Ramen Days... How riders took over the bike and skate industries in the 1990's recession

My footage and editing of Chris Moeller, in 1991, when S&M bikes was being run out of the garage of a one bedroom apartment, on Alabama Street, in Huntington Beach, California.  Clip from the first S&M Bikes video, Feel My Leg Muscles, I'm a Racer, that title was the pick-up line Dave Clymer used to pick up his girlfriend.  

I was sitting outside the front door of the tiny "Winnebago" apartment, on a lawn chair.  It was 1991.  The apartment, officially on Alabama Street in Huntington Beach, actually opened up to the backyard of three other units.  It was like we had to go into someone else's backyard to get to our front door. The whole apartment was 8 feet wide, tiny living room, tiny kitchen, hall and tiny bathroom, small bedroom, then the single car garage that housed S&M Bikes.  There were two tiny windows.  It felt like you were in a motorhome, so it got dubbed the "Winnebago,"  before I moved in.

The fledgling S&M Bikes company, then doing about $100,000 gross revenue a year, lived in the garage.  Chris lived in the bedroom, and most nights, his girlfriend stayed over.  I slept on the living room floor.  Shaggy, who looked just like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, slept on the two cushion couch.  I wound up getting fired from my video duplicating job in North Hollywood, while making the "Leg Muscles" video, a story which became a BMX industry urban legend.  That's a tale for another day.  After losing that job, while making "Leg Muscles," I wound up living in the Winnebago.

Mornings usually started with Chris' then girlfriend Shelly, waking up early, stepping over me and my sleeping bag, and heading out to work.  The three of us roommates were up late, usually drinking a bit, and slept in.  Often there was an early call from some East Coast bike shop a little later, wanting a Dirtbike frame or a pair of Slam Bars.  I groaned in my mild hangover, crawled halfway out of my sleeping bag on the floor, and reached up for the landline phone, sitting on a little wooden stand we found in an alley.  I'd bring the phone down to my head, and croak "S&M Bikes."  We had a sheet or two of scratch paper, and usually a pen pr pencil on the stand.  I'd take down the order, hang up, and go back to sleep.

Somewhere around 8:30 or 9:00, I'd wake up, roll up my sleeping bag, and tuck it in a corner of the living room, then pour a bowl of cereal.  I'd usually open the front door, and sit outside it and eat breakfast.  Chris would often wake up soon after.  I distinctly remember him coming out with a cup of microwaved hot water day after day, and sitting outside the door in the other sketchy old lawn chair, in cheap shorts and some random, well worn T-shirt.  He would drink a cup of hot tea.  Some days he'd go get a free cup of coffee at his bank, about three blocks away.  Money was tight, even for him.  Shaggy and I had $200 rent and a little food and beer to buy.  Chris had bicycle frames, forks, and handlebars to get built, and orders to ship out, many bills to pay, rent to pay, and a small company to keep running.  A pack of ramen really was a standard meal once or twice a week, and sometimes more than that.

One day, Chris came out with his cup of hot water, sat down, and opened up a tea bag, and made his hot tea.  We'd usually talk about what orders needed to go out that day, or getting 25 more sets of Slam Bars made, or maybe a place to go ride later, after the day's orders were packed, and picked up by the UPS guy.  After drinking his tea, on that particular day, Chris sat his tea bag on the plastic arm of the lawn chair.

The next morning, Chris came out with his mug of hot water, grabbed the tea bag from the day before, still sitting on the arm of the lawn chair, and made another cup of tea with it.  I joked about him re-using it, and he said it was still good, and tea bags cost money.  Then he finished his tea, and set the used tea bag on the arm of the lawn chair, again.

When he came out the third morning, mug of hot water in hand, and made tea a third time, with the same tea bag, I laughed again.  Chris Moeller was a cheap ass motherfucker back then.  Maybe he still is.  But that is part of what it took to start and run a tiny bike company, in the recession, in 1991. He started S&M, with a $1,200 loan from his Grandpa, (his business idol), as fas as I know.  Chris had to live cheap, and re-invest as much money as possible back into buying frames, forks, bars, t-shirts, and the other things S&M Bikes sold.  H bought a batch of something, sold that stuff, and took that slightly larger amount of money, bought more stuff to sell, and repeated the process.  In this way he multiplied the business' money, and built a small company, without any debt.  That's pretty freakin' amazing, considering how much money most traditional businesses start with, how much debt they take on, and how many of those businesses go out of business.

Up in the Hermosa Beach area, skateboarder Steve Rocco was doing the same thing, with a little skateboard company called World Industries.  The word was that Rocco named his company "World Industries" as a joke, because it looked big time when the name was printed on a credit card.  Rocco's story is documented in the film The Man Who Souled the World, which you need to watch, if you never have.

By 1989, the third wave of skateboarding popularity (60's, 70's, 80's), the second wave of BMX racing popularity (70's,80's), and the first wave of BMX freestylepopularity, (80's), had run their course, and they were business aspect of the two sports were fading.  Then the recession of 1990 hit the real business world.  The Big 5 companies in skateboarding, and the handful in BMX companies, were hit hard.  The industries, run by diehard, old school business guys, went into a nosedive.

Into that mess a few well known skaters and BMXers started their own little companies, which everyone with any business experience, expected to fail.  These companies all seemed to have a top name rider/skater running the business, and a smart guy, and less known, less skilled rider/skater,  as a sidekick.  the sidekicks helped out to a greater or lesser extent, behind the scenes, depenidng on the company.

Steve Rocco started World Industries, and freestyle skating world champion, Rodney Mullen was the smart sidekick.  Tony Hawk started Birdhouse, with freestyle skater Per Welinder as the sidekick.  Freestyle skater Pierre Andre Senizergues got a shoe company in France, Etnies, to make skate shoes.  Then he took it over, working with good friend, and another freestyle skater, Don Brown as assistant everything in the early days.  In BMX, Haro pro Ron Wilkerson started 2-Hip, putting on halfpipe and then street contests.  His sidekick was former East Coast freestyler Kevin Martin.  Meanwhile, Chris Moeller started S&M Bikes in 1987 with fellow racer Greg Scott.  They parted ways about 1989, and Chris took over, and I became his brainiac sidekick for about 4 years, after he hired me to make the first S&M Bikes video.  John Lucero, another pro skater, and curb skating officianado, started Black Label Skateboards.  Ed Templeton started Toy Machine Skateboards.  Mat Hoffman and sidekick Steve Swope took their Sprocket Jockeys trick team, and morphed it into several businesses, including contest promotion and Hoffman Bikes.  All of these businesses, and several others, really took root in the long "double dip" recession of the early 1990's.

These businesses were not ideas pitched to rich angel investors, who gave these budding entrepreneurs $5 million to burn, while waiting to see if the businesses turned into something that could be taken public, or sold to Google or Yahoo.  Hell, Google and Yahoo were still years away from being invented.  These little bike and skate businesses were started with a thousand, two thousand, or maybe five thousand dollars, and no clue of how to actually run a business.  They were started by guys who were thinking, "We need bikes that don't crack," or "We need to make skateboards where skaters can help design their board and graphics."  Basically, the ideas going in were, "We don't know what the fuck we're doing, but this NEEDS to happen."

