door. Marc Gutman 27:05 Yeah. And so it's so interesting to me. I mean, you know, from a very young age when you describe those internships, you were very astute to align your interests with some sort of business need, right? So you know, you love to travel so you went to work for the airline, you loved hockey, so you went to the North Stars realized it wasn't for you, but that's okay. And then you go to Australia and you have this like, you know, this this epiphany and what I was imagining when you were talking just about that environment were with grassroots marketing and people handing out stickers. It was so interesting to me. It's kind of like where we are now today with social media, right? Where we're like brands don't really own the brand. There's all this conversation and all this interaction going on outside the brand, by the customers by their by by the fan base and very much like that was happening for you, right, like everyone's handing out stickers and authenticating the brand and having their own conversation. Somebody was just like, really interested. To me, but you come back and you're like, I want to be in this business. I mean, what's that plan? I mean, so, Hey, man, I've been struck a few times in my life to where I'm like, I know exactly what I want to do. And I have this amazing fantasy. And then I go like, Oh, crap. Now I got to like, actually make it a reality. And sometimes that doesn't always add up. Like how did you like, start that process of getting into action sports and actually making a career out of it? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 28:26 Honestly, I grabbed every magazine I could get my hands on. And I just got to the players were and not not in a backdoor I'm in it was like I just I knew brands that I really liked. brands who maybe didn't resonate with me as much and I had no choice. This is pre internet. Like I'm cold call, right? Well, then I find out there's this thing called si a show. And I literally was 300 bucks for like three nights and airfare to Treasure Island at Vegas. And I went into the show with resume And the funny part is I've never really told him the story. I was thinking to myself because I was surrounded by like, how am I gonna? Help me stand apart? Like, these guys probably gonna have pluses I didn't know what the trim bro man that everyone's just kind of gets backdoor bro jobs. And in Minnesota like I grew up in a walk, right so I've flown ski I wakeboarder which is how I destroyed my leg. But I also compare for so I literally was handing out these resumes with us a picture staples of me barefoot, right because I thought that was kind of badass. Like, you know, I didn't know what I know now about how what like a charity of sorts and he's actually sports Branson, so I'm sure in high tech Okay, cool. You know, you don't hindsight 2020 but I thought how can I turn some heads or get some attention with my resume? So I attached picture of me barefooting you know, cuz I still do those tumble turns and go down. You can spin around and get back on your feet again. I thought you know, someone find that interesting, but they got it in hindsight. I mean, I might as well Wearing a tutu? No, they probably thought, who's this clown. So I literally when I went started doing was collecting business cards. Everywhere I went and I took some, some people were nice enough to give me like a honcho card. And other people would give me like a customer service persons card, it didn't matter. And then I thought, Okay, I'm going to take what I learned at the agency, and I took their ads from the different brands and I made them funny. I just stopped funding them making stuff and get a kick out. So I was mailing back at this again, pre internet, so I was really going to everyone under the sun Marc Gutman 30:33 Yeah, how are you making ads talk about that. I mean, were you like making collages with paper Steve "Stix" Nilsen 30:37 I would take their ads out of the magazine Exacto and change their headline, or take a Polaroid or something and kind of superimposed on at the time and it was kind of a cool come to write, but I didn't, I didn't I didn't register, Marc Gutman 30:50 but you're not using like a computer or like Photoshop or anything. Steve "Stix" Nilsen 30:53 I didn't have any of that. I didn't have computer for years. And I thought I would mail them back and of course then I will The phone call and you gotta remember man, like, I'm trying to get my career all my buddies are in Wall Street. You know, that was where I grew up. I wrote that set with those guys role. And that's nothing wrong with that just wasn't my scene, but you know, and then my parents dining room table, you know no buddies are all partying in New York, right? But I just knew I couldn't do it but I kept calling, calling calling some people I got through to some people I didn't. But I just knew that I knew I was so mobile. I was like, someone want to be moved to California because I was moved to Chula Vista for that brand SMP. I would, I probably never would have left Southern California and I moved to California, and it just didn't pan out. But again, it just you just lesson learned. You got to try and try and try again because you are gonna have the door slammed in your face, especially that industry being as young as it was at the time. I mean, it was like the ultimate like old boys network, you know, and, boy, good luck breaking into that. And I just knew I was going to be an asset to a brand but I also still knew I need to learn a lot from pinion that only makes a mistake once and never having a mistake again and I'll own up to it. You know, so that's really where I was at the time. Marc Gutman 32:03 But I'm sorry, I missed that. Did you? Did someone bite on that? And did you get a job? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 32:08 Yeah, I what had happened is I was getting so down in the dumps. And the one brand that I focused in on because they weren't every single magazine snow surface skate magazine was arawak. And at the time, they had the who's who, every sport. They even had a few surfers, and I was taking their ads and doing stuff in cut. I don't remember her last meeting, but the director of marketing, same thing was Nina. All I remember is that they were they moved from Carlsbad, California to Pennsylvania, and I was just thrashing around with letters, and I call call call cold call. And then I picked up the phone one day and said, hey, it's Steve Nilson, you know, and she was Oh, it's cute kid again, because Listen, kid, I don't have time to talk to you. My house just burned down. I gotta leave for Europe and fires like, Alright, I gotta go. So I mailed her a smoke detector in the mail. And she called me like last But two weeks, three weeks later, she's Oh my god, you have balls kids like, Yeah, she flew me out. And that's what I end up getting a job. That's what I needed. That's why I was always confident, like, one on one with someone, but I just needed a chance. I just needed someone open the door for me, you know, and apparently I did well, my interview, you know, but I just I guess maybe I was so pumped up from trying to get in the industry that I probably overwhelmed with all those feeling. It was just longing for an opportunity to just like, show I know what I was talking about. And I guess the one thing that you know, I was fortunate enough to go to some really good schools Is that you? I was I learned how to kind of cut mentalize and articulate what I not only looked at the industry and just being a sponge, which showed me how when I'm interested in something, I am like that idiot savant. Like I can just absorb everything. Remember every little detail and I think I would probably overwhelmed with them when I was interviewed at arawak. But again, all I needed was that chance and they gave it to me and the rest of you know what that is. So that was my first stepping stone but I had this Fight and claw to get that, because there was still an old boys network even at erawan at the time, they're like, why would you hire a guy from Minnesota? No. And my parents were so blessed because they taught me early on things when only manners but being a good listener. And, you know, by that you can you can learn from people and comment on it versus some people just want to be heard all the time. And so I've been blessed the way I was raised, because I think that I was able to do both of them. I was a student of the game, but then some that I was going to go out this kind of a calculating way and not just fly by night for stuff against the wall. Hope it sticks. Marc Gutman 34:34 You know? Do you remember that first day at arawak? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 34:37 I do. And you know, I'm gonna be honest with you. I feel again, I haven't really ever told anyone this but I just remember one of the first big meetings I was at. And there was a few people and again, it doesn't matter who it is whatever else but I just sit there going in my brain. Were positions that I wanted and going, Oh my gosh, I know I could run circles around this person. Like no comparison and I I was amazed. It's my first taste. And it happens to this day of people you could put in positions either, you know, right or wrong happens. But I'm thinking, I would absolutely crush that position. And that was the only thing where I was like, Okay, I'm the one getting chided, because I'm from Minnesota, and I'm looking at these people, like, I'm sorry, but there was just I started questioning these people could even put a sentence together, you know what I mean? Like, you'd be cool all day long, like, Hey, man, there's got to be a business acumen to this too. You know, that's all it was just again, no disrespect to anyone in particular. It was just more of I sat there going, wait a second. So I'm getting chided by these guys. And I'm sitting there going, you got to be kidding me. Like, what? You know, um, so that was a big eye opener whether it was an old boys network was just like, selling to someone and that kind of thing. And I don't know, this is a brand you can't just off your Bros. Like you gotta have people who bring in people that know what they're doing, you know, but I think then again, I wasn't a physician because I had no experience at the time to do that. I know like the stand up. So became my goal. to basically get these What do you want to say? feathers, my capper arrows in my quiver to learn, learn, learn, learn and learn. So every part of the business, the sales part, the marketing part, the production part. And that's what I set out to do. Marc Gutman 36:13 And so what was your role when you started and what was your role when you left Steve "Stix" Nilsen 36:17 So funny that when I started, I'm not kidding you. My first thing because I wanted to get my foot in the door, was I was a merchandiser. I'm not kidding. So my skin my role was to run around big to stores and make sure our stuff look good. But the funny thing is, it became very, very obvious to me that we were doing it wrong. And I was so low on the totem pole. No one would listen to me but like, the Tony Hawk shoe should not been to Carnival should not have been on the wall at journeys, because that was the lifeblood of the skate shops. And I started telling him that but the person who reported you didn't want any part of it was the type of person that just never wanted to rock the boat and just kind of did on the roof. And I was just didn't sit with me. I'm like, No, no You can't just do enough. All right, don't check box. It's like this isn't right. We're headed for disaster here. Because back to skate shops like I felt comfortable in skate shops. And to this day, I could go have a conversation with a kid about skaters or surfers snowboarders. You don't I mean, it's a different it's, it's almost like a little clubhouse of sorts. But that was a real eye opener. So what did I do? I just tried to like I went to Nordstrom for Pete's sake, we had our shoes in Nordstrom. Okay. And I'm sitting there going, Okay, like, there's no product differentiation here. Like we can't be having the skate stuff in a Nordstrom. You just can't do that to these little shops because, you know, they were, you know, less than what you'd get it. You know, I mean, Nordstrom just undercutting and price wise, I guess maybe not torture, but you know, some of the other places the bigger big box stores mean arawak ended up paying for the sins of all the brands that are in malls now. Because it was so it was just antichrist to have your shoes, or any action sports apparel in a mall, you know? So that was where I started and then at these meetings, I would say this is what I'm seeing out in the field, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And to make a long story short, basically they said, okay, tough guy. If you see an issue with a pricing, one, you want to get development. And that's when I got into the snowboard boot development, and spent three weeks a month in Asia building summer boots, and it's actually dabbled in shoes as well in the skate stuff. And again, total eye opener, got to travel the world like, you know, see, Bangkok see Hong Kong numerous times, Taiwan, Thai Chung, you know, and the funny thing is at the time that he was getting all the crap for sweatshops, but they're getting picked on because of the big one and having success but we all share the law at all. But we all share the same factories. They were the ones who just the big target, but I thought was so funny that they were getting all this heat, the sweatshop thing and we're all in it. And frankly, factory jobs like the best job in town, a lot of those places they were getting, you know, people lived on campus. They three square meals a day, their schools for the kids, it was actually like Good deal for the local locals. So I just I learned a ton from that time being a product developer. And then fast for the last role I held was was basically snow marketing measure. You know, working with Mike arts and Joe Babcock and the abs. It's funny, it shifted from being a rapper to going into development. And that was the last role I had was was when they moved the company to Colorado, and I was working the snow division. Marc Gutman 39:32 This episode brought to you by wildstory. Wait, isn't that your company? It is. And without the generous support of wild story, this show would not be possible. A brand isn't a logo or a tagline or even your product. A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product service or company. It's what people say about you when you're not in the room. Wild story Helps progressive founders and savvy marketers build purpose driven brands that connect their business goals with the customers they want to serve. So that both the business and the customer needs are met. This results in crazy, happy, loyal customers that purchase again and again. And this is great for business. If that sounds like something you and your team might want to learn more about, reach out @ www.wildstory.com. And we'd be happy to tell you more. Now back to our show. Yeah, and so in at that point, you know, you were doing snowboard boot development, you're in the snow division. Did you start doing some of those unique collabs at AIR walk or was that a little bit later in your career? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 40:48 That was that came later. But I think that why those came to me was because of my understanding of product timelines, raw materials, how that works, how the how they come to production. caliber work. So if you want to work with a brand like, Hey, we want to do a shoe or a jacket rubber for it, let's do it for, you know, 2021 season Well, this day and age, I don't care how good the technology, you still can't get anything done that fast. And you're gonna like, probably wouldn't be able to unless you put a patch on something that's an existing silhouette, you know, but again, we did, I will be honest with you. I mean, I do have a few pieces that I have made for myself over there that are one off, and it's just kind of fun to have something that no one else in the world has, you know, because I knew that just custom shoes for friends and family, things like that. It's not a big deal. All I do is have a little extra different material to make the tongue a little different color or whatever. That was super fun for me. And again, I can't draw to save my life. But I think one of the things that I was able to do because my time is merchandiser when we would do a design review and put all the silhouettes on the wall. I'd like to think I picked out probably the one was going to sell the best off the shelf. Like I don't know what it is. I just Look at it took me two seconds, I look at that one. And I'm not saying it always was the case. But I think that again, I want my learnings of being at retail, and going to numerous countless, because I covered the whole Midwest accounts, everything from shields, in the Dakotas to these little skate shops, like I was like, okay, that's okay, what the company is doing that they're not going to do. Now given. Once I went into the office environment. I was more traveling to like trade shows and events and things like that I wasn't on the boots on the ground as much. But again, unfortunately, that culminated in so many poor decisions made by the teams, the leadership that by the time, my counterparts and I got a position to do anything that brand was pretty much done, unfortunately. So that was my MBA. I'm not the only one. Were my office, my family and I have a master's degree and that was my extra degree. And how not to do business was what I learned. arawak Yeah, when I started getting that would arawak argue is one of the top action sports brands of any time. We just made the number boots on word. I thought they were eating burdens lunch wise. And they haven't done head to toe yet. But just if you look at the old rosters of the teams, I mean, there was no comparison. You know, it was that hot and to the way that that that poor decisions that were made, in hindsight and again, it was just it bringing the sales guys from the big shoe companies, you know, phila, Reebok wherever, didn't sell these guys were taking orders, it dumped the shoes on the table and furniture, knees, that's looking stuffs, the skate stuff that ended up in journeys. And then we just choke out the little guys that they've relied on Jeff rally shoe. There were a lot in 2002. There were a lot of Jason Lee, there are a lot you know, Mike Frazier, and we kill them. We literally like it. Because again, Vance wasn't a player that they are now. And it was asked us at these events on the wall, the skate shops, and the majority Was there one shoot and it's just to see that happen and not really have any control and I'm never gonna get in that position again. That was brutal. Marc Gutman 43:56 Yeah, and you're I mean, you really did you. I mean, you hit it like it's heyday like where it was like at its best. And then due to private equity and demands on shareholder returns really kind of just went went downhill and didn't go the right way. But, you know, like you said, you did get basically an MBA there, you learn so much. I mean, we don't have to get into it now. But I know that you have so many close friends from those from those days as well and that have gone on to do other things. But from that point, you sort of start like a new chapter of your career, which really is turned into canned beverages in a weird way. And so if I forgot this, right, you went to red balls that right? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 44:38 Yeah, Marc Gutman 44:39 yeah. And so you got there and oh, my gosh, talk about sort of the poster child for action sports marketing. I mean, really, is there anything you know, at the time better? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 44:53 No, you know, I have to be honest with you like, the stars aligned for me at that point. It was without trying me. It took me a year. To get hired, and that's how they were so new, no one who had an energy drink was, when I think about it, we was it was so crazy, I guess would be the best way. And I'm not I'm not kidding you. It's like I won the lottery. Because all sudden, overnight, you know, again, they didn't have the brand equity yet they were they were gonna build that. But overnight, I basically had a, you know, on my expense report, I had a line item for a long time, like I could expense I mean, who does that? Right? And it took me a while to really, I was one of the first force marketing managers and I remember I've always believed in rolling my sleeves and training my team. I've never asked anyone to do something I would do myself. And I was putting on an event somewhere and I'm in Brighton all over the venue, right? And my boss stopped me. He's still a dear friend. He's like, Dude, what are you doing? And I'm like, dude, I gotta help you. Because that's why you have a budget to hire the event crew to worry about. Okay, I need you to make sure everything's straight. Like, again, you want to help, that's fine. You're going to help us big time by making sure your branding looks right and whenever it's just chill, like let the worker bees work. Your phone And so it's not saying I ever got comfortable with that. But but then it got to the point where we literally live by the mantra like, pay the fine. Like we asked for forgiveness, not permission. And it was unbelievable because right then we ended up having to remember the channel crossing. You know, we are Felix Baumgartner goes across the English Channel on a jet when he does that, right. And that became a benchmark where it was like, Alright, what's our next channel crossing? Because I've made international news, you know, and so that was where the heat was turned up on us as sports, right matches, what's the next athlete project you're going to do? What's the next event? What is the next channel crossing, you know? And so it was overwhelming to me. I mean, they treated us so well at Red Bull. I mean, just it's, the company is very, very skewed like they, they get it does have that euro vibe. They're very, very like driven and results driven. But the difference, this is one thing I've learned, which is my soft spot, is that I was never ever held to a scalable number. All right stix you do that we better sell X amount of cases. Never, ever once in my tenure, there was I ever held my hand held to the candle saying, if you're doing this, you better said we better sell more cancel. They just knew it. And I think that that is a key to a really, really successful team is when you all have a common goal, but you trust each other. And no one's ever packing anyone else. No one's ever like, well, he did this. She did that or whatever. No, it was like the part that became the biggest pressure cookers when we'd meet a couple times a year and we'd literally have each, each of us or five of us would get called out to the carpet. Okay, what's the next big idea? That's pretty when you got the Austrians over here, and they're like, what, what's next? What do we do? What's the next idea? And that you could never have the exclusive This is the crazy thing. Think about this. Money was never an excuse. Like I mean, I didn't know that was $960,000. Okay, money was never so that was not new, you could hide behind. But the funny part is, you can have a very, very impactful event with just a case of product in a bottle of vodka. You know, I mean, it's just dependent on you don't I mean? How to do that. Not everything was a home run. Not every single thing resonated. But this is before you know, certainly before any social media, you know, so the only output we had for a lot of this content was it was originally a G shock rush hour I think it was called some like that which became fuel TV. Well fuel TV. It was that like after a while, like okay, rebel, you're doing amazing stuff. But this is also becoming the rebel channel. We can't use all your content, which is why Red Bull and they started getting into this when I parted ways in the rebel media house where they become their own production and all that and, you know, it's funny, ESPN even sniffed out as well. It is brilliant on rebels. Yeah, they were painted by this crazy airtime and New Years and just put their own branded events on there. And you'll get basically if you consider what the cost of media buys, it was nothing was a drop in the bucket for Redbull to reach millions and millions, millions of people something super unique. You know, like Robbie Maddison doing the lawn rolls large jump over a football field. Or you know, All righty, Madison stuff. You've seen it years. And that's typical red bull, like we're going to come in. We're coming hot. We're going to do it right now. It's gonna be people can't touch us probably, you know, cost wise, you know? Marc Gutman 49:05 So why'd you leave red bull, if it was so great? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 49:07 You know what? Honestly there's like any company there was um, shifts and how they were going to do originally the sports marketing crew reported to Santa Monica and had a dotted line to Austria and and that got watered down and there was they decentralized that and you know it's like anything you get Growing Pains is a big company and you know when I started a sports marketing manager, you handle everything from a soapbox race or a photog which maybe you've seen where you know, flying the means when people make their own little crafts or jump off a deck, you know, they've done it everywhere all over the country of Portland, Santa Monica New York City. All sudden they broke it out to right now you're gonna have an event manager you're gonna have an athlete manager. It's just got her water down. I'm not saying from a control freak perspective that I needed my hand and everything. But then they want to they were talking about shifting people move different places, but surely wasn't really Colorado and Pascual Riven came out of nowhere and different stuff to think about how to hem and haw about us the passing of the money was pretty much a dormant brand. But I could sense there was this brand equity that was building because the athletes I care I could give whatever they wanted whatever bottles surface especially the skates know guys like I want Pepsi. Pepsi ribbon. I had had that in college and that was literally because it was whatever's on sale. Right. And it's just had this cachet to it as an escape guys special they're just like password and password like what is going on? And it's funny how that segue happened. Because I went in there going Oh, yeah, I can do some fun with this brand in the back of my head going holy crap. How you gonna pull this off with nobody? You know, I mean, talking I said over and over again talking about going penthouse to the poorhouse. That's exactly what happened. The budget was big time. Yeah, but then Marc Gutman 50:47 so and what was that? Like? What was the marketing plan at paps? I mean, like you said you have a lot, you know, not very much budget. So how did you deal with that? Steve "Stix" Nilsen 50:58 Well, the one thing that It became very clear to me was I had something that 99% of events need. And that's alcohol. And I knew if I could figure out the distribution system, you can't ship alcohol in certain legal but we had hired FM's field marketing managers, our market agents we had a calling in different cities. And we thought you know, we're going to do this as grassroots as in as in person as possible in you know, in marketing to amplify the brand. But we if the stars align the way a couple things got one, we were in a recession, okay, to perhaps in having marketing behind. So if nothing was being shoved down consumer throats, this is the you know, PB army SAP, none of that, but it was just it just chugged along. And we're cheap. I mean, the bottom line is with that, and I often like to refer to Goodwill hunting. Remember that that wealthy girl starts dating Matt Damon, and it's almost like she's kind of slinging it. He says to her, it's almost like you know, paps had this like kind of dirty connotation to it. You know, like you're a little dirty. I have in the past. The big aha moment for me, I think it was 2010, something like that. We did a, I'm sorry, I was approached friend or friend type thing, which is where a lot of my opportunities came from, like once I was able to pass on some of these doors started opening for me in music, art and action sports because of my relationships and past jobs. And I got hit up by I don't remember what brand it was. It was Alexander when tech ran, but it was one of the brands was doing an event during fashion week in New York City and they said, We want taps there. And I'm sitting there scratching my head like, Okay, I have zero money to give you. This is something Heineken would pay 10 grand just to be in the door. I don't get it. So I said I will sponsor this but I need to be able to come check it out. And sure enough, I went there. I didn't have a black turtleneck like everybody else but whatever. That's right. And I walked backstage and it's passed in these bins and you know, they do that where they put the cloth drape in there and then they put water in the bins. It was us some shishi water and don't carry on. I'm not kidding you. But when the light bulb went off when I was sitting Around whenever he was milling about after the show was a runway show, and I sat there and watched it and whatever, didn't get half of what these people were wearing, but whatever I'm supposed to, but I saw these little wavy models carrying pops in their head. And I knew, right, well, they wanted nothing to do with the liquid inside. It had everything to do with it, they had that camera in their hand. And that to me was like that is brand equity. And literally, I always kind of looked at apps that way, I looked at it as it's not, we're not a beer company. We're a brand. And I think it drove the other beer companies nuts because they just couldn't figure out how to crack our code. But they weren't set up to. They couldn't be nimble. They couldn't do what we did. And we never asked permission, just like Redbull we just did it and we'd literally get asked for forgiveness. And I can say now knock on wood. I didn't have one thing but you the button, and there's a lot of illegal things that happen just b

