Podcasts about draplin

Today, I talk about motivation and Draplin.

We never really know how we'll feel when we turn 30 or even 40. For some, it's no big deal; for others, it can be a shock to the system. Where does the time go? And how do we keep going with work, responsibilities? How do we even stay relevant in the creative industry when so much new and young talent floods into the market every year? And what about turning 50? For our next guest, it proved to be quite an earth-shattering event. Aaron Draplin is a legendary graphic designer who began his career in the snowboarding world before he went solo and worked for clients as big as Nike, Burton, Esquire, Ford Motor Company, and even the Obama Administration. Any creative will know that Draplin is a huge name in the industry and is always around on the festival circuit. He's also been featured on TED Talks and talks at Google. In 2019, he designed the Star Ribbon, a US postal stamp. He is the co-founder and designer for the Field Notes brand. With so much success, you'd think he was happy to continue this momentum. But turning 50 last year changed everything. Draplin wants to slow down. Perhaps embrace minimalism. Figure out how to do less. And focus on more of the stuff that matters. But is it easy for someone who's never been shy of hard work to slacken the pace? Can Draplin find a way to stop running when he's still got a decent amount of time left to design – if that's what he wants to do? Or is graphic design becoming less of a priority? We sat down with Draplin to see where his head is at in 2024. This season is sponsored by MPB, the largest global platform for buying, selling, and trading used photo and video equipment. Visit MPB.com to find out more.

Aaron Draplin is on the show this week, giving us a lesson in gratitude. His advice to listeners: “Be thankful as sh*t that you get to be a creative person.” Showing up and getting the job done builds confidence. Or at the very least, it gives you a better understanding of your own creative process.  Aaron is the founder of DDC, Draplin Design Company. With his signature bold lines and colorful illustration style he's worked for clients ranging from small indie bands to Nike, Patagonia, Target and USPS. When he's not working from his backyard in Portland he's out on the open road with his wife Leigh in their iconic orange van, giving talks and workshops about design, typography and illustration.  On this episode Draplin shares some valuable lessons he's learned after 20 years of freelancing. Don't quit your job until you're financially stable enough to take the leap. He says: “If you have a sucky job, do your sucky job and then get home and have fun. And it'll tip at some point. Like it did for me.”  He talks about his humble beginnings, growing up in Michigan, buying his first computer in Alaska in 1996, moving out West to work at Snowboarder Magazine, and ultimately ending up in Oregon and going freelance in 2004. His Midwestern roots and down-to-earth sensibility shine through in every facet of his career — all the way to his popular side venture, Field Notes memo books.  Aaron generously shares advice on how to make your own stuff, the power of slowing down, giving back and helping other people. We even get to collectively geek out about Dinosaur Jr and he plays us an acoustic version of “Little Fury Things.” And then, towards the end, we go extra deep and talk about where we go when we die. Good times all-around, folks! Another episode of your favorite illustration podcast that's jam-packed with lil nuggets of wisdom from one of the hardest-working individuals in graphic design.  _________ FOLLOW AARON:  Instagram: @draplinWebsite: draplin.comField Notes: fieldnotesbrand.comDDC Book: ddcbook.comDDC Fonts: ddcfonts.com_________ If you liked this episode, please subscribe and leave a review. And follow Paid 2 Draw on Instagram and TikTok.  _________ Hosted by Vicky Cichoń and Dave Leutert. Music by Amanda Deff.  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/paid2draw/message

Happy 2024, friends! We're starting off with the first episode of the new year with a Fresh Points episode, talking about some of the cool new stuff to hit the market since we last recorded — Draplin's Tactile Turn pen collab, Blackwing Volume 2, Studio Neat's Keepbook, and more.Show Notes and LinksErasable PatreonJames, Be Opened by the Wonderful Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your LifeFeel Something, Make SomethingDr. Who Xmas SpecialA History of Wild ThingsNight After Night by Daniel Tashian Nahvalur NautilusBlackwing Volume 2Draplin pen! Zines! (andy.supply!) Star Trek playing cards! Keepbook by Studio NeatStuff That Works Journal Musgrave Songwriter SetYour HostsJohnny GamberPencil Revolution@pencilutionAndy WelfleWoodclinched@awelfleTim Wasem@TimWasem

We're celebrating National Poetry Month a month too late, but we think it's always time to celebrate poetry. To that end, we've invited Jay Newton, long-time listener and Erasable Poet Laureate, onto the show to talk about his new chapbook, Effigies, and how he thinks about and creates poetry. We also celebrate silly little limericks by pitting Jay against ChatGPT to write extremely specific pencil limericks.Show Notes and LinksErasable PatreonNew Zelda GameField Notes CityscapesMusgrave's The Party BugleNew Musgrave Shorthand Notebook in BLUEMagic Ink markersBig ol' pressed penny notebookBaronfig Venture Backpack 3.0PennyCollector.orgLimerick ShowdownHere are the poems that we asked Jay and ChatGPT to write. Read them and judge them!Limerick about the struggle of using a pencil with an off-center core (from Donny Pearce)ChatGPT:With graphite askew, pencil's no fun,Off-center core makes writing undone.The lines dance in strife,Disrupting the life,Of precision, alas, it's all gone.Jay: If there's one thing I simply abhor,It's a stick with an off-center core.It may write as smoothly as Lapis LazuliBut some things I just can't ignore.Limerick about how the Field Notes pencils should be better than they are (from Donny Pearce)Jay:The pencil from Draplin is lacking.Does he not have financial backing?It scratches the pageLike a one-million HWhile Musgrave is counter-attacking.ChatGPT: Field Notes pencils, touted with cheer,But their performance fails, I do fear.Smoothness they lack,Graphite too slack,In need of improvement, that's clear.Limerick about how there are only so many words that actually rhyme with “pencil” (from Kathy Rogers)ChatGPT:"Pencil," a word we oft rhyme,Yet choices are limited, no time.Stenciled, essentials,Potential, credentials,Options are scarce, yet sublime.Jay: A brooding baboon with a pencil,Could trace, with his tail, a stencil.He found it intriguingThat he was a BeingBoth prehensile and existential.Our GuestJay NewtonYour HostsJohnny GamberPencil Revolution@pencilutionAndy WelfleWoodclinched@awelfleTim Wasem@TimWasem

Brandmarks (or abstract marks) are redefining the way we approach logo design. They are designed to be instantly recognizable, memorable, and adaptable across a number of platforms and mediums - exactly what you need in a digital world As far as logo design, how do they stack up against Wordmarks and Lettermarks?Why do the modern-day logo giants like Draplin, Allan Peters and James Martin emphasize Brandmarks in their work?In this episode of The Angry Designer, join the bearded behemoths as they try to tackle the future of logo design: Brandmark vs Wordmark vs Lettermark? In this episode, the gents cover:- What is a logo- What is a Brandmark, Wordmark, Lettermark- Strengths and weaknesses of each- Aaron Draplin, Allan Peters, James Martin- Brandmark Logo design processBy the end of this episode, you'll have all the information you'll need to present different Logo options to your clients, and being able to recommend which they should go with. Cha Ching!!!Stay Angry our Friends –––––––––––Want to see more? See uncut episodes on our YouTube channel at youtube.com/theangrydesigner Read our blog posts on our website TheAngryDesigner.comJoin in the conversation on our Instagram Instagram.com/TheAngryDesignerPodcast

In this episode of The Modern Man, I welcome Justin Draplin, CEO of Eclipse Cottages, to open up about the changes he went through while getting sober and how he's creating an impact on others through entrepreneurship. From driving drunk to building a community of tiny homes, Justin has an incredibly insightful and humble story you won't want to miss. Listen in as Justin shines a light on how his spirituality shifted after getting sober and what he's learned about building strong relationships and taking control of your life as a man.   “We're never too lost and that can be a hard concept but I've lived it. I should be dead.” – Justin Draplin  You don't have to be an entrepreneur or be struggling with addiction to gain something from this discussion. I bet Justin's journey with identity, decision-making, and radical honesty will plant a few seeds in your head that could later grow into something transformational. Remember, we're all just trying to figure life out as we go. Life is messy, but it's our responsibility to grab a broom and get sweeping.   Key Takeaways / What You'll Learn: [01:01] About Justin Draplin. [02:54] The humble story of Justin's upbringing & Why you need to build strong relationships with other men before you can with women. [07:09] How our development in high school and college influences our adulthood. [12:11] When did you truly start changing as a man? What triggered that change? [24:02] Justin shares how meeting his wife impacted his life. [30:52] How he started and grew his business, Eclipse Cottages. [41:26] Getting in control of your life is what will lead to the transformation you're looking for. [43:15] How to connect with Justin. [45:01] As a man, what has shaped your view of the world?   If you enjoyed this episode, please SHARE it with a friend, then RATE/REVIEW The Modern Man on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!   Resources Mentioned: Eclipse Cottages: https://eclipsecottages.com   Connect with Justin: Visit his website: https://eclipsecottages.com Follow him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eclipsecottages Connect with him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eclipsecottages   Connect with The Modern Man: Visit our website: https://themodernmanshow.com Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/244885633101820 Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheModernMan8 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_modernman_show Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnyA3-wtyv7xVqUbPyB0eOg

This week we're back with MORE from our awesome conversation with the iconic Logo Creator, Brand Artist,  Badge Master and Graphic Designer Allan Peters.MORE of his insane careerMORE advice for designersMORE on his upcoming book…and one CRAZY story that left us speechless.Catch the second part of our awesome conversation with Graphic Designer, Allan Peters.Stay Angry our Friends –––––––––––Want to see more? See uncut episodes on our YouTube channel at youtube.com/theangrydesigner Read our blog posts on our website TheAngryDesigner.comJoin in the conversation on our Instagram Instagram.com/TheAngryDesignerPodcast

With a Graphic Design career spanning over 20 years that has included small agencies, large agencies, in-house at Target to then becoming one of the most recognizable brand and badge designers of our time, Allan Peters is one of the most influential (and humble) Graphic Designers in the world today. Period.Be it for his appreciation of historic designers like Paul Rand, to his passion that has carried him through the most insane times, Allan Peters is a true gentleman who has firmly cemented him as a giant in the graphic design space.Now releasing his first tell-all book on his process later in 2023; Logos That Last, we were SO excited to chat with Allan about his life, his insane career and what the future holds.Join the Angry Designers as we talk career, design, life, influence & Draplin with Graphic and Brand Designer Allan Peters. Stay Angry our Friends –––––––––––Want to see more? See uncut episodes on our YouTube channel at youtube.com/theangrydesigner Read our blog posts on our website TheAngryDesigner.comJoin in the conversation on our Instagram Instagram.com/TheAngryDesignerPodcast

Aaron Draplin likely needs little introduction – he's one of the most beloved and well-known designers working today. People fill auditoriums for his talks and workshops, wait in long lines for selfies (and Draplin Design Company merch), and fill his DMs with requests for advice, help, and perspective. In this episode, Draplin shares his perspective on design education, staying inspired and motivated, the “surreal” experience of becoming a mentor figure to so many designers, and the “weird little spot” he's in as he approaches 50. Warning: some explicit language, but all in jest!

We're marking Did I Do That?'s one year anniversary—and our 24th hour of conversations with designers—with a very special guest indeed! Aaron Draplin (of Draplin Design Co., Field Notes, and many more things) joins Sean to talk retail conversations, the platforms coming to replace Twitter, and courting controversy on the slopes.Where you can find Aaron's work:You can find Aaron and the Draplin Design Co. on Instagram and Twitter @draplin. There, you can find some of the work Aaron mentioned, including his recent Tenacious D poster.You can find his website, along with his merch store, at draplin.com.You can find the book Draplin Design Co.: Pretty Much Everything available for purchase online at ddcbook.com or at most major bookstores, including our beloved Powell's Books if you should happen to want to buy in Portland. It's very affordable and one heck of a gorgeous volume.Draplin's many gorgeous Field Notes brand notebooks and sketchbooks can be found all over the world in tons of major retailers, but you can also get them at fieldnotesbrand.com—they make a great stocking stuffer!This episode was recorded at the offices of Draplin Design Co. in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, November 19, 2022.Please leave a rating or review for the show on your podcast platform of choice. Telling a friend or a random person at Safeway is also a great way to keep the show growing—plus, the deals can't be beat!Check out our website: dididothat.designFree monthly newsletter and Patreon: patreon.com/dididothatdesignInstagram: @dididothat.designTwitter (for now???): @designbycmteYouTube: @dididothat.design Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Industrial Design, Creative Inspiration & Personal Projects! Today, we chat about adapting our skills with consistent practice, why you need to show the work that you've produced and why it can be hard to find a cohesive expression. On today's episode of “The Process” we discuss: Learning video production Adapting skills & pratice Using your skills in a different perspective You need a portfolio to show what you've done Digital business models Finding cohesive expression Draplin, merch & growth All the links, all the time! Industrial Design, Creativity & Inspiration! For Industrial Design related business inquiries: Big Design Company Website: www.bigdesigncompany.com Big Design Company email: hi@bigdesigncompany.com Follow us on Instagram! @theprocess__podcast Zak Watson // LinkedIn Behance Website NFTs Dylan Torraville // LinkedIn Website 3D Dyl Behance Send us an email to hi.theprocesspodcast@gmail.com if you have any questions or want to reach out! The Process is a podcast created by industrial designers Dylan Torraville and Zak Watson. Dyl and Zak are picking up microphones to chat about their experiences in design school, personal projects and navigating the creative process. Oh yeah, and there will be some sweet interviews with other designers and friends too.

Mike Styskal, aka Styk, has lived his life as a creative force in snowboard design, but Styk is so much more than that. He's one of those people that exudes effortless cool: he always has a different unique look, and his sense of style is always on point. It's a characteristic that helped this Nebraska farm boy go from the small-town USA to the progressive city of Seattle and thrive. On the podcast, we talk about Nebraska, Burning Bush Studios, Ride, China, trouble, Draplin, and so much more. If you like business episodes, don't miss this one. Mike Styskal Show Notes 3:30:  Growing up in Grant, Nebraska, in the '70s, the art influence of automotive boxes, and skiing 8:30:  Was he a weird art kid, Dazed and Confused, his only time getting his ass kicked at a bar, and Carnie State College 14:00:  Fraternity life, hazing, design by hand in college, commercial art, and his sign-making business 22:00:  Stanley: Get 30% off sitewide with the code drinkfast Peter Glenn Ski and Sports:  Over 60 years of getting you out there Outdoor Research:  The best outerwear ever built just got better 24:30:  The Seattle designer's dress code, becoming part of the Seattle underground scene, and Frank Zepponi, 33:00:  Burning Bush Studios, The Representative in a Box, and landing the K2 skis account 41:45:  10 Barrel Brewery:  Buy their beers; they support action sports more than anyone GoPro:  The only action sports camera that matters Elan Skis:  Over 75 years of innovation that makes you better 43:00:  The K2 Dog Poster, Ride, the Bob Hall years, the K2 acquisition, and hiring a team 60:00:  Muscat, Draplin, China, lawsuits, and  trouble 74:00:  Inappropriate Questions with Mark Fankhauser

As a Graphic Designer, being a perfectionist is good, right? Spending countless hours on details no one would notice, obsessing over just the right amount of whitespace, waking up in the middle of the night questioning your decisions, second guessing your final product even AFTER sending your concepts to your client. This is good, right?Whether your reasoning is because you want to be like Draplin, Do, Janda, Beirut, or that your customers deserve nothing less than perfection, or that YOU don't want to deliver anything less than perfection,  these beliefs surrounding perfection in Graphic Design can cloud your better judgement.   In this perfectly imperfect episode of The Angry Designer, the bearded brutes dive headfirst into the perfectly frustrating topic of Perfectionism in Graphic Design, and untangle the myths that surround the idea of perfection and why it's all a load of bull! Jam packed with stories, ideas, bourbon (and the name of our first interview guest), the guys cover:- How being perfect is not something to brag about- 4 reasons perfection is BAD- Nike and Apple's perfect design- What is a perfect design- How to create a perfect designThis podcast will leave you accepting you're not perfect,  and give you a more relaxed approach to being a perfect Graphic Designer.

Every now and again, an awesome graphic designer comes along and shakes things up in the industry. Aaron @draplin is one of those dudes.A larger-than-life personality, known for his simple yet undeniably eye-catching logos, and creator of the iconic @fieldnotesbrand, Draplin has worked with some of the biggest brands on the planet, including Nike, Burton Snowboards, Esquire, Red Wing and the Ford Motor Company. So who better than to gather some graphic design field notes from than the self-titled 13-trick pony himself?!Join the Angry Designers as we discuss some of Draplin's most kick-a** advice for graphic designers, tackling topics from client relationships, to design tips and beyond.If we don't make you rebel against Graphic Designer stereotypes - Aaron will!

Industrial Design, Creative Inspiration & Personal Projects! Today, we chat about the Zak's decision to build a PC, future proofing your equipment and Draplin's roast of the lake lovers of Lake Champlain. On today's episode of “The Process” we discuss: Waking up in the rain Organizing model boxes Building a PC Graphics card Future proof your equipment Ikea Legi Draplin roasts All the links, all the time! Industrial Design, Creativity & Inspiration! For Industrial Design related business inquiries: Big Design Company Website: www.bigdesigncompany.com Big Design Company email: hi@bigdesigncompany.com Follow us on Instagram! @theprocess__podcast Zak Watson // LinkedIn Behance Website NFTs Dylan Torraville // LinkedIn Website 3D Dyl Behance Send us an email to hi.theprocesspodcast@gmail.com if you have any questions or want to reach out! The Process is a podcast created by industrial designers Dylan Torraville and Zak Watson. Dyl and Zak are picking up microphones to chat about their experiences in design school, personal projects and navigating the creative process. Oh yeah, and there will be some sweet interviews with other designers and friends too.

In this second installment of our two-part interview, Draplin of DDC and Field Notes fame sits down with host Will Hall to discuss running a merch empire, the surprise success of his book, and speculations about the next ten years. Hint: sweatpants will still be involved.   CREDITSGuest: DDC // Aaron James Draplinhttps://www.draplin.com/https://www.instagram.com/draplin/Host: Will Hallhttps://www.willhall.cohttps://www.instagram.com/willhall.co/Engineer: Martin Nayerihttps://kariom.art/https://www.instagram.com/kariomart/Music:Spencer Bernsteinhttps://www.instagram.com/spencerer_/Sponsored by Adobe.‍

From running his studio, DDC, to starting everyone's favorite EDC, Field Notes, few designers have been more influential than Aaron James Draplin over the past two decades. In this part one of a two-part interview, Draplin sits down with host Will Hall to discuss his early days at Charles S. Anderson/CSA Archive, the art of building an empire in your backyard, and the virtues of being frugal. CREDITSGuest: DDC // Aaron James Draplinhttps://www.draplin.com/https://www.instagram.com/draplin/Host: Will Hallhttps://www.willhall.cohttps://www.instagram.com/willhall.co/Engineer: Martin Nayerihttps://kariom.art/https://www.instagram.com/kariomart/Music:Spencer Bernsteinhttps://www.instagram.com/spencerer_/Sponsored by Adobe.

Aaron Draplin is a rock star and enigma in the design world – talent flows from every pour and yet zero pretention. He's a free flowing fountain of ideas, stories and inspiration… and like the rest of us, he's also an avid record collector. This one is a biggie, packed full of wild moments from the design highway of Draplin's brain. He delves into projects he's worked on, but also digs into his own record collection and even grabs the guitar to strum a few chords of a Canadian classic. Pour up a drink but don't go for a sip when Draplin is speaking as you never know what he'll come out with next and you don't want to spit hot coffee over your brand new Macbook when he drops some hilarious insanity and design bombshells into your ear holes.