S&M Bikes is still going strong, 33 years old now, and Chris Moeller is a millionaire.  He's probably still a tightwad, at least until one of his twin daughters asks for money.  He still rides, with two replaced hips, and it still a brilliant business man.  Me, I'm homeless in the San Fernando Valley, but wherever I go, local police are told by someone (apparently from a federal level) that I have a 216 IQ, and they can't fuck with me, since a whole bunch of three-letter agencies have spent the last 18 years fucking with me, went kind of overboard.  Apparently that ridiculously high IQ test score (I took that test when I was going to join the Marines in 1985) is overly important to certain groups of people.  I've never been told in person what the score was, but have overheard police, who were told, talking about it.  I really don't believe it, but that's the only explanation I have for a couple of decades of really weird shit happening in my life.  Seriously, that's my story, as best as I can figure it out.  OK, my story is far from typical of the others in this bunch, most have fared much better.

Steve Rocco sold World Industries for $20 million in 1998 or so.  Rodney Mullen is a skate legend, still skates, and gives TED Talks to super smart people on the subject of creativity.  World Industries also spawned Spike Jonze' film career, and Johnny Knoxville, and the whole Jackass phenomena.  The three Jackass movies, made for $35 million total, are three of the most profitable movies in the history of film.  Really.

Black Label Skateboards is small, but vibrant.  Mat Hoffman owns like 9 companies, and has been re-engineered with alien DNA.  OK, I can't prove that, but that's the only explanation I can think of for why his body still functions after so many horrific crashes.  Toy Mahcine skateboards is still going strong, and Ed Templeton still skates, even after seriously breaking his neck.  Ed's also a world reknowned aritst. 

Birdhouse Skateboards is still around, I don't know if Tony is affiliated with it these days, or not.  But the Tony Hawk Pro Skater video game made over $ 1 billion in its ten year run.  Tony's doing well, and still skating hard.

Etnies shoes morphed into Sole Technology, which puts out Emerica, E's shoes, 32 snowboard boots, and Altamont clothes.  At its peak, Sole Tech did somewhere around $200 million in sales a year, dwarfing these other companies.  Now they're battling Nike and Van's, the big boys in sports shoes.  More power to them.  Pierre and Don are my old bros from years riding and skating at the Huntington Beach Pier, they're good guys.  

So now we're in the beginning of another, more serious, recession.  I personally think it will be a long, drawn out, depression or great depression, kind of like the Great Recession of 2008, and the long recession of the 1990's, put together.  I've dubbed this The Phoenix Great Depression, follow the link to find out why.  The dirtbag riders and skaters of 30 years ago are industry moguls now.  Will young guys and gals in BMX, skateboarding, and other action sports, start a new series of small businesses to take them out?  I don't know.  They're all in it for the long haul, and I expect them all to be around for a while.

A whole slew of other companies were also spawned from bike/skate world in the recession of the 1990's.  My focus in this current economic collapse isn't on the BMX, skateboard, and the now huge action sports industries.  In this economic downturn, I think millions of Americans, many recently laid off, others already working gig jobs or running small businesses, will do what the BMXers and skaters of 1990 did to that world.  I think we will see a huge wave of small businesses emerge, many out of sheer necessity, in this decade, the 2020's.  Some of those will grow into giants, and into completely new industries, going forward.

Still in the grips of the Covid-19 business shutdown, small business itself has taken a beating.  Millions of small businesses are on the ropes now, to use the boxing metaphor.  Many will fail.  But there just aren't enough major businesses to put 20 or 30 or 50 million Americans back to work, as we exit this recession.  Millions, literally millions of new small businesses will be necessary to do this.  I think we will start seeing micro and small businesses rise up from the ashes of this massive economic collapse, and create some amazing things.  I saw it happen in our little BMX and skateboard world 30 years ago.  I think this time around will be even more exciting. 

Here's the garage on Alabama Street in Huntington Beach, that housed S&M Bikes in 1991.  The back end of the Winnebago apartment

I have a new blog now, about side hustles, gig jobs, small businesses, and making a living in recession of 2023-2025.  Check it out:

Small Business Futurist

A solid look at Business Disruption ahead...

I had never heard of Patrick Bet David before I bookmarked this a day or two ago.  This guy's an entrepreneur, he's obviously involved in today's rapidly changing, tech enabled world, and he makes A LOT of sense.  I don't agree with everything, but that's the point.  He's making me think about  change that I haven't dreamed of... and I think about these types of things continuously.

As I've written before in this blog, I think we're in an 80 year (or so) period where our new technology is disrupting every business model, and every aspect of society.  I call this The Big Transition.  This video, which is a year old, challenges us to consider major disruption in 10 industries and one other area.  Here are the industries he sees changing and/or disappearing:
Restaurants, Movie theaters, Telecommunications, Wallets, Personal cars, Retailers, Insurance, Traditional journalists, College sports, Gas stations.  Bonus: Politics.

I don't agree with everything, and he's coming at this from a completely upscale financial viewpoint.  There are more poor people than ever, there will be millions more in the future, and they 1) need many of these things at some level (like Walmart and cheap restaurants), and 2) millions of late adapters and the financially left behind people slow "progress" down dramatically.  That said, he makes a lot of valid arguments worth considering, especially if you're involved in these areas.

Things have changed dramatically in the last 30-40 years, and more things will change faster in the next 20 or so years.  In any case, employee or business owner, these ideas are worth the time to listen to and mull over.  

The Value of a customer to a small business

Oh man... The 1980's.  Yeah, that's me on the right, running the Ferris wheel at the Boise Fun Spot, making $3.10 an hour as a manager with 13 employees under me.  That's three of them hoping I don't stop the wheel when they're on top, L to R, Kim, Michelle (I think), and Pam, my girlfriend the summer before this.  Yeah, 1985, I was all about the Op short shorts for guys.  Jeez...  Photo by another employee, Vaughn Kidwell.


Business question.  You run a local fast food chain restaurant, which of these customers is the most valuable to you?

- Crusty old man:  He comes in every morning, buys a coffee and a cheap breakfast sandwich, $3.50 total, 7 days a week, and then talks to a couple of friends for 2 or 3 hours, and then leaves.

-Working woman:  She comes to your drive-thru 4 days a week on average, every week, and buys a $3 coffee drink, and a $4 breakfast sandwich.

-Family of four:  They bring the kids once every two weeks, the parents each get an $8 combo, and each of the two kids gets a $5 kids meal.

-Traveling baseball team with adults chaperones:  Twelve of them pull off the freeway, and everyone gets an $8 combo.  They live in another state, and never come back.

