Baby Got Backstory

BGBS 023: Callie Christensen and Kelly Oriard | Slumberkins | Believe In Yourself

BGBS: 023: Callie Christensen and Kelly Oriard

Founders and CEOs of Slumberkins, Callie Christensen and Kelly Oriard share how they started as two best friends telling stories of sloths and Bigfoot for fun and turned it into a multimillion-dollar business. This business is based on all-around storytelling. Stories have the power to provide meaning and clarity around some of life’s most challenging moments. These moms used their natural skills and expertise to equip parents with invaluable resources.  Find out how the two found themselves deconstructing plush blankets to pitching their business idea on Shark Tank, and everything in between.

Get ready to find out how storytelling changes lives!

What we’re talking about

• Discovering The Power Of Storytelling As Mothers
• Dreaming Big: How Two Moms Went From The Local Holiday Bazaar To Shark Tank
• Making Millions From Meaningful Moments

Discovering The Power Of Storytelling As Mothers

Callie Christensen and Kelly Oriard became fast friends in high school, bonding over their tall stature, volleyball tryouts, and pronunciation efforts in Spanish 101. Their friendship continued to grow through college, shared interests as educators, and leaning on each other as they each became new moms. It was through these commonalities that they realized there was a need for resources to help parents emotionally support their children from an early age. Utilizing their areas of expertise, Callie, a special education behavioral interventionist, and Kelly, a counselor and family therapist, along with their personal experiences, the two brainstormed how they could equip parents with the skills to lead the sometimes difficult conversations with their children. As parents themselves, they thought of how valuable bedtime routines had become. These are moments when they could really connect and engage with their children. They also realized the power of storytelling and the messages that could be delivered. And so began the early stages of Slumberkins; plush toy creatures with corresponding stories that help facilitate authentic interactions between parent and child.

Dreaming Big: How Two Moms Went From The Local Holiday Bazaar To Shark Tank

After realizing they may be on to something, the two borrowed $200 to purchase fabric and hand sew about 30 versions of their first edition of creatures. Binding the characters to their corresponding stories, written by Kelly and printed on cardstock, the two set off to sell their concept at a booth at their local holiday bazaar. They sold out quickly and returned home with $700. This process continued until they realized after buying out the local fabric store’s entire stock of plush fabric, that this was something bigger than they had originally imagined. Launching their business on Instagram and Etsy helped launch their “handmade side hustle” with access to an open market. They soon found themselves making an official pitch on Shark Tank. While it did not go as they had hoped, it really helped them take their business more seriously and give their business plan and mission the attention deserved. They realized what differentiated their product to the many other plush toys out there were their therapeutic storylines, and really connecting to their consumers.

Making Millions From Meaningful Moments

Today, Slumberkins is a multimillion-dollar business with 20 employees and over 60,000 customers. They are currently talking with the Jim Henson Company to produce a children’s television series based on the Slumberkin characters. With the business steadily growing each year, the part that the duo are most proud of is their ability to connect with parents, teachers, and caregivers. Slumberkins has a Facebook social group where their consumers can connect and grow together. Callie and Kelly are having the most fun working together, something others warned wasn’t possible for best friends. They’re enjoying proving those doubters wrong and helping Bigfoot feel good about himself.

Let’s all say it together: “I am strong. I am brave and unique. The world is better because I am here. I like me.”

Links Mentioned

Slumberkins

Slumberkins Social

Slumberkins on Etsy

Slumberkins on Instagram

Sponsor

Wildstory

Timestamps

1. 27:31- 28:28 (57 sec KO)  Well, I think story in general… wanted to infuse both of those into one.
2. 32:40- 33:19 (49 sec CC) So I tried to pitch the Bigfoot storyline… always published the first draft of everything.
3. 35:47-36:34 (47 sec CC) One of the moments I think for us when I think back was when the fabric stores… maybe we’re on to something here.
4. 39:07-40:00 (53 sec CC)  Well, so that was our first pitch ever… seamstresses that were helping us.
5. 42:06-43:01 (55 sec KO) That’s just sort of the way that we operate… not dwelling on you know, quote, unquote, failures.
6. 48:48-49:35 ( 47 sec KO) Well today we have 20 employees… exposing people to the brand.

Quotes

1. Let’s do something together. That’s fun. And that tries to affect the problem that we’re seeing in the world at large. -KO
2. I think of it as kind of a stealth, social-emotional support for families because they don’t even realize the positive impacts that they’re doing with their child when they’re reading these storylines with their children. – CC
3. It was sort of also a swing in the dark because there wasn’t a model in the way that we were doing it, of what that looked like, very much. And so we were just really again, excited that it was resonating.  -KO
4. Children are also seeking that connectedness and I think that the mascots of the creatures themselves and the storylines just kind of solidify their kind of love mark on that creature. -CC
5. I always say we bootstrapped our way into Shark Tank because I think it was our like grit and tenacity that got us on that show. And you know, that was a big piece of feedback from the sharks was that the plush, the toy market is kind of brutal. -CC
6. we needed to be able to tell our own story online and connect with the consumers that are using this in the way that it was intended to, you know, be a resource, and support, and tool for their child and so yeah, definitely lives in the storyline. – CC
7. We walked in as athletes and then we walked out like both sobbing and so, but no, actually we woke up the next day and it was on the flight home from LA that we wrote our next book on the plane that was about growth mindset and kind of started the beginnings on the development of our character, narwhal. -CC
8. And I think that’s the real benefit for Callie and I both is when we do it together. We’re always having fun. So nothing really feels like a failure. -KO

