ASR Blog

com(a)merica)ls

there are three commercials i would LOVE punkster to be in, and i have created them in my head, directed them, cast them, wrote the copy. . ..

1 - i would love to be featured in the plum card commercial. have you seen what they did for pink berry? i mean, my goodness!!! i am so jealous. man, to even get approved for that card would be exciting, let alone a free commercial!

2 - the visa small business commercial, its so exciting! i can see us now, all over the city using the card, kind of like what we do not, but of course it would look much more glamourous and less desperate and "scary/ debt" ish. and we would be wearing heels at all times.

3 - that at&t commercial, the one wes anderson did where they talk about how their business is all over the board. i could see it now. "i work in . . .nashville, ny, pittsburgh, ohio, california, from highways, etc. . .my partner works from new york, my warehouse is in the country, my designer is on the west coast, seattle, ohio, la, my graphics designer is in hawaii, my business is punkster, my phone is at&t.

oh shoot, just saw a fourth commercial punkster has to get on,

"i am american business. i watch cnbc." shoooooot, so much to do, so little time.

gotta go, gotta go get commercial worthy! ah i love this country!

- leanne ford

thankful and sleepy.

i had a dream last night that i got to meet sheryl crow and thank her for holding up our punkster shirt for a camera. that single move that got us major sales, major store accounts, instyle, us weekly, people mag, barneys, fred segal.

i dreamt i got to go up and thank her in person at a party. in the dream she walked away all wierded out. but jennifer aniston was really nice to me, in her mom jeans.

dreams will come true. at least the sheryl part i bet. . .jennifer aniston? now thats a stretch.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU! MAY YOUR BIGGEST BUSINESS DREAMS COME TRUE. AND MAY EVERYONE BE BUYING YOUR IDEAS AND INVENTIONS TO PUT UNDER THE TREE BY NEXT YEAR!

- leanne ford

guerrilla marketing. . . .

hows this for guerilla marketing!!!!

i read the book in college and its stayed with me, even across the country!!! a special shout out to my three legged dog tom.

telling secrets and big ideas.

i watch two channels, CMT and CNBC. one is because of my love of country and americana, and the other is my love for the dream that is because i am an american child - life, live, love, work, goals, dreams, aspire, inspire, create and succeed. in no particular order.

as i write this, "the big idea" is on my tv talking about becoming a household name, "entrepreneur mag" is on my desk.

just watching the big idea COMMERCIAL inspires and stresses me out in a single heartbeat.

now i bet you if you are reading this and you are a dream maker, small business owner, you love "THE BIG IDEA" too, and like me, you probably wonder why you aren't on that show yet! HELLO!! we are over here! PUNKSTER is ready for our interview!!!

hahah, they just mentioned blogs as a way to market your idea. check!

their thoughts:
1. focus on your target market
2. get a third party to talk about your product (if its good they will do it for nothing)

bigidea.csnbc.com has more! i cant wait to go read it after i finish this.

and actually, punkster waaaaas on "the big idea", we just happened to be in the audience. this is a great story! ok ok. . ..

it starts on a bored night in long beach when my roommate shilpa and i didnt want to go out, but we didnt want to go to sleep, even lazier, we didnt want to go get a movie. she told me she had this really great movie kind of movie.. . .not a documentary. . not a movie .. .called the secret.

exactly.

so we watched it, and i thought about it, and whether its hyped or not, or true or not, the concept and the most basic form of this concept is valid. .. .the concept that if you think something is going to happen, you are going to make the proper steps to get it there. for example, i have always "known" i was going to make whatever dream, of the many wild ones i have, happen. so i just went forward to make those dreams happen, did the steps to make them work. simple as that. so in that concept, "the secret" is valid.

if you think its going to work, you, by default, are going to move forward to make that all happen.

so flash forward to me moving back to new york from long beach, my business partner and friend, ashleigh drove cross country with me with all my stuff in the back of my old 4runner. i totally remember this conversation, we were in the arizona night driving, i was introducing her to the concept of the SECRET and she had never heard of it before. she loved it, because, she too has lived her life moving forward to her dreams. we thought. . ..lets test this!!!!

so we decided, we were going to test the secret, this is not a joke, first we decided 1. we were going to get a meeting with donald trump to ask him how to get money or investors. and a seperate and totally random other idea was 2. we want punkster to be on the big idea. so we said, "its the secret, lets throw it out there." and we literally took our hands and threw "it" out into the arizona sky.

the next week ashleigh (my partner) gets an email from her nyu business school, does anyone want to come to a taping of the big idea?

YEAA WOOHOOO!

then it got wierder, the guest was donald trump.

YEAAAA WOOOHOOOO!

then if got wierder, if anyone has a question for donald trump email it over and we will pick those who can ask.

so three days later our secret happened, we were not only on the big idea, we were asking donald trump how to get money for our company.

now, its not quite the full interview we are prepping our hair and makeup for. .. . but its getting us camera ready i would say!