This mid westerner is a juggernaut in the graphic design world who's humble beginnings started with designing logo's for the snowboard world for brands like Solid Snowboards, Grenade, Union, Coal, Nixon as well as laying out magazine's like Snowboarder and Snowboard Mag. This week we talk graphic design, Applestorification, the power of logo's, branding, immersing yourself into snowboard culture, working shitty jobs, using your mouse finger for good, logo's with thick lines and so much more. Find out how a kid from the Mid West went from chasing the snowboard dream to becoming one of the most talked about graphic designers of our time on this weeks episode of The Bomb Hole!Special ThanksLiquid Death- https://liquiddeath.com/bombhole/Ten Barrel Pub Beer- https://10barrel.com/beer/pub-beer/ Bubs Naturals- https://www.bubsnaturals.com promo code bombhole for 20% Off!The Patreon Members, We would not do this without you!!- https://www.patreon.com/thebombhole Volcom- https://www.volcom.com post a good bail on instagram and #volcombombproof @thebombhole https://www.instagram.com/thebombhole/ @volcomsnow https://www.instagram.com/volcomsnow/ A Volcom rider will pick the best one each week and the winner will get a prize pack!!Brighton Resort- https://brightonresort.com InstagramAaron Draplin's Instagram: @draplin https://www.instagram.com/Draplin/ @thebombhole: https://www.instagram.com/thebombhole... @Grendiesel : https://www.instagram.com/grendiesel/...@E_stone : https://www.instagram.com/e_stone/Hit Subscribe! Leave a comment, We love your feedback! If you like the show please leave us a review! It all helps us out a ton!!For all things Bomb Hole, go to : https://thebombhole.com/BOMB HOLE STORE: https://thebombhole.com/collections/allWatch the episode on YouTube- https://youtu.be/EjsCfWIcH9IJoin The Bomb Squad on our Patreon page! Props to all of our Patreon members for the support. We could not make these episodes happen without your help! Patreon members get the chance to ask guests questions and find out who we will be interviewing before anyone else. They also receive Bomb Hole merch and a custom Bomb Squad sticker!!! Find out more at https://www.patreon.com/thebombholeShow Notes-Union Bindings Draplin | http://www.draplin.com/1998/01/union_binding_co.htmlCoal Draplin | http://www.draplin.com/1998/01/coal_headwear.htmlAdobe Max Speaker Aaron Draplin | https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10151586225505803Adobe Max Oct 26-26 | https://max.adobe.comMagical Go-Go Wax | https://magicalgogo.bigcartel.comAaron Draplin Grenade | http://www.draplin.com/1998/01/grenade_gloves.htmlDraplin Field Notes | http://www.draplin.com/1998/01/field_notes_brand_memo_books.htmlField Notes | https://fieldnotesbrand.com/from-seedDraplin Merch | http://www.draplin.com/merch/Draplin Design Co.: Pretty Much Everything | https://www.amazon.com/Draplin-Design-Co-Pretty-Everything/dp/1419720171Snowboard Mag | https://snowboardmag.comSlush Magazine | https://slushthemagazine.comOcelot | https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/ocelotThe Hard Hungry And The Homeless | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp_083vQ2lEHot Dog The Movie | https://vimeo.com/20804776$35 Nike Logo | https://creativemarket.com/blog/the-35-nike-logo-and-the-woman-who-designed-itThanks for listening!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/thebombhole)

Highlights from the conversation:I like the idea that a couple moves from me help fuck with the people who had 100 moves to makeMan, I'm just going to have fun with this. I'm not going to worry about what is and isn't the right thing to you know, to get me into the cool room. I'm just gonna do itIf you're just starting out, it's about knowing how to play the deck of cards, when to play them, how to enjoy them, and how to make this stuff funYou look at a brand, you want to trust it, and you want to believe in it. And you don't want them to let you down. If they make lots of profit, a little profit, I don't really care. This helps me make my life better.Brands can just be decent humans, and companies can be decent humans and they can just treat humans the way they want to be treated. That makes for a better world,  a better experience, more loyal customers, and, in the long run, more moneySlow and steady wins the race, and also feeds the soul More about Aaron Bred from the loins of the proud Midwest, this little fucker was squeezed out in Detroit, in the year 1973 to the proud parents of Jim and Lauren Draplin. Growing up on a steady stream of Lego, Star Wars, family trips, little sisters, summer beach fun, stitches, fall foliage, drawing, skateboarding and snowboarding, at 19 he moved west to Bend, Oregon to hit jumps “Out West.” His career started with a snowboard graphic for Solid snowboards and took off like wildfire soon after.In April 2000, much to the chagrin of his proud Midwestern roots, he accepted an ill-fated art director position with SNOWBOARDER magazine. He won “Art Director of the Year” for Primedia 2000, beating out such titles as Gun Dog, Cat Fancy and Teen. No other awards were bestowed in this period, and like he gives a rat’s ass.Thankfully, in April 2002, the Cinco Design Office of Portland, Oregon called up and offered a Senior Designer gig which he instantly accepted and rolled up his sleeves to work on the Gravis, Helly Hansen and Nixon accounts.The Draplin Design Co. finally stepped out on its own four hairy feet in the fall of 2004. All these years, he’s proud to report that he’s managed to “keep everything out of the red.” He rolls up his sleeves for Coal Headwear, Cobra Dogs, Nixon Watches, Bernie Sanders, Patagonia, Target, Chris Stapleton, NASA/JPL, John Hodgman, Ford Motor Company, Woolrich and even the Obama Administration, if you can believe that.He’s been fiercely independent since 2004, and isn’t going back anytime soon. He lives and works out of a backyard shop in an undisclosed location on the mean streets of Portland, Oregon.Find Aaron here:Website | LinkedInShow notesPeople:AOCCompanies and organisations:Cobra DogsField NotesTimexCoal HeadwearUnion BindingTargetWalmart How can you help?There are four ways you can help us out.Give us your thoughts. Rate the podcast and leave a comment.Share this as far and wide as you can - tell your friends, family and colleagues about us (caveat: if you own a family business, these may all be the same people)Tell us how we can create a better podcast - tell us what you liked, didn’t like, or what you’d like to hear more (or less) ofTell us who you’d like to hear on the podcast. Suggest someone that you think we should interview. One More Question is a podcast by Nicework, a purpose-driven company helping people who want to make a dent in the world by building brands people give a shit about.One of the things we do best is ask our clients the right questions. This podcast came about because we want to share some of the best answers we have heard over the last 13 years. We talk to significant creators, experts and communicators we encounter and share useful insights, inspiration, and facts that make us stop and take note as we go about our work.Hosted by our founder Ross Drakes.Subscribe iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google PodcastsMusic by: @dcuttermusic / http://www.davidcuttermusic.com

Our guest is Justin Draplin, owner of several Tiny Home Communities in South Carolina. He is developing and manufacturing the first ever NET-POSITIVE tiny home set for national sales and distribution this year. Draplin's tiny home will generate far more energy than it consumes; providing consumers with the ability to live smaller, smarter and more sustainably. Tune in to learn more!

Our guest is Justin Draplin, owner of several Tiny Home Communities in South Carolina. He is developing and manufacturing the first ever NET-POSITIVE tiny home set for national sales and distribution this year. Draplin's tiny home will generate far more energy than it consumes; providing consumers with the ability to live smaller, smarter and more sustainably. Tune in to learn more!

'How to Network' with Aaron Draplin, Maker at Draplin Design Co.www.MeettheCreatives.orgwww.Linktr.ee/MeettheCreativesNY

Aaron Draplin, Maker at Draplin Design Co.www.MeettheCreatives.orgwww.Linktr.ee/MeettheCreativesNY

Ep 045 01-21-2021 We're now doing these LIVE on YouTube and Facebook every week! Join us LIVE on Thursdays at 11 AM Central Time. https://bigpromo.live/youtube https://fb.com/BigPromotions/live Here are links to the topics on the episode: Buy Me A Cold One! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/biggerfish MatchMaker.fm https://bigpromo.link/w8p Join Clubhouse! https://bigpromo.link/xzr Aaron James Drapin on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/draplin/ Draplin's Biden/Harris Merch https://bigpromo.link/uuk Draplin's Book https://bigpromo.link/79d Michigan marijuana dispensary is giving free weed to anyone who got the COVID-19 vaccine https://bigpromo.link/llc Truly Hard Seltzer targets millennials shunning Dry January https://bigpromo.link/ccy 5 Questions Leaders Should Ask Their Team Members https://bigpromo.link/0xn So I guess we're in the PPE business now https://bit.ly/bp_ppe Neck Gaitors https://bit.ly/2ZApHwP Point of Sale Counter Shields https://bit.ly/2WZ6vGQ #bigpromotions #biggerfish #mybigpromo #bigpromoswag #swag #merch #promotionalproducts --- Equipment used in this podcast: Sony ZV-1 (affiliate link) https://amzn.to/36LK8e2 Sony ZV-1 Vlogger Accessory Kit (affiliate link) https://amzn.to/3mSNT72 Switchpod by Pat Flynn (affiliate link) https://bit.ly/rg_switchpod Elgato Stream Deck (affiliate link) https://amzn.to/2S1CcNJ --- Links to this podcast https://pod.link/bigpromocast Sign up for our monthly newsletter https://bigpromo.link/news Big Promotions!

To view the full episode show notes, visit: https://www.perspective-collective.com/perspectivepodcast/188-----FACT: No one is going to make it happen for you.Today’s guest, Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Co., has built an empire of consistently showing up and doing the work.He needs no formal introductions, because for a hot minute now, he’s cemented himself as a creative industry juggernaut wielding a big old burly beard of fire and fury.In today’s episode, Draplin and I go deep on:Pursuing something when you don’t know the outcome.Doing it for the hell of it and learning to love it.Why you don’t need the BIG degree to make shit happen.Using your time wisely and being productive.Paying off debt, showing the ugly, and more.If you’re ready to avoid instant gratification, put in the work, and have some fun with your creative pursuits, then this one is for you.RESOURCES & REFERENCESDDC MerchDDC Fonts DDC BookDDC SkillshareDDC Field NotesNotes to SelfCONNECT WITH DRAPLINInstagramWebsite -----GET A GLOBAL PODCAST SHOUTOUTBecome a future Listener of the Week by Subscribing and leaving a Rating & Review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes here.FREE TOOLKIT TO SIDE HUSTLE FREEDOM6 FREE resources to help you grow an audience and build a profitable creative side hustle outside your day job. Download here.FINANCIALLY SUPPORT THE SHOW ON PATREONWith as little as your weekly cup of coffee, you can support the growth of this show by backing us on Patreon. JOIN THE PRIVATE FACEBOOK COMMUNITY FOR CREATORSJoin a like-minded FREE global community of kickass creators and take your side hustle to the next level. Your family is waiting.PURCHASE THE SIDE HUSTLER’S HANDBOOK PDF COURSEThe proven framework that’ll help you gain clarity, confidence, and a mental edge to unlock your biggest side hustling breakthrough. Purchase here.BEST DEALS ON THE BEST DESIGN RESOURCES (Affiliates)RETRO SUPPLY  -  Use SCOTTY20 to get 20% OFF high-quality AI, PS, Procreate & Affinity resources. Shop here.DESIGN CUTS  -  Get your FREE Ever-Expanding design resources bundle pack here.LISTEN ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCASTING APPApple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Play MusicOvercastYouTubeCONNECT WITH MEInstagramPodcast InstagramTikTokPinterestTwitterCREDITSMusic  -  BlookahPodcast Editor  -  Aine BrennanExecutive Assistant  -  Paige GarlandPhoto & Video Specialist  -  Colton Bachar Social Media Coordinator  -  Hannah SchickAnimation Specialist  -  Greg D'Amico

In this episode I have a conversation with Aaron James Draplin. Donate: Black Lives Matter Theme song: Adeem The Artist

Tuning in from Portland, Oregon, this weeks guest is the one and only Aaron Draplin. There are many podcasts out there featuring the man himself but none quite like this one.  The hugely successful designer and keynote speaker is known for his relentless speaking tours around the globe, his work for the likes of Nike, Google, Obama and a whole host of musicians you'll know. He's also the man behind the insanely popular Field Notes and has a book 'Pretty Much Everything.' We don't talk about any of that. Draplin instead tells us about his  last gigs before lockdown including a huge arena Jack White show and a tiny Swervedriver gig. There's a host of anecdotes from his first ever show which was Circle Jerks, stories of growing up in Chicago, living in Portland and the scenes that developed there in the 90s. His first festival was the first Lollapalooza. Are you still reading this? What are you waiting for? Go listen to it!  Co-hosted by Woody Woods and Gordon Reid, produced by Andrew Halford.

Episode 5. We got the man himself, Aaron Draplin. We chat design, stoney buds, Tarteria, Ahmon Stamps and more!Check out more on Draplin at the DDC, Field Notes and Skillshare.

Brad gets all zen about pen cleaning - again. We also discuss a special Retro 51 anniversary, a virtual pen fair, and dig into recent pen reviews from Kaweco and Esterbrook.

..........................................................................Aaron Draplininstagram.com/draplinAaron James Draplin: Things That Don't Have a Thing to Do with Graphic Design| Awwwards SF TALKhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MYItwY_LBs..........................................................................SPONSORSSKILLSHARE X CREATIVE PEP TALKGo sign up to Draplin’s new Skillshare class “How to Make Merch!”! It’s fantastic! skillshare.com/creativepepSHUTTERSTOCKShutterstock has MILLIONS of high quality stock vectors, photos, illustrations and more! Check them out here: shutterstock.com/cpt 

With a love of football, Mark Hirons dreamed to one day work as a graphic designer for an international football club. This year, at the age of only 22, his dream has come true, becoming an in-house designer for a Premier League football club. But how did Mark make this happen? On this weeks podcast Ian interviews Mark to discuss the events that lead up to this moment, with actionable advice for anyone also wanting to make their dreams come true. Mark is also host of the Creative Waffle Podcast, where he’s interviewed some of the biggest names in the design industry, including Draplin, Sagmeister and Paula Scher. Show notes and interview transcription: https://logogeek.uk/podcast/premier-league-designer/ Resources Mentioned Mark Hirons on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. Hirons Creative Creative Waffle Podcast Thank you to the sponsor, FreshBooks I’m incredibly thankful to FreshBooks for sponsoring this episode of the Logo Geek Podcast! FreshBooks is an online accounting tool that makes it really easy to create and send invoices, track time and manage your money. You can try it out for yourself with a free 30 day trial.

DesignerCon is one of the undisputed highlights of the art calendar, and the event is growing from strength to strength. Not Real Art Gallery and Man One were both repping in booths at the trade show. Mark Brickey, a dear friend of ours and host of Adventures in Design Podcast, was there on our behalf to interview some of the biggest and brightest stars of the art world. He interviews our very own Man One, who, as we know is one of the realest OGs out there. He has been making art for more than 20 years, and his commitment to the craft has not waned in the slightest. He shares what has given him the motivation and why he loves DCon so much. Mark also talks with other artists including Never Made, who shares some of his personal story, Dan Janssen, who talks about the industry shift from anonymous designers to being design-famous, and Aaron Draplin, who spits the truth as usual. For so many artists, when they started out, a platform like DCon didn't even exist. Now it's here, giving a voice to so many, and we couldn't be prouder to be a part of it. Be sure to tune in today! For more information about artists, links and resources from this episode, please visit https://notrealart.com/designercon-mark-brickey-from-adventures-in-design/. Key Points From This Episode: Learn what's behind Man One's incredible glow. DesignerCon: What went down, highlights, and main takeaways from the event. How people received the Not Real Art Gallery at DCon. What kept Man One going, keeping the creative juices flowing and t-shirts vs walls. Find out how Man One felt when he painted his first legal wall. What drives Never Made to make art and what it's like working for Shepard Fairey. Where Never Made got his unbelievable work ethic from and his family's influence on him. How Dan Janssen feels being a role model, what DCon means, and driving a branded RV. What motivated Dan to finally come down to DCon and the benefits of going to tradeshows. Why Jared Schorr creates his own work, questions he's asked and how he deals with being a fanboy. How Rocom toys use Kickstarter, the importance of meeting audiences, and his experience of DCon. The importance of DCon for DKNG Studios and how their work fits into the fine art space. DKNG products that catch people's eye, who buys the goods and what sets them apart. Learn more about Alex Pardee's decision to turn his merch booth into an art gallery. How DCon stands out to Alex and how he uses Kickstarter to engage with fans. Learn about Dre's studio, his relationship with Never Made, and LA's role in their work. How DCon is different than other shows for Dre. Jason Edmiston: First show, the importance of city-specific first eyes and Joker eye sales. Find out how many eyes Jason Edmiston has painted in total. Draplin's take on achieving true creative freedom and what being at DCon means to him.  

DesignerCon is one of the undisputed highlights of the art calendar, and the event is growing from strength to strength. Not Real Art Gallery and Man One were both repping in booths at the trade show. Mark Brickey, a dear friend of ours and host of Adventures in Design Podcast, was there on our behalf to interview some of the biggest and brightest stars of the art world. He interviews our very own Man One, who, as we know is one of the realest OGs out there. He has been making art for more than 20 years, and his commitment to the craft has not waned in the slightest. He shares what has given him the motivation and why he loves DCon so much. Mark also talks with other artists including Never Made, who shares some of his personal story, Dan Janssen, who talks about the industry shift from anonymous designers to being design-famous, and Aaron Draplin, who spits the truth as usual. For so many artists, when they started out, a platform like DCon didn’t even exist. Now it’s here, giving a voice to so many, and we couldn’t be prouder to be a part of it. Be sure to tune in today! Key Points From This Episode: Learn what’s behind Man One’s incredible glow. DesignerCon: What went down, highlights, and main takeaways from the event. How people received the Not Real Art Gallery at DCon. What kept Man One going, keeping the creative juices flowing and t-shirts vs walls. Find out how Man One felt when he painted his first legal wall. What drives Never Made to make art and what it’s like working for Shepard Fairey. Where Never Made got his unbelievable work ethic from and his family’s influence on him. How Dan Janssen feels being a role model, what DCon means, and driving a branded RV. What motivated Dan to finally come down to DCon and the benefits of going to tradeshows. Why Jared Schorr creates his own work, questions he’s asked and how he deals with being a fanboy. How Rocom toys use Kickstarter, the importance of meeting audiences, and his experience of DCon. The importance of DCon for DKNG Studios and how their work fits into the fine art space. DKNG products that catch people’s eye, who buys the goods and what sets them apart. Learn more about Alex Pardee’s decision to turn his merch booth into an art gallery. How DCon stands out to Alex and how he uses Kickstarter to engage with fans. Learn about Dre's studio, his relationship with Never Made, and LA’s role in their work. How DCon is different than other shows for Dre. Jason Edmiston: First show, the importance of city-specific first eyes and Joker eye sales. Find out how many eyes Jason Edmiston has painted in total. Draplin’s take on achieving true creative freedom and what being at DCon means to him. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Man One — Man One on Twitter — Scott “Sourdough” Power — Not Real Art Conference — Not Real Art on Instagram — DesignerCon — SLICK on Instagram — Adventures in Design — Mark Brickey on LinkedIn — Mark Brickey on Twitter — Aaron Draplin on Instagram — Never Made — Never Made on Instagram — Shepard Fairey on Instagram — Lincoln Design — DC Shoes — Jared Schorr on Instagram — Rocom Toys — Kickstarter — DKNG Studios — Alex Pardee — Jason Edmiston — Mondo Gallery —

AndrewThe Mandalorian early release: https://collider.com/the-mandalorian-episode-7-release-date/I am C-3PO: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/607926/i-am-c-3po-the-inside-story-by-anthony-daniels/LaurenAway selling her waresPatrickBaron Fig Error 404 pen: https://www.baronfig.com/404Timex x DDC Standard Issue Scout Watch: http://www.draplin.com/2019/12/sold_them_out_in_1080_seconds.htmlRian Johnson comments: https://www.indiewire.com/2019/12/rian-johnson-catering-to-fans-mistake-star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-1202197921/

This week, we have a lively chat with graphic designer extraordinaire Aaron Draplin. Though Aaron is best-known as a visual artist – everything from magazines to books to concert posters to a US postage stamp – music is at the core of his work and upbringing. During our call, Jason talks to him Aaron about his music influences, his love for design of all stripes, his trajectory as a guitarist and the music lessons he’s taking from fellow Portland resident Pete Krebs and much more. The Fretboard Journal has just launched its first ever subscription drive. If you haven’t joined us yet, now is a great time. We’ll be sharing all-new podcasts, videos and articles all month long: https://www.fretboardjournal.com/columns/support-the-fretboard-journal/ This episode is sponsored by Roberto-Venn and Retrofret Vintage Guitars.