Pleasure having Steve Nilsen (aka STIX) on the podcast! Currently he is the VP of Lifestyle Marketing for Liquid Death Mountain Water. Was great hearing some great stories from back in the day working for Airwalk, Redbull, Pabst and now the new start up Liquid Death. Stix is such a down to earth guy and there are some sweet lil nuggets of knowledge throughout the episode! Make sure to check him out on instagram: @stixaround, as well as the Liquid Death instagram: @liquiddeath

Edu Guiños, ex skater de Santa Cruz y Airwalk, nos explica como era el skate de los 80s en Barcelona y en nuestro país. Abrían las primeras tiendas de patín, una marca de skate reinaba en las calles y unos pocos chavales se buscaban la vida para conseguir salir a patinar revolucionando las calles con el nuevo skate moderno.

STEVE “STIX” NILSEN - Episode 128 Steve Nilsen is accomplished in the world of sports marketing. From humble beginnings as a product line manager for Airwalk. After he moved onto a sports marketing role at Red Bull, lifestyle marketing for PBR and his current position as marketing guy for Liquid Death canned water. This one is chock full of valuable career advice from a guy who has done it.   Shout out to the sponsors of this episode Cardiff Snowcraft, Yes Snowboards and DC SNOWBOARDING. We ask that you support the brands that support disruptive snowboard media. Find out more about these guys at their websites.   http://cardiffsnow.com   http://yesnowboard.com   http://dcshoes.com Please consider supporting us at http://www.patreon.com/thesnowboardproject   You can follow us on Instagram @thesnowboardproject   THE SNOWBOARD PROJECT Stever “Stix” Nilsen Episode 128 Hosted by Mark Sullivan Produced by Mark Sullivan Associate producer Dustin James Art by Aaron Draplin and Sarat

