Well, you know, one of my heroes
is the author Seth Godin.
One of his phrases,
he always says is that a hesitant
trapeze artist is a dead trapeze artist.
You know that you can't
traverse the gap in two jumps.
You have to do it in one big jump,
or else you're dead. Right?
Yeah.
And so I've always
taken that to heart, that, you know what?
If you're gonna go for it,
you just gotta go all the way.
Nerdpreneur. You know, I love my work.
Life's a game,
so I'ma take my turn.
Nerds deserve to put their passion first.
Let em rap averse so they can all be heard.
Yeah, my nerdy passion basically
is drawing correct.
I'm a breeder of tarantulas,
importing tarantulas and some other critters.
I am a harpist.
I do mainly celtic harp,
video game songs,
songs from nerdy tv shows.
Obviously, I'm big on Star Trek.
It is creature design. Fantastical
biological creations out of watercolor.
We are dice retailers.
Nerdpreneur. You know, I love my work.
Life's a game,
so I'm gonna take my turn.
Nerds deserve to put their passion first,
so let em rap a first so they can all be heard.
Welcome to Nerdpreneur,
where we have fun
conversations with people making
money with their nerdy passion. As always,
I am joined by my co host, Frankenhein.
Hello.
And today we have a very special guest.
His name is Tony,
and he's the founder
of a company called Hero within.
Welcome to the show, Tony.
Hey, guys, thanks for having me.
Excited to have you on the show.
I'm excited to be here.
Yeah, yeah. Well, Tony,
what is your nerdy passion?
Man? I mean, I got a lot, and I mean,
ever since I was little,
I mean, Marvel, DC, Star wars, but I gotta say,
my tried and true from,
from when I
was a little boy to even today, Star Trek.
Ooh, yes.
Yes.
You're in the right
crowd for that. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Now, for,
for people who don't know hero within,
we're kind of burying the lead.
We know you're a Star Trek nerd,
but what is your nerdy passion business?
And what is hero within?
Well, here within, like it,
like the title implies,
it's the idea of unleashing
the hero that's in all of us. And, you know,
we started back in 2016,
and it's basically a collection of clothing
that allows you to express your fandom,
not just at a con or
not just when you're with your buddies,
but maybe when you're at work or socially
when you're out with other friends, you know,
whatever the
situation may call for, but, you know,
being able to express
your fandom in all circumstances,
not just in your nerdy environment, you.
So you design and create clothing like
nerd wear in some way, right? Yeah, but, like,
accurate depictions of it,
because we met you at actually,
Emerald City Comic Con.
That's where we originally connected.
And Frank was trying on some,
some of your, your clothing, specifically
the Star Trek clothing, by the way, too.
Yeah. I was really impressed with the strange
new worlds jacket. It's. Oh, right, yeah,
it looks very much, because
I had just been rewatching it with my partner.
I had already seen the show, and,
and I was thinking I had just rewatched
the episode where they go down
to the planet and they're on an away team.
And I was like, those
jackets look cool for an await team. Like,
that's really good.
And then we were at Emerald City Comic Con,
and I saw your display,
and I was like, oh, my God,
this is really neat.
And I remember sending
a picture of it to my partner, and she's like,
you should get it.
And I was like, whoa, wait, really? Like,
I just thought this looked cool.
And that's been kind of the vibe, and
that's also what I've seen your brand is about,
is for the geeky, for the sophisticated.
That's been a part of the hero within slogan.
So we do have definitely the more cosplay,
more costume sort of options, but
then we also have more subtle, sophisticated,
more just, you know, your, your bomber jackets,
tactical jackets, denim jackets,
that sort of thing that.
So whatever you're sort of, you know,
whatever you're sort of into,
we kind of get you covered.
Yeah. You have way more
than just Star Trek wear, too,
because you're licensed
to create stuff for DC Comics, Marvel.
I think you had,
you mentioned on your website Doctor who.
Is that true too? Yeah, yeah. And Godzilla.
Yeah.
What does Godzilla wear? Like, what is that?
Well, like Godzilla. He's not so subtle.
Or he or she or they,
or whatever Godzilla is.
And so our Godzilla stuff is pretty bold.
A lot of asian streetwear influence,
and so a lot of big, big,
bold prints and whatnot.
Cool, cool. Very cool.
So how did you get into this?
Were you always into fashion,
or was this something
that emerged out of the nerd dom?
Yeah, it definitely emerged
out of the nerd Dom. I, you know,
it's interesting because we're about to.
We're about to head into San Diego Comic Con.
And it's great that I met you guys at a con
because comic cons have been like a really
kind of at the DNA of here within.
Comic cons have always been a part of that,
especially San Diego Comic Con.
And so basically how
it all started was years ago,
probably back in, you know,
I've been like a longtime Comic Con fan going
since the mid two thousands, like 2005, six,
something like that.
Going to San Diego, going to,
that's how a bunch of
other shows are popping up. So just, you know,
traveling to a lot of shows like you guys,
I was podcasting and blogging
and doing that whole thing and, and then
I started getting into some cosplay. But I, but
it was a kind of a very niche cosplay. It was,
if you're aware or if any listeners
are aware of San Diego Comic Con,
one thing that's a big part of it is you
get these big gigantic vinyl bags, you know,
that have sponsorship on them.
Typically it's Warner Brothers.
And so, you know,
it'd be like the flash or it'll
be wonder Woman or whatever it is.
So these big bags that are like, you know,
like three foot by three foot.
So they're like, they're big, right?
So San Diego Comic Con is kind of
known for these big vinyl bags and, you know,
you can get a,
usually there's like a
dozen different options each year.
And so this kind of started back in, like,
I don't know,
maybe 2008 or nine or something like
that when Comic Con started blowing up.
So just kind of out
of a whim and out of kind of fun.
I've always loved clothing and fashion.
I decided to take some of these
bags and make costumes out of them. So I,
so I basically, like, took a,
took a bunch of bags that, again, had all
this different branding, Green Arrow, you know,
all these just different brandings on them.
And I made a blazer out of it.
So just imagine a regular blazer,
but just having all this vinyl
Comic Con branding all over it.
So this was like back in
maybe 2011 or something like that. And it was,
I basically went as,
because I'm a fan of Doctor who as well.
I went as the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith,
eleven Doctor with the bowtie
and the sonic screwdriver and all that.
But I just had this, like,
very garish Comic Con Blazer bag thing.
And so I wore that
to one of the shows and it got, you know,
got a really big response from it because
if you are a fan of Comic Con, you just,
you really recognize
these bags right off the bat. And plus,
it feels like you're wearing, I mean,
you're basically
wearing a giant plastic blazer. Right?
Yeah.
So, you know, a lot of fans love that,
and I got a big
kick out of wearing that. So I decided, well,
next year I'm going to do the same thing.
So once again,
I was able to contact Warner Brothers
and they sent me the bags ahead of time.
And I was able to work on this time.
I made a one. My,
out of Star wars.
My favorite Luke Skywalker
look was out of return of the Jedi,
his kind of all black with the fold
over flap in the front and all that.
So I made a Luke Skywalker version,
but out of the, again,
out of the vinyl bags.
Yeah. So again, you know, big hits
and all that and just love it. So again,
I work now work on year three,
and I was working on a Green Arrow costume.