Celebrate All Life's W's, Whether Big or Small Imagine you just watched your favorite sports team win a championship or witnessed a Golden Buzzer performance of a lifetime on The Voice. Wouldn't it be weird as hell if they didn't celebrate that accomplishment? Now, think of this on a smaller scale—like getting a small $.50 raise or landing your first online sale. Isn't that something worth recognizing too? You'd think that having any type of win, whether small or big, would be cause for some type of celebration. However, when you're wired like I am, a lot of these small wins gets shoved to the side because there are bigger mountains to climb. If you listened to last week's part one of this two-part episode series, you know the blessing and the curse that comes with being a mountain climber. It's great to constantly chase becoming the best version of yourself, but at the same time, you can't lose sight of life in between the mountains. Part two of this Climbing Mountains & Popping Bottles series is all about celebrating W's (wins), no matter how big or small they are. The L's From Not Acknowledging W's I've mentioned this in the past, but back in April 2016, I had a life-changing speaking opportunity at Creative South Conference. It was the second talk I had ever given—opening for a Draplin keynote in front of a packed Springer Opera House of around 800 creative souls. This was by far the biggest thing I've ever done. I came prepared and absolutely crushed it, which resulted in an overwhelming standing ovation. I proceeded to go backstage, take a shot of Jameson to calm my nerves, then party the last night away. I'm bringing this up because this talk exploded my creative career —yet I can barely remember it. My biggest regret is failing to make time to be alone and reflect on it. Instead, I spent the next day hungover on my flight home working on an online presentation I was giving later that week. While my full talk is on my YouTube Channel, I've still never been able to fully recreate that moment to soak up and appreciate. Avoiding the L's This is the driving catalyst for why I'm writing this today. The message I'm trying to hammer in your head? You gotta pop bottles and acknowledge when good shit happens in your life. From my experience, when you constantly ignore when things go right in your life, you make it easier to get wrapped up in negativity when taking an L (loss). Not acknowledging wins: leads to burnout because nothing is ever good enough increases the odds of falling victim to comparison strengthens the inner critic's voice Let's pivot into how we can avoid these atrocious, negative scenarios with two simple yet effective action steps. 2 Ways to Celebrate W's Action Step #1: Acknowledge Them (duh) This is pretty self-explanatory, and I assume you saw this coming. Popping bottles is just a fancy metaphor for celebrating wins. Celebrating wins is just a more extravagant word for acknowledging the good things in your life. If you're not going to figuratively or literally pop bottles to celebrate, the least you could do is acknowledge those good things. From now on, it doesn't matter if I crush another speaking gig, celebrate a podcast download milestone, or pay off a small debt, all scenarios get acknowledged and/or celebrated by some form of: ordering pizza or having a glass of wine with my wife (not so much these days with my low carb, intermittent fasting lifestyle) doing a stupid ass little dance with my son Little Scotty the Third writing down at least one thing I'm grateful for each day in my Creative Grind planner sharing the win with my family in The Perspective-Collective Private Facebook Group texting my parents/best friends or posting it in my Slack Mastermind Group giving myself the day off to reflect or unplug (need to implement this one more) Yes, all of these are minor things and most don't require any form of blowing cheddar. More importantly, they allow me to press pause, appreciate the moment, and celebrate with other people. Acknowledging W's helps you time stamp these milestones in your noggin, so you can easily go back and relive that moment. THE CHALLENGE: Recognize your top win of the day by using one of my tactics or coming up with your own. Bonus points for taking a screenshot and sharing with me on your Instagram Stories. Action Step #2. Hoard Your Victories This tactic has been a lifesaver for me! Some brief context: around the end of 2017, I was starting to slip into a depressed funk. People were posting their Instagram Top 9's, and it felt like everyone: created doper work than I did accomplished bigger goals than I did made more money than I did lived a bigger, more perfect life than I did The inner critic was beating me down and convincing me that I was a worthless turd. The thing that snapped me back to reality was a little something I started doing at the beginning of February that year called Hoarding My Victories. I had recently pulled myself out of another depressed funk, which you can hear all about back in episode 25: Dealing With Creative Funks & Feeling Invisible. I don't know what inspired me to do this, but I started a little running tasklist in my Wunderlist App called Good Things in 2017. I wrote any type of positive thing that happened to me in this list. Most of my accomplishments were small like speaking to my mom's small women's group on "How to be Resourceful & Exercise At Home When You're Over the Age of 50." Other things I listed were huge—like selling out 400 Deneen Pottery UFO Cat mugs in under 25 minutes. Looking back on this list of accomplishments snapped me out of my funk. Hoarding my victories showed me that I did a lot of cool shit that year I should be proud of. It also reminded me I'm running my own race at my own pace like as mentioned back in episode 132. I've since revisited and marked wins from 2016 to and kept this hoarding momentum going in 2018 and 2019. Be a Wannabe Champagne Papi To summarize this series, life is short. Be ambitious, never settle, and squeeze as much juice out of your limited existence as you can. At the same time, don't be afraid to be a wannabe Champagne Papi and pop a bottle or two in between climbing those mountains. Celebrate and hoard those W's. A win's a win and deserves to be acknowledged. Enjoy This Episode? If you enjoyed and found this episode value, I need your help spreading it! Please, share a screenshot or video of the episode you’re listening to and tag me on Instagram at @prspctv_cllctv and @perspectivepodcast—and let’s connect. Shownotes Download your FREE Side Hustler’s War Chest Get your FREE audiobook download from Audible Join our Private Global Facebook Community of Creators Listener of the Week: decentdesigner usa Podcast Editor: Aine Brennan Shownotes Editor: Paige Garland Video Editor: Colton Bachar Podcast music: Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an Apple Podcast Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Subscribe via your favorite podcast player: Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Play Music Overcast

On this episode we chat with Aaron James Draplin (Draplin Design Group, Field Notes, Author) about life, loving fans, speaking at conferences, the importance of perspective in life and why bar soap is better than body wash. We Now Join The Program Already In Progress is an interview podcast with a catch. Just because the mic’s are hot doesn’t mean it will make it on the air. Our show starts cold when the host Saul Colt and the guest get into a nice groove. Sometimes that is immediately  and sometimes that can be 30 mins in. The result is you get an interesting conversation between Saul Colt and people he loves and admires without the awkward time at the beginning waiting for people to get comfortable. Reach out and say hi at www.joininprogress.com or @saulcolt on Twitter #joininprogress Our show is now supported by Audible. Grab your free download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/saulcolt  

Mark and I got to chat on his show a few weeks back, and with any luck, these two episodes might go live at similar times... fingers crossed.   For the past few recordings, I've been experimenting with different ways to record these interviews... I'm loving Zoom for the video side, but not loving the audio... so I'm not sure I have this quite nailed yet. But if you'd like to check out the video, that's available over at YouTube.com/joshmiles, and the audio isn't amazing, but sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm video chatting live with a guy in the UK, five time zones away... and that still blows my mind.   SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, Please enjoy my conversation with Mark Hirons...

Seth Stevenson chats with co-founder and chief designer of Field Notes, Aaron Draplin. In their conversation, Draplin talks about the inspiration for Field Notes, his use of locally sourced paper and staples, and the timeless appeal of the Futura Bold typeface. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seth Stevenson chats with co-founder and chief designer of Field Notes, Aaron Draplin. In their conversation, Draplin talks about the inspiration for Field Notes, his use of locally sourced paper and staples, and the timeless appeal of the Futura Bold typeface. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's Merch Cast, Marketing Guru Saul Colt joins us to discuss how he uses his personal brand's merch not only for fantastic promotional purposes, but also to build a connection with his audience and how your merch can help you build your brand. Bonus story: We wanted to know how Saul knows Aaron Draplin (one of our favorite designers ever) and how he scored an awesome logo from Draplin! He also lets us in on the shocking story behind his trademark red glasses and fancy kicks! We're stealing this idea! (with permission of course!)

Aaron Draplin is a graphic designer, author and founder of Draplin Design Co. (DDC). Born in Detroit, Michigan, on October 15, 1973. He is now based in Portland, Oregon. His clients include Nike, Burton Snowboards, Esquire, Red Wing, Field Notes, Ford Motor Company and the Obama Administration. His book, Pretty Much Everything, is a mid-career survey of his work including case studies and advice which was released in May 2016.