Fallout Radio 015 Live from Airwalk Festival in Venlo, Netherlands 5th October 2019 Tracklist ID ID ID. Sit back and enjoy :) For Booking enquiries please email: bookings@schulzmusicgroup.com For Management enquiries please email: mickey@wearenextgenartists.com www.davey-asprey.com www.instagram.com/daveyasprey www.twitter.com/daveyasprey www.facebook.com/daveyaspreymusic

Skate y Cloquetas con Soren Manzoni, surfer, skater y DJ de Nasty Mondays. Viajamos a California para redescubrir la historia de las primeras zapatillas de skate. Desde los 50 hasta los 90's. Desde Hobie y Vans hasta Airwalk! Vamos!

Watch the 9malls review of the Indestructible Shoes Airwalk Grey Nail Puncture Test. How did these shoes perform while stepping on a bed of sharp nails? Watch the hands on test to find out. Visit Indestructible Shoes: Use Coupon Code "DANIY26" For 20% Off http://indestructibleshoes.com/9malls Find As Seen On TV Products & Gadgets at the 9malls Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/9malls Please support us on Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/9malls

Watch the 9malls review of the Indestructible Shoes Airwalk Grey Run Over Car Tire Test. Did these work shoes pass the car tire test? Watch the hands on test to find out. Visit Indestructible Shoes: Use Coupon Code "DANIY26" For 20% Off http://indestructibleshoes.com/9malls Find As Seen On TV Products & Gadgets at the 9malls Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/9malls Please support us on Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/9malls

Watch the 9malls review of the Indestructible Shoes Airwalk Grey. Are these work shoes actually indestructible? Watch the hands on test to find out. Visit Indestructible Shoes: Use Coupon Code "DANIY26" For 20% Off http://indestructibleshoes.com/9malls Find As Seen On TV Products & Gadgets at the 9malls Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/9malls Please support us on Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/9malls