And I just was
kind of like thinking to myself, man, like,
this is fun and all,
and it's good for laughs and for photos.
People seem to really love
all these brands that are on, you know,
on these pieces because they
kind of look like you look a little
bit like you're a NASCAR meets cosplay.
You have all these brands, right?
So people love these brands.
They love these brands and they love, like,
fashion and clothing.
And they sort of the merger of the two.
How about this year,
instead of coming
up with some sort of, like, wacky costume,
I come up with some sort of, like,
clothing that you could actually,
that has your branding on it,
but you could wear every day more
commonly than just at a convention.
So I started at pivoted and I started
working on a blazer that turned out to
be a Superman blazer where it had like,
sort of the silhouette of this,
this s stitched in the back
and then the inside had some, you know,
branding as well and had some, like,
subtle nods here and there.
And, you know, I just kind of put
on social media and on my blog, I said, hey,
I decided instead of doing a costume,
I made this Superman blazer.
And I'm going to kind of
show it off at San Diego this year.
And if I see you and if you like it,
let me know and maybe I could take
this and turn it into something
that I can offer to more people.
So that year at Comic Con,
and this is 2015,
I just was walking around,
talking to professionals, talking to,
basically just hustling it, talking
to every person I ran into and just said,
what do you think about this blazer?
If it was available on the market.
Would you buy it?
And so I just kind of used those five days
I was there as sort of market research to
just kind of see if people like it. You know,
I didn't mention this,
but I do have a design background.
I graduated with a design degree.
I was in marketing, communication
design as art director for many years.
And I've done mostly print and online designing
and also done some interior designing,
but really hardcore fashion designing.
I've never really done that before.
So it's a lot of, say,
design principles and, you know,
you just take something that's two d and
turn it into three d and so on and so on.
So that following year,
I was once again,
kind of at that point towards, like, well,
that here with,
at that time,
I had already called it here within.
I just felt like that name just Washington,
it just sort of, like,
came to me while I was designing that blazer,
and I was talking
to a design buddy of mine. I said, you know,
like that it's,
we're a few months away from Comic
Con and how long I do with this.
I have this idea of here within,
and I've got this blazer. And, you know,
I I would,
I would love to see
this really grow into something real.
But, you know, I've got this full time job.
I've got the mortgage,
I got the family, I've got kids,
and they're just like,
I know this is a great idea,
but there's just no way that I could
really see this turn into reality. Well,
you have to be careful when you say
things like that out in the universe,
because sometimes the universe
listens because two months later,
I got laid off from my job.
Oh, wow, look at that. So, yeah,
react that way, doesn't it? It's like, sorry,
you want this?
You're gonna do it now.
So I was like, oh, crap, like,
I have to seriously consider doing this now.
So after some soul searching
and some hard discussions with, you know,
with myself
and my wife and family, all that, I said,
you know what?
I think I'm going to try to do this.
I think I'm going to.
Even though I don't really have any, like,
training in fashion,
I've got friends that are,
and I've got comic cons coming up,
and I could launch something like this.
So did you see a hole in the market too? Like,
you obviously had a lot of
people who are out there
giving you the market research saying, oh,
I love what you're doing, or paying attention.
So you had some
attention but what was there? Was there.
Did you see, like,
a lot of other people doing fashion,
or was there nobody doing fashion?
Yeah, at the time, there was nobody. You know,
when I was in those,
those couple years when I was
in costume walking around the show,
I really realized that, wow. Like,
when it, you know, when it came to, like,
expressing your fandom,
it came down to
black t shirts and hoodies. That's all.
That's all it was,
at least at that time.
And so there wasn't
a her universe. There was, like, you know, no,
no other companies out there doing it.
And so I was like, wow. Like, I really,
if I wanted to,
and if I back up a little bit during
those two years I was doing cosplay.
When I was outside of my costume,
I also had, like,
different types of
dress shirts that I had. Like, I had, like,
got all these patches. Like,
I had a DC themed one,
I had a Game of Thrones one.
I had a marvel. Like, all this. Like, you know,
I designed basically my
own shirts because I was, during those years, I
was searching for anything that was like this,
and I couldn't find it anywhere. So,
so during those years of, you know, doing,
kind of talking to people, I was like, wow,
there really isn't anything out there that
is beyond your typical t shirts and hoodies.
And I remember my wife telling me, I
come back from these conventions, she's, like,
looking at my stack and my closet of, like,
black t shirts that's as
tall as me. He's. He's like, enough, you know,
enough of these, you know?
And they don't even, back then,
they weren't even making me color.
They just literally were just, like,
black and black hoodies.
And then the big logo on the front,
that was it. Right? So, so, yeah,
so this is like.
And this is in contrast to cosplayers, too.
So I just wanted to distinguish,
because just in case we have nerd dumbs
from all over listening. So, like, in cosplay,
this is people who are dressing
up as their favorite characters,
but that's not exactly what you're
catering to. You're. You're catering, like,
fashion stuff that is accented
towards a nerddom, right? Versus, like,
a blazer
with a Superman thing on it, versus, like,
trying to dress like Superman, which is,
which is often, like, homemade. Like that.
That's what people do is they make
their own stuff with cosplay and this.
And your stuff
is not targeting that. You're like,
you were going a different direction, right?
Yeah, that's correct. So, so you know,
this is like,
so this is beginning of 2016,
and this probably January,
February or so,
and Comic Con was in July. And I, you know,
DC is one of my first, sort of,
along with Star Trek,
was one of my early sort of loves.
And I thought, you know what?
I made this Superman blazer.
And I wonder if I can try to
figure out how to make Batman
and Wonder Woman and all this other stuff,
but I'd love to attempt
to get the license for that. And so
it's funny looking back now, that's whatever,
seven or eight years,
because you don't know what you don't know.
And I just thought to myself, you know what?
I'm just gonna go get that license.
And looking back,
if I told my younger self,
I was that, hold on, young buck,
because there's no way.
You don't have a market plan.
You don't have production,
you don't have a team. Like, there's
no possible way that you could do this. And,
but it was the craziest story. I,
so I had designs in mind.
I started designing a whole
collection of DC inspired clothing.
And because if you remember, during, like,
20 1415 or so,
Marvel was really had blown up.
Like, DC was sort of, like, on its rise, right?
You know,
Wonder Woman was coming out in 2017.
And so, you know, things were, like,
on the up for DC at that time.
So a partner,
a business partner of mine,
he made a connection with somebody who
happened to be in licensing at Warner Brothers.
And so they just,
so he just emailed and just said, hey, like,
my friend, blah, blah, blah,
would you at least consider taking a meeting?
So this person I
was in licensing just randomly had,
in the past couple years, had,
I was already on her radar because I was
already known for my
Warner Brothers costume bags.
It was so much on social media. All
those bags were produced by Warner Brothers.
So it was all this, like, you know,
free advertising for them.
And so because she had already knew how,
who I was and because I already kind
of made a little splash in my little, small,
little corner of the woods,
she was like, oh, like, I, yeah, I
totally know who this guy is. I could totally,
I love to meet with
them and just see what he, you know, has offer.
And that time is owned by Warner Brothers, too,
isn't it? So, like, that's a,
that's a real great connection, the
fact that you've already brought out a bunch
of Warner Brothers stuff for them, right? Yeah.