EPISODE 1: About The Snowboard Project THE SNOWBOARD PROJECT EPISODE1.mp3 Download the "THE SNOWBOARD PROJECT EPISODE1.mp3" audio file directly from here. It was automatically transcribed by Sonix.ai below: : Man like Mark Sullivan warrior self, stay tuned for the chilling episode. : A positive mental attitude and clearly all obstacles which stand between you and your image your purpose in life. This is the Snowboard Project featuring Mark Sullivan and the Beav. The Snowboard Project. The Snowboard Project. : Welcome to the snowboard project. MARK SULLIVAN I'm the Beav and this is the new snowboarding podcasts that we're putting together. : It's pretty exciting. This is this is show number one kind of talk to me what is The Snowboard Project? : Well The Snowboard Project is is a little bit of a different take than traditional media to snowboarding and the goal is basically self-improvement through snowboarding like the snowboard has been my vehicle to travel the world to meet driven fascinating people and to have all these crazy life experiences and it wasn't just the tricks that I was doing it was through the people I met and the places I got to visit. And so you know to me the some of the more fascinating stories in the sport are with the pro riders but with the people who've dedicated a piece of themselves to the sport of snowboarding so those could be you know anything from the pro riders but also people who were sales reps people who are graphic designers people who who were there for the beginning of the sport right and were part of the genesis of snowboarding and so those are the stories that I find interesting and I want to cover with the snowboard project now. : There are a few other podcasts out there. There are some action sports podcast from snowboard podcasts. What's really going to set us apart what's really going to be the difference. : Well hopefully you know I can drill down into some real useful advice that these people have some of the lessons they've learned some of the mistakes they made and how they've learned from them and and really you know maybe take a piece of that to your own life beyond snowboarding. : So who are some of the people that we're going to be kind of like covering through this through this season of the summer project. : Well there's all sorts of people I mean I've I've talked to some of the legends like Mike Chantry and Bob Klein guys like Dave Seoane guys like Mike Basich and Ricky Bower the coach or the halfpipe team for the United States. So all sorts of different people Pat Bridges Aaron Draplin. I mean the list goes on and on. : Let me ask you this personally what do you hope to kind of extract from these interviews that can not only be shared with your audience but do you feel like you might actually be gaining some some great advice just for your own self that you didn't actually know about beforehand. : Yeah you know the funny thing is I kind of walked into this thinking that I knew a lot about snowboarding you know I was like I got this figured out just do a podcast I've been an announcer and been involved with media. That's a natural fit. And what I realized is that like every single interview I've actually learned something about the snowboarding by just listening to different people's perspectives and how they approach the sport differently than I did. : And so with every interview I actually learned something about the sport and it has driven me to want to do more and more and more podcasts. We're going to start out with three shows a week. We're going to go to five shows a week in about a month. You know right now I'm actually just building shows on the side doing interviews with different fascinating people. But I will start with three shows a week and then go to five shows a week because snowboarding is such a rich sport. There's so many different characters and people involved with it. I think that it deserves to have a different kind of in-depth media than just like here the pros here the tricks or the edits. Right. And so this is supposed to give you something more to listen to. : Yeah kind of talk me just a little bit about that. Why. Why do you feel like there's a need for this kind of media in our current state of snowboarding. : Well you know the media has kind of taken a shift recently with with social media kind of becoming a dominant form of as a media outlet. And so you know when you look at what you get from the media now it's been boiled down to a single image or a single video clip and you really don't get those in-depth interviews you don't get those in-depth stories and you don't really you know have access to kind of the stories behind the stories and so that's really what I'd like to share. : How do you feel like this is really good. It's like differentiate from kind of our current snowboard media I guess. : Well I'd say this is going to be a completely different number one it's audio. So there's I mean normally like snowboarding is you know very visual in terms of the media portrayal of the sport. And so that's videos that's pages and magazines traditionally maybe not as much anymore but you know this is definitely not a visual medium so I'll try to tell stories that hopefully paint a picture in your head. And the interesting thing is that like when you're listening to this you have to actually use your mind to create kind of the image of your head of what was happening and so I think that's kind of a little bit different than actually being kind of force fed visuals the entire time. : Now there's kind of been this like I guess classic structure on how like you know the media or magazines or movies would make would make money. Just tell me just a little bit about how you plan to fund something like that. : Ok well this is pretty interesting and for the first time ever in my career this is going to be an advertising free model. Maybe I'll accept advertising from your company I'm not sure but that's a different story right that's totally different. But note no endemic advertisers is going to be no Bourton ads it's going to be no never summer ads. This is not to play favorites this is actually just to tell the real truth behind snowboarding as I see it. Right. And this is my own impression of the sport based on my 30 years experience with it. So anyhow I'm using what's called patriae on and you go to patriae on dot com slash the snowboard project and you can donate money to this podcast and so you know you can donate two dollars you can donate you know up to a hundred dollars to become an associate producer and have a monthly consult consultation with with us and we'll tell you about you know if you want to win a gold medal or where to go in January we'll talk to you every month. You know about snowboarding or over the phone. So anyhow there's different levels. Go to patriae on dot com slash the snowboard project and donate because this is actually the first time ever in my experience that this is a media outlet that is not reliant on advertising and not beholden to those advertisers to tell those stories so we can just tell the real truth. : Don't forget to support advertising free snowboarding media Patreon.com/thesnowboardproject and possibly slow boat projects. : Let's just rewind just a little bit let's go let's go into kind of the history of you and media and why you know why you feel like you're someone that it has the I guess ability to tell these stories just tell me just a little about your history of snowboarding. : Ok well I started snowboarding when I was 14 years old and I was like one of the fairly early adopters. Let's say I was on a ski vacation in Jackson Hole first time out west and I broke my skis and I was like do I Telemark or do I snowboard. And I walked into a shop and there was Chris Pappas and he rented me a board and got me set up and and gave me a lesson. And so literally from that very first day though I was like This is what I want to do with my life and I've never looked back actually like you know 32 33 years later it's like I've never actually looked back and so you know roll that forward I was a sponsored athlete for a number of years and trying to follow the stream of professional snowboarding and then I got my hands on a Transworld media kit when I was like 18 living in Breckenridge and it was like you know three or four thousand dollars in ad breakdown and I added up all the ads and a copy of Transworld and I was like they're bringing in like a half million dollars in a shoe. : Whoa. : Yeah that was just the advertising they had subscribers and newsstand sales I mean they were bringing in a lot of money. I was like you know what. If they can bring in this kind of money and yet the story of what we were doing we were like jibbing and doing night. We had a little bit different style than was portrayed in the magazine. So I was like you know this voice maybe has a place in snowboarding media and so I started a Xeen based on working. I lived in a two bedroom apartment with 11 dudes and two pitbulls paid about seventy five dollars a month in rent for a bed. It was like a hostel. : And and. : And so of like I gathered together my roommate's big brother had just come out Big Brother Magazine Issue 1 had just come out and to maybe had just come out they were looking at issue one though. And that was kind of the inspiration was to do something like Big Brother. And and so you know my roommates were all kind of sponsored athletes and we kind of gathered round I was like myself. And T.J. Liese and Chad Schnacky and a guy named I believe Joe W. was involved as well. And Pat Abramson and so those were the guys kind of contributing to. We also had you know I also live with like Rowan Rogers and Dale Rehberg and that whole crew. Nate Cole and those guys were on the road though they were already kind of famous and we were trying. We're knocking on their door basically trying to become pro riders. And so we decide we're all pretty much led the charge. But like the idea was like let's tell the story of what's going on here with these kids in Breckenridge. That is a little bit less glossy and than the traditional media that was out there. : Sure. Now so that was the start of Player Magazine Player Magazine magazine. Tell me. OK so you took that and he took that idea and model and you went out to like what. : Yes. We made like a thousand copies. And you know I sold ads I was like the ad sales guy as well as kind of one of the editors of one of the four editors and and we came up about I don't know. Four hundred dollars short. So we had to kick in a hundred bucks to get the thing printed and we brought to Esai a thousand copies of the magazine. And you know we had it on the cover of the first mag was Stephanie Seymour she had just been in Playboy she was like the hottest girl in the world. Totally buck naked on the cover just naked girl on the cover of the magazine. And so literally I distributed like 1000 magazines in four hours and everywhere you looked at this trade show there were people reading the magazine and it was like a hit and people were like Man you got to do more of this and so that kind of like gave me my start in the media and gave me this direction. And so I made a second copy a player and like that. The thing is though I didn't know anything about graphic design didn't know anything about printing. All I knew about was snowboarding and my raw desire to kind of like tell our story from from our perspective which was different than what was happening in the traditional media. And so that was kind of the birth of my career in media and that was like 90 to maybe something like 92 93. Yeah. : How was it. How was it walking into. Into SIA I did you have like where you were you scared about the outcome or were you like hey this is what I'm doing and I'm gonna kick ass and you know I don't know if we really had you know I think it was probably more like how we're going to sneak in. : Right. So it's more like worried about like how we're going to get into SIA like guess snowboarder. : Yeah you know and like I mean we were pretty raw I had sponsors at the time still and and so you know figured out we all figured our individual path and then brought boxes of magazines or at backpacks of magazines and to start handing them out. And and you know from the first reaction I mean everyone just loved the cover. What's not to love about a naked girl on the cover of a magazine when you are 18. Right. And so. So yeah immediately like people were like the immediate reaction from the first person who saw it was like wow that's that's something different. You know and that was kind of you know an unintentional success I guess. I mean I mean the print quality the typos everything with I look back on that and it was so bad from like a you know from a professional perspective. But yet it had this raw message that was different than what was out there real cool. : So you took that experience and you then went back to college you decided hey this is going to be my my life path. Talking about college talking about the start of East infection and what that was all about. : Ok well I made a second issue a player and I decided to go all color because it was always about improvement. Like just like snowboarding you know you want to get better and better and better so I was like OK how do you go from a black and white Color you make a color one so I made a color one printed on an offset press I remember you know printing and the idea distribution models and shops for free. Get them out there printed 10000 of them. And and I go to pick up the magazine and the guy who's the rep from the printer is like here's the magazine man. : Looks like you guys are having a wild time up there in the mountains and I was like yeah yeah we are totally. : And he's like so how do you do your color correction anyway. And I was like What's color correction. : Right because everything like every photo is just like super dark. It was like literally flat bed scanned of prints basically and photos that we took of screengrab the forehead VCR and we like pause the the VCR and take photos of the TV screen to do video grabs. We were pretty ghetto. Right we just figured out how to make it happen. : But that's when I realized that like OK there's more to this than than just like making it happen. It's not just about the idea it's about doing it as professionally as you can. And so then I was like OK well I should probably go back to college and learn more about this you know. And I was already I already done a couple of semesters in the fall in the summer at UVM and so I went back and and switched my major from environmental studies to marketing business and I figured I'd learn the business side of magazines and I could find the people who knew about color correction and about graphic design and all the while I was like graphic designing and doing all these jobs I did basically every job at some point for the magazine. And so then I had a friend Pat Bridges who I grew up competing with. And so I talked to him about hey I you know I'm back here and going to college full time I'm going to finish this thing out and I'm going to start a Xeen here to represent East Coast snowboarding and so he came up with the name yeast infection which captured the infectious spirit of snowboarding on the East Coast at the time. : Sounds like it. Yeah. Oh man. : And so you know but I liked it because it was kind of like you know little bit outsider and really and like snowboarder and Transworld at that time there was no coverage of these cause you might get like four or five photos a year of like someone on the East Coast snowboarding and yet here's this vibrant scene going on every weekend every day that we could go to the mountain we were doing it and and so that's kind of the birth of East infection and then so you know my strategy with the first issue the first one was 24 pages and it was like I wanted to put as many people in that first issue as I could so I put like 130 different riders in that first issue. : Yeah the photos were small then it was like hey you're in the magazine hey you're in the magazine hey you're in the magazine. So all the sponsored riders kind of got a little piece of that. : And so that kind of snowballed for three years got better and better and better for three years and I learned a world about publishing and about you know about how magazines were made and also just from you know a DIY perspective as well. There was no one kind of helping us do it. We got to the point where where we had a house that we rented for the staff and so that was like Pat Bridges and Evan Rose who's like now the creative director. Burn this guy Chaka. Michael Gardzina he'll be one of my interviews as well. And so all these guys all ended up sticking with snowboarding or skateboarding and like George CavalLA was my first followed Twitter. He's at 686 today. And Herb George with my ad sales guy and and he's OSiris shoes he like runs those Cyrus. And so I see how all these people had just had this genuine passion. It was our way of like going to college and learning but also doing what we loved. And you know and really that's what this podcast is about is like taking something you love and then pouring something of yourself into it. And so that's what these stories really in this podcast are about people who can can dedicate themselves and their passion their time and their work towards their passion. So they get a little bit maybe more satisfaction out doing something you love share. : So you were able to snowball this thing to the point where you guys had enough capital to go out and rent to rent a space where you actually did this help put you through college. : No I mean basically they paid the rent and we had a party every Tuesday night like a keg party every Tuesday night and there are some wild stories from those parties but so the keg party funded like the magazine know the Keg Party is funded itself. But we just wanted to have a good time we were snowboarders we were still competing we were all kind of want to be sponsored riders at the time but also had the drive to do something more with snowboarding than just ride. And so it was just quite an adventure you know to have a house and all your friends and just to be able to dedicate yourself and your spare time and that's kind of when I started working these crazy hours shows going to school and getting A's and B's in school full time and also making a magazine full time. And I was doing the sales I was doing the graphic design. I was writing a little bit of the stories. Bridges was really the writer. It came naturally to him it did not come naturally to me at that time. And so really and you know it was just this like trial by fire. : So we would make mistakes we would make big mistakes you know and then we learn from those mistakes and tried not to make them again. Right. And so then you know after I graduated college it was kind of like OK I think I have done the East Coast justice as far as like I've made three years of magazines Time to go out west because I knew that like my experiences in Colorado that it's like softer snow bigger mountains for a variety of reasons I wanted to go out west. So I actually had like job offers from both snowboarder and from Transworld and snowboarder was like Do you want to be in sales or do you want to be an editorial. And I was like well what's the difference. And they were like well the sales people make a lot more money and the editorial people get to travel everywhere. And I was like I'll be an editor. And so that's how I kind of landed in California. You know as associate editor you know packed up the the Nissan pickup truck and dragged the U-Haul trailer across the country and showed up there just totally green. : Now to me this kind of sounds a little crazy like you're like 24 25 26 right around there. Yeah kind of just keeps coming out of school. How was it that snowboarder and Trans World and all these magazines out West had this kind of bead on you basically and said look we want Mark Sullivan to come out here. We want him to come. : Well I mean the magazine that we are make we were going to the trade show. Bridges and I would go to the trade show and try to sell ads to potential advertisers. : And you know we did print you know 10000 copies of each issue so they were getting out there people saw and we sent them to snowboard shops. We had a handful of subscribers you know. And so it was kind of a known quantity. And I think that maybe they recognized the fact the desire to do this you know to be a part of this industry and to you know just be a part of snowboarding at a bigger level and so you know I remember it was kind of heartbreaking that like when I got out there like like on my first day of work my boss was like Hey man you can't be sponsored anymore that's a conflict of interest so I just drop all my sponsors and I was like Oh man that's this is going to help my sponsorship opportunities and now I can become a pro somehow. : Like I still had that dream kind of in the back of my head that I'd be a pro but it made me like really come to that decision like no you're going to be working in the industry and not a writer right. Not that I ever gave up on writing or progression and writing but like that that was going to be my path. : Basically from then on. : Talk to me about day one. You walked in there. Were you scared or did you walk in there with all the confidence in the world that you were just going to change this magazine. : I was scared shitless. I mean this is like let me paint a picture for you. : This is like an old airplane hangar divided up into cubicles with a few offices. It's the home of Surfer magazine which is like just a legendary publication that started in 1964 basically to define surf culture. And there were like all these old surfboards around and really was like a you know like where the culture of surfing live while snowboarding was just like a stepchild basically to Surfer magazine everything was a stepchild the Surfer magazine. And so you know I got in there and you know the guys from Surfer magazine were really confident and I was a guy who just literally landed in California the week before. Couple of days before and was just out of my element in every sense of the word. But I was just like you know I'm just going to try to do college try and give it my all. And so that's what I did and like. And I was an editor and I never found writing easy but I was like I'll do it so like you know I was like this guy who would like write stories like four and five times from scratch I'd write at once and then like rip it up and like you know write it from scratch again and just do that over and over and over again until the point came seven or eight years later when I could actually just pick up a pen or typewriter or whatever keyboard and write you know. But it was hard fought really to do that but I knew that my voice was legitimate as far as like I was a snowboarder and I was one of the only people who defined them. I was the only person to define themself as a snowboarder. Like at that time like that's who I was I was a snowboarder just like the surfers that Surfer magazine they were surfers and then they got into media as a byproduct of that snow. : So snow when it was kind of being run by people that snowboarding but not necessarily snowboarders. : Yeah I mean they were competent. They snowboarded for sure. But it's like they didn't grow up like defining themselves as snowboarders and so they you know. Good job great people. But it's like they didn't just they didn't live and die by snow. To me snowboarding mattered more than magazines right. For them it was like hey I got this great job being you know working at a magazine or whatever. And so you know and they were great people they did a good job they tried to tell these authentic stories of the pros and the people who were out there doing it. : But it was like I came from this other place which was just like I define myself by this and if I do a good job it's a byproduct of that of that determination. : Now you came in as an associate editor basically how you kind of work your way up and how did you get to the point where you were like You know I guess calling the shots steering the ship. : Well it's funny. You know I almost it was almost a really short term gig. I started at 24 grand a year which is actually like so my 24 grand and like what ninety three this is like 97 when I was seven 97 I started a snowboarder. And so Neal my six month review came and I was like Man this is like a dream job I get to work with people I like could just focus on snowboarding and I kind of kind of carte blanche as far as like just going and you know being a snowboarder I can go to all these different cool places I've always dreamed about going and. And so I go in for my six month review and my boss is like OK you've done an awesome job. You know we want to promote you to senior editor and I'm like patting myself on the back like I've made it right. And so then it comes time to negotiate the salary that he offered me 26 grand. Like a two thousand dollar a year raise to take that new job title I was like look here's all my bills I actually add them up ahead of time and and actually it cost me 27 five to live here in California. It's just that cheap the rent isn't cheap. : You know whatever. And he was like you know hey look you can take this or leave it. There's a hundred people waiting for this position. And so I literally I took a couple minutes you know to think about it but finally I was like OK OK I'll do it I'll stay on you know and basically I had to call my parents to ask them to pay for my car insurance you know because I couldn't afford car insurance. Sure. You know and so and so you know and that kind of gave me the mettle to like to be like OK I'm here for snowboarding this isn't about the money. This isn't about you know about you know rising to the top or whatever this is about the sport of snowboarding and doing a good job for it. So then the dot com boom came and. And so they're all of a sudden was like you know a land rush for people who knew media. And so I was one of those people so we're like a lot of people and so actually the bosses at snowboarder ended up going and starting their own kind of new media company that was Internet. And I don't know whatever they had like a bunch of different facets to and they tried to get me you know to go with them and I was like well wait a minute I'm the last man standing here. : That makes me by default I hope anyway the boss and so sure enough I stayed. Everyone else left and I had this Leicht negotiation which was like based on my prior experience with negotiation and wasn't going to get run over. Sure. And I became the editor in chief of snowboarder magazine at that point and really had completely staffed the whole magazine. We didn't have an art director we didn't have a photo editor we didn't have a managing editor. We didn't have any of the people that we had to rely on. So really it was like I got to redefine the magazine. At that point and that's when Bridges kind of came out I tapped him on the shoulder you know and he came out as a senior editor and and then I hired Jeff Baker and then took a while but I found Aaron grappling because I really had this passion for design and being authentic to design and that into working out. In fact funny story about that is I actually put my job on the line to hire Aaron Draplin right. : It's like his first job he was in college and he was just about to graduate from MCAD in Minneapolis which is like a great design school. But you know the head sales guy publisher guy was like guy you know there's just no way that a guy from college can handle. So anyhow I'm just like look back and you can fire me if this doesn't work because I was also driven like I was I saw like a piece of me in him which was like he was driven to snowboard. He was driven to great design and that's something I didn't have the great design or the background design but I knew that he wouldn't let let us down you know because he loves snowboarding enough where it's like he didn't owe it for the job he owed it for the sport and man that really that first year it kind of I would say kind of redefined magazines as far as like the look the feel the content all of it because we just had all the sudden we went from having people who snowboarded to being exclusively people who are snowboarders running the magazine. And I think that was like the first time that that really had happened as far as I know I could be wrong but as far as I know that was really like the first time that had happened and like within a couple months like we were being copied by every other publication. Most notably Transworld but it's like we made waves. You know we had a good time doing it too by the way we got the snowboard all over the place. : Yeah really quickly just rewind a little bit. Drapin when he has just just talk a little bit about who he is and how his what his influence has been one of those guys behind the scenes that we wouldn't normally hear about but his influence has been pretty huge I guess in snowboarding. : I would say because you know snowboarding media and snowboarding in general such a visual thing that being a great graphic designer. I mean Draplin could like literally render drawings like he could sit here and draw a picture of you that looked more or less photorealistic when he was like in fourth grade. Right. Right. So he was a prodigy of art. I would say. And then he went kind of chased his snowboard dreams in Bend Oregon and then he was like OK similar to me is like I got to get an education get some Mike backbone behind all this passion that I have. And so he went to one of the top design schools in the country. And so anyhow he became the art director of snowboarder and you know on the side he would do stuff like design boards for it or other stuff. Oh yeah. He designed the shirt and custom and I remember you know we were really jealous because he got paid 13 grand to do a single graphic. : That's unfair. You know that's half my salary I know that so. But anyhow. But he deserved it. : You know the thing is it's like he had a real passion and like and a background in design that would allow him to be authentic with his artwork and so he went on to do graphics for basically most of the great companies of snowboarding. And you know he was actually the art director for snowboard magazine when he started. And then he's gone on to like these great things he does speaking engagements all over the world now. Like where he talks about design he's just he's done work for Apple from Microsoft for Ford for you know Nike. I mean he's really like at the absolute top of the game right now. : You were able to hire all your friends hire the people you wanted to excuse me hire all the people that you wanted to hire and then you know you have this crew of people just like ready to kick ass for you talking about some of those days some of those days where you guys were kind of on top of the world and on top of I guess the media world. : Well the thing is it's like we never saw ourselves on top of the world and really it was just like a hard fought battle we all had so much passion for snowboarding it was about the ideas and so we would get into like big arguments about like what was it. Make a good cover. And we tried to take the frame of like OK this is what works on the news stand or whatever but then we would have these you know arguments that would last into the night basically about what would make good content who's a good interview and all these different kind of aspects of snowboarding and you know we put in really long hours we didn't really actually have lives outside of you know showing up at that office and none of us really wanted to I mean we were in so cal we were snowboarders by definition which is like snowboarders at the beach right. And you know we all tried to learn to surf I would say but right with you know just so so results and so basically we poured all of our effort and energy into making that magazine. : And you're saying yeah. Ok rewind a little beg me gimme gimme like a great story one time with all those guys. You guys were you know. Give me some give me some meat. : Ok. Something to something to think about. Let's see. Let's see. Maybe the buyer's guide that was an interesting one. So we did. You know I'd I'd basically talk to our bosses into being able to being able to go to Whistler for the season we got Whistler to donate a house to us because I was like well we got to go to the mountains right in the winter. You're not publishing magazines. You finish in like December and then that issue finished in December comes out in like February March at the end of the season. So I was like so we had like the whole winter to develop content. So instead of traveling out of SoCal we went to Whistler and our whole crew our whole staff went to Whistler sounds like heaven. : It was heavy actually. And so we had the south we had a bunch of pros staying there instead of telling you the buyer's guide story I'll tell you. I actually made my first snowmobile story yeah. Tell me the first snowmobiles is actually a much more interesting story. Maybe so anyhow. I also talked a Yamaha into giving us some sleds to demo for the season and like that was kind of like the beginning of like the snowboarding scene. And so I was like Yamaha we'll do like a feature in our British Columbia issue that we're going to do next year and we'll do a feature on snowboarding prominently featuring Yamaha snowmobiles and so they ended up giving us like the first two Yamaha Mountain max 6 and 7 hundreds in the country of Canada. And so we go and pick them up and grapple ends up there and I'm up there. And Boston Castaic Justin Hostynek is staying with us. And you know so we're going to go out on our inaugural mission Hossan it's got his own Polaris RMK 700 with a 136 track that was like State of the art back then. And so we go out to I forgot the name of the zone. But anyhow we have to go up this thing called the S Shoot we ride out through this trail through the woods. Draplin. No problem. He's from the Midwest. He's been on sleds from MI been on sleds like around fields and stuff. We get to the bottom of this thing called the chute and friend. Yeah I mean literally it's like like a thousand vertical foot or 5 700 foot vertical foot run and then a dogleg turn in the middle of it. : And at Hostynek it kind of looks at Me and is like you and sleds before right. And I'm like yeah totally. And like in my mind I'm like yeah I've been sleds in Vermont around fields or whatever area I've ridden snowmobiles go stop. Yeah. So he just takes off and I take off behind him maybe like 100 yards back just to kind of gauge the speed and basically just wide open pinned straight up this thing right. And literally I make it to the top my first try which is like probably miraculous in and of itself. But then we get to the top and it's like and we turn around like where's Draplin. Oh he didn't make it so Hostynek let go. Don't go get them. And I was like OK. And so I really don't know what I'm doing. And so I basically you know I go to drop in back down the chute the way I came up. And the thing like rolls away. So you're just looking at the Valley for you can't really see the issue until you're actually in. And so right when I see the slope there's strapline capsized in the middle of the run. And so I ended up just basically grabbing a fistful of break the sled goes sideways. I get pitched one way it goes the other and it just rag dolls. Bing bang bang bang bang like 700 800 vertical feet and over ass over teakettle whatever. I mean just all the way down to just pieces of plastic flying everywhere and this is a brand new like six miles on the sled slope. : Oh yes although by the time I got down to the speedometer it was brocaded like I picked up the speedometer was pick it up. The plant didn't want to litter I had this environmental studies background Yeah. So picking up all the pieces of plastic windshield hood all the way down. And you know I pick up the speedometer or whatever and you know locked on the speedometer 15 kilometers. So I had 15 kilometers on it before I total that. And how does it break in the news Yamaha about that one. We ended up paying for the sleds we had an insurance policy and we actually ended up using them but scrapped together I think Dan Hudson like artists who's going to be on the podcast. But he actually like to work or whatever. And those Yamaha's are bulletproof bulletproof that. They were like bulletproof because after this like ass over teakettle ride just breaking off pieces of plastic in every direction. You know it still worked. So interesting though that was my first snowmobile adventure and so that's like you know part of everything it's like OK learn from your mistakes don't do that again. You know and so I never threw a sled down a hill like that ever again. But I also kind of have never really lived that but I'll own it too. You know it's like you know it's like you learn from your mistakes. And so hopefully I won't be doing that too. Now a fifteen thousand dollar sled that I actually have to pay for. Right. So that was in 2000 or 2001. We did. : So now some of the things you were at that snowboarder those years there were some pretty fun things that kind of happened between like super parks and talk to me just about kind of some of those ideas some of those kind of innovative things that you guys ended up coming up with just as you know your crew or did you come up with those are you know I came up with a bunch of the ideas I was always a person who had to sell the ideas to the management we wanted to do something different it was up to me to be like this is what we're doing and they'd be like No. : That takes more work for me and then be like this is what we're doing this is what's right for snowboarding and I would just like fight tooth and nail to do what I thought was like good reason why I probably wasn't an easy person to have as an employee because I was like I was just really determined to do what was right in my mind for snowboarding based on my prior experience and mistakes I had made prior to that. So you know we but we came up with theme issues we had columns for guys like Peter line and Todd Richards and you know then those were just based on influences from other magazines I was always a magazine person. So like Racer X was a motocross Mango's into motocross and they would have a column by a racer and I was like we should have columns by pro snowboarders. And so you know that was something that we did. And you know the buyer's guide as well it's like we used to go out and shoot the buyer's guide at the trade show. We'd like literally go ten miles a day back and forth pulling boards and boots and bindings and photos shooting them in a photo studio and then we came up with it well basically I came up with this idea to basically take the influences like the Japanese buyers guides that were going on and apply it to America and so it turned and my boss once again was like No you can't do that. That's like that's going to take way more work for me and I was like we're going to do it this way or you could find someone else to do it. And there's the you know not being agreeable partner. So anyhow it turned like eighty thousand dollar cost into a four hundred thousand dollar a year gain in fact they still do that same buyers guide to this day. They've made millions of dollars on a single idea. I put my job on the line to do. : Hey how crazy is that. But if you are a product and in the buyer's guide you know that's the way it's done sell. : Now you are a snowboarder living in so cow it's kind of weighing in on you a little bit right. Talk to me just a little bit about kind of the decision maybe too. I mean it had to have been a hard decision. At the same time to just say like leave snowboarder Magazine. : Yeah I mean it was a couple of factors really in that. So bridges had a blown out knee and he wasn't getting it fixed. And so I basically put a carrot on a stick form which is like bridges you get your knee fixed and you can like start really progressing your riding again gangs. We grew up riding competing against each other and all this stuff and he wasn't. He was still riding but not really like progressing right. And so that was kind of in a holding pattern. And so I was like you know Bridges if you get your knee fixed I'll go find a job in the mountains because I don't like so cow I don't want to be here and I'll go find a job in the Malon so it took about a year and he got his knee fixed it was the right carrot on a stick I suppose. And and so I found a job in Sun Valley Idaho or Ketchum Idaho as the international marketing director Prisca. : And that was a great job for me because at least the first because it's like blended my two passions which were motocross and snowboarding skiing I could tolerate. But you know it just took my two passions and allowed me to kind of progress into a marketing role and I became like the international marketing director and I go to Switzerland like once a month and you know and then we started doing bikes and I wasn't like a bike guy per se and so you know it was cool to have like a tour de France team riding your bikes or whatever as the marketing guy. But it's like it just wasn't my thing. So. So you know at a certain point I decide to start snowboard magazine to get back into the snowboarding media. Did you ever get to go to the Tour de France really quick. No no no. I had actually no interest in the bike at that time. I smoke cigarettes right. And so like literally I go to these bike events and like I get up at like six thirty in the morning for like an 8 call time let's say I go smoke like three cigarettes in a row behind the dumpster and then I jump in the shower clean up like not smell like smoke. Do that until like 9 or 10 at night. Right over till like the company dinner wrapped up and then go sneak out to the dumpster and smoke five more cigarettes and go to bed. Right. And like that was like that. I mean I was addicted to nicotine right. And so like that was something that was like Man this is really interfering with my lifestyle you know and I don't want to be I wanted to be politically correct and smelling like cigarettes at a big bike event. Actually it doesn't cut it. Sure. Right. And so. So that was kind of one of the things like the addiction to cigarettes was more powerful than the addiction to my job. OK that tells you house how you know how powerful they are you know. : And it's been hard to quit but I have so that's a good thing. : So in turn you decided then to OK I'm going to go and start snowboarder or exceeding snowboard magazine and and talk to me just about the idea behind that and maybe just the different model of how that came about and how you structured it I guess it was different than most everywhere else. : Well you know being a marketing person it was like I wanted to be like three different approaches in marketing you can be the leader low cost provider are differentiated. And so for me it was like we're going to be different on every level. And that doesn't mean just the content. That means that paper stock the distribution method the way we sell our ads will be different. Everything was to be different. Right. And so it also was like the first family friendly magazine as far as like we didn't print swear words you know and then we took a different focus on product and that was kind of the editorial vision was to integrate product a little bit more and I remember this phone call I had some of the best business advice I actually ever got was from Ken Block when I was trying to sell him spreads in every issue you know and it's just like I put together the team drap Blinn and Jeff Baker I had as the editor and and just put together a team of people who who were trustworthy in the industry known quantities right. So we weren't just like like kids in college making a zeen. And you know Ken Block who started D.C. She was like well what's the magazine. What's the mag about. And I gave him this. : You know it's going to be dead. : And I like went on for like two minutes about how radical and game changing it would be. And he was like That's great. Now say that in five words. And I was like oh shit hog and let me get back to you. And he's like OK. So I call him back two weeks later and I was like snowboard magazine products places and personalities he's like sold. And he bought spreads in every issue from that. Yeah it was like a big contract and we got good advertising you know. I mean basically like went from like zero to one point three million dollars in sales in a single year. Wow. You know so it was like a runaway success because of that idea of being differentiated in every way you know the distribution model. We sent the magazines to to shops right to support their culture and the culture of snowboarding at the grassroots level so it was like I'm not going to deal with your traditional return model where you have one person sitting there counting how many magazines got returned every month instead. You keep the magazines give me away for free with someone who purchases something or or sell them for the cover price if someone wants to buy it. And you keep all the money. Right. And so I figured you know I'd sent 40 copies per magazine to every shop in the country and I figured Zumiez got actually more in way more. But but I figured hey you can't make 40 sales in a month than than what are you doing in business though right. So anyhow that was like the the distribution model and that was different you know and then drew aplan had like a really clean take on design we upgrade the paper stock. I mean like a snowboarder it was always about like just getting away with the cheapest dentist this paper that we could get away with. So I was like Let's go the opposite direction and make it on the nicest paper we can afford. Sure. Right. So that was that was a pretty crazy time. : I would say now you guys weren't just sitting in an abandoned aircraft hangar. : No you guys were where were you guys when you were doing this. We were actually all over the country basically Draplin was in Portland. Baker was in Seattle I was in Sun Valley or catch him still and and then we would come together. We'd all kind of do our separate parts. : We had a sales guy in Southern California Gary and that was kind of the initial team and so then we do our separate things and be on the phone every single day with everybody and then we came together to put that magazine together the first issue it Dragonlance house. And so we all kind of our pieces together and and then put together that first issue and then that was kind of our model is like we'd go our separate ways and then gather you know in the fall for a week a month or took a week to lay it out or whatever and then we'd all gather and put the magazine together. : Now what was it what was the first issue about what was the big thing you were I mean you were I guess the splash into the back into into a magazine. : You know I think it was just like the fact that it was differentiated at every level and I could look someone straight in the eye and be like not only does it look better in his eyes like this authentic voice or whatever but it covers products proxy you have you know that you're trying to sell and so like because I was an editor and a salesperson you know it was like really about kind of breaking down this thing of like church and state which I was always going to be authentic to snowboarding but to idea that the editorial and the advertising weren't related it was something I threw out the window at that point in time because it was like well we can do both. It's like in our photo gallery it's like we'd have captions that listed every product in the photo and the price of that product. So you can be like oh here's a shot of like Peter Line doing a jump and he's on the Division 23 Peter Line for ninety nine and he's got 32 boots. : And so like it was just like this idea that like we could not it wasn't selling out to me at all to do it that way. To me it was just being giving more information in a different kind of information to the actual consumers you know. : Now what was the reaction from from the consumers what was the reaction I guess from shops that kind of stuff maybe in comparison to other magazines that they had. : Well based on those sales that we that I talked about it was a hit immediately right. You know and it was just different and it was quality and I just had a totally new voice compared to like Trans World and snowboarded were so close in terms of design terms of content in terms of direction. But this was something totally different you know. And so I think that it immediately got a place and then you know because of our distribution model I was able to go sell ads at the trade show and be like to any advertiser just like ask any shop in the world what their favorite magazine is. And it was always Armagh because I was giving them magazines for free and they were selling them keeping the money right. And so I think we put it like about a million dollars a year into retail. Like a million dollars a year directly into snowboard shops pockets of time. So yeah it was I felt pretty good about that : Don't forget to support advertising for snowboarding media ads http://Patreon.com/thesnowboardproject the snowboard project the solid gold project. : Let me just shift a little bit let me ask you a little bit about your I guess career as an announcer as someone that I always kind of did events. Talk to me just a little bit about how you first got into it and maybe kind of some of those early years doing events. : Well I became an announcer kind of by accident. I would say I was at a event. I think this was even prior to working at Snowboarder. I was at an event and the guy who was announcing the event was like the father of one of the kids and he was like oh and Jimmy and Johnny they like going now on Saturday night. : And he was just telling these personal stories had nothing to do with the the writing that was going on in the contest. And so basically I snatched the mike out of his hand was like that's a five 40. That is a make twist twist. Right. And I just started calling Trex because they weren't you know calling the tricks and I was like sponsored snowboarder at that time. And you know I was like that was what was important to me was just being able to call the tricks. And so I did that and then and then I guess that went well enough that I got tapped on the shoulder by this guy Jeremy forester who was kind of coordinating the Grand Prix series and basically my second announcing gig was like announcing the grand prix series and I've done it ever since. : So about 20 years of announcing Grand Prix just based on just being pissed off at this announcer you know just not calling trick or not knowing even what the tricks were you know. And yeah. And so then I got to announce the Olympics. That was quite a rush. And now I've also gotten into doing TV stuff I've done this past Olympics I worked for Euro Sport and interviewed all the medalists right after they won their medals which was really rewarding at least as far as like I learned a lot. : And I mean you're interviewing people that rate at the pinnacle of their lives they're going to look back on that 30 50 years from now and be like that was the best day ever. You know and there I am getting ready to ask them questions I did after like 60 different people. I did for free skiing and snowboarding and so you know I've learned that free skiing and snowboarding are are they have the same blood sweat and tears that go into both pursuits and sort of win a gold medal and free skiing or snowboarding takes the same kind of dedication and effort. So I have an appreciation for that for sure. Did you get did you get Ester Ledeka. Oh I did. Oh yeah I got it carried an interview with her. I'll actually posted behind our patriae on firewall. Yeah. Because I have like little behind the scenes stuff videos and stuff that I post behind the scenes so people who actually donate to the podcast make it happen will get unique content and things you wouldn't actually get as part of a free podcast. I'm also going to give away like I have a whole ton of snowboard historical items that I'm sick of carting around just about through the rearview mirror or out the window a while ago and I'm sick carding so I'll say you're going to give away everything that's in your apartment. Just like slowly over time. Oh more than that to my apartment. I'm probably about a hundred boards I'm going to give away and I'm just going to and I have like a trophy from the U.S. Open. And Danny Cas's original avalanche beacon all sorts of weird random stuff. You know that I've collected over the years and then carted around for 30 years and it's like you know what I don't need to live in the past young and live in the future. And so you know with Alaska it's like I'm still progressing. I still have my Alaska thing going on and so that to me is like the future. And so all I'll just look forward instead of back. : Sure. Let's take it back a little bit. Talk to me just about like a in the announcing side of things. You know what is. What have you found have been the real keys to being I guess a successful announcer. : At first it was just getting over the nervousness like I mean the first time you pick up a mike and you're sitting there and there's a crowd of people here and you hear your voice kind of squeak through the speakers or whatever people like on a crane their neck and turn around to see who's talking right. It's really you feel like the spotlight really burning through you and that was always for years. That was like the hardest thing was like the first minute of announcing every event I would kind of dread that first minute just like and then it just got to the point where I was comfortable with it and I could just just pick up the mike and talk you know to an audience or a crowd or whatever and then speak with confidence you know. And then beyond that have insights and then beyond that not only have like unique insights but also make those insights relatable to people who didn't necessarily understand what was happening as far as the tricks go in trying to explain things that a more basic level you know. And so you know it's always been this idea of progression not to SWID like magazines media or snowboarding but also with announcing so I've tried to you know develop tonality and and the ability to build a story to completion. And right now I'm doing well I'm not going to tell you what I do now because I have this whole thing that that I can now create a storyline that ties together from the beginning to the end of an event. Sure. Right. And so that's got a beginning a middle and an end. Whether they know the writers are doing it or not like I can create that beginning middle and end just by announcing. Sure. So those are some of the things that I'm always trying to push forward. You know. : Yeah and you also do your homework. You go to that you go to the half pipe and you watch them all you know. : Yeah that's like one of the most important things is just studying and knowing what's going to happen before it happens or having a good idea you don't know exactly what's going to happen if someone's going to crash or if someone's going to land that trick or they're even going to try the track. But there's a narrative that you can build before the event even begins. And so now these days anyway I've gotten to the point where I'm taking notes and studying and I'm writing intros for the beginning of the show and stuff like that where it's like I'd really try to make a genuine effort to to just make it a better experience for the people standing there watching and not just calling tricks I mean I did that for years like 15 years or 10 years of just calling Trick Trick Trick Trick Trick Trick. : Wow great Ron Vrain you know. Or will that be enough. Will it be enough. You know it's like the story now is much deeper than that. : Sure. Announcer Cher Yeah it's it's it's difficult being up there right and and like missing like a trick or announcing the wrong thing. : Yeah. And you know it's like I've done that for years I've announced wrong things and I've been called out on it and occasionally you can't really pay attention to everything that's going on at once. I mean you got one set of eyes you got to start list and that's about it. And a microphone. And so you know in your notes and so like if you look down and then you forget the writer's regular goofy and then they're going backwards across the flat bottom not forwards to a different track and so you can call it wrong very easily just by like a simple lapse of concentration as far as those tricks go. And so yeah you're not going to always get it right and it's in Italian or you don't see something you know. I'll just try to say something that gives people a general appreciation for the effort that it takes to do something like that like I didn't see the trick. You'll see that I don't like try to call it or make it up or whatever else I'll try to give some people an appreciation of like how they departed Dilip where the tail came down at the landing and how they built their speed for the next hit or whatever you know and so when I get general it's because I'm not like really focused on the detail of the trick. : It's hard you know. : Have you ever been just like lambasted at the bottom of the hill by a bias no one had thought while you could you're calling of that track really cost them something not by writers I mean the thing is when I first started announcing I was like really raw and probably one of my best learning experiences actually happened announcing a Grand Prix was probably my first year. : I know it's probably my second year announcing grand prize I was working at snowboarder and so I was just like I feel like I pretty much was on top of the world or whatever I knew what I was talking about anyway they validated it through giving me a job in the media and this girl drops and this was pretty early in the progression of women's writing not like it is today but this girl drops in and she double frontside hits like that meaning that she goes up she isn't even clear lit by the way she goes up knows like a turn inside the transition that goes and does like a turn topside turn on the flat bottom. She doesn't even attempt backside and that does another turn on the transition or whatever and so I just tore her apart. I was like oh accosts your dad like you know 150 dollars for the entry fee and 200 dollars for hotel rooms and the cost of gas to get here was 200 dollars and so what you're telling me is you just your dad just spent like 50 dollars a second for you to compete in this event. And she broke down crying. I just tore her apart and so my boss who probably should've fired me at the time but didn't then instead he goes you know I always respect him for this he took me aside just like that girl over there. : Yeah Yassir is like that's the girl you just announced that like I know I know I saw our high announced it and he was like see what she's doing right now and I'm like take a good look oh she's crying he's like how does that make you feel. And I was like not very good actually right. : And so then from then on I was able to kind of try to find positive and everyone's writing share right even if they were riding while I would find something positive to say about them. And you know sometimes you could tell the superficiality of the positive Nasserite I mean if I give you some really dumb compliment it's probably because it's not that impressive you know. But but now nowadays it's like at the Grand Prix level those riders all rip. No one's really rain like doesn't deserve to be there but to me anyway that girl didn't deserve to be in a quote unquote world class competition. She should cut her teeth in like a regional event first instead of trying to make the Olympic team with a bottom turn share. You know so. So anyhow though it's like a learning experience all along the way I've had these learning experiences through snowboarding and snowboarding has been that vehicle I guess that's the purpose of this podcast really is like to share some of the lessons learned through people's experiences in the sport. And so I've had a lot of experience. : I thought I knew a lot about snowboarding but really interviewing the different people that I've been interviewing has really been an eye opening experience as far as like they all have different perspectives and different experiences and also you know talking to a sales manager or you know or like a guy who who is there in the beginning of the sport it's like they have different lessons they've taken different things away from the sport of snowboarding and yet it's all this one thing. And so you know to me it's not just about what is marketable like if you buy an ad page you are worth talking about in the magazine or something along those lines. To me those aren't the stories that are actually the most compelling ones in the sport. So hopefully this podcast can can kind of illuminates some of that stuff and hopefully it's good enough that you're going to want to support it through our patriae on page patriarch Dom slash the snowboard project. Please support this effort. I'd love to continue doing this I'm learning so much and enjoying sharing it with everyone. : Suli I just want to ask you like let's talk about Alaska and why Alaska is why Alaska is important to you. And they may be kind of the early days of tailgate. : Ok well Alaska is the most important thing to me in snowboarding today because when I first got there it's like 1998 99. It was basically like from the very first run the best run I had ever done by far hands down. Nothing even came close. And everyone got better and better from that very first run. And so it was like just mind melting right. The quality of the powder or the open terrain you know and the challenge that you felt like you know I was always built up in those TV movies like you could die you know and so it's like you have this fear and then all of a sudden soon as you drop in you know it goes. It transforms to elation. You know the incredible powder and whatever and so the pendulum swing from fear to elation happens in Alaska like nowhere else for me. And so you know I went back to Alaska a number times I was the editor snowboarder at the time so I could assign myself whatever stories I wanted to so I happened to write the Alaska stories because I wanted to keep going back and you know and then when I sold snowboard magazine built that up and then sold it. : I wanted to do something nice I you know I had some money but it wasn't like you know the few money that some people get when they sell a company I just had like a little bit of money to throw around. So was I going to go on the best snowboard vacation of my life and so I went on a weeklong healthy trip with my buddy who was like the deejay of like all the snowboarding events I was announcing like the U.S. Open. : And I was sitting there at the U.S. Open is like hey I'm going to go to Alaska. I sold them and going to Alaska is like I'd go. Oh perfect that I will go by myself. And I didn't think he was going to do it but he ended up like call me up weekly or like OK what's the deal with Alaska let's do this. : So we ended up going to Alaska and we spent like a week helli boarding at this place called a B.A. and it's actually like where tailgate started and. And so it was basically like the whole scene in Alaska was about 20 people at that time. It's like away 070 and and it was just the Mack dog crew. : A handful of French guys and then me and my buddy and we were like the only ones there who were like vacationing the French guys were like making a movie. MacDawg crew is like DCP and Yussi Oksanen and Andreas Wiig and those guys were filming the Mack dog movie. And so we would just hang out and all the downtimes. : Right. And so I'm driving back from from that trip. And on the drive between you know baldies in Anchorage I was like Man I got to figure out a way to share this with more people. And that's where tailgate Alaska was born. So really it was just this thing where it was like the idea of sharing Alaska with more people and promoting that ultimate experience and you know getting people to slay their own personal dragons of fear to face your fear and overcome it. And I think everyone has that experience whether you're a pro or whether you're a guy from the east coast who'