-------------

im home for the holidays with my family in pittsburgh and my mother just walked into the room, saw "the big idea" on the TV and walked out saying simply,

"YOU'LL BE ON THERE"

thanks mom, she doesn't believe in the secret, but she lives it too.

and i thought, yea, i know.

-leanne ford

you look good baby!

just thought i'd show a little project i did for fun with my imovie program! im going to make a shorter one, but i was pretty excited about this!

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virtual insanity

i found this article about the virtual office, i think its really true!

and i like the idea and truth it has to BS working, one benefit of virtual offices is that once you get your work done, you don't need to sit there till five to clock out then stay an hour later to LOOK like you are being really productive. virtual bosses just want the work done, the goals accomplished, and you can go ahead and take that long lunch, just dont expect to sleep before due dates. but it doesnt really matter does it? no one sees the bag under your eyes or the pajama casual anyway!

read it and weep. or read it and sleep. either way...
http://www.boston.com/jobs/news/articles/2006/10/01/virtual_office_is_what_you_make_it/

The gist of the article says, "the benefits are flexibility, efficiency, and little overhead. The drawback is that time management is difficult, and not everyone adapts.

It might seem that in the land of virtual companies, in a virtual economy, there is virtually no work getting done. But Dennis Yang and Sarmiento both exemplify the work ethic that typifies virtual offices.

'In a small company where people know each other and are dedicated to a cause or a calling, you can count on everyone to be productive,' says Yeh. But even a technology cheerleader such as Yeh doesn't foresee a workplace devoid of stupid meetings and wasteful schedules.

'The virtual office can cut down on the BS,' he says, 'but BS is part of human nature.'"

- leanne ford
the o. p.
(original punkster)

freedom? or desperado?

Punkster should be the poster child for that AT&T commercial where they are all over the world and the country but they keep in contact through their cell phones. we are those people.

nashville, tn - me
bronx, ny - business partner
melville, ny - warehouse
san luis obispo, ca - graphic design
long beach, ca - acoustic design
san fran, ca - textiles
charlotte, nc - production headquarters
los angeles, ca - sales rep
atlanta, ga - sales rep
india,
hong kong,
etc,
etc,
etc.

so in one way, we get the creme of the crop the people who are best at what they do no matter where they are, and in a time of internet and cell phones, faxes and blackberry's the world is our oyster, but something is missing. there is a huge communication error, management delay, time difference that makes efficient business something of a pipe dream. . .

is it possible for everyone to stay everywhere or does some place have to give and the worlds need to be together in the same room at the same hours? daily, weekly?

trips are nice, and overseas is fun, and highways call and volunteering at camp is noble, but at what cost to our business are we doing all of this?

many large companies have design offices in ny when thre rest of the corporate offices are in the midwest, that works. course they have budgets now dont they? hotel, air, gas budgets. so is it possible for a small business to make long distance work? are there ways to keep each other updated? is there a way for us to get an update on an email, order, call, without harrassing our partner for a week?

our freedom is important to us and a large reason i started my own business, but at what cost to the customers, the profits, the product is this freedom?

dont the eagles sing about that??
"And freedom, oh freedom well, that's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walking through this world all alone"

yea, i'd say desperado is a good way to describe how a small business owner feels on a daily basis.

but really, do long distance relationships ever really "work"?

-leanne ford
the original punkster

GO STEAL ERS

i love this comment from doug at cool sofa!

Your concept and slogans are so novel that I'm surprised they haven't been ripped off sooner. It sucks that they have such a large Goliath-like merchandising machine but to your advantage it took them over a year to get their knock-off on the shelf. Legal fights require a whole different set munitions. Your slingshot is your noodle. That's what started this whole thing in the first place. You just have to keep creating and let them play catch up. On the business side, reward your customers for their loyalty. Keep a good list and recruit your best customers in the fight. Everyone loves an underdog :-D

Commenter name: Cool Sofa
Commenter email: doug@coolsofa.com"

because its true, we just have to take advantage of getting the underdog vote while we can! people love the little guy, and the funny thing about being the little guy, is if you get enough success, you become the big guy, and you lose the little guy love. not that we are anywhere close. . .or are we? but this concept is why we are creating a brand with punkster not just a tshirt line, tshirt lines come and go and lose their oomph, and get stolen and people get sick of them. . .thats why you always need to push and get ready for the next big idea and branch of where to take your name, bsuiness, and customers. for instance that is why we started punkster acoustic, and many other little tricks we have up our sleeve!

but yea, thanks so much doug for a great coment and reminding us that we just need to push forward and use it as our momentum and drive to make something ELSE they can steal!!

well, hopefully NOT, but it will be good enough for them to want to, thats for sure!

hey goliath! you can steal our slogans but you cant steal our pride!!!

haha, that will be our new battle cry!

-leanne ford