Yeah. So they said, hey, let's meet.
And I couldn't believe I got the email. I
couldn't believe that they wanted to meet. And
so at that time, I was like, oh, crap, like,
I really need to get my act together on this.
And so I started, like,
getting all my designs together,
and they put a date on the calendar,
which was, like, literally, like,
six weeks away. And,
and then that this
person kept emailing me saying, oh, hey,
so and so is going to join our meeting. Oh,
so and so else is going to join it.
Like, it started growing, right?
And I'm like, I'm nobody. I'm just,
I'm just a dude.
And they're saying, oh, we have. The director
of marketing is going to come about, you know,
so the meetings are growing,
and I'm just like, which sort of, like,
the reflection of how little
there was in the market at that time, what I,
what I had envisioned, you know,
because I sent them a
couple mock ups and whatever. So, fortunately,
a good friend of mine
who was helping me at that time,
getting kind of production up and running, this
person had a lot of experience with production,
so at least, you know, he,
he was there to help me not look like a fool.
But, but when it came to the,
the day of the actual pitch day. Yeah,
pitch day. You know, I had a deck, and I just,
we drove up into the, you know, into Burbank,
into Warner brothers,
and through, you know, this big,
giant building that had, like,
all this incredible, like, Batman
and everything else, Harry Potter, you know,
just all this incredible stuff.
And we went to this meeting, sat down,
and there was probably, like,
I don't know, um, it was me,
and I had a couple people with me,
and then there was, like,
a dozen people on their side of the table,
so a lot of people there.
All these, like, all these seats, right.
I'm just like, so this, you know,
I'm saying all this because, you know,
the imposter syndrome was, like, really
kicking in hard for. Right, sure. And, well,
and people ask me all the time,
how do you get a license in this store?
I'm telling you,
is there's a thousand
different versions of this story,
so you cannot replicate what I'm about
to tell you just happened. But it just, every
person who gets a license, something else,
something weird like this happens. So anyway,
at that time, Warner Bros.
Had just got bought by a at and t, I believe.
And so whenever there's a merger that occurs,
then there's always a changing
of the guard. Yeah, big shuffles, right? I,
so the
gal that oversaw that just came on, like,
three or four weeks prior,
just came on to oversee all of
apparel for Warner Brothers.
She came from Disney, and so, like,
anyone's coming in, they're.
They're basically cleaning house.
They want to start off with, you know,
brand new brands kind of, you know,
see what's going on.
They're looking for
something to prove themselves to. I bet.
I bet she's like,
I could take this from
beginning to end from my own,
and I don't have to figure out
what so and so did before I was here.
Yeah. This guy obviously
hasn't already figured out, so. Right. That's.
I have not made a single scrap.
I mean, just, we met. We had samples. We had.
We not produced a single. Single thing. Not.
Not sewn a single anything, not, you know, so,
of course they didn't know that. So. So this.
So this lady comes in, and she.
She sits down and, you know, she looks like.
She looks like
Cruella Deville because she's, like,
very sophisticated, all black, slim.
She had this, like, fur,
big collar thing with, like,
feathers coming
off of it and very, like, serious. Right?
Devil wears Prada.
Yeah, totally. That, right.
So super intimidating.
She sits down and everyone, clearly,
she's the one in charge.
She's at the head of the table,
and I'm just, like, going, oh, my God, like,
what is happening here? So we, you know,
we did our pitch,
and we did our song and dance, and then
we ended and that. They all, like, in unison,
were looking at me.
They all turned and looked at her,
and she just says, I love it. Make it happen.
And she hit her hands
on the table and she walked out.
So at that point, so typically,
you have to negotiate the licensing
fee and all the terms and all that.
But there was no.
There was no discussion or there was
no negotiating because they just said,
whatever you want, because this lady, we said,
just make it happen. I don't care.
And then she walked out.
So they let me create all
the terms for it and decide everything.
And then literally, like, the next day, I had.
I was off and running.
So it was the.
It was the craziest thing I'd ever experienced.
And I worked with licensing
with many companies after that,
and it's never ever been like that.
I'm sure it's never happened, like,
with anyone else, but.
And, yeah, so, basically,
I got the license, like,
in April or so,
and then in May,
I started putting everything together,
and we launched at San Diego Comic Con,
which basically all that was Washington.
I was just.
I had a handful of samples,
and I was just hustling
it on every street corner. I could find, like,
literally going to events.
I was hosting a bloggers party.
I would set up displays.
I would take it to panels.
I was just literally,
just to anyone who would stop and listen,
I would be like,
I have this new product.
I've got four or five samples here.
Can you take a look at it,
tell me what you think about it, and kind of.
Kind of go from there. So it was. It was like.
Hey, nerdpreneurs. Chris, coming at you.
Thanks for listening.
And I wanted to let you know something.
We're building a community of
people who want to become successful,
nerdy business owners,
and we're going
to keep collecting these amazing,
inspirational stories like Tony's.
So if you want to be part of that community,
go to patreon.com
nerdpreneur and sign up to be a
member of our awesome nerdpreneur board.
Board members get full interviews, uncut,
including another 40 minutes with Tony.
So go to patreon.com
nerdpreneur and check it out.
Now let's get back to the episode.
What I really love about your
story is just the serendipitous nature.
But not just serendipitous. Like,
there's so much on your end of, like you said,
you were hustling your prototype,
your superman prototype,
at San Diego Comic Con, and, you know,
you got your market research done.
But not only that,
you'd kind of been building up
the courage with these other projects,
and you got noticed.
And because of that notice, years later,
that came back to you. And I think.
I think that's really fascinating to me because
we do talk to other people that, you know,
they've definitely got the imposter syndrome.
You know, that happens.
But they have these different
moments that kind of build up. Like, there's.
There's these steps that we don't realize are
steps until we get to the point of, like,
how did I get here?
Well, you know, one
of my heroes is the author, Seth Godin.
One of his phrases,
he always says is that a hesitant trapeze
artist is a dead trapeze artist. You know,
that you can't.
You can't traverse the gap in two jumps.
You have to do it in one big jump,
or else you're dead. Right?
Yeah.
And so I've always taken
that to heart. That's like, you know what?
If you're gonna go for it,
you just got to go all the way. And you may,
you may fall on your face, you know,
and you may fall multiple times,
but one of those times maybe
you'll catch a ring and you can run. I mean,
and then you can, you know, move forward.
So that's what
the whole Warner brothers thing was,
that it was just like me just leaping as
far as I could go and just praying to God
that I could catch one of those rungs.
And it just sort of, like, varies, you know,
serendipitous sort of, you know, moment.
It just sort of happened in Hollywood.
I feel like that's what they always
say in Hollywood is even if you
don't know how to do it, just say yes. Like,
you can do it because you can
figure it out once you land
the job or once you get the contract,
you figure it out afterwards.
And I think a lot of nerdy entrepreneurs
learn that lesson early on because they
often don't know how to do the business
side of their nerdy passion or how to, like,
scale it in some ways.
But if you say yes to those opportunities
when they come around and bank on yourself,
you can kind of trust that
you'll figure it out as you go along.
So that's.
I think that's a super,
super cool lesson you
mentioned you had another cool story, though,
that kind of goes along with that.
Well, what really, really launched the company.
So that started the company,
and we had a license,
and we had ideas.