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BGBS 022: Hap Klopp | The North Face | Origin Of The Brand, Disruption, Quality, & 3x Bottom Line

BGBS 022: Hap Klopp

Founder of The North Face, Hap Klopp shares how it was created and what this company represents to him. During his 20 years as president and CEO, The North Face was recognized for being one of the best-managed companies in its industry, for both the quality of its products and the investment in its employees. Hap has found that success comes from disrupting the status quo.  Find out how a kid from Spokane sold his family window business, moved to San Francisco, and founded one of the world’s largest and most recognizable adventure brands.

Discover what it truly means to disrupt an industry!

What we’re talking about

• Hap Klopp’s Climb to Success: A Combination of Desperation and Opportunity
• The Plan To Disrupt the Entire Camping Business
• Looking To The Future and Shaking Up The Healthcare System As We Know It

Hap Klopp’s Climb to Success: A Combination of Desperation and Opportunity

Born and raised in the outdoors of Spokane, Washington, Hap Klopp realized from a young age that the corporate environment was not for him. He credits his values instilled by his parents, schooling, literature, and athletic activity, as giving him the self-confidence to develop his own philosophies and principles. After taking over the family window business at just 20 years old, he soon discovered the business wasn’t big enough to be competitive and decided to sell the company while earning his MBA at Stanford.  He knew he had a natural instinct for branding, sales, and marketing, but disagreed with planned obsolescence, gender and language discrimination, among other attributes often found in the corporate world. Hap felt that to build a great company, you just needed the best people, no matter their background. Self-described as idiosyncratic, he knew early on what he wanted to do with his life: to have fun, be in the outdoor business, and change the world.

The Plan To Disrupt the Entire Camping Business

After finishing his MBA in 1967, Hap worked on a business plan to go into the outdoor business. He knew in order to bring in cash flow, he needed to get into something that already existed, which would ultimately buy him time to use his innovation to develop new products and “disrupt the general camping business.” Utilizing materials from the war effort in Vietnam, Hap was able to lead the design of camping products that were 50% lighter than what was in the current market place. This innovation ended up creating a whole new segment, known as a backpacking business, which built the brand of The North Face as we know it today.

Looking To The Future and Shaking Up The Healthcare System As We Know It

Due to the company’s exponential growth rate, after 20 years of running the business, Hap found himself spending the majority of his time meeting with external investors, who all had their own ideas of how he should be running things. Remembering that he got to where he was because he loved innovation and exploration, rather than business meetings, Hap decided it was time to sell the company and move towards the next set of adventures. These included starting a branding consulting company, authoring multiple books, speaking around the globe, and teaching at various universities to just name a few. Looking to the future, Hap says he is most excited to see how the healthcare system will be disrupted by digitization, democratization, and globalization.

How are you disrupting your industry?

Links Mentioned

The North Face

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Henry David Thoreau’s “Walking”

Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching

Reviv

Sponsor

Wildstory

Timestamps

1. 13:40-14:15 (45 sec HK) – I wanted to have fun, and I wanted to do things… a small part about changing it.
2. 31:24-32:19 (55 sec HK) We took over two stores… that I tried to implement at North Face
3. 32:28-33:02 (34 sec HK) The North Face is from the north face of the Eiger…not a lot of brand names that actually do that.
4. 45:54 -46:53 (59 sec HK)  We’d have long-range planning meetings every two years… you don’t want to lose your people.  
5. 52:32 – 53:11 (39 sec HK)  We were an international company…might have spread out a little bit more.
6. 55:36 -56:35 (82 sec HK) We’re going to have to come up with…new tech tools are going to provide.

Quotes

1. I decided that if I started a business around something I knew and cared about, that it was going to be the best path for me. And that was ultimately the inspiration. HK
2. I formed my own cheering squad. I didn’t need outsiders necessarily to measure what I was doing as much as I just needed to stand up to my own principles. HK
3. I knew that was going to facilitate what I wanted to do and what a lot of my friends wanted to do, which was going a lot further into the wilderness without it being a beast of burden. HK
4. The branding idea is to find three words that define the DNA of who you are, and make sure they cut across every aspect of your company, not just your product, but also your service, your business model, your employees, everybody you touch. And those three words must be consistent over time. And then like coral, it grows very slowly. People can’t see that happening. But it becomes very intricate and so unique that you almost have a monopoly.
5. It always gets difficult…in a small business, any business, you’re on the razor’s edge between huge fame and success and abject failure. HK
6. I came into the business because I loved the outdoors. I came into the business because I loved the people who worked there. I came into the business because I loved educating people on how they could become business people. HK
7. There’s a lot of strategies for running businesses, but you could only use one strategy and one business.  HK
8. We’re looking at a world that’s constantly innovating. And where it’s constantly innovating, there’s a chance to come up with really super ideas. HK

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BGBS 021: Frank Shankwitz | Make-A-Wish Foundation | Wish Man

BGBS: 021: Wish Man

Creator and Co-Founder of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Frank Shankwitz is sharing how he went from humble beginnings and living in a campground as a child to becoming an Arizona State Trooper and having a near-death experience to becoming one of Forbes Top Ten Keynote Speakers and helping grant wishes of terminally ill children. Frank’s story is like no other you have heard and is filled with inspiration and motivation to do good. The recipient of numerous awards and now the basis for the motion picture “Wish Man,” Frank has been changing the lives of children around the world for 40 years. He’s sharing the most important life lesson he learned as a child and how giving back should be a constant practice for all.