In this episode of the Creative Waffle, I chat with Laura from Nifty Fox Creative about her story and incredible recovery from glandular fever and anorexia. How she was inspired by the likes of Draplin and Ian Barnard to pursue a career in design. Hope you enjoy the show. Find Laura here:https://www.instagram.com/niftyfoxcreative/https://www.niftyfoxcreative.com

Josh Jensen, founder of Jensen Handcrafted, creates high quality, hand made goods.  Check out his Instagram to see examples of his openers, can glasses and other products.  We discuss what inspires Josh and how he processes new ideas.  Josh leads by example and lets his work and impact on his community speak for itself.  We mention the Terrain Container that just launched this past weekend at Bazaar. The container will also be out during Hoopfest weekend in Spokane so be sure to check it out! Check out the Amalgam Podcast Blog on our website or the Apple News App Follow @amalgampodcast on Instagram and subscribe to the show: iTunes Google Play Stitcher YouTube Spotify Support the show on Patreon

We’re super excited to have Jim Coudal on Overtime. Jim is the founder of Coudal Partners, a design and interactive studio in Chicago. So many amazing projects have sprung out of Coudal Partners including The Deck Network, Layer Tennis, and Field Notes. In this episode, Jim shares solid advice on sharing what you love with others, how to remain genuine while running a business, and knowing when it's time to let a project go. Jim also teases the next big project from Field Notes! “Try stuff out. If it’s a moderate success—try figure out how to make it a bigger success. If you can’t figure out how to make it bigger, then go on to the next idea.” This episode is brought to you by Wix. Push the limits of design and start creating beautiful, impactful websites that are uniquely yours at wix.com/dribbble. Links Mentioned in Overtime: Jim Coudal Jim Coudal on Twitter Layer Tennis Field Notes Brand Aaron Draplin The Deck Copy Goes Here Sean Inman Layer Tennis K10K Dribbble's Hang Time Seattle Transcript: Please visit Dribbble.com/Overtime. Thanks for listening! Please subscribe to and rate the show in Apple Podcasts, and share this episode with a friend.

We’re super excited to have Jim Coudal on Overtime. Jim is the founder of Coudal Partners, a design and interactive studio in Chicago. So many amazing projects have sprung out of Coudal Partners including The Deck Network, Layer Tennis, and Field Notes. In this episode, Jim shares solid advice on sharing what you love with others, how to remain genuine while running a business, and knowing when it's time to let a project go. Jim also teases the next big project from Field Notes! “Try stuff out. If it’s a moderate success—try figure out how to make it a bigger success. If you can’t figure out how to make it bigger, then go on to the next idea.” This episode is brought to you by Wix. Push the limits of design and start creating beautiful, impactful websites that are uniquely yours at wix.com/dribbble. Links Mentioned in Overtime: Jim Coudal Jim Coudal on Twitter Layer Tennis Field Notes Brand Aaron Draplin The Deck Copy Goes Here Sean Inman Layer Tennis K10K Dribbble's Hang Time Seattle Transcript: Please visit Dribbble.com/Overtime. Thanks for listening! Please subscribe to and rate the show in Apple Podcasts, and share this episode with a friend.

Building Doors With Industry Print Shop When you catch a big break, it usually means a little bit of luck was sprinkled in the mix. However, sometimes in order for you to have an opportunity to be lucky, you have to build your own door to be knocked on or down. That's the case today with guest Tony Diaz. Tony is the head honcho of the artist-run, award-winning screen print shop specializing in apparel and flatstock, Industry Print Shop in Austin, TX. They work with some of the biggest names in the industry like Goodtype, Morning Breathe, James Victore and Draplin to name a few. While it says printshop in their name they do far more than that as they are in the business of creating experiences for creatives like you and me. Tony and his crew are also in the business of building doors as you heard in the intro sound byte which we dive deeper into on this episode. Want to help the show grow? Consider supporting the cause on Patreon He’s a punk rocker turned screen printer turned business owner. Not only does he have an incredible story to tell but he has a ton of wisdom and bravado to motivate you to keep pushing your work to the next level. In this episode we talk about: Creating your own luck Betting on yourself when others tell you you can’t Finding things you believe in to contribute to that are bigger than yourself The power of collaborating and providing mutual value And so much more Listen to the end of the episode to hear how you can get a fat ass discount on their website which is loaded with some killer merch. Shownotes Industry Instagram  Industry Website Industry Twitter Industry Editions Prints Industry Merch Tony's Instagram - @Antibydesign Tony's Website Doug & Jason of Morning Breath Inc. Bobby Dixon's Work - @Klctvefusion Brian Maclaskey's Work - @BrianMaclaskey Land Boys Instagram - @L A N D Matt Dawson of Crop Conference Dose of Inspiration: @ofatomsandlines Podcast theme music by @blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Subscribe on your favorite podcast player: iTunes Stitcher Google Play Radio Overcast

Give it Time to Grow & Tilt the Scales in Your Favor This week on the show we have a very special guest who just got done hosting an amazing conference called Crop in Baton Rouge. Matt Dawson is a talented designer and connector who creates under the name Stay Gray Ponyboy in Atlanta. He is a shining example of someone who put in the work and used the power of side projects to build a name for himself. He’s not only an insanely talented individual but he’s grown into becoming a really good friend of mine and I can’t wait to share his story with you. Stumbling into Graphic Design Growing up, Matt was always involved with sports, music and drawing. As he approached college, he thought landscape architecture sounded appealing and was involved in that for 3.5 years out of the 5-year program. Outside of class, he found himself constantly using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to make band collateral like posters and merch. Little did he know he was getting started in a career of graphic design. It finally dawned on him that he wanted to switch directions and pursue graphic design. He was in a new relationship with the wonderful Ariadne at the time and he approached her saying they needed to have a talk. The funny thing is she thought he was going to break up with her when really he was just switching majors. Of course, she was 100% on board as he states she always is whatever he chooses to pursue. Over the last 4.5 years, he's been working under the moniker of Stay Gray Ponyboy and the business name of Studio Gray. His situation was like mine when I talk about Making a Name For Yourself in Episode 28, using his first name like Matt Dawson Design didn't fit so he went a more abstract route. There are a few reasons he chose this name because of the word gray: It is a family name and shortly after his daughter was born, everything he did was for her. It also happens to be his favorite color—he's all about overcast days and gray clothing. It pertains to having perspective in a situation. Finally, it was also inspired by the book The Outsiders with the phrase "Stay Gold Ponyboy." While he stumbled into graphic design and built a name for himself, Matt clearly is a workhouse and has put in the work behind the scenes. Give it Time to Grow Something that really stood out to me from Matt's interview is when he said, "Am I going to build something for myself or am I going to build something for someone else?" He's put in the grind at the day job of exchanging hours of his life for pay. He's been in positions where they worked him to the bone for 40-50 hours a week and he'd still find time to pour another 30 hours or so into building his side projects and freelance. When you start having ownership of something, the scale begins to tip in your favor and that was the case with his story. It's all about perception as the amount of work he was kicking out under Stay Gray Ponyboy appeared like he was doing his thing full-time and eventually, that grind paid off. Matt has now been working for himself full-time now for close to two months, and honestly it's all because of the time he invested into letting his side projects grow. Typography Nerd Let's face it, Matt is a typography nerd and I say this with the utmost respect. His love for type led him to have type talks as he worked for Lamar Advertising. His passion for type sparked an archive of typography combinations that he would help other designers use when they were in a pinch. Around the same time, he began using Instagram and sharing these combinations he built up under the catchy name of #TypeComboTuesday. He understood the power of consistency and kicked out Type Combos every Tuesday for 2 years! In 2017 he scaled it back and focuses on it once a month as his freelance career began to blossom. What's funny about speaking and seeing the behind scenes of these events held by Lamar is that it sparked one of his biggest ideas yet... Crop Conference Matt was inspired to take these talks from Lamar and grow them to a larger scale for people in and outside of Louisiana. A patio sessions with a few beers ended up spawning the name Crop. Think about it, cropping a photo is meant to bring out the best part of the composition into the frame and I feel this conference brings out the best part of us creatives. There were a few hurdles he's dealt with and still deals with today in building Crop: Not only was it tough to name but it was tough to design for as your designing for designers. Organizing and working on bringing in some of the biggest conference names like Draplin, Tad Carpenter, Morning Breath, Hoodzpah, Brian Steely, Jason Craig, etc. Getting sponsorships throughout the year. Having a diverse lineup especially within the talks. Getting people to believe in the conference and to convince them it's legit. If you ask me, I feel like he is crushing it in every category. The conference has been so successful that he is planning something special with it in between it's normal time in April. This November, he is doing a satellite event called a Crop Pop Up in November. It'll be a one day gig the Friday before MondoCon 2017. There will be a few workshops, speakers, a big party and plenty of fun with the Industry Print Shop fellas. I suggest you keep up to date on Matt's Instagram, Crop's Instagram or Cropbr.com if you think you want to attend...which I would recommend. Rapid Fire Questions Q. What' one piece of advice you would give to creatives starting a side / passion project or stuck in a creative funk? A. Having the patience to nurture your side project is important. You have to put in the time and give it time to grow. Q. Serif, San Serif or Script? A. San Serif Q. Who's your current favorite artist you're vibing to lately? A. Alvin Diec who is capitalizing on making new things look old. Q. What's your favorite kind of pizza? A. Pepperoni, mushroom, feta cheese and banana peppers at Peace Love and Pizza - Atlanta   Key Takeaways: Are you building for you or are you building for someone else? Start having ownership of something and the scales will start tilting in your favor. If you can get by and be happy, you need to try and figure out how the hell to do that. Have patience and nurture your side projects as you have to give it time to grow Don’t compare your start to someone else's middle Look ahead and try to see what this side project will accomplish for you—that’s the carrot you should keep chasing   Shownotes StayGrayPonyboy.com Stay Gray Ponyboy Instagram Type Combo Tuesday Crop Conference Instagram CropBR.com Stay Gray Ponygirl Industry Print Shop Pizza Drawings Only Lamar Advertising Alvin Diec - Artist's website Peace Love and Pizza - Atlanta Music by Blookah