We hadn't started manufacturing.
We hadn't taken any orders.
So it's July of 2016.
I have taken zero orders.
I have a website. I've got samples.
That's all I have.
So I go to San Diego again,
just sort of hustling.
And I had a couple weeks before,
I had reached out to the gal who was running
a panel called the business of geek fashion,
which was just a handful of people,
like Ashley Eckstein from
her universe and a few other people,
mostly just geek websites.
Not so much fashion companies,
but more just like, geek websites. So I had,
the year prior,
when I was at Comic Con,
kind of hustling my,
my Superman blazer,
I went to this panel. You know,
I was sitting in audience taking, you know,
I just had this vision of the company,
but I was like, didn't know anything.
So I was just, you know, feverishly
taking notes and listening to this, these
people talk about how they started a company,
you know, licensing, blah, blah, blah,
all that stuff.
So they were having that panel again the,
this current year, the 2016.
And so I emailed the lady about two weeks out,
and I just said, hey,
I know this is a long shot,
but I was in your panel a year ago
with the hopes of starting a fashion company,
and now I have one, and I just, I don't.
I'm not anywhere.
But how awesome would it be for if you to.
At your panel that you had someone that
was in the audience a year prior that
just started a company that just got
the DC license that's just starting out,
and then contrast it to all your.
All the other people you have experienced?
I'd love to be that person.
And she was like,
that's a great idea.
Oh, great story. Yeah.
Right pitch.
Yeah. So now I'm on this. I'm on this
panel that has all my, you know, people who.
All these seniors ahead of
me that are all established business. Again,
I've not accomplished anything. And, you know,
I tell my story. I'm like, hey,
I was in your, you know,
just where you are,
but I'm proof that, like, you
can take baby steps, do. If you take, you know,
if you're courageous
enough and blah, blah, blah. Well, anyway,
the panel is over. And again,
I've not sold anything yet. I'm not. I'm just.
I'm literally just
faking it till I make it right.
And I'm being very honest
with the people who were there,
but I'm just, you know, being very honest.
I'm sitting next to the guy who
oversees all the product at think geek.
You remember think geek.
Yeah.
Was one of the most
popular websites for the world.
Nerd news stuff.
Yeah, yeah. For. It was all. It was a product,
merchandise and all that.
It was out of all
the world's websites at the time,
it was number 3000. So.
Which sounds like a lot, but there's.
A lot of websites.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
So the guy
next to me who's on the panel, he said,
you know what we've been looking forever for?
I'm so tired of
t shirts and hoodies and blah, blah, blah.
We've been looking
forever for products that you're.
That you want to make. And
so this is right after panel's done. In fact,
we're not even off the stage yet.
He's telling me this.
I want to sign you to a six figure deal
and get production going, like, right away.
So I left that panel with a
contracted six figure deal to
make all this merchandise for think geek,
off of all my designs,
and I've not made anything.
Wow. Wow.
That's a crazy jump right there. You're like,
let's just see how far I can go.
And all the way to the six figure contract.
Right place, right time, right story.
That's so cool.
Yeah, a lot of people, it sounds like a
lot of people needed to see this opportunity,
get legs from somebody. But, like,
it sounds like, you know, there,
you saw that hole in the market,
so there was nobody.
What was the time? Like,
how long did that take from, like,
fired at your job to now?
I have a six figure
contract doing something I love.
I'm super excited to do.
I mean, I ended in January,
and then I was comic con in July.
So all this happened within five or six months
or something like that. So, yeah, craziest,
most banana things. And, you know,
now did you ever. And I,
now after doing this for eight years, no one
writes you a six figure amount for, you know,
they test you with small amounts first
and then lets you build up over time,
see if it sells, whatever.
But this guy just wrote a
big old fat check and just said, let's do this.
And so from July to December,
it was all manufacturing and just,
and then we, of course,
took online orders from my own customers.
And it starts, you know,
and then those combined
together is what basically
got everything going because all that,
all that thinkeek money paid for all that
production and manufacturing. And I, you know,
it just sort of then started. It just,
it started sustaining itself after that point.
What strikes me is how this person at
think geek took this leap with somebody
who had a promise and an idea and said,
here's six figures. You know,
that to me is like, I mean, why?
Why would they do that?
No idea.
And the only thing I can think of is that
because you were proof of your progress.
In just one year,
you went from being an audience member,
taking notes from this panel to
standing up on the stage telling
a story of success beside this panel.
And I feel like that is,
that is a testament of your.
I appreciate that. I mean,
I always tell people that any amount of
success comes down to three things. Talented,
hard work, and luck. Right. And
talent is what everyone sees on the outside.
That's the celebrity
is good looking and all the skills. Right. But,
but I found that, like, talent
is actually a very small part of it, whether,
whatever business you're doing, the talent,
while it's more visible and people praise that,
it's actually 1020 percent of my job.
Hard work is a bigger chunk of it. Right.
You got to do put in the work,
you got to put in the sweat, tears, all that.
But then there's always
this last little piece of it,
the luck factor that it's intangible, that
you can't really replicate on demand. Right.
And even more,
if I even got more below the surface.
It's not so much random luck,
but when I say luck,
I mean more relationships. Right.
It's the me happened to have know that
person at Warner Brothers that's were aware
of me through my cosplay. It's the. It's the.
The person I sat next to
on the panel that just believed in me,
that actually launched things out, you know?
And then I have a million stories of
people that helped me go to the next level.
Right. And so most people, when
they ask me about here
within or any other related business,
they focus so much on the talent, like,
all the designing and the
product and the manufacturing
and all that stuff. And, yeah, that's all.
That's very important.
But if you don't have the wherewithal
to put in the hard work of it and
then also leave room for the
luck or the relationship that intangible,
it's just gonna be.
It's a super uphill battle.
It's already uphill battle,
let alone without that, you know,
the majority of the
stuff that no one sees so far, your.
Your story has
been all prior to production, right. Like,
prior to really making anything.
I just wanted to know, like, during, like,
just if you go back to that moment
and in the thick of it, where, in a sense, the.
You just landed a six figure contract,
you've never made any clothing
that you aren't wearing yourself, you
know, like, like, this is. You don't have. Have
all the other stuff. Like, I imagine, like,
I could imagine what that feels like,
but I would love to know, like, what are
you telling yourself in that moment? And, like,
what do you do right
after you get off that stage?
Like, what. What do you have
to do at that moment?
Yeah, I mean, there definitely was.
In that moment,
there was a big high. I mean, those
arrest of comic Con, and there was, you know,
all my other appointments and all
that sort of stuff. So, you know, I definitely,
when I returned
from Comic Con, I was, yeah, I mean, there was.
There was an enormous amount of
disbelief and then
a overwhelming sense of, like, oh, my gosh,
if these people really find out who I am,
I'm completely found out. You know, again,
the imposter syndrome and all that,
and then feeling overwhelmed, that's like, how
am I going to fulfill, you know, this thing?
Because even shortly after, think geek.
Those other companies and
those other opportunities and all that,
so things are starting to pile up.
And then I had already
sold online to my own customers,
and so things were like, you know,
things were ramping up at that point. So, yeah,
feeling super overwhelmed.
How much time did you have to tell Comic Con
from that event till Comic con? Really? Like,
or did you. Sorry. Like, because you
got this at Comic Con, right? Is that right?