Prepare yourself for the most incredible and inspiring story you will ever hear.

What we’re talking about

• Frank Shankwitz’s Story: From Campground Living As A Child To Granting Wishes
• The Story Of How Chris Got His Wings
• Wish Man: The Creation Of The Make A Wish Foundation

Frank Shankwitz’s Story: From Campground Living As A Child To Granting Wishes

At the age of 5, Frank was kidnapped by his mother and moved to a campground for 5 years, until they made their way to Arizona. It was at their new home in Arizona that Frank met Juan who was a father figure to him and instilled the important life lessons of turning negatives into positives and the importance of giving back to others, even if you can’t give with money. Frank went on to serve in the US Air Force and later became an Arizona state trooper. It was while on the job that Frank was hit by a drunk driver and pronounced dead at the scene…until a passing-by nurse performed CPR on him for 45 minutes. It was then that he knew God spared his life for a reason and it was up to him to discover what that reason was.

The Story Of How Chris Got His Wings

In April of 1980, Frank received a dispatch call that he was to meet a helicopter carrying a 7 year old boy named Chris who had terminal leukemia. Chris was a big fan of the TV series CHiPS and wanted nothing more than to be a motorcycle officer like Ponch and Jon. Frank was his dream come true. Frank made it his mission to ensure Chris received a custom made uniform and upon delivery, Chris noticed the wings Frank wore, as every officer does. Chris said he wished he could have the same wings and it was that moment in which Frank realized the importance of a child’s wish. Chris received his wings along with wings that carried him to heaven. It was on Frank’s trip home that he realized that he wanted to make the wishes of more children come true.

Wish Man: The Creation Of The Make A Wish Foundation

Frank decided he wanted to find out what it takes to create a non-profit organization and since computers had yet to be available, he researched everything he could at the library. Frank enlisted the help of Chris’ mom, Linda Bergendahl-Pauling and with 3 others they formed the 501c3 that we know today as the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The first official wish was granted in March 1981 to Bopsey who wanted to be a fireman, ride in a hot air balloon and go to Disneyland. Today, a wish is granted every 28 minutes and over 500K wishes have been granted in the past 40 years.

Are you turning your negatives into positives?  

LINKS MENTIONED

Frank Shankwitz’s Website

Wish Man Movie

Wish Man: Official: The Authorized Memoir of Frank Shankwitz

Little Bubble Gum Trooper by Linda Bergendahl-Pauling

SPONSOR

Wildstory

TIMESTAMPS

• 32:51 – 33:52 (60 sec FS) – At that period, somewhat angry…is there any way he can meet one of the motorcycle officers?
• 37:35 – 38:14 (39 sec FS) – I get authorization the next morning…first time I heard that word wish.
• 38:59 – 39:39 (40 sec FS) – I order the wings…maybe those wings carried him to heaven.

QUOTES

1. Everyone can be a hero. When you can’t, give back. It doesn’t have to be money to give back.
2. I’ve seen wishes granted and hundreds of children go into remission…it’s what we call the power of a wish.
3. Learn how to take the negatives and turn them into positives.
4. Here’s a boy who had a wish and we made it happen, why can’t we do that for other children?
5. He touched the wings that motorcycle officers wear and said, “I wish I could be a motorcycle officer.” And that was the first time I heard that word “wish.”
6. I believe in a guardian angel concept. Not with the wings coming down, but it in the form of people.

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BGBS 020: Michael Ventura | Founder of Sub Rosa | Someday I’ll be an Idea Man

BGBS 020: Someday I’ll be an Idea Man

How adopting other people’s perspectives allowed Michael Ventura to discover that empathy is the secret to success and build a world class strategy and design studio serving the world’s biggest brands.

Michael Ventura is the founder and CEO of the strategy and design firm, Sub Rosa based in New York City. He is also an expert on empathy and practicing empathy in business in order to produce real innovation. Later in the show we’ll hear Michael’s definition of empathy… how most people get it wrong and how applying empathy is the secret weapon for any business looking to innovate.

In this episode we talked about:

• Michael’s early aspirations to be an “Idea Man” growing up.
• Background of Michael’s parents, their involvement, and what life was like growing up in suburban New Jersey.
• Where the sense of empathy and perspective taking came from for Michael.
• Michael’s plans to wanting to go to college coming out of high school and landing into a specialty school.
• The introduction to the business world in Michael’s college years.
• How Michael and his friend started doing events at bars and nightclubs at the age of 19.
• The next big move Michael makes coming to the end of his college years, which happened to be at the end of the dot-com boom, finds a job for a bit until he gets laid off at 23, stuck and unsure what to do.
• Michael and a friend of his who was a software engineer team up to build what was essentially a platform that made flash websites: the birthing of Sub Rosa.
• Michael’s insights on how he stayed valuable to his clients who were potentially ready to leave.
• How Seed came about and how it interwind with Sub Rosa.
• How Michael knew and learned of the business strategies he practiced with design thinking and a methodology for solving problems.
• Michael’s thoughts on what it’s like running an agency on how hard it is to stay relevant and why he feels strongly on practicing empathy.
• A powerful conversation between Michael and a three-star general about why Michael was even at the WestPoint Military Academy.
• One of Michael’s favorite examples of empathy into an organization revolving around the world of equality for women in the business space.