BGBS Episode 017: Born to Shred (EXPLICIT)“One of my favorite sayings about entrepreneurship is: If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, “This sucks. I'm going to do my own thing.” Since I had never wanted to be a businessman, I needed a few good reasons to be one. -Yvon Chouinard In this episode you'll hear a story of how a passion for snowboarding, photography, and entrepreneurship positioned Mike Arzt to travel the world, chase snow and become one of the most successful photographers in the snow industry. The Japanese have a concept “eye-ki-guy”(Ikiagi) that means “a reason for being.” The word “ikigai” is usually used to indicate the source of value in one's life or the things that make one's life worthwhile.[1] The word translated to English roughly means “thing that you live for” or “the reason for which you wake up in the morning.”[2] Each individual's ikigai is personal to them and specific to their lives, values and beliefs. It reflects the inner self of an individual and expresses that faithfully, while simultaneously creating a mental state in which the individual feels at ease… If that's not the definition of Mike Arzt, I don't know what is… Mike is generous, relaxed, and intense at the same time. He's been through a lot going through many career journeys. He chases snow like he's independently wealthy and works at his job like he doesn't know where the next dollar or meal is coming from. Mike is a personal dear friend in my life and I am proud to have him as a guest on the Baby Got Backstory. In this episode we talked about: Mike's Dad being an entrepreneur co-owning a private independent pharmacy in Connecticut, instilling some of the values he had on Mike at a young age. Mike's early years growing up in Connecticut, taking regular trips to Stratton, Vermont and gaining an interest in snowboarding. How Mike would work hard and get physically beaten up to get his certification for the chairlifts to board at Stratton, how he made a deal with his parents that allowed him to miss a day of school a week to go up to Stratton, started a ‘Snurf and Snowboard club' that led to them getting a discount at a ski shop. Mike was extremely dedicated to snowboarding any chance he could get. How Jake Burton was a “hero” to Mike and how his brand really spoke to him and his tribe of snowboarding. Mike's years at his first job “Ryan's Ski and Sport” as a senior in high school. He was later given the responsibility to figure out the snowboard buy for that year and was given a roughly $100,000 budget to manage! What led to Mike's professional interest in photography for snowboarding and how his father had a great influence on that process. How Mike's parents were very supportive of the career decisions he was making, wanting to go to Vermont and work at Burton. Mike going to UVM, working in the retail showroom, and then working his way up to manage a product line at Burton working for Red. Mike's unfortunate and highly stressful end working for Red and how it led to him working for Burton. What it was like for Mike working for Burton, going to places such as the Olympics, servicing pro snowboarding athletes and providing data to Burton, which was similar to what he was doing working at Red. Why Mike ended up leaving Burton and started to work for a multimedia company (Blue Torch) out in Irvine, California, which would unfortunately only last 3 months… The journey working at Airwalk and the opportunities that arose for Mike working there. Mike being laid off from Airwalk which led to him painfully contacting each athlete to share the bad news of letting them go. This event was “perfectly” timed with Alison also being laid off. So, they were on a 7-day cruise, unemployed, and with no clue what they were going to do… In a struggle to find work and make money, Mike managed to sell some of the photos he had taken and really got into a professional stance with photography and also tried to broker his service as sports marketing and team management help. The reacquaintance of Mike's friend, Frank Philips, and how he moved out to Colorado allowing them to work together to form a business, Hellbrook. Mike talks about Frank and the history of Hellbrook and what it meant to them at the time. After working with each other for some time, they would later form the company The Public Works and Mike talks about how The Public Works was born. Some of the challenges Mike and Frank faced while running their business as the industry continued to grow. The talk Frank, Mike and his industry friend Jason Winkler had about buying a building for their business. After finding the perfect location to form Battery 621, they would later find that the building was in pretty bad shape and would need a complete makeover. Mike talks about the rebuilding process and how stressful it was for him, and also what it's like working in a co-working space. Mike goes over some of his favorite photos he's taken and what they mean to him. Quotes: [9:02] “The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play is labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love in his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at would ever, he does leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he is always doing both.” [20:50] “I think this is that part of, you know, do you even call snowboarding a sport or I mean people are as passionate about hunting or are so many things right, that are hard to explain to other people how it drives you that much.” [38:54] “That was one thing my parents did push me on. I think I was down in one last class and I heard a lot of like, could you please just get that diploma and be saying like hasn't really gotten my way yet that I don't have it.” [45:39] “I love that there's just certain people and random things that happen in life that completely change your course.” [74:21] “I just did everything I could to hustle and try to make the commitment at that point that I wasn't going to go chase an in house job again. I was going to try to do it all on my own.” [77:33] “Hellbrook has never been about a place. It is about a feeling, a philosophy, a goal, a friendship, new friendships, passion, fear, excitement, new challenges, failures that result in a desire to do better, a dream. It is about life and what we want out of it. Hellbrook is different to everyone, but our goal is to create an environment that helps everyone find his or her own “Hellbrook”. If Hellbrook is the same experience each time you go there, we have failed. Hellbrook cannot be static. Hellbrook is about getting up earlier, hiking harder and faster to get their first. You could wait for someone else to come down to tell you it sucked, but you would never hit the major score. If you get up first, hike faster only to find out it's not good, what should you do next time? Get up first, hike harder and drop in first. There are many people along the way that help you find Hellbrook. Some may play only a small part, but you would never find it on your own. Welcome to our Hellbrook.” [100:22] “You're surrounded by good people and people that believe in you and tenants that want it to work and you figure it out and a lot of people along the way teach you and you make mistakes and you just keep pushing through it. But sometimes if you don't know how far in over your head you are, maybe got a better, better chance of getting back out.” [108:31] “You know, it's cool to have photos of the pyramids in Egypt or you know, other famous landmarks or beautiful scenes but, what really stands out is it's the shots of the people and some of the other stuff that was happening that are those super super memories.” Links Mentioned On Our Show: The Public Works Battery621 Airwalk UVM Burton Mark Sullivan: Snowboard project ‍

Geoff Rowley discusses growing up in Liverpool England, getting on Deathbox Skateboards, coming to California for the first time, getting the cover of Transworld for the first time, quitting Airwalk to ride for Vans, filming for the Flip videos, almost dying in the back of an ambulance, skating the Staples Center hubba, the Vans Propeller video, working on his new Vans shoe, his board company Free Dome and much more!!