Yeah.
So, like, how long? Like, did
they say selling immediately? Like, how soon?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, they basically,
they just said,
how soon can get to us?
And so it took us at that time,
on my timetables were much longer. So I was.
We delivered in December,
so we went
from July to December. So, you know, it took.
Because at that time,
and without getting into the weeds,
it took about four
months to produce anything overseas,
three months to manufacture one seat,
one month on a boat.
And then now things are much faster. They make.
They can make smaller quantities,
ship it through air.
Things are timetables much faster.
But back then, at least. At
least through the production route that I had,
it was just much slower. Basically,
we were delivering in December,
which turned out to be a big stressful thing,
because trying to get everything
out before Christmas and all that stuff,
that was a big old crazy mess. But, yeah,
I had, yeah.
Never felt so a mixture of
exhilaration and excitement and
just fear and terror and just like,
you know what I tell people that are
interested in their own business thing is that
I would wake up every
morning and think to myself,
this is never going to work.
This is just this foolish,
most stupidest thing is never gonna work.
And I'm going to not have a job,
and I'm not gonna be able
to pay my bills and lose our house,
and my family and
I are gonna live, be homeless, and, you know,
all that sort of stuff. Right, yeah.
Dread then. Yeah.
And then at the end of the day, you're, like,
going to bed. I'm like, oh, it worked. Like.
And so every day for that whole year,
I was thinking that it's never gonna work,
and then go to bed and say, oh,
it actually worked, you know,
and then by year two,
I tell people I
had that thought every other day.
And then by year three,
it's about every third day.
So now it's your 8th.
About every 8th day, I think,
myself never going to work, so. So, yeah,
it's a good formula.
One day,
one day every year.
Yeah. Yeah.
I wanted to circle back for a sec.
You've been mentioning something about luck,
and it stuck with me because
this idea of luck, whether it's. Whether
it's timing, place, relationships, whatnot,
I want to know what you guys think about this.
It feels like luck is. Is about.
You find luck when you're out
there doing stuff you're not going to have.
You're not going to stumble into
luck if you're staying in your apartment,
your home, your basement, just,
like thinking or planning
or even just doing the logistics,
the luck factor of success
happens when you meet people for you.
You were out there at Comic Con showing
off your hard work that you'd made. You
were also doing that market research. You know,
it was that relationship you
had that knew the person at licensing,
and you probably met that person out and about.
Probably they didn't show up at your door,
at your apartment and say, hey,
I'm going to be your friend,
and someday I'm going to get you a
license at Warner Brothers. You know, there's,
there's this aspect of you have to go out and,
and interact with the world.
And there was a,
an old acting teacher of mine
years ago that used to say you have
to put yourself into oncoming traffic,
metaphorically speaking.
And I feel like that's very
much a core essence here of luck. And
I want to know what you guys think about that.
Yeah. You know, I'm
not a super extroverted guy, but
I consider myself a high functioning introvert.
So I need my,
I need my loan time. But when I,
when it's time to ramp up, I can,
I can do it right.
I can get out there.
I can be out front.
I can do the pitches,
and I can do that.
And then I'll have to
retreat away for a day or two, even after.
Comic Con will be
a super high in a couple weeks, but then, like,
I'll need to retreat
for a week just from all that.
Right?
Yeah.
So I really,
so I really feel for those creators
who are much more introverted because,
like you said,
you have to put yourself
out there in oncoming traffic, you know,
just to see what, what happens, you know?
And a majority
of anything good that's happened to me,
90% of it was just showing up, you know,
just being there,
seeing what happens.
A lot of times it was not
great things that happened, but on occasion, it
was something awesome would happen, you know,
but so much of it is just showing up.
And I feel for this generation in particular,
because of our social media generation,
that from the pandemic forward, we
are so much behind our devices and our phones,
and we don't meet people in person,
and we don't go out as much.
And, you know, we've lost some of our,
some of those soft skills of just, like,
getting out there, networking
and all that sort of stuff, which to me,
which is what's so important
about going to these conventions,
is that it keeps you more sharp
because you out there and you meet people
and talking with people. But, yeah, absolutely.
I just don't know how
anyone can really launch. I mean, you have to,
when I talked about talent,
hard work and luck,
you have to be really
off the scales on the talent side,
which I am nothing.
I'm pretty good at the hard work side,
but the talent side,
you have to be off the
charts on talent if you're
going to really minimize your, like, you know,
being out there networking, all that stuff.
And some people are. That's
just some people, you know? You know. Yeah.
So there's a, there's a quote,
and I don't know who it's attributed to.
And even when I googled it,
there's like five different
people attributed to this quote. So
I'm just going to say the quote, but it's like,
I'm a great believer in luck. The heart,
harder I work,
the more luck I have.
And it really
is important to be like, luck is, I think,
a big factor in, like, massive success.
And almost anybody who,
if you talk to great
actors or musicians or millionaires,
they're always saying, like, you know, yeah,
I had a lot of things,
but I was at the right time, right place,
happened upon the right person.
But that means you have to get out there,
you have to be out working, doing your thing.
And you said in your story
how much you were kind of hustling,
you were out at these conventions.
And I think to the importance of
people who want to get their business or
get something off the ground to be going
to things like conventions and making
that initial investment or to go out there,
because it's not just about
the experience of going to a convention.
It's also about the possible relationships
and interactions that you will have
that winds up being the biggest game
changer for you in your business growth.
And, I mean, yeah, I can think of
all these times in my life where, you know,
I wouldn't have the job I have right now
if I hadn't done something that at
the time did not seem like it was
important at all and then actually became
a core factor in my next success. You know,
so it's so key.
Luck is a function of work and.
Being out there in the world back in 2019.
So this is five years ago. It's funny, we just,
I was looking back at my Facebook memories,
and we just announced
our Star Trek partnership in 2019.
And that was another kind of weird
story because we had gone to me and
one of my operations partner at the time,
we went to licensing Expo in Las Vegas.
So if you don't know what licensing expo is,
for those who are listening,
it's basically like a comic convention,
but it's just for brands to show off their
license to get people to pick up, you know,
deals with them,
pick up their brand to do whatever.
So if you just
imagine a big convention floor, big,
big giant boots and small ones, and you can,
you can show your brand off or you
can try to get a meeting with a brand
to be able to get them to do, you know,
shoes or iPhone
cases or whatever, you know, you do. And so,
so we had,
we decided to go and.
But the problem was that we had no idea
how to do this expo because basically
all the meetings are set beforehand.
So if you just show up,
then you can't get into any of these meetings,
which is what happened.
We got there and everyone was booked,
so no one was seeing anyone,
anyone that was of a big name, you know,
and which is a super bummer because we're like,
we made all this way, we're here, all that,
and there was just no
way to get a meeting with anybody. So.
And the paramount,
I remember going to the
paramount booth and them saying no. And so,
but I was
determined because I was like, you know what?
I love Star Trek.
And at that time, in 2019,
Star Trek was kind of like, not, they
weren't doing nearly as much as they are now.
So this is before, like,
even they launched Discovery also.