Quotes:
[7:38] “Then that night she said, when she laid in bed with my dad, the two of them were talking, they were like, what the hell is our kid talking about that he wants to be an idea man, he’s nine years old? What does that even mean?”

[18:12] “What I ended up doing pretty quickly, was actually starting a business with a friend of mine where we were doing events at different nightclubs and bars and restaurants, which probably you’re not supposed to do when you’re 19, but somehow we got away with it.”

[18:40] “Genetically I think I’m pretty always predisposed to bringing people together.”

[27:09] “I knew if I was going to turn this business into what I wanted it to be, I was going to have to get some humility and go have uncomfortable conversations. But it proved to be the best thing ever.”

[30:35] “I think that any good culture inside an organization operates like a magnet and if it is going to attract, but it’s also going to repel and places that are, something that for everybody, usually don’t have a strong point of view on themselves.”

[32:02] “It certainly wasn’t learned in a academic or in another employer’s setting, right? It was, it was learned on the battlefield, which I think is actually the way you learn the best. At least is the way I learn best because theory is great, but you know, theory goes out the window the second you get out in the real world and you see what works and what doesn’t actually, right?”

[32:44] “If you don’t get into trouble you’ll never learn how to get out of it.”

[38:24] “Empathy unto itself is really the act of perspective taking.”

[47:03] “Most people do think empathy equals being nice right? And so when you go in and you talk about empathy in business, people are like, Oh God, like more HR training, you know? And they’re not thinking about it like, oh, this might actually help us sell products differently or understand customers better or be able to retain our top talent or longer.”

Links Mentioned On Our Show:
www.appliedempathy.com
www.wearesubrosa.com
Sub Rosa Social: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn
Principles by Ray Dalio

BGBS 019: Chip Conley | Founder of Joie de Vivre | Becoming A Modern Elder

BGBS 019: Becoming a Modern Elder

How a passion for hospitality, writing, and business fueled Chip Conley to start (and eventually sell) the global boutique hotel group, Joie de Vivre, only to find himself as the “Modern Elder” at a crazy, high growth startup called AirBnB, and rediscover what it was he was always meant to do…

At 52 after selling the cool and rebel hotel brand he had started at 26, he could have retired. By today’s standards he should have retired… but the young founders of Airbnb came calling. He served as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy for four years — while also being CEO Brian Chesky’s mentor — and continues today as a Strategic Advisor to the company’s leadership.

Chip Conley is a New York Times bestselling author whose manifesto on ageism, Wisdom@Work: The Making of a Modern Elder, is inspired by his experience of being both a mentor and an intern in his 50s.

In this episode we talked about:

• Chip’s story growing up, what his dad’s involvement was like, and how he became a brand builder.
• What the effects of psychology had on Chip.
• What an entrepreneur was perceived as, back in the day.
• Chip’s early career in business school and how he learned commercial real estate.
• How Chip caught onto the trend of boutique hotels.
• How Chip came up with the name Joie de Vivre.
• What the success rate was like for his grand opening and what he did to gain traction which would ultimately lead to great success!
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
• Chip’s mindset during the dot-com bust.
• How Chip managed to get up to 27 locations.
• What led Chip to leaving the hotel business and how he got into AirBnb.
• What a Modern Elder is and why that name was given to Chip.
• Chips thoughts on how we are to understand humans.
• Advice for those worried about growing older.

Quotes:

[9:46] “When I said to my father at age 12 that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up, he said he could send me to therapy.”

[16:07] “If I was going to start my own thing in the future and learning from somebody’s already doing it, it’s probably the fastest way for me to learn.”

[19:14] “I sort of history of proving people wrong and doing something that seems a little odd at first, but it turns out it’s ahead of the trend.”

[22:14] “There are very few companies whose mission statement is also in the brand name.”

[40:16] “I came to realize we were not in the Boutique hotel business, but we were in the identity refreshment business.”

[51:14] “There’s something called pattern recognition and artificial intelligence is about pattern recognition, but human intelligence is about pattern recognition as is wisdom. Wisdom is another way to describe pattern recognition.”

[55:27] “What’s important to hear here is that the social narrative which is, you know, you hit your midlife crisis and then it’s all downhill from there, it’s not actually accurate.”

[58:50] “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization… It refers to man’s desire for self-fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything one is capable of becoming.”

Links Mentioned On Our Show:
chipconley.com
Wisdom @ Work
Modern Elder Academy
Peak
FB @chipconleyauthor, Insta @chipconley, LinkedIn
Abraham H. Maslow books
The Happiness Curve by Jonathan Rauch

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BGBS 018: Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno | Bonanno Concepts | Creating Happy People

BGBS 018: Creating Happy People | Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno | Bonanno Concepts

Today’s story features the husband and wife team behind Bonanno Concepts, Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno.