The restaurant's employees should be professional to everyone, unless people are complete idiots.  I've worked three years in restaurants, and dealt with the public in other jobs.  There are a bunch of idiots out there, the customer IS NOT always right, and shit happens.  But being rude, screaming at, and actually fighting customers ALWAYS costs the company money.  Sometimes a huge amount, in lost business.  That's my point.  I get treated like shit all the time, at restaurants I spend a lot of money at.  Yes, I'm currently homeless, and I sit and "work" for a couple hours usually.  I'm polite, I don't steal, I pay for my stuff, I throw my trash away when I leave.  Hell I even put out a fire at a McDonald's the other day.  It was a tiny bush fire from a careless cigarette, no big deal, but I'll be helpful now and then if needed.  I get along with the employees for the most part.  I'm pretty much the crusty old man.  Yet, I get attitude from managers ll the time.  Of the four examples above, that's the one most like to get an employee acting rude to them.

So what does the restaurant lose if they piss off these customers, and they go somewhere else?

The Working Woman wins, she brings $1,456 annually to the restaurant.  You give her a hard time the one time she brings a cold sandwich back in and asks for a new one, this business is out nearly $1500.  Ouch.

The Crusty Old Man comes in as the second most valuable customer, with $1,277.50 in annual business.  He doesn't buy much at one time, he sits there a lot, but he brings a good chunk of continual, and dependable, cash to the business, just like the Working Woman.

The Family of Four is the most likely to be seen by managers as the "prime customer,"  managers tend to think these groups are their "bread and butter."  They're important customers, but they bring in $676 annually, less that half of the money the Working Woman or the Crusty Old Man spend.

The Traveling Kids' Baseball Team is a boon to the restaurant's daily numbers, but their one time spend of $96 pales in comparison to the regular customers, and that's my point.  I haven't seen a fast food manager in a long time who understands this basic concept.  If you had to piss off one of these customer/groups, it's actually the best to have the big spending Baseball Team upset, they're never coming back anyway.

My point... take care of your regular customers, the best you can.  Teach your managers to do this.  You'll make more money, which is the point of a business.  

I got my first taste of running a business a week or two before I turned 18.  As a graduating high school senior in Boise, Idaho, way back in 1984, I got a job at the Boise Fun Spot.  It was a cheesy little mini-amusement park, inside Julia Davis Park downtown, near the Boise Zoo.  We had two kiddie rides, a Merry-go-round, a kiddie roller coaster, a Tilt-a Whirl, a Ferris wheel, a snack bar, and a miniature golf course.  My friend Doug, also 18, was the manager.  He actually managed the day-to-day operations.  The Fun Spot was  owned by a man who ran a local construction company.  He'd found, that with good initial training, kids that were 18 or 19 could actually do a good job running this small business.

Doug got a higher paying job working construction, and tapped myself and this high school junior, Brian, as co-managers.  He'd been training us all summer, and we took over.  Tim, the owner would stop by in the mornings, drop off the cash drawer, ask how things were going, and then go run his construction company.  He stopped by randomly, and for big repairs, but that was it.  We ran the place. 

So as I was turning 18, I got a raise to $3.05 an hour.  Federal minimum was $3.35, but the Fun Spot, because of some Idaho farm worker law, could pay $2.05 an hour.  That's what my employees were making.  I made the (ahem) BIG BUCKS.  Suddenly I had 13 employees under me, 5 acres of grounds to keep up, rides to run, and a business to make a profit at.  Tim looked for young people who wanted a chance to be a boss, and took it seriously, and Brian & me, for the most part, took it seriously.  That's the best business experience I could have had at that age.

Now, in my sketchy current situation, I spend a lot of time in fast food restaurants, either doing my artwork or working on the computer.  McDonald's, about 12 years ago, made a brilliant corporate decision, to position themselves as a inexpensive alternative to Starbucks.  Smart move.  They started selling fancy coffee drinks, but $1 to $3 cheaper than Starbucks, they made a more lounge type store, added TV's, added wifi later on, and got rid of the playlands. 

I know this, because I was having a breakfast in a McDonald's in Huntington Beach, CA when they were planning one day, explaining the new concept to the manager of that restaurant.  But most managers today, don't seem to have been told this, and all fast food places just have a bunch lazy, unprofessional, largely incompetent people, and one or two good employees.  The managers, and I'm talking all fast food places, simply aren't taught to be managers in most cases.  One out of every 6 or 8 does a good job.  They can to the paperwork needed, but not actually RUN a business well, which is their actual job.  If you don't run your business well, especially in this transition time when new technology is changing business practices, then you go out of business eventually.  We'll see what happens with fast food places.  I think many big names will fold a lot of stores in the next decade.

The Small Business Revolution documentary

I watched (OK, mostly listened) to this a few days ago.  It's a really good, and inspiring, in my opinion, look at small business in America today. 

Three years ago, I was living in a toxic environment, not getting calls back for any "real jobs" I applied for, and need to find some way to start earning a living again.  I started with literally no money, just a few art supplies and a really crappy, refurbished, laptop.  It was still running Windows XP in late 2015, that's how ancient my computer was.  I think Fred Flintstone had traded it in. 

Back then, I started focusing on making money with my unusual and unique Sharpie artwork, the only thing that made me a little money now and then.  It's been a wild ride, and I never started making a decent living off my artwork.  But I did sell around 100 original drawings in three years, starting at like $20 each, and I used Facebook, my blog, and other social media to promote myself.  I created a ton of content, anyone can see nearly all of my drawings on the internet and about 4 other platforms.  I got really good at a thing called "content creation."  Other than people adding outside drama to my life, my main issue was that my artwork isn't profitable enough to make a drawing that takes a week to draw, and then sell it, and have the money to pay everything I need to.

So after surviving a really rough, crazy winter, in a new city, I did some soul searching.  I realized that very few small businesses do much in the way of content creation, even though it's free.  It just takes some time to create.  Many things don't take that much time.  You can snap a quick, cool pic in your business, and upload it to 3 or 4 places, in a couple of minutes or so.  So I realized I can keep drawing, but on a less intense level, and take my internet and social media ideas and skills and help small businesses implement them.  So that's where I'm headed, again starting a really low financial level.  But I now have a body of work, both my artwork, and the online content I've created, to show that I know what I'm doing in these areas.

With this pivot in my work, I'll be blogging a lot more about small business ideas I have, stories of small businesses I've worked at, and creative things we did at those, and I'll be sharing things I find along these lines.  This is a good one to start with.  At 27 minutes, it's along watch for most of your busy lives, but easy to listen to while doing other tasks.  Plus the last blog post took me two days to write, and I've got an offline project taking most of my time at the moment.  I need a quick post today.  So enjoy this documentary for now.