Mike Arzt has had a diverse and interesting career - starting at a snowboard shop, before helping out his regional Burton Rep. From  there a college education, jobs at Burton HQ, in media, for Airwalk before starting his own creative and fabrication business. Today, Mike works with a number of clients to ensure their authenticity of their brands.   About: The Snowboard Project is a new podcast about snowboarding featuring snowboarding former editor of Snowboarder Magazine and SNOWBOARD Magazine founder Mark Sullivan and filmmaker, innkeeper and event announcer Mark ‘The Beav' Oliver. The Snowboard Project will feature multiple shows per week covering two unique formats: Real Talk - This Week in Snowboarding, a weekly news show discussing current events in the sport, and long format interviews featuring individuals that have contributed to snowboarding in unique ways. The Snowboard Project is one of snowboarding's first advertising free media outlets, and is supported by listeners who subscribe to receive early releases of content as well as unique to subscriber content. The Snowboard Project is available through all popular podcast syndicators including, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, TuneIn, RadioPublic and Stitcher.   The Hosts: Mark Sullivan worked in snowboarding media for more than 25 years, starting at a grassroots level, making zines, to redefining print and online snowboarding media through Snowboarder Magazine and Snowboard Magazine. In addition, Mark is the most experienced color commentator in the sport's history, announcing global events for the past 20 years including the US Open, Grand Prix Series and Olympics. Mark has also been the expert on snowboarding for NBC Sports, Eurosport Television and the annual ISPO Trade show in Munich Germany. However, Mark is most proud of bringing thousands of riders to experience the mountains of Alaska - to face their personal fears and find the sport's ultimate challenge with his Tailgate Alaska event.   Mark ‘The Beav' Oliver is a lifelong snowboarder from Sun Valley who has been involved with the sport on many levels, first as a competitive snowboarder, then filmmaker for brands like Smith Optics and announcer of both local and international events. In addition, ‘The Beav' runs Ketchum, Idaho's Hot Water Inn, a lodge known for its affordable accommodations and vibrant music scene.   Please consider supporting The Snowboard Project. Go to http://patreon.com/thesnowboardproject   Benefits for our listeners include: $2 per month gives access to Patreon exclusive content that we post behind our firewall. You are also entered in our history giveaway. $5 adds shows a week ahead of regular release dates. $10 doubles your chances in our weekly snowboard history giveaway. $20 triples your chances to win our weekly snowboard history giveaway. $100 per month gives ongoing consulting with the host of the show. Music by Nick Wheeler. The Snowboard Project logo by Aaron Draplin. Check thesnowboardproject.com Video by Tim Humphreys & Brian Lindberg Jensen https://radiopublic.com/the-snowboard-project-G3R2YV https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-snowboard-project/e/58261759?autoplay=true https://player.fm/series/the-snowboard-project https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-snowboard-project-725233 https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-snowboard-project/id1433971458?mt=2 https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Snowboard-Project-p1151359/

Andy Macdonald discusses growing up in New England, first time he landed a 540 at a demo, working at Woodward to save enough money to get to California, babysitting for Chris Miller, skating doubles with Tony Hawk, being the first skater with a drink sponsor and getting backlash for it, having his own brand Positiv through Powell, skating for Airwalk over 20 years, riding for Patagonia, Red Vines, Cliff Bar, movietickets.com and Amazon, why the yellow helmet, adult pogo sticks, developing the first skater cross, meeting Bill Clinton and speaking at the White House and much more!

Baltimore Resident, Blue Collar Influencer, Inspiring Your Superior Self:  Host of Your Superior Self, Trey Downes is a thirty-something-year-old dad of three living in the suburbs of Baltimore, MD. His wife, Marisa, is a labor and delivery nurse and together they are striving, like most working-class families, to find happiness and balance. Growing up in a small town in Delaware, Trey recounted the working-class culture cycle: You are a union worker for the same company your father worked for and your grandfather worked for before him. You clock in and out for 30 years, going through the motions until you retire. Trey discovered that he was in the majority among his peers and launched YYS with a mission to break that cycle, successfully cultivating an inspirational community for people looking for a path to self-growth. The concept behind YSS pays tribute to Trey’s favorite author, Ernest Hemingway, and his infamous quote: “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.”   On This Episode You Will Hear:[spp-timestamp time="00:30"] Introduction [spp-timestamp time="03:00"] Hardcore History with Dan Carlin. [spp-timestamp time="08:40"] Does today's generation have that type of commitment? It's always what is owed to me. [spp-timestamp time="12:25"] Airwalk shoes and Jnco jeans. [spp-timestamp time="15:30"] Wrestlers, the Briscoe Brothers [spp-timestamp time="19:31"] I am trying to reach like the blue collar workers, the blue collar entrepreneurs. [spp-timestamp time="24:47"] Reading physics book as a blue collar guy. He's on the treadmill right now. He's on cruise control. I'm like, Look, man, we are the creators of our own success. Wake up to it. [spp-timestamp time="33:15"] I think people don't understand the power of getting a properly tailored dress shirt. [spp-timestamp time="35:48"] Quote, Live Life To The Fullest by Ernest Hemingway. I actually want to know what is the moment in his life that inspired that quote. [spp-timestamp time="42:44"] If I could do this, I can do anything. [spp-timestamp time="46:08"] So what was your breaking point? What was your Ernest Hemingway moment? What was your reasoning for saying, you know what I'm done? [spp-timestamp time="54:07"] That's the goal, right? To build ourselves into person that we want to be on any day, we could fall back any day. But you have to keep the strength inside of you, you have to keep the passion. You have to keep the disciplines that you do every day to keep pushing you and building yourself into that role that you want to be in or that person that you want to be. [spp-timestamp time="57:34"] That helps you understand a little more about how I set out balance in my life. I didn't know these things, back to your point, right? I had to put in all these different reps. [spp-timestamp time="59:50"] Dog walkers making $100,000 per year, blue collar?! [spp-timestamp time="01:06:07"] 30 more years? 25 more years? A freakin retirement clock on my phone that lets you know what I'm gonna retire like, Are you kidding me? [spp-timestamp time="01:15:15"] Final Words   Don't wish it was easier, wish you were better. - Jim Rohn [spp-tweet tweet="True nobility lies in being superior to your former self. Become #YourSuperiorSelf !! @DownesTrey "] Watch On YouTube:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMi8id1t2fY] Co-Host Links and Resources: yoursuperiorself.com (http://yoursuperiorself.com/) Trey Downes on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/YourSuperiorSelf/) Trey Downes on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/tdownes80/) Trey Downes on Twitter  (https://twitter.com/DownesTrey) Trey Downes on Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/trey-downes-b811a4151/)   Mentioned Influencers: Mary...