Frank and Jaqueline Bonanno have built a restaurant group in Denver on the values of Pride, Family, and Excellence. If you talk to any of their hundreds of employees they’ll all tell you the exact same thing. Not only with they tell you this but they believe it with all their hearts. They believe they are family. They have tremendous pride in what they do and know that the product they are providing is excellent.  It is clear that these values permeate their business and their culture because this is how they view food and it’s place in our lives.

Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno fell in love over after-shift drinks and romantic conversations centered around deeply flavorful food, nuanced service, and the business of restaurant excellence. In their twenty odd years as a couple, Bonanno Concepts built nine restaurants, two bars, a pie shop and a 16-venue marketplace.

Eighteen of their executive chefs and managers used their experiences with the Bonannos to springboard restaurants of their own, and in a very real sense, the Bonannos have shaped and elevated the culinary landscape in Colorado.

We conducted this interview, sitting in the wine room of their very first restaurant – Mizuna.

In this episode we talked about:

• The history of Mizuna; what Frank was doing prior to being in the restaurant business and what steps led him into owning not only Mizuna, but many other businesses.
• What Frank thought his parents, especially his dad, would have said about him being in the food industry, which actually had a surprising turn for him.
• The specificity of Frank glorifying Italian food.
• Jacqueline’s history growing up in Indiana and coincidently working in the restaurant space growing up and going through her college years.
• What led Frank and Jacqueline to pursue a journey in the restaurant industry and business.
• Tips Frank has for people wanting to go into culinary school.
• Frank and Jacqueline’s thoughts on the lack of passionate and qualified workers in the restaurant industry to step back and become a leader.
• How Frank and Jacqueline met…and their different versions on how they fell they in love.
• The very specific details Frank and Jacqueline notice that make the biggest difference to the overall quality and experience in food service.
• Pizza pizza pizza!! Why Pizza is so important to Frank and what he loves so much about it.
• Frank’s pizza competition experience as a judge and his thoughts on why people have a particular pizza preference.
• The journey of Frank’s positions in Denver working for many places, building numerous experience, and practicing his systems of managing.
• Frank’s thoughts on what it’s like being a chef and what anyone could expect.
• The “unique” decision for naming the restaurant Mizuna.
• What opening day for Mizuna was like and why it was an instant success!
• The tragic loss of Frank’s partner Doug and what impact that had on them and the business.
• How Jacqueline ended up getting involved with the business and how she learned the restaurant business.

Quotes:
[10:23] “Basically I did like the food service industry and I served as a kid in the best means for me to surf during the day was to work in a restaurant at night to make money when I was in high school and college.”

[12:31] “We didn’t tell my father I was cooking for about a year and a half until after I decided I really was just going to do this seriously because he wanted me to get into real estate or finance or something, something different.”

[20:11] “It’s more of if you learn the proper way to do something and learn it really well, you’ll be good at it the rest of your life, you’ll be well rounded.”

[23:53] “[Frank] I think that it is just very difficult to find the quality of person who wants to step back and learn and grow in a position because you can go make 50 cents more an hour tomorrow working across the street and the attitude is I can, I just want money and so the passion is not there that was there 20 years ago. [Jacqueline] It’s hard to remain passionate when you have a huge college loan bill you’re trying to pay off.”

[39:13] “The thing to me about pizza is that it is the most artisanal food. It’s just like pasta. You start with flour, water and yeast. You cultivate it and then it goes into a really hot oven. You put fresh cheese that you’ve made. Fresh Mozzarella we’ve made on top of it with some really quality imported Italian tomatoes and fresh basil like I just, the simplicity of pizza is why I love it.”

[58:59] “The hard thing about being a chef is letting go for sure. Because if you’re trying to be too controlling, you’re probably not gonna be successful. If you can’t trust people to do it. And that would be the same thing in running any business.”

[70:48] “We were on a three-month waiting list from the day we opened.”

[97:35] “20-year-old self looking at me now, would probably say, I can’t believe what you’ve accomplished. That would be it, probably. I never thought you’d be here.”

Links Mentioned On Our Show:
Bonanno Concepts
Mizuna
Luca
Bones
Osteria Marco

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BGBS 017: Mike Arzt | Co-Pilot of The Public Works | Born To Shred

BGBS Episode 017: Born to Shred (EXPLICIT)

“One of my favorite sayings about entrepreneurship is: If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, “This sucks. I’m going to do my own thing.” Since I had never wanted to be a businessman, I needed a few good reasons to be one. -Yvon Chouinard

In this episode you’ll hear a story of how a passion for snowboarding, photography, and entrepreneurship positioned Mike Arzt to travel the world, chase snow and become one of the most successful photographers in the snow industry.

The Japanese have a concept “eye-ki-guy”(Ikiagi) that means “a reason for being.” The word “ikigai” is usually used to indicate the source of value in one’s life or the things that make one’s life worthwhile.[1] The word translated to English roughly means “thing that you live for” or “the reason for which you wake up in the morning.”[2] Each individual’s ikigai is personal to them and specific to their lives, values and beliefs. It reflects the inner self of an individual and expresses that faithfully, while simultaneously creating a mental state in which the individual feels at ease…

If that’s not the definition of Mike Arzt, I don’t know what is…

Mike is generous, relaxed, and intense at the same time. He’s been through a lot going through many career journeys. He chases snow like he’s independently wealthy and works at his job like he doesn’t know where the next dollar or meal is coming from.