So this was still,
it was still pretty,
it was still pretty brand new,
or at least, you know,
not the current version of this. And, you know,
I was just determined. I was like, you know,
I'm just gonna find somebody
who's gonna talk to me. And so, you know,
this giant booth,
people going in and out of it and just
me talking to everybody, emailing, texting,
talking to people that might
know someone at that booth. And just, I mean,
just spent the whole time
just trying to penetrate paramount.
And eventually this gal was like, yeah,
meet me, come back, meet me at, you know,
05:00 in the day, blah, blah, blah.
So I did. And, you know,
we chatted and hit it off, and
she gave me the license right then and there.
And it's just like, just like,
that just sort of, like, happened. And
it just worked out because she was cut sort of,
she was sort of ending her term at Paramount.
So she was trying
to look into land a couple last, you know,
last companies and, you know, again,
timing was just sort of everything, you know,
she just was that other gal,
Warner Brothers was just coming in.
This gal was just coming out.
So she just sort of wanted to, you know,
get some more partners
into the mix before she left.
And just like that,
we just sort of, like,
settled it and went forward. And we, we
started with Star Trek in 2019. And, you know,
that's probably what, honestly,
that was probably
more than Marvel and DC. Marvel and DC, like,
was great because it, like,
really was during a big boom of pop culture,
but because my love for Star Trek, and
we've been with them for five years now, to me,
that's the brand that
I probably have enjoyed the most.
It's been most rewarding,
the brand that I've
been able to connect most with, the fans.
And I'm just so
grateful for the past five years. But again,
another example of just, like,
just having
nothing and just hustling, hustling,
hustling until somebody said, yes.
Well, it's a great franchise because they
practically changed their uniforms every.
So you,
you have something on your social media
that I've seen you talk about the booth,
and you also talk about something.
Enter the energized lounge. What.
Can you elaborate on that?
Coming up is San Diego Comic Con. Is if you,
anyone listening who's not been to Comic Con,
what sets San Diego apart from other show
is that it's not just the big convention
center and everything that's happening inside.
Everyone always hears
about things like Hall H and, you know,
all the booths and all that.
But what makes San Diego so special
is that there's a tremendous
amount of off site activations, which,
what we call them,
they're basically pop up shots
that happen all across the city,
hosted by all these big brands like
Amazon and Sony and all these other brands.
And they range from being giants
where they have big circus tents or they
take over a warehouse building or whatever,
to small and intimate.
And so after years of doing Comic Con,
we used to host a bunch of, like,
private events, after parties,
anniversary parties and all that stuff.
And I've always wanted to host a off
site activation again through this process.
I was, like, very fearful. I was like,
if we made something that was
open for five days during the week,
would anyone even come?
Would they even care?
It's going to cost a bunch of money,
and it's going to cost a lot
of resources into my personal time.
Is anyone going to even,
is this going to matter to anybody?
So last year we did it,
and it was great.
It's basically a Star Trek themed coffee
shop about the size of a Starbucks and
where we serve Star Trek themed coffees.
And then we were partnered with a
bunch of other Star Trek licensees
where they had their merchandise,
promoting their merchandise.
And of course,
we have our merchandise as well. And, you know,
during Comic Con,
if you've been before, you know,
it's super exhausting.
It's hot and it's just like, long days.
So be able to come in,
sit down in air conditioning, have a coffee,
connect with other fans that are there
who are also probably Trekkies as well.
It turned out to be a great thing.
It was a big success last year,
and so much so that we're back this year.
So the energized lounge is the idea of
using the term energized for Star Trek,
but then getting energized by caffeine,
by relationships, by, you know,
all that sort of stuff. So, you know,
you leave energized.
Oh, I love that.
Love that.
I didn't clue into
that immediately when I said it,
but now that you explain it,
and I also love the aspect that you're
sharing the burden with these
other licensees and franchises
that are not franchises, but licensees.
You're sharing it with them and
you're creating this community space.
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, and that's
part of the bring value to
the brand because as much as Star
Trek is important to paramount, you know, they
don't necessarily have the resources to, like,
let's create a space.
Let's bring all these,
these license licensees in there
that's like, blah, blah, blah, Comic Con. Like,
they just don't have the time
and resources to do something like that.
And so if I can help create
that space and it benefits not
just other licensees but also paramount,
now that sort of positions our brand to be, oh,
they have more value than just creating
jackets or paying a royalty check,
but they actually are creating something for
the community that the fans are talking about,
that the fans are
wanting to see year after year.
So, you know, there's multiple levels to that.
And I can order a rock to Gino at this.
I'm assuming I've got to be
able to get a rock to Geno coffee, right?
Yeah, you got it.
Awesome. That's, that's amazing.
I've never been to comic Con, but it's,
it's on my, my list of, like, you know,
dream things to get done. And this just,
that also just got added is to have a rock
to Gino at one of these energized lounges.
I didn't realize how much I wanted it
until you mentioned that there is a cafe
themed after Star Trek. And I'm like, oh, man,
I might just have to fly down just for that.
Yeah, yeah. It's a blast.
And we have this. This year,
we took it to the next level,
where some of the brands are.
They're releasing product
there that's never been seen before
by the public. And so, you know, brand new.
So Star Trek wines,
the Star Trek cruise,
and a company called the one company are each
revealing merch that you can see for the
first time in person and order. So it's. So.
It's really fun because
now it's beyond just, like,
a hangout coffee place,
but it's actually a place to find
the latest and greatest Star Trek merch.
That's so cool. So cool.
That's really cool.
It's amazing.
Well, Chris, do you have anything else
you want to go over right
now before we jump into random rolls?
I think we're probably about that time.
The random rolls is a bit of a silly,
less serious and fun or less.
Okay.
The random rules is less serious
and more fun of a section where
pretty much you're going to roll the dice.
And we have a chart based on your number.
We're going to ask you a question.
We'll do this back and forth a couple times.
So go ahead and roll it for the first time.
All right, here we go. Landed on 80.
The number 80.
80. All right.
If you could be any fictional villain,
who would you be?
Oh, man. Fictional villain. Okay,
so this may be a little bit too on the nose,
but how awesome would
it be to be con from Star Trek?
We're all waiting for him to say that. Yeah,
I thought he was going to.
Scream it, actually,
but for someone who.
Just, like, loves life and is so, you know,
of course he's seething with anger, but. But,
you know, he just is so, like,
just a rich character. So fun. And I think,
still one of the best
villains ever in cinematic history.
Yeah. So smart and deadly, you know?
Oh, yeah, that's right. I saw on your instagram
you actually had a pun about Comic Con,
and I thought that was hilarious.
I've never seen that. That's fantastic.
Yeah.
All right,
we'll go ahead and roll one more time.
In fact, here,
I'll sneak peek for your
exclusive pin for this year.
Oh, look at that.
That is so good. I. You're
gonna have to go check out the YouTube for.
For this listeners,
just so you know,
just so you can see the exclusive.
Okay, here we go. Rolling again. 53.
All right.
53. Perfect. It is a Star Trek question. So,
in Star Trek,
there are six divisions. Science, medicine,
command, con, security, and engineering.
Which division would you train into?
Oh, well, command for sure. I mean,
you got this. You
got to be the run the ship. You can't. Yeah.
As an entrepreneur,
I think that totally makes sense, right?
Yeah, it sure does.
And a bit of a kirk, if you will,
the way your story went. Just like,
fake it till you make it, right.
Yeah, yeah.