The Do’s & Don’ts of Attending Creative South (From My Perspective) Are you feeling a bit stagnant in your work and desperate to get around like minded creatives? If so, then it’s time you attended a conference like Creative South. Here in a few weeks, April 6-9 to be exact, hundreds of people will invade the tiny downtown Columbus, GA area. When you arrive, there is a buzz in the atmosphere as you know you’re around the right people. Shit, the tagline is even “Come as Friends, Leave as Family,” and this couldn’t be truer. In 2015, I attended Creative South for the first time it sparked a massive swing of momentum in my life. There were several reasons I purchased the ticket because I: felt compelled to try something different. needed to surround myself with like-minded individuals who are doing what I strive to do. needed to get out of my comfort zone and get out of my little bubble in Cedar Falls, IA. All three of these were accomplished and Creative South has become an annual affair for me. I’ve built so many amazing relationships that I’m actually bringing my wife, Emily Russell, this year so she can see what the hype is about.  If you’re attending for the first time, this post is for you. Here is a list of Do’s and Dont’s to ensure you experience Creative South like a champ in 2017.  Do’s Attend All the Speakers The speakers Mike Jones and company bring in are the real deal. They’ve built or are building a name for themselves in their respected industries. Their focus is to provide you with something to act on when you leave the conference. Each year I’ve made an effort to reach out to several speakers who inspired me. It led to great conversations over lunch, dinner, etc. and resulted in some great relationships. Some speakers I’m particularly hyped to see this year are Jamal Collins, Dominque Falla, Bob Ewing, Alicja Colon and Ced Funches. Take Notes Listening is great, but these speakers are dropping gold and you’re going to want to refer back to some of the bombs they dropped. You can even take sketchnotes like Emily Carlton who I’ll plug in the workshop section. You can then share your notes on social media with the Creative South #CS17 and let people know what they are missing! In 2015, I shared my sketchnotes with Jason Craig after his talk. This led to a screen printed coffee poster collab and he also became a great friend and a mentor to me. He even hung out with me back stage last year to help me prep before my talk. Attend the Bridge Party Thursday’s opening mixer party is absolutely ridiculous and sets the tone for the conference. They shut down an entire bridge and deck it out for one epic party. There are food vendors, drinks, fireworks, great conversations and Ink Wars… Watch Ink Wars Ink Wars is held Thursday on the bridge. It’s a setup of about 5 artists who are equipped with only a small sketchbook, a large white canvas and a massive black sharpie to go to war with. The artists have 1 hour to create something based off a random topic. These constraints unleash some pretty wild concepts that’ll blow your mind. Participate / Watch Adobe Creative Jam Alright, this one is new to me and its’s replacing the beloved Type Fight...RIP. Adobe Creative Jam is an event series where creatives share a behind-the-scene peek into their processes and projects. Meanwhile, teams compete in a tournament that puts their creative skills to the test using Adobe Creative Cloud. Be sure to check it out wherever it’s hosted. The vendor hall is my best guess. Attend Workshops Some of the best value comes from attending workshops which range from hand lettering, passive income, sketchnotes, etc. Here’s a little shameless plug. This year I’m actually co-teaching a workshop with the homie Brian Manley called "Crafting Your Killer Talk." If you’re looking to get into public speaking, podcasting, vlogging or videos in general, then this workshop is for you. Sharing your brilliant and strange ideas publicly can be difficult but our workshop will: help you overcome your fear of speaking publicly give you the tools and structure to outline your ideas boost your confidence in writing and communicating those ideas I remember watching people on stage my first year wishing I could grow a pair and do the same. The following year Mike Jones asked to speak and it was the most terrifying yet life changing experience. It’s since led to me speaking at upcoming conferences like Crop and Weapons of Mass Creation. Hell, it even sparked the inspiration to start the Perspective Podcast. This workshop is about getting you on this level too as you have something valuable to share and you can make an impact outside of your art as well. Spend Your Life’s Savings in the Vendor Hall Last year I spent all my money at the Inch x Inch, DKNG and Draplin booths. You’ll find a ton of other booths sporting posters, t-shirts, pins, stickers, etc. You even will have the chance to screen print your own tee with Real Thread. I have no doubt you’ll leave with plenty of swag to plaster in your office, on your sketchbooks, laptop, skateboard or pretty much anywhere. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone If you want the full experience you gotta ditch your introverted tendencies. Being reserved and escaping to your hotel room will extinguish any chance of having any impactful conversations and epic relationships. While I’m an extrovert, I still came here all by myself in 2015 and didn’t know anyone. My anxiety was through the roof like a new kid from a small town in a massive high school. However, I forced myself to mingle and now my best friends who I talk to the most are the people I met here. You’ll get back what you put into it! Reach Out to People When you arrive, it’s going to be like you’re around hundreds of familiar Instagram avatars. Start connecting names and faces beforehand through social media so you can jump right into a conversation when you meet in person. Doing this will make getting out of your comfort zone and building relationships that much easier. Again, the speakers are so down to earth so don’t be afraid to approach them. Oh ya, try not to gush about how great they are—it’s awkward so treat them like the normal people they are. Try the Local Food There is so much great food in downtown Columbus and you have to make the effort to try it all. My personal favorites were Iron Bank Coffee Co. in the mornings, Picasso’s, 11th and Bay, Tommy’s BBQ, The Black Cow and the Loft just to name a few. I promise you will not leave hungry. Dont’s Treat it as a Business Networking Event For the love of everything good on this earth, please do not show up throwing your business cards to as many as people as possible. This isn’t the place for that shit. Build relationships and hand out some stickers, patches or pins. Get to know people and their story. I’m not even bringing business cards this year but if I did, I would only hand them out to someone if they asked me. Be a Grimey Salesman Along with throwing your business cards out to people, don’t go pushing your products and services on people either. This place is about building community. It’s not a breeding ground for you to sell your stuff. Sign up for a vendor booth if that’s the case. Be a Fly on the Wall By hanging back during the day and going to your hotel each night, you can't experience Creative South like a champ. Even if you don’t drink, that’s totally fine! This is an intimate setting and you will get your full money’s worth by investing in yourself and taking every precious moment possible to engage in deep conversations. Feel the Pressure Many people hand out cool things like stickers, pins, patches, coasters, etc. Don’t feel the pressure of needing to go all out on swag to hand out to people. Soak up the Creative South experience instead. People won’t remember you necessarily for what you handed out — they will remember you from the connection they made with you. Get Too Hungover Party away, I know I will be, but don’t miss out on speakers, panels, vendors, conversations, etc. because you were too hungover and need puke in the comforts of your room. This is a sure bet to waste your money and your experience. I understand taking a nap or recharging for a bit, but being a hungover mess isn’t going to impress anyone. Be Afraid to Get Weird in Good Taste I was a bit reserved my first year, but last year and this year are far from the case. There will be plenty of opportunities to embarrass yourself for awesome prizes. You can let loose, do karaoke, hug strangers or dance freely because seriously, no one cares and you’re even weirder playing the “too cool” game. Experience Creative South Alright, so if this is your first year then I can’t tell you how excited I am for you. As you can tell, I’m driving home the point that this place is all about the people and the motivation you will take home with you. Be yourself, but also break out of your shell and do things you normally wouldn’t like introduce yourself to one of your favorite speakers. Follow these guidelines and you'll be sure to experience Creative South like a champ! ps. Definitely, make sure to come say hey to me as I have 2 types of pizza stickers to dish out. Key Takeaways Surround yourself with like-minded individuals Familiarize yourself with people via social media beforehand Don’t be afraid to reach out and strike up a convo Participate in every social event possible Take notes / sketchnotes Take a workshop, especially mine. You’ll get back what you put into it Relationships > business cards Finally, if you need some more reasons to attend Creative South in the future, check out my friends Lenny’s Top 10 Reasons to Attend Creative South. Shownotes: Mike Jones Matt Dawson - Stay Gray Ponyboy Crop Conference Weapons of Mass Creation  Lenny Terenzi Jamal Collins Dominque Falla Bob Ewing Alicja Colon Ced Funches Emily Carlton - Sketchnotes Jason Craig Crafting Your Killer Talk Workshop My Creative South Speech 2016 Nick Jenkins - Blookah Music

The preface of this episode stems from some recent free work I was selected to create. I feel this could yield some value to you if you ever get stuck in the same situation. Recently, a local pizza joint, Urban Pie, opened up close to me and they put out a call to local creatives through Facebook. They asked for help in designing their massive chalkboard menu as well as their cornerstone quick bake pizza oven. By now you need to know that I’m weirdly passionate about pizza art so I figured why not inquire for more details. It came back as exposure work… If you’re like me then you’re not a fan of crowd sourcing artists and paying them in exposure. A lot of companies do this to try and position it as they are benefiting the artist when in reality; they are the ones who are winning. Before you go rolling your eyes I want you to hear me out. After consulting my mastermind group and asking the question, “When do you think it’s okay to do free work?” I got a ton of great responses. I thought packaging up their answers would make a great episode incase you ever got in this position yourself. Safe to say I took the job. I couldn’t be more excited about it because of several factors that I share in this episode that benefited me in doing free work. Free Work Can Lead to Bigger Breaks or Help Someone in Need I get it, you want to build a career of doing the work you love. Why would you ever want to do work for free? I’m at a point in my creative career where I’m making a big transition in taking my freelance game to the next level. There are plenty of bills and loans laying around that need paid and my time is sacred outside the day job. A part of me tells myself that I shouldn’t be donating any of my work for free as it’s not paying the bills. Then again, there is another part of me who sees the value you in it…depending on the situation of course. I’m not telling you to do free work all the time and get taken advantage of—I respect the creative hustle. Not everyone is going to agree with me on these and that’s alright. This is about the 7 ways free work may be in your best interest. I’m looking for the win-win scenarios here. When You’re Just Starting Off A great time where free work helps you out is when you’re just beginning to pursue your work seriously. During this time, you’re still developing a style and name for yourself. It’s rare that people are going to throw a lot of money at someone who doesn’t have a body of work showing what you’re capable of. You have no leverage. Doing projects for friends, family or other acquaintances can help you: decide quickly which type of work you do and don’t want to do more of. get familiar with the client process…even if they aren’t the best clients. learn how to handle situations like feedback, revisions and handing off work. develop your skills and get word of mouth for future jobs. You have to start somewhere, and that means doing free work in the beginning. When it’s Work You Create in Your Free Time If there is a specific style of work you’re already doing in your spare time, this could be a great opportunity to show what you’re made of in a more professional setting. For me, I already create pizza art on the regular and the project I took on gave me a chance to do this with more intention. When it Aligns With Your Goals This was a driving factor for why I chose to take on the project. I have a list of goals written down and it just so happens this projects hit 3 birds with one stone: to get my first pizza related client to do 1 of 5 murals to build a strong creative presence in my community When something aligns with your goals, I’d take the opportunity as you don’t know what it could lead to next. When it Could Lead to More of the Same Work But Paid This plays off #2 & #3. If you aspire to do something and you’re already doing it for yourself in your spare time, doing it for free could open the window to do more of this same work, but paid. Getting an opportunity to show off my pizza / mural skills in a highly trafficked public setting could lead to bigger pizza or mural projects (as of this writing, I’ve already received 4 local requests for murals and it has only been a week since I completed this project). For even larger reach, I highly recommend: documenting the process pushing it through social media adding it to your portfolio making a case study on your website This will dramatically improve your odds for attracting similar clients that will pay for this style. When You Have Complete Creative Freedom Sometimes having complete creative freedom can be a mind fuck. Restrictions have a way of breeding creativity, but sometimes having the freedom to do whatever you want within reason is amazing. It circles around to showcasing your skills that you’ve been crafting behind closed doors in your sketchbook. Now you can let your creativity explode on whatever canvas you’re asked to create on. In my case, this was a chalkboard and oven. When it’s for a Charity That Resonates With You There may be times where you believe in the cause that a charity or organization promotes. In this case, your work could serve a larger purpose that surpasses the value of money. A great example of this is my brother Terance Tang of Tinlun Studio. He donates his time and artwork to a local Chinese Youth Camp in Houston, Texas. Terance states, “The first year I volunteered at CYC, I immediately saw the enormous positive impact it has on the kids - personal growth, teamwork, leadership experience, social skill building, and most of all, unforgettable memories. I knew then and there that this is a special organization that truly makes the world a better place. I definitely want my kids to have the CYC experience.” Another great example of how artists donate their work for a larger, and in these case a smaller cause is with Inch x Inch. This is a monthly button club operated by Bob Ewing and Drew Hill that features well-known artist’s work. The duo believes small things (like buttons) can make a big difference. 65% of the proceeds of each monthly subscription go to funding youth art education programs. Some of the design juggernauts they’ve featured include Draplin, Allan Peters, Clark Orr, Brian Steely and Kendrick Kidd. What’s even better is that is that they recently donated $5,000 split between Art with a Heart (Indianapolis) and 826CHI (Chicago). Creating free work for a good cause makes a bigger impact than you think. When You Can Help Someone Out in a Pinch When you become a known design source, your friends and family will inevitably hit you up for work. You can’t help everyone—saying no is just as important as saying yes…unless it’s your mom asking then you have to say yes. However, sometimes you may be in a position to help someone get that break they deserve. A great example of this is Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Co. and his logo design for Cobra Dogs. Cobra Dogs was a food cart that used a copyright logo and was on the verge of losing everything. DDC came in and created a new logo for them, helping the entrepreneur recover and do what he loves: selling dogs from his food cart. There will be random opportunities when you could doodle on a kids cast, create a logo for your little cousin in-law’s youtube channel or create some branding for your friend's music festival. Making time to lend your time and gift could be another person’s blessing. Conclusion You see, there are times where doing free work can be a win-win scenario. I feel when you look at an opportunity from this perspective, it can be worth doing it for free. Again, I’m not saying to do this for every project. You have bills to pay and exposure doesn’t put food on the table. As an artist, you have to pick and choose those right situations where it makes sense. Consult people close to you if you’re unsure like I did. It brought a lot of clarity which let me package this up and share with you if you get in this situation. Not all free work is created equally, but sometimes that exposure or person you’re helping out just may be worth it. Key Takeaways You can’t do every project for free, you have bills to pay and exposure doesn’t put food on the table. It’s rare that people are going to throw a lot of money at someone who doesn’t have a body of work showing what you’re capable of. You have no leverage. Doing something for free could lead to more of the same work but paid. Documenting and repurposing your free work can dramatically help attract clients that will pay for this style. Creating free work for a good cause makes a bigger impact than you think. You can’t help everyone—saying no is just as important as saying yes Making time to lend your time and gift could be another person’s blessing. Not all free work is created equally, but sometimes that exposure or person you’re helping out just may be worth it. Shownotes Urban Pie Terance Tang / Tinlun Studio Inch x Inch Bob Ewing Drew Hill Draplin Draplin Design Co. DDC  Cobra Dogs Blookah Music