Mike is a personal dear friend in my life and I am proud to have him as a guest on the Baby Got Backstory.

In this episode we talked about:

• Mike’s Dad being an entrepreneur co-owning a private independent pharmacy in Connecticut, instilling some of the values he had on Mike at a young age.
• Mike’s early years growing up in Connecticut, taking regular trips to Stratton, Vermont and gaining an interest in snowboarding.
• How Mike would work hard and get physically beaten up to get his certification for the chairlifts to board at Stratton, how he made a deal with his parents that allowed him to miss a day of school a week to go up to Stratton, started a ‘Snurf and Snowboard club’ that led to them getting a discount at a ski shop. Mike was extremely dedicated to snowboarding any chance he could get.
• How Jake Burton was a “hero” to Mike and how his brand really spoke to him and his tribe of snowboarding.
• Mike’s years at his first job “Ryan’s Ski and Sport” as a senior in high school. He was later given the responsibility to figure out the snowboard buy for that year and was given a roughly $100,000 budget to manage!
• What led to Mike’s professional interest in photography for snowboarding and how his father had a great influence on that process.
• How Mike’s parents were very supportive of the career decisions he was making, wanting to go to Vermont and work at Burton.
• Mike going to UVM, working in the retail showroom, and then working his way up to manage a product line at Burton working for Red.
• Mike’s unfortunate and highly stressful end working for Red and how it led to him working for Burton.
• What it was like for Mike working for Burton, going to places such as the Olympics, servicing pro snowboarding athletes and providing data to Burton, which was similar to what he was doing working at Red.
• Why Mike ended up leaving Burton and started to work for a multimedia company (Blue Torch) out in Irvine, California, which would unfortunately only last 3 months…
• The journey working at Airwalk and the opportunities that arose for Mike working there.
• Mike being laid off from Airwalk which led to him painfully contacting each athlete to share the bad news of letting them go. This event was “perfectly” timed with Alison also being laid off. So, they were on a 7-day cruise, unemployed, and with no clue what they were going to do…
• In a struggle to find work and make money, Mike managed to sell some of the photos he had taken and really got into a professional stance with photography and also tried to broker his service as sports marketing and team management help.
• The reacquaintance of Mike’s friend, Frank Philips, and how he moved out to Colorado allowing them to work together to form a business, Hellbrook. Mike talks about Frank and the history of Hellbrook and what it meant to them at the time. After working with each other for some time, they would later form the company The Public Works and Mike talks about how The Public Works was born.
• Some of the challenges Mike and Frank faced while running their business as the industry continued to grow.
• The talk Frank, Mike and his industry friend Jason Winkler had about buying a building for their business. After finding the perfect location to form Battery 621, they would later find that the building was in pretty bad shape and would need a complete makeover. Mike talks about the rebuilding process and how stressful it was for him, and also what it’s like working in a co-working space.
• Mike goes over some of his favorite photos he’s taken and what they mean to him.

Quotes:
[9:02] “The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play is labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love in his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at would ever, he does leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he is always doing both.”

[20:50] “I think this is that part of, you know, do you even call snowboarding a sport or I mean people are as passionate about hunting or are so many things right, that are hard to explain to other people how it drives you that much.”

[38:54] “That was one thing my parents did push me on. I think I was down in one last class and I heard a lot of like, could you please just get that diploma and be saying like hasn’t really gotten my way yet that I don’t have it.”

[45:39] “I love that there’s just certain people and random things that happen in life that completely change your course.”

[74:21] “I just did everything I could to hustle and try to make the commitment at that point that I wasn’t going to go chase an in house job again. I was going to try to do it all on my own.”

[77:33] “Hellbrook has never been about a place. It is about a feeling, a philosophy, a goal, a friendship, new friendships, passion, fear, excitement, new challenges, failures that result in a desire to do better, a dream. It is about life and what we want out of it. Hellbrook is different to everyone, but our goal is to create an environment that helps everyone find his or her own “Hellbrook”. If Hellbrook is the same experience each time you go there, we have failed. Hellbrook cannot be static. Hellbrook is about getting up earlier, hiking harder and faster to get their first. You could wait for someone else to come down to tell you it sucked, but you would never hit the major score. If you get up first, hike faster only to find out it’s not good, what should you do next time? Get up first, hike harder and drop in first. There are many people along the way that help you find Hellbrook. Some may play only a small part, but you would never find it on your own. Welcome to our Hellbrook.”

[100:22] “You’re surrounded by good people and people that believe in you and tenants that want it to work and you figure it out and a lot of people along the way teach you and you make mistakes and you just keep pushing through it. But sometimes if you don’t know how far in over your head you are, maybe got a better, better chance of getting back out.”

[108:31] “You know, it’s cool to have photos of the pyramids in Egypt or you know, other famous landmarks or beautiful scenes but, what really stands out is it’s the shots of the people and some of the other stuff that was happening that are those super super memories.”