PIVOT to Small Business Supercharging

In 1987, I started a new job as the newsletter editor for the American Freestyle Association, and moved to Huntington Beach, California.  I didn't have a car, my life was all about BMX freestyle, and I soon found the place to be was on the pavement below the Huntington Beach Pier on the weekends.  There were a one or two other BMX freestylers there every weekend, and a handful of freestyle skateboarders.  I started hanging out, became a local, and that was my spot every weekend there wasn't a contest to go to.  It was a tall guy named Mike Sarrail, and me on bikes, and Pierre Andre', Don Brown, and Hans Lingren on skateboards most every weekend.  Since it was a well known bike and skate spot, there were lots of riders and skaters stopping by for sessions, as well. 

Freestyle skaters were the dorks of skateboarding then, doing tricks on flat ground with no ramps.  They didn't go big, it wasn't mind blowing, but they did the hard, technical tricks that took longer to learn than other aspects of skating.  The emerging genre of street skating built, almost entirely, upon the standard freestyle skating tricks.

One day Pierre Andre', who was French, said, "Hey, I found a company in France that wants to start making skate shoes."  He'd just come back from a trip home to France, and I didn't think much of it at the time.  Pierre, Don, and Hans were all sponsored by skateboard companies under the Vision umbrella, and Vision's new clothing company, Vision Street Wear, was making skateboard shoes they got free.  The shoes had a couple good ideas, like ollie guards on the side, but were pretty uncomfortable and didn't last all that long.  Since Vision sponsored the AFA contests, that I helped put on, I, too, got free Vision shoes.  Not great, but free was good in those low income days.

There was definitely a need for much better shoes, shoes specifically designed for skateboarding (and maybe even BMX riding).  A lot of BMXers and skaters wore Van's shoes then, which worked well, but they were not designed specifically for skateboarding at that point.  Pierre, the top freestyle skater in France, like all freestyle skaters, had a perfectionist side, and he went to town working with the French shoe company, Etnies.  The shoes they came up with were a huge leap forward in skate shoes.

The big initial blast for Etnies came with this classic skateboard video section, where pioneering street skater Natas Kapas wore some of the first Etnies.  The shoe company was off to the races.  Pierre soon bought them out, headquartered the new company in Costa Mesa, California, blocks from the former Vision main office we all frequented for years. 

He worked his ass off, and built a HUGE, amazing company.  The parent company, Sole Technology has had revenues as high as $200 million a year, before the Great Recession, and they built not only two huge buildings that you see in the video above, but they built one of the best skateparks in Southern Califrnia, for the city of Lake Forest, right down the hill from their HQ. 

We could never pronounce Pierre's last name correctly in the 80's, so he went by Pierre Andre'.  But now, Pierre Andre' Senizergues, my old buddy from years of weekends hanging at the H.B. pier, is a prominent entrepreneur and visionary in the highly entrepreneurial region of Orange County, California.  He's one of dozens of people I hung out with who started small businesses, most of which are still in business, and some of which are huge now, 30-some years later.  These are the people I was surrounded by in my 20's and 30's, all because I started doing tricks on a "little kid's bike" while in high school in Idaho.

My path has been a weird one.  I wanted to start my own business in the 80's, but I was super shy, and just couldn't do the salesman part.  If you don't sell stuff, you don't have a business.  It's as simple as that.  So I spent the last 33 years or so reading hundreds of books, a huge number of them about business and personal development.  I spent a decade as a sidekick to several young entrepreneurs in the actions sports world, working and brainstorming with them day after day.  Along the way, I worked on the crew of several TV shows, a different kind of entrepreneurship.  The whole time, I was also working on my personal issues, and eventually ended up a taxi driver in the early 2000's.  It's not a prestigious job, in fact, taxi driving operates as a small business, not a job at all.  It's in the gray area between a job and a business.  I learned to hustle my ass off, find business in weird places, pay $3600 in overhead a month, and I overcame my Rainman like shyness, as well.

But I didn't pay attention to emerging technology, and the taxi industry got disrupted by new tech, even before Uver and Lyft.  I wound up homeless.  The decade after has been a big struggle, where, among other things, I couldn't get hired for any "real" job anymore.  I started blogging in 2007, and a couple years later began to self-educate on how "this whole internet thing" works, and how it has completely changed the way business happens in the U.S. (and most everywhere else).

In late 2015, I was living with my mom after my dad's death, in a small North Carolina town, still unable to find a "real job." My mom is continually in fannacial crisis, so any money I made, was immediately needed for some "emergency."  Literally without a dime to my name, I started focusing on the Sharpie artwork I did to start earning money.  I've struggled for the three years since as a working artist.  But I did start selling artwork.  I've sold around 100 original drawings in the last three years, starting at about $20 each, and they sell for $150 or more now.  But they take me 35 or more hours to draw.  There's just not enough profit, or enough work to sell, to really get me going again financially, without a $10K loan to set up and really do it right.  So, as I struggled to survive this last winter, homeless and in a city I'd brand new to me, I started looking at my options.

While I haven't made a decent living selling my artwork, I did learn how to promote and use blogging, the internet, and social media well...for free.  When I look around at nearly all of the small businesses, here and elsewhere, hardly any of them are using today's new media and platforms at anywhere near full potential.  And that's what I'm pretty good at now.  Look up my hashtag, #sharpiescribblestyle on Instagram, Google images, or even Facebook.  My Sharpie art has a really solid web and social media presence, better than many mid-sized businesses.  Any business can do that, but most are too busy, with their day to day running of the business, to take the time to learn how to use all these tools more effectively.  So I'm going to start teaching them.

I'm writing a small book right now on how to use the internet and social media effectively for small business, and how to actually get more sales, not just media hype.  Hype is good, but it don't pay your rent or buy you food at the grocery store.

I'm also going to pivot this blog to focus much more on ideas for starting, building, promoting and marketing small businesses.  I'm still going to write and old school BMX story or two each week, and I'll still have my artwork on here when I do new stuff.  But I'm scaling that back.  Looking at my own current skills, drive, and ambition, and the Big Picture of the next decade or two, small businesses will be a huge, possible the deciding factor, in getting the American economy working well for average people again.  There won't be millions of factory jobs paying $32 an hour coming back.  We have to rebuild this economy ourselves, and small business is the best way to do that.

So that's where I'm at.  My book, in a self-published form, will be available soon.  I'll keep you all updated.  I don't know where all this will lead.  But then, I didn't know where it would lead when this guy below told me he found a shoe company in France that wanted to make skateboard shoes 32 years ago.  And that turned out pretty well.

Pinterest for guys

Here's a classic Windy Osborn photo of Brian Blyther blasting, at the 1987 2-Hip King of Vert finals, at Ron Wilkerson's Enchanted Ramp.  On the deck, From the right is Mat Hoffman, the guy standing left of him is me in a goofy cycling cap, then Todd Anderson, I think that's Mike Golden next, in the background, and maybe Steve Broderson (on a 20 inch?) on the left of the deck.  I was a judge that day, and this is about the only magazine photo printed back then where my face was visible.  I just added this photo to my "Classic BMX Freestyle" Pinterest board.  When the money is flowing a bit heavier, I'm going order this print from Windy's website.  Yeah, she sells prints of classic BMX photos.