Our first interview with this guy just over a year ago was an education, to say the least, so for the latest episode of our DIG x Snakebite podcast series Shad Johnson sat back down with Dom Phipps to talk with him about the planned 2nd edition of his successful 'Wall To Wall Freestyle' book project. This is shaping up to be another comprehensive project about the history of our much loved 'sport' and includes new content on the Dirt Bros, The Curb Dogs, a King of Dirt history, the Odyssey, Haro and Airwalk stories, the origins of street riding and much much more. Find out more about the release and how you can secure your copy of the 2nd book by following the links below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh58gkJF9Js&feature=youtu.be For more info: www.w2wfreestylehistory.com/ For regular updates: www.instagram.com/wall2wallfreestyle/ This is a www.digbmx.com release in collaboration with www.snakebitebmx.com/ Find all our podcasts in one place on the DIG BMX APP. Follow the links below to get the APP or search DIG BMX MAG in the App Store. itunes.apple.com/gb/ap... play.google.com/store/... www.microsoft.com/en-u...

Bienvenidos a 7 minutos al día, la sección de las bandas emergentes de la revista online Muzikalia. No, no te has equivocado de podcast, esta es una colaboración que esperemos dure mucho tiempo. Hace unos días ya anunciamos que íbamos a crear una sección nueva para los viernes en ERA Magazine, así que aquí está, 7 minutos al día, la sección que la revista online Muzikalia dedica a las bandas emergentes, que la encontraréis en muzikalia.com, y que en colaboración con ERA Magazine presentaremos cada 15 días. ¿En qué consiste esta sección? Pues muy sencillo, en este podcast escucharemos las bandas que han aparecido en esa sección durante el último mes. Así conseguiremos que lo emergente sea cada vez menos emergente y se convierte en una realidad. Así que si queréis participar como grupo en esta sección, podéis mandarles un email a mzk@muzikalia.com. Y más novedades en este podcast. Estamos que lo tiramos. En esta sección y otras más que ya iremos anunciando estará conmigo Borja Buján, el que fuera en otro tiempo diseñador de la revista ERA Magazine, cuando teníamos su versión en papel, y que también fue miembro de la promotora unodos, y creador de la fantástica Galería Garabat en Bilbao. Los que vivís allí seguro que os acordáis. El primer grupo que escucharemos es… Loe Lof Lon es el proyecto de música electrónica del vasco/gallego Gori, afincado en Lugo. Su música debe mucho a la experimentación y la improvisación, siendo su principal motivación el deseo de fundir el jazz de creadores como el Miles Davis eléctrico, Ornette Coleman o el primer Arto Lindsay con otros del estilo de John Cage, Suicide, Fugazi o Neu! El tema es “Heavy Transition (Loe Lof Lon Meets Wayne Rex)”. El segundo grupo de 7 minutos al día es Inane, electrónica instrumental. Inane es el proyecto musical de Óscar Yuste, que nos llega desde Zaragoza. Un proyecto que arrancó hace ya una década. Al principio, la música de Inane podía clasificarse como electrónica fría y minimalista, tendiendo hacia la experimentación y el druidismo. Ahora, ocho años después, Inane vuelve con Segundos antes del despegue, una obra con referencias al pop de los ochenta, a la electrónica-kraut de los 70 y a la música ambiental de aquellas décadas. Escucharemos “La emoción de descubrir colores nuevos”. Seguimos con la electrónica más ambiental, Reuben RG. Rubén Ramos es un músico vasco, concretamente de Urnieta, voz y guitarra de la banda post-hardcore Cohen. Con Álvaro Remacha como productor, ha grabado todos los instrumentos para un primer disco, Ghost Tapes, que publicó el pasado mes de marzo bajo el nombre de Reuben RG, en el que incluye seis temas a medio camino entre el slowcore y el dream pop, canciones que remiten a grupos como The XX, Team Sleep, Pedro The Lion o incluso a los mismísimos Radiohead o Sigur Ros. Escucharemos la canción “Over and Out”. Y ahora, un poco de un poco de rock & roll, con Rock Kills. Rock Kills es un power trío de Olot, Girona, formado por Dani (voz y bajo), Manel (guitarra) y Tete (batería). Juntos forman una banda de rock alternativo que, aunque en su música abundan los riffs de punk rock, no le hacen ascos a un buen ritmo bailable ni por supuesto a las melodías pop. El grupo debutó en 2013 con un primer álbum titulado Deixa’m Mullar. Ahora, cuatro años después, vuelven a la carga con un nuevo trabajo llamado Treu la Bèstia. Escuchamos el corte que da título al disco. Terminamos con el grupo donostiarra Luma. Luma es un joven dúo donostiarra que cuenta con dos años de trayectoria musical, tiempo en el que se han dedicado a difundir su propuesta sonora basada en el stoner y el grunge, principalmente, con pesados riffs de guitarra y mucha distorsión. En estos dos años han publicado primero el EP Club (2016) y, hace poco, un segundo EP llamado Airwalk. Escucharemos la canción “Trampantage”. Muchas gracias, Borja, por presentarnos estos 7 grupos emergentes de la sección 7 minutos al día de la revista online Muzikalia. Para ampliar información, Muzikalia.com y el lunes nos escuchamos de nuevo, con el especial 50 programas de ERA Magazine, titulado “Los ausentes”. No os lo perdáis. Muchas gracias ya todos, os dejamos con Luma. Y recordad, rápidamente, valoración de 5 estrellas en iTunes, iVoox o Spreaker,… A la gente le encanta la música indie, pero todavía no lo sabe. Adiós.

DJ eXe