Links Mentioned On Our Show:

• The Public Works
• Battery621
• Airwalk
• UVM
• Burton
• Mark Sullivan: Snowboard project

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BGBS 016: Barney Waters | KSWISS | CEOs Wear Sneakers

BGBS Episode 016: CEOs Wear Sneakers…

Barney oversees all aspects of K-Swiss, the global sneaker brand, having taken over as President at the beginning of 2016 with a goal to bring the 50 year old brand back to prominence and profitability. Barney has driven fast change both internally and externally, and created a breakthrough brand position around entrepreneurship and brand transparency. Barney has also been Vice President of Marketing for heritage boot brand Palladium, overseeing the brand’s global re-launch and all aspects of brand communication. Prior to Palladium Barney was based in Boston as Vice President of Marketing for PUMA North America during the brands explosive growth period. Now based in new offices in DTLA, Barney is originally from London, England and has been in the footwear industry for over 15 years.

In this episode we talked about:

• What sort of fashion Barney was into growing up when it came to clothes, shoes, and music.
• Barney’s early career in the software industry moving into the sneaker business, both in marketing, and his original aspiration, to be a sales person.
• Barney becoming head of marketing for Puma and later head of marketing for Puma in North America seven years later.
• What led Barney to move to California and what strategies he implemented to rebuild Palladium.
• The history of KSWISS and the reasons why the founders designed their sneakers the way they are.
• What led to Barney becoming the president of KSWISS and the process he took to get there.
• The importance of timing and fashion trends as indicators to maximize the full market potential.
• What sort of strategies Barney did to get the KSWISS brand back to relevance.
• The focus on considering the brand a “tennis specialist” which was a heritage American tennis brand, and the only one in the world.
• The importance of branding and tips Barney used to change the perception of the KSWISS brand.
• How Barney got Gary Vee involved with KSWISS and how his involvement turned into a great success.
• CEOs Wear Sneakers podcast and where the idea for the show came about.
• The plans for KSWISS future and some of the programs Barney is working on.

Quotes:

[03:48] “I just love the fact that you’re actually sort of the chess player. You’re the one who’s sort of scheming and calculating and trying to read the market and put together the plan, and I like that.”

[17:29] “I could have told a great story about how we’re the number one best running shoes for marathons, but if that wasn’t what the market was buying, then I have a great story that’s irrelevant in terms of selling shoes.”

[22:50] “…look, product sales and marketing have to be aligned. In other words, if marketing creates an amazing campaign and gets a ton of eyeballs and then that consumer goes to the mall at the weekend, but there’s no case wishings in the stores, then that brand awareness cannot be converted to a sale.”

[23:09] “…you’ve got to be careful that you’re not, marketing isn’t generating demand. That can’t be fulfilled because sales, hasn’t been aligned on the plan.”

[25:38] “I mean, that’s probably one of the things about having an older brand is the good news is that people really like and trust in the longevity of a brand,  that the downside is, you’ve got this baggage because it’s hard to change the perception of that brand because that perception of the brand resides in somebody else’s mind, not in yours.”

[38:20] “I think these days branding is becoming much more important for companies. I just feel like we always pick our presidents or CEOs from the commercial side, either the CFO or the head of sales and brand is probably the most important thing now because, there’s parity in features and functions.”

[39:09] “I feel like branding has raised an importance. If you’re not a company that is solidifying what your brand stands for and building what your brand stands for and then communicating that, then you’re going to be in trouble.”

Links Mentioned On Our Show:

Gary Vee Dark Cloud Shoes

Clouds and Dirt Gary Vee shoes

88 Knit-Clouds and Dirt Shoes

CEOs Wear Sneakers Podcast

KSWISS

Puma

Palladium

Gary Vee (Vaynerchuck)

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BGBS 015: Maxine Clark | Build-A-Bear Workshop | Everyone Needs A Teddy Bear

BGBS Episode 015: Everyone Needs A Teddy Bear

Maxine Clark is one of the true innovators in the retail industry. During her career, her ability to spot emerging retail and merchandising trends and her insight into the desires of the American consumer have generated growth for retail leaders, including department store, discount and specialty stores. In 1997, she founded Build-A-Bear Workshop®, a teddy-bear themed retail-entertainment experience. Today there are more than 400 Build-A-Bear Workshop stores worldwide.

Maxine Clark is the founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop & Chief Executive Officer of Clark-Fox Family Foundation. She’s made many impressions with her skills and abilities to have the vision of the consumer and her unique strategies when it comes to branding. While working her way up the chain in her career path, Maxine, at age 48, successfully managed to structure, build, and grow her billion-dollar company based on hugs and love…

In this episode we talked about:

• Maxine’s loss of “Teddy”, her teddy bear, that had left her devastated as a child. She shared many experiences and secrets with Teddy and losing him was a traumatic event for her.
  