So why is a guy writing a blog post about "a chick's social media site."  Simple, because Pinterest is not just a chick's social media site.  It's an image-oriented social media platform that is definitely dominated by women.  But there's plenty of reason for guys to get on Pinterest.

Why did I get on Pinterest?  For me, it started because I have been focusing on turning my Sharpie art (and ultimately writing) into a viable business.  I started with literally no money, and I'm all about free promotion.  One day, a few months ago, I Googled "Sharpie Art" to see what images came up.  None of my art was in sight, which bummed me out, because I have done dozens of pretty cool, and totally unique, Sharpie drawings in the last couple of years.  I took the next step, and looked at where the first 50 or so Sharpie art images came from.  At that time, about 80% of them were from Pinterest.  The algorithms have changed since, and DeviantArt and other sites come up more now, but Pinterest is still a great place to have my art (or yours, or your photos, or your product images) seen.

So I started my own Pinterest account, and I created a "board," a category of images on my page, showcasing my drawings.  Has it helped?  Google "#sharpiescribbleart" and hit "image search."  I just did, and I had to go down to the 7th row of pics to see something that isn't my drawing.  I OWN that hashtag.  I own it because of Pinterest.  That helps my art show up not only on Pinterest itself, but all over the web.

"So... big deal," you may say.  In the world of promoting art, it is a big deal.  And I haven't even really tried to actually promote my work on Pinterest.  I just wanted to get my work on the platform so it was more available to see and share and pop up in image searches.

Then something weird happened.  I totally got hooked on Pinterest.  Here's why.  First, when you sign up on Pinterest, like every platform, you are given your own little piece of virtual real estate, your page.  On Pinterest, you create categories, called "boards," like a cork board that you "pin" interesting photos on.  I added the little "Pin" icon to my browser, and then I can pin random photos from nearly anywhere on the web as I run across them(not Facebook, though) onto my Pinterest page.  I can also just sing in and browse the images Pinterest itself sends my way.  I soon realized, Pinterest is about collecting images.  I'm the son of a serious packrat (old term for hardcore "collector"/borderline hoarder), and I love collecting things.  My life has been crazy (and poor) for many years, so I haven't been able to collect old BMX magazines, or other physical items.  For me, spending a few minutes at the end of a day "collecting" images on my boards has become a way I de-stress nearly every afternoon or evening.  For me, it's just fun and relaxing.

I put all my 2017 and early 2018 drawing pics on a board.  Then I did one about taxi driving, and found a bunch of taxi images, an homage to my crazy life as a cabbie for 6 1/2 years.  Then I made a board of dozens of stills from videos I made BITD.  Then I did a pizza board, and there's no lame ass yuppie, broccoli, white sauce pizzas on it.  Only hardcore, artery choking, manly pizzas.  I started a "Classic BMX freestyle pics" board, which I add a pin or two to every few days.

As I see it, for a guy, Pinterest can serve several functions.  First is image collecting just for fun, which is most of what I use it for right now. You can do it any time, it's fun, and it relieves stress. Second is inspiration.  In my days as a taxi driver and as a homeless guy, I've become a huge fan of graffiti and street art.  So I have boards for each.  When I need some fresh ideas, I scroll through those boards, and just check out all the amazing art on walls around the world.  For many people, Pinterest is a huge source of inspiration and ideas for DIY projects and cooking.  That's probably the main use of Pinterest for most people.  Third is promotion of your business, my Sharpie art, in my case, but you can use it to promote any business.  See the video below for more thoughts on that.

Pinterest is a combination project idea/inspiration spot, a goal board, a wish list, an online collection, a way to promote what you do, AND like all good social media sights, a great place to waste time at work if you have a "real" job.  Here are some of my biggest boards:
Street art/urban murals- 976 pins
Weird Bikes- 716 pins
Action sports women- 507 pins
Ridiculous desserts- 465 pins
Bruce Lee- 443 pins
Classic BMX freestyle pics- 434 pins
Graffiti art- 301 pins
DIY ideas for old skateboards- 184 pins
DIY/recycled bike projects- 123 pins

You get the idea.  You can check out super cars, rat rods, custom motorcycles, exotic beaches, hovercrafts, insane ATV's, home workshop ideas, the ultimate backyard grill... whatever.  And that, my friends, is why Pinterest is a really cool place for guys.  Here's my page:

Steve Emig's Pinterest Page

Check it out.  Have fun.  Join up.  If you want some ideas on how you can promote your business with Pinterest, here's a good start.

I'm doing most of my new writing on Substack now, check it out:

Steve Emig The White Bear's Substack

Art business: stage two

This rocket is what my little business feels like right now.  Like all rockets, it takes a tremendous amount of thrust (effort) to get things off the ground.  Once you get moving, there comes a point where you have some momentum, but you need to ignite the second stage, like this rocket does at 1:00, 1:19, and 1:40.  That's where I'm at.

All last year, after coming to Winston-Salem with art supplies, about $15, and no place to live, I've been focused on selling my original drawings on a continual basis, and turning my art and writing into a business that will support me.  Like I've said many times before, I'm creating my own job.  At this point, I've done that.  It just doesn't pay very well yet.

After a rough winter, I got to the point where my original Sharpie "scribble style" drawings are selling for a halfway decent amount, and I have orders heading into the next few weeks.  I'm making about $450 to $600 a month at the moment.  But I'm still homeless, living in a tent in the woods.  While I like camping, this is not the way I want to live for much longer.  And I'm pretty sure the neighbors and local authorities aren't too happy with it either.

So, like this pretty amazing rocket in the video clip does at about 3:20, I need to kick off the booster stage and light stage 2.  I've got some momentum, I'm moving in a good direction, but I need to make about $600 to $800 more a month to support myself. For me, that means drawing things I can make copies, art prints, or posters of, and opening an online store to sell my stuff, as well as continuing to sell original drawings.

I got paid for my latest drawing yesterday, a picture of Bob Dylan (sorry, didn't get a photo of it), and I'm working on the last in a series for the couple who ordered that one.  I have about 4 more original drawings lined up, mostly large ones, so that's a month of work.  I'm also doing blogging and soon social media for Rachel at Designs, Vines, and Wines, in a trade for some wall space in her studio/gallery.  So I need to spend a bit less time each day on the original drawings, and more time on creating items for, and actually building my online store.  And, I have to get myself turned into an actual business, gets the books up to date, and handle all the legal responsibilities.

I'd like to shout out all the people who have bought drawings from me over the last couple of years as I got this idea going from a piece of crap old laptop, no money at all, and a bunch of Sharpie markers.  A huge shout out goes to Alma Jo Barrera, Scotty Zabielski, My sister Cheri Durham, and Catherine and Ian Holbrook, who've all bought multiple drawings from me.  Also, huge thanks go to Phred and Jane from Earshot Music in Winston-Salem, and Rachel at Designs, Vines, and Wines for putting my work up walls to get seen, hyping my drawings, and actually helping me sell a bunch of them.  Thanks to all of you!