On this week s episode, we re joined by Bill Kenney. His unyielding passion for design began at a young age, but has been developed and honed over his decade in the industry. As a business owner, Bill has developed both the design acumen and business knowledge necessary for success. He s the co-founder and creative director of Focus Lab. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! In this episode Brian Gardner, Lauren Mancke, and Bill Kenney discuss: Bill Kenney’s path as a creative Running a creative agency The importance of team Using Dribbble to create a creative following Repurposing content across platforms Complementing a service based business with products Finding your tribe Listen to StudioPress FM below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes The Show Notes Follow Bill Kenney on Twitter Follow Focus Lab, LLC on Twitter Follow Made by Sidecar on Twitter Visit Focus Lab’s Website Made by Sidecar Follow Focus Lab on Dribbble The Transcript Leveraging Social Media to Build a Creative Brand, with Bill Kenney Voiceover: Rainmaker.FM. StudioPress FM is designed to help creative entrepreneurs build the foundation of a powerful digital business. Tune in weekly as StudioPress founder Brian Gardner and VP of StudioPress Lauren Mancke share their expertise on web design, strategy, and building an online platform. Lauren Mancke: On this week’s episode, we are joined by Bill Kenney, the co-founder and creative director of Focus Lab to discuss leveraging social media to build a creative brand. Brian Gardner: Hey, everyone. Welcome to StudioPress FM. I am your host, Brian Gardner, and always joined by vice president of StudioPress, Lauren Mancke. Lauren Mancke: Welcome back, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We are starting a new series on talking to members of the design community. Brian Gardner: Today, we’re joined by Bill Kenney of Focus Lab. His unyielding passion for design began at a young age, but has developed, and he’s honed that in over the last decade in his industry. As a business owner, Bill has developed both the design acumen and business knowledge necessary for success. Like I said, he’s the co-founder of Focus Lab. He’s also the creative director. Bill, it’s a huge pleasure to have you on StudioPress FM. Bill Kenney: Thank you. I’m excited to be here and talk to you guys. Brian Gardner: Yeah, this’ll be good. Lauren and I are huge fans of you and what you guys do there, so it’s always fun to have people that we really look up to on the show. I’m going to get started here. I’m trying to think back. From what I remember, I’m pretty sure the first time I ever came across your work was on Dribbble. Rafal and I have always had a back-and-forth chat session where we show each other things that are cool and really neat design stuff. I’m pretty sure he sent me a link back to the day and said something to the effect of, “Check out this Bill Kenney guy. I think you’re going to like what he does.” That was probably three, four years ago maybe. Can’t believe it’s been that long, but I know it’s been a while. Here’s the thing. You got to love getting to interview people who you look up to. For me, that’s something for sure we’re doing here. I don’t know. It’s kind of crazy, a little bit humbling to talk to you. I know we’re good friends. We’ve hung out before down at Circles Conference and so on. So for you, it might not be a big thing, but for me, it sure is. Anyway, funny how things work out. Let’s talk about Bill. Who is Bill? How did he become the creative director of what I call, arguably, the best creative agency on the planet? Bill Kenney’s Path As a Creative Bill Kenney: So much buildup. I need to live up to this now. I appreciate that. Oh boy. Who is Bill? At what point would you like me to start? Brian Gardner: What was Bill doing when he was three that was creative, and how did that just ultimately go through school and into where you’re at right now? Bill Kenney: Oh boy. At three, I can remember … this is going to sound like I was prepared for this question. I was not, and that was my own fault. I can remember distinctly what I would now describe as the beginning of my creative endeavors, kind of like scratching my own itch but not knowing it. I would go to my grandmother’s house. She would always have colored construction paper. I think that was so much fun to me. I would cut out all these shapes. I would make animals out of them. I would layer it. I would cut out the green stuff first because that was the background. That was the skin. Then I’d cut out maybe yellow for the eyes. You cut that a little bit smaller so that you can still have green trim around the sides of it. You glue it on. I don’t really remember much from my young childhood, and that’s not because I did a lot of crazy things in high school and college. That’s just because my memory doesn’t go back that far, but I can still remember things like that. Honestly, if I had to pick where it began, I think I would say all the way back then. All kids play with coloring pencils, and they like to doodle and stuff. But I always was drawn to that more than anything. That just stayed true forever. That stayed true through high school, through college. I wouldn’t consider myself an academic by any means. It was always creative stuff that really struck the chord with me. Brian Gardner: At what point, though, do you think you acknowledged the fact, “I am a creative,” and understood what that meant and really thought for the first time maybe, “Hey, this is something I want to either pursue further in school or actually want to become when I grow up,” that kind of thing? Bill Kenney: Yeah, I think when it got real for me, that would have been college. I still really enjoyed art class even in high school and such, and was sending things away — as the school does, not on my own — to competitions and stuff. One of them got into this Air Force art show. I thought that that was really cool. That wasn’t a career at that point. I wasn’t even thinking career at that point in high school. I just wasn’t one of those types of high school students. But in college, when I learned after two years of a liberal arts degree that I didn’t want to do math, I didn’t want to do science, I didn’t want to do history, and didn’t want to do any of those other things, I went, “Wow, I can become an art major. That’d be pretty flipping awesome. I could draw all day. I’d love that. I could take printing classes. That would be awesome. I could paint.” In a way, it was a little bit of the easy way out, I think at that moment. Subliminally, I was drawn to that, so I followed the path I was supposed to follow. At that point, once I became an art major, school became awesome for me. I really enjoyed it, and I wanted to go to class. I wanted to go early. I wanted to stay late, all those types of things. That’s really when it opened up for me. That’s when it became real. Brian Gardner: I wish I would have had that experience in college. Bill Kenney: It was late in college, mind you. Again, I did liberal arts for a while, still trying to figure out, “What the heck am I going to do here?” When that changed, then I flipped the script. It was that much better. Lauren Mancke: I had that kind of experience in college, except I took all those classes that you want to take right away because I really wanted to take them, all my art classes. Then my last semester, I was left with all the terrible, boring stuff. Brian Gardner: Like the black jelly beans, right? Bill Kenney: With my degree I went to University of Tampa in Florida. It’s not a big school in general. The art program is not big as well, but thank goodness, they had one. Who knows what I would have gotten into because I don’t know that I would have been just transferring around. I don’t know that it was that clear to me that, that was my calling. To get your BFA — which is a Bachelor of Fine Arts, which is what my degree is — you had to at least pass college algebra, and math was always my sticking point. I kind of fumbled along through all the other classes. I wanted to keep my GPA high, and that one was the one that was always going to derail me. So you wait till that last day before you can get a W, you can withdraw, and it doesn’t work against you. It’s very clear that there’s nothing you’re going to be able to do to bring that grade for the rest of the quarter, the semester. I actually botched that one all the way until my final semester of school. Then it was very clear to me, like, “Okay, here it is. I need to take it. My GPA is skyrocketing now because of all these art classes. I’m really excelling. I can’t let this one class bring it down.” I just really buckled down, and I ended up — this is not to pat myself on my back — getting an A in college Algebra 101. Brian Gardner: Outstanding. Bill Kenney: Yeah, is not outstanding by any means, but for me, for the class that I had always dodged and ducked, I was like, “I will conquer you.” I did save that one until the absolute end, and I won, thankfully. Brian Gardner: Yep, good job. Lauren Mancke: Let’s talk about Focus Lab for a bit. As you know, I used to run my own creative agency, so I bet we can relate a little bit on what you’re doing and how things are going. It’s been fun to watch you guys evolve over the years through social media, especially on Dribbble, which we mentioned, and we’ll talk about a little bit more. But fill us in. What’s the status of the company these days? Running a Creative Agency Bill Kenney: Focus Lab is going great. It’s the normal ups and downs of any business. It’s not always sunshine every day. We have the best team that we’ve ever had. We are the biggest we’ve ever been. Revenue is the highest it’s ever been. All these simple metrics, if you want to look at those, we’re doing really great. I couldn’t be happier with what we’ve been able to achieve, honestly, in the past six years now. I don’t know that I ever thought that we would get this far, honestly. We started in a little tiny town, Savannah, Georgia. Honestly, the only reason people probably know about it, that it gets its name, is just the big tourism and the history of it all, but it is a small town with not much going on besides the history. That’s really what roots it and gives it its name. We started this little design development shop there with aspirations to do great things, but I don’t know that six years ago I could have told you, “Hey, we’ll be 16 people, and we’ll be doing this. We’ll be doing that,” just all the other things that come with it. I think I would have been shocked, honestly, so I couldn’t be happier with where we are. We’ve always kept a clear mind on the idea that we want to grow slowly. Growth is not the long-term goal. A success for us is not determined by, “Oh, we’ve reached 40 team members, and we make this much money.” That’s not success for us. I would say that we’ve already succeeded, and we just want to continue to build on that, which is having the team that we’ve built, honestly. Being around the people that we get to be around, working with the clients that we get to work with, and the way of life and culture that we’ve created — that’s success for us. We’re in a wonderful spot, and it’s just constantly learning, iterating, and growing on top of that. Brian Gardner: That’s really good to hear and very encouraging. Lauren Mancke: Okay, we got to take a quick break. Did you know all StudioPress themes are powered by the Genesis Framework? Genesis empowers you to quickly and easily build incredible websites with WordPress. Brian Gardner: Want to know why nearly 200,000 folks are using Genesis to power their websites? Here’s why. Lauren Mancke: Here’s a couple of the features Genesis has — search engine optimization, responsive HTML5 designs, unlimited everything, air-tight security, instant updates. Brian Gardner: On top of that — I’m going to keep going — it’s customizable and fast. We have multiple widget and layout options, and a community of developers you can trust. If you want a custom design, we have a list of talented, reliable designers who will knock one out of the park for you. For more … Lauren Mancke: I was going to just jump in. Brian Gardner: You’re so good. Lauren Mancke: I was just going to ad-lib that ending. Brian Gardner: Lauren, tell them where to go. Lauren Mancke: Go to StudioPress.com to get Genesis today. Brian Gardner: All right. Back to Bill. One thing I’ve seen from the outside is that people are important to you and Focus Lab as a whole. Your team matters to you. It’s clear to me that you value camaraderie in the workplace. You guys have Focus Lab retreats. You’re always sharing each other’s work on social media, attending conferences together, and whatnot. In fact, Lauren and I got to witness this team thing firsthand last year when we saw you guys down at Circles Conference in Texas. How accurate is this diagnosis that Focus Lab and the ethos in which you operate is really built around a team? The Importance of Team Bill Kenney: Team is 100 percent number one. To be fair, even to myself and the recognition that I get when people see, “Oh, he has a huge following on Dribbble.” They see these things, and that’s not just because of me. We all benefit from each other. We’re all growing. Even that metric, which is Dribbble following, I really have a good amount of that because of the team, because of the work that we all do. It’s not like I turn out all this stuff myself, and I don’t grow by myself. People don’t grow in a chamber. I’m surrounded by all these great people, and I grow in other ways, personally and all that, from the team. We all recognize that, so team is hugely important to us at Focus Lab. It’s very clear internally, and it’s nice to hear that it’s clear externally. Lauren Mancke: I think running a creative agency is really interesting. I know as creative director you have to wear many different hats. You get to take part in so many different aspects of the company, especially when you are the one producing creative work as well as running the business as an owner. My question is, what is your favorite part of running a creative agency? I know it doesn’t always come without challenges, but as I’ve had my fair share to deal with, I know. What is the most rewarding part of your day or week, and what makes you wake up each morning and say, “I love what I do”? Bill Kenney: Yeah, I guess that changes year to year. As you grow a business, early on what excites you most is new projects, bigger clients, revenue increases, and all those things early on in business. That is still all so new to you, and you’re trying to go from zero to something. That could be your biggest reward metric. At this point, it’s back to team. Team wins and team success for me is the most rewarding, so no longer am I most excited about, “Wow, I got such a great response from a client on a deliverable I sent or something I’ve posted online has been received really well.” I get my biggest reward — and this is going to sound a little bit weird — in a way that parents would feel happier for their kids when they’re playing sports if they won a championship, their kid hits a home run, or whatever it is, that same level of proud moment, I get that. That’s what I want now. That is when I’m at my happiest. I love team member success and when they get put up on the pedestal, if you will. A lot of what I do is to lift them up. I’m sharing all of our work through social media. I’m speaking about them. I’m shining light on them and making sure that clients know that this is not about me. Just because you happen to maybe find us or me on Dribbble first, we’re a team. That’s where my happiness comes from at this point and most of my joy. Brian Gardner: Yeah, I can certainly relate to that. On some levels, and it kind of comes and goes a little bit, people recognize me as the face of StudioPress because I founded it back in the day. Just yesterday, I had a Tweet exchange with somebody who made a comment about the newsletter we sent out, where we had sent him a bunch of traffic. He said, “Well, I knew Brian Gardner had something to do with it.” I kind of wrote back, and I was like, “Yeah, the old Brian would have said, ‘Yup. That’s right. It was exactly me,'” but sort of like what you were just talking about, I wrote him back. I said, “You know, no, it’s not me. It’s StudioPress as a whole,” because Lauren’s there. We’ve got an entire team from a support standpoint, from a development standpoint, a design standpoint, QA, all of that stuff. As you know, as you grow from one person to small company to bigger company with lots of customers and so forth, it does become so much more than just the person. I almost look for opportunities like that Tweet where I can kind of back myself out of it and say, like you said, just put the emphasis on the team. At this point, I sometimes feel the team does a better job at doing all of this than I do personally. Bill Kenney: Exactly right. Yeah, that’s 100 percent. We’re in the same exact boat. We’d have past clients that say, “I don’t want to work with anybody else but you.” I think they’re persuaded by what they see, so that’s like the social following is a little bit of a double-edged sword in that regard. But now, that is not the case. Thankfully now, [inaudible 00:16:16] works to make sure that that was not the case. No one can ever come in and just say, “I want to work with you because I think you’re the best.” That’s baloney. The team at this point is so strong. They are stronger than me in a lot of things, if not most things at this point. We’re constantly having that conversation internally. They know that. We all speak that way — to the point where, even when deliverables are sent out, even if only I, or Summer, or Alex worked on it that week, the signature at the bottom of Basecamp is still ‘Bill and the Focus Lab team’ or ‘Alex and the Focus Lab team.’ It’s pulling in that team all the time. That is where we get our strength. Regardless of whether I did 90 percent of the lifting in a given week or 10, it’s still the formula is team. Brian Gardner: I think Dribbble, and that’s where this next question is going, they really did us all kind of a service in this regard by opening up the idea of teams on that social media platform where you could take individual accounts and put that shot up underneath the team. When I look at the home page of Dribbble, and it’s always filled with Focus Lab things, I see Focus Lab posted thumbnails and not specifically from Bill Kenney. Bill Kenney: Yup. Brian Gardner: Yeah, Dribbble. That’s the big thing that especially with you guys, you personally have 33,000 followers, have posted over 1,200 shots, and each one of them, no doubt, makes its way to that front page. You’ve got that following, and people just always love your stuff. What’s the deal? How do you own them in the sense of … maybe it was just you guys got started early on, on top of just always creating awesome stuff. What’s the back story to Dribbble? More so than probably any other person or group of people that I know through the design community, Dribbble is really your sweet spot. I know that it drives a ton of leads — sometimes good, sometimes bad — but that’s where a lot of your stuff comes through, right? Using Dribbble to Create a Creative Following Bill Kenney: Yeah. Dribbble kind of broke us through the ice, if you will. Again, back to Savannah, this is not a knock to Savannah. Savannah’s a great city. Our headquarters are still there. Twelve of the team members live there, but it is not a thriving, West Coast, tech boom city, you know what I mean? The marketplace for growth and work for a design agency is going to be limited. What Dribbble allowed us to do was quickly bust into a world market instead of just a little local market. We relate a huge amount of our success to Dribbble, just for what it did. It was very clear, even if you look at the numbers year over year, from the year before we were on Dribbble, and then you look at revenue numbers the year after Dribbble. You’re talking about a spike that you could have never guessed at. To be fair, it may have been the following year because it takes you time to grow the following, to get the recognition, to drive those numbers up. But we can find that data to see like, “Wow, this is huge for us. Okay, let’s continue putting energy and muscle into this.” Basically we’ve never stopped. The game has stayed the same. To speak to the teams thing, the teams thing was a long time coming. I’m not an early bird to Dribbble, although I was in there earlier maybe than some, but not the earliest, earliest. I was in there, and we were building a following before team accounts existed. I remember that whole transition. Basically what happened is, we were having internal conversations about, “Okay, well, I’m posting stuff, but it would be nice to have a team feed,” so we talked about it internally, tried to figure it out how to hack the system in a way and say, “Look, okay, if we tag them all Focus Lab, people can search by tag. Therefore, we get a URL by tag. Okay, we can use that URL as the thing that we link to. Now we have a hacked team page in a way.” Then we would put that at the bottom of every shot, “Made with the Focus Lab team.” That was a link basically to just the tag that would show all of our shots. I’m not saying that we started this, but we were early in that game of people doing that, if not the first. I don’t know. Then a lot of people started to see like, “Oh, that works, and that works well,” so then a variety of people were doing that. Then eventually the teams accounts came around, which was nice. At that point, we had been doing it so long. It was like, “Oh, this is refreshing actually to have this now and not have to do it the other way.” That was a great addition, and Dribbble’s been doing great lately with all their new updates and stuff. Lauren Mancke: Yeah, it was really cool to see the team thing. My company, Northbound, got invited to do a beta test of the team aspect by Dan and Rich, and it was fun to be one of the first teams on there. Bill Kenney: Yeah, we were happy when that finally opened, opened up. We knew it was out there. We actually knew that people were testing it. We’re like, “Okay, we’re just waiting for this door to open,” because we’ve obviously been ready. We got this link thing here, and we’re faking teams, like a team account. Brian Gardner: Did you have to go back and update all those links, though, when the team thing came out? Bill Kenney: You know, that’s a good question. We put up so much content on Dribbble that any time you have to backtrack and change anything, that is so much work. I don’t know if we did. I kind of feel like we did, or maybe we didn’t. Again, we have so much volume that we’re going to push all that content so far back and down that it doesn’t really matter. Brian Gardner: Yeah, that’s true. Bill Kenney: It’ll just follow the new structure. Brian Gardner: All right, so you guys started out with Dribbble. It’s obviously done very well for you, but over the last year or two, I’ve seen you guys venture out into other social media platforms in what I think is a deliberate play at leveraging those as well. I’ve seen you guys do stuff more so on Twitter than you have in the past, but also you’ve made your way into Facebook and even have written some things and published them over on Medium. Now, you and I have had some conversations about content strategy. This led up to the whole Sidecar deal, so I had a little bit of inside information there. But how has that been going for you? I know that at Copyblogger and Rainmaker Digital as a company, we talk a lot about not digital sharecropping and investing your assets and resources in places that could potentially go down. Let’s just say Dribbble closed the doors and completely vanished. Your efforts, especially like on Sidecar with the educational pieces and whatnot, how has that piece of strategy gone since you guys started implementing that? Repurposing Content Across Platforms Bill Kenney: Yeah, that’s a great question. That’s funny you talk about Dribbble as the example because that’s real. If we think about that right now, what would happen if Dribbble was wiped off the face of the earth, that would be not great for us in some ways. It’s not as if we’d lose all that content. We still have it all. We still created it all. But the exposure, the eyeballs, the following, all of that stuff disappears, and then we have to populate it somewhere else and build all that back up — which is why when I talked to Dan three weeks ago in my podcast with him, I told him, “Don’t mess it up, Dan. We got a good thing going.” Yeah, we’re aware of that to the point we’re hyper-aware. To be clear, so Focus Lab, we have what we call ‘Quarterlies.’ What that means is we all get together as a team onsite for an entire week each quarter, hence the name, and we don’t work on any client work. We just work on internal projects. Each one of those has a focus. In the one that was Focus Lab specific focused, which was our site and how we’re marketing ourselves, if you will, we talked about what are the new platforms, like what’s the new frontier look like for us. Dribbble is basically stay the course, if not get more aggressive. You can always post more. The new frontiers would be basically Twitter, picking up volume there. We were already doing that, so that’s not really new. Medium would be a big new one. We don’t post a ton there yet, and when and if we do, and we will, that content will still come out first on our own platforms. So that content, if you will, to get back to the question, it is safe. It’s not like it would just disappear, but we would post it again basically through a channel like Medium for the added exposure. I’ve already seen that work personally when I took a couple of posts that I wrote for Sidecar that got picked up, 600 recommends, and just so much traffic that they still get the traffic, that it is just so fruitful to post out there. We learned that because Dribbble’s the perfect example. It is the example of we can post whatever we want on our own website, but that doesn’t do us any good. We need to basically go where the people are. Like you read in a lot of these books, you got to go where the people are, and then bring them back to what you want to bring them back to. Instagram has been another one. There’s been a very intentional plan for Instagram this year. We’ve gone from 1,000 followers to, I don’t know, today I think there’s like 16,000 or something. The team that focused on it, that’s been working on the Instagram account specifically, has done an amazing job with that. That will be more of a peer-facing platform, though. I don’t expect that really to drive a lot of work. We’re talking about that. We’re making plans in and around that, but Dribbble still carries the weight. We’re on Behance. Behance is a little bit of a different beast. It’s a lot of eyeballs, but it’s not the same as Dribbble. It doesn’t really drive work. Brian Gardner: Really, what you’re talking about is producing original content, putting it out on your own site, and then using some of these other social media outlets, kind of like in a syndication play, which is what Medium’s really known for, which is getting something that’s out there. I think Medium itself has even embraced the fact that that’s how they know they’re being used. They’ve allowed for canonical tags to go back to the original source and whatnot. That’s where the people are. You can take the awesome work that you’ve done originally, put it out where the people are, and then just drive them back to your site. It works almost in a symbiotic relationship there as well. Bill Kenney: For sure. We are organically creating so much content at Focus Lab that … you hate to use the word ‘repurpose’ because it sounds like we’re just spamming everything, but when you think about like a Dribbble shot, we can use that other places. That can then become an Instagram shot. It’s not as if we have to create original content every day for every platform. We have so much artwork that we’re creating in a weekly basis, and then Alicja capturing it, us screenshotting stuff, us building presentations for clients, we’re basically already creating all this content. Then it’s up to us to decide when, how, and where we want to post it. We still have it all. It’s still ours. Brian Gardner: Speaking of the content, and we’ve alluded to this thing called Sidecar, or Made by Sidecar a couple of times. Explain. Lauren Mancke: I think what Brian is trying to say is, what is Made by Sidecar? Why did you guys create it? I know we talked a little bit at Circles Conference last year, which was a few months after it launched, but can you elaborate on the mission of Made by Sidecar? Has the focus of it changed at all since you first launched? Complementing a Service-Based Business with Products Bill Kenney: Great question. There’s two reasons here. There’s a business aspect, and then there’s also the bigger mission. Running a creative agency and a services-based company, you are reliant on client work. That can be taxing year over year over year. You are totally at the hands of, “Did we get leads, or did we not get leads? Do we need to go out and drum more up?” whatever that looks like for a company. For us, we are blessed with the fact that we have a platform like Dribbble, and it drives a bunch through. It’s a lot more of just sifting through what’s coming through, but you’re still relying on that to live. That’s your revenue stream. We want to create a variety of revenue streams for Focus Lab. Sidecar is an easy first step to that, but the bigger mission is not really about us and just making money. It is very much about giving back to the design community and building a community within Sidecar, a tribe if you will, that does a couple of things. On one angle of Sidecar, we’re saying, “Here are the things we build for our clients that take us a ton of time, and our clients pay us a lot of money for. We can actually modify this, create it, and make it a template for you, and we can charge you X, which is nothing compared to the time and energy that we’ve put into it over the years to say that this works for us. Here’s your template.” Yes, $56 or $76 might be a lot of money in a template world for a younger designer out there looking for things. How much are they gaining? How much time and experience are they gaining from that one deliverable that they can now reformat and use for their own client work? That’s the simple, high level, what we’re putting in there and what we’re selling, whether it be photography icon sets, all that stuff. Really, the bigger greater mission for Sidecar, which will take years to play out, and it is in motion, which is the, how do we share knowledge? How do we teach? How does the community come in and help each other on a daily basis? We can build this really tight network of people that are willing to share information with each other, that are willing to encourage each other, that are happy to lift each other up, and do all of these things within the Sidecar tribe, if you will. The goal is to build a tribe there that is that close, that has a variety of skillsets, perspectives on life, and all of these things. Right now, we have our Slack channel, which is our private Slack channel, that we invite people to. We’re starting to build up that tribe behind the scenes, if you will, that doesn’t exist on the site. Right now on the site, we sell the products, and then we do all this free writing basically. We’re putting all this content in the journal of all the things that we know to be true, client experiences, and this is how we do this, this is how we do that. That’s our form of giving back right now, but really we want to blow those doors open and make it more of this community-driven, we’re all here for the greater good of design, if you will, to educate, to inform, to make us all better. That’s basically seeping through from Focus Lab. That’s how we interact with each other. We all want to grow. Even today at lunch, one of our team members gave a lunch and learn on one of the books she read. It has nothing to do with design. It has to do with conversations and how to get through. The name of the book is Crucial Conversations. Just that type of stuff, doesn’t have to be design-specific. I guess what I’m saying is Sidecar is now the outlet to do all of those things. Focus Lab still has to be what it is, which is a design agency. We can’t do all of the things that Sidecar will be able to do, so we’ve basically opened that up so that we can do that with Sidecar. I think that answers your question. I said a lot there. Brian Gardner: Yeah, it’s great stuff. The way I see it is that Focus Lab is the creative agency that drives the revenue. Social media is the outlet in which you do things like build authority, get leads, and so on, but Sidecar seems to be that middle piece, which may have been lacking up until it was created, where you can take some of the stuff that, as you say, learn and have figured out through your experiences at Focus Lab. Sidecar is kind of the distribution channel for sending that out to social media. Most of the stuff that you guys do on social media, that’s not necessarily just visual posting pictures, but more like the content side of it is actually through Sidecar and these, what you call, free writings, lessons, or tutorials where you’re really trying to help teach people. Not necessarily in a way that you hope that they come back and become clients, but just equip them as being tribe members of Focus Lab as a whole and all that. Bill Kenney: Yeah. Focus Lab is very much the client-facing. We have this give back part of who we are, all of us in the team, like in our DNA, but we can’t be so peer-facing as a design agency. We have to be appealing to the clients, so there’s a little bit of a conundrum there when you’re like, “We’re writing for the Focus Lab blog, but really it’s purely peer-facing.” It’s a little bit silly. As your company continues to grow, the company has a focus, and it’s driven by what it’s trying to achieve. Sidecar now becomes the peer outlet. In the Slack room, I’m in there interacting with all these people, and they’re saying, “Hey, can I call you up and just ask you this question about what to do?” Now they have direct access to us and to the team, which is awesome, because we want to be able to do that, but Focus Lab can’t function that way. Sidecar opens that door. Lauren Mancke: Fun question. If you had to pick one, just one social media platform, to build a creative business around, what would it be, and why? Bill’s Favorite Social Media Platform Is Bill Kenney: Well, I think the entire world knows what my answer is going to be to that. Brian Gardner: Okay, you can’t answer Dribbble. Bill Kenney: Oh okay, all right. We’ll take that out of it then [00:33:48]. Brian Gardner: This is not you as Bill. This is you, like what advice would you give to somebody who’s starting up? Aside from your own plot of land, what would be the most fruitful opportunity for someone to help spread their own word? Bill Kenney: I don’t know how it could be something else, honestly, and here’s why. I can say Twitter. That’s not a niche demographic there, so you’re going to have to fight your way through crowds, which is fine. I think you still want to be on there as well. You want to play amongst the different fields, but Dribbble gives you such a unique opportunity to the fact that it’s super-low cost. You have no price barrier coming in as a younger creative or someone that’s looking to start an agency. You have immediate exposure to both huge players and small players, people that you’re going to be immediately able to interact with on a peer level to say like, “Okay, I feel equal to you. You will interact with me. I don’t know if I can go interact with that person yet. Maybe I feel too shy. Maybe they’d be totally chill,” like I am, and I’ll talk to anybody. It doesn’t matter, but you don’t see that when you first come in. It couldn’t be anything else. I guess here’s the other thing. I am a little bit biased, and that’s fair. I can recognize that. You could do really well on other platforms, like Instagram proves itself really well for type designers. You see a lot of people get really far in type on that, and they actually get client leads and stuff. It’s just a little bit harder for me to speak to because that’s not been our path. Therefore, I don’t know that I could give that advice, but I guess if I knew if they were in a specific realm, I could point them in a different direction. As an overall creative, and if they wanted to follow a similar path as us, I paved the way. Basically just do what we did. We’re not magic makers. I didn’t come in with some secret sauce. I didn’t start with a ton of money and was able to get ahead and all these other things. We just got in and got our hands dirty, and Dribbble is the platform to do it. I do think that some people get ahead on Behance. I have a massive following on Behance. I have a couple hundred thousand followers on Behance, significantly larger than I have on Dribbble. I can tell you that it doesn’t even touch the return as far as revenue, and it doesn’t touch the connections I make on a peer level from all walks of life, junior designer all the way through to people that I would look up to and respect. I could try to break away from Dribbble and say like, “Okay, let me try to think of something else.” I think that would be bad information. I tell everybody, “As a younger creative, just get on Dribbble. Put some energy into it and make it work,” because we did, and I know it works. Brian Gardner: You know what, though? That’s kind of an unfair question, though, now that I think about it. We used the word ‘creative.’ We didn’t ask you specifically, what would you tell a designer, right? Because a creative is more than just a designer. It’s a guy who’s a photographer. He’s a videographer or a writer, and in that case, Medium is a much better place for a writer to go. Bill Kenney: Right. Brian Gardner: Backing up and letting you take the easy route with Dribbble, for sure, as a designer, that’s absolutely the place. I wouldn’t have even asked you to say something other than Dribbble just to answer the question because, yeah, designers need to go to Dribbble. If you’re another type of creative, obviously there’s different types of outlets like that that are probably better suited for you. Let’s not see a copywriter try to use Dribbble to expand their platform. Finding Your Tribe Bill Kenney: Yeah, for sure. When I am posed with that question, which is from anybody, “How should I get out there?” and even if we’re thinking about new angles or new things that we want to release, new products, or whatever, it’s still following the same model, which is go find where your tribe is basically. Focus Lab’s tribe just happened to be on Dribbble. It continues to be there for now. But depending on what industry you’re in, you’re basically going to go out and find your tribe, hang out amongst them, make yourself a name within that group, and then bring that tribe back to where you need them to come back to — whether it’s your personal site, whether it’s a book you’re releasing, or whatever. Yeah, you want to go out there and find your tribe, so whether that be Dribbble, Medium, whatever photography site, community. It’s just about the community. You got to find your own community. Brian Gardner: Yeah, let’s talk about that. Alicja, who works with you guys a lot, is a photographer. Let’s just use an example. Ironically, I think you guys did their logo design, the photography site that just recently you guys launched a design for. It’s sort of the photography version of Dribbble, right? Bill Kenney: Yes and no. To be clear, yes, we did do the branding work for 500px. They’re an amazing client, such a great team, and they are a really large community. It is interesting, though. I don’t have much experience on that platform in the sense of how we use Dribbble, so I don’t know if each community, if the result is the same. I don’t know that there are Hire Me buttons, CTAs, and stuff that really help to drive that type of action that come from Dribbble. But yes, I would always tell people in other industries to at least do what you can to find your Dribbble. I’ve said that many times to many people in different industries, even to developers. “I don’t know where it is. I don’t know what to tell you, but you need to find your Dribbble. You need to find your version of what I did.” That’s the easy first step as far as I’m concerned. All it takes is time and energy. If you don’t have time and energy, you obviously don’t care enough about whatever you’re trying to start or what you’re trying to accomplish. For every industry, it’s going to be different. I think that design is one that Dribbble specifically just worked out great. I don’t know that there is one for every industry. I think that’s really tough for other industries to figure out. Like, “Oh, I don’t know where the tribe is,” and there could be other huge barriers even if you figure out where it is. How the hell do you get into it, and how do you interact? Brian Gardner: It always seems like an opportunity, if those don’t exist for certain media, to actually be the person like … is it Dan Cederholm? He’s the one who did Dribbble, right? He’s got his co-founder, Rich? Bill Kenney: Yeah, but I think Dan seems to get the crown the most. I don’t know if that’s just because he has the most exposure. He’s actually on Dribbble with the big following up on the first page. But yes, it’s both of them. Brian Gardner: My point, though, is that even if you’re a creative, and we do this with our software at our company a lot, if it’s not out there and we need it, we build it. To the really, really savvy entrepreneur who’s a creative, if that medium or that Dribbble doesn’t exist within their niche, that’s an opportunity. It’s just an opportunity to go try to create that thing, be the next Dribbble founder or the next whatever founder. Bill Kenney: Yeah, absolutely. I agree with that 100 percent. If you’re a developer and you say, “I wish there was a …” Well, I think there have been some small attempts, but yes, I agree 100 percent. If you remember Forrst, Forrst was before Dribbble, right around the same time, but that was a play to designers and developers. You could actually post code and stuff on there. That was a little bit earlier. I don’t know that people were searching around and hiring as much as they are now from a client perspective. The community was smaller, just because that was a while ago, just like Dribbble’s community was smaller, but there seemed to be other kind of platforms that poke around, but yeah, if you had the opportunity to create one in whatever your space is, it works. That’s the only thing I can ever say to the path we’ve taken is it works. I don’t think I did anything magical. I think I set a course, and I said, “This is what I’m going to achieve, and I’m going to achieve that by doing A, B, and C.” I did A, B, and C, and it worked out. Everybody’s path is different, but it wasn’t rocket science, I can tell you that. Look, it took me until the end of my college career to get the college algebra thing crossed off. Lauren Mancke: Speaking of that, who are some of your heroes or people that you look up to, respect, and say, “I wish I could do X like X”? Who Bill Looks Up To Bill Kenney: Oh, that’s a great question. My answer is not going to contain names I would have read about in art school. The reason is simple. It’s not because I don’t respect what they’ve done and basically the foundation that they laid for design and art in general, and the history of the world, if you will. When I was a sponge and I was coming into the who am I looking up to when I was fresh into, deeper into the design world, if you will, it would have been all of a sudden the bigger names that I would have seen on Dribbble. I hate to go back to Dribbble, but that is such a big part of my evolution over the past six years. When I think about the people that I look up to or that I respect, those are the people I’ve been around the most and have seen the most volume from, week over week. They would just pop out in my mind to be the people that I would look up to. I can tell you typically what I look up to most, whether it be a big name or a small name, would be people that do things that I don’t do or that I can’t do. I love it when I see really great motion work come out of the variety of people that do motion work now. Motion’s really blowing up. When I see that stuff, and we have now a motion designer on our team, Will Kesling. He is awesome. That’s the stuff when you want to get down on your hands and knees and just say, “I am not worthy.” It’s like when I look at people that do the things that don’t cross my plate typically, which are going to be just amazing typography. I just started following these two girls on Dribbble. They do really awesome felt fabric figurines. It’s so obscure. I would never even known that I would have found that. I was just kind of trolling around on Dribbble, not to say that I’m a troll. I just found these accounts. I’m like, “Wow, people make little people, but purely out of felt.” They make little mini Pepsi cans, but the scale of it is like a fingertip. It’s all felt. That’s the stuff. That’s what inspires me. I’m like, “Holy crap. That is amazing. What is that thing?” To say that I look up to somebody, and this is in the most humble voice ever, in the branding space or even a web space, there are people that I’m like, “Wow, you do really great work, and I respect you,” but that’s not really what kind of tickles my feathers, if you will. It’s when I see the really funky stuff that’s completely unexpected. It seems like type illustration, motion work, new mediums, three-dimensional stuff, and blending platforms doing three-dimensional stuff with flat stuff and motion — all that stuff paired together. It’s crazy to me, and that’s what I really love. I think what you were looking for is for me to name drop somebody, but I haven’t done that yet [00:45:09]. Brian Gardner: Give me two or three names. Come on, two or three designers that you want to emulate, not copy, but you know what I mean? A lot of these people are on a much higher pedestal on my level than they are your level. For you, these might be peers, but I want to know two or three people that you say, “Man, that guy or that gal has just killed it in design.” Bill Kenney: Oh, man, that’s so tough. I’m such a people pleaser. It’s like, “Oh, I got to make sure I name the right people.” Let me think about the people that I know that constantly do great work, and let me also make sure that it’s clear that I would consider these people very good people, too. That is important to who we are and who I am. I would say Kerem is somebody that I’ve looked up to for a long time. Kerem can be found on Dribbble. He’s out of San Francisco as well. He’s West Coast at least. Kerem’s last name is Suer, I believe. He does really, really solid work, really great person. He was one when I first started on Dribbble, you’d look up and you’d go like, “Oh my God, I can never touch that level.” Then you finally get to meet them in person, and you have grown as well. Now they’re aware of you, and you’re interacting on a peer level. You’re like, “Wow, this is amazing.” I would definitely say that Kerem is one. You know who jumps out lately who’s totally crushing stuff is Bethany Heck. She just moved on from the IBM team, or I’m sorry, sorry, the Microsoft team. She’s moving on to her new position. I actually forget where it is, but the type stuff that she’s putting out. She just did this thing with Fonts.com when she put out all these baseball card posters using all this new type that they have for sale. That’s the kind of stuff. I saw that poster. I was like, “OMG! I need to have that. That’s amazing.” I would say that she is somebody that I’d look up to, for sure, to this day. Right now when I look at her stuff, I’m like, “Wow, this is really great.” That covers two platforms. That covers basically UI because Kerem’s more of a UI product guy. She does a lot, but a lot of type. What other funk do you want? I could throw out the cliché names, like Draplin. Draplin’s awesome. I love hearing him talk. He does rad work, but like everybody says Draplin. I don’t need to say Draplin. Who else? Who is on your list, Brian? I’m curious to know who you [crosstalk 00:47:38]. Brian Gardner: Well, there was one person, and I don’t know, I kind of assumed that maybe it’s just too obvious. I know that you not saying him isn’t in any way a form of disrespect. Maybe you just didn’t want to say it, but I was thinking GoPro. Bill Kenney: Were you thinking Charlie Waite? Brian Gardner: I was thinking Charlie Waite. Bill Kenney: Mr. Charlie Waite. Let’s talk about Charlie Waite for a minute. Charlie Waite will love this. He listens to all my stuff. Right, Charlie? You’re going to listen to this. Charlie Waite is a great person. That’s easy. You can say that. You can call me biased, but that is the truth. Brian Gardner: And full disclosure, Charlie used to work at Focus Lab. Let’s put that out there, so everyone who’s listening knows that this is all [crosstalk 00:48:17]. Bill Kenney: Right, which is why I’m biased. Yes, Charlie Waite, so Charlie Waite worked at Focus Lab for three years. You can call him number three in command. You have me, my business partner Erik Reagan, and then Charlie Waite was next in line. Charlie is an amazing, well-rounded designer. He’s amazing in two ways. I’m glad you put me on to Charlie because this is just good design discussion. We have this talk now all the time with like, “Should designers be able to code and design it all?” and all of a sudden, it’s like we’re supposed to be everything. Charlie, from a design perspective, taking code out, but from a design perspective, was extremely well-rounded. Projects come in, and they need all this illustration work. Charlie just whips it up. I’m like, “Wow, sh*t, I didn’t think you’d be able to do that much that good that fast. Okay.” UI work, he did branding projects. The well-roundedness of Charlie, and to be really strong basically when I worked with Charlie and Charlie got a project, and although I was his boss — we don’t even like to use that word — I had no fear. I didn’t even feel like I had to check in. Charlie just knocked stuff out. Charlie now works at GoPro, and he leads design over there. I actually just had dinner with Charlie and his wife in the city this weekend because they were on the East Coast. They came in. It was the first time I had actually seen him in a year since Circles, like we were just talking about. Such a good time to see him. Me and Charlie Waite are still the greatest of friends. Leaving a company is always tricky in any regard, especially when there’s friendship, too. Brian Gardner: You understood, though. You sent him off well because I know that he’s always been sort of a California, West Coast boy. You really embraced that, understood that, and knew that he was growing into a bigger position. That’s kind of important, though, right? Letting Your Staff Grow into Bigger Positions Even When It’s Not with Your Company Bill Kenney: Absolutely. Yes. That is important to us at Focus Lab in general. It’s easier said than done, but Charlie spent an amazing three years with us. He helped us achieve a lot as well. When it was time for him to leave it wasn’t as if he just said, “Oh, hey, I got this new gig. Thanks for helping my exposure grow on Dribbble, and I’m out of here. Good luck.” He hit me up all along the way as people … here’s the interesting dynamic that happens at Focus Lab. People join Focus Lab, they’re strong. I can see that they’re strong. They’re not at the level where all of a sudden Apple’s going to go out and hire them because their portfolio is not there yet. It’s not been proven to those types of companies. I can see they’re great people. They come into Focus Lab, they turn into even better people, not because I’m there for any reason. It’s just because the Focus Lab ecosystem is such an environment for growth because of all of us that are there. We all encourage it. We all want it. Followings grow. Exposure grows. Here comes the poachers, everybody. That’s fair. It is what it is. You can’t stop that. All of a sudden, all the team members get job requests from everybody because they see all the work all the time, the Instagrams, the Googles, the Pinterests, the Microsofts, everybody. Charlie was very transparent with that. He said, “Listen, I’m getting approached by a lot of people, blah, blah, blah. I don’t plan on doing anything.” As time went by, GoPro was the perfect storm for him. It was a great opportunity for a lot of reasons. He got to move back to the West Coast where he grew up. He actually lives in the town that he grew up in. His daughters now are going to the school that he went to school at. He’s a surfer. He was living in Alabama — time to get out of Alabama, time to go back to the West Coast, and take the great new job. Yeah, let’s put Charlie on the list. I wouldn’t have thought that initially just because it wouldn’t have crossed my mind. Honestly, right now, I would have been looking for the big names, if you will. Charlie is great all around. Lauren Mancke: Do you have any parting words for creative entrepreneurs or just entrepreneurs in general? Any secret tips or recipes for killing it online? Bill’s Secret Tip for Success Bill Kenney: Oh gosh. The secret tip is you got to put your hard hat on, go out there every single day, and bang it against the wall. Some days are amazing, and some months, some quarters, and some years are amazing. Some days, some months, quarters, and years are really a grind. I think the thing for me, and the thing for us at Focus Lab, it’s the longevity. It’s the stay the course. Course correct as needed. Motivate as needed. It looks all sunshine and like it’s all easy every day from the outside perspective. To be fair, it is 90 percent of that, but there are the days where you’re like, “Oh, can I post another thing here? Can I grind out another amazing deliverable on top of the one I just spit out?” That becomes quite a challenge. It’s being a creative on top of running a business and all of these things. It’s not necessarily easy. I think it’s the, can you weather the length of time that you may be doing it — whether it’s three years or 30 years — and can you also weather the storms when they come? Because they’re going to come for sure. When you get on the flip side of it, you’re a bigger, better, stronger person. But can you weather that? That would be my only advice. For me, it’s a time, energy, and intention game. If you put in the right amount of time, the right amount of energy, and the right amount of intention, you should be moving forward. That ball should be moving forward, and it should be growing for you. Just keep doing it. It’s the old ‘don’t give up’ speech, but it’s so the truth. Year after year, that starts to become pretty hard. Where do you find your motivation? Brian Gardner: Yup. Words of wisdom from little Bill Kenney of the big ship, Focus Lab. Bill Kenney: Thanks.

