The setting: Forecastle Music Festival, 2014 Louisville, KY
“I have to get that dude on my show!” – me
“Who?” – Lindsay
“That baller in the yellow shart.com dress over there! Look how brilliant that marketing is!! I think I’ve seen him in a yellow speedo before.” –me
“Oh my god yea- that dude! I see that yellow bug he drives everywhere…” – Lindsay
“Genius,” – me
“Guinness? Yes..that too.”
This is precisely the exact conversation Lindsay and I had when gazing amongst the fantastic people watching of the stellar festival last summer. At the pinnacle of the entire crowd was the man, the myth, the notorious legend Todd Schleuning, marketing his startup like the fearless champion that he is. I salute you, sir.
Well, I fulfilled my wish and was able to bring the mack-daddy-daddy-mack Todd on the show for a blast of a conversation about his super creative t-shirt framing startup Shart.com. From Phish, Jeff Tweedy, Jenny Lewis and Reinwolf to the process of planning out an idea and kickstarting a creative business, there is a never a dull moment in this episode
I admire Todd and Cheryl’s drive and inspiration, but most of all their ability to recognize the importance of establishing ongoing creativity in the process of raising their family. The co-authored “The Misphits: Story of Snake,” which they hope will be the first in a series of children’s books, and they boldly include their children in their shart.com family marketing efforts.
Sherman, Sheryl, Shoney, Shoney and SherkinShart are here to take over the world in the cleverest way possible.
Creative Influences
To defeat Godzilla with his talents…
- “I will just lay down in a fetal position, it’s Godzilla! Or, I can make him laugh or give him a Shart.com t-shirt.”
Advice…
- In writing, there are no rules. You can create something and do whatever you want.
- To be able to be honest in business is great.
- Have the ability to talk to people and be comfortable doing it.
- Go after any free money you can, do these pitches.
- Get out there and go crazy.
Interview Links
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Todd:
- 19:09 : About The Misphits, the trait and values they aim to spread through the book and what he loved most about writing it,
- 21:24 : Being a role model to his three girls and the part they played in daddy’s achievements,
- 24:06 : Finding crowd funding platforms to be useful in his projects: Fiber for Shart and using Kickstarter to raise funds for The Misphits project and ending doing a second run when their first did not turn out as successful due to raising the goal too high,
- 28:25 : The process of getting Shart together including decisions to be made in purchasing the domain and getting the best business ideas from a drunk teenager,
- 36:48 : Sharing more of his previous Kickstarter campaign experience and things you should know if you are looking into doing one such as doing tons of research,
- 42:46 : About Shart and how a Woodstock 1994 t-shirt birthed the idea of the project,
- 46:57 : The habits he has in place to help him out in is daily routines including honesty, consistencyand organization,
- 54:51 : Sharing best practices which worked for him including learning how to pitch, using unique marketing styles and leveraging social media, and
- 1:00:50 :Recalling the first creative thing he did and the most difficult times in his life.