Hopefully, like the the rocket in the video above, the second stage of this thing of mine will light up and launch fairly smoothly.  And that, FINALLY, will get me a decent place to live and work, soon.  Onward!

Starting a blog for your business or creative work

Here's one of many videos on YouTube that will take you step by step through how to actually start a blog.  I'm going to write about why you should start a blog, not how to actually do it.  To learn any technical aspect of using a blog, social media or other modern technology, go to either YouTube or Google (or Bing if you're a Bingster) and search for a video or article to show you how to do it.  People all over the world make these videos for every type of tech, they usually do it for free, and it's available to anyone online.  This is how you learn new technology.  Self-education.  If this is a new idea to you, get used to it, this is an integral part of promotion or business these days.

Nobody knows how many blogs there are in the world, the highest number I've heard is over 440 million.  Blogs have been around since about 2000, and come in all kinds of varieties.  But basically it's a website the you add a new post two every so often.  

Why should you start a blog for you business or creative work?  A blog does a number of things.  First, it gives you a web presence, it's something that people can find when they search the internet for your business or creative work.  Second, a blog is a way to put out "content" to the world.  People now expect to find most anything they need or want to know with a quick search or by asking friends for links.  If you continually put out useful content (words, audio, and/or video) that's helpful, entertaining, or informative, you attract potential customers.  Blogs can also direct online traffic to your website or brick and mortar business.

Do blogs make money?  Some do, but not very many.  ProBlogger is a great place to learn how blogs make money, both directly and indirectly.  There's a big lesson about blogging in that last sentence.  I just gave all of you a link that will take you away from my blog.  Why would I do that?  Because if you find my blog helpful, you'll most likely come back to it.  So by sharing links that actually take you away from my blog, I'm adding value to my blog, and , hopefully, your life.  That helps me in the long term.  It's a kind of paying it forward in the online world.

Blogs can make money directly in some instances, and business owners, large and small, tend to think in terms of Return on Investment (ROI).  If a business person invests $100 in advertising and then has $200 more sales, it's easy to measure the ROI.  But the online world of blogs, vlogs (video blogs), social media, YouTube and other platforms don't work that way.  These operate an entirely different way than traditional advertising, and that drives traditional business people crazy.  If you're blogging for your own small business, big business, or building a small business like I am, I suggest you think of your blog as a gift to your customers and potential customers, not something that makes money directly.  What can you give your potential customers, for free, that would be of value to them?

If my blog is not going to make money, then what's the point?  The point is to provide free entertainment, tips, or helpful information to make a direct connection with people.  Some of those people will become customers.  Some of those people may refer you to other potential customers.  Some of those people will take your information, move on, and never buy anything from you.  That's the game these days.  Almost every kind of information is available for free today.  Like it or not, that's the way things are.  If you want to be a player in business in today's world, you need to freely give everything you can to your community.

What do I mean by "community"?
 As we transition into the Information Age, "community" doesn't just mean your neighborhood or city.  For a creative person or business today, your community is everyone, everywhere who is interested in what you do.  It's not just your customers, your community or "tribe" as Seth Godin calls it, is all the people out there, who know you exist wherever they may live, and interact with you in some way.  For example, I don't like the drink Red Bull, but I watch the action sports videos they produce all the time.  I'm part of the Red Bull community, though I never drink the stuff.  I actually wish they would make a product I could buy.

As a business or creative person, your job these days is to serve your community(ies), and make some money along the way.  There are two basic ways to find a tribe to serve.  Either you find one that already exists, and start adding your ideas and value to it, or you create your own community.  Or both.  In my case as I'm building my art and writing business, I'm doing both.  I was an active blogger in the Old School BMX bike community as a result of my blogging about the old days for the past decade.  So when I initially started trying to sell my drawings, the old BMX guys I was Facebook friends with were the tribe I tapped into.  Now I'm working on building a new community, starting with people in the local art scene here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and others I connect with online interested in art, business, and the combination of the two.

A blog is a great way to help build a community.
With a blog, I set up the initial blog, figure out the design, and then I create a post.  Posts start with a title, then usually include either an embedded video clip or photo, which makes a huge difference, and then text.  The point of a blog, as I said, is to serve your community, not pummel them with advertising, old TV commercials, or other crap.  CREATE GOOD CONTENT.

The best questions to ask before a blog post are: 1) What blog post would I like to check out?  2) Who are the people in my tribe? And 3) What can I give to these people that will be helpful, entertaining, and worth taking the time to check out?

Be yourself in your blog.
This is absolutely crucial, and really hard for many people.  Most people, especially sales people and managers, continuously put on a front or a facade they use to talk people into buying something or adapting their ideas.  As a blogger, you want to do the opposite.  A direct sales pitch is the death nail of a blog (or social media post).  Blog about what really matters to you, and, by extension, to the people who follow your blog.  Authenticity is a word you hear all the time in blogging and social media marketing.  If you come across as fake, you may be able to con people... for a while.  But YOU WILL be found out before long.  Remember, this is the Information Age we are heading into.  The information about you will be available to lots and lots of people.  If you're shady or screw people or pretend to be someone else, you'll get called out.  Then you lose trust. Trust is one of the most important things in the Information Age.  Once you lose a community's trust, it's real hard to get it back.

Here's an example.  This is the new blog I just started for Rachel, who owns Designs, Vines, and Wines here in Winston-Salem.  Rachel likes my drawings, thinks they'll be worth millions of $ some day (OK, hundreds of $) and hangs some in her studio space.  But, after years in the tech world, she hates sitting there working on a computer doing social media and marketing.  She'd rather be painting or helping other people create fun projects. 

So we're doing a trade where I'll do some blogging and social media to promote her business, and she'll hang my drawings to promote my work.  Here's the thing about authenticity.  Rachel and I come from different backgrounds, have different interests (outside art) and use different words, phrases, and speech patterns.  So if I pretend to be Rachel when I'm writing, her friends and community will know something just doesn't sound right.  So I write for her business, but I write, as myself, and put a "-Steve" at the end of each post to be honest with her readers.  I'll do a post on her blog introducing myself, and talking about our trade out.  Then there's no deception, her community knows, "Oh yeah, Steve blogs for Rachel, and does some art she has up."  When Rachel writes posts, she can add "-Rachel" at the end, and people will know it's her speaking in her own way.  It seems like a little thing, but we're all bombarded by media from all directions these days.  And if something feels fake to our way of thinking, we drop it and move on to something else.  In today's media saturated world, people crave something "real."  If you want your blog to stand out among the 440 million other blogs out there, you HAVE to be real.

There's a lot more to come on this subject in future posts here, so stay tuned.  And if you're in the Triad/Winston area, check out Rachel's blog and come down, check out her work, and do a project and sip some wine.  It's always a fun time in her studio.