So in the next section we're going
to move into is called rapid fire. These are
quick and silly questions. For example, well,
I always ask Star Trek or Star wars,
but I feel like I know the answer.
I'm a big time
Star wars fan, and so, I mean, it. It would.
Whilst Trek would definitely edge it out.
I love Star wars.
Not necessarily in its current iteration.
I'm not a super fan of kind of what's
happening these days, but, man, there's like,
when Force Awakens first came
out and just sort of like that, the waiting,
anticipation and being in the theater
for the first time and all that. Like,
you just can't,
whether Star Trek or any other franchise,
you really could not,
you can't replicate that sort of that
shared love and buzz from Star wars fans.
So.
Yeah, yeah, 100%.
Yeah, I get that. Yeah.
So who's your favorite Star Trek captain then?
Picard for sure. Although, you know,
Pike's on the rise.
I really do love this strange new worlds.
But Picard is like, he's, he's,
he's unbeatable for sure.
I'm with you on that. Now,
who is your favorite in that same vein,
who's your favorite number one in command?
Oh, number. You mean
first office first officers?
Are you're asking. Yeah.
Yeah.
Man.
Because you got Spock,
you got oona in strange new worlds.
You got Riker, Kira.
Yeah. Chakota. You know what? I. This is, this,
this might be a little unconventional,
but I just finished doing the rewatch of,
I told you about this Star Trek Enterprise,
and I think it's to Paul.
I think that her character, I think,
was the most interesting one on the show.
And I would have loved to see kind of where her
journey sort of took her. But I think, to me,
first officers work the best when
they are really at odds with the captain.
Not necessarily
like they don't like each other, but then.
But they just have to
have two different type of ideals.
They have to have conflicting philosophies.
Friction. Friction. Yeah, friction. And so,
in each of those,
each of the series,
they each had some
level of friction here or there,
but for the most part,
they kind of got along. You know,
they were like trusted confidants, whatever.
But I feel like on enterprise,
while the overall series was not super strong,
the friction between those two,
Archer and DePaul, you know,
I feel like that it was awesome. Like,
it was like they really made it tough and
I think makes for an interesting storytelling.
So I was Paul.
Yeah. Especially
with that dynamic of, you know, we're
going to lose some viewers going deep here,
but the vulcan
humanity dynamic and that, like, you know,
the Vulcans did see themselves as better and,
and how those two in leadership
had to work together on one of the first,
or pretty much the first ship from Earth.
And I think that
particularly now is so relevant.
That whole idea of, like,
how can I work with somebody that
I don't like or agree with and, you know,
how can we get along?
And I think there's,
that's more relevant today than I,
it's ever been.
Yeah.
And T'Paul's easy to look at,
so you know that.
Yeah. Star Trek boys has someone
like that in every show. Yeah.
So what would be your most
iconic Star Trek one liner?
Oh, my gosh. Killing me here.
Most iconic one liner.
I probably would say out of TNG,
the season three. Yesterday's Enterprise.
When Picard is about to
make a big stand with Enterprise,
he says in a announcement to the crew,
let's make sure that history
never forgets the name Enterprise. And
I just feel like that's such a great, you know,
whether you're a fan or you
make jackets like I do, you think yourselves,
let's make sure that history
never forgets the name Enterprise.
I love that. That's awesome.
Yeah. Well, I'm gonna steer it away
from Star Trek for a minute. Would you.
You said DC Comics was your first love.
Yeah.
So which superhero is it in DC Comics?
That is the one.
Oh, Superman for sure. Yeah. So when I was,
when I was really young, we, my parents,
so before I was born,
my parents moved from Korea to Dallas, Texas.
And then I was born,
and like I said, there was, like,
nobody that looked like
me that I went to school with. And
as results, you know, it's like,
experienced a lot of bullying
and racism and all that sort of stuff.
So as a result, I, like,
retreated into what I found a lot of, a lot
of comfort in is comic books. And, you know,
as I'm reading Superman, I was like, wow.
Like, here's this dude. He's like a, he's from,
he's an immigrant from another planet,
and he's living in this
world where he just wants to fit in.
He's not fully a part of this world.
He's kind of a part of another world.
He's part of two worlds, basically.
And he just kind of wanted,
wants to find his
place and purpose in this life. And he knows.
He knows he's got potential
to be something greater than a small,
little kid in Smallville. And, you know,
reading those stories as a kid,
I was like, wow. Like,
that really resonated with me.
Like, I really felt like, you know, I really,
from that point on,
I dove into comics and
I kind of make a joke about how, like,
Superman and Wonder Woman were
like my parents, you know, because they, like,
I feel like
that comics at that time really, like,
raised me in some ways and
informed who I would become as an adult.
So Superman had a big, played
a big part in that. You know, I really, like,
kind of identified with his,
with his life as an immigrant.
We sometimes ask people what they're,
if they could have a superpower,
what superpower would they pick? But
I want to bring it back to something different.
If you could pick a technology
that we could have now could be from Star
Trek or Star wars or something else like that,
what technology would you pick?
Well, it'd be hard to beat
with as much traveling as I do, it'd be
pretty hard to beat a transporter technology.
Never deal with an airport again.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
that would be so game changing. I mean,
they make it too easy now
because on the new Picard series,
they basically have, like,
archways and you just sort of, like,
you don't even stand on a pad.
You just kind of walk through it
and you end up in another city, which I'm like,
that is to have that sort
of ability to, like, you know, be somewhere,
anywhere instantaneously. Wow. Like,
that would just be, you know, incredible.
So with that aside, even to say, okay,
that's going to be nearly impossible.
That will never happen.
A replicator is actually happening, you know,
these 3d printers,
and then when you even get into, like,
they're replicating,
starting to replicate, like, you know,
meat and
all that sort of stuff. I'm like, wow. Like,
we actually will probably
never get to transporter place, a
place where we use transporters. But, you know,
replicators could be a real thing. You know,
we now have communicators through
phones and some level of tricorder
at some level. But, man, like, replicator,
we can you know,
that's something that's within reason.
Within our lifetime,
we might have some.
Version of that
could really address food hung, food shortages.
Yeah, totally, totally. Yeah.
And so for my final question,
I'll say fear the AI or embrace the AI.
I think it's
a really important question, actually,
and not to get,
make it drawn out, but, you know, we as,
whether it's pop culture or as a society,
we're all talking about, we love change,
we want to progress, blah, blah, blah.
But when change actually happens,
everyone fights it. Right. And historically,
being on the side of resisting change typically
has not fared well for anybody. And so,
so I do think AI is here to certainly level,
and it's going to only continue so we can,
we can try to suppress it,
and eventually Skynet will birth and Skynet
will take over the world and kill them humans.
Or we can say, hey, like,
there's a way to utilize AI in a way
that is helpful and beneficial for mankind.
So the only, I've not,
I definitely feel attention of how artists
feel AI is imposing on their work, for sure.
But I've been using it a
little bit on some of my writing, like you can,
because whenever we're doing marketing pitches
and all that stuff and posting things online,
there's some AI tools that will
help you craft in a way that
just makes more sense for the audience.
It's more quippy, it's more clever.
And so I've been using a little bit of that.
But I do think that while
I don't know answers or whatever,
that we do have to say
yes to AI to a certain degree,
or else we will become their slaves
and they will take over us anyway.