If you work in the creative or design world, you probably know Aaron’s name. And if you’re not in the creative or design world, you’ve probably still seen Aaron’s work. Aaron is a designer that’s worked with tons of brands and people you’ve heard of including Nike, Patagonia, Ford, and Barack Obama. And he’s also the founder of Field Notes— the iconic little notebooks you’ve seen all over the place. In this episode of Sounds Good, Branden and Aaron dive deep into philosophy, hope, and savoring the inconsequential. -- SOCIAL: @draplin on Twitter and Instagram. | www.draplin.com @brandenharvey on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook & Snapchat | www.brandenharvey.com. You can find more podcasts like Sounds Good at www.gradient.is.

Draplin visits the studio just before the release of his book Pretty Much Everything. We asked a few questions, but we mostly just sat back and enjoyed the stories about getting ahead, saying thanks along the way, and trying to get away with cool things.

Even graphic designers need to do some spring cleaning? Just like everything else in life, things seem to pile up in our graphic design business. That's why I recommend taking a little time to do some spring cleaning. I know, not a fun thought but trust me, it will make you more efficient. So let's get started with three spring cleaning sections. Your computer, your office and finally your business. By the way, I go over most of what I talked about in the podcast right here on this page, but if you don't listen you're missing some great additional content, such as my tighty-whity story in this episode. Not to mention that it's so much easier to consume a podcast than it is to read a blog post. Click one of the subscribe buttons above to get started. Spring Cleaning Your Computer Old client files: Do some spring cleaning on your client files. Get rid or archive anything that you don't anticipate needing in the foreseeable future. Get yourself an external hard drive or some cloud service and free up some valuable space on your computer. Mail Mailboxes: Your mail program can use some spring cleaning as well. Get rid of unused mailboxes and clear out old emails from mailboxes you keep. Mail Attachments: Mail attachments are usually duplicates of files you already have on your computer so why keep them. In Apple's Mail.app select everything in your Inbox or Sent Items mailbox, then go to the Messages menu and select Delete Attachments. They're just taking up HD space for nothing. Did you know that if you double click on an attachment in Mail in order to open it, your computer makes a copy of the file first. That copy stays on your computer even after you delete the email or save the file to a different folder. To get rid of these duplicate files go to User>Library>Containers>com.apple.mail>Data>Library>Mail Downloads and delete it's contents. Every folder in there contains a duplicate file that was created when you opened something directly from within mail. Mail Lists: We all receive emails from places that we somehow became subscribed to. Try unroll.me to manage all your email subscriptions. You can easily unsubscribe to those you don't want and request a digest email for those you keep. Fonts: Your computer fonts are in desperate need of some spring cleaning. Try Font Doctor from Extensis to identify and fix corrupt and missing fonts. Application Updates: Don't you find it annoying when you launch an application only to see a window asking if you want to update it? Spring cleaning is the perfect time to get all those updates done in one shot. Open each application in your Applications folder and check them for updates. Don't forget to update your OS while you're at it. Dock & Dashboard: Get rid of any icons in your dock that you don't use. The applications will still be there when you need them but they don't need to be in your dock. Also, turn off any dashboard widget that you don't use. They're using valuable CPU resources for nothing. Bookmarks & Apps: It wouldn't be spring cleaning if you didn't purge a bit. Look at your bookmarks, delete any you no longer need, and rearrange those you keep for easier access. Do the same with the Apps on your mobile devices. Get rid of any you don't need. Update Passwords: It's not necessarily spring cleaning, but it's still a good time to update your passwords. Make sure to create good strong ones for security reasons. Use an app like 1Password to keep things organized. Your Office Clean Filing Cabinets/Drawers/Shelves: These things tend to attract clutter. Take some time to go through them and get rid of anything you no longer need. I'm notorious for keeping multiple samples of past client print jobs when all I really need is one. Organize Your Wires: Untangle and gather all the wires in your office. Use elastics, paper clips or whatever to keep them all neatly together. Use tape or stickers to label your wires for easier access later. Do a Traditional Spring Cleaning: It wouldn't be spring cleaning without a little elbow grease. Take some time to dust/polish/vacuum and everything else. You'll feel better after you do. Your Business Update Your Resume: If you're freelancing while looking for a full time gig at an agency, take some time to update your resume. Make sure to include any new software you're familiar with and any new course you've taken. Update Your Portfolio: Spring Cleaning is a great time to swap out some of your portfolio pieces. Get rid of old, outdated stuff and add in your fresh new designs. Not only on your online portfolio, make sure you have printed pieces in case you're asked at an interview. Clean Up Your Website: You should be on top of this one, but in case you're not, spring cleaning is a great time to not only update your themes and plugins but to also look at your website and see if it needs sprucing up. Take special notice of your About Page. It's usually the most outdated page on your website. For a guile to all the things you need to change in order to put out the best possible first impression you can, get a copy of my Four Week Marketing Boost at marketingboost.net Check Your Social Profiles: When was the last time you looked at your Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter profiles? Have a look and make the necessary changes. And if you're on job sites like Upwork.com or 99designs.com update your profile there as well. Weed Out Bad Clients: Do some spring cleaning on your client list. Decide right now which clients you don't want to work with anymore and let them know the next time they contact you. Freshen Your Goals: What are your goals for your business? Now is the perfect time to look over them and figure out the best way to achieve them. What do you think? Did I leave anything out that you do during your spring cleaning? Let me know by leaving a comment for this episode. Questions of the Week If you would like me to answer your question in a future episode please visit my feedback page. This week’s question comes from Fredrik, A question that has come to my mind many time is the general design process and how to stick with it. When I'm in the flow of designing a website, I usually end up pushing things too fast and ultimately have to go back to the drawing board because I skipped some important steps along the way. I lack a proper structure when working, and I end up jumping between areas instead of completing one at a time. How does your design process look like, from start to finish, and do you have any advice on how to be a more efficient designer? To find out what I told Fredrik you’ll have to listen to the podcast. Resource of the week is Pretty Much Everything by Aaron James Draplin I just got my hands on Pretty Much Everything by Aaron James Draplin and I absolutely love it. I thing every graphic designer needs to own this book. Here's the description of it from Amazon. Pretty Much Everything is a mid-career survey of work, case studies, inspiration, road stories, lists, maps, how-tos, and advice. It includes examples of his work—posters, record covers, logos—and presents the process behind his design with projects like Field Notes and the “Things We Love” State Posters. Draplin also offers valuable advice and hilarious commentary that illustrates how much more goes into design than just what appears on the page. With Draplin’s humor and pointed observations on the contemporary design scene, Draplin Design Co. is the complete package for the new generation of designers. Subscribe to the podcast Subscribe on iTunesSubscribe on Stitcher Subscribe on Android Contact me Send me feedback Follow me on Twitter and Facebook I want to help you. Running a graphic design or web design business all by yourself isn't easy. If there are any struggles you face running your design business please reach out to me. I'll do my best to help you by addressing your issues in a future blog post or podcast episode here at Resourceful Designer. You can reach me at feedback@resourcefuldesigner.com

My guest this week is the master of thick lines — Aaron Draplin. We talk about growing up in the midwest, his busy work and speaking schedule, family, Aaron Teases his talk at Creative South, and we discuss his up coming book Draplin Design Co.: Pretty Much Everything available at DDCbook.com.

“Nothing is ever, ever going to challenge a good, solid, legible, readable, scalable, beautiful, crafted mark. It’s got the right DNA.” As one of the leading designers working today, Aaron Draplin has a thing or two to say about brands. This past week, Draplin was in Iowa City on his fall tour “Tall Tales from a Large Man,” which he presented at the University of Iowa. I was fortunate enough to be able to chat with him after his workshop and before his evening lecture about identity and the new dynamics at play today.  About Aaron Draplin Hailing from the mighty Pacific Northwest (but a Midwesterner at heart), Aaron Draplin is one of the most unique and outspoken designers working today. The Draplin Design Co. proudly rolls up its sleeves on print, identity, web development (or not web — if you listen to the first thing out of his mouth during the interview), illustration and Gocco muscle projects. They make stuff for Field Notes, Esquire, Nike, Wired, Timberline, Ford Motor Company, Woolrich and even the Obama Administration, among many others. The DDC motto is simple: “Work hard. Do good work. For good people.” As We Wrap … Before we go, I want to flip the microphone around to our community … This week I have to thank Bradley Dicharry at the University of Iowa’s School of Art and Art History for making this week’s interview possible. Fun fact: Brad’s a longtime collaborator who’s helped us visualize our own brand at Brand Driven Digital. Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show. Last but not least … Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!

Aaron Draplin, patron saint of the working class, joins us to talk about the value of clocking in and doing the job. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-make-mistakes/message

Back again to follow up where he left off, graphic designer Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Company joins One Nacho. The guys talk Marc Maron gig posters, road trips, a memorable stop in Jackson Wyoming, Jax Union Jewelry, school in Minneapolis, podcasting, and the color purple.

One Nacho got the privilege to talk to Aaron Draplin, of Draplin Design Co. He's an amazing designer. We talk to him about snowboarding, growing up, favorite music to listen to while working, bad bands in Alaska, the Nasa logo, and getting Cosmic. Check his stuff out at www.draplin.com and follow him on instagram: @draplin

In our third episode, we hold on tight as Aaron Draplin from the Draplin Design Company takes us on whirlwind tour of life inside the DDC. Aaron came to Salt Lake a few months back and talked about music, life on the edge of 40, his amazing family, and his Dad who he lost a few short months after this interview. http://www.draplin.com * Draplin Merch: http://www.draplin.com/merch/ * Draplin Twitter: http://twitter.com/draplin

Aaron Draplin is a graphic designer and owner of the Draplin Design Co.