Blogging and social media for your business

This is a 5 or 6 year old keynote speech by Gary Vaynerchuk on his concept of The "Thank you" Economy.  Gary was an entrepreneur from childhood who later used email and YouTube to build his dad's New Jersey liquor store from a $3 million to $60+ million business in about five or six years.  Then he took off on his own and started VaynerMedia, a digital marketing agency that focuses on Fortune 100 companies.  Gary knows his stuff, he cusses like a sailor (from Jersey), and he has this crazy idea that businesses should actually give a damn about their customers.  He's been throwing these ideas out for years, and most businesses still don't get it.  So if you own a business, or are working on building one (like me), you should listen to this.

Officially, I've never owned an actual business, though taxi driving operates like a small business.  I did that for 6 1/2 years.  Back in the 80's and 90's, I worked for several entrepreneurs in the BMX and skateboard world, including Bob Osborn at Wizard Publications, Bob Morales at the AFA, Brad Dorfman and Don Hoffman at Vision/Unreel Productions, Scot Breithaupt at Last Minute Productions (very well named), and Chris Moeller at S&M Bikes when it was actually run out of a garage.  I wanted to own my own business, but I was super shy and didn't have the personality to sell stuff, so I became a kind of professional sidekick to young and motivated entrepreneurs.  It beat the hell out of going to college.  You can't get that kind of education in business school.

After spending two decades working all kinds of jobs and, more importantly, working through most of my personal issues, I landed in North Carolina in November, 2008, broke, as the Great Recession set in.  I had been in the taxi business as it went down the tubes due to new technology.  I was a serious Luddite in 2008.  I didn't know a damn thing about computers and technology.  But suddenly I was out of work, living with my parents in a small NC town, and unable to find any job.  I also had their computer in the room I stayed in.  So I started "surfing the web," as we used to call it.   I soon started blogging seriously about my adventures working at FREESTYLIN' and BMX Action magazines in 1986.  I had actually blogged a bit about taxi driving in 2007, but faded on it.  It seemed only my mom and the local police read my blog. 

I soon learned I had a knack for blogging.  I also soon learned that it's really easy to piss off your former co-workers with a blog.  I was super depressed back then, I'd just lost all my creative work on the move to NC.  All my bike and skate magazines, my DVD's, my master tapes of videos I'd produced, nearly 20 years worth of great raw footage of BMX and skating, and ten years worth of pretty good poetry that I'd written.  I blogged mostly just to vent.  I didn't think anyone would actually read it.  Seriously, I didn't.  I just wanted my stories of my BMX days recorded somewhere for future generations.  And, let's face it, you can't watch porn all the time. 

About a month after I started blogging, I wrote a post about a certain female photographers boobs.  It really wasn't pervy, it was about me turning into a mute idiot when she started talking about a female issue one day.  Something weird happened.  That post went viral in the old school BMX online community.  I didn't know there was an old school BMX community online.  I kept blogging and started reconnecting with old friends from the BMX and skate worlds I hadn't talked to in many years.

I began to realize that the internet thing was actually good for something.  I also realized that I needed to understand this new world of tech if I was ever going to make a living as a writer again.  Now, in 2018, I've been blogging consistently for the 10 years since.  I've written probably 3,000 to 4,000 blog posts across several blogs.  Most blogs I took down in a real dark time after my dad's death in 2012.  After about a year of blogging about BMX and still not finding a job, someone emailed me and said, "You know people make money with blogs... right?"  I didn't know.

So I intuitively started learning about how people used blogs to make money.  And I soon learned many of them seemed to be scammers and spammers.  But not all of them.  The job hunt never got much better.  I drove a taxi for a year here, but that doesn't pay worth crap.  And I get fat sitting in a taxi all day, sleeping in parking lots at night, and eating fast food.  I couldn't afford an apartment when I drove a cab here.

A little over two years ago, I made the decision to focus on my weird Sharpie artwork as a way to build a small business which would eventually let me get back to writing as well.  I blogged and used social media to promote my artwork.  I started with a bedroom "studio" (a card table) in the apartment I shared with my mom.  I didn't have a dime to my name.  Seriously, not a freakin' dime on day one.  I had a cheap tablet of sketching paper and a bunch of Sharpie markers.  I had a piece-of-crap, old, refurbished laptop running Windows XP (in 2015).  It crashed two weeks later.  I bought a new one with money from artwork.

A little over two years later, I'm homeless, I have my art hanging on walls for sale in two businesses here in Winston-Salem, and I have a 4 or 5 week backlog on drawings to do.  I'm making about a third of a living right now.  Not enough to rent a place to live full time... yet.  But my artwork is taking off, I'm making money from it, and I'm starting to get to a place where I can charge a decent amount for the original drawings.  I still haven't had the money to make prints or posters to sell yet.  That and other ideas are coming soon.

What I have done fairly well, though, is use what I've learned about blogging and social media to promote what I'm doing.  For free.  And now I'm going to do a whole series of blog posts to share that with all of you.  I've just been asked to blog and do some social media promotion for a local art studio, and I'm going to explain what I'm doing in this blog as I do it.  Hopefully it will be helpful to some of you out there.  As Gary Vaynerchuk has often said, "The internet is fucking amazing."  People don't get just how big this period of change is.  So watch that video above if possible.  That will help set the stage, because the mindset Gary talks about is so freaking important.

OK, more tomorrow.    

4/12/ 2018: Balancing entrepreneurship with homelessness

I know being a "homeless entrepreneur" seems like an oxymoron.  On one hand, my original drawings of rock stars are gaining in popularity, and keeping me busy.  But they're not popular enough for me to charge a ton of money for them.  I'm making $4 to $5 an hour for the drawing work I do.  That doesn't count the hours spent on blogging and social media promotion, or the hours spent learning new technology.   But that's the game, and I keep at it.

When you're starting a business, which is what I'm doing, though very slowly, you do a lot of work that you don't get paid for.  That's just the nature of things.  If you do a good job, get a solid business up and running, then there comes a time later on where you get paid for a lot of work you're not doing.  I know that, which helps me plug along day after day.

At the same time, I still can't afford a place to live.  I have a little bit of money coming in on a steady basis, FINALLY, which is something I really struggled with the whole decade I've lived in North Carolina.  This just isn't a highly entrepreneurial culture, like Southern California is.  So people around me just don't get what I'm doing.  Most people here don't know a single person who has started and built a good sized business.  I know many.  I know dozens of people who have started successful smaller businesses.  I've worked at some of those businesses in my younger years.  I understand the basic process.  I've seen it happen.  But most people here haven't, so they just don't have a frame of reference for what I'm doing.  They just look at me, see that I'm sketchy looking and drawing pictures all day, and say (or at least think), "Go get a job."  If I could have done that here, I would have done that years ago.  But I couldn't get hired for anything.  So I created my own job.  In the coming years, millions of Americans will have to do the same thing. 