So, yeah,
I appreciate that perspective that, you know,
by embracing it,
we will work in harmony
as opposed to fighting it,
and we will probably lose.
But I do feel for the visual artists
who are losing their jobs, AI, and, you know,
I've seen that already happen, like,
very directly,
and I'm not
sure what the answer to that is, and,
but because it is going to.
Because ultimate people just
want to do things that are cheap,
and artists are not cheap,
and so they'll choose AI to do their covers,
other comic books,
or do their
visual effects in a movie, and they'll,
nine times out of ten,
they'll eventually choose a cheaper option.
And so I don't know.
Yeah.
How artists will survive.
I saw toys r us recently,
did an ad that was all AI generated,
and it was really good.
It was really good.
And I work in video production,
so I was just like, ah, crap.
And we're, you know, we're. Right
now we're in a place where we can sort of like,
eyeball the uncanny valley, but pretty soon,
we're not gonna be able to,
we're not gonna be able to notice that it was.
Gonna be so good.
And then. Yeah, and then.
And then what? You know, so. So, yeah.
Rock in a hard place for sure.
But, yeah, I'm just waiting for when they,
when I'm able to just say to the AI,
I want to watch this type of Star Trek story.
And it makes one for me.
Yeah.
Because it'll be completely customized.
Input and output.
Well, you know, they, you know, you know,
the whole Hollywood thing of, like,
them using, you know, like Carrie
Fisher's face during World War one, you know,
where they put her face on and so where they
were able to just take actors that are alive
or past and then put it all into AI and
then make a whole movie out of it that no one
was actually filmed in, you know, and that's.
That is right around the corner.
Yeah, that is a problem.
I have a friend who's
making a movie right now doing that,
hoping to be the guy who makes, like,
the first movie that way that nobody can tell.
So now that being said, if the.
If the Bruce Lee estate was up
for it and they made a movie that
was really great and looked really good,
it'd be hard to say. Yeah. So. So, yeah,
I don't know.
It's tough, but I mean,
it is the kind of thing.
We could spend another, like 2 hours.
That's a whole podcast episode on its.
Yeah.
Well, thank you. You know, this is,
this has been wonderful,
and I appreciate, you know,
I'm so grateful that we were able to meet you.
I wear the jacket every Wednesday
because I play Star Trek adventures,
so I kind of wear it to, like,
get into the game and I take it to work,
and I'll wear, like, a gray, a black,
gray shirt and some black
slacks and black boots that I have,
and I'm just like, okay. Like,
I walk into work and they're like,
Frank has his enterprise
jacket on again. I'm like, heck, yeah.
It's my power suit.
I love it. That's awesome. That's awesome.
Thank you.
What you're doing is so awesome.
And it's an inspiration
for a lot of other nerdpreneurs. Even just,
that's part of our mission is to share these
types of stories so that people out there
who are aspiring to be successful in
their nerdy passion can learn the
things that other people have done to make
it happen and also be inspired to do it.
So I wanted to just ask
you a final question around that is, you know,
what does it mean to you now to be doing
something that you really love and have
created out of this passion and is serving
such a vibrant and awesome community?
Yeah, man, that's a good question.
You know, I am, I'm super grateful,
especially when I've talked
to too many people that are, they feel,
they feel stuck, you know,
they feel like that they're not able to,
they're working too long hours
trying to please bosses that they
don't even like and they're doing
work that they don't even enjoy, you know?
And so
I am grateful that I'm able to do
something like this and especially to
be able to make it through the pandemic
and make it through all this crazy,
constantly changing
landscape of consumer products,
to be able to continue to do it. Yeah.
I will never, ever,
ever
badmouth being able to
wake up and do the work that I do.
I know that I have good days.
I have bad days. But, you know,
to be able to sit in front of my desk to
create something out of thin air and then offer
it to a bunch of strangers that I don't know.
And sometimes I like it.
Sometimes they love it.
And to be able to do that and for, again,
going back to the whole idea of
when they started contacting me, saying, hey,
what's next?
Or can you do this?
Can you do that? That idea of, like,
bringing value to them that I would be
missed if I wasn't here and all that, like,
I just feel like I can't be more
grateful enough to be able to do. To do that.
Who knows how long it'll last?
And regardless if it's here
within or if it's something else, whatever,
I hope that will
always be in that, you know, position.
And I love the fact
of being able to be my own boss.
But when I say that I, like,
have a thousand bosses because of you're
working for the customers you're working for,
you're working for Paramount,
you're working for Comic Con, like you,
you kind of have a thousand bosses.
But I think one thing that I learned
out of the pandemic is that there's no
job that's worth your life and your soul.
And it just comes down to it.
There's nothing like that.
Nothing more important than your family.
There's nothing more important
than the lives of your kids.
And there's nothing more
important than your own mental health.
And so before the pandemic,
I was driving hardcore.
I was telling people,
working 25 hours a day,
burning candles on all three ends,
and that was just what I was doing to
get this company off the ground and going.
And then post pandemic, I realized,
you know what?
It's not worth my soul. And so,
so while I work
very hard and I'm very committed,
I make sure that I spend time with
my family and my friends and my dog. I go
on long walks and could I be making, you know,
a few more dollars here or there? Sure, I can.
But I'm grateful that I have this job,
that I can do what I love,
but I'm more importantly,
I'm just grateful that I have, like,
a relative realistic level of
balance in my life where I can be happy.
And it's funny because
I was listening to a Conan O'Brien was, had a,
bought a podcast,
and he was saying,
how would you rather be
funny or rather be happy? And see,
he said during his early part of his life,
he would have done anything to be happy,
even at the expense, I'm sorry, anything
to be funny at the expense of being happy.
Whatever it took,
he would just focus on being funny.
And then now, later in life, it's like,
it's not important to be funny.
It's more important to be happy. And, you know,
I'm not a young guy anymore.
I still hopefully
have a long career ahead of me.
But I just realized that
I'm not in this to be funny. Like,
I really am in this to be
happy and be happy with my family, so.
Well, Tony, thank you so much for coming on.
If people want to check out hero within,
get some amazing merch that is, you know,
from one of these cool franchises
you landed leasing deals with. Like,
how can they find you, support you,
and get some really amazing stuff?
You can go on herewithinstore.com
or on all of our socials. We're hero within,
whether it's on. We're
mainly on Instagram and on Twitter, Facebook.
And then coming up is San Diego Comic Con.
We're at booth 1943,
which is kind of in
the center of the convention center.
We'll also be at the energized lounge,
which is across the street in the gas lamp.
All this is on our website.
And then from here,
we really kick off a busy season of cons.
After Comic Con,
we go to Star Trek Las Vegas a week later. So
we'll be in deep on ground zero of Star Trek.
And then we actually have another,
that show has launched
a bunch of smaller regional shows.
And so we'll be in
Nashville and Chicago in September. We'll
be at New York Comic Con in October, Star Trek,
Dallas in November,
and then maybe another show in December.
I'm not sure. So, yeah.
So this July on,
we'll be on the road quite a bit. And
you can catch us at one of those shows again.
It's all listed on our website,
but you can find us online or on social media.
Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you, everybody,
for listening to today's
episode with Tony and hero within.
And as always, everybody,
keep it nerdy.
Live long to prosper. Nice.