• Maxine’s life growing up and wanting to be a civil rights attorney. She went to college, majored in journalism, eventually went off to law school, and started work in department stores where she made it into a company division in Washington.
• What the retail experience was like back the day for Maxine and how malls were the highlights of the retail industry.
• Maxine’s previous employment work landed her to great opportunities to becoming a buyer and then later working with the CEO as senior executive with May Company, and then later became the President of PayLess.
• The customer-oriented natural skill Maxine has and how she’s applied it to her previous work and her business.
• How Maxine sensed the rise of the internet and focused on the use of technology to create a better customer experience for her early start of Build-A-Bear Workshop.
• Maxine used her skills and vision to build her business as an entrepreneur working for other companies.
• The importance of children and the role they play for our future. How it’s important to hear their voices and ideas and help them live out those dreams.
• Maxine shares the importance of sharing your own ideas and how to put your heart out there for it.
• Some of the key components and operations that ran the success of the first early Build-A-Bear Workshop store and some of the issues Maxine had to face while starting out.
• The Growth of Build-A-Bear Workshop and the gradual success, as well as the hard times facing the 2008 and 2009 recession and the change in the mall business due to factors such as higher gas prices and the rise of online shopping.
• The events that led to Maxine leaving Build-A-Bear Workshop, in a heartfelt way.
• The Delmar Divine non-profit project Maxine is currently working on.
• Maxine’s unique look at how she views branding and what ideas she executed for Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Quotes:

[16:22] “The journey is far better than the destination.”

[17:03] “So I just really was able to know pretty firsthand what the customer was looking for. I had good instincts about that.”

[25:37] “You have to constantly be innovating and that’s what made retailing so successful.”

[26:37] “We do need to do a better job of connecting young people with talent and ideas to people who can execute it.”

[29:56] “Curiosity is really what made the world what it is today. Somebody thought there could be something better and they invented that better, and that’s what we’re all prospering from.”

[30:55] “If you don’t put your ideas out there, other people can’t add value to them. They also maybe can’t steal them, but more importantly they can’t add value to them…people can’t steal what’s in your heart.”

[55:49] “I look for the Bentley and then I figure out how to do it on a Ford-budget.”

Links Mentioned On Our Show:

Build-A-Bear

The Bear Necessities of Business

Delmar Divine

Clark-Fox Foundation

May Company

PayLess

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BGBS 014: Luis Benitez | CO Outdoor Recreation Office | Sometimes Your Path Chooses You

BGBS Episode 014: Sometimes Your Path Chooses You

Over the course of a decade, Luis Benitez has quietly emerged amongst a growing field of climbers as one of the more experienced, respected and busiest professional guides and leadership development consultants in the world. Throughout his career, Luis has summited the top of the famed “Seven Summits” a cumulative 32 times, including being a six-time summiteer of Mt. Everest.

Between managing expeditions on some of the most remote peaks in the world, while consulting with a deep and varied group of clientele, Benitez works to tie the lessons available from the outdoors and carry them back to the everyday challenges of life and business during his keynote presentations and seminars.

In this episode we talked about:

• What Luis’ current title Director of the Outdoor Recreation Industry Office for the State of Colorado means and the kind of difficulties he faces.
• Some of the early ambitions Luis had growing up.
• What life was like for Luis growing up in Ecuador and the history of his family and where he got his outdoor and mountaineering experience from.
• How Luis became instantly inspired to be a mountaineer from reading about Jim Whittaker, who “had what I have (Asthma).”
• What steps Luis took to become a mountain guide as he inspired to be.
• What it’s like to be a mountain guide and what type of hierarchies are involved.
• Luis expedition to Cho Oyu in Tibet and the horrifying experience that occurred going through the pass from Nepal to Dharamsala India.
• The involvement Luis got into with the incident he had seen going on his expedition.
• Luis experience meeting the Dalai Lama, what conversations they had, and how his message to a certain group of refuges changed the perception of Luis’ life and how he had applied it to his community.
• What lead Luis getting into politics and being elected to serve as Town Council in Eagle, Colorado.
• The call with John Hickenlooper and him hiring Luis to be the first director of the Outdoor Recreation Industry Office.
• Luis’ take on the leadership of the country today, especially on how it influences the outdoor economy.

Quotes:

[13:58] “I remember dragging that magazine into my parents’ bedroom, pointing at Jim Whittaker saying, “This guy has what I have. This is exactly what I want to do. I want to be a mountain guide, I want to climb mount Everest.”

[26:12] “That expedition [Cho Oyu] really changed the trajectory of my life personally and professionally.”

[27:27] “These soldiers can’t follow us up the hill, so let’s leave for our summit push. Let’s get a move on. By the time we come down, the world is going to know…and I just never had such heavy feet moving up the hill.”

[38:56] “The director for ICT (International Communicator for Tibet) laughing, saying, “ok Luis pop quiz, when the Dali lama special envoy calls you and says that his holiness wants to meet you, what do you say?”

[40:55] “He [Dalai lama] said, “You know, sometimes you don’t get to choose your path, sometimes your path chooses you. And now it’s going to be up to you to decide how you want to show up.”

[51:52] “He’s [John Hickenlooper] one of the few people that if he said, “Jump off that ledge [or] walk through that window.”, I wouldn’t even think twice to follow him.”

[55:11] [Politics] “Now what I think what we’re going to see is a shift and understanding how cohesive social justice can and should be in relation to our natural resources and relation to our economy and industry and what we do and how we do it.”

[59:19] “Did you have fun? Was it hard? Was it Worth it?”

Links Mentioned On Our Show:

Luis Benitez

John Hickenlooper

Dalai Lama

Jim Whittaker

Outdoor Recreation Industry Office

Mount Rainier

Mount Everest

Seven Summits

About Luis moving on to his new role at VF Corp:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2391627/luis-benitez-outdoor-industry-colorado

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/06/luis-benitez-colorado-outdoors-vf-corp/

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