At the same time, I still wander into the woods and sleep in a broken down tent every night.  The temperature has warmed some, which helps in the mornings.  Waking up in a tent in the woods isn't bad.  People go camping for fun all the time.  But waking up in a tent when it's 40 degrees and raining, that sucks.  We've been doing Spring on the installment plan this year here in Central North Carolina.  It would warm up to the high 50's or 60's for a day or two, then drop back down into the 40's and 30's for a few days.

The biggest thing I've learned about building a business from my friends' companies is this:  Get up every day, make a list of what needs to be done, and do it.  Day after day, just put your nose to the grindstone and do the work.  So that's what I'm doing. 

I've been working on turning my drawings into a business for about 2 1/2 years now, and I started, literally, without a dime.  So I've been plugging away for a long time, and now it's just finally getting to the point where other people are starting to believe that what I'm doing may actually work.  Another 6 or 8 months and I should have a legitimate business, a halfway decent place to live, and be on my way to a reasonable level of financial success.  But for now... back to work.

Wintry mix sucks: 3/12/2018

I saw a dusting of snow and had sleet falling when I headed out this morning.  Halfway to the place I eat breakfast, a few big, beautiful snowflakes started coming down.  It was snowing heavy by the time I got there. It's about 35 degrees, deep slush all over the place, and I was walking around a bunch today.  I had to go to the library to print a photo, then walk to a place to make some photo copies.  I don't have boots, so I was doing my best to keep my feet halfway dry.  It didn't work.  But I did.  I got started on the next drawing I have to do today.  I work seven days a week, I'm working on building my art and writing in a business, after all.  It doesn't matter what the weather does, I need to keep going, and get as much done as I can. 

January 25th, 2018- Collapsed tent, conspiracy theories, and cash flow

As a homeless guy working on building a business from my art and writing, 2018 started out rough.  I currently qualify for food stamps, but I let my mom a big chunk of them last month when I was staying with her for a while.  Because of that, I ran out way early, and was waiting for them to come in early this month.

I did three drawing projects over the holidays, and expected to get paid quick for two of the drawings early in the month.  That money didn't come through.  So I was super tight financially.  Running a super small (soon-yo-be) business, that means waiting to take action on one thing or another.  But since I'm homeless as well, running out of money means running out of food money.  I didn't quite get there, but it was close.

On top of that, we got hit by the crazy cold polar vortex for a week and a half.  It was like a perfect storm of misery for my circumstances.  So instead of getting a decent sized chunk of money, and starting new projects, I was thrown back into a moment by moment, day by day, struggle just to survive.  My thoughts were like, "Really?  Isn't the other stuff going on enough?" 

My food stamps came in, and I made a bit of money from other things, and I squeaked by.  THEN we got hit by six inches of snow last week.  A friend let me crash on his couch on the cold night before the snow, so that really helped.  Then I got some money for one of the drawings the next day, so I was able to get a warm, cozy, sketchy-ass motel room (and a $5 Little Caesar's Pepperoni pizza), and sit out the snow storm watching TV and skate videos online.  That was a much needed break.

But after those two nights, I had no idea how my tent had handled the snow.  I hiked out to it the next night... and couldn't find it.  At that point, I realized I shouldn't have waited until after dark to go there.  Eventually I found my tent, about 80% collapsed.  Not good.  I managed to get the frozen zipper open, and crawled into the one spot that was still standing.  I curled up under my bedding, with my head facing downhill, and managed to get a little bit of sleep.  It was a rough night.

Then the weather warmed up the next day.  For most people in North Carolina, who hate snow, that was a good thing.  But for me, it was a mixed blessing.  Melting snow means water.  Water, water everywhere.  The next night, my bedding was wet around the edges, my tent was still mostly collapsed and frozen under six inches of snow, and the temperature was around 25 degrees.  It wasn't near as bad as the night before, but it was still pretty rough.  The water slowly soaked through to me as the night progressed.  Lame.

The day after that, I shoveled the snow off my tent with a big stick, and got it mostly standing again.  I also bought some clothesline, tied it between a few trees, and let all my bedding dry out.  That night, thought still hitting about 28 degrees, was WONDERFUL.  Since then, things are have been going better.

Yesterday, while I was doing a little drawing at a fast food place, a guy came in and started talking about conspiracies and bunch of other stuff.  The "I've got earbuds in which means leave me the fuck alone" memo hasn't made it to North Carolina, apparently.  I kept trying to get back to drawing, but he kept talking.  He wanted my take on all sorts of conspiracy ideas.  This is a standard under cover cop/agent questioning technique.  Find where someone hangs out, strike up a conversation as in a casual way by talking about something you know already that the person is interested in.  But this guy wasn't near as good at it as people I had question me in California years ago.  Maybe he was just some nutcase.  It doesn't really matter.  The vast majority of "conspiracy theories" now are just propaganda to distract people from what may really be going on.  He went through the list, The Illuminati (total BS), chem trails, other random things, and the crazy idea du jour, targeted individuals.  There are some conspiracy ideas that you simply shouldn't talk about at any given time, and targeted individuals are in that category these days.  If it's not real, then lots of people are psychotic with the same symptoms.  If it actually is some black ops program being done by some group, then the truth won't come out for 20 or 30 years, and the anyone caught in it is just fucked.  Kinda like Alex Jones is.  He may have made some sense 20 years ago, but now he might as well be Breitbart, getting fed propaganda and spoon feeding it to the masses of idiots out there. 

I've got another drawing order to work on right now, and I'm going to have at least one of my drawings in a front window, on Trade Street in Winston-Salem, for the February First Friday Art Walk.  That will be the first time one of my original drawings will be up in the Trade Street art district here.  More on that later.  So that's what I've been up to.  Oh, I'm writing a small book on building creative scenes, as well.  I'm just working day after day, and things are slowly improving on the lifestyle level.  I'm thinking about the last few weeks as just a "darkest before the dawn" period.  I'm doing better now.  Onward...

The jobs picture right now in 2017

Here's economic development expert Richard Florida on the different groups of workers in today's society.

Why am I so interested in jobs and creating new businesses these days?  Here's why.

The types of workers in 2017 society:

The Creative Class (arts, entertainment, science, management, etc.)  are about 35% of the working population.  As a group, they make over 50% of the wages in the U.S.  Most are doing well.  These are the jobs least likely to be replaced by new technology.

 The manufacturing workers are only about 7% of today's workers.  When you add construction and transportation workers, it rises to about 20% of total workers.  Some make good money, most just make OK money.  Many of these jobs will definitely be replaced by technology in future years.

Agriculture only employs about 1% of workers in the U.S. these days.  Most don't make a lot of money.

Service workers make up about 45% of the current workforce.  Most of these jobs don't pay that well, and many of them leave workers in or near poverty.  Millions of people work two or more of these jobs.  Many of these jobs will also be replaced by new technology in the coming years.  This is where much of the once great American middle class now works.

If we want to keep this country strong, we will need TENS OF MILLIONS of new, good paying jobs in coming years.  The only viable way I see this happening is by millions of people starting their own businesses.